7/24/2005
Glengarry Glen Ross
Great seats. I was in the third row thanks to my father saying that I was hard of hearing when he ordered the tickets. Third row center. I was seated next to two elderly ladies from out-of-town. As the show began I heard them whispering to each other about something.
The cursing in the show is non-stop which was the most enjoyable part. As I laughed out loud - the show had more laughs than I would have thought - I could feel the lady beside me look around at me and sort of shrivel up with her friend.
The louder I laughed at the poor plight of these con-man / sales men, the more she moved away from me and whispered to her friend.
The first act - at least for them - was nice and short. Intermission. My father and I were just enjoying this so much. But the two ladies didn't return after intermission.
The guy behind me said - well what did they think they were going to see? I said they wanted to see Hawkeye I guess (Alan Alda was the star).
So the second act begins and now two seats away - another couple are offended by the language which gets even worse in the 2nd act when Richie Roma really starts going at it. It was like a great jazz symphony of cursing. Point, counterpoint. Each blow aimed like Duke Ellington on the piano. Not a word wasted.
I could hear whispers two seats away: do they really have to say that! Oh my! My oh my!
My father turned and pointed at them - I think it's a little excessive - but he was laughing too with tears in his eyes.
As you get into the second act - there is also the slowly building undercurrent of utter helplessness with the Alan Alda character - but at the same time some of the other characters are just so venal that you can't help but enjoy their problems as they tell how they try to dupe little old ladies out of their life's savings.
There were a few standing ovations. A tremendous pleasure for me to see a show which wasn't about the special effects or the set - but about the use of language.
As we emerged from the theater, a lot of yammering about: did they really have to use all that awful language. I loved it.
And you know what - when I worked with the grips and the lighting guys on films, and a couple of other guys - that's what language sounded like - though maybe not as skillful. I asked my father if there was a time in his life where he had spoken like that - and without blinking an eye he said, yeah. The army. World War II. Not him, of course (of course not dear old dad) but everyone he was with talked like that. Especially in combat.
And this show was about combat. Five guys trying to survive no matter what it took. That was the point. I give it 10 f*?!ing stars.
The cursing in the show is non-stop which was the most enjoyable part. As I laughed out loud - the show had more laughs than I would have thought - I could feel the lady beside me look around at me and sort of shrivel up with her friend.
The louder I laughed at the poor plight of these con-man / sales men, the more she moved away from me and whispered to her friend.
The first act - at least for them - was nice and short. Intermission. My father and I were just enjoying this so much. But the two ladies didn't return after intermission.
The guy behind me said - well what did they think they were going to see? I said they wanted to see Hawkeye I guess (Alan Alda was the star).
So the second act begins and now two seats away - another couple are offended by the language which gets even worse in the 2nd act when Richie Roma really starts going at it. It was like a great jazz symphony of cursing. Point, counterpoint. Each blow aimed like Duke Ellington on the piano. Not a word wasted.
I could hear whispers two seats away: do they really have to say that! Oh my! My oh my!
My father turned and pointed at them - I think it's a little excessive - but he was laughing too with tears in his eyes.
As you get into the second act - there is also the slowly building undercurrent of utter helplessness with the Alan Alda character - but at the same time some of the other characters are just so venal that you can't help but enjoy their problems as they tell how they try to dupe little old ladies out of their life's savings.
There were a few standing ovations. A tremendous pleasure for me to see a show which wasn't about the special effects or the set - but about the use of language.
As we emerged from the theater, a lot of yammering about: did they really have to use all that awful language. I loved it.
And you know what - when I worked with the grips and the lighting guys on films, and a couple of other guys - that's what language sounded like - though maybe not as skillful. I asked my father if there was a time in his life where he had spoken like that - and without blinking an eye he said, yeah. The army. World War II. Not him, of course (of course not dear old dad) but everyone he was with talked like that. Especially in combat.
And this show was about combat. Five guys trying to survive no matter what it took. That was the point. I give it 10 f*?!ing stars.
7/23/2005
Maxtor One Touch
After the suggestion of "unknown" - in one of the comments re: the Maxtor One Touch II which I was using with USB - getting "delayed write errors" - I installed a Firewire card - hooked it up to the Maxtor 120 GB drive - and did a huge copy operation that had caused all the problems last time around.
