Watch this space!

Or, actually, don't - at least not for the next ten days or so as I will be in Italia!  In fact, I will be here for a large portion of it!!!

My only slight sorrow is that, after months of frustration, agony, obsession and even a bit of campaign work, I will not be here when* Obama clinches the Democratic nomination.  I have prepared to the extent I can for celebrating that happy day - even from Tuscany.  I am packing my Shepard Fairey "Hope" t-shirt, which I have been saving for the day, and I have 'created' a 'concept' album/CD in four 'acts' (with hoped for one song epilogue). I mocked myself even while doing it - but was unable to stop myself.

See y'all in 10 days! 

*Knock wood.  Which I have to say because whilst "I'm not superstitious, I am a little 'stitious."

Indy.... (with SPOILERS)

Disappointment.

I loves me some Raiders of the Lost Ark. I enjoy The Last Crusade. However, as many know, I loathe Temple of Doom with the sortof loathing only comparable to the loathing I feel for such horrors as Brave Heart and Forest Gump.

And I find this latest - The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - to be between The Last Crusade and Temple of Doom on the 'pleasing summer fun' / 'I can't believe I just used up two hours of my life on this - and paid for the privilege' scale (and "between," in this instance, should be understood not to be halfway between, but about two thirds of the way toward the low end of that scale).

I sat around thinking 'why is this not working for me?' (and, yes, that tense is correct, as the thinking was going on while I was watching the movie - specifically at the point where Shia was engaged in a fencing match with Cate - that's right - fencing with swords - while they were each standing up on separate truck type vehicles - while said vehicles raced off-road through the jungle). I'm not sure when the Indiana Jones franchise decided they could lift sequences from Return of the Jedi (sans Jedi). I mean, is Lucas's imagination cupboard really that bare? Of course, since the film centers on the principal conceit of Close Encounters of a Third Kind...

You know what I like about the Bond reboot? Within a Bondian context, it seems reality based. The most outre set piece is prolly the race through the construction site - and at least Sebastien Foucan really can [do] parkour (I don't know if 'parkour' is a noun or a verb) so it seems at least conceivable that a really well trained Bond could parkour too (I have randomly assigned the 'verb' designation).

And Bond gets beat up.

Remember the Raider's boat scene? The charming quiet moment where Indy whined and moaned about the injuries sustained in the car chase from the dig to the docks and then collapsed into sleep? Tres adorable. Well, nothing like that to see here - either on the 'quiet moment' front or the 'actions have consequences' front - despite Indy surviving a nuclear explosion.

That is right - I said 'nuclear explosion.' Could I make that up? Would I make that up? C'mon now.

And, while it is true that the plot doesn't really hang together, and is five kinds of predictable, and the script forgot to bring the funny, and picks up and drops plot points with abandon and the ending is trite and unsatisfying - in the final analysis? It just wasn't realistic enough.

It made me want to go back and watch Ironman again. That's right - a dude who has an electromagnet powered by a car battery imbedded in his chest, which electromagnet keeps him alive by preventing shards of shrapnel from entering his heart, and which later powers his armored flying suit? A masterpiece of practically documentary-type realism in comparison to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Playing with Food

Ms. Gooch and Ding had a lovely cocktail party this evening, so that we could meet Ms. Gooch's best friend from high school and her new husband (both lovely) - but is it any surprise that I took the time before the guests of honor arrived to practice some food photography?

I am informed that these bee-yoo-tiful cherries cost more than $10.00 per pound - but don't they look worth it? (They tasted as good as they look):

Mmmmmmmmmm - cheese......

mmmmmmmmmm - cheese with cherries..........

Goofing around with glass:

More goofing around with glasses - but this time colored martini glasses behind the elephant:

A few more Parade shots

After starting the last post saying how parades are great for taking pictures of people, I realized that only one of those photos even shows a person's face.  Weird.  So here, above and below, are some which actually show people:

These gentlemen were the greatest - note how, canes notwithstanding, they are in perfect step:

So there are some people proper - people and one dog:

Scope for Imagination

So parades!  Here is what I discovered - parades are the bomb for taking pictures of people.  Yes, I've been practicing on buildings and statues - and part of that is to get used to the WonderCamera - but part of it is because I never take pictures of things not-people.  Of course the risk is down with people - composition?  Pish.  The storytelling aspect of people steps into that breach nicely.  So I spent well over 3 hours taking photos (and this was the time-loss referred to in the last post - I would not have guessed that it could have been so long) - and I took who knows how many hundreds of photos - I kept deleting as I went along.  But I wound up with 36 shots that I am happy with and maybe 6 that I am particularly happy with - and I'm a sucker for bokeh, so you can guess what many of my favorite pictures heavily feature - or thanks to the glory of technology, you could see them:

Capital F. U. N.

I had losing-track-of-time capital F, U, N fun yesterday - here is the set-up.

M-Bee showed me how to use a white card to set the white balance on my camera - but, again, not being a technical person, I forgot how. So I had to read my manual (I know!) - and it showed me how - but also recommended using an 18% grey card - so that was thing one I wanted to acquire before Italy, but I've been having trouble finding one on-line.

