Ploafmaster General

It was really only a matter of time.

The Eastman Kodak company introduced Kodachrome in 1935 and it became one of the most iconic pieces of film ever to run through a camera. The color is rich, the grain is barely visible at large image sizes, and the stability of the processed slides is remarkable. But the processing is the problem - it's a proprietary methodology that's complex and expensive. As digital photography has all but stamped out film, there has been little justification for keeping alive a product with such a small niche that may very well have been unprofitable.

So today Kodak formally announced an end to production. I'm not upset with the company for this - they sure seem committed to continuing film production with their other stock (I mean, they recently reformulated TMax 400 and introduced Ektar, a totally new print film, so, c'mon) - but this surely signals the end of an era.

I've not yet had the opportunity to shoot Kodachrome, but I ordered three rolls today before it's too late. While Kodak believes their stock will last through Fall 2009, I'm less optimistic since I think film buffs and holdouts will try to hoard it before it's too late.

They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Paul Simon, "Kodachrome," from his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin' Simon

Dude, bro:

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

So both chambers of Congress have approved of a "Cash for Clunkers" program through which consumers receive subsidies for replacing their older fuel-guzzling vehicles with new fuel-efficient vehicles.

I think this idea, on the surface, sounds great. Get those exhaust-spewing dirty inefficient cars off the road! Everybody buy a LEV or Prius or something! And of course, you benefit the struggling auto industry! YAY!

Except...there's no guarantee that you're helping the environment here. Sure, the old vehicle has terrible fuel economy, but building new cars requires incredible amounts of energy as well. There's ore extraction, chemical treatments, electricity for all the machinery, etc. Does that balance against the pollution from extraction, refining, and combustion of more fuel? Was that even considered by the folks who sold this bill? I suspect this was pushed by the automotive industry to spur new car sales, but I haven't seen anything about a provision limiting the credit to purchases of American cars, so it may end up benefiting Toyota and Honda more than Ford and GM. Maybe it's all about saving money for the consumer? Perhaps, but for drivers that currently owe nothing on their cars, it's highly unlikely that the monthly gas savings will come close to a monthly payment.

Eh...I don't mean to sound so dismissive, but I feel like this is another band-aid idea that makes people think Congress and the White House are doing something helpful when it might only result in a further waste of money without helping that many people.

Paul Armstrong is an incredible photographer. No, seriously - go spend some time digging through his Flickr stream before you keep reading.
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Good? I told you so. Anyway, Paul Armstrong is also hilarious. Case in point: Dear Photographer, a collection of quips initially from Twitter that will, hopefully, grow as time goes by. I'm sure many of us are guilty of at least one of his points, but they're funny none-the-less.

The amount of real-time information on what's happening in Iran following the disputed presidential election from last Friday is encouraging if not a bit overwhelming. Who knows how an event like this would have played out ten years ago without the eyes of the world watching?

If you want to make some sense of what's going on, I recommend the New York Times Lede Blog, where you can refresh the page every so often for plenty of current information. If you want to partake in the deluge of information, unconfirmed and all, you could always take a look at Twitter as well, or at least while people inside Iran are still able to relay information about the situation on the ground.

My heart goes out to those people trying to voice their dissent. The rallies, by most accounts, started and remained largely peaceful until Ahmadinejad supporters around the country started interfering. And now all foreign press are getting shut out of direct reporting even while state-run media outlets sow lies and propaganda in an attempt to paint the opposition as the real problem.

Let's see what happens after this apparent re-count...

The last few regulars remaining no doubt have noticed that my writing has grown spare. I've been posting with low frequency and when I actually do add to the site it's typically been a photograph, a video, or a link with minor annotation.

Maybe it's been an uptick in work (I mean, hey, the workday is prime blogging time) or a general lack of things to say, but I just don't have much in me lately. Not a bad thing, and I'm not upset about it - just some observations.

The funniest part about this is that I've come to such conclusions in the past as well where I feel that my blogging dries up - only to be struck by some diarrheic typing moments later. Whatever. I just had to say something that wasn't "wow, this video is so cool" or "check out my pictures."

Sad and beautiful.

[flickr video=3622918484 secret=da6c566c59 w=580 h=387]

I found out about an upcoming film, (500) Days of Summer, on /Film and this clip just pushed it to the "must see" list for next month:

[yahoo id=13912766 vid=5275322 w=580 h=365 thumburl=[l.yimg.com/a/p/i/bcs...](http://l.yimg.com/a/p/i/bcst/yahoomovies/8954/87209025.jpg)]

I always enjoy reading Amelie Gillette's The Hater on the A.V. Club, but there are occasions where she really outdoes herself.

Yesterday's "The Goop Translator" is one such occasion.

