If you are going to a muslim country for a shoot be prepared to stop five times a day for prayer. During prayer time is the perfect time for a cup of expresso, a smoke and blowing the sand out of the gear. Oh! and don’t forget to bring extra cartons of smokes to share with your fixer and crew members. At the end of the day watching an Egyptian soap opera on a tv hooked up to a car battery for power and sharing your smokes, drinking green tea is a great way to bond with your crew.
It’s a Man’s World by James Brown and Jean Newsome -1966. Newsome wrote the lyrics based on her own observations of the relations between the sexes.
Lyrics:
This is a man’s world, this is a man’s world
But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl
You see, man made the cars to take us over the road
Man made the trains to carry heavy loads
Man made electric light to take us out of the dark
Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark
This is a man’s, a man’s, a man’s world
But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl
Natacha Atlas is a Anglo-Egyptian singer who has spent more than a decade fusing electronic beats with North African and Arabic music. Natacha’s version of It’s a Man’s World is very meaningful for today’s women in the Middle East. http://youtu.be/k7BTuspItWQ
The Great Sphinx of the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Egypt.The popular legend is that the nose of the Sphinx of Giza was broken off by a cannonball fired by Napoleon’s soldiers. However, sketches of the Sphinx by the Dane Frederic Louis Norden, made in 1737 and published in 1755, illustrate the Sphinx already without a nose.The Sphinx actually lost a considerable amount of its features in 1378 AD when a local Sufi Sheik thought the Sphinx to be idolatrous and attempted to blow it up with explosives. His name was Sayim al-Dahr. They did much the same thing in Afghanistan with some Buddhist images they did not like.
It was a “David and Goliath” scenario. In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and it was Ahmad Shah Massoud who played the role of David with the help and support of Texas congressman Charlie Wilson and the CIA. Wilson’s efforts to assist Massoud in their war with the Soviets became America’s war by proxy.
From 1980 to 1985, the Soviets would throw two massive offensives against Massoud’s position in Panjshir Valley. Each attack larger than the last. Yet Massoud’s 1,000-5,000 mujahadeen and stinger missiles from the CIA held out against 30,000 Soviet troops armed with tanks, field artillery and air support, repulsing each attack. This heroic resistance earned Ahmad Shah Massoud the nickname “Lion of the Panshir” . In Persian, Shir-e-Panshir, literally “Lion of the Five Lions”.
2002, this image of a guard stationed somewhere on the road to Kabul was shot with a Nikon F3T, Nikkor 24mm lens and Fuji Velvia 100 film. Edited in Lightroom 4.
The island of Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about 30 km from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. This image was shot from a top of the Aragonese Castle. The castle which stands on a volcanic rock, is the most impressive historical monument in Ischia, built by Hiero I of Syracuse in 474 BC. In 1441, Alfonso V of Aragon built a stone bridge which connected the rock to the island, and fortified the walls in order to defend the inhabitants from the raids of pirates. It has been occupied since ancient times by a various nations.
April 17, 1993, Saturday, 2:30 a.m. I am fully clothed and laying in bed watching Sting in the science fiction movie “Dune,” while eating Girl Scout peanut butter cookies and drinking coffee. I am in a hotel room at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Commerce, California along with off-duty San Jose detectives and ex-Navy Seals, all of who have been hired as freelance and assigned to me as bodyguards, and all of who are armed to the teeth. A Seal will drive our bulletproof Crown Victoria that is being rented by the production company for a thousands bucks a day, and one of the detectives will ride “shotgun.” Our team has been issued flak jackets, Kevlar helmets, pepper spray and Israeli gas masks. Ironically, the instructions for the gas masks are in Hebrew and none of us can reads Hebrew. Unlike the first intifada – the L.A. Riots of 1992 – 
I now have an official backstage pass to the “L.A Riots Part 2-1993 Tour.” I’m embedded with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Enforcements Bureau, in a platoon made up of thirty-six Sheriffs Deputies traveling in sixteen marked patrol cars and one “armored hostage rescue vehicle.”
The Call…..
