My photo “Don’t Know How Much Longer I Can Wait” was added to Flickr Explore

Don't Know How Much Longer I Can Wait - a photograph of a brightly lit interesection in the rain

I believe for the first time since Flickr parent SmugMug tweaked the algorithm, a photo of mine made it into Explore December 30th, 2023.

I took this photo December 28th, 2023, and developed it in my digital darkroom the next evening.

Photo Gear

  • Nikon D7000
  • 35.0 mm f/1.8
  • ƒ/2.8
  • 1/50 (the slowest shutter speed I can reliably use without a tripod)
  • ISO 400

Location: At the intersection of Lincoln, Halsted and Fullerton, in Lincoln Park, Chicago. I chauffeured to a local physical therapist1, and while waiting the hour for the appointment to be over, I walked around the area. It started raining pretty hard, and I was nervous that my camera might get wet but kept on walking, headphones on, listening to music, including to the Bob Dylan outtakes/alternate takes from the Time Out Of Mind Recordings. By the time I took this photo, I was pretty well soaked, but continued on for another mile or so. In my car, I had a raincoat, and a plastic protective sleeve for my camera, however was too lazy to trudge back to properly gird myself against the elements.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

At least I got a few good shots of the amazing city light during a rain storm out of it…

Darkroom (digital): Won’t bore you with every detail of what I did in Photoshop, but I do remember I used a graduated neutral density filter (in emulation) to balance the light, and Alien Skin’s Fuji Reala film (in emulation).

Footnotes:
  1. torn rotator cuff, yikes []

Legal Matters

Circuit Court of Cook County

The sheriff is on my trail, having unsuccessfully attempted to serve me legal papers regarding a frivolous lawsuit my neighbors are trying to add me to. The process server came to my building’s door twice so far that I’m aware. I wonder if he’ll try a third time? Or will the assholes have to hire a private process server?

If I do get served, I have thirty days to decide if I can represent myself Pro Se, and if I can file my response electronically.

Wikipedia

Electronic filings Some districts of the United States federal courts (e.g., the Central District of California) permit pro se litigants to receive documents electronically by an Electronic Filing Account (ECF), but only members of the bar are allowed to file documents electronically. Other districts (e.g. the Northern District of Florida) permit pro se litigants to file and receive their documents electronically by following the same local requirements as licensed attorneys for PACER NEXT GEN qualifications and approval for electronic use in particular cases; an order of the assigned judge on a pro se motion showing pro se’s qualifications may be required. A 2011 report from the Federal Judicial Center found 37 of the 94 district courts allow pro se litigants to use ECF.

(click here to continue reading Pro se legal representation in the United States – Wikipedia.)

I probably won’t discuss the case in public, though I am sorely tempted, as the basis for the suit is so ridiculous as to almost be intentional harassment on the part of the close-minded neighbors. This dispute has dragged on since 2020 thanks to Cook County’s practice of letting plantiffs amend their complaints without much reluctance.

Upgrading Mac Pro 2010 With New Graphic Card and SSD Drives

New expensive cheese grater

My beloved desktop Mac – a Mac Pro 5,1 – started exhibiting signs of an impending graphic card failure. After a few hours of use, patterns of visual artifacts made of little squares would fill the screen, the mouse curser would be replaced with text, and then the computer would become unresponsive. I could still use the various shared hard drives via other Macs on my Local Area Network, but eventually I would have to do a forced reboot1.

Mac Pro graphics card failure (probably)

A hard reboot like that is not ideal for many reasons, including potentially corrupting databases like my Lightroom catalog or my DEVONThink database or other issues. Luckily, I don’t think that happened, but it certainly was a risk. Eventually the graphic card probably wouldn’t recover after a failure, so I purchased a new2 card with a GPU.

The Mac Pro 5,1 aka The Cheese Grater, is a beloved Mac because it was engineered to be opened up and upgraded. The whole side panel pops off smoothly, the internal components are accessible, and some slide out if you need them to. I miss that era, to be honest, when computers were designed to be tinkered with. The current version of Apple locks away most components from casual tinkerers like myself, which is probably why I didn’t invest more money and upgrade the entire machine to a newer, in warranty, model, but instead just repaired the soon to be broken part.

I attribute this to Steve Jobs being involved in the design of the original Mac Pro, who knows, maybe even Jony Ive gave useful ideas? Whatever, the Mac Pro 5,1 is a delightfully engineered computer.

