Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Have you ever wondered…

…where your bartender or waitron is when your glass is empty or there's a slug in your salad? Well, I now have photographic evidence of what we've all suspected:

They really can turn invisible!

I took that picture Saturday night at the Camouflage Spaceship show and, in its novelty, it represents the only interesting shot of the entire evening, as my camera's batteries died and Room 9 is so incredibly dark that the band-members had to use flashlights to find things. So, unless my Photoshop skills improve to deific levels, there will be no photography mega-post. I may write up a show review, but I use those italics there to call attention to the overwhelming if-iness of that possibility.

In other news, I did some "free-writing" over lunch today:

073107_1221_BlankPages

Blank pages are always impressive, sometimes even more impressive than filled ones. Blank pages speak of possibilities; of empty spaces wishing to be filled. So much of our lives revolves around empty spaces: the times we spend waiting, procrastinating even; the times when we don’t know what comes next, or what may’ve just happened; the expressions we see in the faces of the folks around us when we’ve said or done something, or nothing at all; the space we will ourselves to drop into when we slide into sleep, drop our thoughts and cares and all semblance of order and surrender to the black “whatever” we need and too often crave.

Emptiness speaks of desire, and desire is always a tricky emotion, carrying with it the possibility of fulfillment and of fulfillment denied.

Filled pages speak of an ending, a finish, of the lack of possibilities. A filled page is done, static, resistant to change. There is no desire in a filled page―it’s monolithic order. Change it and it is no longer the same page, but an entirely different one.

Ultimately, a filled page speaks of death.

If you had any doubts about my ability to torture a metaphor until it shrieks for mercy, you may now lay those concerns to rest.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Because I know…

…you've all been dying for an update on my desktop wallpaper.

As you can (barely) see, I've (barely) changed it. However, the old one had some irritating idiosyncrasies I wasn't in love with. So I fixed them.

Here it is in action:

You're thrilled, right?

In other news, I'm still planning on going out to catch Camouflage Spaceship this evening. Tomorrow is D&D with only a couple of the regular gaming group. I'll be developing a side-quest for them today. Other than that, things are quiet here in Aiken. I'm planning on a relaxing weekend. Hope y'all have the same.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

More photographs!

A couple weeks ago (Thursday, July 12, to be exact) I went to a show and took my camera along. I was again experimenting with settings and, true to my word, avoiding flash and auto settings. The results were…well, let's say that initially I wasn't too impressed with them. However, I have access to Photoshop and I haven't put up a self-indulgent photography mega-post in a while, so what the hell…

First off, the by now obligatory shot of my shoe:

(Those are new shoes, by the way; I'll be retiring my old pair, which served me well through five years in three different states, shortly. I've already picked out the light-pole I'll be tossing them over. Expect pics.)

Okay now, let's set the scene:

This is the ceiling of the Soul Bar and I have to say that it's an awesome ceiling. This is also the brightest the place was all night: rock shows in small bars in downtown Augusta aren't known for their complicated lighting rigs, which is a large part of their charm.

Sound-check! Here are two of the members of the band, Camouflage Spaceship, setting up and testing out their rigs. According to their website, that's Chimmy P.J. Mack on guitar and lead vocals there to the left and B1 Bomber behind the drums on the right. As you can see, I'm having the wonderful "slow-shutter-speed-acid-flashback" issues I had last time I tried to do something like this. Yet, I don't care.

And here's the entire band; from left to right: Miss Ellaneous on piano, keyboard and vocals; Chimmy again; Deja Vu on vocals and percussion; Mr. B1, again; and EZ on bass. This is all according to the website―if I have anyone's names wrong, let me know and I'll print a retraction. Or something.

Just for the record, all these folks are very nice and patient people who are not nearly this blurry in person. I thank them for letting me set up a tripod and stifle all dancing in my area.

Okay, things are set up now, which means they stay still and are easily photographed!

They are however, saturated in red light. Whatever.

In between sound-check and show I experimented a bit with catching people holding still; heads were entirely optional

Showtime! Here're some shots of Chimmy:







I have no excuse for that last shot, except to say that you're looking at an album cover quality microphone, there. Chimmy, on the other hand, I managed to capture looking suspiciously like Les Claypool. Sorry, man.

Okay, here're some shots of Deja Vu:



Yeah, yeah, I know: they're really dark. What can I say? I like the shiny bits. Sue me.

Here's B1:

The look on his face makes me real glad I'm not a cymbal.

And here's the rhythm section:

And that's it for photos!

My apologies to everyone in the band I didn't manage to photograph very well (i.e. everybody). The good news is they're playing again this Saturday at Room9 in Augusta. I plan on showing up.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Casual geek

In case you've ever wondered how I spend my free time, here's a little breakdown of how I spent this afternoon and evening. Can it get any more exciting? Yes…it most definitely can. However, you're reading my blog, so such excitement is unlikely.

