Ploafmaster General

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

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4K3aM5H5KM&hl=en&fs=1&w=580&h=353]

Guy Ritchie + Robert Downey Jr. + Jude Law = HOLYCRAPIWANTTOSEETHISONOPENINGDAY.
(via trey)

Holy hand grenade, what glorious news: Monday Night Football is ditching the lamentably awful Tony Kornheiser in favor of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden.

I think even Dennis Miller would have been a welcome substitute, but this will certainly do much better.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

While digging through some old and neglected regions of my home office this evening I came upon some pictures from a few years ago. I decided to scan a bunch of them, and I think some of them turned out alright (or I was able to salvage them a bit).

I guess I missed this earlier in the month, but I'm glad to have the news none-the-less. AMC's Mad Men is currently in production on the third season which is expected to start up in August.

EDIT: Geez, I really need to proof-read. I've fixed the spelling in the post title. Now I get to see all the "Page Not Found" hits in my stats...

I've never been deeply in to the Trekkie world, but I just got back from a late showing of J.J. Abrams' version of Star Trek, and holy Ron Gettelfinger, was it awesome. Here are some stand-outs:

1. They freaking used Futura for the in-movie titles!
2. I've seen a lot floating around lately about the heavy doses of lens flare in this movie. My opinion on the matter is that, whatever the purpose, the flares help establish a rather unique-feeling visual style. I say unique-feeling because I've not really researched whether it's been done before. Either way, I feel that it helped the aesthetics.
3. The film score was considerably better than I expected. They smacked you in the face with it early on and it stood out as an aural guide at just the right moments. While I really dug hearing "Sabotage" in the first act, I was happier to have strong symphonic music carry throughout most of the story.
4. Okay, Heroes really just needs to die now, because Zachary Quinto is more Spock than he'll ever be Sylar.
5. Simon Pegg, I love you.
6. I feel like they hit a number of marks on the Geek Check List with the Vulcan Death Grip, Mind Meld, and countless quips from the original series.

I would see this in the theater again with any of my friends that haven't yet checked it out. Definitely a good start to my spring/summer movie season, and a great new direction to the Star Trek franchise, I hope.

4/5

Boy oh boy does this look like a cool and sweet movie:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmVQLmaA0fQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=580&h=470]
(via a cup of jo)

Yeah, she's my baby styles :-)

McSweeney's, that wellspring of wit, has a new take on Yo Mama humor from Lucas Klauss. Exempli gratia:

Yo mama is so attractive she could be on the cover of Prevention.

I grabbed a new-old toy at an estate sale on Saturday, and it seems to work for the most part:

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

This camera, the Foldex 20, is a little quirky partly by design and partly by this particular example's wear and tear. The only real damage that affects the performance seems to be a bend in the lens platform that creates a mild tilt affect (the plane of focus is not parallel to the film plane) and some strange cropping where the bellows interfere with the image.

The rest of the weirdness comes from the cheap consumer nature of this machine. The focus is non-adjustable, the aperture is fixed at what I calculated to be between f/12 and f/13, the focal length is fixed at 86 mm, and the shutter speed is either 1/50 seconds, or "time" mode where you can hold it open as long as you like. The lens design also creates its own issues; it's a simple meniscus design behind the shutter with only a thin piece of glass in front. The resulting images have fairly low sharpness and contrast (though I boosted the contrast of the outdoor shots above) which, perhaps, adds to the vintage feel.

Over all it's a pretty cool camera, and I plan to shoot a roll of portraits next.

Look, I'm pretty pumped about the new Star Trek movie, but I think it's time something was settled once and for all:

http://current.com/e/90029658/en_US

I know I've covered this ground before, but the New York Times' series of audio/photo essays about various NYC citizens, One In 8 Million, is infinitely fascinating whether the subject is mundane or extraordinary.

Today's entry is about a wine taster, blinded by diabetes in the mid-90's, who continues her wine-selection work despite her loss of sight.

When you really want something and it doesn't materialize, disappointment comes easily. I experienced that, not for the first time, this morning. To be honest, I'm a little more bummed about it than I thought I'd be, and I'm trying to rest in the knowledge that what happens isn't a surprise to God, but mostly I'm just feeling gloomy to the point where I'm distracted at work.

I think all of that will wear off by the end of the day, because the alternatives to what I really wanted are both very good things, each with their own distinct advantages. I could just use a little Novocaine for the ego right now, preferably in the form of no more rain, time for photography, and a visit to Penny Lane pub with friends. Maybe at least some of that will be in the cards this weekend :-)

You'd think it would be difficult to make a story intriguing when the outcome is a certainty. You'd think that way until you watched All the President's Men. The visuals were decent (though not groundbreaking), but the pacing, acting, and writing easily kept me riveted through nearly 2.5 hours.

4/5

This weekend was a quiet one for me on the internet because I was camping at the White Rocks campground near Pembroke, VA.

Per'aps you'd care to see some snaps:

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

This does NOT look promising:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXklTRsLui4&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=580&h=470]

Why is it that a movie partially concerning one of the most important figures in America's food landscape is coming from the same abysmal writer who struck out with a trifecta of crap in her last three movies (Bewitched, Hanging Up, and You've Got Mail)?
(via kottke)

Just don't call it a retreat :-)

This past weekend I had the pleasure of joining fifteen other gentlemen out in King and Queen county for what I believe was the first Men's Weekend for City Church of Richmond. We all chilled out on the grounds of an 18th century home while enjoying the likes of a bonfire, impromptu music, and the fresh air so alien to us city-dwellers. I played the part of a Pork Roll salesman, an ATV was stuck hub-deep in some mud, and, of course, there was some mighty fellowship time.

Oh yeah, and I took some pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Talk about a letdown:

After surviving several storms during its 10-month voyage, the junk broke in two and sank after it was rammed by a freighter just off Taiwan's coast.

I disagree, though, with the captain's proclamation of failure. I consider Taiwan easily close enough to maintain the plausibility of the historical claim, and it's not as if the ship sank because of its design. I doubt many contemporary vessels would survive that kind of collision.

You can find more information about the ship's construction and history on the project's website. The English is a little spotty but clear enough, and the details are fascinating.

Valerie and I went on a little date night last night and, at her request, watched earth at the movie theater. This G-rated US release of the 2007 BBC documentary was geared toward children, but I'd wager 75% of those in attendance were adults.

I fell asleep about two-thirds in.

It's not that I hate nature or children's films, but if you're familiar with the brilliant Planet Earth series, you'll experience deja vu. That's because much of the footage in the feature is re-cut from the television program. It's gorgeous footage, of course, but I've seen most of it before. My guess is that that show is probably a bit too gritty for little kids, so a sanitized, 90-minute version was produced for the big screen. Wrap it all up in some soothing narration from James Earl Jones (or Patrick Stewart in the UK) and you're all set...if you're a child. For me, well, I'm only glad I wasn't snoring when I dozed off in the theater.

2/5

Oh yeah, side note - I wonder whether James Earl Jones could've gotten away with narrating a kid's movie after the Star Wars movies. I could just picture some little tykes freaking out in their seats as soon as Darth Vader starts talking about cute, fuzzy animals.