Voting for Damage

Again not too much in the non-political sphere, but here is my vote for a very nice environmental blog. Some things trump politics, or at least should.

From The Truth Laid Bear's New Webblog Showcase:
Damage: Global Warming Catastrophe - New Evidence

Real Magic

The kind of Bleat that I look forward to today. Lileks offers his awed assessment of the Two Towers Extended Edition DVD, which he watched along with the Fellowship Extended Edition in preparation for the release of the final installment of the LOTR trilogy. I actually had the same idea, and plan to spend my Thanksgiving Friday, in the Lazy Boy watching both of the extended edition DVDs. It is pretty much a days work, but I agree with James that these movies are pretty much the height of grandiose film making.

Lileks bleats, "When asked for my favorite movie I give the old standard reply - Casablanca, because it has everything I want in glorious Warner Brothers monophonic silvery-toned perfection. It's a movie in the sense that LOTR isn't. Short, self-contained, pop culture that effortlessly transcends its limitations (perhaps because it isn't trying to do anything of the sort.) But LOTR may be the most impressive thing I've ever seen on the screen."

This is a fair take. There are better movies that function purely as movies (I would list the aforementioned Casablanca, but also The Maltese Falcon and Touch of Evil as examples of pure movie making that functions on the level that James is describing), but the LOTR trilogy seems to offer a loftier experience more akin to the great epics and opera.

And James even manages to get some lilexia into the post without being overly cute. And he has a nice idea for The Fantastic Four movie.

Read the whole bleat here.

The Booklist Game

Kevin Drum at Calpundit has stumbled accross a most entertaining parlor game.

Take Clinton's list of 21 favorite books that has been so disparaged lately, count how many you have actually read and how many you have even heard of. Whoever has the highest sum total is the winner.

Much like Kevin, I count only 11 out of the 21 that I've even ever heard of and have read only one. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Happily, I can say that if I was coming up with my own 21, Marquez would probably make the short list.

Here is the list, so you too can play at home...

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Maya Angelou
"Meditations," Marcus Aurelius
"The Denial of Death," Ernest Becker
"Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963," Taylor Branch
"Living History," Hillary Rodham Clinton
"Lincoln," David Herbert Donald
"The Four Quartets," T.S. Eliot
"Invisible Man," Ralph Ellison
"The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-First Century," David Fromkin
"One Hundred Years of Solitude," Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes," Seamus Heaney
"King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa," Adam Hochschild
"The Imitation of Christ," Thomas a Kempis
"Homage to Catalonia," George Orwell
"The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis," Carroll Quigley
"Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics," Reinhold Niebuhr
"The Confessions of Nat Turner," William Styron
"Politics as a Vocation," Max Weber
"You Can't Go Home Again," Thomas Wolfe
"Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny," Robert Wright
"The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats," William Butler Yeats

Have fun!

Poetry Shmoetry

Knowing shamefully little (in fact not knowing jack) about poetry, I would not even entertain the notion of joining in the fray of the battle of Oz(ymandias) lovers and haters. I read it in High School, liked it then, and that's about it. But I have enjoyed following this string between George Wallace (whose hiphop Ozymandias I linked to previously), Aaron Haspel and Mika Cooper. Since George has given me a peripheral mention in reference to another Ozymandias modernization by Howard Nemerov, who is the brother of someone I know a little bit about (or slightly more than the above mentioned jack), Diane Arbus.

I so enjoyed this more beat interpretation of the classic that I thought it must be linked to.

And with that, I go gentle into that good night.

Elsewhere

Excellent Krugman in the NYT. Puts the whole question of "who's angry?" in perspective.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Herr Gropenfuher's spending cuts may not be so compassionate, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger presented lawmakers Monday with nearly $2 billion in midyear spending cuts aimed primarily at social programs, including payments to doctors who care for the poor and recreational programs for developmentally disabled children."

And that 2 bil should just about cover half of the repeal of the car tax. Watch this space!

In the Denver Post, Walter Cronkite offers an op-ed on Bush's penchant for unilaterlism.

Away from Politics, Terry Teachout has finally posted his review of The Looney Tunes Golden Collection, to which I added my two cent here. Terry likes it. I agree with him!. Read his blog posting here and the complete WSJ review here.

See you!

Very Witty Wilde

Don't know why this Monty Python skit came to mind, one of those archived bits of information that randomly surfaces from time to time, but surface it did. Perhaps the whole culture blogging thing and Terry Teachout's recent comments on the blogging community, which I commented on here.