I'm breaking in my first pair of shoes from Camper, a Spanish shoe company that traces its roots back three generations to 1877. Normally I'd pass on shoes from this brand because of the price, but I caught the last pair in my size on clearance from endless.com. My verdict on the Camper Peu Ideal in aged leather? So far, so awesome.

There are two things that I really dig about these kicks. First, the shape of the upper is fairly close to that of the foot itself, so i feel like these shoes fit just right on day one without the need to break them in. I can't imagine how comfy these things will be after a few weeks of heavy wear. Additionally, each shoe has a single elastic lace. This means that technically I can slip these on/off (though I usually have to pop the lace out of the top eyelet to put the shoes on) but, more than anything, it enhances the fit and comfort because the shoe is never too tight on the top of my foot while it stays in place.

Some enterprising photographer hacked up a cheap Holga camera so he could shoot two taped-together rolls of 35mm film. It's a novelty, sure, but I bet it's easier/cheaper for many folks to obtain and process 35mm than it is for 120. The results have the characteristic Holga look (or rather, cheap camera look), but this gentleman who made the mod seems to have managed some nice captures:



You can also see a series of pictures that depict his whole process of loading/sealing the camera. This sort of thing is cool enough to ALMOST make me want a Holga, just for messing around...

Aaaaaand that's a wrap.

I forgot to mention that I have a few of my London shots up. I scanned a crapload last night (mostly color) after receiving it back from Richmond Camera, and I think I have maybe half a dozen that I'm willing to upload, so more to come.

I also have 3 rolls of Tmax 400 left to process myself, so I'll be steadily adding to the bunch over the next week.

Gee, it sure is nice to see Oprah taken down a few pegs (it's long, but it's worth it)...
(via david friedman)

Okay, so maybe it was just London with a little English countryside thrown in for good measure.

I think I've mostly recovered from my west-bound jet lag, so it's an appropriate time to write up my recent vacation (it's also a good way to kill time while negatives are scanning...). Valerie and I returned yesterday from about a week in the United Kingdom. We travelled there particularly to attend the wedding festivities of her cousin Stephen (he and his new wife work/live there, so it wasn't *technically* a destination wedding), but being US residents with crappy American vacation allotments, we decided to make a big trip of it.

Thanks to my overzealous initial planning we lucked out with the flight and hotel package from Expedia. Booking in early January meant that, despite our trip's timing around a holiday weekend, we were able to take advantage of the British Pound around the time it was bottoming out relative to the US Dollar. What this meant in practical terms was a non-stop flight from Dulles to Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic and a stay in a nice 4-star hotel across the street from the Victoria and Albert museum. Our flight was okay, but the hotel was actually quite nice - the nicest hotel in which I've yet stayed in Europe, in fact - and conveniently located a short walk from The Tube.

Before I divulge the details of our day-to-day, I have to take the obligatory tangent to express my love of European rail transportation. While NYC's subway is still my favorite (hard to beat the coverage/fares), London's Underground is a very close second. The trains were nearly always on-time, mostly clean, extensive, and easy to understand. Additionally, all our short jaunts out of the city were quick and simple on the regional train lines.

Anyway, Valerie, her mom, sister, and I took an overnight flight from D.C. to London and arrived too early to check in at our hotel on Friday morning.. So we let our baggage with the concierge, headed back to the tube, and did some mild exploring to kill time. I was caught delightfully off-guard by the enormity of Big Ben and the houses of Parliament when we emerged from the Westminster stop because, really, photographs can scarcely prepare you for just how magnificent such a site appears before your very tourist eyes. The same went for Westminster Cathedral and its scale and beauty. Oh yeah, and I found the memorial for Joule (nerd glory!).

Seeing as a family occasion brought us to the city on the Thames we were obliged to meet up with an aunt, uncle, two cousins, and the spouse of one cousin from dinner on Friday night. At a tourist-y pub called...The Sherlock Holmes. Yeah. The beer was fine enough, but...well...Okay, so after dinner, those of us that weren't retired decided to hit another pub closer to our hotel. That pub was The Hoop and Toy which served up a decent enough collection of beverages, notably Staropramen (from the Czech Republic!!!) and Fuller's London Pride. This was a fun conclusion to the evening, but I should have had more water between pints because...

While the whole squad was supposed to meet up at St. Paul's Cathedral on Saturday morning, I woke a bit dehydrated and aching in the cranium. I went back to my room after a sparse breakfast and some Advil, and not only did the nap take care of my dome, it also conveniently put me on London time. I met the rest of the crew outside St. Paul's around noon and, after a light lunch, I went with Val's immediate family to stroll by Buckingham Palace. Then it was back to the hotel for a short break so I could change for Steven's bachelor party.