3:15 a.m. The call comes in to prep the gear, check out and travel to a new location. Crap! Dune is not over and I will miss the best part where giant sandworms appear out of the desert floor and destroy the Harvesters that mine for the Spice on the planet Arrakis. In the hotel lobby I am informed that the production company has had second thoughts and now feels the thousand-dollar-a-day bulletproof car is too expensive. They do not want to be held responsible for any damage to it. Looks like I will be riding in a Deputy Sheriff’s patrol car.
Platoon Rendezvous…..
8:25 a.m. We have rendezvous with several other platoons of uniformed deputies in what appears to be an abandoned hotel parking lot. Some deputies are relaxing in their vehicles, others are outside, pacing nervously. It is here that I hear the verdict and sentencing of the defendants in the second Rodney King trial as I’m searching for a place to get some coffee. Several of the patrol cars have their trunks open with portable radios tuned to the KFWB all-news station. The newscaster’s flat voice echoes across the parking lot along with news of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a nuclear accident in Russia, a fire fight with the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas and a nifty review of Billy Crystal hosting the 65th Academy Awards and the shows ratings.
9:20 a.m. The platoon relocates to a substation located at the City Hall Complex in Lynwood. 
Falling Down For A Meal……
11:25 a.m.This is our first sit-down meal since Thursday night the 15th of April. “Today is Saturday the 17th of April” I think. I’m sitting in a chair at a table where both have been bolted to the floor. This is Angelo’s Burgers on Atlantic Boulevard in Lynwood. I am getting ready to eat a breakfast burrito, in the company of fifty deputy sheriffs in this small burger joint. After the meal we talk with the deputies and drink coffee when I notice a homemade sign made of cardboard and a magic marker on the counter where you place your order. “The Movie ‘Falling Down’ with Michael Douglas was filmed here on May 12th, 1992.” It was here at Angelo’s that the famous scene where Michael Douglas’ beleaguered character is trying to order breakfast from a fast-food chain called “Whammy Burgers” was filmed. The menu has changed from breakfast to lunch and Michael wants breakfast not lunch. In short, the movie is about a man in L. A. who goes bonkers. It’s ironic that we are sitting here at Angelo’s with deputy sheriffs having breakfast waiting for a city to go bonkers.
Saturday 2:15 p.m. It is not the result of the announcement of the court’s verdict that sends us racing at top speed from Lynwood to an amusement park north of Los Angeles. Apparently a scheduled rap concert has been oversold by a thousand tickets or so. As expected, some of the fans were upset, and out of frustration windows were broken at restaurants across the street from the entrance to the amusement park.
I love Scottish Food……
4:35 p.m. The deputies, our crew and assorted bodyguards are in a holding pattern at the upper entrance to the park. Everyone is hungry. With my supply of Atomic Fireball jawbreakers, Balance Bars and gum gone, the production company finally breaks down and decides to get McDonald’s quarter pounders for everyone. Half way through the order, McDonald’s runs out of quarter pounders and we end up with Happy Meals for most of the crew and seventy plus deputies.
7:46p.m. The sun has set. I tag along with a squad of seven deputies, taking in the sights and sounds of the park. I wonder if we can stop long enough to get a corndog. Occasionally families and kids looking for a way out of the park stop us and ask for directions. None of our group are familiar enough with the park and we are not much help in answering their questions. We have not been in the park longer than fifteen or twenty minutes at the most when there is an atmospheric change in the night.
Jurassic Park…..
There is now a lull in the sounds. The normal sounds of a carnival atmosphere where laughter and excited screams of kids on a wild rides are mixed in the night air have diminished. There is something different happening here. There is a different kind of screaming now. A disconcerted screaming that builds and continues until all laughter has been swallowed by the night. A swelling of emotions rises from my stomach and settles into my chest and heart. My instincts are telling me something that I don’t yet consciously perceive. It is at this point that time becomes a series of different scenarios in slow motion and other craziness in “quick time”.
Like locusts swarming upon a field of grain, kids and families are pouring out of nowhere, surrounding us. The deputies react by creating a circle in the middle of a concrete walkway. If you were to look down from overhead, you would see a circle of tan helmets surrounded by a sea of bodies. A sergeant is in the middle trying to hear the two-way radio above the human sounds. My eye is glued in the Nikon’s viewfinder, and the cameras motor drive whines with click-click-click-click-click. The framed faces are growing with expressions of dread, concern, and confusion as the volume of pandemonium rises to a higher decibel.
