the book of the week is "On Reading"

Andre Kertesz is one of the founding fathers of photography. A specialist in "candid" photography that emphasized real life (as opposed to, say, studio set ups) his work is a timeless homage to the great pageant of the everyday. "On Reading" is collection of images taken form his catalog that depicts people reading. Now this may sound boring, but on the contrary, it's a great subject.

Hobos in tattered shoes scan discarded newspapers. A man with a magnifying glass combs over a pile of 5 for a dollar books. A priest pours over an enormous bible. I small boy peers up at the news stand. Each image capturing that subtle truth that reading is many things to life, it is adventure, it is learning, it is an escape, it is the bridge from ignorance to intelligence, it is a destination unto itself.

This little gem of book is out of print but you can find used copies out there, so it's worth the search. Try 'Andre Kertesz "On Reading"' in your search.

learn from Jason's mistakes #1

If you are shaking up a can of spray paint don't try to take a drink of coffee at the same time because it hurts when the coffee spills on your chest.

website of the week... Calypso Imaging

One of the last of the great photographic color labs that used to dot the Bay Area, Calypso is still going strong. I like their work. You can drop film in the middle of the night and pick it up the next day.

For those dinosaurs amongst us who still love slides (the premier photographic medium for color) this lab is a god-send. You can push or pull your exposures, have gigantic and gorgeous prints made (also expensive!) and they have a bulk/wildlife photographer's discount if you are not in such a hurry to get your film back. I never worry about the developing, the consistency of the chemistry, or the quality of the work. True professionals.

The only thing I don't like about his lab is that since the quality is so high and consistent on their end, I know any bad shots I see are from my end so I can't blame it on anyone else!! HA!

http://calypsoinc.com/

bumper stickers (take offs)

Save a cow, eat a Texas rancher

Not all who wander are lost, some are lost in ugly cars

The goddess is alive and afoot! Cool! Grab a magical broom and make yourself useful.

W' 04? I'd rather elect WD40. A tin can is better than a tin man.

Save the whales (FROM THE JAPANESE SCIENTISTS!!)

Girl scouts make the best cookies, once they stop screaming...

Better a uncontrollable boner in the White house that an uncontrollable bonehead

Eggs are like donuts, only without all the flour an sugar

Atkins. That's Latin for morons.

I swerve for gravitational shifts.

hatred...

A guy I work with (at the Merc, not at the non-profit) tells me that not only should we be in Iraq, but that we should march 200 miles into Mexico and build a giant wall like the Israelis are doing. Then we should steal all the Mexican’s oil to pay for the “illegals” that living here in this country.

I try to live a non-violent life and to not become what I disdain. But I have to say when I hear idiotic crap like that from someone who works for a newspaper and has a college degree I get so angry I just want Jet Li up on deys’ ignorant ass.

I mean where the hell do these people come from? Is there some gigantic rock down in Ignorantville that they all come crawling up out from under? Is there a leak in the cosmic moron field that’s creating them? Did a tanker full of brain-cell killing chemicals crash and spill outside their window last night?

It has to be something because it is unfathomable for someone who calls themselves educated to be so out of touch with reality. It’s a shame.

It’s not that I enjoy being angry but that kind of attitude is what I have stood against my entire life...

the book of the week is "Friends"

About 15 years ago a friend of mine gave this delightful little tome and to this day whenever I pick it up it never fails to entertain me. Written and illustrated by Helme Heine the book takes us on the adventures of Percy the pig, Johnny Mouse and Charlie Rooster, three very good friends indeed.

Heine's artwork is superb and the watercolor illustrations capture the essence of play and adventure with such honesty that you realize it's not a myth or a cliche', childhood really is a time of wonderment.

The site of the three of them riding the bike with Charlie straddling the handlebars while Percy and Johnny each take a pedal is reason enough to buy this book. When they discover a boat and have a pirate adventure I am transported back to my own childhood and our collection of forts and hideaways that my friends and I constantly built and rebuilt.

However, as with all fine literature, not all is play and there is a lesson to be learned too. I won't spoil the ending by telling you what it is, but I will say we could all do with a little reminder of the importance of friendship and the magical benefits it brings to our lives, so read this book.




