Farewell to Tom Terrell

I am saddened to report that my long-time friend Tom Terrell passed away early Thursday morning, November 29, 2007, after battling prostate cancer for a year and a half.

Tom and I got our starts in photography as Howard University Hilltop and Bison photographers. Tom went on to enjoy a distinguished career (mostly in NYC) as a music journalist, and had recently returned to live in DC.

Tom was an amazing photographer, a gifted writer, and a wonderful and cherished friend.

Photos of Tom can be seen at the Tom Terrell tribute blog at the Tom Terrell Photo Blog and links to his two blogs containing brief samples of his writing can be found on the right of his blog. A link to the Tom Terrell Photo Blog is to the right of this blog.

Also, please go to NPR Radio and enter “Tom Terrell” into the search bar at top to see links to his 17 NPR commentaries.

Feel free to post comments and remembrances on his tribute blog. If anyone has photos of or by Tom that they would like me to post to his blog, please contact me.

Funeral Arrangements are as follows:


Please note the following: "Celebration Of Life For Tom Terrell"

Friday, December 7, 2007
"Wake" - 6:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.
Stewart Funeral Home, Inc.
4001 Benning Road, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20019
(202) 399-3600

Saturday, December 8, 2007
"Celebration of Life"
9:00 A.M. Viewing
11:00 A.M. Funeral Service
Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel at Howard University
6th Street and Howard Place, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20059
(202) 806-7280

Internment and Repast - TBA

R.I.P. Washington Post Radio (We hardly knew ye’)

Today the brief experiment known as Washington Post Radio (WTWP AM1500) came to an unceremonious end when The Washington Post severed its relationship with station owner Bonneville communications and the call letters were changed to WWWT (3WT as they like to call it).

The original intent was to have a commercial version of NPR ( NPR on caffeine, someone at the station once called it) using the talent and resources of the Washington Post.

Unfortunately it quickly became apparent that they lacked the resources and reporters to do the kind of long-form reporting for which NPR is celebrated. Hosts would instead have the reporters on who had written whichever story they were discussing at the time and inevitably they would regurgitate (often read outright) the newspaper story itself, leading to the most leaden and stultifying radio imaginable.

Not that I wasn’t a fan and, as a life-long subscriber to the Washington Post, I really wanted it to work. Nonetheless, talented writers did not always make for scintillating radio personalities, Tony Kornheiser being the one exception and the sole bright spot for the radio station.

What Washington Post radio did evolve into during its brief 6 months of life was a station on which reasoned, moderate, and intelligent conversation took place about the issues of the day, entertainment, and technology, often with engaging good humor). What it is being replaced with is the rabid mad-dog right-wing ideologs of the likes of Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck, with a liberal bone thrown in in the persons of Stephanie Miller and Randi Rhodes.

What it becomes is a station of all-White talkers, largely from the right. In other words, just another version of everyone else’s talk radio. Where is the diversity? At least Tony Kornheiser’s show and the version replacing him with David Burd while he’s off on his Monday Night Football sabbatical, feature casts of regulars including Black males (Joe Barber, Kevin Stanfield, along with regular contributors David Aldridge and Eugene Robinson, to name a few). These shows will remain on 3WT though there has been no apparent effort for ethnic diversity throughout the rest of the day, and that is a true shame. Like I once noted, the 3WT moniker might as well stand for White talkers cubed.

Anti-Iraq War March, 9-15-2007

All Photos (c) 2007 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

While I tried to be even-handed in posting these photos, the truth is that the Anti-war protestors outnumbered the Pro-war protestors 50:1.

Can a Brother get a Veggie Burger?!

When I became a vegetarian in 1980, the only restaurant where I could find a veggie burger was T.G.I.Friday. Sadly, T.G.I.Friday stopped carrying veggie burgers on their menu about a year ago.

Fortunately, it is now possible to find veggie burgers at several chain restaurants, national and local (to D.C.): Ruby Tuesday’s is quite good, Houston’s is exceptional, the Hard Times Café’s is very good, and so is Chee’ Burger-Chee’ Burger’s. On the other hand, 5 Guys, Bennigan’s and Applebee’s have no veggie burgers or sandwiches. Note to restaurants: salad on bread does not a veggie sandwich make!