Somewhere in the park ahead of us panic strikes like lightning and like the delay of thunder, so is my reaction and that of the seven deputies. We catch the first swell of the crowd seeking safety. It is a stampede of hundreds of people coming right at us, and we are a mere wall of eight people. The noise level of crying, shouting and screaming rise again to a decibel level higher then an AC/DC concert. I hear a deputy shouting ” Was that gunfire ? Was that gunfire?”
The mob recedes and confusion fills the void. Again gunshots or firecrackers are set off somewhere in the park ahead of us and a larger tidal wave of families in sheer panic descend upon us. Unlike the 1992 riots I covered nearly a year ago to the day- this had the element of the vulnerability of families caught in the middle of a total breakdown of civil order. They have become a captive audience for Mad Hatter’s Wild Ride and Freak Show. A group of teenage boys and girls run up to us screaming that a park security guy is getting beat up behind us. We turn but can’t see anything but a wall of humanity one hundred yards deep. 
More deputies arrive out of nowhere and we make our way across a sea of glass shards, white plastic coat hangers, price tags and paper images of cartoon characters. A helicopter flies overhead with its powerful spotlight shining down on the throngs. The beam creates a massive shadow from the tree limbs and scaffolding which slowly crawls over the entire area like a black web.
A Table, Chair and a Chef……
Passing by a restaurant I notice that the doors are cracked I peer into the darkness and silhouetted in the foreground are chairs, tables and serving trays stacked on top of each other. Beyond the barrier, a young man dressed in his chef’s whites stares at me with a dazed and anxious look. I can only assume that he has chosen to stand sentry with fire extinguisher in hand as the world outside goes for a roller coaster ride into a momentary lapse of sanity.
The park is now quieter as the deputies contain and prod the visitors to the main entrance. I pass a long line of kids at a pay phone trying to call their parents to come and get them while near by is a marble statue of a rabbit riding a horse waving goodbye to his guests.
April 19, 1993, Morning Coffee and the Times….
This morning I read in the L A Times, “The park reopened Sunday to an enthusiastic spring break crowd as law enforcement officials, park managers and a music promoter tried to pinpoint blame for two melees that damaged both the park and its reputation as a place for family entertainment. An all-night repair job replaced broken windows and looted merchandise in time for Sunday’s 10 a.m. opening” 
I later learned that the “melees” cost the park an estimated 2 million dollars in damages, 40 people were emergency evacuated and that it took 450 deputies to move 40,000 people out of the park. Urban legend has it that a body was found underneath a roller coaster ride four days after the riot. In ShowBiz news, there is big buzz about the release of Steven Spielberg’s film “Jurassic Park” It’s about a team of genetic engineers creating an amusement park full of cloned dinosaurs – then all hell breaks out.
In Fielding’s guide (Robert Young Pelton) to The World’s Most Dangerous Places, Eastern Turkey is described as “At Play In The Fields Of The Warlords”. It is a country where, within 100 miles of each other, you can find stealth fighters and people who live in caves. It took only one grainy photograph to convince me that I should go to Eastern Turkey to shoot the documentary, “The Quest for Noah’s Ark”. Notwithstanding the “off limits” status for access to Mt. Ararat by the Turkish government, for me like my first marriage, the attraction outweighed the risk of imprisonment. Think of it- to film the greatest biblical archaeological find in the history of man was too seductive.
