I feel like a dinosaur.
Photoshop = no darkroom. What used to take hours can now be done in minutes.
Shooting in RAW and using auto bracketing means I can grossly over or underexpose an image, or use HDMI to create images never before possible.
At work I recently got some new camera equipment. A Nikon D3S; shoots at 6400 with no digital noise... for all intent purposes I'm shooting at ISO 12,800 with the equivalent noise of shooting with the old camera at 800.
I'm shooting speakers at a podium during their PowerPoint with only the light from their notebook LCD panel ambient light from the projection screen.
The lenses, 70-200mm with the latest vibration reduction, 24-70mm, 14-24mm all auto focusing, f2.8 lenses.
The question of what's more important; the equipment or the photographer? The lines blur. Without question the photographer's skills are essential; however, super equipment garners super results.
In an odd way I'm beginning to feel like an old rotary phone, a television dial, a typewriter, a walkman... they all still work, but they're archaic.
I'm just getting tired. Old and tired.
Or going down the elevator to exit a building and finding myself in a whole new place that I don't recognize.
But some of the recent projects have been really great experiences.
The trailer for Tom Hank's latest film is now playing and a whole portion of it highlights where I work. What no one seems to mention is Mr. Hanks is producing the film, co wrote the script, stars in the film and directed it as well.
What made the experience so great is that the crew left every thing they touched nicer and cleaner. They repainted entire lecture halls... and I also used some of the neatly dressed extras as background for some building shots.
It was an interesting experience since it seems the script was being molded on the fly. Hanks was scouting the location when he saw a blue scooter in the parking lot that he "had to have." The next thing, the scooter becomes an integral part of the film. The student who owned the scooter could hardly believe that Hanks wanted to buy the scooter and wasn't willing to part with it, but did when the film company offered him four times the value.
On a side note, Julia Roberts is incredibly tiny and thin. They made here walk down the same walk way over and over in different outfits in these high heels so by the end of the day, film crew had to carry her back to the starting point. I think Hanks called up all his friends and asked them to be in this film.
It's www.larrycrowne.com
One of the really cool films before that was the facebook film, directed by David Fincher. Fincher allowed six students to observe filming on set while they were there, It was more than that... he met each one, learned their names, introduced them to the entire cast and crew and explained to them everything he was doing, explained the reasons for his decisions, etc. It was a great experience for the students who were chosen.
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showmegrizz moved from Fargo to Southern California a little over a year ago. We been happily living together. We decided to do an electronic holiday card this year, so here it goes...CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE HOLIDAY GREETING!
Yes, that Christmas tree in the card is ours! And on Christmas Eve, we've had the air conditioner running. Christmas day, it may be cloudy, maybe even a chance of rain.
showmegrizz's reading
showmegrizz and I spent part of the day at the director's home with the cast of his reading, "Shifting Omoide."It's an interesting process watching actors work. All of his character cast were pros; Equity or SAG. And like that he's one degree of separation from folks like Harrison Ford, Angela Lansbury, Stephen Soundheim and Tom Hanks.
There's an amazing intensity in watching actors surround themselves in their roles. A synergy of creation when they click. Watching them discover their characters as they read.
And when they went home, it's apparent that they studied and worked on their lines.
Today, the actors took Bryan's words and brought them to life, in a way I never thought possible. I've noticed that the best actors are brilliant individuals. They ask questions about their characters and infuse everything they can find learn into the people they become on stage.
I'm totally in awe of actors!
Tomorrow is my reading. I couldn't make today's rehearsal, but I can't wait to see what they've done.
There's been so much going on.
A one-act play I wrote years ago has been resurrected and re-written.
It's log line is "Holy Sh*t! No womb at the inn bearly describes this craptabulous holiday tail,
No misspellings, or grammatical errors. Yes, it's a gay play reading and it's being directed by Michael A. Shepperd, Artistic Director of Los Angeles' CELEBRATION THEATER.
There's something in it to offend everyone.
Monday, December 13, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.. A reading of another play starts the program, ONE NIGHT should start after 8:00 or 8:30 p.m..
