Ruckus Brought

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
JFK, Delivered at Rice University in Houston, Texas on 12 September 1962.

For those coming in through the front door, there are others here.


Julian


Jonathan


Lucian

Eat When Offered; Drink When Free

The best explanation for the allure of Fashion Week comes courtesy of L Magazine (yes, the freebie) when they said, paraphrased,

'There's nothing New Yorkers love more than a party they're not invited to.'

This seems a little Sub-Woody, maybe, but it's basically true.



This particular press line goes for another ten yards to the left and right of this picture.



If you see a pretty lady, take her picture. In my head it doesn't seem right that this bunch is chimping instead of shooting.



By eating the hors d'oeuvres, you lighten the load of the waitstaff. In turn, they will visit you often. I've never managed to develop a taste for fois gras.



It's the second (and third) best time of year for letchery after the first day of spring.

A Plea For Tenderness

MARCIA IS MY FWIEND. ARE YOU MY FWIEND?

So I guess at this point I'm curious as to who's stopping by. Yeah, I've broadly invited most of ILX to visit and Ally (The Schef) is such a social bird that I'm sure some people get forwarded to me from her, but the lack of feedback is a little -- not bothersome -- disappointing. So leave a comment!

I am particularly interested in seeing who's been stopping by from Maryland (no hyperlink. If you don't know where or what Maryland is then... there is no hope for you) and locally in New York City.

Yes, I check my webstats often.

Also, I like the above picture in color moreso than black and white. Woops.

Neko Case, 4/6/06, Webster Hall

Even as I tool around with the new 5D, I'm still trolling through my negatives -- the recent ones -- and re-scanning them myself. As with anything worth doing right, it's best to do it yourself, and it's sort of astonishing just how lousy the lousy low-res lab scans are when compared to a high(er)-res scan done to your parameters. I'd written off these pictures from last April (April 6, 2006) as an example of poor lab-processing wisked together with my rustiness with film stocks, but further noodling shows them to be basically what I intended. Of course, I always say that it's no longer whether my pictures 'come out' or not, just whether they're 'any good' and as I struggle for constancy it's nice to find that I've kept true to that idea of goodness winning out over a base-level outcome.

I've linked to this post and this version of the picture off the Flickr site because my aversion to having larger images swiped or manipulated is suddenly less important than having the image seen at a viewable size. The idea of a proper viewing distance isn't new, and I'm discovering that dimensions 500px by "X"px at 150 dpi aren't going to get the job done, even at a viewing distance of 1'-2' on a computer monitor. Add 'Vanity' to the post labels.

Where We're From, The Birds Sing A Pretty Song

Subtitled: Emo Bird Is Emo



Today, sharing images with you brings me no joy, and I think my dead-bird friend here kind of says it all.

I'm getting audited and as much as I'd like to play it off as another life experience, it's a very lonely feeling right now, especially since they're asking for info from 2005 which I don't really have in any sort of complete form, and there's a big chunk of change that they're curious about that I have no documentation on AT ALL. I certainly won't have it by Monday (which is Opening Day, the first day of Spring). The numbers that we're talking about in terms of money are sort of nebulous to me and I have no cotton-pickin' idea why they'd want to audit me to begin with, short of 2005 being the first year I actually rose above the poverty line.

I've been asked by my friends, who are fearful of the same thing happening to them, to take good notes ... So in short terms, let this be a lesson to you, kiddies: keep EVERYTHING. One of my head-slapping moments was realizing that I had shredded 2005's phone bills literally 12 hours before the audit summons arrived in the mail. That said, they say to keep this sort of shit for 7 years. There isn't that much space in my universe.

Unhappiness Is An Invented Thing

Dominique



Dear Dom,

So sorry. You've become one of my favorite people to photograph. I should have warned you that this might happen.

--RG

I've Been Holding Out On You

So the gallery that was my one best (easiest) shot at a show was passively interested, so for the time being the fate of the Museum Project (lame working title) is in my hands... and I don't know what that means. I have a good 40 or 50 photos laying around that I was withholding for exclusivity's sake, holding off Flickr and the Daddy Site until I got word back and now that I have the word I have, I'm sort of torn as to whether I should unleash them all or not. An alternative to a show involves self-publishing, which is something I have a similar level of advising-access, but also a similar limit to help that that implies.