Still, only one national fast food chain has stepped up to the plate in all these years and put a veggie burger on their menu nationally: Burger King with their BK-Veggie, and yes it is a good veggie burger. I’m told McDonalds test-marketed a veggie burger in California and Canada only but it never caught on and it has been discontinued, at least in California.

Actually there is one more national chain with a veggie patty: Subway, although I hesitate to call it fast food. It’s actually quite good, which begs the question: why hasn’t chief competitor Quiznos followed suit? Their veggie sub is just handsful of mushrooms and black-olives, lettuce, onions and tomatoes (with or without cheese) with guacamole slathered on. A salad sub. Blechh!

The best idea I have found is the one encountered at the Sidewalk Café in Venice Beach, California. They have a menu with a variety of sandwiches and burgers named after noted writers. Best of all, each burger is made with the customer’s choice of a beef, turkey, or veggie patty! Why doesn’t every restaurant do this? It should be a no-brainer (for reaching the greatest variety of customers).

This way, the vegetarian doesn’t have to search for some tiny vegetarian ghetto on the menu. They can eat burgers with all the fixings just like everybody else. Only with a veggie patty instead of meat. Genius!

The other thing that blew this veggie away at the Sidewalk cafe was being able to get veggie sausage on my pizza. My spinach pizza with veggie sausage was off the hook! No wonder I love LA!

Sidewalk Cafe, Venice Beach, CA, June 2007

Photo (c) 2007 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Howard (the real HU) vs. Hampton (the new HU)

Jr. Arlandus Hood, #81, scores Howard touchdown

Omega in the endzone

HU Showtime Marching Band in the stands after half-time

HU Showtime Marching Band in the stands after half-time

Chuck Brown jams with the Howard University Showtime Marching Band

Howard University Showtime Marching Band

Howard University Showtime Marching Band

the Omega section in the stands

Sr. Howard QB Brian Johnson #13 rolls out

Chuck Brown jams with the Howard University Showtime Marching Band

Chuck Brown jams with the Howard University Showtime Marching Band

Howard U. halftime WTF?! moment #1

Howard half-time WTF?! moment #2

Chuck Brown jams with the Howard University Showtime Marching Band

Howard Jr. running back Karlos Whittaker #25 (transfer from the US Naval Academy)

How hot was it? About 95 in the shade!

A Howard band member and the Howard Bison mascot passed out from the heat.

Hampton defender takes sure touchdown away from Howard's Arlandus Hood, #81

Chuck Brown jams with the Howard University Showtime Marching Band

Hampton Institute (okay, University) Marching Band

All photos (c) 2007 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Bottom line, while Howard looked good and played hard and displayed an impressive air-game, final score: Howard: 24, Hampton: 31

Keep Austin Weird, pt. 2

The other day, my daughter and I went to the Austin Grill restaurant in re-vitalized downtown Silver Spring, MD. I was sporting this T-shirt (but with my Obama ’08 button affixed). I had picked it up in Austin, Texas in June during 'Weirdfest.'

Anyway, the greeter person complimented me on the shirt and then our wait-person came over to tell us that the manager had seen it and liked it, too, and that he was offering us a free appetizer because of it. This worked great because my daughter usually only eats the appetizers anyway.

Anyway, just a shout-out of gratitude for our favorite Silver Spring eatery. Great food, great service, the occasional live music, plus a nice, laid-back place to enjoy a beer watching a football game.

Personally, as a lacto-ovo veggie, I like to get their Spinach Quesadillas or their Spinach Enchiladas. Their Vegetable Fajitas are probably a notch above Don Pablo's though all of these type places tend to err on the side of under-cooked veggies in their fajitas (as though vegetarians by definition prefer their veggies 'Bugs Bunny-style': raw and crispy). NOT!

Memo to all restaurants that try to make a token gesture to their vegetarian customers: Vegetarians like HOT food, just like everybody else!

(Anyway, this is my first blog rant. Yes, I do actually feel better, thanks.)

Oprah Winfrey at Howard's Commencement

Oprah getting weepy, 2007 Howard University Commencement

Photo (c) 2007 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Oprah orating, 2007 Howard University Commencement
Photo (c) 2007 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

Now that Oprah has come out and endorsed her senator Barack Obama for president, I thought it would be a good time to share two of the photos I took May 12, 2007 when Oprah was the keynote speaker for Howard University's commencement, and of course was honored with an honorary doctorate.