Its night, I’m descending Ararat, my head won’t stop playing a song by Talking Heads – “And you may find yourself in another part of the world-And you may ask yourself-well…how did I get here?”. I redirect my thoughts and make-up a mantra in hopes of lifting my body and spirit beyond physical exhaustion and dehydration. “focus, focus, pacing, move forward, breath, don’t feel the pain, move, move breath, move, keep moving, one step at a time, G-d didn’t bring you this far to buy a cheap Turkish coffee cup from Istanbul’s airport gift shop. Keep moving”. “Shit that hurt!” My boot is wedged again, I stop to give a informal yank without more damage to my foot- suddenly I’m aware that a shadow is proceeding me across this field of ankle busting rocks, “But wait, there is no moon” I thought. The shadow moved in slow motion in an eerie pink light with deep shadows of black surrounding it. The shadow swayed slowly to the left of me then to the right. “Jesus Christ! Its my shadow”. I spin around and looked up behind me to the stars only to see a parachute flare floating to earth. Now, I hear the dogs. For the moment, I forget about the sixty-pound pack, my swollen tongue, parched throat and thrashed feet. The adrenaline shoots through my system and my heart rate increases. I can physically feel the hormone boosting the supply of oxygen and glucose to my brain and muscles. Hard-wired for “Fight or Flight” the firing of adrenaline and neuotransmitter hit my sympathietic nervous system, “Holy shit! I’m outta here”.
Choreographed like the Radio City Rockettes the five of us turn and haul ass across the stone field. Ahead, the Kurds never stopped and have disappeared beyond the pink light into the blackness. I hear my ski poles scraping against the boulders. It’s dark again, I stumble but keep moving to the horizon where I can make out the faint lights of Dogubeyazit . I am wearing summit boot which are so rigid they do not flex with the uneven stones but slip between the rocks and gets wedged. I yank my legs up with each step so as not to get my boots pinned between stones. My feet feel warm and soggy, a sure sign of blood.
It was only three nights ago that we left the town of Dogubeyazit (affectionately known as Dog Biscuit) under the cover of darkness and with the help of the local Kurdish Underground, I climbed the 16,854 foot summit of Mt. Ararat along with four Christian cowboys, two Kurds and two of the scrawniest horses I have ever seen. I could have stayed in L.A. picking up work shooting a mindless sitcom and watching a local celebutante with two soft protruding organs given us the local weather report. I could have…but.
Dave Banks is a highly experienced and award-winning photojournalist, cinematographer, documentary filmmaker, camera operator and published author. He has over 30 years experience in international news and documentary production, primetime television specials and series, late night, non-fiction and reality television series and specials. Discovery Channel, History Channel, Bravo, ABC Television Network, Cosmos Studios (legacy of Carl Sagan), Oprah Winfrey (Grand Canyon Trek),
Dave’s videography and cinematography work has been recognized with thirteen Emmy Award nominations—resulting in three Emmy Awards, two International Monitor Awards and one ADDY Award for commercial writing. Dave specializes in producing and creating images in remote and hostile locations throughout the Middle East, Russia, North Africa and Asia. His client list includes ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX News & Sports, Warner Brothers, Mark Burnett Productions, Jay Leno (personal projects), Capitol Records, Discovery Channel, Cosmos Studios, Networks, The History Channel, PBS, MPH Entertainment, Channel Nine Australia, London Weekend Television-UK, BBC 1 & 2, NHK Japan, German Television, and Canal Television-France.
Some of Dave’s highlighted credits include:
Profiles from the Front Line. With the beginning of the War on Terrorism in 2001, Dave served as a solo journalist-reporter-camera operator in Afghanistan for Jerry Bruckheimer’s primetime network series. Profiles Television produced this 13-hour non-fiction series in association with Warner Bros. Later, Dave expanded his responsibilities through being contracted by the United States Department of Defense to cover the war on location in Afghanistan through 2002.
Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge Australia. Mark Burnett Productions and the Discovery Channel contracted Dave to direct the six million dollar, five-hour prime time epic mini-series. Dave led a staff and crew of over 300, including fifteen camera crews and countless helicopters, aircraft, boats, and all-terrain vehicles. 200 competitors from fifteen countries participated in a 335-mile race over the most hostile terrain imaginable. Months in the preparation, the staff and crew were deployed for two weeks from the Australian Outback interior to the Great Barrier Reef. This immense project was brought in on time and on budget, and became the highest-rated Discover Channel mini-series of a five-year period.
Discovery Channel Adventure Race. With the success of the Eco-Challenge-Australia, Discovery Channel contracted Dave to direct their next flagship primetime mini-series in the Southern Alps of South Island, New Zealand.