So without further ado...

The Oscar Wilde Sketch

London 1895... The residence of Mr Oscar Wilde
(In WILDE's drawing room. A crowd of suitably dressed folk are engaged in typically brilliant conversation, laughing affectedly and drinking champagne)

PRINCE OF WALES: My congratulations, Wilde. You latest play is a great success. The whole of London's talking about you.
OSCAR: There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that it not being talked about.
(There follows fifteen seconds of restrained and sycophantic laughter)
PRINCE: Very very witty... very very witty.
WHISTLER: There's only one thing in the world worse than being witty and that is not being witty.
(Fifteen seconds more of the same)
OSCAR: I wish I had said that.
Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will.
(More laughter)
OSCAR: Your majesty, have you met James McNeill Whistler?
PRINCE: Yes, we've played squash together.
OSCAR: There is only one thing worse than playing squash together, and that is playing it by yourself.
(Silence)
I wish I hadn't said that.
WHISTLER: You did, Oscar, you did.
(A little laughter)
PRINCE: I've got to get back up the palace.
OSCAR: Your Majesty is like a big jam doughnut with cream on the top.
PRINCE: I beg your pardon?
OSCAR: Um... it was one of Whistler's.
WHISTLER: I never said that.
OSCAR: You did, James, you did.
(The PRINCE OF WALES stares expectantly at WHISTLER)
WHISTLER: ... Well, You Highness, what I meant was that, like a doughnut, um, your arrival gives us pleasure... and your departure only makes us hungry for more.
(Laughter)
Your Highness, you are also like a stream of bat's piss.
PRINCE: What?!?
WHISTLER: It was one of Wilde's. One of Wilde's.
OSCAR: It sodding was not! It was Shaw!
SHAW: I... I merely meant, Your Majesty, that you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark.
PRINCE (accepting the compliment): Oh.
OSCAR (To WHISTLER): Right.
(To PRINCE)Your majesty is like a dose of clap. Before you arrive is pleasure, and after is a pain in the dong.
PRINCE (Loudly): WHAT?
WHISTLER and OSCAR: One of Shaw's, one of Shaw's.
SHAW: You bastards. Um... what I meant, Your Majesty, what I meant...
OSCAR: We've got him, Jim.
WHISTLER and OSCAR: Come on, Shaw-y.
SHAW: I merely meant...
OSCAR: Come on, Shaw-y.
WHISTLER: Let's have a bit of wit, then, man.
SHAW: (Blows raspberry)
(The PRINCE shakes SHAW's hand. Laughter all around)

Odds and Ends

Returned last night from "vacation". Odd how a week away can be more tiring than work. I've discovered that the optimal time in Las Vegas is about 3 days. Stay for 4 at your own risk.

If you are out that direction, I highly recommend a jaunt to Red Rock Canyon, just outside the city (though the city of Las Vegas is rapidly encroaching on the outskirts of the park). Hopefully some pictures will follow soon, but processing, scanning, posting, can take a bit of time. Be sure to check in at Futurballa Photography, and of course, a posting will find its way to the blog.

Most entertaining sign in Vegas is the offices of the Las Vegan Magazine that I mistook for a vegetarian restaurant.

Friend George is in rare form at the Fool, rapping Shelley.

Hopefully not too late, but here is my vote for the political entry at the TLB Showcase. Only one non-political entry, so I'll pass on that. Come on you budding culture bloggers, let's hear from you!

Anarchy Xero: Winding the Iraq Deathwatch

Normal blogging duties will resume tomorrow along with normal work duties.

Mahalo

Not a Heather

I'm still in San Jose, and was making my daily blog rounds in between running some errands and came across Terry Teachout's defense of the blogosphere.

I must chime in. As a new kid on the blogging block, relatively speaking, I can say that there are a few established bloggers, and even mainstream media types, like Terry, who will blogroll a new guy, or give him a mention as Aaron Haspel has been so kind to do for yours truly. And there's NZ Bear who gives newbies a chance to promote themselves through the New Blog Showcase.

All in all, with few exceptions, the blogosphere is a pretty friendly place where even unknowns like myself can get a link or a blogroll, if he even occasionally has something interesting to share. The trick is to join in, dive into the deep end, comment on what others write, be willing to share your opinions. Sometimes you may get criticized for a posting and even occasionally flamed, but that is part of the game, and really the goal of blogging is just to get a bit of oxygen for your thoughts and ideas.

