Gaah!

March 24, 2008

Whilst looking at my blog on my folks’ computers I noticed some problems with Internet Explorer and this blog. Minor ones, but still annoying. I could just ignore them and put one of those “this site best viewed on FireFox” notices, but as IE makes up 31.4% of my traffic (behind Firefox, which is 40.1%, probably mostly me) I’d best just make the small fixes and let it go at that.  There is also a WordPress upgrade that I’m supposed to do, but I’ve been lazy.
Microsoft claims that IE8 will address a lot of the problems that have constantly plagued them in terms of web standards, but I also heard that Vista was supposed to be a radical top-to-bottom redesign of an operating system. Having fooled with it a little over the weekend…

Posted in: bloggy business 1 Comment »

Five Stars

March 14, 2008

I never had much inclination to go through and rate all my songs via the iTunes feature. I did try it for the early eighties stuff, but it kept getting removed when I’d be juggling the tracks around, and besides - my opinions of some of that stuff changed constantly.  Eventually I started to use it as a kind of shorthand to remind myself of tasks that needed to be performed. Remember, all of the 80s project was recorded from vinyl and took a lot of work to get each song sounding decent relative to the other 543 tracks.

One star: The whole track is a disaster and a new source record should probably be found
Two stars: Track too quiet and needs to be boosted.
Three stars: Excessive pops to fix up in Audition.
Four stars: Track too loud and distorting.
Five stars: Done, leave it alone.

As the eighties project came to a close this system fell by the wayside, but I’ve come to realize that iTunes Library / iPod maintenance is a daily struggle. For those of you who don’t know this (it isn’t very well documented), if you apply an EQ setting in iTunes it will carry over to your iPod - and if you leave the iPod EQ in the “off” setting, it will apply the setting that you specified back in iTunes. (used to be that “off” really meant off and “flat” acknowledged the track’s EQ setting, but at some point those swapped)

Of course, one EQ setting does not fit all and I am constantly adjusting tracks to get the best sound out of them. Decisions about putting tracks on playlists, new discoveries that I want to hear more often, and the most time-consuming activity ever: album art. How to keep track of this all?

One star: Track is old, tired, and needs to be removed from whatever playlist is causing it to be in such heavy rotation.
Two stars: Too bass-y. Change to a milder EQ setting.
Three stars: Album art needs to be addressed in some way.
Four stars: Not bass-y enough. Boost EQ.
Five stars: Needs to be added to one or more playlists.

You just can’t be too careful with the presentation of your music.

Posted in: sound, tech-y nerd stuff No Comments »

What’s Up?

March 10, 2008

The photos have been few and far between lately, but there’s two reasons for that: 1) we’ve had a real winter, which makes for poor shooting weather and 2) I didn’t really go anywhere I haven’t been before since Vancouver. It’s been work, work, work. I mean, sure, there’s always a new shot to be found - even on the most mundane travels - but I think I’ve done the path-between-my-jobs thing to death, and though I keep looking I haven’t found any new images. I suppose I could shoot around Chelsea, but I don’t like really revealing that I have a camera too much around there.But soon the travels will begin once again.

First up is a trip that Rachel and I are taking down to New York. It started with a production of Edward Albee’s “The Zoo Story” and “The American Dream”, which we knew immediately we had to go see. Then the trip planning revealed that the best bet (since Rachel doesn’t drive and I don’t own a car) would be to take the train from Springfield to New York. You all know that I love the train, so this detail is certainly a highlight for me.

Then I discovered by chance that there is going to be a production of Philip Glass’ “Satyagraha” that same weekend - easily my favorite work of his (see “10 Albums”) - at the Metropolitan Opera House! I can’t stand it. Melissa and I went to see “Akhnaten” at the Boston Lyric Opera, now I’ll see “Satyagraha”, and the only thing left is for me to see a production of “Einstein on the Beach” - and I’ll have witnessed Glass’ entire portrait trilogy.

The rest of the trip will consists of eating, drinking, and being merry. There should be some good photos from that.

In May I’m heading out to Buffalo. Ethan and I had discussed seeing The Police in Toronto last fall, but the time/money/etc. commitment proved to be too much for me. But Ethan, good friend that he is, bought an extra ticket on spec for another show in Buffalo not knowing if I’d be into it or not - yeah, I’m in! Noting that the show is the weekend before my birthday, I decided that it would be a good time for another week-long vacation there. Is this becoming a tradition?

Then in July Dad, Nancy, and I are going to boat up from Chester (on the Connecticut River in CT) to Boston to witness the 4th of July fireworks! I had been floating this as a near-joke (with an underlying current of seriousness) since my Dad caught the boating bug, and this is the year! I spent a weekend with them on the boat last year and had a lot of fun, though it was hot as hell - shades of the eighties party.

That covers the first half of the year. I went through my image library last week in preparation for the class I taught on Saturday, and dammit 1) the Lebanon stuff is the best work I’ve ever done and 2) is nowhere near finished. I am not crazy enough to leap on a plane and go over now (not while their political situation is iffy at best), but geez, can’t you guys relax for a few months? I’ve got work to do!

So… I’d love to do it. But…

We’ll see.

Posted in: filler, photo chatter, the world 1 Comment »

Giving Up

March 5, 2008

If John McCain becomes president of this country I am announcing my intention to immediately abandon my citizenship and relocate to the first country that offers me any kind of amnesty.

FYI.

Posted in: the world 3 Comments »

Kissing Polaroid Goodbye

March 4, 2008

I don’t pretend to understand business much. There’s a good chance that any business that I had any control of would fail immediately.

That said, I don’t much understand the recent decision by Polaroid to cease production of their traditional instant films and instead concentrate on branding more DVD players with their name.

OK, that’s a bit obnoxious, they are heavily steeped in a new digital process called Zink that could - if they play their cards right - revolutionize printing. This new paper consists of little color crystals that get zapped by an imaging device. The heated crystals form into… well… grain, I guess you could say.

There are big questions to be answered: tonal range? Permanence? Size? Currently they are talking about a little palm-size printer that spits out wallet-size prints. This is a huge mistake. Polaroid keeps thinking that people want itty-bitty prints. They don’t. Most people, and I can confirm this from years at Chain Camera Store, want a nice sexy 4×6 that can fit in their photo album without making you squint.

But that’s all a topic for the future, when Polaroid film runs out completely.

We already got a hint of what was to come when SX-70 film was discontinued. But now its for keeps, every silver-based Polaroid film type will be off the market within two years.

I’d been debating what to do about this. In the past I would comment that the only option for me was to buy film in bulk and store it in a refrigerator. The only question would then be how far I can push the use-by date.

A few years ago, though, my beautiful Polaroid 690 started having trouble. Basically, it appears that the meter has stopped functioning. The camera defaults to some middle-of-the-road shutter speed (1/60?), which isn’t particularly helpful at all. As I returned to 35mm and grew more comfortable with digital the Polaroid sat on a shelf and collected dust. I always figured I’d have it repaired some day.

Well, the company has now forced my hand. Time to make a decision. I checked with Precision Camera out in Enfield, CT (my hometown!) and their current estimate to repair this camera is $110.

Not as bad as I expected (though yes, of course it could go up).

I’ll kick myself in the ass over and over and over again in the future if I don’t do this.

Time to start intermittently buying film at my other job. Who knows how long its going to last. I know that the company sent out a notice to all the stores asking for any remaining 600 cameras… I guess those are already off the market and people are going berserk.

This could be hilarious. Once I live in a somewhat normal residence again I can dedicate my little dorm fridge to the storage of Polaroid film.

“Hey, Jim - got any beer in this fridge… oh. I see.”

