Multiple Successes

March 30, 2007

At long last I have moved all my stuff out of UHaul, at a net savings of $720/year. Hooray! Melissa and Baha once again graciously assisted, although the ordeal wasn’t nearly as bad this time since all the SelectaVision was already moved.

Also, I plugged in the turntable last night, and it works great. I need to figure out a better platform for it, as it picks up every little tiptoe and bounces the needle immediately. Hmm.

A few comments that I heard about the tonearm needing a heavy headshell have come true. I have the counterweight screwed all the way in and it is still a bit off. Ugh - guess I have one more part to get for it, but whatever. The one I have on it now was from a latter-day Sony turntable that I had a few years back. Just not up to par.

For whatever reason I decided that the inaugural playback needed to be “My Brain is Like a Sieve” from Thomas Dolby’s Aliens Ate My Buick. A good record, if marred a bit by some Englishman in Los Angeles nonsense on the first side. I’m also glad that the record (as opposed to the CD) does not have “May the Cube Be With You”, which I think I once heard referred to as ‘moron-funk’ (a description I pretty much agree with).

p.s. my plan is to get back into having more daily photos here… I need some practice before heading out for my next shoot! stay tuned…

Posted in: filler 4 Comments »

One Thing

March 29, 2007

There must be a ton of these somewhere. There has to be some decrepit station being upgraded, or moved, or something that could yield one.

But I don’t even know how to describe it. All search term combinations have yielded nothing.

What am I rattling on about now?

Those black molded “TV Viewing Chair”s that show up in low-budget bus stations across the country.

I want one.

It’s dumb, it’s retro, it’s hipster-retro-chic-a-kooky, but I don’t care.

I want one.

I know, I have my whole anti-TV spiel, but for whatever dorky reason I envision myself having one of these in my home someday.

I can’t find them, though.

It occurs to me that Worcester’s bus station closed not too long ago, and they had a few of them, but I think I probably missed the boat on that one.

Keep your eyes peeled. I have no intention of spending any kind of significant money on something as ludicrous as this, but - just -

let me know if you see one.

Posted in: distractions 7 Comments »

Tales of Turntables

March 28, 2007

I don’t yet know if there is actual audio coming out of the connections (nowhere to plug it in here at work), but the Pioneer PU-41 turntable is up and running!

My solution to the thrust plate problem was pretty basic, not very audiophile, and will probably induce howls of horror from any turntable geek who reads this - I tossed a nickel into the spindle assembly and slathered it with oil. It works fine, the turntable spins freely and at something approximating the proper height. Whatever. Someday I’ll replace it with something fancy and impressive that absorbs vibration and lord knows what else.

The belt I installed also has a marginal problem - it does not appear to be the right width to accomodate the mechanical 33/45 switchover. So I will order one online from the 800 places that offer replacement belts, and in the meantime pretend I don’t have any 45s. Big deal.

I have polished up the wood cabinet and all metal parts to a high shine. It looks so wonderful I simply can not get over it. I’d post a picture, but my camera is at home!

Now the Philips is in considerable peril. I stripped off my good ol’ Grado Green cartridge and transferred it to the Pioneer. If the Philips were anything approximating an attractive turntable I’d hold onto it, but what for? I’m sticking with the Pioneer until it runs - there are solutions for any big problems that I might have all over the net.

I had thought about dumping one of the 12″ formats (vinyl, LaserDisc, SelectaVision) that I have stuck myself with, but I still don’t think I can do it. Oh well.

Posted in: distractions, sound 2 Comments »

Record Rehab

March 27, 2007

A few years ago I was nosing around Goodwill and spotted a beautiful old Pioneer turntable. Huge, heavy (~25 lbs!), with a wonderful solid Lucite cover and a platter that could kill someone if you smacked them over the head with it.

It didn’t really surprise me that it was not functional. The belt was missing, as was the headshell, and the platter scraped alarmingly against the plinth when gently turned by hand.

At the time there was precious little material about this deck on line, so I crammed it under my desk and forgot about it.

Today I eyed it once again and decided that it was time to figure out if I was going to resurrect this one or keep the Philips I bought during the Early Eighties Project.

A search yielded much more interesting information this time around. The belt is easy enough to locate, and amazingly a search on “pioneer pl-41 scraping platter” revealed my exact problem in the first hit!

Unfortunately, one of the screws holding the spindle assembly to the plinth was badly stripped, so I impressed myself by drilling out the screw and freeing the assembly. Success!

