sparkrobot

Found quite a nice collection of Swiss poster designs on the Flickr today: Swiss Graphic Design History – a photoset on Flickr

I’m sorry Amazon, it’s over. It’s not me, it’s you. You don’t know me at all and you just don’t get me. An excerpt from a morning email:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,
We’ve noticed that customers who have expressed interest in Back in the USA by MC5 have also ordered From Conception: Live 1981 by Dokken. For this reason, you might like to know that Dokken’s From Conception: Live 1981 is now available. You can order your copy for just $14.99 ($3.99 off the list price) by following the link below.

Best of luck to you.

Wow. Game on.

Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store

I picked out Sunnyside Beach Park from a regional map. It looked like a good place to walk a couple of dogs. I think I missed the turn, so we never quite got there, but did happen upon Chamber Creek Properties serendipitously. Walking along the path I stood up on a bench and took several photographs. Back at home, I stitched them together with Photoshop. Fox Island on the right, Mc Neill in the center, Anderson Island left of center and Ketron Island on the far left. Probably needless to say, but go big on this one. The large version is online here.

The names of the surrounding master planned communities were amusing. Especially when voiced as a Thurston J. Howell III impression. They all seemed to have names like The Meadow Glen at Creek Point or Ironwood Estate Manor Hill Knoll. Whatever.

Chambers Creek Properties on the web.

Hey October… It’s March. Yeah, well, better late than never. I had forgotten about these photos I shot at Hell’s Kitchen back in October of 2006 when I found them again recently while digging through hard drives. The Turn Ons (Seattle) brought their own light show and dressed up as cats for Halloween… Go on, see the photos of The Turn Ons.

I’ve posted a couple of submissions to JPG magazine for the upcoming issue, including an image taken in Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood last summer of the Western State Hospital ruins under the umbrella category “Entropy: Things fall apart.”. Another theme for image submission is “Breakthrough: Discovery, progress, and revolution.” for which I’ve submitted an image taken at the Hotel San Jose in Austin, Texas last summer. The themes are to be included in Issue 10, which closes in 18 days. So this is a call to you—my really-good-very-best-super-awesome friend—to vote for my images. This is a democracy. You don’t want to be responsible for its elementary breakdown. This is about freedom. So go vote.

If you haven’t heard of it, JPG magazine is a new concept magazine / community built around people who love photography. I have a few of the early print-on-demand issues and a purchased a subscription when it became their new offset press publishing model. Unlike most photography magazines, JPG is not one of those magazines with reviews of every new digital camera (gear gear gear) and ads that consume most of the available page real estate. It’s about photography and there are huge spreads of (believe it or not) photographs. There are some ads, but not the variety that are huge bargain price lists that clutter other mags.

The manifesto:

JPG Magazine is for people who love imagemaking without attitude. It’s about the kind of photography you get when you love the moment more than the camera. It’s for photographers who, like us, have found themselves online, sharing their work, and would like to see that work in print.

If you want to see more images of the ruins of the Western State Hospital facility in Lakewood, they’re online on my flickr account. Sorry if you’re reading this twice, WordPress is tripping out on jpgmag’s promo banner javascript…

A couple weeks back I was at Bob’s Java Jive and some bands bands were playing, presumably because it was my birthday. Both Tacoma bands, Waves and Radiation (photos) and Sons of Ivan each played. Waves and Radiation taps the instrumental space rock vein, reminiscent of Duster, but let’s say eating a Mogwai sandwich. (Mmm. Evil fairy sandwich.) Sons of Ivan (photos) had a droney shoegazer 60s pop sound.

The show was also a benefit to keep the Jive alive and there was a raffle between sets with lots of donated goods. Tacoma rock stalwarts Girl Trouble donated a bunch of stuff to the mix. The apex being a signed Estrus 7″ box set that went home with a lucky gal. Good reason to be jealous.

Surprise, I brought a camera and some film. I’ve posted some photos to the gallery.

Josh Bernstein, Piano Tuner
“Until there’s a satellite channel dedicated to a lonely statistician in Tacoma talking about his figurine collection, I’m sticking with ham radio.”

Poor Tacoma. No one even got shot.

A few months ago, I posted here about Split Lip Rayfield’s Kirk Rundstrom and his battle with esophageal cancer. Unfortunately, he lost. A comment on the post this morning informed he has died this morning. The band had lots of friends and a dedicated following.

Adios Kirk.

Here’s a link to an article on Harp Magazine: Split Lip Rayfield Founder Kirk Rundstrom Passes Away.

I got a new Yashica today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know. I had a telegram from the home: ‘Yashica passed away. Funeral tomorrow. Yours sincerely.’ That doesn’t mean anything. It may have happened yesterday.

The half frame Yashica Samurai x3.0 (with Samurai Integrated Technology!) is by far one of the most interesting items I’ve picked up to date. Created in 1987-88, it shoots two frames on the width of one 35mm frame. It allows for interesting in camera composition on varying subjects. At first glance what I like most about it is the ability to create a pair of images with a permanent record on film. It’s and upright SLR that looks like a palm held camcorder with a 35-105mm zoom lens. The lens is threaded for a standard 49mm filter with f-stops from f3.5 at wide angle to f4.3 at telephoto. This is according to info I found on the intarweb. I got it at Goodwill and it didn’t come with a manual, so I’ve been scraping details from random sources. It came with a Hoya star filter installed. I’m going to leave that intact for a while and see what happens.

I added a 2CR5 battery and it was off and running. It works just like it came off the shelf so I’m feeling pretty lucky. I didn’t have so much luck with a Zeiss Ikon Contessa rangefinder I got a from Goodwill a while back which had an wicked sharp lens, but also a wicked light leak I can’t seem to fix.

The best part is the “Samurai Integrated Technology” indicated on the case. It delivered immediate authority when the camera was busted out, as if fabulous secret powers were revealed to me and The Power of Greyskull was just invoked.

I put a roll of cheap Kodak Gold 200 I got at Kmart through it and some of the results from the first roll up on Flickr.