Opening Mac Pro Step 1

While I was in the mode, I decided to also replace one of the four internal “spinning” hard drives with a newer SSD style drive. My plan is to use it as the boot drive, once I’ve used Shirt Pocket’s SuperDuper! to copy all of the files from my current boot drive. This is taking forever and a day because I’m a digital packrat, and foolishly started copying before culling out some fluff that I don’t need on either drive. Oh well…

Again, the new part installed in minutes because the Mac Pro 5,1 was engineered to make installing and/or replacing hard drives easy – there are drive bays which just pop out when you toggle a physical switch, then just 4 little screws to put in the new SSD, push it back into the drive bay, and Bob’s Your Uncle

The plan is also to upgrade the Mac’s OS to Catalina3, maybe, or even just Mojave4 from High Sierra5, the currently installed OS sometime later this week. I have another SSD to install, this will hold my digital photography files and work files, replacing a “spinning” hard drive that currently is the repository for those.

Mac Pro opened

Final thought, my dual monitor setup isn’t going to work right away as I have to buy yet another dongle, a somewhat rare MiniDisplay Female to HDMI Male connector. I ordered one, reluctantly, knowing I’ll probably find a dongle somewhere in my messy office a day later. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

—–

Update 2/21/22

This turned out to be a more complicated project than anticipated because I didn’t follow the correct steps in order. I had to start over. Projects like this really makes one appreciate all the helpful information available on the internet. I was not a trailblazer in figuring this complicated process out, I’d bet most of the information was 5 or 10 years old, but still useful for me!

Here is what I did yesterday:

  1. Take out the Metal-supporting new graphics card, and install the old OEM card.
    1. The old card was a weird design for a factory installed card. It has an elongated plastic ring to the side which makes it too long, almost, to fit into the designated space. I really had to struggle to get it to fit, and as far as I can tell, there is no purpose for this design, at least for a Mac Pro 5,1. Maybe for some other computer? But weird because the card itself is short, only the sled holding the card was super long.
    2. the new card takes more power, luckily, there is an extra source of power just for this reason. Thanks Apple!
  2. Put a new HD (spinning) in sled, format, and do a fresh install of High Sierra from this Apple page. I don’t know if I really needed to do this, but I had a spare hard drive, and an empty slot to install it, so why not.
  3. Turn off SIP – this is where I got stuck earlier because the new graphics card doesn’t include a boot screen
    1. Reboot, holding ⌘-R6 to boot into Recovery Mode. This takes a moment, but eventually worked
    2. Load Terminal under the Utilities Menu
    3. Type: csrutil disable
    4. Reboot
  4. Install openCore following the simple steps7
  5. Remove old card, put new graphics card back in
  6. Update to OS Mojave via this Apple page on the new SSD drive
    1. Required updating firmware
    2. Load Install Mojave app
    3. Shut down
    4. Hold the power button for 2-3 minutes until the power light started to flash, and then a loud beep meant the firmware was updating
    5. I walked away, when I came back, I was at the High Sierra login screen
    6. Loaded the Install Mojave app again, and initiated the upgrade, easy peasy!

Right away after my first few moments in Mojave, 9 apps from the Apple App store wanted to update, plus several other apps not purchased from the Apple App store also. Yayyyy…

I may stay in Mojave for a while, looking at the Wikipedia chart of what Apple apps are included, I want to keep using iTunes instead of updating to Music. I’ve used both apps for a while now, and I still think iTunes is the better, more stable app. There is a hack to enable iTunes to be run on a newer MacOS, but I’ll wait a while for that.

Spending hours on a project like this is not wasted time, if the end result is successful. One feels a sense of satisfaction when the job is finished.

Footnotes:
  1. by holding the power key for 30 seconds []
  2. better, newer, faster, more capable []
  3. 10.15 []
  4. 10.14 []
  5. 10.13 []
  6. Command and R []
  7. What is openCore? “OpenCore is an advanced boot loader program that expands the hardware compatibility of macOS by injecting key data into memory” []

Vinyl LP Catalog Project Update -The Analog Universe Has Its Own Rules

As an update to my vinyl LP project, previously mentioned, I’m approaching the end of my first phase. As of tonight, I have added 581 LPs to my Delicious Library 3 catalog, with maybe another 75 LPs to go, or close to that number. I haven’t counted them. Not a huge collection obviously, but one that is important to me.