There is no conclusion to this thought at present.

These Are (Still) Powers

So got the film back after switching labs, and I'm disappointed with the results. Poor scan quality (looking at the negatives there's clearly more information there), and some of them had hypo-stains drooled all over them. To be fair, the little man behind the counter said they would be low res scans... but still a capital "M," Major, captial "B," Bummer. So the side-by-side comparisons might not be too worthwhile. Project abandoned.

I wonder though, what they process B&W with because I remember getting very nice, soft results with Ye Old Art School Standby D-76.



We'll try again this week with some Ilford ASA 3200 when Knife Fight plays Union Hall on Saturday night. No hyperlink to Union Hall. If you don't know where it is then...

Those Are Not Powers; These Are Powers

More from your new favorite band: These Are Powers at Tonic on 3/8/07. I should be able to do some nice side-by-sides once the film portion comes back from Duggal (I switched labs after Baboo fucked up again).



Most exciting was a successful Gordon Parks moment:



I was looking for an example of the zoom 'n' shoot that he did to link to, but I couldn't find one. Oh well. More of these on Flickr.

Bad Things Happen In Threes

Dominique



I've been on this kick for a while now, possibly just to make myself feel responsible when it comes to editing my stuff -- restrict it to a 3-image set. This gesture is empty and pointless and gets me into trouble when I do event coverage and I give the client three times as many selects as they really need... and they decide they want them all. Anyway, there are two more for this set on the Flickr site.

Back to the subject at hand -- I remember one of my professors (whose opinion I still trust) mentioning that one of my short films was 'shot spot-on, but... I don't know about your pouty friends in it.' Now in their defense I'll claim that it wasn't that my friends were particularly pouty but rather that I shot and directed them poorly. Then there are the subjects you can't direct, like this one, that you can wind up and let go.

Suzie

Fuck the Heatherette Afterparty. I finally got a few decent frames of my Sphinx.



(Techie Richard: Another example of why I should move to the newer digitals -- my fondness for ramping the gain up and open rather than carry around a strobe pack.)

Oi.

PR Lady: You should meet this girl on stage now! She's going to be the next Gwen Stefani?

RG: WHAT.

Pr Lady: She's AWESOME!

RG: WHO?

Pr Lady:

RG: OOOOOHHH...

Playing Catch-Up Yet Again

It feels like I'm primarily using this Blog-thing to catch up on releasing stuff from last year, and feel a little lame about it -- I really only had two resolutions this year:

1) To make crisp decisions.

2) To make sure I didn't bitch out and carry my camera At All Times (emphasis mine) no matter how heavy it got.

Neither have been lived up to with any sort of regularity.

Anyway, this is Anna from These Are Powers from November of last year when they opened for The Fall. Sadly, I only saw their set because of an outstanding comittment to work at 6 AM the next day. These things happen. I'm pushing for the 7" cover with this particular one.

Animals, Animals, Animals

When I first got my Holgaroid (after much searching and hand wringing and research as to whether the stock would be discontinued* or whether I could even find one in the tri-state area), my first thought was, "OMG NOW I CAN MAKE ART BLABLAZOOBOYYARLYNOWAI!" which I think is a fine attitude to take with something like this. Of course, having not had a darkroom since college, any sort of immediate gratification when it comes to appreciating your own crapulence is... appreciated. Plus I love toy cameras. So when I combine Favorite Number 1 (toy camera) with what may be my favorite place in New York (North American Mammals wing; American Museum Of Natural History), I get happier than a fruit fly in an orchard.

More at the Flickr site here

*Of course, the stock was discontinued as of the first of the year. An unfavorable start, to be sure. I'm doing the math to see if I can easily adapt the back to take (what I guess would be...) the 600-series. Any ideas?

Another, for old times' sake

In a further effort to get things going over here, I'll add an oldie from 2002 (I think) of Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney.