I have three recent shots of my fair city on my Flickr stream. I’m pretty pleased with how they developed, but mostly I’m excited about trying out Kodachrome for the first time tomorrow. I hope it works out…
Archive for June, 2009
skyline
Friday, June 26th, 2009Music Matters
Thursday, June 25th, 2009Do you ever have a musical act that you totally love but seem to have dropped off the planet? You can’t help but move in your chair every one of their tunes plays in your headphones, but you’ve stopped checking the official website and/or other channels for news long ago because it’s been ages.
A number of musicians fit such a bill for me and, the act in mind today is dZihan & Kamien, the Vienna-based down-tempo duo that created one of the finest albums in my arsenal: Gran Riserva. After years gone by with a dearth of news (and no official website) I don’t feel that bad for missing the announcement of their first studio album since 2002. It seems that the fellas released Music Matters in late April, and you can stream the whole thing for free on their new website! Sure, it’s Flash-tastic, so I can’t link directly to the listening page, but hit up the music link at the top of the page, and mouse over the left side of the album listing until the cover for the new album slides into view. And listen. Over and over.
I’m scooting over to Plan 9 forthwith tomorrow after work to see if have this album, and if not, I’m gonna have to see if the official D&K store delivers to The States (the prices are in Euros only). This album is my new jam.
Mama don’t take my Kodachrome!
Monday, June 22nd, 2009It was really only a matter of time.
The Eastman Kodak company introduced Kodachrome in 1935 and it became one of the most iconic pieces of film ever to run through a camera. The color is rich, the grain is barely visible at large image sizes, and the stability of the processed slides is remarkable. But the processing is the problem – it’s a proprietary methodology that’s complex and expensive. As digital photography has all but stamped out film, there has been little justification for keeping alive a product with such a small niche that may very well have been unprofitable.
So today Kodak formally announced an end to production. I’m not upset with the company for this – they sure seem committed to continuing film production with their other stock (I mean, they recently reformulated TMax 400 and introduced Ektar, a totally new print film, so, c’mon) – but this surely signals the end of an era.
I’ve not yet had the opportunity to shoot Kodachrome, but I ordered three rolls today before it’s too late. While Kodak believes their stock will last through Fall 2009, I’m less optimistic since I think film buffs and holdouts will try to hoard it before it’s too late.
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away
Paul Simon, “Kodachrome,” from his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon
peek-a-boo!
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Five Different Nachos
Friday, June 19th, 2009Dude, bro:
(via yewknee)
A Clunky Idea
Friday, June 19th, 2009So both chambers of Congress have approved of a “Cash for Clunkers” program through which consumers receive subsidies for replacing their older fuel-guzzling vehicles with new fuel-efficient vehicles.
I think this idea, on the surface, sounds great. Get those exhaust-spewing dirty inefficient cars off the road! Everybody buy a LEV or Prius or something! And of course, you benefit the struggling auto industry! YAY!
Except…there’s no guarantee that you’re helping the environment here. Sure, the old vehicle has terrible fuel economy, but building new cars requires incredible amounts of energy as well. There’s ore extraction, chemical treatments, electricity for all the machinery, etc. Does that balance against the pollution from extraction, refining, and combustion of more fuel? Was that even considered by the folks who sold this bill? I suspect this was pushed by the automotive industry to spur new car sales, but I haven’t seen anything about a provision limiting the credit to purchases of American cars, so it may end up benefiting Toyota and Honda more than Ford and GM. Maybe it’s all about saving money for the consumer? Perhaps, but for drivers that currently owe nothing on their cars, it’s highly unlikely that the monthly gas savings will come close to a monthly payment.
Eh…I don’t mean to sound so dismissive, but I feel like this is another band-aid idea that makes people think Congress and the White House are doing something helpful when it might only result in a further waste of money without helping that many people.
Dear Photographer
Thursday, June 18th, 2009Paul Armstrong is an incredible photographer. No, seriously – go spend some time digging through his Flickr stream before you keep reading.
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Good? I told you so. Anyway, Paul Armstrong is also hilarious. Case in point: Dear Photographer, a collection of quips initially from Twitter that will, hopefully, grow as time goes by. I’m sure many of us are guilty of at least one of his points, but they’re funny none-the-less.
Following the Situation in Iran
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009The amount of real-time information on what’s happening in Iran following the disputed presidential election from last Friday is encouraging if not a bit overwhelming. Who knows how an event like this would have played out ten years ago without the eyes of the world watching?
If you want to make some sense of what’s going on, I recommend the New York Times Lede Blog, where you can refresh the page every so often for plenty of current information. If you want to partake in the deluge of information, unconfirmed and all, you could always take a look at Twitter as well, or at least while people inside Iran are still able to relay information about the situation on the ground.
My heart goes out to those people trying to voice their dissent. The rallies, by most accounts, started and remained largely peaceful until Ahmadinejad supporters around the country started interfering. And now all foreign press are getting shut out of direct reporting even while state-run media outlets sow lies and propaganda in an attempt to paint the opposition as the real problem.
Let’s see what happens after this apparent re-count…
Dark Night of the Blog’s Soul
Monday, June 15th, 2009The last few regulars remaining no doubt have noticed that my writing has grown spare. I’ve been posting with low frequency and when I actually do add to the site it’s typically been a photograph, a video, or a link with minor annotation.
Maybe it’s been an uptick in work (I mean, hey, the workday is prime blogging time) or a general lack of things to say, but I just don’t have much in me lately. Not a bad thing, and I’m not upset about it – just some observations.
The funniest part about this is that I’ve come to such conclusions in the past as well where I feel that my blogging dries up – only to be struck by some diarrheic typing moments later. Whatever. I just had to say something that wasn’t “wow, this video is so cool” or “check out my pictures.”
Long Photograph
Sunday, June 14th, 2009Sad and beautiful.