Those of you who are geeks of some variety―movie buffs, sci-fi dorks, comics dweebs and Alan Moore fans, primarily―know that Zack Snyder of "300" fame has been given the green-light to write and direct a movie version of Alan Moore's groundbreaking comic series Watchmen. (Even if you don't know this or don't care, keep reading―you might learn something.) Snyder, in an exercise in cockiness, went so far as to slip a still shot from his vision of the movie into the "300" trailer. A while back, this still was released to Ain't It Cool News and began circulating on the interweb:

Since I must live under a rock, today was the first time I'd gotten a chance to look at it.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to tell you that while I'm a fan of Alan Moore's comics, I'm not very fond of the movies adapted from those comics. Part of this has to do with Moore's own distaste for them, but the lion's share of my leeriness stems from the fact that I've read all the comics and found them infinitely superior to their Hollywood versions. Watchmen itself―a comic book which is about comic books as much as it is about anything else―seems especially unfilmable: there simply isn't the same rich tradition of super-hero movies to draw from the way Moore and artist Dave Gibbons drew from super-hero comics. Sure, the story and images could be transferred to the screen, but all the meaty text (subtext, context and the mind-bogglingly clever interplay between titles, quotes, pseudo-biography, interviews and essays) would be missing, kind of like a thin-crust pizza topped only with sauce.

So, keeping in mind my suspicion that a satisfying film adaptation of Watchmen is impossible, after looking at this picture I am guardedly optimistic about the project. Leaving aside the fact that he looks like he's got a sweat-sock stretched over his face, this picture is quite literally an iconic image of Rorschach, who is himself, arguably, the most important hero in Watchmen.

First off, the scene depicted here is the beginning of the story. While the chain of events that eventually unwinds in the novel is well under way, this is the point when Rorschach becomes involved and brings all the rest of the characters on board. As the noir-ish quality of the still suggests, the story starts as a mystery: a super-hero has been murdered and Rorschach intends to bring justice to the murderer.

Secondly, and more subtly, check out that sign in the background: No Left Turn. This strikes me as a visual play on Rorschach's character: he is an absolute moralist, seeing the world not in shades but in stark black and white (mostly black, really). Rorschach brooks no compromises, makes no deals and backs down in the face of adversity precisely never. On the political spectrum, he'd come in to the left of Hitler or Stalin, but to the right of Mussolini or, say, Dick Cheney. Of course, the joke is that Rorschach is unlikely to change direction at all, especially not to lean, much less swerve or turn, to the left.

Finally…well, remember how I used the phrase "literally iconic" to describe this still? Check out the positioning of the moon. Now compare it to the placement of halos in portraits of saints. Need I say more?

I know, I know: the Mona Lisa it ain't. Still, the image―with its details and implicit story―intrigues me. So I decided I wanted to make it my desktop background. For most people, this would be a matter of "Right click-->Save Image As…". I on the other hand am a colossal dork, so I spent the better part of the afternoon and evening painstakingly crafting a desktop wallpaper:

Voila! I warmed up the old scanner and grabbed some of the imagery used in the comic book: that's an actual scan of the Watchmen logotype, while the blood and the clock approaching midnight are visual themes which recur throughout the series. Just to keep me in the appropriate mood, I listened to Iron Maiden―particularly "2 Minutes to Midnight"―pretty much the entire time I worked on it.

So, why did I feel compelled to spend a few hours trying to find the best possible design for a desktop? Well, for one thing, it's really fun. For another:

I like to make sure everything lines up and looks pretty, once I get all the icons and sidebars where they belong. :)

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Happy Independence Day

From our front yard fireworks show:

Believe it or not, it's harder to get a good shot of fireworks happening right in front of you than you'd think. Sort of snap the shutter and hope that something cool's happening when the camera goes off.

Here's hoping y'all had a bright and beautiful day!

…whoa.

Photosynth Prototype - CollegeHumor video

In lieu of me saying anything clever, I give you a real-time conversation I had while watching this amazing thing:

(10:44:15 AM) Lou: Check this shit out
(10:44:16 AM) Lou: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1762315
(10:44:56 AM) John: Running through the ads.
(10:45:22 AM) John: Holy shit, dude.
(10:45:31 AM) John: Is he actually controlling that on his laptop?
(10:45:38 AM) Lou: yes
(10:45:48 AM) Lou: Though it IS a demo, so a lot of it is probably aided by scripts
(10:46:06 AM) John: Um…dude…I'm a graphic designer. And I have a huge boner right now.
(10:46:11 AM) Lou: I thought you would
(10:46:19 AM) John: This is fucking amazing.
(10:46:30 AM) Lou: I think you'll really like the imbedded ad detail in the car ad in the paper
(10:47:03 AM) John: Yeah, wait. I need to rewind to it.
(10:48:00 AM) John: Holy shit, dude.
(10:48:42 AM) Lou: :)
(10:49:06 AM) John: FUCK DUDE HE'S ANIMATING THEM IN REAL TIME!
(10:50:01 AM) Lou: it's some incredible technology
(10:50:25 AM) John: Dude, I've absolutely never heard an audience spontaneously applaud during a tech demo.
(10:50:49 AM) Lou: The Notre Dame thing is incredibly ridiculous
(10:51:00 AM) Lou: I mean… Wow
(10:51:03 AM) John: omgomgomgomgomg
(10:52:09 AM) John: He just used the word "metaverse"! And he isn't a sci-fi author! And it has real fucking meaning!

Astounding. I'm literally speechless.