Went to the camera store today and acquired the Sony 1.4 50mm lens for my camera. My good friend Jim was a real sport while we had lunch.
Click the images to see a slightly larger version.
Is it wrong to love technology?
Wednesday night Light Rock light
After the radio show last night I decided to pay a brief visit to The Big Top to see Peter King and Sir New England James Alan (1/2 of The Light Rock Express) lay down some lovely light rock. It was beautiful, man.
A few more pics here.
Avast ye scurvy pop-music lovers!
One thing you can say about my band The Flying Fish Sailors is that we lack a broad commercial appeal. There’s just not that many people in the world all that interested in a rousing sea chantey or depressing sea ballad. Still, it’s good fun music and we enjoy our fair share of loyal fans and seem to draw new ones when we play.
On top of that, there’s certainly no shortage of nautical bands scattered around this small blue planet.
Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and the recent sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest have had some effect in recent years in popularizing all things piratical. I noticed this most strongly in my recent visit to San Francisco. I suppose this whole “Pirate Pop” thing will only benefit us when we play in the future.
Why do I bring this up? I bring this up because last Friday I had a “when worlds collide” experience.
I may play in a folk band but I love alternative rock and even some popular music. I would say my tastes are ecclectic and diverse even if my band plays mostly within a certain niche.
Friday night I was in Sig’s Lagoon and Thomas (the proprietor) called my attention to a CD that had just come into inventory. The name of the CD is “Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys.”
Ok, a Sea Chantey CD…cool. Their not all that hard to find and I kinda shrugged. Thomas drew my attention to the producers…Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski. Ok, Interesting. But Johnny Depp? I’m so tired of Johnny Depp. You can go to your local ren fair and see a dozen or more Jack Sparrow wannabes wandering the site. Bleh.
At Thomas’s urging I took the CD in hand and gave it a closer look.
The song list was not surprising. It’s a two CD set featuring the expected songs like Cape Cod Girls, Mingulay Boat Song, Shenandoah along with some bawdier one’s like Good Ship Venus and The Mermaid.
But what was really startling is who the performers are. The CD is billed as “various artists” but those “various artists” include Lou Reed, Loudon Wainwright III and his son Rufus, Stan Ridgeway, Bono, Sting and the list goes on.
I bought the CD on the spot and I have REALLY enjoyed it so far.
Here’s the song list:
01. CD1: Cape Cod Girls – Baby Gramps
02. CD1: Mingulay Boat Song – Richard Thompson
03. CD1: My Son John – John C. Reilly
04. CD1: Fire Down Below – Nick Cave
05. CD1: Turkish Revelry – Loudon Wainwright III
06. CD1: Bully In The Alley – Three Pruned Men
07. CD1: The Cruel Ship’s Captain – Bryan Ferry
08. CD1: Dead Horse – Robin Holcomb
09. CD1: Spanish Ladies – Bill Frisell
10. CD1: Coast of High Barbary – Joseph Arthur
11. CD1: Haul Away Joe – Mark Anthony Thompson
12. CD1: Dan Dan – David Thomas
13. CD1: Blood Red Roses – Sting
14. CD1: Sally Brown – Teddy Thompson
15. CD1: Lowlands Away – Rufus Wainwright & Kate McGarrigle
16. CD1: Baltimore Whores – Gavin Friday
17. CD1: Rolling Sea – Eliza Carthy
18. CD1: The Mermaid – Martin Carthy & the UK Group
19. CD1: Haul On The Bowline – Bob Neuwirth
20. CD1: A Dying Sailor to His Shipmates – Bono
21. CD1: Bonnie Portmore – Lucinda Williams
22. CD1: Shenandoah – Richard Greene & Jack Shit
23. CD1: The Cry Of Man – Mary Margaret O’Hara
24. CD2: Boney – Jack Shit
25. CD2: Good Ship Venus – Loudon Wainwright III
26. CD2: Long Time Ago – White Magic
27. CD2: Pinery Boy – Nick Cave
28. CD2: Lowlands Low – Bryan Ferry w/ Antony
29. CD2: One Spring Morning – Akron/Family
30. CD2: Hog Eye Man – Martin Carthy & family
31. CD2: The Fiddler – Ricky Jay & Richard Greene
32. CD2: Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold – Andrea Corr
33. CD2: Fathom The Bowl – John C. Reilly
34. CD2: Drunken Sailor – David Thomas
35. CD2: Farewell Nancy – Ed Harcourt
36. CD2: Hanging Johnny – Stan Ridgway
37. CD2: Old Man of The Sea – Baby Gramps
38. CD2: Greenland Whale Fisheries – Van Dyke Parks
39. CD2: Shallow Brown – Sting
40. CD2: The Grey Funnel Line – Jolie Holland
41. CD2: A Drop of Nelson’s Blood – Jarvis Cocker
42. CD2: Leave Her Johnny – Lou Reed
43. CD2: Little Boy Billy – Ralph Steadman
So yea, I’m going to talk about the camera some more.