Coincidentally (I think) Sen. Obama will be the keynote speaker for the Howard University Convocation September 28, 2007. Barring any glitches, I plan to be there photographing the good senator (glitches like the over-zealous Howard security guard who threatened to have me arrested while I photographed Oprah--for refusing to kneel down!)

Pre-Presidential Election madness

When I drove down to North Carolina last weekend from DC, I was sporting my "Obama '08" bumpersticker, which I had just ordered. I wasn't sure what to expect, reaction-wise, but as it turned out, the only negative reaction I received was in Northern Virginia on I-95, when a blonde White woman passed me giving me the thumbs down.

I wondered at the time whether she was hating on Obama (I assumed it wasn't me or my car she was dissing) because [A] he was Black, [B] he was Democrat, or [C] she was a Hillary Clinton supporter? I ultimately concluded it was [c] because he, Obama, poses such a threat to Hillary winning the presidency. In retrospect, she may even have been Hillary Clinton, for all I know.

When I got back, my daugher pointed out this wacko in the parking lot of Staples in Columbia, MD. He or she had festooned their van with American flags and had plastered it all-over with crude hand-written signs afixed with duct-tape saying "Stop Hilary" and "Preserve America: Stop Hilary" and "Safe-Secure-Sovereign." All signs miss-spelled Hillary with one 'L.' And I thought "Wow! Hillary has really got somebody spooked." Go figure.

the Greensboro Four

Photo (c) 2007 by the Incorrigible Curmudgeon

I drove down to North Carolina over the weekend to visit some very dear friends, one of whom is a wildlife biologist at North Carolina A&T University.

During my tour of the A&T campus, I was introduced to this magnificent statuary tribute entitled "February One," in tribute to the "Greensboro Four" who were the four civil rights activist described in the carving on the base of the statue:

"These four A&T Freshmen envisioned and carried out the lunch counter sit-in of February 1, 1960 in downtown Greensboro. Their courageous act against social injustice inspired similar progress across the nation and is remembered as a defining moment in the struggle for civil rights."

Left to right they are: David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. (Jibreel Khazan), and Joseph McNeil.

The statue was carved by James Barnhill out of 6,000 lbs. of clay and cast in bronze. It was dedicated on February 1, 2001 on the 42nd anniversary of the sit-in. Of the four, three remain with us today. The one deceased member is David Richmond who died in 1990 at the age of 49. The lunch counter where they sat-in was secured by the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History.

Tin Roofs, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, 1980

(Tin Roofs, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
(c)1980 Jeffrey John Fearing)

I took this during my marathon 1980 vacation back in the day when you could buy a $500 ticket on Eastern Airlines and fly anywhere they flew during a two-week period. I was able to make stops in Greenville SC, Jamaica, San Juan PR, St. Thomas U.S.V.I., Los Angeles, Atlanta, and San Francisco.

While in St. Thomas, I was able to take a flight on a seaplane (a dream of mine) to St. Croix and back, getting to visit with an old friend from Howard who had recently moved there. This is one of the photos I took there.

I'm still a little bothered by the spatulate expanse of asphalt in the lower right of the composition. I was traveling light, with just my Olympus OM-1 with a normal (50mm) lens so I couldn't get a wide enough shot to frame the composition with some foreground detail on the right. Still I managed to effectively capture the steepness of the street (and of course the rusty tin of the roofs) so it works for me over all.

Girl on Beach, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, 1980

Girl on Beach, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, 1980

(c)1980 Jeffrey John Fearing

I took this picture during a trip to Jamaica in 1980. This was near the famed tourist area called Dunns River Falls. I was vacationing solo so didn't have anyone to watch my camera (and thus wasn't able to walk in the falls as the tourists were doing) so I photographed the falls and then found this beach nearby which appeared to be an area free from tourists, an area where Jamaicans could swim in peace.

This girl stood on the shore fully-clothed watching the people swimming and having fun. She had such a compellingly sad look, wistful and forlorn, that I was moved to capture the moment. I'm pretty sure I was shooting Kodachrome back then. I was using my Olympus OM-1 35mm camera in those days.