EAST WEST PLAYERS
THE DAVID HENRY HWANG THEATER
120 North Judge John Aiso Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
The reading is free, so if you're in the Los Angeles area Monday night, you are invited. I really need some feedback!
In more news:
showmegrizz moved from Fargo a year ago and we're living together, If you're interested, his reading is Sunday, December 12 at 1:00 p.m., same location. He has a great director and an incredible cast, including veteran Broadway actors.I will start posting more often. Really.
So, everyone has been expecting big things from the Apple announcement this morning.
iTablet sounded too much like medicine, iSlate sounds like it belongs in Flintstone land. The iPad is a true Maxi Pad! My guess is it'll be a significant change in how we consume media.
When Apple first introduced the iPod, it was rather bulky, could hold 5 GB and it cost $500. I couldn't imagine why anyone could would pay that much for a music player. After all, I had just paid $299 for a top of the line, portable CD player that could play four hours of music with a rechargeable battery. Sure, it was a great deal heavier than an iPod. Add to that, I had to carry a case holding CDs, but $500 for a plastic box that plays music? Prior to that Apple had introduced iTunes and iPhoto and some other software, but I certainly wasn't interested in listening to music at the computer.
Then I realized that I could organize my music library and find any track from my hundreds of CDs in seconds if i put them in iTunes... and all the sudden, the iPod became a source of desire. I had no idea that iTunes and iPhoto would be an advanced preview of things to come. Later on they added the photo capabilities and changes to the iTunes store; they added video then games.
When the iPhone was introduced, I thought is was slick, but didn't see a need for a super phone. Steve Balmer said it best, "Who's going to pay $600 for a phone?" Of course, I was thinking, "Who's going to pay $600 for Windows Vista Ultimate?" I knew I wouldn't be buying either Windows Vista or an iPhone. That lasted for two weeks. Once I got my hands on an iPhone, it was irresistible. One I got my chance to use Windows Vista, I knew I'd never switch over.
The few applications that came with the phone became immensely integrated into my life. Then the App Store opened and the phone function became the least used part of the iPhone.
I remember when Sony introduced their PlayStation Portable. Roughly the same screen size as an iPhone, but movies were on those stupid discs, games on RAM cards. The iTunes Store and the App Store was just a much more elegant way to purchase media. The cost of the media was significantly lower.
So now they've introduced the iPad. I have the same feeling that I had with the iPhone. Slick, but not much else.
I guess I'd rather pay $499 for a color e-reader that plays music and video, surfs the web, lets you read and send email, and has lots of games and application. It's lighter and thinner than a netbook.
It all depends on how it feels in the hands. Photo viewing and web functions are already a great experience when using an iPhone. I can only imagine what it's like with a larger screen.
It's so much better than a netbook. I looks like it's more readable than e-paper electronics (and you can read in a darkened room, but I doubt it would be much fun reading out in the sun).
The real advantage will be for college students who will be able to buy their textbooks for a fraction of their price, not have a pile of books to have to lug around as well as having a research device, game machine and media center. One semester of text books would pay for the lower end iPad.
Professionals such as doctors, salespeople will have a larger workspace than the iPhone screen, and the thing is incredibly affordable for professional use.
It's not a geek device, but like the iPhone, the iPad will fill an interesting niche.
The iPad will be common place in a few years, it'll be hard to imagine how we lived without it. Apple did what no other company seems capable of doing. Through vertical integration, they have reimagined the hardware, software and deployment of both to carve new inroads into how we live.
Everyone else has produced a tablet in the past. Apple has created something much more. I'm guessing fast initial sales, then when people see their friends with one and get it in their hands, growth in sales will be exponential.
Yesterday I spent some time at reefapolooza. Of course,
showmegrizz thought I said Reeferpolooza.Yeah, a reefer convention at the Orange County Fairplex.
It was actually rather fun, with hobbiest and coral farmers from all over Southern California looking to sell, trade and buy coral fragments.
A decade agp it wasn't possible to keep coral alive. Marine aquarist would collect fish, invertebrates and corals... and quite frankly, it was like buying flowers; beautiful today, dead in a few weeks. There was little though in regards to destroying reefs.
