There was this photographer in the 1850′s who took photographs during a war in Europe. There was a spot on a road the Russians were bombing with cannonballs. They bombed it so heavily that it was referred to as the Valley of the Shadow of Death. This photographer took two photographs of this road.
In one photograph, there are cannonballs all over the place, littered all over the road. In the other photograph, the road is clear, and all the cannonballs are lying in a ditch alongside the road.
So the question becomes, which photo was taken first? Most people assume the photo of the cleared road was done first, but the photographer didn’t think it was dramatic enough, so he scattered the cannonballs over the road to make it more dramatic, and took the other picture.
There’s a really interesting article about it here. You can view the photographs there as well.
I’ve been riding my bike around and stopping to take pictures if I see anything interesting. There’s really not too much that is interesting about the sidewalks of Huntington Beach. There are a lot of abandoned shopping carts on sidewalks, though. Sometimes they’re in a position that makes me think of them as having some sort of attitude or behavior. Like these two, they look like they’re racing each other around the bend:
Often, though, the shopping carts are just in a bad position for me to get a good picture of them. Either the lighting is wrong (they’re in the shade next to a sunny area), or they’re just in a boring spot. It occurred to me as I rode past one the other day that I could always move them into a more interesting position. But the whole idea of it seemed wrong. I don’t like posing shots. Which is one reason I don’t like photographing people unless they’re already doing something interesting (ie, performing on a stage).
So my inclination is to believe that the cannonball photographer didn’t set up the photo of the scattered cannonballs. It makes just as much sense to me that when he got there, the cannonballs were all over the road, and after taking a picture of it, he moved them off the road and took another. Because you know, he had to use the road.
Oh, and the author of that article about the photographer? It’s Errol Morris, a guy who’s made some great documentaries, including one I need to do a post about called Gates of Heaven.
I developed a roll of film the other day and discovered it had pictures from our dirtbiking camping trip this summer. Some of them had accidental overlapping exposures, too, which turned out pretty cool.
Left to right, above: Elijah, our friends’ son Justin, our friends’ sandrail, and Nathaniel.
Our friends getting their sandrail ready to ride.
King of the Hill (Daniel)
That’s Daniel on the bike, and I think Nathaniel off to the right. This was taken while I was a passenger in the sandrail and my friend Debbie was driving. The second exposure is the shadow cast by the sand rail. (The sun was going down.)
The place we camped is called Superstition because the mountains have weird eerie noises sometimes. I didn’t hear anything, though.
If there is a drunk guy at a show who is so wasted he’ll spill his beer, he’s going to spill it all over me.
If a fight breaks out at a show, it’s going to break out wherever I’m standing.
I took Nathaniel and Dillon to a music festival this weekend. It was at the Echoplex, which is a cool venue. Pretty big, all ages, they allow cameras, good lighting. The show started at 3pm and there were a ton of bands on the bill, but we didn’t get there until about 6pm. I only wanted to get there in time to see Graveyard, and we managed to get there two bands before they went on, so I was happy.
Ancestors were just beginning their set when we got there. They were pretty good, but their heavy parts didn’t last long enough. It’s always fun to see a band with a keyboard player who totally rocks out. I found myself wishing I was seeing Isis instead a couple times, though.
Their last song was one that featured a woman on vocals, and it was pretty rad. She didn’t sing any words, just projected this high pitched sort of wail. I kept thinking, “I wish I had a voice that sounds like a theremin!” She seemed a little uncomfortable on stage, like she didn’t know what to do when she wasn’t singing, and sometimes she’d turn her back on the audience when she was singing.
After their set a guy I know from a music web forum came up to me and we jabbered for a bit. He’s a nice guy, I’ve only met him once before. He lives in Torrance and had ridden his bike/taken the bus to the show so he could drink and not drive home drunk. He said the bus only goes as far as Compton on the way home, because it would be so late, so he’d have to bike home from there. Kinda crazy.
There were other people I know from the same web forum at the show, but I only managed to say hi to one of them as we were leaving.
Next up was a band called Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound. The boys had gone to sit down in the back of the venue when Ancestors were done, and when I saw Assemble Head were setting up a theremin, I had to go let them know. The theremin was rad. The band was very psych-rock.
I realized while they were playing I was going to be standing for a long time at this show and I should pace myself a bit and go sit down in the back. Plus I couldn’t make out the vocals at all from where I was, right against the stage, and I wanted to see if the sound would be better from the back. It wasn’t really.
Theremin player:
Graveyard played next. I’d heard good things about them so I wanted to be front and center for their set, and I was glad I was. They’re very old school, 70s style blues rock. And they were rad. They really put on a great show. I was rather blown away. I kept thinking it was probably going to be the best set of the night. How could anyone top it? They just rocked out.