No problems.
And - it seemed faster. I thought that USB 2.0 and Firewire were the same speed. What - 400 megabytes per second or something like that. But stuff was copying much faster.
Thank you "unknown" for the firewire suggestion. Let's see how the rest of the peripherals (still USB) are working tomorrow.
UPDATE: Switching to Firewire was the answer. No problems since the switch 7/25/05
No problems.
And - it seemed faster. I thought that USB 2.0 and Firewire were the same speed. What - 400 megabytes per second or something like that. But stuff was copying much faster.
Thank you "unknown" for the firewire suggestion. Let's see how the rest of the peripherals (still USB) are working tomorrow.
UPDATE: Switching to Firewire was the answer. No problems since the switch 7/25/05
Matzu Fable
The Matzu tribe in southwestern Africa has the following fable:
Their ancestors were out hunting when they found themselves surrounded by some wild animals that they had never seen before. The animal had the head of a lion and the body of a sheep.
They had never seen anything like this before and didn't know how to proceed. As it happens, there were two mighty warriors: Ahout and Brabe.
Ahout wanted the warriors to attack on masse and hopefully scare the animals away. Brabe thought they should build a fence and see how these unknown animals acted. "How do we know," said Ahout "whether they are as ferocious as a lion or as docile as sheep?"
The animals neither advanced, nor did they move away.
The hunters were terrified of this new animal. Some wanted to make a charge against the animals. Others wanted to build a wall.
They argued amongst themselves, and soon they forgot about the threat from the animals and turned against eachother. There was a fierce battle between the warriors and ultimately only Ahout and Brabe were remained.
Ahout and Brabe who were the best fighters - struggled for seven days and finally - both were wounded and lay dying.
At that point several of these animals appeared and removed their lion masks and began to graze near the wounded and dead Matzu warriors. As Ahout lay dying, he heard one of the sheep say, "What a strange species these creatures are."
Their ancestors were out hunting when they found themselves surrounded by some wild animals that they had never seen before. The animal had the head of a lion and the body of a sheep.
They had never seen anything like this before and didn't know how to proceed. As it happens, there were two mighty warriors: Ahout and Brabe.
Ahout wanted the warriors to attack on masse and hopefully scare the animals away. Brabe thought they should build a fence and see how these unknown animals acted. "How do we know," said Ahout "whether they are as ferocious as a lion or as docile as sheep?"
The animals neither advanced, nor did they move away.
The hunters were terrified of this new animal. Some wanted to make a charge against the animals. Others wanted to build a wall.
They argued amongst themselves, and soon they forgot about the threat from the animals and turned against eachother. There was a fierce battle between the warriors and ultimately only Ahout and Brabe were remained.
Ahout and Brabe who were the best fighters - struggled for seven days and finally - both were wounded and lay dying.
At that point several of these animals appeared and removed their lion masks and began to graze near the wounded and dead Matzu warriors. As Ahout lay dying, he heard one of the sheep say, "What a strange species these creatures are."
Gare de Quoi?
Musee de ??
Don't remember anymore. It was the museum in Paris which was once a train station - well, not a station but one of the main departure points. I'm sure some of you know it's name. Gare de something? It would be good to know since the print is turning out well.
7/22/2005
Glengarry Glen Ross
This seems to be spend the day with dad week. Tomorrow I'm off to see Glengarry Glen Ross (my suggestion) since I loved the movie and usually like Mamet.
My father - didn't really want to see this - said there was too much cursing (delicate WWII veteran that he is) - but I told him to turn down his hearing aid if it bothered him (sarcastic son that I am).
Spent a fair part of the afternoon with Matt scanning negatives. At some point I'm going to put a gallery up on my site for his work and see if we can sell any of his prints since I think he's a great photographer and I am convinced that my 4800 prints - the couple I've done so far meet with his approval - are very good. I still need to do some experimenting in terms of what's the best size.
I don't like those "we serve all" photographers sites that I've seen but I have an idea about offering "prints on demand" - but no more than 3 or 4 photographers - and only related to New York - after all they need to be able to get here to sign their prints, and I just want to deal with photographers where everything works on a handshake and mutual respect (what business concept).