And then I was online again, and realized I really really wanted a wide-angle lens for shooting buildings, but really, really didn't want to spend $300+ dollars on one. So I was telling TG this on Friday night. And she suggested this store for all things camera - including used lenses (the art school students (of which TG is one) sell stuff there post-classes). Without further ado, I present, Central Camera:

And, as per below, you can see that the store lives up to its billing - including the report of super helpful and knowledgeable staff (which you can't see, but I can report that it is true).

(Aside - you may notice that both of these shots are taken wide-angle - and, as evidence of the super-helpful-and-knowledgeable staff - when I told them what lenses I had (all of which I had with me) the man helping me showed me how to push a lens I already had into a wide-angle lens - so - free wide angle!)

Anyway, this shop is easy walking distance from my place, so I headed out on Saturday, May 23 - with all my gear in tow (I needed some filters and hoods in addition to the grey card) and that is when I ran across this:

! More on that later.

Sunday CD

Here I am, back at Starbucks for pre-work CD importing and working on reducing 10 hours of gospel music down to an hour or hour and a half CD for Italy.  Again - how in the world did I manage to collect 10 hours of Gospel music - and how will I manage to take off any of the songs from the Alan Jackson "precious Memories" CD I received from MLee at Christmas?  They are all wonderful - but I have to narrow it down to 2 or 3.  Oy.

And how can I choose between the versions of "I'll Fly Away" - a song which I love - by Alan Jackson, Kanye West, and Alison Krauss/Gillian Welch?  Ditto that question for "Run On" - Blind Boys of Alabama, Elvis or Moby?

And then there is the question of whether any of the other women I'm traveling with will *want* to listen to an hour or hour and half of gospel music.  But I can't be worrying about that.

The photo is just because I like to slap photos up here - and it is a goofing around shot that I can't seem to delete, and at this moment it seems to me gospel-y.

Markers

When does a trip to somewhere warm enough to wear a swimsuit start to feel like it will really happen? When you book your wax and nail treatments, that is when.

This I just did. Woo-frackin-woo!!!

Who you gonna call?

I'm just saying - that is all I can think of when I look at this photo. And then I start scrolling through lines in my head:

"Where do these stairs go?"

"They go up."

"Shhhh - do you smell that?"

"Something that could never ever hurt me - the StayPuft Marshmallow man."

Thank you for joining me on this mini-tour through my pop-culture crammed mind.

Sculpture

I mentioned before that I wanted to get over to try some stuff with the new Lear statue, which I did over the weekend (RGN, I didn't make it during the week - but we should still do lunch sometime).

I think the sunken eyes are very Learian and mad and effective.  And creepy.

Yesterday, trying out the new lens, I headed down to Millenium Park.  I just love the Bean. It is so shiny (in both a reflective sense and in a Firefly sense).

  

More Buildings

I think my buildings are becoming a teensy bit more interesting. Fortunately, Chicago is a very attractive city, so there is an abundance of practice material - old and new.

50f Something or Other Thingie

My practice sessions with the WonderCamera led to a sad conclusion - the lenses I had really weren't up to the task of photographing people in low light situations/indoors. I will not torture you with sad and fuzzy examples of this.Happily, there are two fortunatelys in this story: Fortunately #1 - M-Bee recently struggled with this same issue, and had bought a lens with a high aperture (or some such thing - technical aspects of pretty much anything are not my strong suit) and she passed along her knowledge; and Fortunately #2 - the lens was only about $80 bucks! A steal! And, as a happy bonus, the lens is great for 'bokeh' (new word to me - but it is the fuzzy out-of-focus stuff in photos - which is stuff that I love - so I am happy to have a word for it.  Thanks Japan!)

So yesterday, I took the new lens out for a spin - I still need to try it on people in low-light/indoor situations, but here is the very first picture taken with the new lens: 

Dig that crazy bokeh! And here is one other I took specifically to get the cab in the background:

But, yes - there is a whole lot of light getting into that lens. Could one of those lens-hoodie things be in my future?

ARGGHHH - with pictures

I am at Starbucks. I have been loading CDs onto my computer and arranging playlists.

I am writing this to distract myself from the fact that one minute ago, while trying to delete a particular song from my gospel playlist, I deleted the entire playlist - 3 hours of edited and painstakingly arranged songs (and, yes, I know 3 hours is excessive - but it is whittled down from 9+ hours of gospel music - and, honestly, the playlist was at the point where I really felt I couldn't get rid of any other songs because I would miss them so). So that playlist? Gone. Gone, gone, irretrivably gone. And I'm going to have to go to work in 5 minutes, so it isn't like I can recreate it until this evening. Disgusting.

