Ploafmaster General

Flickr user Tim Mitchard has a photo set about the WWII-era Maunsell Sea Forts (Thanks, Mitch, for permission to use the photo above). These giant tin-cans-on-stilts were an interesting piece of the British defense system against Nazi air raids, and Mitchard has a detailed write-up about the forts and his photography of the relics.

My friend Stephanie has made a habit of posting an 80s/New Wave music video every Thursday for a while now, and yesterday she posted New Order's "World" (I've embedded the MTV Music version because it's a little clearer):

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtvmusic.com:47153

I'm not terribly fond of the song, but the video is fantastic short-form film making. The whole thing is only five shots over nearly 4.5 minutes, and the second shot is almost 1.5 minutes alone! That's some serious coordination and rehearsal. It was directed by Baillie Walsh who's since directed videos for Kylie Minogue and Oasis.

I have some new snaps on my photostream. This latest batch is pretty motivating for me because for the first time in ages the results look exactly as I imagined them. The only edits I've made are the clean-up of a few obvious dust spots. The color and exposure are otherwise spot on. Wewt!

Behold the birthday clown, sad and terrible (with a touch of potty humor - strictly PG, though) :

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2143224&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1
Scenes From An Unmade Movie : Job from Jason Zada on Vimeo.

This edible info graphic is spectacular. I wonder how it tastes...
(via swissmiss)

Ladies and gentlemen, today I received what will be my final film camera for quite some time. Adding to a 35 mm SLR and a 6x6 medium format, I now have a compact 35 mm rangefinder camera - a Canonet QL 17 GIII to be exact.

This camera has a nice wide lens with a fast aperture, a leaf shutter, working meter, shutter priority mode, and is in fairly pristine condition. Flickr user Martin Taylor has already taken better studio shots of what this machine looks like, so I'll spare you the crappy digicam shot. I'll also spare you any pictures from the test roll - all Ritz Camera had (it was after Richmond Camera closed) in a single roll was cheap Fuji 800 color film, so it's noisy as all get-out. It did prove, however, that there are no light leaks and that the focus and metering seem quite accurate.

Now I'll finally get to try out that ISO 25 black and white Croat film I've been dying to shoot...

UPDATE:
I couldn't help myself. I cleaned up the noise a bit (maybe too much?) from this picture of my beautiful wife, so I had to post it:

The State Library of New South Wales, Australia, has a Flickr account and has uploaded two dozen photos from the first "Australasian Antarctic Expedition" that ran from 1911 to 1914, led by geologist Douglas Mawson. Most of the photos are either silver gelatin prints or negatives, and several of them are quite spectacular.

So the other day I woke up with a phrase that slapped me in the face: "Adipose Rex." So I decided I had to draw a picture of this fat tyrannosaurus...



It felt pretty good to draw for the first time in years even if it was a silly cartoon character. I used to draw quite a bit through high school but dropped off sharply when I picked up the guitar. Because of that lag, this simple little drawing actually represents a ridiculous process that took me a few evenings. I sketched out some concepts in my Moleskine (maybe I'll share those some time...probably not) and settled on the style you see above. I scanned the page from my notebook and printed it so I had a larger image to replicate neatly on trace paper (Val has loads left over from her drafting classes in college). Finally I scanned the traced image and cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop before posting to Flickr.

Keep an eye out...I make no guarantees, but this may not be the last you see of this big guy.

Holy sweet mercy it's about time :-)

One of my favorite radio programs (via its podcast), Radio Lab, has started its new season. Do check it out - it's more fascinating than I can describe.

Yeesh...I've been nutsoid-busy at work and painting some of the house like a fiend. That's almost done, and then I can resume my regularly scheduled blogging.

And I'm working on something special, too...

I just took delivery of these tripod legs today:



And this tripod head as well:



Now if only I could find my 300mm lens...it'll be nice to finally have a stable shooting platform for that puppy.

But I think I'd still like to build my own gasoline powered soda bottle rocket launcher.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBJwiwfqg70&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1&w=580&h=470]
(via Coudal)

Tonight Valerie and I watched, for the first time, Stuff Happens. Here we have a show hosted by Bill Nye (the Science Guy!) that explores the environmental impact of our everyday lives in an industrialized nation, and the two half-hour episodes we caught investigated the common kitchen and breakfast foods (an apt pairing, I'd say). There a plenty of statistics, demonstrations, illustrations, and so forth, all presented in that down-to-earth and quirky Bill Nye fashion.

I know the distribution of the Science Channel or Planet Green isn't too widespread, but if you have either one, check it out. Entertaining and informative.

There are pop culture critics, and there's The Hater. Today Amelie Gillette tears down what sounded like a good idea on paper...

This is an absolutely brilliant design for a ladle whether it's used for punch or a pot of chicken soup:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiPAyU-2wOY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1&w=580&h=470]

(via Gems Sty)

John Gruber tipped me off to Flickr's iPhone-specific version of the website (clicking from a non-iPhone mobile or computer shows you the generic mobile site) just one day before I acquired an iPhone of my own. I've had a similar reaction to Gruber - the iPhone-optimized Flickr site is fantastic and useful. It's so good that I've had no reason to use Exposure (the App Store program for easy Flickr navigation), and in fact, I've discovered a feature that I wish the regular Flickr website included.