Available from Kepler's if you live in the Bay Area. Support you local bookstore!

or, if you are an Amazon junkie, find it here>>

random post

rusted pole...

database lesson for the day...

Wouldn’t it be nice that if when you plop down 50 something bucks for a database book the dunces that published it actually reviewed the copy before they shipped the damn thing? It's irritating enough in normal reading to encounter a misspelling, but finding a typo in a computer book is simple unforgivable. Code, be it HTML, PERL or Morse Code is exacting. It has to be correct, to the letter, or things go wrong. Sometimes way wrong.

Trying to learn new things is hard enough. Trying to learn new things while tripping over code that won’t work because the publishers printed it wrong is impossible. Having a misspelling in a IT book is like having the wrong number in a math problem or like having a frog when you need a wrench. Huh? Oh, nevermind... Let's stick with the math analogy.

Let’s say they give you an example problem like "4+3 = some answer" and you set about working it out. You are going to come up with 7 every time. But now let’s say the writer really meant "4 + 4" not “4 + 3” and not only that but all the problems thereafter rely on the idea that “4 + 4 = 8” and assumes you know the 'real' answer is '8.' To put it mildly, you're screwed!

Your answer doesn't jibe with the authors and you can't figure out why because you've looked at the problem every which way and no matter how many times you try “4 + 3” is still = to 7. It doesn't make sense and you pop a cork.

But after you settle down, put the lighter fluid away and promise not to burn your book You come to realize the AUTHOR not you is the one who has a made a mistake. It's a misspelling, they meant to write "4 + 4." Now it all makes sense.

Now the code works the way it’s supposed too. Now you can get back to doing what you had started doing umpteen hours ago, trying to learn something. (Besides learning about hack editing)

Computer book after computer book I've bought has had code mistakes and it really pisses me off. There is special place in heck for all the authors, editors and book publishers who rush work to the streets without someone, any one, a monkey for Pete's sake, sitting down and working through all the problems presented in the book. If the answers don't add up, FIX THE BOOK BEFORE YOU SHIP IT, MORONS!

I'm starting a database of these losers with my new-found (and error-free) knowledge.

select losers
from targets natural join idiots
where idiots = "editor"
and targets.morons = iditots.morons

a random post...

laying on the beach looking straight up is a good way to spend an afternoon. taken at 'Four-mile' earlier today

Olympic bumper stickers...

Pual Hamm, the power of positive thinking

Our shot-putter can out-grunt your shot-putter

Steroids, they're not just for breakfast anymore

Is that a javelin in your pocket or are you just glad to see me

Greece is golden!

Tennis in the Olympics?? What next? Tiddlywinks?? (and where do I sign up?)

WHAT??? No Jamaican fencing team?

Hey honey, how about we stroll the Olympic village and compare wreaths?

Return the Olympics to its roots. NUDE Athletes!

Sorry, no parle' spanikopita...

Those seats aren't empty, they're reserved for the NBA cowards that stayed home!

photo of the week...

a nightime stroll with a camera can reveal things you don't see in the day

the book of the week is "The Last Dive"

From the darkened recesses of a man’s imagination come the demons and sea monsters of his psyche, the sirens that tempt him to his doom. All too often they come calling in the guise of pleasure. Too much of a good thing can kill.

And so it is with the story of Chris and Chrissy Rouse, a father and son diving team that went where few recreational divers dare, down beyond recreational and sport diving’s limits and into the murky world of caves and sunken ships. It is a world where the single kick of a fin can kick up a blinding fog of mud and debris into the water, blinding a diver. Without superb training and fastidious attention to safety one can easily perish and many have, dying horrifying deaths as they ran out of air, lost in a cave, desperately clawing at the ton’s of earth that separated them from a breath of air.

In “The Last Dive” Bernie Chowdhury narrative takes us where most of us never want to be, in that deep and lonely world. He surrounds the story of the Rouses by methodically laying out the history of scuba diving, the special challenges of cave diving and the even riskier world of deep wreck exploration. The Rouses were no slacks, as Chowdhury explains, they were expert divers. But they also had their demons and demons are no ally in the deep. Although they dove regularly together, father and son also fought regularly too, so much so that they were called the “bicker brothers.” In a world where communication and cooperation are essential to survival the bickering may have been the fatal lapse in the mens' attempt to dive a sunken World War Two U-boat.

