General – Page 45 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

Existentialism and the Art Of Lawn Maintenance

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Back in the early 90’s I was living with my good friends John Williams and Jay Fleming in what we affectionately called The Triple “J” Ranch, a house in the Heights on Arlington Street.

Right before the 1992 Republican National Convention John and Jay concocted this idea of going to a warehouse/coffee shop known as Downtown Grounds for poetry night and presenting Jay Fleming as Jay Fontaine – Industrial Poet with John paying the part of his manager from New York.

What ensued was pure performance art genius. The regulars for poetry night ate Jay’s performance up with a spoon, not realizing they were being “had” and believing they were witnessing some kind of outsider poetry/art.

Now, years later, I find the performance on Youtube and people are comparing Jay to a cross between Slingblade and John Candy. That just about sums it up. See for yourself.

Jay Fontaine – Industrial Poet from baldheretic on Vimeo.

Initial Impressions

So far, the Sony Alpha 700 is a joy to use. It’s responsive, ergonomic and very light-weight. The menus are logical and the important features are easily accessible. I still have a bit to sort out, but I am loving it!

And the 11-17mm wide angle has changed the way I look at portraiture.

Cheers!

Walking through the art cars prior to the parade Bill Shirley and I stumbled upon members of the Foam Rangers and were given hand-canned beer. I forget the name, but it was VERY tasty! Thanks Sean! And thanks Tom for the photo!

Virgin Of Guadalupe

Cynthia has created for me a new shirt from a design I came up with. This one is called the Virgin of Guadalupe. It was inspired by the Jesse Trevino mosaic I saw while in San Antonio.

She’s so crafty! Thank you Cynthia!

How interesting

My camera comes with a wireless remote control…

Can Has New Camera

During the process of acquiring the new wide-angle lens I went ahead and fondled the Sony Alpha 700 just to see what I thought. While this was happening Charlie at the Camera Exchange noticed that Sony was offering an instant rebate of $150 for the lens I wanted if purchased with a new Alpha 700. Well this pretty much cinched the deal for me. I mean it was obviously a sign. I told him “let’s do it, ring me up!”

Charlie disappeared to the back room and after awhile we began to wonder where he was. After awhile he came back and told me he was sorry, but the promotion ended on the 31st of April. He’ spoken to his manager and there was nothing they could do.

Well damn it.

During the time he was in the back I had already embraced the idea that I would own this camera. I told Charlie to hold on to it and we’d come back after the Art Car Parade and I would purchase it rebate or no rebate.

Off to the Art Car parade to play with my new wide angle lens and mentally debate the new camera in the process.

I thought about it and really, there was no debate. The A700 was the best choice even before I dropped the pretty penny on the wide angle.

See here in a side by side comparison, it holds it’s own with the Nikon D300 and the Canon 40D

Side by side feature comparison of the A700, 40D and the D300

The 3 inch LCD, 5 frames per second and 12 megapixel CMOS sensor (basically the same sensor as the D300) make it a strong competitor to the Nikon for several hundred dollars less before adding in the lens replacement costs.

And as far as the Canon is concerned, the Sony seems to actually exceed it in features and capability.

After only using it for a day I find the controls extremely intuitive and easy to use.

The high ISO capability and the low noise make this a fantastic camera for the money and perfectly suitable for my purposes.

Can Has Wide Angle

Friday night I had a fitful night trying to sleep. I kept dreaming about getting an extreme wide angle lens (not a fish-eye). I found myself REALLY wanting one and my dreams were all over the place. At one point I was in a Russian five and dime with some cloak and dagger fellow and he was managing to show me just about everything BUT a camera lens. It was very surreal and I didn’t sleep well.

I am sure this was brought on by a two things. My existing urge to scratch the photo itch with something new and Cynthia getting a new lens for her camera.

Cynthia expressed an interest in doing some low-light photography and I explained that to really do this she would need to consider getting a fast fixed focal length lens. I would have loaned her one of mine gladly, but she has had adopted Pentax as her platform so off I went to The Internet to research and procure something suitable for her camera.

I found the Pentax Wide Angle SMCP-FA 35mm f/2.0 for a good price and figured this would be the thing. Once it arrived and Cynthia started playing with it I was certain we made a good decision. It’s fast and sharp and the pictures are fantastic.

Even before Cynthia started the process that lead to her getting the new lens I had been agonizing over camera decisions. I had started to look at changing platforms and was being tempted by the $300 rebate Nikon was offering on the D300 with the 18-200mm VR lens.

After my fitful night of lens dreams I thought I might just buy the Sony 11-18mm and be done with it. It’s a pricey piece of hardware and buying it would definitely put another nail in my Sony platform coffin. Not necessarily a bad thing as I am enjoying my Sony Alpha 100 and feel confident that Sony is not going to abandon the SLR market. Besides, it should hold most of it’s resale value should worse come to worse.

After discussing this with Cynthia we headed over to the Camera Exchange to talk to our friend Charlie. He said he thought they were out of stock on the lens but after looking through some cabinets produced the last remaining Sony DT 11-18mm f/4.5-5.6 Aspherical ED Super Wide Angle Zoom Lens they had and I bought it.

I love it. Sure, Tamron has announced they are developing a 10-24mm that is a bit faster but there’s no telling when it will be available, and for how much. I could have waited, I suppose, but this piece of glass is soooo much fun!

Click for full size!

Baby Loves Disco?

When I first read this I thought Baby Loves Disco must be a hoax or a prank but it looks like the real thing. Imagine your local disco filled up with parents and their toddler, preschoolers and pre-adolescents moving to the groove.

The fun spills out from all corners of the club: bubble machines, baskets of scarves and egg-shakers, a chill-out room (with tents, books and puzzles), diaper changing stations, a full spread of healthy snacks and dancing, LOTS of dancing.

Sounds like a rave for children!

As this video from buzz.mn points out, these folks manage to inculcate in our youth the finer points of bar culture…

I can only imagine that this is a precursor to a much more violent and subversive movement that will inevitably be called Baby Loves Mosh Pits.

I grew up with disco and it’s my cross to bear but I just can’t imagine inflicting it on someone too young to defend themselves.

Hello therapy!