Buffalo Roundup

May 16, 2007

How could I begin with anything but a photo of Phin? Ethan claims that this is the best picture of him yet, which is cool. I think it has more to do with Phin than me, though, for he just happened to look at me when I pressed the little button.

Buffalo was great - I took the train out Thursday and arrived around 1am. I still very much enjoy taking Amtrak, but was sure to sit on the other side of the train this time for a different view.

Here is Jen and Phin enjoying the warm Friday afternoon while Ethan was talking business with some associates. They treated me to a very enjoyable birthday dinner after he returned. A splendid time was had by all.

The above photo was taken by Ethan, as mine are still waiting to be scanned off the negatives. Our time at Buffalo Central Terminal was a bit abbreviated from the original plan. Not only was the space rented out to a movie crew, but they locked everyone - even the owners! - out of the entire concourse. We consoled ourselves with creeping around the grounds and finding a few back doors to interesting spaces. More pictures from here coming soon. (I am the teeny tiny little blob directly to the right of the two big windows at the back of this building)

After the Terminal Ethan needed to run an errand at the home brewing store. While there he decided that it was a lovely day for brewing, so after carefully picking out some supplies we headed back to get the process underway.

Of course, I know absolutely nothing about brewing, but it was interesting watching at least part of the process. I recall none of the names of the ingredients, except that the strain of yeast is numbered 2112. The clever can put together why that one was chosen on their own.

Foolishly I did not photograph the process start to finish, but did get a couple of interesting shots. The above image isn’t strictly a part of the brewing process, but of course cleanliness and inspection of your equipment is essential in most endeavors.

Here is some actual brewing. I thought having such a burner indoors was a little alarming, but what do I know. I did, however, immediately start fantasizing about deep fried turkeys. The last stage of brewing that I saw was the beginnings of fermentation, with gases forcing themselves through a little airlock. I don’t know when I’ll be back out to Buffalo, but I have made Ethan promise to save me a bottle.

On Sunday we made our way out to Niagara Falls. Jen hadn’t been there either! Ethan took the above while I was stomping around taking pictures of some of the power plant buildings.

The Falls were certainly impressive, but after years of vacation pictures via Chain Camera Store, I don’t really have any interest in more (unless there’s people in front of it, as above).

While driving back a huge fire broke out in Buffalo. We are still in Canada in the above picture, and were speculating about the source. For a while Ethan thought that maybe it was Dunlop, but in fact it was a few warehouses in the Black Rock section of town. It reminded me of some freakish contrails that my father and I saw years ago in California - but that’s a tale for another time.

We stopped by the house of Ethan and Jen’s old friend Ed who lives in Ft. Erie. The sunset wasn’t exactly spellbinding, but yielded a good image anyway. We sat and chatted a bit while Ed’s dog Wheezer (sp?) briefly decided I was his new best friend before wandering off again.

As with all pleasant vacations large or small, it came to an end and I found myself parked at Buffalo-Depew station. Above is the obligatory angles-and-shadows shot that awnings like this lend themselves to quite well. Oddly enough, the incredibly long Ringling Bros. train went by in the other direction. No animals it seems, which was a little disappointing - I was having visions of giraffe heads popping out the tops of box cars like in those old Richard Scarry books.

Maybe next time.

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can’t! stand! it!

May 9, 2007

I’ve been torturing myself on this lunch hour by looking over images on the Buffalo Central Terminal page.

There is just so much work I could do at this site.

Ideally, I’d have hours to work on this. Days. But for now I’m just be thankful for the time that they are taking to let me shoot there. Maybe if I can wow them with some fantastic shots it’ll buy me a few return visits.

One can only hope.

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Departure Approaches

May 8, 2007

Picked up my train tickets today. Almost ready to go. It was nice to hand them a voucher from my aborted cross-country ticket instead of handing them more money!

I also received my road music.

Road music?

Well, historically I have always acquired a new album before major trips or journeys. Consequently, my memories of these trips always have some kind of strong musical association.

My two weeks in Buffalo? Pinback’s Summer in Abaddon.

That camping trip I took by myself a few years back? Front 242’s Pulse.

Beirut? Manitoba’s Up In Flames.

Listening to any of these now bring back fond memories of those times. It is a phenomenon that I adore and encourage others to pursue.

An interesting thing happened on the train this past February, though. I had dialed up Arvo Pärt’s Te Deum whilst rolling through Western Massachusetts.

It was magnificent.

I have described Pärt’s music elsewhere on my blog, but didn’t really give enough credit to the power his music has on me. Classical buffs may sniff and roll their eyes, as Pärt falls close enough to the”mainstream” that they consider him somewhat passé, but who cares? Individual appreciation is the name of the game.

When I first bought Te Deum I brought it home and laid on my bed to give it a good listen. I simply couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’m not quite sure how to describe it, except to say that if there is a god, s/he may well be speaking through music like this. Alternately inspiring and intimidating, there is no shaking the overall effect. Well, not for me anyway.

Laying in a dark room experiencing this is one thing, but what about on the train?

Majestic.

To that end, I put in an order last week (I am a full online-ordering convert at last) for what others claim is one of his finest works: the two-disc Kanon Pokajanen. It is an a capella work for four-part choir. Frankly, the lack of any kind of instrumentation intimidates me a little bit (especially in so long a piece), but I get the feeling that I will be rewarded for my efforts. Even if it doesn’t work out and I’m not as impressed by this piece as I am with Te Deum or the magnificent Berliner Messe, it is always good to hear something new. Besides, I can always dial up any of his other albums if I want to move one. Oh, modern technology.

I can’t wait to get out on the rails again.

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Small update

May 7, 2007

What a busy bee am I.

Last Thursday evening I got together with some old friends to talk art. BMKcreative have a terrific summary of the proceedings that covers things pretty well. Our discussion of their website was variously tense and productive, but it must have leaned more towards productive, as it appears to have yielded a great redesign of the BMKcreative website.

Saturday night I finally went to a Helms show for the first time in a while. It was cool, and they played early enough (11:15) that I didn’t have to worry about the subway. Picked up a copy of their last album while I was there, which comes in a beautiful sleeve enclosing sexy transparent blue vinyl!

This week I am prepping for a trip out to Buffalo to photograph the old Central Rail Terminal. There is really nothing about it that is central - it is in fact rather inconvenient, probably a big factor in its downfall. To be fair, the current Amtrak station isn’t particularly convenient either, but is significantly uglier than the old station.

That’s progress, I guess.

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Butchered!

May 2, 2007

No, wait, I mean - Published!

Okay, so it’s in a “Reader Photo” section of a new upstart daily in Boston called BostonNow. But hey, getting on the subway in the morning and being greeted by one of your own images is pretty damn cool. Thanks to the paper for putting my picture in there.

Now. About that cropping job.

Well, you be the judge…

Coulda been worse.

I mean, if you have to have the very “hook” of your photography (angles, shadows) stripped out of an image, well… let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t send a few other candidates. At least it’s still got strong vertical columns (another persistent theme!)

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Two Mediocre Images

May 1, 2007

These two were much more appealing in person. They still have a kind of nice quality from the light and the clouds, but the subjects sure could be a lot more interesting.

Oh well.

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