The Quest for Noah’s Ark. Notwithstanding the Turkish government’s “off-limits” status for access to Mt. Ararat, Dave, as a solo filmmaker, covered a cast of modern day “Christian cowboys” as they braved possible Turkish prison sentences on their quest for Noah’s Ark. Under cover of darkness, carrying all of his own equipment, and with the guidance of the Kurdish underground, Dave climbed the 16,984-foot summit of Mt. Ararat in twenty-six hours. After summiting, he avoided capture by the Turkish Army by hiding in the plains and valleys of Eastern Turkey. The Turkish government is now considering a scientific expedition permit, allowing Dave and his associates to do further research on Mt. Ararat. Such research would include the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar, Ice Penetrating Radar and Thermal Infrared Sensor. The planned documentary feature will cover the history of Mt. Ararat and quests of the men who climbed her.
Marathon des Sables. In the area of technology, Dave has consistently pushed the envelope to combine story telling and digital media. Quokka Sports chose Dave to produce twenty-two documentaries and twenty-five vignettes in the heart of the Moroccan Sahara Desert for the premiere of Quokka’s broadband division. Still images, video clips and audio journals were sent via satellite back to the United States during the six-day Marathon des Sables race for immediate broadband viewing. Dave is currently writing his next book, “Atlantis of the Sands,” based on his experiences covering this amazing race and the cast of characters who participate.
Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt and Solar Sails. From 2001 to 2008, Dave was contracted by MPH Entertainment and Cosmos Studios as a Senior Producer to take the then-brand new Sony HDTV equipment on location into the heart of the Sahara Desert in Egypt and to the Barents Sea above the Artic Circle in Russian territory during the production of two A&E Network documentary specials.
2006 to 2013 – Dave was repeatedly booked as a guest lecturer on documentary film production by numerous colleges and universities throughout the United States, including the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California.
February 2014: Cue the Camels book release and media tour. Dave’s book is a behind-the-scenes, first-person narrative of the mishaps and misadventures of a photographer-documentary filmmaker at large in remote and hostile locations. At present, Dave is writing his second book Atlantis of the Sands, and is researching and photographing Angelenos for his third book, Life in the City of Angels.
Further Credits List:
Roadies. Executive Producer, Documentary series based on the behind-the-scenes lives and day-to-day activities of rock & roll, pop and country musicians tour managers, road managers, road technicians, musical equipment technicians and support crews.
Through the Lens of Adventure. Producer/Shooter. A continuing series of exploration and adventure highlighting the people, places and beliefs from around the world.
Tomb Raiders. Stealing from the Dead. Producer/Shooter, Egypt and Israel, 2 hour Documentary for the History Channel. The theft of ancient antiquities.
Profiles from the Front Lines. Solo Journalist/Shooter, Afghanistan and Germany. 13 hour series for ABC Television Network. Profiles Television in association with Jerry Bruckheimer and Warner Bros. Dave’s images were used in the promotional material for the show.
The Amazing Race. Country Producer, CBS Television Network. World Race Productions in association with Jerry Bruckheimer.
The Essence of Islam. Director/Shooter, Middle East. Primetime documentary. History Channel.
Under One Roof. Senior Producer, Koro Island, Fiji. Reality program series. Endemol USA, UPN.
The Solar Sail Project. Sr. Producer/Shooter, Barents Sea, Arctic Circle, Russia. Two-hour primetime documentary. Cosmo Studios.
The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt. Sr. Producer/Shooter, Sahara Desert, El Bahariya Oasis, Egypt. Two-hour primetime documentary. Cosmo Studios.
Digging for the Truth. Sr. Producer/Shooter, Golan Heights, Israel. Two-hour documentary. History Channel.
Discovery Channel’s Adventure Race. Director, New Zealand, South Island. Four-hour primetime miniseries. Six-day expedition race across the Southern Alps.
Marathon Des Sables. Producer/Writer/Director, 25+ mini documentaries for broadband webcasting. Six-day foot race in the Western Sahara Desert, Morocco. Quokka Sports, Intel, Alta Vista,
The Quest for Noah’s Ark. Director/Shooter, Mt. Ararat, Dogubayazit, Eastern Turkey. Two-hour syndicated documentary.
The Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge. Director, Australia. Queensland, Australia. Five-hour primetime miniseries for The Discovery Channel. Mark Burnett Productions.
The Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge. Director, Morocco. Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Pre-event video for The Discovery Channel. Mark Burnett Productions.
World Afoot. Producer/Director, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Total Entertainment Productions
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Dedication, Production Coordinator, for Georgetown Productions.
Beirut L.A. Journalist, One-hour video journal of the 1992 LA riots. Independent, Dave Banks Media.
The Ultimate Challenge. Director, Five one-hour primetime reality and stunt specials for Fox Network. Trans-World International.
American Detective. Producer/Shooter, ABC-TV primetime reality series. Lorimar Television
Women of Valor. One-hour ABC-TV primetime special. Lorimar Television.
Oprah Winfrey Show. Producer/Shooter, Hiking the Grand Canyon. One-hour syndicated special for series. Harpo Productions.
Light the Darkness. Production Coordinator, World broadcast benefit for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent. BBC.
The Late Show. Production Coordinator, John Lee Hooker and Friends In Concert., Ninety-minute special. BBC, UK and the A&E Television Networks.
The Sea Shepard. Production Coordinator, One-hour documentary for the BBC.
The Cesar Chavez Funeral March. Journalist. Chavez Family independent production.
In Search of Tarzan. Shooter, One-hour documentary. London Weekend Television, UK
In Search of James Bond. Production Coordinator, One-hour documentary. London Weekend Television.
In Search of Dracula. Production Coordinator, One-hour documentary. London Weekend Television.
Eye Spy. Production Coordinator, Half-hour documentary. London Weekend Television.
ABC Wide World of Sports. Director of Photography, Technical Director. Live broadcast and tape segments, Expeditions, rock climbing, iron man marathon and Olympic events.
Geographic Assignments:
Afghanistan: Kabul, Kandahar, and Bagram.
Australia: Sydney, Cairns, Mareeba, Atherton, Gordonvale, Undara, Chillagoe, Mt. Bartle Frere, and Queensland Outback.
Egypt: Saqqare, Giza, Red Sea, The Nile River, Cairo, Valley of Kings, Hatshepsut, Abu Simbel, Armant, Aswan, Luxor, White Desert, Thebes, Safaga, Marsa al Alam, Karnak, Al Harrah and Baharia Oasis
Fiji: Suva and Koro Island
France: Paris, Le Mans, Nice, Cannes, Toulon, Marseille, Toulouse, Montpellier and Corsica
Greece: Athens, Thessalonique and Island of Patmos.
Israel: Jerusalem, Golan Heights, Ramallah, Bethany, Jericho, Temple Mount, Nazareth, Gethsemane, Kasr el Yahud, Allenby Bridge, Caphernaum, Sepphoris, West Wall Tunnels and Judea.
Italy: Rome, Naples, Florence, Solerno and Island of Ischia.
Jordan, Mount Nebo, Tell Mar Elias, Mukawer and Amman Citadel.
Morocco: Quarzazate, Sahara Desert, Oued Amsailikh, Tagounite and Atlas Mountains.
Mexico: Chihuahua, Sierra Madre Occidental and Barrancas Del Cobre
New Zealand: North Island, South Island, Southern Alps, Mt. Cockayne, Lake Catherine, Lake Coleridge, Black Hill, Glenfalloch, Potts River. Mt. Peel, Forest Creek and Lake Tekapo.
Russia: Moscow, Murmansk, Severmorsk and Barrents Sea Artic Circle.
Scotland: Edinburgh, Inverness, Orkney Islands, St. Andrews Highlands.
Turkey: Istanbul, Van, Doğubayazıt, Tabriz, and Erzurum.
Additional information can be seen at:
Blog: www.davebanksmedia.com,
Book: www.cuethecamels.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidnbanks Demo Reel: https://davebanks.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/daves-demo-reel/On Camera Interview: http://youtu.be/oGjuTAvQRms Vroman’s Bookstore: Book Reading and Signing Cue The Camels, https://davebanks.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/cue-the-camels-book-signing-at-vromans-bookstore-pasadena-california/
Memories of events and misadventures are happening more frequently as I pour over thousands of slides from my analog era. I recently came across several plastic boxes of transparencies marked “Greece, Island of Patmos.” I had been hired to shoot a documentary on the Apostle John which took me on a large plane from L.A. to Athens, then a smaller plane to the city of Thessaloniki and finally a ten-hour hydrofoil to the tiny island of Patmos.
