New Year's Resolutions

So Father Time is creeping just around the corner and it's time for new perspectives and fresh starts. I thought I'd write a few resolutions here so I have a place to go to see what I haven't done during the year! I'll be adding some now and again and maybe even deleting one or two, too... These are in no particular order:

1. Do more photography.

If you know me then you know that I have a whole lotta cameras I'm not even using! In 2008 I want to pull out the TLRs and do some serious shooting and experimentation. I enjoy it, I just have to make the time to get out there and do it.

2. Make our home more of a place that we really love.

We've been here for ten years and have basically done nothing at all with our house or yard. I have a feeling we're going to be here for a while so I want to look at it as a blank canvas and make it a place where we really love to to spend time and to share with friends and family. This includes cleaning it up, simplifying (ie., getting rid of crap!) , organizing and adding our own personal touches all around.

3. Don't let people walk on/take advantage of me.

Sometimes I'm too nice (hard to believe, I know) and this in turn can cause some people to take advantage of me. I think it's time for me to look at myself to determine how it's happening so I can put an end to it. It's sad to me that I have to include this in something I want to accomplish for myself but I'm afraid that's just the way it goes.

4. Be as healthy as I can be.

Yeah, yeah, I know it sounds cliche... but I really do want to get healthy this year and stay that way, too! The thing of it is, I know how I should be eating and what I should be doing to stay healthy but I just don't do it. How dumb is that? Sure I'm going to get sick and have some problems, but won't they be a bit easier to cope with if I'm as healthy as I can be? I hope my love joins me in this quest, I want us to be together for a long, long time to come.

5. Discover great music.

You know I dig the tunage but I have to say that I sort of got away from listening to music this year. Maybe the writer's strike will force me to turn off the TV and to discover more music. Shame on me, music is so important in my life... what's wrong with me?! I just need to think about how I'm going to do this: Get Sirius Radio? Go on Pandora? Find a site that makes suggestions? Any help in this arena would be greatly appreciated.

6. Spend more times outdoors, even if the weather sucks.

This is Cleveland and we all know that our weather is not the best you can find in the country! If I let that stop me I'll never enjoy the great outdoors and this area does have stuff to offer in that venue. This resolution can be combined with number1, as I am mainly an outdoor shooter.

7. Reconnect with friends.

We all have busy lives and it sometimes takes a great effort to cultivate and maintain friendships. I used to be so very good at this but I'm afraid I let things go to the wayside and have sort of lost touch with some people I care about. So now I'm going to make an effort to get together with them and to at least show them I care about our friendship.

Well, that's all I can come up with right now! Lucky 7, eh? I might be adding to this list in the very near future so you might want to check it on occasion to see if I've added anything else. In the meantime, I'd like to wish each and every person who takes the time to read this silly blog a very joyous and most auspicious 2008!

No one sits here anymore....

Ghost Chair

Holga, Fuji Neopan 400

Creepy Holga Fun

Yeah, yeah, I know it's not Halloween anymore but I just got this film back from my expert processor and I felt I needed to share!

The scarecrows were made by elementary school students and they're attached to a fence that runs in front of their school (it's across the street from Normandy High School if you're from these here parts). They're as creepy as all get out, just as much so in living color as they are in black and white! The first time I saw them I was on my way to work and I almost wrecked my car --- I knew I needed to go back with the Holga. You can see the school in the background of a couple of the pics.

The hubby and I went on a little expedition on the east side one day and we were driving down Rt. 306 when I saw this weird sort of fall playground for kids. It contained hay bale creatures, the best (read: creepiest) was this spider. I yelled out to my loved one to pull over and we ran out into the field for a couple of shots... so glad we did.

Shot with a Holga, Fuji Acros 100.

Can you change a front man successfully?

Neal Schon has just announced that he has found a new lead singer for Journey. Neal found the incredibly talented Arnel Pineda signing with his Filipino band Zoo on (of all things) YouTube. One wonders if it will be a new renaissance for Journey, only time will tell...

So this begs the question: Can a band change the frontman and still put out the same good quality product while keeping diehard fans interested? I wonder how one of my favorite bands, Jethro Tull, would fare under such a decision. Would you accept a new frontman in your favorite band if it meant that the sound quality was just like 'the good old days'?

For the crafter who has everything

This is awesome, what more could a medieval buff want?

Home Made Trebuchet

So another fun night was had playing games with our dear friend, Wa! Tonight he gifted us with another fun B-Movie game, this one with a Western theme called Bushwackin' Varmints out of Sergio's Butte. This one was one of the most fun of this series of games, the rules really made the gameplay interesting. We has some good food, drank some nice alcohol and listened to some cool music including Devil Doll and the Portland based band, Kleveland - www.klevelandmusic.com

Thanks for always entertaining us, Ben, your Holga will be coming forth soon.... :D

Cleveland's Own Iron Chef!

