Ghosts in Tri-X

Circa 1981. Shot with an Olympus OM-1N on Tri-X (and a tri-pod)

Just a little something to show that you can never stash some mementos of your past far enough to the back corner of the attic. This one – a self portrait for a basic photography and darkroom course I took in college – resurfaced today among some outdated atlases, a folio of Escher prints, and my deed to a one-foot square plot of land in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

No mullet, like the ones currently vying for validation over at Emma's place, but lordy lou did I ever need a haircut. And a competent dermatologist. And a fingernail clipper.

My instructor gave me a C+ on this project, noting on the back of the photo that I hadn't printed it dark enough (a shortcoming I've corrected in the version you see here).* The dramatically-lighted result of our assignment to photograph an egg fared much better and received an A-. It was voted Best of the Day by the other members of the class. Maybe it will pop up one of these days, as well.


* Speaking of corrections, check out the more dramatic post-processed version I did for The Dictionary of Image.

Contemplating contentment

I've never put much stock in a lot of the psychological manure thought up by the classical psychologists. Although Carl Jung always struck me as being less full of crap than many, the notion of synchronicity sure seems like a large wheelbarrow load of the stuff. And yet when, two days after posting my album cover made from a photo of a classic Rolls Royce, I was tailgated home by a late model Phantom, “synchronicity” was the first word that came to mind. I'll leave off repeating the next few; I hate being tailgated, and I like to try to keep this blog under the PG-14 wire.

Anyway, with that huge silver grille looming in my rear view, I pondered what sorts of wrong choices I might have made in my life that had led the guy in the Rolls to be driving what he was driving and me to be driving what I was driving. The thought occurred to me that if he didn't get off my bumper before the next time the driver in front of me randomly applied her brakes, I might find myself a bit nearer to being able to afford a Rolls – but I digress. I imagined I knew where he'd eventually turn (north into the neighborhoods of sprawling mansions and two-acre lots in Fairview) and wondered to myself what sort of work he must do (if any). Was he married with a family? Were they happy, or did they only put up with their workaholic husband/father because it was a lifestyle choice? Could he afford all of those fancy things, or was he in hock up to his eyeballs, developing an ulcer while chugging Dewar's and agonizing over how to stay afloat and keep the IRS at bay?

It was about that time that we came to an intersection where we parted ways – he turning north toward Beverly Hills Fairview and I heading south toward where my loving wife and kittens waited in our unpretentious, warm, dry home to welcome me after my day at the software mill. After I'd had a chance to relax in my humble but comfortable chair, we'd thank God for our many blessings and have a simple but satisfying dinner. We'd clear away the dishes, washing some by hand and tossing the rest in the fancy dish washing contraption, and then we'd settle in to watch a movie on our new flat-screen TV and enjoy the luxury of deep bass and crisp surround stereo from the new receiver and speakers I installed over the weekend.

And I'd realize that I didn't want the Rolls Royce (I love my Dorian); the house with ten bedrooms, five baths, two kitchens, and a media room with theater seating; the alcoholic trophy wife and avaricious snob-spawn; and certainly not the financial headaches. I realized, in that moment, that when I stopped long enough to realize it... I'm content with how green the grass is (or isn't, at this time of year) in my own yard.

Got it covered

While we're on the subject of album covers, check out the fun they're having over at Flickr: The LP portraits Pool.

Fantasy band meme

Via Gwynne via Eric via... aw hell, you get the idea. The idea behind this meme is to take three somewhat random bits of content and create from them a fictitious band, album, and album cover (or CD insert, if you must).

Here are the rules:

• Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
  The first article title on the page is the name of your band.


• Visit http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
  The last four words of the last quote on the page is the title of your album.


• Visit http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/The third picture on the page is your album cover.

Rolls Royce image © Mike Yamin. Used by permission.

Finally, here's Even If It's Wrong, the latest (and only) release by The Boshin War, which fictitiously debuted at #10.

The base image of the Rolls Royce is here. My random Wikipedia article was about The Boshin War. “Even if it's wrong” was my random quote fragment. Unfortunately, I didn't think to make note of the whole thing or who said it.

On the books for 2008

I know what some of you are thinking: “Foo never writes about riding anymore. So he had a crash and wrecked his shoulder. So what? It's cycling, not rowing.”

Well, to these naysayers I'd just like to retort, “Nyehhhh!”

Thanks to the prompting of Squirrel Bait (remember her from last year's MS 150), a sizeable contingent from last year's team and one new member hit the road at 1pm to log our first 20 miles of 2008.

For those of you who like your images a bit more amusing, try on this recent submission to the Dictionary of Image for size. It's been PhotoShopped a little, but the only deviations from reality were the addition of the definition text and a bit of texturing. This water tower for the town of Bourbon, Missouri, is the real deal.

Kind of adds a whole new meaning to the expression, “There must be somethin' in the water”, doesn't it?