| Still Broadcasting |
[Aug. 29th, 2008|02:05 pm] |
I completely dismantled KOOP's air chain twice this week, and both times it came back on the air next morning. Well, almost. The first time I put everything back together I forgot about the streaming PC for online listening, so there was no stream on Wednesday. Oops. Andrew (Sr. Engineer & President) forgot about it as well, so I don't feel too bad about it; it was a minor detail.
After all that, I'm still apprehensive. The reason I was dismantling the studio was to install the Emergency Alert System (EAS); which we have not had in commission since we resumed broadcasting after the January fire. Maintaining a working EAS in the air chain is an FCC requirement, so we needed to file for a waiver from the FCC and subsequently, a number of extensions on said waiver. Because of all the paperwork filed with the FCC, there's a good chance that the KOOP might be subject to an inspection in the near future. I'm fairly confident that everything is squared away, but it's always the minor details that burn you. |
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| Holga Happiness |
[Apr. 16th, 2008|05:42 pm] |
This photo documents the first time Chris has crossed IH35 on a bicycle. This shot is weird because I inadvertently shot one exposure with landscape orientation, and the other with portrait. Gina suggested that I'm so used to shooting single "portrait" exposures that I really didn't think about it. Anyway, I like the way it turned out.
This came from a roll of 120 I just had developed at my preferred local photo lab for 35mm. One of the newer employees was intrepid enough to teach himself how to load and develop 120 in their processing machine. I don't know if he's supposed to be doing that or not, so I'm hesitant to ask any of the other people there about it; I'd hate to get him in trouble. That being said, I'll be bringing him my 120 from now on.
After seeing the photos, I was surprised how long the roll had been sitting in holga. My best estimate is last November, judging by some of the graffiti shots on it. Considering the age of the film, and the way I mishandled it and the holga, the shots turned out really well. I managed to actually get 12 separate photos on the roll (a first for me) and aside from one shot of Flannery the cat, they were all pretty well focused. I'm inspired to reload the Holga and finish another roll.
P.S. Nomad, a new neighborhood bar, has finally opened at Cameron & Corona. They close at midnight rather than two, but it's still a nice place to have a few pints. |
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| Miscellany |
[Mar. 21st, 2008|05:33 pm] |
I did less during SXSW this year than I have any prior years. I think I said that last year too. I would have felt lame about it if I hadn't been too busy being smug about living here.
Next year I want to buy a wristband and travel from official showcase to showcase reporting every fire violation I come across.
Thanks to my radio show, I was given four screeners for films entered into southby. Thanks to my radio show, I'm way more involved in KOOP than I ever intended to be. I opted not to renew the show for next season. After getting 0 pledges on Thursday, I don't feel so bad about it. I am, however, considering turning in an application to be eligible as a mid-season replacement or filler.
I've been driving to Sherman a lot. On the trip there, I make the same jokes to myself every time. e.g. passing by the exit for Jarrell* I'm always compelled to yell "Son of Jarrell, kneel before Zod!"** Now, thanks to Robot Chicken, I start giggling because it makes me think of the "Body by Zod" skit. I'm always happy to see "Bruco" the caterpillar/garage at the Monolithic Dome community, but I think "Bruce" is a better name.
Mom's doing well, all things considered, but she refuses to do any of the exercises or stretches the physical therapist recommended. I guess I can't blame her, but it's depressing to me. Sherman is also depressing.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is everything I wanted it to be.
*It's probably pronounced like Darrell, but that's not entertaining to me.
**I know it's Jor-El |
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| Too Old For Hardcore |
[Jun. 8th, 2007|12:32 am] |
Another Prankfest / Chaos in Tejas has come and gone. Surprisingly, I didn't do any day or after shows this year and despite that, I still woke up the following Sunday feeling like I had the shit kicked out of me.
On the first day, I didn't shoot much. It's been a while since I had taken photographs at a show, so that coupled with the seemingly hundreds of digital point'n'shoots in the air were making me really self-conscious of my photography. Despite that, I still managed to finish a 36 roll, and got some good photos of La Fraction and Pisschrist (who are playing again 6/8 at Beerland and 6/9 at Sound on Sound). Highlights include Dropout's ridiculous on-stage "bodyguard" literally rolling on the ground laughing after the lead singer was hit in the head with a trashcan, and finally getting to see La Fraction. There was one song that I loved dearly. Magali sang it so beautifully, full of a resigned sadness and frustration. The feeling stuck with me for the rest of the weekend, I wish I could figure out what song it was.
Day two, I endeavored to shoot at least 12 exposures per set. I managed to do that, and took many, many more than that of both Government Warning and The Kids. Punch in the Face was enjoyable, but not very memorable. Government Warning blew me away. Their singer had great stage presence and energy, and drove the crowd into a frenzy. King Louie's new band was great, straight forward rock'n'roll. I liked their stuff a lot more than Kajun SS's. The Kids were awesome! I had only heard a little bit of their stuff before, so I was shocked when everyone, EVERYONE, around me was singing along to every word of every song. The lead singer at one point was fucking around on the guitar and then exclaimed "Look at me! I'm like Stevie Ray Vaughn! Look! One hand! I'm a fucking genius!"
Day three, I was already feeling exhausted. I don't really remember much about any of the bands aside from Peligro Social, and Drop Dead. Peligro Social really brought in the minors I guess, since I found myself surrounded by X stamped hands. Another band with a front man with too much energy, they played a really rowdy set. I hope when I finally make it to SF I can go see them play in some small, dirty bar. Drop Dead reminded me a lot of Bury The Living in the way their lead singer would launch into some political tirade between each song. I'm kicking myself for leaving early this day and missing Gordon Solie Motherfuckers, which from what I hear, was the craziest band to play the entire fest.