There was a photographer standing right next to me at the start of their set and after snapping pictures for a song or two, he left, which left a spot against the stage right next to me open. It stayed open for awhile, until a totally drunk guy forced his way through the crowd and occupied it. He had half a cup of beer in his band and he was dancing and swinging around and did I mention he was drunk? I had taken my camera out to take some more pictures but as soon as I saw that beer sloshing around I quickly put it away in my bag. The guy on my other side laughed because he knew I was most likely going to have beer spilled all over me.
I didn’t, though. Drunk Guy managed to down the rest without spilling any—at least, on me. And he kept jumping up and down in place, stomping his feet hard, which worried me because I was wearing flip flops. The guy on my other side kept freaking out when the music got heavy and would pound his fist really violently on the stage barrier we were leaning against. So I kept having to dodge Mr Flying Fists and Mr Drunk Stomper.
After the set the two started high-fiving and talking to each other about what a great set it was, and I was right in between them, with Mr. Drunk Stomper totally leaning across me. So I slipped out from between them and went to his other side against the stage. Bad move, I think. This swung his attention onto me and Mr. Drunk Stomper became Mr. Drunk “Hey Let’s Hook Up.” He put his arm around my waist and was hugging me and said something like, “You’re cute, I’m cute, why not?” I said, “I’m married!” and he said, “Oh, OK, I guess that’s a good reason.” Then he kissed me on the cheek and took off.
If only you could’ve seen the disgusted look on my face. I’m sure it was comical.
A guy standing behind me said, “Are you saving that spot?” and I totally laughed as I groaned, “NO!”
What I find funny about it all is I am basically the opposite of a hottie. I’m like, a coldie. I’m just not the type to flirt or do anything close to it. Only someone who is completely wasted would even think about coming on to me.
Nathaniel walked up then and I told him he had to stay and protect me from the drunken freaks, but after a minute it didn’t look like that guy was coming back so I let Nathaniel leave.
After Graveyard was a band I thought was going to be Earthless. They totally sucked, but I was confused because I’d heard Earthless were really good. It took me forever to realize they weren’t Earthless, they were the Warlocks. I’ve actually seen the Warlocks before, I shot one of their shows for Skyscraper ‘Zine. They were better the first time I saw them (but still nothing that great).
So then Earthless came on. The bassist is a little guy, totally looks like he should be in a stoner band. When he set up his bass and strummed a few notes, a big guy standing next to me said “WOW. That’s a HEAVY bass.” And it was. They’re a three-piece. The drums were set up in the center of the stage, pretty close to the front. On the other side was the guitarist. He’s a skinny white guy, very Average-Joe looking. In fact he reminded me a little of Tom Green. You’d just never expect him to rip on the guitar like he does.
I was blown away. The entire band was insanely good. The drummer was killing it non-stop. They played for about an hour and did two songs. The last song would wind down, and the drummer would just be playing two cymbals, and you’d think “OK they’re going to end it.” Then somehow it would build back up again. It went on like this for 20 minutes, I swear. I couldn’t understand how the drummer could keep it up.
I liked Earthless even more than Graveyard. You know I grew up as a teen in the Seattle grunge scene, got to see Nirvana play a college dorm party, Soundgarden play small all ages places, Mother Love Bone at a roller rink. I knew they were great bands that deserved to be huge. But I didn’t realize at the time how lucky I was to be able to see them play in the places I did. So standing there watching Earthless, all I could think about was how privileged I was to be seeing them. I don’t expect them to take off like Nirvana or Soundgarden did, but I do expect to someday tell people I saw Earthless play live and they’ll be envious.
After Earthless came Witch. I thought it was weird they weren’t breaking down the drum set after Earthless, but it turns out the drummer for Earthless was also drumming for Witch. Witch are a stoner rock band that usually features J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr on drums. But for whatever reason he’s not touring with them and the Earthless guy was filling in. Witch were good but not great, and I was getting tired and all their songs were blending together for me. I thought about trying to find the boys to see if they wanted to go but I decided to wait until after their set. We took off without sticking around for Witchcraft, who were playing last.
Oh yeah—the fight. During Witch, some guys one or two people away from me got into a shoving match. I didn’t really see too much of what happened because as soon as I realized what was going on, I turned away, thinking if they really start shoving I was going to get smashed. Other guys were jumping on the two, trying to pull them apart and break it up. I think someone got hit in the face, because I saw some of them putting their arm around someone and asking if he was OK.
I picked up a cheap beach cruiser a couple weeks ago and I’ve been riding just about everyday. It’s so fun. I feel so much better if I do it. And when I don’t, I totally miss it. And crave it. Some days even after riding I still crave another bike ride.
What’s funny is pink is sooooo not my color. But it was all they had.
I love my bike.