My father - didn't really want to see this - said there was too much cursing (delicate WWII veteran that he is) - but I told him to turn down his hearing aid if it bothered him (sarcastic son that I am).
Spent a fair part of the afternoon with Matt scanning negatives. At some point I'm going to put a gallery up on my site for his work and see if we can sell any of his prints since I think he's a great photographer and I am convinced that my 4800 prints - the couple I've done so far meet with his approval - are very good. I still need to do some experimenting in terms of what's the best size.
I don't like those "we serve all" photographers sites that I've seen but I have an idea about offering "prints on demand" - but no more than 3 or 4 photographers - and only related to New York - after all they need to be able to get here to sign their prints, and I just want to deal with photographers where everything works on a handshake and mutual respect (what business concept).
7/21/2005
Mets Game
I'm off to the Mets game against the Padres with dad and sisters. I'm toting the long lens (70-200) with the 1.4x convertor this time around so I can take pictures like the pros. Or to put it another way - I'll wear my Sports Illustrated cap. Maybe something newsworthy will happen. Maybe Kaz Ishii finally pitches that perfect game I know he has in him.
Kaz has been pitching better and better with each outing and his only problem is that he seems to suffer some loss of concentration around the fifth inning. But if it rains - maybe that could go down as a mini-perfect game (hardy har har). Has that ever happened? A perfect rained out game?
Kaz has been pitching better and better with each outing and his only problem is that he seems to suffer some loss of concentration around the fifth inning. But if it rains - maybe that could go down as a mini-perfect game (hardy har har). Has that ever happened? A perfect rained out game?
7/20/2005
Corrupt
I managed to corrupt the iView Media Pro catalog today. It's the fault of that stupid Maxtor One Touch external drive which has been a problem since I got it. Actually, probably not the fault of the drive either - just some combination of things that cause a "delayed write error" if I try to do too much with it at once. It's picky. Anyway, once the drive starts into it's delayed write message frenzy (lot's of popup boxes) - you know that something is going to get corrupted and this time it was the iView Catalog.
Fortunately I had a backup copy from two days ago of the corrupt catalog and that was a good thing. Losing the catalog is not a terrible thing unless you've spent a lot of time adding annotations to images. I do this but only to images that will end up in one of the html galleries.
Fortunately I had a backup copy from two days ago of the corrupt catalog and that was a good thing. Losing the catalog is not a terrible thing unless you've spent a lot of time adding annotations to images. I do this but only to images that will end up in one of the html galleries.
All the News
Many years ago, never mind how many - I went to work for a behemoth Public Relations firm in Manhattan. I had been through film school, and was broke. I found a job as a secretary. This was before the secretary became an administrative assistant.
I did typing, got coffee for the big boys and fulfilled other menial tasks for three account execs.
On my first day - a famous author strolled by and went with several execs into the video room. He was going to begin a book tour. The PR firm had a facsimile of a television studio setup and for several hours they interviewed him as if they were the host of a morning show; played back and critiqued him, and finally gave their approval for him to hit the morning show circuit.
This was shocking to me. I was asking my bosses whether this was common to rehearse people for television. They looked at me like I was nuts. Of course it's necessary. We give them talking points to sell their book. We make them appealing - if we can. Some of them are hopeless. And we teach them how to be relaxed.
I did all the typing, and a lot of the preliminary phone calls I had more shocks. It seemed that these execs spent most of their time trying to figure out ways to get their clients in the newspapers. They were constantly seeking some angle that would make their clients newsworthy.
And guess what - a large number of their clients were - yes - politicians.
Great excitement when a piece got in - especially with good placement.
As time went on, I began to notice that about 40% of what I was reading had begun life at a PR firm. I always thought these reporters just went out and figured what a good story was. It wasn't like that at all. Often, they just sat at their desks culling through various story ideas that had been offered by the big PR firms.
Public Relations at this level was very profitable - and I guess still is because:
a) the people who are reading the paper or watching the t.v. take it all as having the imprint of reality since it doesn't appear as a commercial that could be ignored and b) since the public relations effort is generally more effective than an advertisement - and since it is free, i.e. the news organization is happy to use it for no charge - the profit for the PR firm can be enormous.