I parted ways with the fellas when they left the restaurant for...um...OTHER entertainment, but everything leading up to midnight was quite a night. We all gathered in a private back bar at the Boisdale of Belgravia for pre-dinner pints and conversation. After everybody was either introduced or caught up we moved to an adjacent private dining room where we ordered from a pre-fixe menu. I then proceeded to have one of my best meals abroad. My appetizer was a ceviche of salmon with a chili-oil sauce that I couldn't quite place except that I knew it was delicious. My steak was a dry-aged, grass-fed ribeye that rivaled my filet from my own rehearsal dinner at (the sadly, now closed) Cabo's here in Richmond. My dessert was a burnt lemon and vanilla tart (that is, burnt lemon - the tart was cooked perfectly), but this came after an interlude on the upstairs terrace to smoke Cuban cigars and sip single malt Scottish Whisky.

I passed on the cigar (though I took a puff...soooooooo good), but I did have a healthy dram of Oban 14-year single-malt with a few drops of water to open it up. I never thought I'd say it, but...aw, heck. I liked the Scotch. I took my first London cab ride back to the hotel (very nice cabs in London, actually) and was pleased to find Valerie awake in the lobby surfing the Internet. I finished my evening conversing with my wife...just the way I liked it :-)

Sunday was spent mostly around the cute town of Hitchin to the north of London where the whole family (and overseas guests) converged for a really nice luncheon thrown by the parents of the groom. The entire affair was at the Hitchin Priory, an event space occupying the site of a former monastery dating back as far as the 14th century. Many of us continued to hang out afterward in the town and grabbed a pint at a pub somewhere off the main square...I can't recall the name, though.

On Monday we attended the wedding itself in Little Wymondly. Like the luncheon before, this occupied nearly the entire day. After a short ceremony everybody proceeded to drink, eat, drink, eat, photograph, drink, socialize, and drink. It was the fastest 8.5 hours I've ever experienced with fantastic weather outside, fun conversation with some British relatives of the bride at my dinner table, and an introduction to one of my new favorite cocktails, the Pimm's Lemonade (where by "lemonade" the Brits mean "Sprite").

Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with miscellaneous site-seeing and shopping (including the afore-blogged visit to the Jerusalem Tavern) that included the acquisition of an English-made badger hair shaving brush and some traditional shaving creams. We also had the privilege of meeting up and hanging out with our friend Rebecca Honts on Wednesday for part of our adventures, such as seeing an original copy of the Magna Carta at the British Library.

So now I'm home again, and I return to work on Monday. Transitions like this always suck, but at least I'll have had a long weekend for recovery. The end of my vacation will do little to take away how much I loved London, though. I sincerely wish I could have stayed another week or five...

Only two dollars? Um, yes please:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFG7-Q0WI7Q&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=580&h=470]
(via waxy)

It's just after midnight here in London, and I'm still nursing the buzz from my first taste of Real Ale. As it transitions from Tuesday to Wednesday I keep wishing that such a fine elixir existed on the west side of the Atlantic.

All of this is because of my visit, tonight, to The Jerusalem Tavern in Clerkenwell. Here was a pub situated in an off-the-tourist-path neighborhood serving traditional English ales from casks - ales so good they were more drinkable near room temperature than many cold beers back in The States. If I could go again I would but, for now, the aftertaste of my St. Peter's Best Bitter will have to suffice.

Cheers indeed.

P.S. I'll be home soon, and there's much to discuss and much film to develop!

Posting via anything is about to get thin for the next week and change as I head of to the United Kingdom for a while. Valerie and I are traveling across the pond for the sake of her cousin's wedding, but we decided to make a vacation of it. So tomorrow evening we fly from Dulles to Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic, and we'll be staying in Knightsbridge/Kensington through most of next week.

It's possible I'll be posting occasionally (at the end of the day like I did in Paris), but the real content will come at the end of the trip after I process the medium format film that I'm planning to shoot. There should also be plenty of digital photos from Valerie as well, but those may end up posted closer to when they were shot.

Cheers!

For those who haven't already read/heard elsewhere...having dropped off the deposit, I'm now officially a graduate student at the University of Richmond MBA program. Time to mentally prepare myself for hitting the books!

The New York Times' "Magazine Preview" has a long and excellent article on Conan O'Brien and his journey to his new nightly gig. The whole piece is a nice collection of anecdotes, interview quotes, and narrative, along with the typically great photography I've come to expect of the Times. Here's one of my favorite nuggets:

“Music and comedy are so linked,” O’Brien said earlier, as he walked up and down the halls of his offices, playing one of his many guitars. “The rhythm of comedy is con­nected to the rhythm of music. They’re both about creating tension and knowing when to let it go. I’m always surprised when somebody funny is not musical.”

I'm always entertained by Alton Brown, and this little clip from Serious Eats is no exception:

http://blip.tv/play/AfeHdIKEWA