Music, DemoCraft, GeekDads, Looping, and more
Posted by Jeremy on September 22nd, 2007
It’s been a few days, and I apologize. Normally I steal some time away from work with which to write but time has been fairly short - not to mention, we’ve been taken things easy lately - beginning to wind down.
I may head to the Minnesota Music Festival today - it’s a mile away, well within walking distance. Not sure though, tickets are $30 a pop and there’s the 2 of us.
Today marks my month anniversary of not smoking. I’ve gained some weight - though I’m not sure if it’s because I’m eating more or because I no longer take the 5+ minute walk to the smoking area several times a day. It doesn’t matter, I’m taking care of it - need to exercise more, but the eating side is under control - a lot more water and a lot less soda. In fact, except for coffee I’m slowing down on the caffeine consumption as well.
I bought Mishka a couple dozen roses last week and a balloon. She’s spent a lot of money on me for my birthday, I can just tell, and I feel so guilty about it - no one ever really spends money on me, girlfriends included. So I had to ‘give something back’.
This is going to be a long post, so I’ll cut it short here - click to read the rest of it.
One of the nice… ok, one of the interesting things about living downtown St. Paul, fairly close to the freeway, is that there seems to be a decent number of accidents happening right outside our building. This was the 3rd such incident since we’ve been here - less then 2 months. You can see Ebbie surveying the damage here.
It’s official! I’m the photographer for the MPR show “In The Loop” for one more year, huzzah! Photo shoots in studios are quite a challenge, and I savor it. The lighting is usually harsh, as well as varied - there will be a brightly lit host, dimly audience, the band will be under cool lights - it makes picking your scene and your shot important. I’ve been working on a ‘How To: Shoot Before a Live Studio Audience” that gives an overview of the techniques needed to correctly expose various parts of a stage.
I’ve begun to frame all the Gig Posters and screenprint art I’ve accumulated - below is a photo of just some of the ones that still need frames. This afternoon I’m off to a framing store to see if I can find an 11″ x 23″ frame for a gorgeous Joseph Arthur print, a 17″ x 17″ frame for a “Off to War” limited edition art screen print, and some for Guster, Torche, Mason Jennings and a few more I can’t remember the names of right now. At least I did get the Flaming Lips poster framed, with it’s sexy glow in the dark parts. If you’re looking for awesome screenprint gig posters, check out GigPosters.Com - that’s where I’ve gotten 90% of mine.
See my pictures over at Schmap under the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, and very soon over at Wired Magazine’s column GeekDad - I’ll post when I see it go up. I’ve been getting my work critiqued off and on for over a year now. I feel pretty good about the progress I’ve been making - it went from no comments, to one or two off-hand comments like ‘I like it’, to deep critiques asking me why I have the dead space I do, or why I chose that amount of rim lighting. I feel more like a real photographer - and I suppose I am. I still have that whole problem with talking to people - I’m not very people friendly, but I love to watch them. It works very well when I have a partner, like Barry at the Guthrie. He talks to people, gets them to pose, he takes care of those kinds of shots - whereas I tend to ’steal’ mine. A subtle smile, two friends embracing, people deep in conversation - those are the moments I cherish and wish to grab, the real ones.
Speaking of the Guthrie - one of the greatest things about volunteering there is being able to watch the final dress rehearsals for all the new plays before everyone, for free. Depending on what play and where you sit, that can save you $100 or so!
How about a couple of links?
According to Market Watch, Minneapolis/St. Paul is the number 1 place in the nation for business - due to our commutes, available facilities, work ethic, quality of life, and more!
And how about Slate.Com’s piece on Craft the Vote! Love it, especially the God-free cross stitch!
Oh, and how about some kick ass stickers I just got. Can’t wait to throw them on some unsuspecting goods!