If I'm looking at photos from my contacts, I see something like this:



If I click on that first image from The 10 cent designer I see something like this in the sidebar:



I'm taken to the page for the specific photo as if I was viewing the user's photostream and I see a visual next/previous navigation element above the "This photo also belongs to:" section. If I want to look at the photos from my other contacts I have to go back to my contacts page and click on another user's photo or username. This, in my opinion, breaks convention with most other contexts in which you click on a photo on Flickr's site. If I click on a picture in a group pool, I get a next/previous navigation for the pool. The same is true for a set and, of course, the photostream itself.

On the iPhone-optimized Flickr site, however, we have the behavior I've wanted for a few years. In the next two screenshots I've highlighted an image in light green so you can see the behavior. First, we have the "photos from contacts" list:



The third image from the top is the one to watch here, from Jean-François Juteau. When I tap the image directly above, from a different user, I see this:



You can see that the next image is the green-highlighted picture. I wonder what it would take to add this same functionality to the standard web version of the website? I'd hope the feature is programmed portably, but we'll see. Perhaps I'll write the good folks at Flickr to determine whether I'm only the four-thousandth person to bring this to their attention :-)

In a manner of speaking:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70dKZjP4NOo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1&w=580&h=470]
(via, etc.)

Man, do I ever need a new tripod. But sometimes what I have works just fine...

Valerie and I arrived at our polling place (the Richmond Police Academy) this morning around 6:30 AM and cast our ballots an hour-and-a-half later. I voted in every open race except school board and congressman, since those two positions in my district are unopposed.

Now I'm going to enjoy my day off (and my birthday).

This past weekend Valerie and I finally stopped by 1601 Overbrook Road at what seems to be a clearing house for estate sales. What you see above is what I bought; a (likely) late-40's Gillette Super Speed razor. I haggled the price down to $3 and we went on our merry way.

Behold the nickel-plated glory.

I purchased a pack of razor blades (also pictured above) and decided to see whether the old-school man tool was barbaric compared to modern shaving implements. After some house work and a good hot shower my face was ready for a clean, smooth, and fresh feeling, so I lathered up my jaw and put blade to skin (don't worry, I sterilized the entire shaver razor by steaming for 5 minutes). I guessed at the proper angle for holding the razor and dragged the head down my left cheek. Other than the light pressure against my face I barely felt anything, so I did a double-take in the mirror wondering whether I'd merely succeeded in wiping shaving cream from my face and little else. Closer inspection, however, revealed a close and even shave where I'd traced, so I finished up.

Shaving my entire face took no longer than a Gillette Fusion or Shick Tracer or what-have-you, and it was certainly more comfortable - and I have very sensitive skin (that is, I can't shave every day without shredding my face, usually). I'm convinced at this point that Gillette switched to cartridge-based systems to increase profit margins.

The whole device is a glorious piece of design, too. You twist the slightly-thicker base of the handle to open the head which opens with a sort of butterfly motion, and lock the blade inside by twisting in the opposite direction. The weight and balance are just right, and the smooth polished surface glides pleasantly across the face. I think my next step is to procure a good shaving brush and some old school shaving cream :-)

Oh, and how could I not share the sweet little artifact that is the instruction manual? The directions are clear, short, and helpful, all in a two inch wide strip of two-color printing (I scanned both sides - there was only one piece of paper):

While it's not nearly as extensive as the Library of Congress' account, the Library of Virginia has it's own presence on Flickr. It's only 200 images as of this posting and the range is limited, but there's plenty of info for each where available. CHECK IT OUT.

I caught "Sleepyhead" by Passion Pit on WRIR this morning (though I know I heard it already - I just can't remember where...), and it's my jam-of-the-day:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bfseWNmlds&hl=en&fs=1&w=580&h=470]

I find the video to be extremely clever, and the song is just short enough that the idea isn't worn out on me. It was directed by The Wilderness, a collaboration between Juliet Rios and Gabe Imlay, whose work seems generally to rock my socks off. Be sure to check out some other videos on their site.

Sweet mother of sweet mothers! BEHOLD!!!



This Mystery Science Theater 3000 box set is something new for the ol' Christmas list :-)

Those crazy-awesome crazies at The A.V. Club made and tasted bacon-infused vodka.

My only problem with the whole enterprise is that they couldn't figure out a simple way to get all the fat out. All you have to do is pour the whole thing into a parallel-sided container and pop it in the freezer. The fat solidifies and floats to the top and the vodka would clarify quite a bit. THEN you could strain it to make it even more clear if needed.

Also, I'm in favor of adding maple flavor (unless it's already maple bacon...) and some vanilla to the infusion. Shake with some butterscotch schnapps and cream, and you have buttered pancakes with syrup and bacon in a glass. Maybe :-)