I’m still compelled to add new physical media to my shared space, but luckily, Covid-19 has stopped me from visiting local record stores and paying their rent by buying everything interesting. So far, only Discogs, and Ernie’s Millions Of Records have benefited from my renewed interest in vinyl.

By now, my routine is fairly well polished, and occurs in roughly this order. The analog universe has its own rules.

Vinyl LPs played Week of Nov 5 2021

1. Pull an LP off the shelf. Take it out of the plastic sleeve, if it has one. If it doesn’t1, give it one. Take a photo with my iPhone2 of the cover, back cover, and any interesting details, including the inner sleeve, or inner gatefold, or the vinyl label. If the LP doesn’t have a good inner sleeve, replace it.  

2. Look at the etched runout markings. If I have my reading glasses on, I will note those and search Discogs for the proper edition. If I can’t make them out, I will guess based on year of purchase3 or on other unique identifiers on the spine or cover. Some LPs have had hundreds of pressings, thus I will admit that I am not always successful, some of my Discogs IDs are no doubt incorrect.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

I have yet to look up an LP that was not listed at Discogs fwiw. I have only had to contribute 2 or 3 additions/corrections, a great ratio. Crowd-sourced data and the “old school” internet is good when it works!

Vinyl LPs Played Week of Nov 20

3. Look up the LP in the Delicious Library 3 interface. This is often harder than it could be, especially for older LPs. It works well when there is a barcode on the LP, a barcode that still exists, that is. About 20% of the barcode lookups fail because the LP is not in Amazon.com’s database. Also, the Delicious Library 3 text search bar is ludicrously small, and once you type, “vinyl”, you can only see the next couple of words. Better to copy and paste from the Discogs site, but of course I don’t always remember to do this. Besides, the Amazon 3rd Party Marketplace is hit/miss with titles. A large percentage of my library doesn’t have a barcode – I’m guessing late ’80s was when the barcode became standard on album covers.

Delicious text entry

If this process works well, the Amazon lookup populates my Delicious Library catalog with accurate info about title, artist, label, release date, current retail value, and even nice artwork. If the process works partially, I still save myself some typing, but I may have to use my own photo of cover art, correct label info, and so forth. I would estimate I’ve had to hand-type about 50 LPs so far.

Because I’m sorta nutty, I then copy track info, and other credits from Discogs into the Delicious Library entry. Not nutty, maybe a better epithet is data enthusiast. I don’t always care, but sometimes I’m curious who the guest guitarist was on the 3rd track, or who wrote this song on Side 2, yadda yadda…

4. Look at the physical disc, make sure it isn’t warped, or has big scratches visible on the vinyl. I’ve been lucky and only ten or less of these LPs have been too physically damaged to play. I’ve always tried to take good care of my LPs, but ya know, other humans live on this planet. Plus the universe tends towards entropy.

5. Put the LP into my Record Washer MKII. This is a crucial step, but I didn’t always use it early on in my process. I do now though, with a bath of distilled water and a capful of Spin-Clean Washer Fluid4. I try to switch out the bath every week, or when it begins to smell a bit “off”. While I spin the LP 3 times counter-clockwise, I cogitate; when I subsequently spin the LP 3 times clockwise, I count down in my best Casey Kasem voice, “3, 2, 1, play…”

6. I have about 7 or 8 microfiber cloths that I use in a rotation to clean the MKII solution and schmutz off the LP. I prefer to do this during the day so I can stand by my office window and use natural light to ascertain if there are finger smudges or whatever that I can remove. If I didn’t like the album art photo I took previously, I’ll try again.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Egypt 80 - Army Arrangement

7. The best part! Playing the damn thing!  Drop the needle down, and dance where appropriate! Or play air guitar! or air bass! Whatever! To be truthful, not every record demands full attention from my ears. Sometimes I’ll be working on other records, preparing them with the above mentioned steps until they are ready to play. In other words, at any time, there are several LPs in each of the above steps. For instance, right now I have 8 LPs that are ready to play as soon as I queue them up, another 10 that still need to be cleaned and dried, another 20 or so that I haven’t looked up in Discogs.com yet, plus those other ~75 that I haven’t even started on.

Finally replaced my phono cartridge

8. Depending upon circumstances, I may research the album at Wikipedia and/or Allmusic.com to get a feel for critical response. Depending upon the artist, there can be quite a lot of history about a particular album. Most of these albums I acquired before the public internet even existed, I might not have realized what a particular artist was all about, or why a song swerves in this particular way, or who knows what weirdness I’ll stumble upon on the internet. Factoids are a certain kind of brain candy.

