How I Did It

The wife and I watched Young Frankenstein over the holiday weekend. Almost as much a tradition as Alice's Restaurant. I was inspired to toss this together.

Essentials

This must be the ultimate Christmas gift for the film lover in your life. Cheaper than a post graduate degree in film studies (somewhat).

50 Years, 50 Films

Today in Technology

Couple of interesting items that I've come across lately.

Epson is coming out with the 3800 Pro printer, which based on the specs, seems to offer the best aspects of their previous models along with some new features. I've been using the 2200 for the last couple of years and have had the opportunity to use the 2400 which offers achromatic black and white printing (by using 3 shades of black, you can create Black and White prints without any color cast). The big downside of both of these printers for me was the need to switch photo black and matte black cartridges depending on the paper type used and the small cartridges it used that required frequent changing. The 3800 offers achromatic printing along with two slots for pure black.

I've just replaced my trusty Canon s400 point and shoot. After lots of research I ended up with a Fuji e900. The perfect point and shoot does not exist, as far as I'm concerned. I want RAW files, high res, low noise, manual controls, well laid out menus and good ergonomics. I have all of these things in my Canon SLRs (20D and 5D), but Canon has actually downgraded some of their more advanced P&S cameras in the last couple of years discontinuing the S70 and removing raw from the upgrade to the G6, the G7. Panasonic is doing some great things in terms of controls, ergonomics, great glass, but the word on the street is that their sensors are particularly noisy.

So in the end I chose for the Fuji. Camera is available for under $300, has raw and a 9 megapixel sensor that gets great reviews. Downsides are; no buffer when shooting raw so write times are slow, raw hidden in a menu, not my favorite menu layout and some unusual control methods for manual modes. However, for the image quality and feature set at this price point, if you are looking for a point and shoot, this one is definitely worth consideration.

After I've had a chance to take some images, I'll report back.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

I got a fever...

It's been a busy week, but to end it on a bright note, here is one of my all time favorite SNL sketches from youtube.

'cause we done shared all of mine

Grateful Dead - Jack Straw - Europe 1972



A little Friday treat from Jerry and Bob and the boys.

Here are the annotated lyrics from a very useful Dead resource.

Your Media at Work

On a day when America goes to the polls to decide the future direction of our country, this is the headline banner on CNN.com.



Britney files for divorce from Kfed.

You don't need to be Nostrodamus to have seen that one coming. And I'm sure there is something more important going on to put in the breaking news banner.

The Stations of the Cross

I pity the Fool who took a trip down the memory hole.

Pal George passed through the Bay Area this weekend and we decided to make the long awaited and often talked about road trip to our alma mater, UC Berkeley. While much has changed in 28 years, I was pleasantly surprised at how much had remained.


The Campanile. It's always good to have a big clock on a university campus. That's how I always new when I was blowing off a class.


Durham Studio Theater is where many of the student productions were performed. I spent many an hour in the scaffolds hanging lights as well as trodding the boards.


The Zellerbach Playhouse is where the larger productions happened. The production of As You Like It is where the aforementioned fool got his name, and also the location of our first meeting, which involved T.S. Eliot. A story for another time.


Sather Gate. Through these portals...


Kip's was the location of most of our drinking. When the barmaid heard that we hadn't been back in almost 30 years she bought us a beer. Life is good.


The Cafe Med is where Benjamin Braddock sat waiting for Elaine to get off of the bus and it is where Pal Ian and I wrote the film treatment for Futurballa, a series of vignettes based on the Futurist Manifestos, which later became his senior project at USC film school. Espresso fueled genius.

While drinking our espressos yesterday we saw the Bubble Lady, Julia Vinograd, who seems to have remained unchanged for the last 30 years and still hawks her poetry along Telegraph.


My old apartment. A studio on southside with a sliver of a bay view and a murphy bed. $160 a month in 1977.


Moe's, along with Shakespeare and Co. is among the last of the great independent bookstores along Telegraph since the demise earlier this year of Cody's.



The more things change, the more they stay the same.


We put our arteries on the line and partook of a Top Dog. Still great dogs on the most excellent buns, but they were better at midnight after smoking a bunch of weed. But what isn't?