Ploafmaster General

I have something potentially very cool on the way to me, and I think it could be here by the end of this week.

And for the two of you who know what I'm talking about, keep yer collective trap shut :-)

Oi...as if the MPAA wasn't stupid enough.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/877053 w=580&h=326]
A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

This glorious animated short not only features one of my favorite Sigur Rós songs (Takk...'s "Hoppípolla"), but highlights a sweet blend of traditional stop-motion handicraft and digital artistry. Carlos Lascano describes the process (and is gracious enough to include photos) on his website.

Jason Santa Maria's latest post is about the passing of physical media generally, and the impending discontinuation of instant film by Polaroid specifically. His writing makes me feel at once nostalgic, defiant, and sad at the same time as I consider what, beyond the physically-generated records of the visual, will be lost to the march of technology. Along with the coming loss of analog photographic imagery we'll inevitably see a fading away of the equally artistic processes required to develop negatives and create prints.

I'm no Luddite (and in fact, I'm a gadget freak), but part of me will be sad to see the eventual disappearance of the tangible implements of photography, an art form (in its practical incarnation) younger than these United States.

Holy sweet MERCY, stop what you're doing and go watch the trailer for Watchmen RIGHT NOW.

When I have an iPhone (a little later this year), I already know one program I'm going to buy for it...CHECK IT:

http://blip.tv/play/ih_CzAGJ5FQ

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed comes out for the iPhone in September, apparently, and it looks hawt.
(via TUAW)

I'm pretty sure this is in response to the over-blown media noise-making about the recent cover illustration, but even if it's not, yesterday's totally safe animation from The New Yorker is hilarious.

I just caught the teaser for Terminator: Salvation on Yahoo!'s movie page, and I have to say, I'm actually intrigued. Christian Bale plays John Connor, and after serious awesomeness in Batman Begins, The Prestige, and most likely The Dark Knight, I take this as a good sign.

Of course McG, the director, has some pretty nasty stains on his resume, so we'll have to see how it shapes up over the next year as more details are revealed...

It turns out that as politicians continue to crawl their way into the land of 21st-Century technology, Congress must consider the proper use of communication media like Twitter...

Many folks close to me know my obsession with many things Italian. While I'm only one quarter Sicilian, the prominence of my full-blood grandmother in my upbringing and the associated happy memories have fostered a deep love for the food, language, culture, and country of Italy.

But lately, I'm kinda pissed at the Italian government.

You see, it seems that they're performing a fingerprint census of all Roma (or Gypsy) people in their country - including the 90% which claim Italian citizenship - in an effort to "crack down on crime." This fingerprinting includes Roma children, but doesn't include any non-Roma Italians (sounds confusing, but this doesn't refer to residents of Rome).

I hope this sounds as obviously horrific to readers as it did to me and many in Italy's population. This is terribly similar in concept to how Germany treated Jews leading up to WWII; blame a minority ethnic group for societal woes (in Italy's case, theft and such) and set them apart, treating them differently than the rest of the population. That certainly snowballed into one of the greatest human tragedies in history.

Thankfully this isn't the 1930's, and the European Union took notice early on, so I don't foresee any larger-scale escalation without the intervention of the international community. There are currently political efforts within Italy and without to stop this practice, and I hope it picks up steam.

I'm starting to sense a pattern in this, the latter half of my photography class. Darkroom, darkroom, and more darkroom, with little in the form of instruction. I'll not repeat what I've said the past two weeks, so here's what I did tonight:

I focused on trying to get the best out of one particular image. I took my recently posted duck photograph and made three prints, two of which involved the technique of burning. Burning involves using a piece of opaque material (cardboard in my case) with a small hole cut out, moved around over the photo paper to expose only a desired portion of the image. On one image, for example, I exposed the whole image for 38 seconds with the aperture on the enlarger set to f11. Then I burned in the body of the duck for an additional 25 seconds in an attempt to coax more detail out of the feathers.

After all that, I think I have my first image worth putting in a frame :-)

Anyway, still no assignment (now three weeks in a row), so I'll try to finish up my self-imposed experiment of photographing total strangers looking at or toward the camera.

Dan in Real Life is a study in discomfort. In a movie filled with in-your-face metaphors and too-clever script contrivances, my main beef is the lengths to which this film goes to perpetuate an unrealistic and horribly tense family situation. Sure, there's decent acting, some good camera work, some touching family moments...but it's all over shadowed by the overwrought slow-motion train wreck that you can see from an hour away.

Two out of five.

