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It seems that I remembered how to do things correctly and now I want to shoot with film more often. What's that about hubris? Real scans WILL BE DONE, but that WILL take a while. Gimme a week or two.

For those who come in through the front door on the Blog, the rest of them are here and there will be more going up shortly.

Brute Force Works Sometimes

So my refrigerator died, which is a dumb way to start a post about concert pictures. Anyway, my refrigerator died which means that I had to clean it out so the little men who took it away would not hurt themselves before bringing in the NEW refrigerator. In my cleaning I found fifteen or so rolls of long-since expired Fujipan 400 and I, never being one to leave an expensive stone unrolled (or whatever), decided to shoot Fiasco's goodbye show at Market Hotel.

Long story short, I realized I should probably do a clip test because God-knows how long I've had that film in the fridge and who knows how well it's held up. Plus I have no idea what I'm doing in general (fun fact!).

This is the clip test. Scans of the real deal to come soon. Or not. I have to shoot my brother's wedding so that will take up a lot of time.

The Way That I Rhyme

There's not much to say about this set from Darkside Haunted House -- it speaks for itself, I think. I will add that it was one of those jobs you're happy to take just because the situation is so weird that it becomes a crime NOT to take it. There's a Disneyland-style line-maze that serves to pace attendance and allows guests cycle through and experience a series of terrors. One such section featured a series of hillbilly-Deliverance-style vignettes. Our host and guide said, dryly, "Guess what our theme was last year?"

This comment reminded me of one of my cleverer moments, if I do say so myself. Back in college one of my video professors was a heavy in the early Experimental Video, Queercore and Riot Grrl scenes in the 80's and 90's (and was even namedropped in Le Tigre's "Hot Topic") and she and I would frequently butt heads over this and that. For example, she would accuse me of misogyny and in turn I would make my work more misogynistic because... well... wouldn't you?

Anyway, a few years after we graduated George and I went back to talk to some of our more beloved professors and in the course of conversation asked what Cecilia was up to.

Professor: "I'm not sure. Last I heard she was in Ireland working on a horror film."

Me: "You mean, like, slasher-horror or the horrors of gender relations...?"

Professor: "..."

So I never got a good answer, and I suspect I was right.

Throwback Image Sunday

Bill has been my #1 photographic fallback since college -- good for tips and tricks and moral support -- and we still keep in touch even after he moved to New Mexico and got married. Early on, I stole most of his lighting setups through casual observation and passive aggressive interviewing of the "Oh... hey, I didn't know you were working. Gee, I like your key. Why is it there?" variety. His sense of humor might be dryer than mine, though it's subject to debate amongst no one in particular. He is consistently employed and making a well-deserved living either because of, or in spite of, his choice to move to a shifty market.

He lives on the internets here: billstengel.com

And on Flickr here: xthebillx

Throwback Image Saturday (II)

Another from my early series of people I (used to, for the most part) hang out with in college. Dana was the editor of the school newspaper for a spell, and an all around cheerful person, in spite of the attitude this picture suggests. Call it one of my early dour-hipster pictures. This particular image was an outtake (one of her smiling made it in) and I uploaded this one 'cause it just seems more me at this point.

As with Nick, I've not seen Dana since I graduated. Last I heard she was back in Seattle or someplace on the Western Coast.

Zzzzzzzz...

I'm dozing and clock-watching as I hold fast to my promise of only adding another polaroid after the previous polaroid posting reaches 50 views (the sad bird is currently at 40 [as of 4/3/07]). I have one all lined up that will hopefully be a handy illustration of My Day With The IRS (working title), which might not have been as bad as I had forseen (knock wood).

That's a lot of parentheticals.

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

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...

Archiving

A couple of oldies while I wait for the Powers film to come back:





I was scanning some negatives and trolling through my archives (which is no small task considering how poorly organized they are) and happened across these two. I have the second one framed in my apartment, and the other I always meant to, but never got around to it.

I took these in 2002, I think, and never printed them myself in any form, so any sort of work I did with them at the time was limited to the quick prints from the lab. These are about as sentimental as I get when it comes to photography (see previous discussion here) and about as sentimental as I get about California and Santa Barbara in general. My pithy comment is always that Santa Barbara and I have "...reconciled [our] relationship" and I guess that's more true than not.

A side note: For whatever reason I didn't notice the biker riding away in the 'Jesus y Selena' picture until 2005 -- or three years after I took it. Sometimes you can see, but you may not observe.