Thinking back on the fest, there's two points that come to mind. Firstly, it's really disappointing that for all of the of digicams I saw at the shows, I can't believe that only myself and one other person have uploaded any photos from them to flickr. Secondly, I think I have a new photography pet peeve -- congratulations people with DSLRs who repeatedly shoot photos by blindly holding the camera up in the air above your head, I now find you way, way more annoying than people that take photos of bands while holding the camera askew to make it edgy.
I think this was probably my favorite photo I took during the fest:
P.S. Here's a short video of the Gordon Solie Motherfuckers set that Show Ben found on youtube. Man, that looked like fun. |
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| When Worlds Collide |
[Oct. 13th, 2006|08:29 pm] |
Surreal is standing in line at ten o'clock in the morning to pre-order a Nintendo Wii and seeing Justin from the Krum Bums come into the store ostensibly for the same reason. Surreal is also being at a BBQ with lots of your rocker friends and acquaintances and hearing nearly all of them talk about video games that weren't Guitar Hero.
I took this photo at Prankfest / Chaos en Tejas / Rikkifest or whatever you want to call it last summer. The fest gets better every year, and they're still booking a ton of local bands for the opening acts. As usual the bums put on a great fucking show, and did a great job of getting the crowd into it. I'd say they had a better reaction than some of the other road acts did that evening.
I'm not really happy with the lighting in this shot (though it is dramatic), but currently my flash can only be adjusted along its y axis, and without a hotshoe cable there isn't much I can do about that when I want to take photos with 'portrait' dimensions. Ideally I'd like a flash that can rotate along its x and y axes, but I'm not sure that such a thing really exists. With that being said though, I think the photos I took during the fest are some of the best live music photos I've taken so far.
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| Slump |
[Sep. 14th, 2006|10:32 pm] |
This is probably my favorite photo that I've taken with the Holga so far. I took this one the time before last that I visited my parents in Sherman. I brought all my cameras with me so that my dad could take a look at them, along with the majority of my photographs.
I remember him being somewhat of an amateur photographer when I was growing up in PA. He had a beautiful Minolta SLR which he handled as if it was made of glass. Occasionally, if I played my cards right, I was sometimes allowed to use it. I don't remember photographing anything specifically, but I'm pretty sure my subjects would have primarily been bugs and cat butts. (not much has changed.) I'm not sure when it happened, but eventually his photography tapered off and I rarely saw the Minolta come out of its shoulder bag. I can't recall the last time I saw him use it. He has a little digicam that he'll occasionally take snapshots with these days, but his enthusiasm for it seems directed more towards the technology of it rather than its use.
He wasn't particularly impressed by any of the toy cameras, but he did like a few of the pop9 and splitcam photos I had taken. Though he did ask why I spent so much money for film and development on photos like those. He didn't have much to say about any of my other photos aside from occasionally asking who someone was, or if I was sure that I wasn't putting up graffiti in Austin. When I handed him the Pentax he was surprised that I would be using something so old and manual. I explained that I liked its weight and the way it feels in my hands, and that I'm more fond of the photos it produces than the N80. He loved the N80. He was impressed that I had managed to acquire such a nice and new SLR from a craig's list ad. If I ever decide to upgrade to a digital SLR I think I'll pass the N80 along to him, after I let gina borrow it for a while.
I haven't been shooting much lately. I think I've had the same 36 exposure roll in the Pentax for about three weeks, and have only taken one shot on the 120 roll since I loaded it in the Holga two weeks ago. I haven't really seen anything that I felt needed to be photographed, but I'm still carrying my cameras around with me all the time anyway.
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| Green Stuff |
[Aug. 27th, 2006|05:47 pm] |
A guaranteed way to get people to stare at you, laugh at you, or give you very peculiar looks is to take photos of things in a grocery store. Rumor has it that if you keep it up long enough at the Hancock HEB you can be known as that strange person that photographs of produce.
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| I ♥ Film |
[Aug. 9th, 2006|09:35 pm] |
I absolutely love this one. I wish I could take credit for this, but honestly it's just a happy accident. Lately the good pentax has been acting a little wonky, most likely because of the experimenting I have been doing trying to take double exposures with the camera (when it wasn't designed for that at all).
By wonky I mean that progressing the film after a shot will occasionally only wind the film half way or so which results in multiple exposures stretched over several frames. The resulting photos are usually disappointing because I really wanted one or two of the shots that were ruined by the multiple exposures. In most cases, the the overlapping shots rarely have any relation to each other and the worst cases are overexposed beyond recognition. In this case though, not only are the subjects related, but the posing of each, the lighting and the background makes it look as though the shot was taken as a panoramic. Film can be (and has been) extremely frustrating but this sort of accident could never happen with a digicam, and almost makes me feel like it's worth the headaches. |
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| Portrait of a Grady |
[Jun. 9th, 2006|01:30 am] |
Taken while spending some of Memorial weekend Sunday with the Drews, Bushes and D'ags. I took this with the N80, so there's really not much to say about it since the camera did most of the work. Not posed, but not candid either. I ambushed him while he was waiting for his turn to play burnout.
I'm happy with the framing, but I like the lighting the most. I'm pretty sure I bounced the flash off the ceiling since I'm so hung up on that, but I can't say for certain.
Fact! The first time Grady met me, he tried complimenting me on a Penny Arcade shirt I was wearing while working at Globset's 360 site. I just kept on walking and he assumed I was an asshole. He would later discover that I'm half-deaf in addition to being an ass.
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