The nominees took some time out from their busy campaigns to stroll with the crowds in the Park Slope halloween parade.

After tarnishing his reputation with his U.N. speech about Iraq’s WMD, Colin Powell finally stopped waffling and offered his well-reasoned conclusion on why he’s supporting Obama. While I’ve never been a fan of generals, I did have respect for Powell’s calm, smart demeanor, at least before he shamefully toed the Bush line about the imminent danger of Iraq. Whether pundits want to spin this as a race thing or not, Powell did himself right this time. Tireless diplomacy and engaged multilateralism are the best approaches to ensure world peace, not bullying and jumping into unwinable conflicts. Powell’s experience tells him this and he knows Obama is clearly the better man for the moment.


Speaking of a calm, smart demeanor. The best advertisement for Barack Obama happens to be his appearance on Bill O’Reilly’s show on September 4th. If you haven’t seen this 4-part video, you should. Under O’Reilly’s dogged pressure, Obama remains confident, intelligent, and totally reasonable, even displaying a sense of humor. While the Fox News flat-tax, pro-corporate commentator could have sharpened his chainsaw a bit more, he was obviously impressed by Obama’s command of the issues. The usual stuff is discussed--class warfare, cap gains tax, Bill Ayers, Iran, Afghanistan--with Obama refusing to take O’Reilly’s inflammatory bait. Also mentioned, are my two biggest Obama disappointments, his support of FISA and embrace of nuclear power, both of which clearly show Obama is willing to imperil the citizenry at the profit of big corporate power. (I can only hope that this will not actually play out in his presidency.)

Meet Joe, the Peeler. Joe Ades is his name and he’s as charming a salesman as you’ll ever meet. I’ve seen the sartorially splendid guy a lot throughout the years, but like most characters on the city streets, you don’t see them for awhile, you start to get worried. But there he was the other day shaving carrots and working the crowd. For more info, read the Vanity Fair profile from two years back.

I had the honor of shooting some of Alex Katz’s work for an exhibition catalog. While I was there, the artist let me snap a few shots of him working in his studio. It was quite a thrill watching him make his iconic, colorful work.

More pix of Max here.