One of the features I wanted in a new camera was the ability to shoot in black and white (not just converting to B&W in-camera which this one will also do). In the past I have simply desaturated a picture in Photoshop but that just doesn’t compare to capturing the actual image in B&W.
I shot this one of my best friend Jim as we hung out at Onion Creek last night enjoying good conversation and tasty beers:
Here’s Cynthia posing in the garden:
Oh, and isn’t that a lovely blouse Cynthia is wearing? She put that blouse together last weekend. She’s a renaissance woman who can make her own clothing. How awesome is that?
Here’s a color picture:
New camera
I have finally taken the plunge and purchased a digital SLR. I decided on the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100. It was a toss up between this and the Nikon D80 which is slated to be released later this month.
It shoots at an impressive 10 mega-pixels and is extremely feature rich and so far, has proven very easy to use. I purchased the kit that includes a 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. For the extra $100 it’s a great backup lens and is rather versatile.
Wanting a faster zoom lens I added a Tamron AF 28-75mm f2.8 XR Di. This adds even greater flexibility when shooting the style of pics I tend to go after.
The main reasons I went with the Sony are the built in image stabilization and the anti-dust technology. To get image stabilization in the Nikon cameras you have to purchase lenses with that capability and that alone doubles the cost of any decent piece of glass.
For the price point this camera is pretty unbelievable and I think it will suite my needs for some time to come.
I took it for a test spin last night and was pleased with the results.
Come not between the dragon and his wrath
Call it morning driving thru the sound and in and out the valley
When I was driving in the UK several years ago I came to love the roundabouts. Once you get used to them they make a certain amount of sense. My first encounter with them was in Washington DC when I was a teenager with a pretty new driver’s license.
We have a one primary roundabout here in Houston. It’s circles the Mecom fountain down where Main and Montrose come together. It’s pretty standard as far as roundabouts go.
There’s a relatively new one on Washington & Westcott. It’s sort of ridiculous but I rarely have to drive that way.
Then there’s this travesty located in a residential area over near Gessner and I-10.
Benignus and Kingsride.
The sign is amusing.
The roundabout itself is an absolute joke. They’ve taken a very normal 4 way intersection and plopped an obstacle smack dab in the middle.
I think there is at least one more just down the road.
This is what happens when your homeowners association has one puff too many of the wacky tobacky and calls a super secret meeting to come up with new ways to irritate motorists.
Mr. Kamikaze! Mr. DNA!
Last night’s Devo concert was everything I’d hoped it would be and more.
Conn and I arrived fashionably late. When we arrived the one-hit-wonder band, When In Rome, was already on stage and playing their hit “The Promise.” We had pretty much agreed prior to our arrival that missing this band would not hurt our feeling in the least. We used the opportunity to walk the Reliant Arena and catch up with the cast of characters we both knew would be there. Many old friends littered the stadium and it was veritable “who’s who” of the alternative music scene in attendance.
I managed to meet one of the promoters of the event and before long I was the proud owner of one all-access pass. This entitled me to the entire back stage area where I was able to sit and talk with the members of the band and generally relax. Great time talking to Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh as well as Bob and Jerry Casale.
It was a fan-boy dream come true. The pass also allowed me free reign to take all the pictures I wanted after originally having to leave my camera in the car. I only wish I had a better camera. Ah well, that is something that will be remedied soon. I have been eye-balling the upcoming Nikon D80 that is set to come out next month.
The Psychadelic Furs put on a pretty incredible show and I was marvelling at how many songs they had done that I recognized.
The energy was really high but the sound reinforcement was not the best. Not bad, but could have been much better. I noted to Conn that the sound was probably tweaked in favor of Devo and that I had a feeling their show sound much better.
In some ways the audience was just as interesting as the performers. I spotted these guys in the seats directly in fron of ours.
The middle lug-nut in the hard hat thrusting his tentacle fist skyward is Ryan aka Squidflakes and in the foreground is Lunadude who’s real name escapes me. The normally dressed guy with the glasses just behind Ryan is Conn (aka kublaconn) who was my most excellent companion for the evening.
When it was finally time for Devo to take the stage the crowd was in a very good mood. Devo came out strong and played “just the hits”, one after another. It was a high energy show and the guys seemed to be really enjoying themselves.
The crowd was dancing in the isles. I was screaming/singing along at the top of my lungs along with everyone else. Everything sounds great, as I suspected, the sound was completely configured in favor of Devo.
It could not have been a better night. Thanks to Conn for coming along and letting me dork out and be a gushing fan-boy.