So anyway, this post is to make me feel like I accomplished *something* this morning. I got to do a little practicing on fountains yesterday (much to Teddy's dismay - he loathes my camera. Truly - he has an irrational fear of it - all I can hope is that familiarity will cause my high-maintenance pup to become contemptious rather than terrified). Anyway, my nifty cool camera can take pictures of water in two ways - as individual droplets and as a flowly pureness (and everything in between). But here are the extremes from my playtime yesterday. I can't decide which method I like better.

Friday - Eddie!!!

I'm trying to get over feeling self-conscious when I'm taking pictures. My main goal when traveling is generally to 'blend' (which in my head I say in the manner of Marissa Tomei in My Cousin Vinnie - in the same way that I read and think 'youths' as 'yutes' - same movie). A camera makes one not blend. So to help with that, I'm taking my camera about everywhere - so, anyway - Friday - after walking, feeding and pilling the Tedster, at

o-clock I headed out and met up with the Izzard ladies for a pre-show nosh and beverage at the new Elephant and Castle:

sidebar (as it were) - oh my lord - I haven't been out on a Friday in ages - and I remember why I don't go out to bars on Friday - busy loudness. And then over to the main event!

Isn't the Chicago theater pretty? And speaking of pretty - here is what I get to look at while walking home - nice, nicht wahr?

A good night. Eddie was only disappointing in that he didn't keep going and going and going.

A fun time waster

A recent blog detailing things younger than John McCain - things like Scrabble, the telephone area code, shopping carts and nylon.

Random Notes

Edwards endorsement (which I hope can be used to settle fracking Michigan and Florida) - yay!

Amazon delivered my DVDs of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - yes - you do not see the vile second movie - Lucas (to be said in Newman-esque tone - "Lucas") finally unbundled the three movies on DVD - and, yes, I paid a premium to get only 2 instead of 3 - but it was totally worth it - I don't already own them because I so resented being forced to buy that second movie - I don't even want it in my house - and Lucas is always trying to force me to buy crap that I don't want - I am, with difficulty, restraining myself from a Star Wars rant.

I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I love that movie.  I swear, I drink the drinks I drink about 60% because Marian Ravenwood is cool, and the other 40% because Nora Charles is cool.

I have a shocking amount of gospel music - in the continuing project to load my music onto my computer (and create mixed tapes for Italy) - there have been some surprises as a result of seeing everything together in one place - and today what strikes me is I have a bajillion gospel tracks.

Everytime I got a little bit low today, I remembered that I have tix to Eddie Izzard tomorrow! Eddie!!!!!  I love you Eddie!!!!!

Ucky Light

Chicago, in all times that I am not in the fracking office, has been bathed in disgusting, depressing, on-the-verge-of-rain (and not in a good or interesting way) light.  

There is a new statue up over by the Tribune tower (Lear) that I want to use to practice taking photos of sculpture - but I just can't bear to go over in the gloom (although maybe gloom is good for Lear)?  I'm meant to be practicing taking pictures of buildings and sculpture (again, for Italy) - mostly I take pictures of people and I have no clue what makes an interesting photo of a building. Here are some early attempts, but...

I mean - fortunately, there is still time to practice - and there will also be a lot of people to photograph....

High Fidelity

If you think there couldn't possibly be a CD of Yo-Yo Ma playing songs composed by Marconni for Sergio Leone spaghetti-westerns? Well, you are just wrong.

One of the assignments for the Italian jaunt is to bring along a mixed tape. Well, *a* mixed tape is turning into 5 or 6. I was not really into music as a kid/teen (or, rather, I was, but into 50s and classical music, so mixed tapes - not so much). I haven't made a mixed tape, I think, since my sister's wedding - and she is now the mother of 3, so...

Already I have going:

One CD containing my favorite covers of all time (cleverly titled "My Favorite Covers");

"Tuscan Morning" containing Italian classical music - primarily Palestrina (on the recommendation of the music-wise and well-traveled M. Lee) mixed in with 'classical' music from the soundtracks of movies set in Italy (see the Yo-Yo Ma above). Also that one has the meditation from Thais, which is a stretch, but I'm running with the tenuous 'Roman occupied Egypt' link to Italy to sneak it in;

"By the Pool" containing every cheesy pop song I've ever loved. In my head I think of it as the 'Step away from the Hanson' CD. However, I have not, in fact, stepped away from the Hanson; and

"Sour Cocktails" containing only depressing or cynical ballads. Peggy Lee singing "Is That All There Is" naturally kicks that one off.

Clearly, I am having more fun with this than is really good for me.

Finally!

You're about to forget the whole thing, when all at once, one day, it's Spring.  

In a few short weeks I'm going to Italy!  Italia!  Last night I read "A Room with a View," before that I read "Playing for Pizza" about American football in Italy, and I have watched "Much Ado About Nothing" (both the Kenneth Brannaugh version and the Shakespeare Re-told version).  I need to figure out what to read/watch next.  

P.S.  Spring!

I've already decided that the only book I need to take with me is Tom Jones.  I read it pretty much every year as spring becomes summer - it is long enough - it always cracks me up - and the mood, while set in England, from some reason feels appropriate for a week in Tuscany.  Not that I've ever been to Tuscany, but it just seems right.