The backstory on the Apostle John is that he was one of the twelve disciples who followed Jesus during His earthly ministry. In 95 A.D. John was banished by the Roman authorities to the island of Patmos, but not before being thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil where he miraculously survived. The story goes that after witnessing this mind-boggling event the entire Coliseum converted to Christianity immediately. Deep in a cavern on Patmos, John had a profound and disturbing vision. It was the vision of the world to come and wrote the 27th and final chapter of the Holy Bible known as the Book of Revelation. 
The first time I realized the connections between the island of Patmos, the Apostle John and the Book of Revelations was in a Baptist church in Dothan, Alabama. How did I end up as the only white guy in an all black church on a Saturday night? I was invited as a result of a near collision with three well-dressed black men. Half naked and soaking wet, I darted from the motel pool to my room when the four of us meet head-on as I rounded a corner. Skidding to a stop, I quickly made an apology and wrapped the towel around my waist. Each of the gentlemen held tattered bibles with gold print on the leather covers. They were preachers in Dothan for a revival at a local Baptist church. I surprised myself by asking if I could attend the revival and to my good fortune they said yes.
For those who don’t know, “whooping” (pronounced hooping) is a celebratory style of preaching that pastors typically use to make sure the congregation can feel his sermon. In many ways, it is nothing short of a biblical opera performed by the man at the pulpit. His overture usually starts with a calm, reflective introduction to a topic such as temptation or adultery and magically transforms the characters from the bible into another misguided member of his personal flock. The tempo begins its steady rise as the pastor plays out the roles on stage. There is constant pacing back and forth from the podium as his voice slips into a falsetto that bellows out over the church’s speaker system. The pastor is accompanied with interludes from the organist and shouts of holy affirmations from those in the pews. Wiping his brow with his white handkerchief, then waving it high into the air as if surrendering to the Lord, he then bellows out his crescendo.“ We all can make our own Patmos!” he shouts, “just as the Apostle John was sentence to the island of Patmos by the Romans”. The minister pauses for a good 30 seconds as the assembled worshippers sit silently in their seats.Then, in the finale the pastor whispers “We too can sentence ourselves to our own island of Patmos.”
While the Apostle John was destined to write about the apocalypse over 2,000 years ago, Nicholas Negroponte currently writes about a brighter and a more enlighten world through technology. Mr. Negroponte is one of the early disciples of computer technology and Chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. He is also the progressive founder of the One Laptop per Child Foundation which aims to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop. He believes that with access to the computer, children are more engaged in their own education.
For over 25 years, Mr. Negroponte and his wife have had a home on Patmos and have selflessly provided the island’s 3,000 plus residents with free wireless broadband web access. In spite of being isolated on the eastern borderline of the Aegean Sea and being the northernmost island of the Dodecanese island group, the world is only a key-stroke away for the citizens of this remote and rocky island. Unfortunately, the Negroponte’s were not home when I was there, but I did manage to invite myself to a Greek Orthodox wedding.
Greek Orthodox weddings are always on Sunday. They aren’t performed after Easter and Christmas, nor during periods of fasting or the day preceding a Holy Day. Vows aren’t exchanged since marriage is considered a union between two people in love, not a contractual agreement. Wedding bands are traditionally worn on the right hand, not the left. The bride may throw a pomegranate instead of the bouquet (duck if you’ve had too many uzos). The many seeds of the pomegranate symbolize the fertile possibilities between the two young lovers. At the reception, plates are broken on the dance floor (or some other hard surface) for good luck. A member of the immediate family begins and others quickly join in with much yelling and laughing as the plates shatter.
Patmos covers only 34 square kilometers (13.1 sq. miles) with its greatest length of about 25 kilometers (9.6 miles). For such an isolated little island, the poet Peter Porter said it best in his poem “Saint John on Patmos”: “For the right visions you need a desert or an island.”
Exposure and Other Worldly Morsels 