Riverstone Audio VTF Gauge

What’s next? After I finish my journey through all these albums, I plan to alphabetize them. I haven’t yet decided to do a straight ABC alphabetization, or a genre/alpha sort.5  I might need a couple more shelves actually. 

Next I want to digitize the albums I don’t have already in my music library. I’m a bit leery of this step; I tried to digitize a John Lee Hooker LP and it sounded like absolute shit. Not sure if my needle was bad, the LP itself was too worn6 or other factors. I will try again though, there is too much gold on these shelves.

Vinyl LPs played Week of 12-11-21

Footnotes:
  1. something like 20% didn’t have an outer plastic sleeve, or was corroded in some way []
  2. using the square setting []
  3. if I recall []
  4. whatever is in it, some anti-static compounds I would guess []
  5. Blues LPs, sorted by alpha, Jazz LPs, sorted by alpha, etc. []
  6. though it sounded fine on my phonograph []

Ric Ocasek’s Death and Gen-X Mortality

The Cars were one of the first bands I ever knew. As a 7th grader, I owned a cassette tape of “Shake It Up”, one of about 5 albums I played on my boom box. Rick Ocasek died recently. What does that mean for my solipsism? 

Rock stars die all the time, but The Cars lead singer passing away from cardio-vascular complications? Yikes. 

Is this going to be a year/decade where the cultural icons of Gen-Xers die? Probably, if human life doesn’t change. I mean, who were the icons of our era? 

B12 Radio Station

Since Audio Hijack added a feature1 enabling seamless play from my iTunes playlist to the internet, via ShoutCast, I created an internet radio station this afternoon.

I don’t know much about such stuff, but it was fairly painless to set up. At least, so far. 

The station link is here:

http://listen.shoutcast.com/b12partners

Broadcast

Audio Hijack - Internet Radio Tools

The plan is just to let my station run for a while, as I’m playing music in my office pretty much all the time, whether or not I’m there, or sleeping or dancing on the grave of my enemies.

About the only annoying thing with using a free service is that twice an hour I have to play a two minute track that I had to change the artist and title to “Advert:”. From my understanding, the SHOUTcast server overlays advertising on top of these tracks, depending upon the country. If you are in a country where they don’t display ads, you hear the music, but in the US, you’ll hear some ad. I’m using “Funky Nassau (Part II)” by The Beginning Of The End on the LP “What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves (1967-1977)” and also Ry Cooder’s “Seneca Square Dance” from the soundtrack for The Long Riders.  

Currently, I’m playing three tracks at a time from LPs that I’ve read about at the Pitchfork website. I made a big playlist of all their Best LPs of the decade, and added other albums that I first heard of on their site. Stuff like Cal Tjader, Superchunk, Sex Pistols, Bootsy Collins,Miles Davis, Camera Obscura, Dukes of Stratosphear, Bob Dylan, Fela Kuti, Big Star, Talking Heads, etc. etc.

Typical stuff for me, in other words. I frequently play entire albums in sequence too, if that’s your thing.

Tune in if you can!

Slices of my music library:

Music Library

CDs in need of a re org
CDs in need of a re-org

The Replacements  Tim
The Replacements – Tim

Overstuffed CD shelf
Overstuffed CD shelf

C R E A M
C.R.E.A.M.

CDs shelf one
CDs shelf one

Planetary D Constellation

and this might be a valid player

Footnotes:
  1. or at least I just noticed it today []

Melancholy, Misunderstood, and Moonstruck

https://i0.wp.com/farm8.staticflickr.com/7430/27338087270_f5a88d4320_z.jpg?resize=360%2C640&ssl=1

A perfect, balmy night on the roof deck of my building. I brought up some cognac, and a BlueTooth speaker.

https://i0.wp.com/farm8.staticflickr.com/7356/27515495962_4341125031_z.jpg?resize=640%2C640&ssl=1