I won’t bore you with the details of the problem, but suffice to say once I get someone to help me figure out a good replacement for an ill-advised plastic bearing that cracked and then gooed itself all over the spindle assembly, this turntable is in business! (stay tuned for news of a free Philips turntable to whomever comes and gets it fastest…)

Posted in: sound No Comments »

Lost and Found

March 27, 2007

Amongst the items that I retrieved from my storage bin was stacks and stacks of old school papers. A whole folder, dating back to high school, of graded papers. Much to my delight there is only one that is completely embarrassing - a short story from college. Oh well.

Also tons of photographs, mostly in the form of Polaroids. Old paper tests starring Max (the basset hound, also featured in “Drill”) and a grey card. Bits and pieces of stuff, all adding up to a portrait of the creative burst that is art school.

One thing that alarmed me considerably was the absence of an old self-portrait that I did. I went back to UHaul last night and rummaged through the few folders that are left. Couldn’t find it, so I knew I had to dig back through the boxes of stuff that was ruined by water. I shuffled through old paperwork from Vermont College and other assorted moldy crap until I found a card envelope with “Polaroid transfer self-portrait” scribbled on it in pencil. A sharp intake of breath, a careful extraction of the print inside, and the mystey was solved. There, untouched by the elements, was a weird green image of myself staring back at me.

It was my Junior year when I was taking Color II and had negotiated an “out” with my professor to avoid the color darkroom - I would shoot Polaroid Dye Transfers, a very popular process in the 90s. It is not an easy process - another one of those things that is affected by room humidity, temperature, sunspots, solar flares, you name it.

The self-portrait was my first successful “pull”. The fluorescent lamp above the vanity in Ethan’s and my apartment did absolutely ghastly green things to color film, but it seemed to suit the process nicely. After a few test prints (which I did easily find amongst my storage detritus) I carefully-as-I-could peeled back the negative, and ta-da! My first Polaroid transfer, and my favorite self portrait to date. I was so excited that I called Rachel up immediately and vainly announced my victory. I just had to tell someone what a photo rock star I was.

One of the things that delights me about this is that when you’re looking at the actual print, the emulsion that yields the image is back there behind the lens itself. A picture of a process. I am lurking behind the dark slide of the Polaroid film packet. The camera was borrowed from A.I.B., and my more deluded self always quietly wishes that I owned one of these cameras - until I realize that I’d be stuck dealing with large format film. Ugh.

Also a record of my T hat phase, which went on entirely too long. As mentioned elsewhere, it was a result of my indecision about how to move on from the big hair. Mercifully, that has been solved.

Alas, it appears that my 12″ single containing The Art of Noise’s “Closely Closely (enough’s enough)”, a thrilling variation on “Close (to the Edit)”, is really and truly gone. I don’t know what happened to it, but I have given up on finding it. There are copies sprinkled around the internet, but I am hesitant to spend any money right now due to impending Buffalo and possibly Beirut.

Notice: Will Trade Art for Art of Noise.

Posted in: photo, photo chatter 2 Comments »

Zzzzzzzzz

March 23, 2007

I didn’t make it to the show.

Melissa, Baha, and I moved a bunch of records, stacks of SelectaVision, some books, some speakers, and a few odds and ends like my Grandmother’s two-volume Compact Oxford English Dictionary and the Bosch book - three impressively heavy tomes. There are a couple of pieces of furniture to move or dispose of, and then I’m done with storage once and for all.

I’m tired.

I imagine I will be up too late tonight fishing through stuff I haven’t had direct access to for over three years. I didn’t really lose that much, I guess, in my watery battles with UHaul except some junky books and crap I should have gotten rid of anyway. Could have been worse - I moved out the reel-to-reel ages ago, but if it had gotten the box with the books from my Grandmother I would have been heartbroken.

Two bits of equipment weren’t quite so lucky - The H/K receiver was looking a little more rusty inside than I remember! Also, one of my old Cambridge SoundWorks woofers appears to have had one end in a puddle. The case expanded like one of those radish florettes. Oh well. I’ll find out tonight if it still actually works (and doesn’t rattle, or worse). I’m willing to bet they’ll be offloaded to an interested third party (or dumpster) before I move to Buffallo… I want to go back to traditional speakers anyway. All drivers in the same case sounds most normal to me.

Anyway, I regret having missed the show, but I think I’d be dead right now had I attempted to do all that and still come to work today. Not to mention all the money I saved by not having to cab it from Allston to Chelsea.