Never overly dramatic nor overly protective of the diving world that he is also a part of, Chowdhury nonetheless writes with passion and authority. If you love John Krakauer’s works like “Into Thin Air” you’ll be right at home with “The Last Dive.” As a history, as a learning experience and as an adventure tale the books is a wonderful read. It simply succeeds on all levels.

The Last Dive is available through Kepler's, one of my all-time favorite bookstores.

Olympic fever

The Olympics always reminds us that it's ok to believe in yourself. So believe. Nuff said.

the weekly photo...

Boho tools, British Columbia

random diversion

our prez in all his moldability

bumper stickers part 3

save a tree, eat a vegan

ignore the blinker, i'll swerve suddenly before turning

Dan Quayle is starting to look pretty good right about now!

I unsharp mask for fun

Jesus wouldn't drive a Hummer, nor would he bomb children for oil

Truth = Bush + Liar

Nothing says 'breakfast' like cold beer in the morning

Don't be paranoid. We're not tracking your every move. YET!

Walmart is great for the country if your country is China

Support your local muck-racking-liberal-anti-social-gay-librarian quilter

george...

sometimes you just have to use your voice (no matter how bad it is) ...

running

there's an eagerness to run
headlong into the wind when you are young
a desire to feel life rush by
like a speeding car, like a bullet train
a need to feel insanely alive
to walk on crashing waves, to fly
to gather memories like so many leaves
the bigger the pile, the higher the fire
to love great loves
never looking back at the wreckage
always running on for that horizon
burning with passion for passion
storms and rant and raves and anger
punk and pill, spilled stain
midriff belly peirced eyeliner
sleeping in fits
daydreaming with liberty
drinking with purpose
yelling, dancing, crying, hurting, laughing, running
and running and running and running

the weekly photo

Shoreline Aquatic Park.

Henry Cartier-Bresson

The father of all of us that believe that there is magic in a little light trapping box called a "camera" died today and we are poorer for his passing.

To capture an image on film, or now on a digital sensor, is too defy physics and common sense, it is to stop time, to freeze an 'instant' for an 'eternity.' It is to reach into the void and contemplate why we are here. Oh, you may not think so as you click away at the birthday party, or as you tell your friends "get closer" at the road-side tourist stop, but think about it for just a moment and you begin to see how deep a photo really is, you begin to see how time is fleeting and life is short, you begin to see.

We are all destined to die, we don't like it, but that's our lot. When we look at our photos we see who we were, where we were, who we were with and we temporarily leave our 'here' and travel back to our 'then.'

The masters of photography can take us not only back in time but can help us touch eternity itself. They show us the universal in mankind. They introduce us to each other's humanity. They tell us each other's stories. They excite us. They sadden us. They educate us and challenge us. With each successive picture Homer, Joyce, god, love, war, birth, death, fire, sex and passion come roaring to life and in a 60th of second we, the viewers, are left changed forever.

Thank you Henry Cartier-Bresson.

Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson

http://www.photology.com/bresson/

word of the day...

is markolepsy. Don't think it's a word eh? Look here...

guns and the movies

My friend and I just returned from the movies where instead of a rich drama full of subplot and nuance we were instead treated to a steady diet of two jerks talking, joking and laughing all the way through "The Village." To add to our enjoyment the woman next to me kept popping her phone on to message someone and the guy behind us refused to turn his phone off so it rang twice. One ring for the phone up front and another for the phone in the back.

How to handle this??

Like Ghandi? "I'm so sorry for you my brother that even at the movies people bother you on the phone. It must be so unpleasant for you."

Like Clint? "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'That's a .44 magnum. One of the most powerful handguns known to man. But he won't use it in the theater.' Well, punk, you guessed wrong." BOOM!

Like Homer Simpson? "Hey, How come he's got a phone with his popcorn. All I got was popcorn. MMmmmmmmmmmm... popcorn."

Maybe there should be special implants in the phones that can detect a special frequency emitted by movie theaters. If you try to use your phone in the movie house you head blows up. It'd be hell on the poor teenagers who work the theaters for minimum wage and have to clean the aisles after each show. You know it's going to be a big mess.