Here was the soundtrack…

  1. Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave MattacksCuckoos Nest
    Morris On
  2. The Albion BandGresford Disaster
    Rise Up Like The Sun
  3. Fairport ConventionDoctor Of Physick
    Full House
  4. Richard ThompsonThe Angels Took My Racehorse Away
    Henry The Human Fly
  5. Richard Thompson & Linda ThompsonThe Little Beggar Girl
    Live At The BBC
  6. FotheringayBanks Of The Nile
    No More Sad Refrains
  7. Thompson, RichardThe End Of The Rainbow
    I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
  8. Richard Thompson/Linda ThompsonI Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
    In Concert November 1975
  9. Fairport ConventionThe Hiring Fair
    The Woodworm Years
  10. Richard ThompsonI Misunderstood
    Ramble On! Uncut Cover CD – September 2014
  11. Fairport ConventionFlatback Caper
    Full House
  12. Thompson, RichardThe Great Valerio
    I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
  13. Fairport ConventionSir Patrick Spens
    Liege & Lief [Deluxe Edition]
  14. Fairport ConventionBanks Of The Sweet Primroses
    Live At The BBC
  15. David BowieLife On Mars?
    The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
  16. Fairport ConventionDirty Linen
    Full House
  17. Thompson, RichardWhen I Get To The Border
    I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
  18. La’s, TheThere She Goes
    The La’s
  19. Fairport ConventionFlowers Of The Forest
    Full House
  20. Thompson, RichardDown Where The Drunkards Roll
    I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
  21. Shirley Collins & Albion Country BandClaudy Banks
    No Roses
  22. Thompson, RichardWithered And Died
    I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
  23. Fairport ConventionSloth
    Full House
  24. Richard ThompsonNobody’s Wedding
    Henry The Human Fly

Music Monday – Part One – Radio Radio

This sucky blog has been a bit moribund recently due to my lack of engagement with the outside world. No strike that, just a long, long winter and my body has made the leap1 from young to not-so-young, and with it, nagging health issues of various kinds that I won’t bore you with. Anyway, to jump start me writing here again, I’ve assigned myself topics based on the day, starting with Music Monday.

Overstuffed CD shelf
An Overstuffed CD Shelf.

I may be one of the last citizens of America who still purchases music CDs on a regular basis. Streaming music is well and good, I don’t participate. I’d rather indulge my nascent horder tendencies, and have my own copies of things, especially since “used” CDs sound identical to “new” CDs 99% of the time. I also have wider, more varied tastes than the streaming algorithms encourage. I’ve only dabbled with Spotify and the Apple Music channels, but an hour of music via Spotify seems artificially constricted to my ear. You can change your musical directions by seeding new stations, but every “next track” is via a linear progression from the preceding song.

When I am the DJ of my own radio station, which truth be told, runs 20 hours a day2 whether or not I’m in the room(s), I queue up 500 or 1,000 songs at a time. If you are listening to Radio Seth3, you should expect to hear deep cuts from Funkadelic followed by Alt-Country maesters The Jayhawks followed by Brahms concertos followed by outtakes from Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti followed by whatever. Or 50 songs about rain, or 24 hours worth of David Bowie or Prince or Merle Haggard. Or albums released in 1985. Or albums released last year. I liberally use randomizing AppleScripts from AppleScript guru Doug Adams to top up my playlists, I change direction on a whim, and of course alter playlists when I have an audience4

CD shelf in need of an alphabetization project
CD shelf in need of an alphabetization project…

There was a mythical era in commercial radio when DJs had the freedom to play what they wanted. By the time I was interested in music, this FM free-form radio era seemed to be on its last legs, so I don’t actually know if there were radio stations that played all sorts of music with only the taste of the DJ linking them together, or if that is another bullshit myth perpetuated by aging Baby Boomers. I don’t even care, in my mind, there was such a time, and I want to have my own radio station that plays all the hits as defined by my own idiosyncratic charts.

CDs in need of a re-org
CDs in need of a re-org…

One last thing, the age of the CD box set has encouraged record labels and musicians to open their vaults, reissues and repackaging are attempts to cash-in, but also mean that much music is available that I’ve never heard before. I’m not one of those who claim “music today doesn’t have the same soul”, I seek out new music from current artists just as much as I seek out classic albums from garage rockers of the mid-1960s or obscure Nigerian funk musicians from the 1970s. I try not to have preconceptions over what I’ll explore, but of course, there is plenty of new and old music I am not interested in. As someone on Reddit said: 

People think old music is better than new music because people have already stopped listening to the old music that sucks

(click here to continue reading People think old music is better than new music because people have already stopped listening to the old music that sucks : Showerthoughts.)

