The new Google Reader looks like there's lots of improvements with this update. Using the 'Share' functionality to make an RSS feed to this blog over in the 'Links' section. Also, check out the 'Tingy Link Blog'. This is automatically generated by my shared links and looks pretty damn cool.
Last night I went down to see Graham Lewis playing again at the Notting Hill Arts Club. Last minute decision. Mike came too. It was good. The set played seemed the same as before to me. Sounded great, some of the songs are well catchy. A couple of them I've been humming ever since. Didn't see anyone else there from the Ideal Copy list but I did spot Bruce Gilbert. Took a few photos but not as good as the previous set.
Working up in Manchester this week and commuting each day has fair knackered me out. And the worst of it is there's no internet access up on the clients site. Imagine that, no internet access! It's just not right.
We are skipping swimming in the morning. Dylan bashed his face up real bad yesterday by running into a wall at school. The poor thing really did bash himself. He's got a black and swollen eye and he can't get his goggles on. He had to skip swimming lessons at school today. Harriet is suffering with a cold as well so swimming lessons are off. We're staying in for a lazy Saturday morning, something we haven't done for ages.
Created today in my lunchbreak working up in Manchester. Photographs from the motorway and my desk. Loving Photoshop right now. Got a graphics tablet yesterday which is great fun so there might be some more of these. Number 001 in a series. I would like to try and aim for one-a-day but I'd only end up stressing when I failed and that kind of defeats the object.
Tonight we went to our first secondary school open evening. Kind of depressing thinking of Harriet moving up next year. Time is passing way too fast.
Much too fast.
Pause.
I've always been a fan of First-Person-Shooter games since Doom. Not just for the shooting, but also the immersive quality of moving within a 3D space. I used to download loads of Quake 2 maps, some for the office deathmatch and some just for strolling around in enjoying the view. I dabbled in a bit of map creation but like most things, just dabbling. With the quality of current games like Half Life 2 the immersion experience is getting even better. I was well impressed by this movie of a HL2 map recreating Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Falling Water. The graphics are stunning and I love the fact that it doesn't function as a HL2 game map, it's just a 3D space to be explored and enjoyed. Must get HL2 re-installed on my PC and download this map so I can go visit the house.
Today I have mostly been a Mac fan-boy. Downloaded iTunes 7 last night and spent ages marvelling at the CD cover browsing feature. Pure eye candy I know, but usually that's good enough for me. I'm very shallow that way. Listened to a MacBreak Weekly podcast on the drive in to work. More Mac-geekness. On the drive home a good door-to-door chat with Phil. Catching up on work-ish stuff and spreading the Mac-love.
After bitching on about photographing Artsfest 2006 in my previous post, tonight I uploaded the last of my efforts to Flickr and the panorama above I'm quiet pleased with. You have to look at it full size and pan along it to really see it. That's what I like about composites, moving through the photograph. Like Deckards Esper in Bladerunner.
Of the other photos in the Artsfest pool, I'm increasingly attracted to the Through The Viewfinder (TTV) pictures. The square format and the grungy scratches and distortions are really appealing. I've got my eye on a Kodak Duaflex on eBay at the moment. Watch this space.
Update: Just looked at the Flickr Blog and right there is a post about TTV complete with a photo from the Artsfest pool! Nice one.
Jacq had a meeting about another IT initiative at the school. This one is just for Dylans Year 3 kids and is focussed on Music Technology. Apparently it's all being done on Macs using Garageband. How cool is that? We'll be able to play with it at home too, when the MacBook comes back from repair.
In pet news, Sparky the hamster died yesterday. But hold back your tears, do not fret, for a new hamster was already installed by the time I got home from work. Her name is Chunky.
The weekend just gone was dominated by Artsfest 2006 which was taking place all over Birmingham city centre. As part of the Birmingham Flickr Group, I was photographing the event as an 'artist participant'. Saturday afternoon involved a LOT of walking, trying to get around all of the venues across the city. As I was walking around I started to get the feeling that actually I wasn't particularly enjoying myself. By the time I got the bus home I realised I had taken far fewer photos than expected. What had gone wrong?
Having thought about this since, I've come to the realisation that the Artsfest as a photographic subject holds very little interest for me. Photos of performers or portraits of visitors are all very nice but they just don't really do it for me as interesting images. Which leads me to question the reasoning for being part of the Flickr group. I think that most of the members in the group are interested in all sorts of photography whereas I feel more and more that only particular aspects of photography interest me and other leave me quite cold. For example, I usually find a single image much less interesting than a composite of multiple images. For me an interesting photograph attempts to represent more than just reality. The distortion of a 'lo-fi' approach, multiple perspectives, representations of movement and time, these are the areas that interest me right now. So what am I doing taking photos of people at an arts festival?
On Sunday I went back into town for some more Artsfest but this time with the family. It was more fun to just consume the festival rather than document it. I was also a bit burnt out from the ammount of walking done the previous day. Met up with Steve, Mary and crew. Didn't bother with the Flickrmeet at the pub at the end of the day. Not much to say.
Having said all that, I DID take some pictures. Check the photostream. My favourite thing at Artsfest was an installation called Bangmingham by Surasi Kusolwong in an old chapel taken over by Ikon. The sight of a wall-mounted drum-kit being bashed at really raised my spirits.
The Birmingham Flickr Group Artsfest photos are here.
A great start to the weekend with Dylan passing his level 3 swimming test. Keith said that everything he did was perfect. It's a pity that Dyl's friend Mitchell didn't pass because they have so much fun together. Hopefully they will still get a chance to play on a Saturday morning. Harriet did not pass but she wasn't really expecting to. It so technical and difficult at her level I don't think I'd pass either. We are so proud of both of them.
As a prize for passing Dylan chose the Cars PS2 game. Cars is still very much the movie of choice with the kids at the moment. They asked to go see it again today on their last day of the holiday. School tomorrow.
Sunday morning we took the MacBook to the Apple Store Genius Bar. Quite impressed by how that system worked. We booked a slot using the website before we set off for the Bullring and it was reassuring to talk to the Genius about the shutdown problem we've been experiencing. Although the shutdown problem is all over the Apple forums, according to the Genius it's not really all that common considering the huge ammount of MacBooks they are selling. This may of course be bullshit, but on this first occasion I choose to believe the official line and remain reassured. So he booked the machine in for testing and ran through the parts he was ordering for replacement depending on how the tests go. It was a far more pleasant experience than returning a faulty bit of kit to a spotty youth at an electrical superstore. Although we used the Genius Bar to report a fault, it seems it can be used just for a bit of ad-hoc training on anything Apple. I'd rather not use it for that myself being too proud but for some I'm sure it's great. So Jacq is without her Mac for a week but hopefully when it's back and reliable, she (we) can fall in love with it again.
Sunday night I stumbled upon a great program on the Artsworld channel about Michael Stipe and his friendship with Mario Batali (who I'd never heard of).
It was a nice insight into a bit of his life in NYC. Of course, he probably lives in other places too, but his life in New York looked impossibly cool.
I especially loved listening to him rave about photography so much.
It reminded me of how much I rate the guy.