Flood, Arlandria, 1972

"Flood, Arlandria, 1972"

(c)1972 Jeffrey John Fearing

This photo is sort of my homage to FSA photographer Dorothea Lange. I took this and a series of images on Mt. Vernon Avenue in an area bordering Alexandria and Arlington, known as 'Arlandria.' Today it is more commonly know as 'Delray.' This is in Northern Virginia, directly across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.

This was June 1972 and Hurricane Agnes had taken a path up the Chesapeake Bay, bringing it closer to DC than any hurricanes before or since. Most of the resultant damage was in the form of flooding. Four-Mile Run creek overflowed its banks and the water-line in this part of town reached the 2nd floor of some of the apartment buildings.

Today, the Army Corps of Engineers (can you say "Katrina"?) has taken steps to prevent such flooding again and so far so good. Mt. Vernon Avenue is now known for the Americana music club The Birchmere, which is a couple of blocks up the road on the left, just beyond the Esso station (At the time, gas was selling for about 29.9/gallon).

This was 35 years ago so I'm guessing the little girl in the rain coat is in her 40's now. I think I was still using my Mamiya-Sekor 1000-DTL 35mm camera then, using Tri-X film.

On being Vegetarian

I've been a vegetarian (Lacto-Ovo: I eat dairy products and eggs) half my life and this Michael Vick thing has just served to underscore why I made this choice.


I've never been strident or dogmatic about it, never tried to convert anyone, though countless crabs-in-the-omnivorous-barrel have tried to pull me back into the meat-eating fold. For me it's a personal choice, not for my health but for the animal's.


I just came to realize that for me to eat meat when I have so many healthy alternatives to choose from would be recreational consumption, eating meat because it tastes good (and it can, if memory serves).


This is not by way of indicting anyone who eats meat. Everyone has their reasons, makes their choices. Arctic peoples have no choice and neither do people who live in other places that do not support sustainable agriculture. We in this country have alternatives, though admittedly, vegetarianism is a life style that to some extent is a luxury available only for those of us who can afford to choose it. Or who are knowledgeable enough to find and prepare healthy alternatives to meat consumption.


I guess my point is: I don't see much of a difference between Michael Vick having animals fight to the death for his amusement, or the millions who enjoy the spectacle of bull-fighting the way I enjoy football, and raising animals to die for our pleasure at the dinner table.

Keep Austin Weird

Sunday I was wearing my "Keep Austin Weird" tie-die T-shirt (with my Obama 2008 button) knowing that I would be asked to explain my shirt to at least a few people, and of course I was.

I attended High School in Austin, Texas and when I went back this June for my high school reunion, the city was in the middle of 'Weird-Fest.'

I bought the shirt and the coffee mug and the bumper sticker because I identify with the concept and this is how I have come to articulate it as I see it:

Austin is one of the only places in Texas where people of open minds can feel at home. Keep Austin Weird is a movement in favor of keeping it that way.

I started to say 'where Liberals can feel at home,' but I've come to realize that although I identify as a proud and unabashed Liberal, liberals can be just as strident and dogmatic and intransigent as the conservatives, and just as big a pain in the ass.

The Washington 'R' Words

I live for football season. Every February when the Superbowl ends, I go into a funk (not a Hunter S. Thompson, shotgun in the mouth funk but a funk nonetheless) knowing that I have to wait till August to catch the real deal football again.

Now football is back and I'm reminded why my favorite team, the Washington 'R' words is such a guilty pleasure (I use 'pleasure' ironically). I have too many friends and connections in the Indigenous American community to be able to sing hail to any team that persists in calling itself 'Redskin.'The reasons why the term 'Redskin' is as offensive as the 'N' word or the 'B' word are too obvious to recount here. Beside which I firmly believe that the people who should have final say over whether a term is or isn't offensive, are the people taking offense, not the offenders.

Even the fight song makes me cringe: "Hail to the Redskins" to the tune of "Yes, Jesus Loves Me" with some Hollywood Indian stereotype tom-toms thrown in for some ethnic 'flavor.'

Then there's the issue that Black people who like myself claim some Cherokee ancestry have been disavowed by the new Cherokee leadership, all of which conspires to take the wind out of my football-loving sails.

Still, I'll be there each Sunday glued to my HDTV watching every R-words game, enjoying the games, win or lose, because its football and I'm a fan and I'm loyal to my team and to the game.