Footnotes:
  1. stumble?? fall?? []
  2. until my Mac sleeps and iTunes pauses until morning []
  3. I use the Airfoil app to stream to different sets of speakers around my office and house depending upon set and setting []
  4. Not everyone is cool with Conet Project weirdness, or never ending guitar solos []

Sticky Fingers

Last night Sticky Fingers1 came up on my shuffler2. Within a millisecond of the opening riff of “Brown Sugar”, I instantly knew what I was listening too, and went into a reverie. Here’s an edited version…

Patience please
Patience please

I cannot quantify the number of times I’ve heard this album in my lifetime. When I was a child living in Toronto, or Frostpocket, whenever there were parties hosted by the Ragnarokr generation, Sticky Fingers was a frequently spun disc. When I was 8 or 9, Sticky Fingers was one of the albums I would play when I was alone in the house – I distinctly recall sitting on the Frostpocket front porch in a rocking chair listening, loudly, to Sticky Fingers played through the house speakers, reading some book or other, and not reading but just listening.

When our family moved to Austin when I was a teenager, I remember Sticky Fingers playing at dinner parties or other occasions for guests to mingle.

I started attending The University of Texas a few months after my 17th birthday, I also moved out of my parents’ house. My first financial aid check was blown on frivolities/necessities like a stereo for my car, and a receiver, speakers and record player for my apartment. Sticky Fingers was one of the first LPs that was played on that stereo system.

Chios - or Mutiny On The Aegean
Chios – or Mutiny On The Aegean

For a few years while a student at UT, on Saturday’s, I would go have breakfast with Honoria, strike poses (fully clothed) and she would sketch line drawings while we listened to music and chatted. Sometimes I brought friends, but mostly, just me and a few records made the journey. Sticky Fingers was a frequent companion. 

My friend Trey Buck3 would come over and we would spin records, drink wine, shoot the shit. Sticky Fingers was a frequent companion.

I made several dozen mix-tapes4 of music that played while I worked at Magnolia Cafe South, at least until the ASCAP people came by and harassed Kent Cole, the restaurant’s owner. Songs from Sticky Fingers were often in the mix.

I rebuilt my iTunes Library last in 2002, but since then, I’ve played songs from Sticky Fingers 122 times, using this particular library, or on an iPod/iPad/iPhone. This doesn’t take account of the many times the album or songs from it played in a car, either with a mix-CD, or someone else’s iPod on road trips.

Rolling Stones 1971

Like everyone, my musical tastes have changed over time, but surprisingly, Sticky Fingers has not gotten tiresome to me, despite the constant playing over my entire life. There aren’t many albums I can say the same about.

Footnotes:
  1. by The Rolling Stones, if you didn’t know []
  2. I use Doug Adamsshuffle random albums to playlist” AppleScript religiously to feed my iTunes jukebox []
  3. before he went insane []
  4. #71 is where I think I stopped, though the first five or six were less polished, made when I was too young to appreciate the wide gamut of music available []

My Epitaph

Birthday Hat

Birthday Hat

Ok, so it’s my birthday more or less. No need to congratulate me for living this long without jumping off a building, or swallowing a pistol, I’m happy to still be here on our decaying planet, more or less. If you see me, buy me some wine or something.

I think I discovered what my epitaph should be:

ok, so I learned how to play “Smoke on the Water” on ukulele, I should probably go to sleep now

Kohala Ukulele
Kohala Ukulele

And for no particular reason, some people you might of heard of who share this birth date, allegedly. We are all so similar…

  • 1770 – William Wordsworth, English poet
  • 1772 – Charles Fourier, French philosopher 
  • 1860 – Will Keith Kellogg, American businessman, founded the Kellogg Company
  • 1893 – Allen Dulles, American lawyer and diplomat, 5th Director of Central Intelligence 
  • 1897 – Walter Winchell, American journalist and broadcaster
  • 1915 – Billie Holiday, American singer-songwriter and actress 
  • 1920 – Ravi Shankar, Indian-American sitar player and composer
  • 1927 – Babatunde Olatunji, Nigerian-American drummer, educator, and activist
  • 1928 – James Garner, American actor, singer, and producer
  • 1931 – Daniel Ellsberg, American theorist and author
  • 1933 – Wayne Rogers, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1938 – Jerry Brown, American politician, 34th and 39th Governor of California
  • 1938 – Spencer Dryden, American drummer (Jefferson Airplane, New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Dinosaurs, and The Peanut Butter Conspiracy)
  • 1938 – Freddie Hubbard, American trumpet player and composer
  • 1939 – Francis Ford Coppola, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1939 – David Frost, English journalist and game show host
  • 1954 – Jackie Chan, Hong Kong actor, martial artist, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1954 – Tony Dorsett, American football player
  • 1964 – Russell Crowe, New Zealand-Australian actor, singer, director and producer 

Random Friday – Desperados Waiting For A Train Edition

A slightly different way to play the random music on a Friday game, I started with a song I wanted to hear, and used the Create Genius Playlist on my iPhone to generate a list. 

