Chapter Four will be up Tuesday morning. We sincerely apologize for those of you on the edge of your Aerons waiting to see what happens next to our well-coiffed hero.

Speaking of men with sexy coifs, Dan had some important business to attend to last week, and is running a little behind on the art. We appreciate all the feedback and the support. Be sure to check out our new “Friends O’ Shooting War” section (see below). There’s some cool cats reading this thing. You’ll meet some of them if you come to our launch party Tuesday night (also see below).

In the meantime, if you want to know what’s it’s really like to report in Baghdad in 2006, check out Salam Pax‘s latest blog. Salam Pax (a pseudonym), if you don’t already know, was the original “Baghdad Blogger.” His now-defunct blog “Where’s Raed?” [Salam's friend Raed is one of the stars of the film I produced, BattleGround] chronicled the run-up to the American invasion and the immediate aftermath with an honesty and a keen political insight that capipulted him into international media stardom. He started writing for the UK Guardian, published a book, and began producing spots for the BBC. Now he’s producing video “blogs” for the BBC’s Newsnight.

In his recent blog, he writes about trying to shoot in the Kadhimiya neighborhood of Baghdad. It provides a fascinating window into how the country is changing:

In case you didn’t know Kadhimiya is a Shia district, I have a Sunni family name. The knot in my stomach was getting tighter the closer we got to the check point through which we get into the market area near the Kadhimiya Shrine. What if they ask me for my Iraqi ID? They had an explosion here yesterday and I have a Sunni family name? No this is not paranoia. I have the wrong name and I need to get myself a new forged ID with a Shia name. Anyway, I was lucky they were happy with my NUJ card (the first time I was really happy I had it on me, I usually fear that if people see it they think I’m a foreign journalist). Once inside I had the biggest eye opener. I saw the future of Iraq, or at least Baghdad. Inside the barricade and past the checkpoint was a piece of the old Baghdad. Shops full of people, all relaxed and smiling. Everybody wants to talk and tell me how their lives are and I even got invited to have tea and accepted the invitation without thinking that this man saw my camera and he is just delaying me until the kidnappers arrive. You know what was different? Kadhimiya is set up these days like a fortress. Entrances are tightly controlled, no unknown cars get in and they basically had their own secret police there; when I lingered too long with my camera in front of the shrine I was quickly called inside and a security guard demanded IDs and wanted to look through the film, I thanked heavens again for the NUJ card.

posted Monday, June 5th, 2006   leave a comment or trackback