Congratulations to Cleveland's very own Iron Chef, Lola's Michael Symon!

It was a tough road but Michael proved that a little ingenuity and clever culinary skills prevail over the mundane.... thanks for putting us on the map, Michael!

What an exciting battle it was, we were sitting on the edge of our seats rooting for you!

The Magic-al Mystery Trip

So it's been a while since I've played Magic: The Gathering but that doesn't mean I've forgotten the joys of the game.

My sweetheart and I were early devotees of this delightful and complex card game, we found it was a wonderful mixture of strategy and cool art with some good aspects of D&D. We bought all of the expansion sets, we have more boosters then you can shake a stick at. So why did we stop playing? I think it sort of got to the point where there were so many new sets coming out, we couldn't keep up. I swear it seemed like Wizards of the Coast was spewing them out every five minutes! I felt the pressure to make my decks bigger, stronger, faster. I tried all of these new combos to no avail. What I did find that was that my original decks, those made with the simplest of tactics, where always the most effective in play. I was getting away from the basic strategies by wanting to try all of the cool text on the new cards.

When our pal approached us about playing a game with a black theme I was thrilled. Why? Because there were concrete rules yet kept some things up to the controller's imagination. So now I'll compile a deck full of lovely old timey cards with maybe a few new ones thrown in. Time to haul out some rarities... A little All Hallow's Eve, anyone? :D

An End to Ticket Scalping?

Ok, a lot of us are avid concert goers, right? How many times have you logged on at 10am on the button on the first day tickets go on sale for an event and gotten seats in Row U? Well, there might be some good news....

Judge Bans Ticket Scalping Software

Lomography Renaissance?

Dolph Lundgren's killa told me about this yesterday. In a way it's kind of cool that they're supporting the analog renaissance, but if they were really serious about doing so they'd make their cameras more affordable so more of their fans would buy them. Charging $180 makes it look more like a money making scam than trying to encourage young, hip amateur photographers to revisit the old ways.... The Diana is kinda cool, though.

Maybe when they find out they aren't selling that many they'll have a peppermint-infused plastic camera garage sale! ;-)

Fast Food Nation, Healthy Eating Grrl

I did a book discussion today on Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal by Eric Schlosser. I'm sure you've heard of it, it's a famous expose on the fast food industry and all of the nasty things it's done to American diets and lifestyles. Schlosser covers everything from the downfall of the American farm to hideous practices in the meat packing industry to the poor judgement and consumerism that plagues our youth. It's a good read, I suggest you indulge if you can... if you have a strong stomach, that is.

After reading this book I thought, "Why would I eat this fast food crap at all? Am I really that lazy that I can't find (or make!) something better to eat than that?" I mean, basically everytime I go to Mickey D's I get sick and when I eat the fries I end up with a sore throat. I've always wondered about the latter, I discovered from reading the book that they put chemical beef fragrance on the fries to make them more appealing to the public. They make this frankenstein fragrance at the same place where they make Calvin Klein and Estee Lauder perfumes. I'm allergic to those, is it no wonder I can't eat the fries?

A few years back I went vegetarian for over a year. I'm not going to say it was easy because it wasn't --- every time we went out to eat I had to struggle to find things to order. It took a certain amount of effort but I have to say that my stomach thanked me and I felt pretty good. Somewhere along the line I got lazy and gave it up for the easy out of ordering, buying and eating meat. But just because I do that doesn't mean I have to eat garbage, there are organically raised meat products just as there are organic vegetables. After learning what the meat industry is feeding cows I think organic or free-range meat is the way to go if you must partake.

So for me I guess it all boils down to this: I know what I should be eating and I know how to get it. I know it's not always easy to find the right choices or to stick with it but I know I'm better off doing just that in the long run. So here's to finding a better alternative and to avoiding the fast food industry altogether.

How about you? Could you give up fast food because it's bad for you?

Been sick with a bad cold for going on two weeks now. What's up with that?! Staying home has given me time to read a bit, watch a ton and half of TV, play Oblivion, watch the Tribe and contemplate why I'm so freaking bored.

Gotta get out of this house! Seriously, I haven't spent nearly enough time in the Great Outdoors this year. Fall is here and I need to get out and photograph some autumn leaves before they wither away into brown clumps of nothing. So why is it taking me so long to get over this bug, anyway?

Dreaming of lovely fall moments and the weekend off that lies ahead....

Oh, and there's Pumpkin Ale to be had, too!

Think 'spooky' today....

From one of my favorite historians (who was also Librarian of Congress, btw...):


"Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge."
Daniel J. Boorstin

It's been a super-duper long time since I've posted something here, I'm going to try to remedy this situation and at least write a little bit to show that I really do have some things to say.

