timing is everything

metronome

A 19th century French metronome given to me by my flute teacher when I was 10 years old.

Shot on The Impossible Project's PX 100 Silver Shade film. Ain't it tasty?

beer in the home

My friend Ross has written up a great piece on RVANews about the care and feeding of a home kegerator. REALLY tempting to get one of my own some day...

the burninator

dragon sculpture on a planter

I'm totally singing the Trogdor theme song in my head right now.

tough gristle

A friend of mine informed me that Belmont Butchery's Tanya Cauthen is suing Sausage Craft, the nascent wholesale sausage company started by former employees Chris Mattera and Brad Hemp. While the Style Weekly article and Mattera suggest this is about the sausage itself, Cauthen intimated that the wholesale sausage business was the cause for concern. I don't know the main parties here on a personal level, and I don't think I could expect Tanya to discuss this during business hours with a semi-regular customer like myself, but I do have some lingering questions about the whole situation, because this whole thing leaves a bitter taste in my Richmond-food-scene-loving mouth...

1. What IS the suit really about? Is it the recipes? The wholesale sausage concept/business model?
2. Did Mattera and Hemp actually plan and start executing on this idea while Cauthen was away?
3. Is Sausage Craft actually an idea stolen from Cauthen? That is, was it a firm plan in motion (about which at least Mattera or Hemp was aware) that Sausage Craft preempted? Did Mattera and Hemp work with Cauthen on the idea under false pretenses?
4. Most important, I think...Was there any kind of non-compete contract?

Without a contract I don't think there's much support for this suit because, regardless of the ethics behind the formation of Sausage Craft, this is a lot closer to a carpenter saying he's going to start building cabinetry, and his partner parts ways to start a cabinet business first. Making and selling sausage is trade craft, not trade secrets, and the concept of wholesale commerce is older than the city of Richmond. If Mattera and Hemp did anything sneaky (and I don't know enough to say whether they did or not) than it sure dues suck, but I just don't see grounds for legal action.

Now I like Chris and Brad and Tanya, and I like their work a lot. I always liked chatting with the guys when they were still at Belmont, and I still like chatting with Tanya when I go in there. I've always felt like, for a layman like myself, they were able to assist and inform me when I needed help or suggestions. I don't really want to take sides here, but I'm honestly kind of miffed that this lawsuit even exists.

Why not simply try to compete instead? Belmont Butchery is already well-established. Wouldn't they, then, have an advantage over Sausage Craft if they wanted to move into the wholesale business? They have an existing reputation on which to trade and existing facilities to get started. That, at least, could have been a head start over Sausage Craft. But Sausage Craft is making deliveries today and Belmont, to my knowledge, doesn't yet have a wholesale operation. I say just let the market and consumers decide this one. I buy sausage from both outfits, and I buy plenty of other products from Belmont Butchery that Sausage Craft never intends to sell. Perhaps we'll find that Richmond has plenty of room for both companies.

experimenting with front rise 2: Dooley house

dooley house at maymont

Maymont.

Speed Graphic
Ilford FP4 Plus

experimenting with front rise 1: carriage house

carriage house at Maymont

The "front standard" - or the flat plate with the lens on it on my Speed Graphic - can shift upward by about 1.5 inches. It's how you get pictures of buildings without converging lines. That's one of the movements available on tilt/shift lenses. In this case, I used a level to make sure the camera was pointed straight ahead. At first, the top of the building was cut off. By shifting the front standard upward, I was able to include the top of the building without affecting the perspective. Most of the vertical lines are parallel in this shot (where the building is plumb, of course), but the effect is less pronounced with a lens like mine that isn't really wide angle. For a better non-Photoshopped examples of this effect, check this awesome shot from Ansel Olson on Flickr.

not an aviator

dave up close

Up close, because it's personal.

friend 48

dave standing by a truss

Dave. Standing by Main St. Station. Lookin' real tough, or something.

treelizabeth

sister-in-law standing around

And here's my last shot, until this weekend, from The Howitzer.

My sister-in-law, on Brown's Island in Richmond, VA.

better than half

my beautiful wife valerie

My lovely wife, photographed with The Howitzer, on Brown's Island in Richmond, VA.

robert in the grove

robert in a grove of trees

In a lovely grouping of, I think, sycamore trees on Brown's Island.

Taken with The Howitzer (Speed Graphic). At this point I'd received my new (used) film holders, so no more light leaks!

sgt. warshaw on Christmas morning, with light leak

my brother tom sitting in a chair in a field

My older brother in the field beside my parents' house on Christmas morning, 2010.

This was from the second pair of shots taken with my Speed Graphic, and I used one of the old holders that came with the camera. This side clearly wasn't light-tight at the flap, so the right side is overexposed to the point of near total white-out.

At least the important part of the frame was okay.

row the boat ashore

canal boatsman statue

This is my first shot taken with the Graflex Pacemaker Speed Graphic I purchased before Christmas. I finally have my Epson V700 scanner, and with the help of Silverfast scanning software, I've managed to see what I saw on the negatives and contact prints. My focus and exposure could use a little work, but at least the shutter appears to be firing fairly accurate at the higher speeds.

snow

[vimeo 18555817 w=640 h=360]

to each according

accordion busker

out-cooked

Why not, says I. I'll write about that new (to Richmond) burger joint, Cook Out, in the old Bullet's location by Regency in the West End. When RVAFoodie posted about this place today, he remarked that his wife, "couldn’t recall what a Five Guys burger tasted like, but she couldn’t imagine it could possibly taste any better." Having just enjoyed Five Guys for dinner last night, I made the terrible decision of having a bacon cheeseburger two meals in a row and headed down Parham Road on my lunch break.

