Legend has it that the composer and critic Virgil Thomson once took his aged mother to a concert of music by John Cage. Asked afterward for her impressions, Mrs. Thomson replied, "Well, I certainly wouldn't have thought of it."
Buoyed by a tide of anti-establishment anger, a political outsider with no governing experience wins an upset election to executive office. His professional background, he promises, gives him the necessary real-world ability to create jobs, repair infrastructure and fix everything that he deems broken.
For the last six years, Phoenix-based photographer Jesse Rieser has traveled the country, photographing our nation's obsession with all things Christmas. Inspired by a four-story inflatable Santa he saw outside of a Christmas tree lot in 2010, Rieser's ongoing project, " Christmas in America: Happy Birthday Jesus ," has morphed from a look at the kitschier aspects of the holiday to, as he describes it, "a celebration of people's celebrations."