I’ve been taking a camera along whenever I go riding and snapping pictures of anything interesting. Which mostly means shopping carts abandoned on the sidewalks in various places. But here are a few non-shopping cart pictures.
This was taken in a neighborhood known as Huntington Harbor. There are little islands in the Harbor with houses built on all of them, and everyone’s backyard has a dock and a boat. The islands are connected by little bridges. I’m thinking the islands are all manmade, since they’re all so close together and perfectly fit in all the waterways, but I don’t really know. You can see what I mean here.
This was taken in a strip mall on a bike ride with Nathaniel. He stopped at Petco to get a job application.
I took this one yesterday. I got ambitious and decided to try doing some TTVs (Through the Viewfinder). I took it on the street I live on, which is a seven-lane, super busy street. I’m sure I looked like an idiot to all the many people driving by, sitting on the sidewalk to get this shot. I’m just waiting until someone I know says to me, “I saw you the other day with a bike and a camera…”
I took Nathaniel and his friend Dillon to this show, mainly because Nathaniel wanted to see Early Man really bad. I’ve seen them at least once before.
Skeleton Witch were a good thrash metal band. The singer does that annoying thing most metal singers do—talk too much between songs. They had strobe lights on either side of the bass drum, pointing towards the crowd, and a fog machine. The lights would go off every so often when the singer was standing in front of them banging his head. It was kinda cool.
Early Man played a good set. They didn’t do “War Eagle,” which was a bummer, but they did “Death is the Answer.” They played at least one new song that was really cool:
They also did this song that starts out with dueling guitars and builds from there—really sick:
Nathaniel ventured into a mosh pit for the very first time at the show. And Dillon got socked in the eyeball.
I was in the front row of the “balcony” (it’s more like a loft) and the boys were down front. I knew Dillon really wanted to get in the mosh pit, and his eyes were like magnets to it. They were off to the side a bit, but his head kept swinging over to it. I found out later they didn’t go in because some guy in it was throwing elbows around and being generally dangerous. There were only a handful of guys really moshing during Early Man, and only sporatically.
(Nathaniel is on the right in the white hat, Dillon next to him.)
But when Valiant Thorr came out the pit got bigger. The singer would talk a lot between songs, but he was entertaining. He said something about showing off your muscles.
He also said something about reaching way deep down into your pockets and grabbing a fist full of change. And smelling it?
I was doing something with my camera and totally missed all the significant action. One minute, the boys were on the right side of the pit, and next time I looked up, they were on the far left. What I missed seeing was Nathaniel’s first real venture into a mosh pit and Dillon getting socked in the eye.
Valiant Thorr were really fun, but we left once I realized Dillon was hurt. He was having trouble seeing and was rather freaked out about it. I was freaking out wondering if I should take him to a hospital. Daniel’s the one who always deals with injuries, not me! But then I thought about what Daniel would say if he were there and I realized his response would probably be “you’re fine, quit freaking out.” And I felt better.
So we only caught a couple of Valiant Thorr’s songs. By the time we got home Dillon was doing better. I realized after talking to Daniel about it the next morning that he’d gotten a slight concussion. Now I know what the signs of a concussion are. One of them is anxiety, which explains why Dillon was freaking out about his vision. Another is blurred vision, which explains why Dillon was freaking out about his vision. Another is confusion or inability to communicate clearly, which explains why Dillon wouldn’t tell me anything when I asked him what was wrong or what happened. But he’s fine and now can brag about getting hurt in the Valiant Thorr mosh pit.
If you didn’t notice, my blog died. My web host’s database server crashed, or something. My blog was down for days. They kept saying they were moving my database to another server. Then they said they’d have to restore my database from a backup. But they only keep back ups for two days. By the time they finally got around to trying to restore from a backup, the backup was gone. And so was my blog.
Fortunately my sister-in-law Amber uses Google Reader to read my blog, and it cached just about all of my posts back to 2007. She managed to save them out as a couple giant text files and sent them to me. So I didn’t actually lose everything I’ve written. It’s just not online anymore.
And all the comments people left are gone. Completely.
I may try to eventually repost everything, but it’s going to take a long time if I do.
So what’s been going on while my blog has been down? Lots and lots. I’ll be posting about it all, most likely, but here are some highlights:
My blog went down. With much crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
I got a beach cruiser bike and fell in love with biking. Everyday!
Kids went back to school. YES!
Took the boys and their friends to see Judas Priest/Heaven and Hell/Motorhead/Testament. No one got a concussion.
Took Nathaniel and his friend Dillon to see Valiant Thorr and Early Man. Someone got a concussion.
Developed lots of film. But not enough. Never enough.
Got some rad vinyl and I’ve been ripping it. Shirley Bassey! Lene Lovich! Van Morrison! Peter Gabriel! Kate Bush!