And as Terry said, "Above all, blogging is fun."

Where did we go right?

Reviewing the Rosie O'Donnell production of the musical about Boy George (no, I'm not kidding), Terry Teachout has a classic line, that I just had to share.

TT quips, "If Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom had produced "Taboo" instead of "Springtime for Hitler," they'd have stayed out of jail... ."

To coin a phrase, read the whole thing here.

Viva Las Vegas

The wife and I are heading out on a well deserved vacation, so postings may be sporadic this next week. I'm taking the trusty iBook, recently upgraded with a bigger hard drive (a tale for another day), and a bag full o' cameras. So at the very least I will return with good stories and pictures for the photography site. But, who knows, if internet connectivity presents itself along the way, there might even be some postings from on the road.

In the meantime, visit Futurballa Photography. My good chum and conservative counterpart, George Wallace at A Fool in the Forest (it is said if we ever meet the universe will self destruct, but that is patently untrue). Make good use of the blogroll (to your right, please keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times). And take a gander at the League of Liberals and its ever growing list of members.

Mahalo

Casting a Vote

There were a few nice political postings, but not much in the non-political area this week at the New Blog Showcase, so I'll just be casting one vote for fellow League member, And Then...

And Then...: Late Night With Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist

You've Lost That Loving Feeling

It's been several days, but I forgot to mention the passing of Bobby Hatfield, half of the blue eyed soul band of the Sixties, The Righteous Brothers.

Yes, they did soul with a face that white America could accept, just like when Pat Boone sang Little Richard songs, but the difference was that these guys had a voice and a sound that crossed racial lines.

They are a bit before my time, but I have an older sister who was a big fan of theirs ever since she saw them warm up for The Beatles in the early sixties (either San Francisco or Vegas, not certain). So I heard them a lot growing up.

Bill Medley spoke at Hatfield's funeral yesterday. He said, "I'm going to miss our two-part harmony. I'm going to miss our rock and roll. I'm going to miss looking to my right on stage and seeing my friend." Addressing Hatfield, he added, "I want you to rest as well as you lived."

The CNN article can be read here.

Blogger Alert!

Don't let this happen to you.

My Top 10

The last post inspired me to respond with my own 10 best.

1. This Is Spinal Tap
2. A Hard Day's Night
3. The Wall
4. Tommy
5. Don't Look Back
6. Rock & Roll High School
7. The Doors
8. The Decline of Western Civilization
9. Help
10. Yellow Submarine

And 5 best Concert Films.

1. The Last Waltz
2. Stop Making Sense
3. Gimme Shelter
4. Rust Never Sleeps
5. Woodstock

...these go to eleven

It's official. This is Spinal Tap is the best rock movie ever!

Here is the rest of the list ---
The top 10 rock-related films are:

1. This Is Spinal Tap

2. A Hard Day's Night

3. Sid & Nancy

4. High Fidelity

5. Almost Famous Untitled: The Bootleg Cut

6. Velvet Goldmine

7. Desperately Seeking Susan

8. Hedwig & The Angry Itch

9. Rock 'N' Roll High School

10. 24 Hour Party People

I would agree with about half, but the number one is a sure thing.

Concert films were handled in a separate poll. The Band's The Last Waltz beat Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense and The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter in a list to find the Best Rock Concert on DVD.

Don't Mess Around With Bill

As my regular readers might have noticed, the Al Franken, Fox News, Bill O'Reilly dustups have been a bit of a pet project here at Futurballa. Last evening, I saw something that has a peripheral relationship that kind of made me do a double take. Fox's O'Reilly, on the Spin Zone show, began to do one of his regular, boy has our justice system gone awry and look at the librul judges, shows. The story was about a judge who blocked an FBI sting operation against child pornographer because the FBI had overreached in some way.

Of course we won't know the way that the FBI over reached, because O'Really's guests included a retired FBI agent who had not been involved in this operation for over a year and Chuck Norris, who was there to pimp some family friendly internet service provider, but who appeared to have absolutely nothing to offer in terms of the case at hand. There was no legal expert or professor of constitutional law who could shed some light on why the judge might have found that this particular operation violated the constitutional rights of its targets.