I’ve talked about my deep love for Guy Clark’s version of Desperados Waiting on A Train previously, instead of repeating that, I’ll just add that these songs do fit well together. Vocals and literate lyrics front and center, lots of stringed acoustic instruments, guitar, fiddle sometimes, lots of empty space. If I had been older instead of younger, I’d probably have seen all of these acts multiple times when I lived in Austin, as it is, I don’t remember ever seeing any of these acts live (maybe Joe Ely, but my memory is fuzzy). I really wish I had seen Townes Van Zandt at least once, his music can bring a tear to my eye.

  1. Clark, GuyDesperados Waiting For A Train
    Old No. 1
  2. Steve EarleMercenary Song
    Train A Comin’
  3. Townes Van ZandtPancho And Lefty
    Rear View Mirror
  4. Jerry Jeff WalkerPissin’ In The Wind
    20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of Jerry Jeff Walker
  5. Slaid CleavesBroke Down
    Broke Down
  6. Ray Wylie HubbardConversation With The Devil
    107.1 KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 7 (disc 2)
  7. Ely, JoeMe And Billy The Kid
    Live At Liberty Lunch
  8. Earle, SteveThe Mountain
    Just an American Boy
  9. Townes Van ZandtTecumseh Valley
    Live and Obscure
  10. Jerry Jeff WalkerDesperados Waiting For The Train
    Viva Terlingua
  11. Mary GauthierI Drink
    Bob Dylan – Theme Time 3 Drink
  12. Earle, StevePoncho And Lefty
    Townes

Some Vine Jibber Jabbers

Marty convinced me I should use Vine occasionally, so I’ve made a couple rank amateur posts to the service. Amusing, not deep. That is my motto after all.((irony alert))
If they auto play, I’ll shake my tiny fist at Marty…

 

Also a test to see if WordPress 3.7 is working correctly

Foreigner and Teenage Angst

In Your Bubble Where Nothing Goes Wrong
In Your Bubble Where Nothing Goes Wrong

Andy Hinds review of Foreigner’s oeuvre made me chuckle.

Although punk rock’s furious revolution threatened to overthrow rock’s old guard in 1977, bands like Foreigner came along and proved that there was plenty of room in the marketplace for both the violent, upstart minimalism of punk and the airbrushed slickness of what would be called “arena rock.” Along with Boston, Journey, Heart, and others, Foreigner celebrated professionalism over raw emotion. And, looking back, it’s easy to see why they sold millions; not everyone in the world was pissed off, dissatisfied with the economy, or even necessarily looking for a change. In fact, for most suburban American teens, Foreigner’s immaculate rock sound was the perfect soundtrack for cruising through well-manicured neighborhoods in their Chevy Novas.

(click here to continue reading Foreigner – Foreigner : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : AllMusic.)

I wouldn’t say that Battle Bend off of S. Congress in Austin was exactly well-manicured, it wasn’t really urban grit either. When I was a teenager living at 306 Sheraton Avenue, I had a copy of Foreigner’s Greatest Hits, on cassette tape. Amusingly enough, my friend and next door neighbor did have a car which might have been a Chevy Nova, or similar.


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My Favorite Uploads to Flickr in April 2013

 I thought last month’s total was light, but I only worked on 51 images in April, probably my least productive month in a long, long time. Although, two of these made Flickr Explore…

Flickr: Archive of your uploads to Flickr in April 2013.

I was fighting off a few illnesses1, plus my birthday, plus general slackitude. C’est la vie.

Without additional blah-blah, here are my personal favorites processed in April, 2013.

Constitution of the United States
Constitution of the United States

Hail To The Thief Redux
Hail To The Thief Redux

Byrrh
Byrrh
I have only had this once, at the bar at Arami while waiting for my table. I’m going to find a bottle of my own eventually.