I had been there for a few weeks when there was this buzz in the office that a big shot was coming in for a big shot conference. Yes - it was a politico in the Reagan administration. I honestly can't remember who it was. But it was very exciting all around - especially amongst the hired help.
Part of my job was to clean up after the conference. The usual corporate breakfast junk. The big shots had left, but there were these little yellow post-its on a tackboard. Bits of scribbling. I glanced at them as I tossed them - but saw the word "environmental" several times.
Sure enough, a few days later on the evening news, there was this same politico announcing a new environmental policy.
I'm not implying that any of this is devious. It's just another form of salesmanship. But it has tainted me.
Anyway, what made me think about all this in the first place was when I saw the new nominee for the Supreme Court standing beside President Bush. It reminded me of these PR sessions where they'd videotape whoever it was and then adjust their movements, their clothes, their smiles until the PR people were happy.
I'm guessing that very soon the nominee will be sitting in front of a mock panel of senators - videotaped - and rehearsed over and over. I'd give a million bucks to see some of those tapes.
I did typing, got coffee for the big boys and fulfilled other menial tasks for three account execs.
On my first day - a famous author strolled by and went with several execs into the video room. He was going to begin a book tour. The PR firm had a facsimile of a television studio setup and for several hours they interviewed him as if they were the host of a morning show; played back and critiqued him, and finally gave their approval for him to hit the morning show circuit.
This was shocking to me. I was asking my bosses whether this was common to rehearse people for television. They looked at me like I was nuts. Of course it's necessary. We give them talking points to sell their book. We make them appealing - if we can. Some of them are hopeless. And we teach them how to be relaxed.
I did all the typing, and a lot of the preliminary phone calls I had more shocks. It seemed that these execs spent most of their time trying to figure out ways to get their clients in the newspapers. They were constantly seeking some angle that would make their clients newsworthy.
And guess what - a large number of their clients were - yes - politicians.
Great excitement when a piece got in - especially with good placement.
As time went on, I began to notice that about 40% of what I was reading had begun life at a PR firm. I always thought these reporters just went out and figured what a good story was. It wasn't like that at all. Often, they just sat at their desks culling through various story ideas that had been offered by the big PR firms.
Public Relations at this level was very profitable - and I guess still is because:
a) the people who are reading the paper or watching the t.v. take it all as having the imprint of reality since it doesn't appear as a commercial that could be ignored and b) since the public relations effort is generally more effective than an advertisement - and since it is free, i.e. the news organization is happy to use it for no charge - the profit for the PR firm can be enormous.
I had been there for a few weeks when there was this buzz in the office that a big shot was coming in for a big shot conference. Yes - it was a politico in the Reagan administration. I honestly can't remember who it was. But it was very exciting all around - especially amongst the hired help.
Part of my job was to clean up after the conference. The usual corporate breakfast junk. The big shots had left, but there were these little yellow post-its on a tackboard. Bits of scribbling. I glanced at them as I tossed them - but saw the word "environmental" several times.
Sure enough, a few days later on the evening news, there was this same politico announcing a new environmental policy.
I'm not implying that any of this is devious. It's just another form of salesmanship. But it has tainted me.
Anyway, what made me think about all this in the first place was when I saw the new nominee for the Supreme Court standing beside President Bush. It reminded me of these PR sessions where they'd videotape whoever it was and then adjust their movements, their clothes, their smiles until the PR people were happy.
I'm guessing that very soon the nominee will be sitting in front of a mock panel of senators - videotaped - and rehearsed over and over. I'd give a million bucks to see some of those tapes.
7/19/2005
Bronx Basketball
I was going through some old shots and this one popped out at me. This one prints really well. It was taken this spring - on a side street near Fordham Road.
Ilford Profiles
Ilford posted printer profiles for Ilford Smoth Pearl and the 4800 printer. I began doing some color prints this morning for the first time. Results: nominal. Is that the right word? Results are what I expect from screen images.
Here's the Ilford Link to the profiles: Ilford Printer Profiles.
Here's the Ilford Link to the profiles: Ilford Printer Profiles.
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