What was interesting about this little story is who the judge was. The judge in question was one Denny Chin, who happens to be the same jurist who threw out the Fox copyright infringement lawsuit against Al Franken as being totally without merit. Is this a warning to judges throughout America? Don't mess with Fox or you might be the target of a Spin Factor report! I knew Bill was thin skinned, but this seems to be just plain vindictive.

Sorry no links, O'Really hasn't posted this story yet on the Fox website.

What's Up Doc?

I don't subscribe to the Wall Street Journal (for obvious reasons), and Terry Teachout, if he has gotten around to it, has not yet shared his take on The Looney Tunes Golden Collection, so I'll jump out ahead. I'm sure he will have more interesting things to say on the subject than I, but here goes.

I've only gotten through the first disk so far, which focuses, quite pleasantly, on Bugs Bunny. It has 14 shorts and an enjoyable collection of extras, including a history of the development of Bugs, Elmer Fudd, and Yosemite Sam, who was patterned after Tunes director, Friz Freleng. Some nice bits from the early Bugs Bunny TV show are also included. The selection of shorts is good, but not perfect. Some obvious classics are being held back from future releases, but this is a solid collection including, "What's Up Doc", "The Bunny of Seville", "Water, Water, Every Hare", and "Baseball Bugs".

The other disks focus on the many other great Looney Tunes characters, including Daffy, Foghorn Leghorn, Roadrunner, and the list goes on. There are 58 shorts in all and extras on each disk. The restorations are very nice, and most importantly, they are as funny as ever. Looney Tunes, were always the witty counterweight to the softer Disney shorts. While Disney has always had very smooth and detailed animation, they were always geared to the younger audience. Warner, made more animated and frenetic cartoons that had the silliness and characters the kids loved, but the wit that could entertain adults. For my generation the Jay Ward cartoons like Rocky and Bullwinkle were the obvious heir of Warner's sharp wit.

It is a fine collection. My only caveat is that WB will probably own my wallet for at least 3 or 4 more sets. Curses!

Elsewhere (on the culture front)

Mickelthwait posits, to paraphrase Marquez, Love in the Time of Multiple Remotes.

DVD Journal introduces me to a new word. Quadrilogy, as in "Don't want to shell out a B. Franklin for Fox's upcoming Alien Quadrilogy box set? Never fear all the four films will be released individually in two-disc sets on Jan. 3, while the ninth, "bonus" disc will be available only for slipcase buyers."

Forager 23 has a very nice analysis of the X-Men. (My current comic book reading is focused on Sandman.)

OGIC goes to see La Jetee, and tells us that if we are in Chicago not to miss Jules et Jim. "Shakespeare."

Couple of League Links

The Mahablog provides a bit of history of Armistice Day.

Different Strings has a heartrwarming story about Larry Flynt. Who'd a thunk?

Poison Kitchen picks Devil in the Dark as the best Star Trek episode ever.

Electability

Josh Marshall makes some interesting points on why Howard Dean may not be "the man" just yet. In summary, his main point is that the Dean electorate while united, does not necessarily reflect the party at large, and as the field narrows that will become more evident. Read the whole thing here, and John Judis' response here.

Honestly, I haven't made up my mind yet, and expect the field to be significantly narrowed by the time we get to the California Primary, which should make my life easier. As it stands I could live with Dean, Clark or Kerry, but expect my choice to be between Dean and Clark. To coin a phrase, stay tuned.

Diane Arbus Reevaluated

It must have been around 1975 that I first became aware of Diane Arbus. During my junior or senior year in high school the famous Aperture monograph of her work (the one with the twins on the cover, originally published in 1972, one year after her death) was circulating. I don't remember if it was a student or a teacher who brought it in, but we were all fascinated by her odd pictures of Transvestites, Twins, nudists and Jewish Giants. To my teenage eyes it held the fascination of a freakshow, but even then I understood that Arbus was not being voyeuristic, but that the images I was looking at were oddly loving and intimate.

In some ways, Arbus was my first introduction to fine art photography. Before that, photography to me was to be found in the pages of Life or National Geographic. Now my tastes lean more towards artists like Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Ansel Adams, Bill Brandt, and Man Ray. Sometimes Arbus seems like the stuff of college girls. Kind of the Sylvia Plath of photography, the progenitor of Cindy Sherman. But still she carries a fascination. Her subjects are so obviously at ease with her. She has intimated herself into their lives and they have opened their doors to her and bared something very personal to her camera.