Posted in: filler No Comments »

Sound

March 22, 2007

I received an email from Helms today announcing a show tonight at Great Scott. Embedded in the email was another absolutely beautiful image from drummer/visual artist Dan McCarthy, which should be reason enough to go.

Having had the pleasure of witnessing them only once, I am rather tempted. Unfortunately, they are so well-regarded that they usually headline and go on fairly late. It is not cheap to get from Allston to Chelsea at that hour.

Complicating matters is the fact that I am moving all my junk out from my storage bin with the generous assistance of Melissa and Baha. If I do that, then go to a show, I’ll be dead in the water tomorrow. When I work from 8AM to 10PM.

But I can sleep in on Saturday, I suppose.

Every time I look at the wonderful image above I think “how could I not go to a show that is promoted with such amazing work? what the hell is the matter with me? will I regret being such a wimp later in life?”

Actually, I’m regretting it right now.

I’m there.

p.s. I just spent some time prowling around Dan’s site - his work is so incredible that I am having trouble breathing. I highly encourage all of you to go check it out. Immediately. Then acquire some of it. Great art will look fantastic in your place, and it will impress your friends.

the above image is meant to promote the work of Dan McCarthy and/or Helms, and has been placed here with the best of intentions.
please respect all artists’ work and livelihoods by not shamelessly ripping off our efforts for your own purposes! thanks!

Posted in: sound 6 Comments »

Promotion Party

March 21, 2007

Self-promotion. I am always impressed.

So today I will give a nod to Aaron Johnson, someone I don’t think I actually know, who sent an email direct to my website email address (which I hadn’t checked in ages - oops) to promote his strip What the Duck.

How did he find me? Does he search for photographers and (pleasantly and inoffensively) spam them? Some link somewhere I forgot about? Doesn’t matter. He wanted me to see his stuff, and I’m glad.

Very clever. Photo ducks. I totally approve.

Go check his work out.

Posted in: photo chatter, plug No Comments »

Foolin’ Around

March 21, 2007

Here is one result from the itty bitty 110 camera. It is a clever little Pentax SLR (!) that I borrowed from Baha.

It is performing exceptionally well, which almost defeats the purpose of using a crummy film format. Don’t get me wrong - none of this would stand up against negatives out of the Mamiya - but I guess I was hoping for something truly awful. Especially considering that I’m shooting with fabulous Walgreen’s “Multi-Purpose Use 110 Color Print Film”.

I didn’t do much to the above besides crank down the saturation a lot. Even so, it is a pretty sharp image (in the full scan you can read the text on the mailboxes), although plenty of room for complete disaster.

Why am I doing this? Didn’t I just go through a whole bunch of effort to bring my system up to ridiculous levels (250 Megapixel scans from 120 film) in a crazed quest for major digital sharpness?

Yep. Sure did. Can’t wait to exploit it to its fullest when I go back to Buffalo to shoot in May.

But who knows what I can cough up with another syntax in my arsenal? That there picture up top has kind of a different, yet similar edge to all my other work. The camera also appears to have an open-ended metering system like the old Polaroid cameras - meaning, not limited to 1 second when the lighting is very low, like my Nikons. It will just hang around, keeping the lens open ’til it thinks it has gathered enough light.

That could come in very handy.

Hmm.

(p.s. I’m working on the Buffalo gallery. It’s coming. I promise.)

Posted in: photo, photo chatter 4 Comments »

Quick Thoughts

March 20, 2007

- Yes, I’ll have the Buffalo stuff up on the website soon. I just haven’t gotten to it yet (obviously).

- I developed the Botanical Gardens stuff - flowers are definitely not my thing.

- My job isn’t a problem. The environment is getting to be a bit much though. That is fine, as it will push me to Buffalo that much faster.

- My other job is a problem at the moment. No, not the hours, just - petty politics. Nonsense. Whatever.

- I am fooling around with a 110 camera. You could suggest that I could do whatever it is that I am trying to achieve with Photoshop filters, but what fun is that?

- I will be back in Buffalo for my birthday to do a big shoot - hooray!

- My parents’ anniversary is approaching, and my sister and I have been keeping a veil of secrecy over our plans for it. Why? Well, I don’t really know anymore to be honest. I think my folks will be surprised how mundane the secret turns out to be.

- I am finally moving out of my storage unit, thanks to a big push and moving assistance from BMKCreative - hooray! No more monthly bill from UHaul!

- Today began with me under a filthy, black cloud, but I’m feeling a little better. A little.

More interesting stuff later.

Posted in: filler No Comments »

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