Yes, the menu is pretty cheap. This is, indeed, fast food - both in speed and prices (more in the Wendy's than Mickey-D's range). My combo was ready by the time I drove up to the window - surprising for something that was freshly-grilled - and the cashier pleasantly delivered her valedictory, "See you tomorrow!"

The problem is that the food also tastes cheap. It's not bad - it's certainly better than McDonald's, Burger King, Sonic, and Wendy's (but only slightly), but I won't be making the slightly out-of-the-way trip for another Cook Out burger any time soon. The fries were decent, if not crispy enough, but the other side (you pick two sides!) consisted of generic, formed chicken nuggets. I really enjoyed my mint chocolate chip milkshake, actually, but that was the only high point. The burger? Consider this my dismissive, "meh." Let's just say that grilled doesn't automatically equal good. The first bite or so was nice as the vague Burger King-esque charred flavor gave way to real flame cooking. But the burger patty itself was just boring. The bland bacon and cheddar cheese "sauce" didn't do much to help. If RVAFoodie's wife liked it better than or thought it equal to Five Guys, that's fine - she's not wrong, we just have different taste. For my part, though, I'd only go back for a milk shake.

One more thing, just because RVAFoodie asked me about it on Twitter: the whole religious angle of the company. It turns out that cups and other packaging come with a mixture of Biblical scripture references and religious/patriotic phrases. Of course, I'm a Christian. I make no effort (consciously) to hide it, so I'm not offended by the sight of a scripture reference - especially now that I've looked them up. I'm also trying very hard not to be cynical about the reason for including religious material on food packaging. I don't know whether they're sincere or being manipulative, so I'll make no conjecture.

Does it bug you that the business owners publicize their faith on their own products? Don't support their business. I don't agree with the humanistic messages of many manufacturers, but if I was offended enough by one I'd simply take my money elsewhere. Does it bug you that the owners have religious messages on total junk food? I guess a Christian should never sell triple cream cheeses, either (I'm not comparing the quality of the two types of food - but nobody can tell me that regular consumption of triple cream cheeses is good for your arteries). I am, however, bothered by the conflation of religion and patriotism, but only barely in this case. It's not in my face, and its not spelled out in much detail (Triteness aside, if you like where you live and you believe in a God who blesses, why not ask Him to bless where you live? That's hardly threatening on its own.).

Ultimately, it's the food that counts here as far as I'm concerned. And it doesn't add up to much. Unless I'm near Regency or have a sudden craving for one of their shakes, I'll probably forget about Cook Out by the end of next week.

will they or won't they

motorcycle and scooter

orange juice of doom

orange juice in a glass with a straw

size matters

speed graphic camera

Pacemaker Speed Graphic, c. 1957.

Came with a few holders and an unopened box of Ektar. I'll be in NYC this weekend, so I may not be able to use it until I get back (though what better place to test it out!). But boy howdy, I can't wait to start shootin' with this bad boy.

2010 Black and Blue Classic

basketball player

I photographed the 2010 Black and Blue Classic where the University of Richmond destroyed Virginia Commonwealth 72-60 (that was one of the narrowest gaps of the night). More shots over at RVANews if you please.

beer me

glass of beer

Westmalle Tripel, Belgian Trappist Ale.
(and my own dorky little lighting experiment)

fourteen actors acting

actor jesse eisenbergThe New York Times has an incredible feature on their website right now called Fourteen Actors Acting, wherein the aforementioned thespians act out classic screen types in gorgeously filmed black and white videos. No sound but the harrowing music by Owen Pallett. All shorts were directed by photographer Sølve Sundsbø.

UPDATE:
Be sure to see the accompanying still photos from Sundsbø.
There's also a nice (though brief) behind-the-scenes about the whole project.

from above

[vimeo 17460706 w=640 h=360]

From Above from ploafmaster on Vimeo.



Finishing up my test reel with some footage from a hotel room in Virginia Beach.

Music:
Gymnopédie No. 1 by Erik Satie

happy up here

[vimeo 17458889 w=640 h=360]

Happy Up Here from ploafmaster on Vimeo.



This is the clip from my test reel of Super 8 film. I'm pretty happy about it, considering I'm no film maker, editor, or what-not.

Shot in downtown Richmond where folks gathered to watch my friend Lindsey rappel down the side of the Suntrust tower.

Music:
Happy Up Here by Röyksopp

True Grit (1969)

I was kinda pumped the first time I saw the trailer for the Coen Brothers' take on True Grit. I figured, though, that I oughtta give the John Wayne classic a whirl, seeing as it earned him his only Oscar, and tread the ground of Charles Portis' 1968 novel first (I intend to read the novel next, actually).

So yeah. John Wayne, whose acting I typically find a bit tepid, was quite good in this movie. This movie with its gorgeous location shots. This movie with it's frequently awkward editing choices. This movie with the weak-sauce supporting job by Glen Campbell.

The stand out for me in this movie, however, was the character of Mattie Ross. Mattie, played reasonably well by Kim Darby, is a strong female lead. I may have been more than a decade from nativity when this film released, but there's still a relative dearth of wide-release movies* with female leads as competent and confident as Mattie. She's portrayed as independent, intelligent, business-savvy, and capable of keeping up with grizzled veterans of the open range. Bold and fearless, she's a teenager chasing down a killer without regard for her own life, but still looking out for her travel companions. I'm sure this was rare enough in '69, but it's a shame we don't see more characters like hers in contemporary cinema without it being an underdressed pistol-weilding Angelina Jolie.

The movie, overall, was pretty entertaining. John Wayne's dialog was fantastic. I really wish the directing and editing had been better executed, but it was still worth the watch.

3.5/5

* This inference based on the top 10 grossing films each year for the past five years.