Why don't we have Mitchell and Webb broadcast in the United States? These guys are freaking hilarious.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqnD6umhOGw&hl=en&fs=1&w=580&h=485]

You can thank me later for laughing your head off this Friday morning:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1YJbCftjBI&w=580&h=485]
(via trey)

The Morning News has an interesting feature on their site titled, simply, "Albums of the Year." The distinguishing factor, here, is that these lists cover years gone by, such as yesterday's "The Top Albums of 1989."

There are sample MP3s for each album listed along with commentary.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1028035 w=580&h=326]
CACHE . 35mm short . from isiah flores on Vimeo.

I don't know how I let this slip by, but either way, Cache is the most recent short from Isiah Flores. I wish it was a little longer, but I still love the filming and the choice of shots. Penelope Allyn Collins deserves as much credit for writing, directing, editing, and of course, acting.

Six new shots for your viewing pleasure, showing off the glories of Fuji Neopan 100-speed film.

I dream of an art so transparent that you can look through and see the world

-- The late poet Stanley Kunitz, quoted on a wall in the Visual Arts Center of Richmond.

David Friedman over at Ironic Sans has turned one of his great ideas into a reality with Thsrs.

Thsrs is a simple (on the surface) web application which attempts to do for words what services such as TinyURL do for hyperlinks, providing shorter synonyms to help folks keep Twitter messages at or under 140 characters. Sure, it's a niche app, and likely only to be used by those few tweeters who stretch the bounds of their alloted message space. But it's creative thinking like this that moves the internet forward.

It's still in its infancy, so it's not perfect, but it's a sweet idea for now.

Here's my song-by-song impressions of Beck's latest album, Modern Guilt, gathered from my recent Twitter postings:

1. "Orphans" - The first thing you notice is the super cranked bass. Steady beat, total rock throwback. Sure sets the tone for what's ahead.
2. "Gamma Ray" - Shag-a-delic 60's dance party, YEAH, baby! The bass line rocks, and the inverted-sounding vocals are trippy. Nice touch.
3. "Chemtrails" - This song was streamable on Beck's site before the album was official. It starts chill, rocks your face, and finishes great.
4. "Modern Guilt" - The title track is bouncy and ironically dark. It's an excellent blend of retro with a touch of electro-pop.
5. "Youthless" - Starts similarly to "We Dance Alone" form the last album, but distinguishes itself less than a minute in. Driving and intense.
6. "Walls" - Danger Mouse seems to have more of a hand in this track, but to good ends. Interesting layers and scattered percussion.
7. "Replica" - Frenetic processed drums kick into a song that feels more like Amnesiac-era Radiohead with Beck singing. Trippy, and awesome.
8. "Soul Of A Man" - Straightforward in-your-face rock with Beck's touches of noise throughout. Meh. Not great, but at 2:30, tolerable.
9. "Profanity Prayers" - Vocals and guitar nearly indistinguishable at first, but in a cool way. Nice riffs with a nice interlude near the end.
10. "Volcano" - Beck slows it down for the end of the album with some pounding melancholy. What a great outgoing song.

This may be the first major-label Beck album with no "secret" track at the end (though I don't own Mellow Gold, so I'm not sure)...I was kinda surprised by that.

And after all that, a final word:

I have to say that after The Information I was a bit worried that Beck may have lost his edge. There were some cool tracks on that album, but it didn't hold up well next to the rest of his catalog. I'm happy to report that with Modern Guilt Beck's tunes are fresh and excellent with a retro flourish. I'll be spinning this puppy for a while, and I can only imagine what lies ahead now that his contract with Geffen is over...

Tonight was a lot like last week - mostly dark room time, and no assignment again, but still very enjoyable. My disappointment at the lack of formal instruction is made up for by my enjoyment of photo printing, but all the same I'm pretty sure I'd like to take the intermediate class; I'm too hungry for continued education.

So there are four sessions remaining, and I'm not sure when we'll get to any critiques. No matter, I'm still shooting, and I'll keep posting.

It's worth your time to go check out PWNYS, a page created by my hombre Phil, that lists and links the websites of several Internet Aficionados. I'm somehow graced with a place among these fellas who all have some skill for web design, so you can skip my link (it'll just bring you right back here) and check out everybody else.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Soy Vay; Kosher Asian sauces and marinades. Now the eighth of me that's Jewish can snack guilt-free.



I wonder which variety of He'brew pairs best with these...

Phresh Photos.

Okay, so I have an update, from Beck's own website - his new album, Modern Guilt, is dropping this coming Tuesday, July 8th! Check out samples from the album on the music section of the site.

I think I have yet another trip to Plan 9 in order...