As a photographer myself, I'm more of a landscape and architecture type. Occasional candid street photography, but never what Arbus did. She so obviously befriended these people, lived with them, spoke to them without judgment, and in the end recorded them at their most vulnerable. That in itself is a talent that I am in awe of. She is an observer of humanity in all its frailties, and as much as her work is flawed in terms of often static compositions and the use of full frame 6x6 images can be disconcerting, it continues to engage the viewer and to invite the observer into the lives of people that we would ordinarily turn away from. Her fascination with the beauty in what others might see as ugly reminds me in some ways of the stories of Flannery O'Connor.

There is a beauty and an innocence to her images that even today is very powerful. It is often necessary with an artist like Arbus, who has committed suicide and become an icon of sophomoric angst, to forget about how you reacted as a teenager and look at her with fresh eyes.

The current show at SFMoma, which I attended last Friday does just that. It brings together over 300 pieces and presents many works that have never been exhibited before. They are shown in a roughly chronological order and show her development as a photographer, an artist, and a technician. The exhibit has been memorialized in a new book as well, Diane Arbus Revelations. If you get an opportunity to see the show, forget your preconceptions and you will perhaps find weaknesses in her work you never saw before, but you will also find that Arbus has earned her place in the history of art photography.

I Link to a Fool

I just noticed that my Google ad banner on Futurballa Blog has a link to a site called iworkwithfools.com, which features true stories from the workplace. Oddly enough I don't work with fools (in general), and have never written on the subject. So it must be a case of mistaken identity, because quite often, I link to a Fool.

....and elsewhere

Kevin Drum wonders if Arnold is hiring investigators to look into his past groping behavior, couldn't they pool resources with OJ's investigators?

And remember those new neologisms I linked to from Atrios? Well one of my LOL compatriots has brought to my attention that some fine person has created a whole dictionary of them.

Might be another light day beyond this short missive. Planning a field trip that, if all goes as expected, should produce some blogging grist for this blogger's mill.

Insert Blogging Cliche Here

Yes it is the inevitable, light blogging day, not a hiatus, just away from the computer most of the day fulfilling other responsibilities.

Couple of niceties from About Last Night.

First Terry gives a bit on why attendance is lagging at The Producers. TT of course, puts it down to the show being dated, which is something we here at Futurballa, heartily disagree with. The good news is that Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane will be returning for a 14 week stint to inject some life into the production. Terry is even kind enough to link to his WSJ piece that is, glory be, in the free section. Read my take on The Producers here, and Mr. Wallace's assessment here.

Secondly OGIC shares a smidgen of Gorey.

Enjoy.

Had enough of Blogging?

More neologisms from Atrios.

I doubt if any of these will really catch on, but amusing nonetheless.

Vote Early, Vote Often

Here are my votes from the early entries at this weeks New Blog Showcase.

Nice piece on "Mr. Bring it on"
Clareified: Death By Invitation

And in the non-political category, how could I resist a "Halloween is my favorite holiday" posting from someone calling themselves Mr. Cranky?
Mr_Cranky: A Halloween Story

To Blog or Not...

George Wallace and Aaron Haspel engage in a discussion on the use of the word Blog. I have no dog in this fight. I respect, read, and link to both of these gentlemen, and George is a dear personal friend. However, I can't get too upset about the use of jargon. As someone who works with software engineers for a living, I can tell you that without jargon we would be reduced to hand signals and grunts.

Not Here [Addendum]

Eric Alterman offers more insight into the item I noted below from Josh Marshall. The last word in the truth about Linda Tripp. Here.

And Terry Teachout tackles the cancellation of CBS' Reagan miniseries, and has some very interesting things to say.
Read the whole thing here.

Not Here (Elsewhere)

At Salon (get thee a day pass or subscribe) Eric Boehlart has an excellent piece on the (mis)assumptions of BushCo going into Iraq.

This paragraph especially struck me.

"At the center of those plans was a unique brand of neocon wishful thinking that bordered on the fanciful, even delusional. As Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, told Salon this summer, "There doesn't appear to have been a contingency plan. It's scary but true. An underlying assumption of this whole campaign against Iraq and the larger campaign to remake the whole Middle East was that all we had to do is knock off Saddam Hussein and everything else would fall down obediently at our feet. The Iraqis themselves would welcome being liberated, the Syrians and Iranians would be cowed and start doing what we want, and all will be for the best in this best of all possible worlds.""