But it's a whole new game with today's reef tanks... yes, coral farms!
The variety and color of the different kinds of coral is astonishing. It's equally astonishing how many bear-like guys seem to be into coral and reef tanks. So much eye candy, even surpassing Best Buy aor Homo Depot.
I know, coral... how geeky.
Even more geeky is that I entered a raffle and won a Aqua Euro 135 sump skimmer! It's valued at $360 retail. I'm all crazy happy. It doesn't take much to do that to me. Geek Supreme1
This man has people confused. The far, far right believe him... I'm laughing and will help to support the cause.
He's submitted a proposition to the California Secretary of State to solidify the "Yes on 8" proposition and take things one step further by constitutionally banning divorce in the state of California.
Support the cause. Go to the website: http://rescuemarriage.org/
Read the articles, watch the video interviews. The guy is great!
"California has a divorce rate that some have computed to be as high as 75%. Even after removing Zsa Zsa Gabor and Larry King from the pool — we still are left with a rate in the high 50s.
Proposition 8 tried to make traditional marriage safer by making sure that Adam Lambert and Ryan Seacrest can’t profess their eternal love to one another. Prop 8 backers recognized that gay marriage was just the beginning of a very slippery slope. Next people would be marrying goats, trees and particularly stylish armchairs.
Sometimes other people need to sacrifice in order to protect my ideas about traditional marriage. It's just a fact of life. It's not about their soul-sucking sham of a marriage, it's about what we value as a society. We live in a divorce-promiscuous society. It's on the television, it's in movies, the newspapers. It's even in our kids textbooks."
In one interview he talks about how he abhors shellfish and thinks people should sell their daughters into slavery... a true Christian at heart and satire at it's best.
My Apple RAID card kept giving me the message that the battery wouldn't charge properly.
The guy who called had a wonderful deep, smooth voice; I wanted to ask him if he was a bear. Definitely an American Tech support guy, probably Californian. My imagination went wild.
Apparently they must not sell many of their RAID cards, since it wasn't an option when I was filing my support request; he also had to check with other technicians to verify what the problem would most likely be.
When he put me on hold, East Asian Indian music played... and I couldn't help but to laugh.
Tech support for Earthlink is always someone called Mary or Joe that I keep having to ask to repeat themselves because I can't understand what they are saying... and they usually play the Beach Boys or something similar when I'm on hold.
I guess Apple really does "think different."
Just as I suspected, a bad battery... and an uber-sexy sounding tech guy that I wanted to have come over and wipe my hard drive. I need to get laid.
Wednesday evening I went to bed depressed. Bryan
showmegrizz had just flown back to Minneapolis, where he'd have to take a bus to Fargo. I was in Bryan withdrawals.I hadn't seen Bryan since May, when we spent a week in Sterling/Denver for his nephew's wedding.
This time a full week in Los Angeles, highlighted by the Lobster Festival in Long Beach on Sunday.
The big news is that I'm moving from the South Bay area of Los Angeles to Huntington Beach. The bigger news is that Bryan is moving to Huntington Beach! No more long distance relationship! There are plenty of challenges ahead, like Bryan's dialysis schedule, a much longer drive into work, money, money, money and a senile father that needs care.
Upcoming posts include:
The passing of an LJer and his "troubled life."
My dad not knowing he bought two 2009 Toyotas for people he knew, but didn't know their names.
The police action that caused the above two people to be evicted from the motel they were living in.
The bargaining with the Toyota dealer that made me buy the URL southbaytoyotasucks.com
After a full explanation of what happened, I'll be asking for opinions of whether I should activate the site.
Why I hated working on the film set.
Why Vivaldi's lost opera was lost and should have remained undiscovered.
Why I love Amanda Plummer.
Why Keenesberg isn't so keen... It's between Sterling and Denver, CO, but it might as well be the twilight zone.
A woman from Montana looking for work at Walmart in Southern California and how she depends on God to save her from the evils of black magic and voodoo; like astrology and Ouija boards
Politics, religion and so much more!
