Peter J. Crowley

Fine Art Photographer

Small Business Bail out? We the People!

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Rita Mae’s 280 Main St Manchester New Hampshire
Great food, Best Onion Rings I’ve had in many years.

So it’s that time of year again where we all try to spend more than we make knowing that being in debt is the American way. We could shoplift, use other peoples money which we acquired through lies, fraud and insider trading etc. Knowing that the well placed bribes to Senators would result in a bailout/handout. Ho Ho ho! But if you have forgotten to be a good public scoundrel well you lose for the transparent Wall Street bailout has disappeared into the pockets of the rich not to save their subprime morality and the homes of the working poor, but to buy up the small banks so your freedom of choice is limited to One! One bank, One GreatWallofChinaMart, One Nation Under the heal of the CEO greedier than the plant in “Little Shop of Horrors.”
So this year “We The People” must stand up and support small business buy from owner operated businesses, mom and pop stores. Local Musicians, small local restaurants cause if you think you’re saving money at the big box your just feeding the monster that will take you away in a pine box as soon as you have nothing left to steal.
These are just a few local Artists, Musicians eateries, I know of, but seek and you’ll find quality and individuality next door. The views expressed here are my own, the quality of the listed places is their own and great in my opinion. enjoy pjc
Willimantic Brew Pub


King Cake Band Us of Walmart

Artists Open Studios of Northeast Connecticut

Flesh Hammer

Mad Agnes

Me, Photographic Art

Mystic Disc

SAHOA Small and Home Office Association

Norwich Arts Council Cooperative Gallery

New London Music Scene

Hygienic Art

No links:
The Singapore Grill 938 Bank St New London

The Red House Main St Norwich

Amtrak back to Sacramento and on to LA

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Returning to 1998 in Sacramento it was the first long stop on the return trip and I had hoped for a sunny morning two hour stroll. But it was pouring rain, I still found the highlight beaming in Benjamin’s gentle eyes. We spoke for a couple hours of life, his living on the streets. He was a true ambassador for the city telling me about the arts and progress Sacramento was making, and he was pleased with how much he had improved his own life in the previous couple years. Not a bitter word was spoken much can be learned from his positive attitude. I did and often revisit this print when I need a lift. He asked for nothing, but insisted on holding the energy bars in the photo as a way of thanking me.


Just before dawn, just before coffee bleary travelers at Sacramento Station

A Tall Ship Petty Officer

and a young women with an old Canon film camera and a pen.


August 19th 5:55am we are awakened by the conductor as we arrive in Sacramento. Just an early am blur dragging baggage real and inner we wander into the station lost in the world of anachronisms of tickets and signs. “Where’s coffee?” There isn’t a warm and welcoming presence that Benjamin provided a decade ago but after a cup of Joe or two people begin to chat and wait for connections mine is a bus here for a short ride to another train. As I write a women asks about my journal, the community [that is a little less formed on the southern route due to many different routes and changes from train to bus] begins to emerge again. She had taken this train fifty years earlier. She says this will be her last trip. I say me too, a decade later the body isn’t as comfortable bouncing along the rails. Daylight is still magic but the nights are too long. Twenty one hours to Rees in Flagstaff, dawn arrives and the magic returns. I am the rectangle! A mirror wandering around reflecting the soul of a nation. The meeting of Rees in Flagstaff will be creative moment one that has been planned, postponed and rescheduled at a few different locations for 5 years will happen in less than a day. Flagstaff will be that moment.
The journey blossoms anew fresh air and warm sun, the magic returns in a wave of exposures. A Tall Ship Petty Officer in a Mod hat at first taken back by my interest in shooting her wakes to the magic and offers a smile. What a grand life it must be on the sea, living in a different century. On the platform a young women from a family of artists strikes up a conversation about my old Nikon. She still uses film and a pen to write her poetry. We ride the bus together and I talk her ear off sharing some of my writing reading some of hers, listening to her stories of moving to California from Canada. On to another bus and four hours in LA. enjoy pjc

Photographic Art. Dylan’s Chicago and From the Window of a Train New Mexico

My Transparent Life

Backing up On The Empire Builder

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Jon and David Two of the highlights on the ride to Seattle.
I’ve spoken of them before at the dinner table in the dining car,
 there is a lot of mischief in those eyes.

Here is a story from Jon one of the Amtrak community between Minot and Seattle about the time zones in ND. “In ND the Missouri River is the boundary between the central and mountain time zones. Everything North and East of the river is in the central time zone and everything South and West of the river is the mountain time zone. However all the coal fired power plants, coal mines and the coal gasification plant which are south and west of the river operate on central time even though they are in the mountain time zone. A few years back people who work at these plants and mines got tired of working on central time but living on mountain time and they got a petition together to change the time in those counties to central time. They got enough signatures and put the measure on the ballot and it passed however it still needed approval by the county commissioners. Agriculture is still the number one economic sector in the state and the farmers in this area are mainly descendants of Germans from Russia, brought in by the railroads in the late 1800s. They are a stubborn lot, do not adapt to change well. So when the county commissioners met to decide on this issue the farmers convinced them not to change the time because if they did their cows wouldn’t know when to come in to be milked. As a result we are still working on central time and living on mountain time”.

I thought before moving on to Sacramento that this story would bring a smile to your face as it does mine. enjoy pjc

My Transparent Life