|
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Digging Out From Another Storm
Man, this one just about killed Kara and I. Just before it started our front neighbors left, leaving all the shoveling
to us. I went out twice last night to do the front walk and stairs. Then I went out again this morning to dig out the end
of the driveway that was plowed in and to finish off the walk and stairs again. Then Kara went out and did the car and most
of the driveway. Then I went out again and did the last bit of driveway.
We got about eight or nine inches of snow, then a bunch of rain and now freezing weather. Just like the last storm we
had here. But anyway, it was also a rare last chance to get some winter photos. I wish I could have done more but I just can't
get away when I'd like. This is from a little jaunt I took across the river last night.
Now, this will probably never be a final print in my catalog or anything, so I'm willing to take a few shots at it here.
First of all, I've done a bit of work on this shot in Photoshop with curves. This has really jacked up the contrast by taking
the dark tones to black and the light tones to white. The reason I did this was to isolate the bench from the rest of
the frame. With a lower contrast, there is detail behind the bench that is distracting to the composition.
I took this picture early in the morning after the storm had changed to rain and sleet. It's more obvious in the original,
lower contrast version that this is a Nor'Easter. I had a plastic bag over the lens and camera. The wind was howling at a
sustained 20 mph. It was miserable. And so I got there, saw the bench, set up for this one shot. Realized that there was a
set of bleachers behind this bench that were going to ruin the shot. Adjusted as much as possible (luckily, there was a streetlight
bathing the seat in light which really helped) and took the photo with depth of field bracketing. Then I got out and went
home because it was miserable out, I didn't really have the right kind of gear to shoot this way and sooner or later I was
going to lose or break something and I could afford neither.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
More Gulu Gulu
The Gulu Gulu is right in the center of Lynn. I always forget how much character Lynn has. No, no, I'm being
serious. It's a very interesting town. It has a mix of industrial and coastal atmosphere and this great elevated train track
that runs through the center of town. And I'm not talking about elevated subway cars, we're talking trains here.
Anyway, as I mentioned before the Gulu Gulu is billed as a European café and I gave it decent marks on that score. It
certainly has a really great atmosphere. Although there are tables inside, there are also three or four sofas and some comfy
chairs in front of the stage.
Patti DeRosa led off the show, capping a 30 minute set with the 'Big Butt Blues'. Then Kim did a half-hour set of mixed material (old,
new and a cover).
Now, I suppose you are wondering what the deal is with the flames, right? You've probably figured out by this point that
it's not actually a gigantic fireplace behind the stage and they are not trying to make 'IndyChick Satay' or anything. This
is, in fact, a fireplace projected from the ceiling onto the stage. Now, I have to say that I generally like this idea. It
really creates ambiance. But there is a huge drawback to it. It leaves the performers in shadow.
I will tell you they could create a heck of a lot more ambiance in the Gulu Gulu if they turned off the lights around
the stage area and put a couple of very basic spot lights on the performers. Now that would totally rock. But I digress.
After Kim's set they both played together for another hour or so. They'd either trade songs, or Kim would occasionally
sing backup for Patti. My, it's getting hot in here, eh?
Since I went there to see Kim, here's a final shot of her working with Patti. Nice job to both of you!
Right Now At The Gulu Gulu
The Gulu Gulu is pretty cool. It is actually very damn close to a European café, although there are some differences.
Mostly, it's not smoky. But after that, well, they don't usually give out straws in Europe and when they do, they don't pull
all but the top part of the paper tube off and stick it in your drink.
Seriously, though, the food looks great, it has really nice atmosphere and live music. What more can you ask
for? Free WiFi?
Oh yeah, and it has free WiFi too. Wicked cool.
More photos from the GG later, and perhaps a great shot from Swampscott, but I'll have to see.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Some Gulu-Gulu Love
That's where I'll be headed with any luck tomorrow night. Headin' up to the city of sin for a little love at the Gulu Gulu.
Sorry, there's a lot of inside stuff there. I am a local, after all.
Anyway, Kim Davidson told me a very exciting story today that I am forbidden to disclose, so I won't. She owes me at
least one Gibson Les Paul and I am counting on her to make it so she pays up. But I am going to make every effort to
run up to the Gulu Gulu to check it out. Heck, I may even live blog it.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
More Job Hunting Funnies
I'm sorry, I just can't lay off. There are so many, well, dumb things out there. Especially on Craig's List. I mean,
I love Craig's List, don't get me wrong. But there are people who know who to use it and then there are these guys:
Early Stage Stealth Startup is building the nest (sic) BIG thing (emphasis
mine)
Very early stage startup founded by a handful of terribly successful software pioneers and entrepreneurs is looking for
the most talented engineers in Massachusetts. The founders have had previous success' of over $1 BILLION!!!!!!
I don't know about you, but I'm not that turned on by the use of 'terribly successful' in describing
the founders. It's probably literally true. But omigod, forget about that, they made over $1 BILLION!!!!!!.
They are being very hush-hush about their application because it is very big.
Yes, we wouldn't want to have it plastered all over Craig's List, or anything. *sigh* Later, they
get into the nitty gritty of the job description:
3) Experience with very large scalable applications. the kind that process thousands to millions of
transactions per second
Let's do a little reality check here, OK? This is getting a little out of hand.
Thousands of transactions per second means between 1,000 and 9,999 transactions per second. Millions
of transactions per second means between 1,000,000 and 9,999,999 transactions per second. Why? Because these are orders of
magnitude. Millions of transactions per second is three orders of magnitude larger than thousands of transactions per second.
It has to do with logarithms and crap like that, just trust me, OK?
OK, but mostly a million transactions per second doesn't pass the laugh test. I mean, come on? One
million transactions on average each and every second of every day? That's snake-oil territory, folks, not an Internet start
up no matter how ground-breaking the idea is.
So the ad ends with this closing:
If you are interested in working for a small startup where you will help define this ground breaking
IP, then please send your resume in so that we can chat!
It's all so collegial. Look, you might have a chance to help define this ground breaking IP
but whoever these Internet billionaires are, they mostly just want to make their second billion and they've gone about it
by hiring a recruiter who writes a job advert that smart people think is stupid. If I were them, I'd be looking for a refund.
Monday, March 12, 2007
I Hate When That Happens
OK, so there's this whole cliché about getting tied to the bed as a sexual game but then your partner doesn't release
you. So the maid finds you and it's embarrasing.
What would be even more embarrasing, though, would be instead of the maid finding you, if your partner kicked you out
of the house, naked in your backyard and you are found by the police.
Oh, and maybe your partner had you wear a ball gag too.
You know what would make it even more embarrasing? If you were the Israeli ambassador to El Salvador.
Goodbye Winter...
This is actually from a few weeks ago. I'm pretty pleased with this photo because, well, it doesn't look as much like
a photo as I'm used to producing.
Artistically, I was recently inspired by some photos that used technique to mimic a more impressionistic style. I saw
an opportunity to do that here. There was no magic to this photo, really.
It was taken with a short telephoto lens. The look is really made by three things:
- The day is really grey, monochrome and hazy. This means that there is a very narrow range of color (and contrast) in the
original.
- The photo was taken at a high ISO speed that leads to more digital noise.
- The time of day was significant - it was at the beginning of disk when the light begins to fall. This is a great time
for this kind of shot because lights start to turn on but don't get burned out by the exposure.
Anyway, I like this kind of look. I'll have to keep experimenting. In the meantime, the ice is coming off the lake quickly
now - it's been warm lately.
|
