My friend Joe just sent me some scans of some old photos. I thought I would never see this one again. It is from 1988 when I had the pleasure of interviewing Douglas Adams during his tour to promote his book “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul”
Rudy’s Big Adventure
Cynthia’s 94 Mazda Miata (“Rudy”) is off to the shop. The check engine light came on and the mechanic at the dealership quoted a repair price that’s more than the car is worth. We consulted with our good friend and fellow Miata owner Jim Henkel and he gave us the name of his mechanic in The Heights so we’re shipping Rudy off to see if we can get a better price on the repair.
The car only has 76,000 original miles on it, so we’re hopeful we can get something done. The main issue is that a squirrel (hopefully not a rat) has chewed through some of the wiring and that causes an electrical problem which apparently destroyed one of the onboard computer components. The dealer can only replace with a refurb and they’re pricey. Hopefully something more affordable can be obtained from a salvage yard.
God speed, Rudy!
Worst Commercial Placement Ever
If you are a fan of Battlestar Galactica and have not seen the season premier, be warned. This contains a huge spoiler. If you have already seen the show and know the scene, skip ahead to the commercial at the end.
Set Tivos On Stun!
Photo by Jay Lee All Rights Reserved!
via billhicks.com
I just got word from those in the know that The Late Show with David Letterman has scheduled a telecast of the never-aired October 1, 1993 Bill Hicks appearance. The program it will be shown on Friday, January 30th on your local CBS affiliate is currently set for taping in New York City on Monday, January 26th.
The Late Show with David Letterman has scheduled a telecast of the never-aired October 1, 1993 Bill Hicks appearance. The show was pre-taped Jan. 26th (with Bill’s mom as a guest) and will air Friday, January 30th on your local CBS affiliate. We’d like to acknowledge and thank Bill’s many fans and everyone who has had a hand in keeping Bill’s comedy and philosophy alive. We hope everyone can tune in and experience what you may have missed or what you barely remember — Bill Hicks performing for a national audience on network television.
history:
Excerpt from The Konformist
On 1 October 1993, the comedian Bill Hicks, after doing his twelfth gig on the David Letterman show, became the first comedy act to be censored at CBS’s Ed Sullivan Theatre, where Letterman was in residence and where Elvis Presley was famously censored in 1956. Presley was not allowed to be shown from the waist down. Hicks was not allowed to be shown at all. It’s not what was in Hicks’ pants but what was in his head that scared the CBS panjandrums.
Zappa – Them Or Us Tour 1984
Back in the 80’s, my brother John gave me a Yashica camera which was the first 35mm camera I ever used. I don’t remember the model or the specs, but it was pretty basic as I recall.
Zappa was coming through Houston in 1984 on his Them Or Us Tour and I wanted to get some pics. I knew I would have to smuggle the camera in and that meant flash photography was not an option. John told me about a technique called Push & Pull Processing where you increase the ISO setting on the camera to underexpose the film and then compensated for this in the darkroom. This would allow me to shoot without a flash and hopefully get something usable from the experience.
I had 7th row tickets to this show so a flash might have been helpful, but would certainly draw attention to what I was doing so I decided to shoot using this method.
Now back in the day security at concerts wasn’t all that secure. Still, if you had a camera bag you could get turned away at the door. And even if you did get the camera in the door, if security caught you shooting pics at a major show they wouldn’t take your camera, they would just take your film, usually pulling it from the camera or canister. I’d seen photographers lose a night’s work this way on several occasions.
With this in mind I felt confident my camera was not at risk, but I wanted to make sure I could pull off my plan and walk away at the end of the show with some photos.
I’d seen Zappa before. It was 1981 at The Fox Theater in San Diego. I noted that many of the fans came to the show dressed up in various costumes. I decided I would attend this concert dressed as a Sheik (a la Sheik Yerbouti). I could hide the camera gear in the folds of my robes and hopefully skirt security.
The plan worked better than I could have hoped. Concert security stood practically next to me during most of the show. They either thought I was supposed to be there, or decided that a guy who was dressed in such an attention grabbing manner could be ignored while they scanned the audience for real trouble. I was able to pull out the camera and shoot uninterrupted for the duration of the show.
The results were “so so” but I was happy enough with the results considering this was my first effort.
1984 Them Or Us Tour
Sam Houston Coliseum
Frank Zappa: guitar, vocals
Ray White: guitar, vocals
Ike Willis: guitar, vocals
Robert Martin: keyboards, tenor saxophone, French horn, vocals
Scott Thunes: bass
Alan Zavod: keyboards
Chad Wackerman: drums
5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
Cynthia came home from work on Friday with a recipe she wanted to try out.
If this recipe actually worked, you could have homemade chocolate cake in a matter of minutes…anytime you wanted with these simple ingredients…
The implications were staggering, but Cynthia was skeptical. Still, she decided she’d try it out this evening after dinner to see what would happen.
Following the simple instructions, she quickly mixed the components into a coffee mug which she then put in the microwave.
The timer was set for 3 minutes, the door was closed and we watched with anticipation. Cynthia was still not convinced it would work. She thought it more likely we’d end up with a small explosion of chocolate goop in our microwave, but after the first minute the concoction began to rise up and the smell of chocolate cake filled the room and after 3 minutes we took the cup from the microwave and let it cool…
Then we tipped the cup over and the cake fell onto the plate
It smelled like chocolate cake. It looked like chocolate cake. The only thing left was the taste test.
Our friend Jim offered to take the first bite and pronouced it delicious! We each had a bite ourselves and it was quite good!
Here’s the recipe in text form if you want to give it a try yourself
4 Tablespoons cake flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
1 Mug
Instructions:
Mix flour, sugar and cocoa
Spoon in 1 egg
Pour in milk and oil, and mix well
Put in microwave for 3 minutes on maximum power (1000watt)
Wait until it stops rising and sets in the mug
Tip contents out of mug onto saucer.
Eye Of The Beholder
In Bruges (in HDR)
One of the things I promised myself is that I would photograph this trip to the best of my ability. I would strive to utilize not only my skills and knowledge, but also fully exploit my hardware. This included shooting some extended exposures like the ones I shot in Brussels which required me packing my sturdy Manfrotto tripod and lugging it around the city.
I also wanted to shoot some HDR, and while I should have shot those with a tripod, I ended up shooting them handheld. The results (I think) are very good.
Built in image stabilization is my friend.