Drink to the Men Who Protect You and I
Drink to the Men Who Protect You and I

While Your Traces Disappear
While Your Traces Disappear
I’ve mentioned this photo before. I made myself a 16″ x 20″ print mounted on bamboo from The Darkroom. Turned out nice.

Peel Back the Sky
Peel Back the Sky

Your Arms Were Shaking
Your Arms Were Shaking
I wonder how many photos of the West Loop at sunset I’ve taken? A lot, I’m sure.

My first ever Vesper
My first ever Vesper
James Bond doesn’t have the best taste in cocktails. Martinis should really be shaken, not stirred, so he got that right, but vodka and martini are two words that should never be joined in the same sentence.

Each Has His Burden
Each Has His Burden
Lovely white birch in front of the lovely Bahá’í Temple in Wilmette.

We Have Never Been Very Pure
We Have Never Been Very Pure
Manhattan Beach, LA. I’ve mentioned this photo before. I should make a print of it too.

Feel of rain in the face
Feel of rain in the face
Manhattan Beach, LA.

Birthday Pie
Birthday Pie
I wasn’t kidding, I did have a birthday this month. Cherry pie, of course.

Pinhole Self Portrait Circa 1994
Pinhole Self Portrait Circa 1994 I scanned this recently, unfortunately, the print is fairly damaged. Some friend of a friend who was a grad student at the ARTIC back in the mid-90s built the pinhole out of a coffee can, and brought a flash. I just posed.

Trust In Your Calling
Trust In Your Calling

Science Won't Change You
Science Won’t Change You

Take A Walk Through The Land of Shadows
Take A Walk Through The Land of Shadows

An Approximation of the Anticipation
An Approximation of the Anticipation

A Harmony Not Rarefied
A Harmony Not Rarefied

Footnotes:
  1. yes, plural []

No You Cannot Use My Photo for Free Part 89

 A/k/a Black Card Magazine wants free Photos.

Chicago Dog
Chicago Dog

I’ve gotten lazy about blogging the periodic requests to use my photos in a commercial setting without compensation. I have no concern with websites or blogs using my photos, even quasi-commercial sites like Chicagoist, Curbed Chicago, or the like, as long as these usages don’t require payment to view. In my reasoning, I get benefit from such exposure, not to mention I read most of these sites anyway, or could. However, printed use is different: the targeted audience has to pay a fee to read the magazine or book, thus I should get a slice of the pie. Does this make sense?

There have been several such inquiries since I last mentioned the subject, such as yesterday, when I received this email, marked URGENT.

I work as a writer for Black Card magazine. We are doing a feature on America’s Best Street Foods and we want to feature The Wiener’s Circle in Chicago.

They don’t have any images of their hot dogs, but I found the one on your flickr page. Was wondering if you might be willing to let us publish it in exchange for a photo credit in the article and a free copy of the magazine?

We are on an urgent deadline.

[redacted]

My first reaction was irritation at the forced urgency. Why do I have to rush to respond? I’m not the one who waited until the last minute to secure photographic rights for a story assigned months ago. An admission: I’m that guy on the highway who slows down when drivers tailgate me. Especially if I’m driving by myself, I’ll block irritating drivers from passing me for twenty minutes (alternatively slowing down and speeding up, as traffic changes) or longer. Unless you have a flashing siren on your vehicle, I doubt sincerely your time is any more valuable than mine, and no, I won’t get out of your way if you are rude. Of course, if Illinois caves in, and allows concealed handguns to be carried, I may alter my behavior. Probably not though. I hate being told to hurry up. I have enough deadlines of my own without incorporating yours as well.

Secondly, Black Card Magazine is a trade publication solely for the upper echelon – for instance, American Express’s Centurion Card, which requires cardholders willing to pay an annual fee of $2,500 just to have the card, plus a $7,500 application fee. Not for the peons, in other words. American Express had an operating income of $33,800,000,000 last year, I think they could afford to pay photographers if they chose to.

Wieners Circle Rages at the Dying of the Light
Wieners Circle Rages at the Dying of the Light

So I replied that I would be happy to allow one-time usage of my photograph for the fee of $800. I’m not holding my breath for a response (it’s been 24 hours).

the Wieners Family Crest
the Wieners Family Crest

Mmm Crunchy Chicago Dogs
Mmm Crunchy Chicago Dogs