Stay tuned, for I’ve already decided that when I’m running out of film I’m going to host a “The Last Polaroid” party where I ceremoniously take the last Polaroid picture I’ll ever be able to take. Put a camera and a pack of film aside for the party, I can guarantee you now that anyone caught sniffing at my stock will lose several fingers.

Posted in: photo chatter 4 Comments »

10 Albums

March 4, 2008

The formatting of this post did not make the blogger-to-wordpress transition very well, and if you’ve never tried it before, rest assured that trying to undo all of blogger’s weird code is not a project that you really want to take on. So I’m redoing it here. Enjoy. (again)

The idea here is to come up with your ten favorite albums that you could listen to front to back without skipping tracks or getting bored. In fact, you often have to fight the urge to just start it right back at the beginning when it is done.

In no particular order, except alphabetical. Also subject to change. In fact, this has already changed slightly from one I posted to my old blog about a year back.

Fickle.

A-Z Colin Newman

My photographing soundtrack. I picked this up on cassette back in college and haven’t stopped listening to it since. Still dialed up on the ‘Pod to this day whenever I’m out shooting.
Highlight: “I’ve Waited Ages”

 

Aja Steely Dan

An album best savored with a bottle of wine and a quiet, warm evening. Staring vacantly off into space completes the experience.
Highlight: “I Got the News”

 

A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck Wire

There are those who would argue that this album pales in comparison with the holy trinity of the first three (Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, 154). There’s a certain logic to that. However, this was my first Wire album and still a remarkable document. I could listen to this one all day long.
Highlight: “The Queen of Ur and the King of Um”

Copper Blue Sugar

Busy, distorted guitar work always kind of annoyed me until I heard this record. Now I appreciate it much more.
Highlight: “The Act We Act”

 

Innervisions Stevie Wonder

Stevie’s made some wonderful albums. This one, though, not only makes my top ten, but should probably have some kind of place in the top ten albums of all time.
Highlight: “Livin’ for the City”

 

Night and Day Joe Jackson

I don’t give this album nearly enough credit on a day-to-day (night-to-night?) basis. Great to put on… well… whenever.
Highlight: “Another World”

 

Official Version Front 242

The Art of Noise and Depeche Mode got me off the Billboard Top 40 charts and onto more adventurous music (although there are those who would debate Depeche Mode’s role in “adventurous”). Front 242 improved on those themes and gave me a little clanky computerized area of modern recording to call my very own. Seemingly political, but what’s the message? Who knows. Oddly emotional, but about what? Search me. Ominously angry, but why? Haven’t the faintest.

I know the feeling.
Highlight: “Rerun Time”

 

Satyagraha Philip Glass

The opera that really marks the transition from the early Ensemble days to the more grand orchestral style of his later years - an exhausting yet highly invigorating experience from beginning to end.
Highlight: “Indian Opinion”

 

Scenes Michael Galasso

A wonderful album for sleeping.
Or riding in a bus, late at night, watching the snow fall.
Highlight: “Scene VI”

 

Tusk Fleetwood Mac

What can I say? As the band goes off the rails (due to over-reaching artistic ambitions, or cocaine, or band politics, or all three) they produce 20 outstanding songs that range from old fashioned bar rock to nutty Lindsey weirdness. As I grow older I find myself warming to well-played basic rock. It’s a nice contrast to some of my more oddball choices.
Highlight: “I Know I’m Not Wrong”

There’s always room for honorable mentions:

 

Music For Fruit / Insiding Bruce Gilbert
Wire’s guitarist makes fascinating ambient noise epics. Both records are rather short, so they always get merged in a playlist.

 

Bookends Simon and Garfunkel
Also my favorite album cover ever. I love that the “purists” get upset about the Moog synthesizer being used on this record.

 

Foxtrot Genesis
A smidge boggy in places, but easily the best Genesis album (in my book).

 

I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You Aretha Franklin
I’m sick to death of “Respect”, but the rest of the album is completely amazing.

 

Rubber Soul The Beatles
If not for the tired “Run For Your Life”, this album would be in the top ten.