Joe Conason chimes in on a similar subject here.

Via SFGate this NYT story is an unfortunate reminder that the so called liberal media has no teeth.

Josh Marshall notes that irony is not dead.

Leaving politics, Michele Delio writing at Wired.com debunks some myths around the Salem Witch trials and links to the University of Virginia's Salem Witch Trials Site. They actually happened one town over. Read it here.

Not surprisingly, Michael Blowhard hates Kill Bill. Read his evisceration here. (Earlier discussions can be found starting here and here.)

And thanks to the LOL for plugging my newest gallery.

Mahalo

Whale Power

This last weekend I watched Whale Rider. This film had provoked some controversy during its theatrical release because the producers had used a quote from Roger Ebert recommending the movie to "the whole family" on the advertisement. The film has a PG-13 because of a bit of language and a momentary shot of a marijuana pipe. The MPAA cried foul that the makers of Whale Rider were marketing a PG-13 movie to children, which is a no-no. Ebert entered the fray, arguing the ridiculousness of a ratings system that puts a fine film such as this in the same category as Scary Movie and Scream.

I will join Roger in saying "take the kids". This is a great movie about empowerment. There has been a recent spate of films from overseas about young women and girls overcoming the limitations and prejudices placed on them by society. Rabbit Proof Fence dealt with racism, and a journey home for 2 young girls across the Australian outback. It was an emotional and heartrending film. Bend it Like Beckham was a lighter look at an Indian family in modern England, and the culture clash that occurs when the youngest daughter wants to play soccer. And Whale Rider deals with a girl born to be a chief of her Maori tribe in New Zealand, but has to deal with her paternalistic and chauvinistic grandfather.

All of these movies have important things to say to the subject of female empowerment and simply of humans overcoming odds to live their dreams. As an adult, I enjoyed all three. Whale Rider, with its focus on a young girl, is a wonderful film to share with your children. It is life affirming and the language is very mild. The one drug reference is of the girl's slacker uncle trying to hide his pipe when she walks in on him. You never see him use it, and it is almost too quick to notice.

The ratings system is broken, and this case is the best example of why it needs to be revamped into something that might actually be useful to parents.

New Gallery at Futurballa Photography

A gallery of images taken in Los Angeles last month are up at Futurballa Photography. They are posted in Black and White Gallery II, and include a number of interiors at the Bradbury Building, perhaps most famous as the location where scenes of Blade Runner were shot. Some exteriors in downtown LA around the Bradbury. And a number of shots taken on Fairfax Avenue, home of the best delis and bakeries on the West Coast, in my humble opinion.

The Bradbury shots were taken with Ilford Delta 100 using a Sigma 20mm lens on my Canon Elan 7. The shots on Fairfax were shot with Ilford HP5 with a Canon 1.8 50mm lens. For those of you who care about that sort of thing. The images were scanned from negatives on an Epson 2400 Scanner and the Gallery was created in Photoshop CS.

Enjoy and Mahalo

Count Your Pixels

Nice article at Forbes.com on why pixels matter. Does a pretty good job of clearing up some of the mystery around digital photography and pixel count.

Sorry that it's more of a Linking Day than a Thinking Day. Not enough time in the day.

Mahalo

Putting Blogs to Good Uses

One of my LOL compatriots, Grateful Dread on the Web, is participating in Blog for a Cure to Diabetes, along with BlogCritics he is trying to raise awareness of the disease through his blog. This is a fine and noble purpose for whatever publicity can be garnered via the blogging medium.

Pay a visit, get informed, and maybe get involved!

Scanning for you

Spent a good part of Sunday scanning negatives from my recent trip to LA (read about it here) and hope to have an update to Futurballa Photography soon. There are some interesting shots of the Bradbury Building in downtown LA and a bit of street photography in my old shtetl. Still have a roll or two from old town Pasadena to digitize and after spending a bit of time updating some software, time ran out.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Other matters...

I noticed this morning that the ecosystem has moved to a unique links method for ranking. Since joining the League of Liberals, I had skyrocketed to undeserved and lofty status in the blogging ecosystem. Today, I'm back to a more realistic Flappy Bird level. Kudos to the Bear for discouraging the playing of the system.

Normally, I would never link to this "news" outlet, but the link comes via Buzzflash, and one wonders, if true, could this be Tweety's swan song?