I've always been interested in photography. My dad always loved it and took wonderful slides of all of our great trips when I was a kid. There's something to be said for the slide as a format, it's generally crisp and clear and what I really love about it is that the slide you get back from processing is the photograph you actually took --- they can't alter in any way with chemicals or their own ideas of how your photograph should look. This is a rare commodity these days, you might not realize it but the prints you get back from photo processing aren't necessarily the exposure or the color rendition that came out of your camera. Human hands can wreak havoc on great photography!

The past year or so I've had an interest in using classic cameras. My dad had a Rolleiflex TLR that I drooled over for many years and he finally gave to me earlier this year. It's a complicated piece of machinery and I'm a little afraid to use it! My photog friend turned me onto the Holga, a lovely little plastic camera with light leaks galore. Using it has opened up a whole new world for me and I love the results I get with this light-leaking monstrosity. I'm proud of this baby, which I entered into my very first art show this summer.

So there's more to come in the photo world for me (hopefully!). I don't know if I'm any good but I can tell you that I enjoy the process and am pleased with the results.... and isn't that what it's all about? I enjoy digital photography but I have to tell you: To me there's almost nothing better than getting your film back from the lab and realizing that you nailed a great photograph. That anticipation and surprise is the one of the reasons I enjoy photography so much.

Alright, I admit it's been a long time since I've posted... and I mean a REALLY long time!

SO.... here's a nice concert review for y'all:

Steven Wilson and company have done it again, they’ve created an album that defines what has become the New Prog. Hard driving instrumentals, silky smooth vocals and thought provoking lyrics haunt the tracks of Fear of a Blank Planet, Porcupine Tree’s newest, critically acclaimed musical contribution.

Their current tour is in support of this album and support it they did, they played the entire album straight through! Now that’s something you don’t hear everyday, that’s for sure. After playing the title track Wilson announced that they would play the entire album and then have a 5 minute break and come back for some older tunes. It was a great plan that had the audience on the edge of their seats. The new songs do an excellent job of showcasing each of the members of the band: Wilson’s driving vocals and hard driving guitar licks, Richard Barbieri’s rhythmic keyboards, Colin Edwin’s steady bass, Gavin Harrison’s spot-on drums and John Wesley’s lush guitar solos and gorgeous backing vocals. The lyrics of these songs illustrate the numbness that technology has created in our youth and Steven Wilson’s stage presence was like an ominous portent of what might lie ahead if we turn off and get back to reality now. That pointing finger of his is an effective communicator and I felt its icy touch all the up in the balcony. They did the new album justice to be sure, a unique treat of a concert experience.The second half was chock full of lovely older tunes that included Lightbulb Sun, a searing rendition of Blackest Eyes, Trains (a fan favorite), Mother and Child, Open Car and Gravity Eyelids (one of my personal fave, wonders why!). Steven introduced a song from the In Absentia era that has never appeared on an album but “the Uber fan will know it”. Drown With Me was fantastic and is compelling me to seek it out! Halo had every single person in the audience screaming:

You can be right like me
With God in the hole you're a righteous soul
I got a halo round me,
I got a halo round me
I'm not the same as you
Cos I've seen the light and I'm gaining in height now
I got a halo round me,
I got a halo round me
I got a halo round my head

It was an amazing moment to be sure! All in all it was a wonderful show and it was obvious that the sold out crowd was loving every second of it!The lightshow was great as usual, with Lasse Hoile’s haunting (and often grotesque) images flashing on the large screen behind the band. The video for Blackest Eyes is as disturbing now as it ever was, a testament to its longevity and impact. It’s obvious they put a lot of thought into the show and the audience is appreciative of it. The opener for the evening was 3, a young group of long hairs with a distinct, almost metal sound. The lead singer has the voice of a young Geddy Lee and he belted out his vocals with passion and flare. Their performance was a surprising treat for overly anxious PT fans.

I’d have to say that if I had to pick out a highlight of the evening it would have to be watching John Wesley and hearing his contribution to the band. He sang just about every high part and he did it to perfection. His voice was lovely and his background vocals rounded out Steven’s sound. His guitar playing is getting better and better, he could certainly give Alex Lifeson a run for his money. My little group had the pleasure of speaking with John after the show at a pub and he told us that he has been working really hard on his vocals. It’s paid off John, and in spades. We asked him when he was going to actually join the band and he laughed --- I think he’s vital part of the group and can only add to their sound. Good show John, and great jacket!

It was another wonderful evening seeing one of my favorite bands of all time. And a special shout-out to Jon, George, Mike, Barry, Brian, Reed, Kevin, Alex, Ryan, Jesse and the rest of the gang --- you guys made an already fun night all the more special for RJ and me. Max and Poodledoo you were missed, next time, eh? I can’t believe there are so many cool PT fans in Cleveland…. Guess it just goes to show you that miracles can happen.