 

Scoundrel Days a-ha
I make no apologies for my a-ha fetish.

 

Security Peter Gabriel
A slightly flawed classic, and what is up with that cover?

 

Te Deum Arvo Part
Brilliant and beautiful. If there’s a god, s/he’s speaking through Pärt.

 

Warm Leatherette Grace Jones
Slave to the Rhythm.

 

Who’s Afraid of The Art of Noise?
I’m not.
Well… not very often.
Ethan might be.
Just a little bit.

Posted in: distractions, sound, wonderful things No Comments »

Long Overdue Holiday Roundup

March 4, 2008

At long last here is the holiday roundup.

It all started with Thanksgiving. I was not in the mood to deal with lots of camera store hours this year and modified my schedule accordingly, but somehow it was still a whirlwind holiday season.

Beer, of course, made this all a little bit better. After the annual hoiday run to the liquor store in West Springfield we arrived home and cracked a few open immediately. My father and I vaguely discussed a potential beer review to contribute to Ethan’s Beer-O-Vision, but we didn’t get all that far. Just not something I feel I can accurately articulate - I can rattle on about my snooty audiophile recordings ’til my ears bleed, can launch into flowery dissertations about this or that body of photo work - but describing beer?

“Mmm-MMM! That’s good beer!”

Yeah. Uh, that’s about as far as I get.

Anyway, Thanksgiving morning we headed down to my old high school so that Nancy could water the plants. It seems that the school just has no idea what to do with a greenhouse. Even typing that sentence felt like I should be checking it for a hidden grammar error: it sounds so dumb. a school has no idea what to do with a greenhouse? Can’t they grow trees or something? How ’bout, oh, say, teaching botany?

My high school was not a bad one. I look back fondly on my time there. But even after Nancy had agreed to do something with the greenhouse, they put her through endless hysteria about keys and doors and all kinds of foolishness.

It’s just not like it was back in my day - you could pretty much rest assured that there was a way into the building if the sun was up.

 

It was a very low-key Thanksgiving at my sister’s. Robin and Ray were there, as of course were Eliza, Karen, and Bill. Here Ray and my father chat it up whilst ignoring the television, and below I waited patiently to sneak a shot of Eliza when she turned around. Eliza likes to play the I’m-so-shy-and-won’t-look game with me a lot.

Christmas was also pleasantly quiet. I’m sure someone could dredge up evidence of a year I missed, but as far as I’m concerned I’ve been down to the beach at Misquamicut every year since I was born. To make sure I made it this year we drove down the day after Christmas to “look at the water”. I think Karen had told me, but I had forgotten that the old Book and Tackle Shop in Watch Hill had been torn down. I wonder who got the door jam that had been worn down to an amazing hourglass shape over the years.

Besides the smell of the old books, my favorite thing about the Book and Tackle Shop was that if you hung around long enough eventually you would hear the inevitable conversation:

“Do you have nightcrawlers?”

“No, it’s a book shop.”

“But it says book and tackle!”

“Right, it’s a joke.”

silence.

“Get it, hook and tackle? Book and tackle?”

silence.

“&*#$%!”

This picture came out much more dramatic than it really happened to be, but it is great evidence of that old truth - cameras are terrific liars. The other is a bit more accurate in terms of color/light.

 

Finally, New Years was of course spent in Northampton with Rachel, Mike, and Daisy. We sat on our butts, ate too much, cackled hysterically at complete inane comments, and drank casually throughout the day.

It was amazing.

It wasn’t too terribly cold, but you know how sometimes you go out and you’re ready for a winter storm, whereas other times you step out and feel like you have hypothermia when it’s 34 degrees? Unfortunately I was feeling the latter when Daisy and Rachel stepped out to play in the snow. I did get one picture before scurrying back inside to the comfort and safety of my spiked hot cocoa.

Mmmmmm. Spiked hot cocoa.

Posted in: photo No Comments »