Archive for the 'photos' Category

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Rock and roll heros on public radio

Published on January 30, 2007 in music and photos. 0 Comments

Jenny Toomey, formerly of Simple Machines/Tsunami and now of the Future of Music Coallition was on Bob McChesney’s Media Matters this past week, talking all sorts of smart stuff about music in the digital age. She had some particularly exciting things to say about indie lable distro via digital files at the end of the show (perhaps the final chapter to SMR’s Mechianic’s Guide…). It looks like the show’s not listed in the archive yet, but if you subscribe to the podcast, you’ll get it.

Anyway, hearing her talk got me all excited about the 1998 Simple Machines goodbye party, which a huge crew of folks from Greensboro went up to DC for. This was about the time I got my first digital camera, and I was taking pictures like crazy, but none from the shows have made it to our flickr. Here’s one of Trei and Ceri from that weekend, though. I’ll track the others down when I get home tonight. Late 90s nostalgia, here I come again.

Tsunami’s last album, A Brilliant Mistake, is one of those albums that no one really talks about, but that I have listened to 100s of times, and never went on a long drive without.

In other public radio news, David Byrne is on Soundcheck this afternoon, ~~hopefully that will be the segment they podcast.~~ It’s available here.

Two disasters photographed

Published on January 25, 2007 in brooklyn, pain and photos. 0 Comments

Yesterday I saw two disasters photographed on flickr:

Isabel’s fine, though Beth said the blood tests were more traumatic than the biting. Kelly was at home when the crash happened, but only heard it. She snapped some pics as well, but I haven’t seen them yet. I’m just glad she wasn’t out on the street (as far as I can tell, there were no injuries and no children on the bus). Be safe!

We’re back from Out West again…

Published on July 15, 2006 in photos and travel. 0 Comments

Here’re 91 photos to prove it:

TX to OR and back again, June/July 2006

Records of my record collection

Published on January 24, 2006 in infostudies, music and photos. 2 Comments

Color Coded Records
Originally uploaded by activitystory.

So, Sam and I were discussing our digital and analog music collections, like always, and I decided to see what happened if I uploaded photos of the spines of all my records. They were once organized by color, an arrangement that actually lasted a couple of years (see photo at right). Now, however, my extreme laziness dictates that they end up where they end up, crammed into an order that only archaeologists will understand.

I actually like the way that forces me and others to browse, and, thanks to the wonders of flickr pro, I guess that experience is now semi-webified, but without the satisfaction of hearing what you find. You can see all 25 cubes of my storage unit in this flickr set. Sure, many of the images are a little blurry, this method doesn’t allow you to see what lives in the blank-spined sleeves, and you really have to click on "All Sizes" (above the image on each flickr page) to read even the ones that are legible, but… let’s see what happens. A list of possible fun results:

Well, honestly, y’all can see my kick ass record collection without having to travel all the way to Austin (I know you were dying to do that)
Find my second worst record (I know in my heart my worst is an unmarked house remix of "Crazy About Her" by Rod Stewart, but these images don’t make that one visible).
Even though you can’t make notes on the large version of the images, maybe people will note and comment their favorite songs or albums, or the stories they’re reminded of
Maybe you want to make me an outrageous offer on one of these records (though I’m pretty sure I’m not the selling kind)
I don’t know what else… select mixes for your own personalized Record Jumble?
Maybe everyone else will do this and I can do all of the above to someone else’s records, which I’m dying to do.

So, let’s see what happens. If y’all complain too much about the image quality, I may shoot some better ones; it took me way longer than I expected to get all 25 images cropped and accounted for, but if there’s anything I can do to make the above list easier. I guess if none of that happens, at least I have these photos for insurance purposes.

The gif that keeps on giving

Published on December 15, 2005 in art and photos. 1 Comment

I couldn’t sleep tonight, so I finished helping my computer recover from a long semester of incredibly disorganized use, and spent some time playing around with photos. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about animated gifs… seems like people are sick enough of them that we oughta bring them back. I heard someone making a joke about them recently, and everyone laughed on cue like it was a joke about the president (don’t get me wrong, I’ve been known to drop an animated gif bit or two myself).

The punchline of this and similar jokes concerned, of course, how obviously unsophisticated the people who use them must be. Animated gifs are certainly the unofficial seal of crappy clipart web design, but, can they be anything more? Tom Moody‘s done some interesting things with them, as have others, I’m sure. Here’s my attempt…

This one is composed of three images, one from Iceland, one from Austin, and one of a Flavin piece at MOMA in NYC, which I haven’t altered other than to play with the transparency. See if you get hypnotized or irritated (you can also view the huge [11mb!], slow-loading version, but give it a second to get its rhythm). It’ll be interesting to see what flickr thinks of it, or maybe my cellphone.

I really like the pebbly effect, and think that the jerky animation has lots of potential. I think I’ll try a few more, perhaps attempting less smoothed-out transitions. Fun!

Wurst Fest Ever

Published on November 7, 2005 in food, photos and travel. 0 Comments

Pitcher tower (not ours!)
Originally uploaded by activitystory.

I know that’s the oldest Wurstfest joke in the book (and I’ve been using it for years), but how better to let all of y’all know we’re back from another successful salute to sausage. I posted my pictures to flickr, so take a look at the fun.

Highlights included:

Wurstgoulash
Sandy and Randi screaming Wurstfest to everyone we passed in the car
Longest game of "What’s your favorite?" in recorded history
Bob provides inspiration and examples for next Assignment:The World assignment (more to come on that)
Paul eats four rounds of german food in about an hour
Bread Pudding with Butter Sauce
Fellow Resort-at-the-Bahn guest warns us of gators in the pond at 4am
Trains passing w/ in 100 feet of the hotel room all weekend long
Tag-along praying mantis

I also recently posted pictures of folks on halloween, if you’re interested.

More Meegan

Published on August 14, 2005 in photos. 0 Comments

Let me brag a little more. Is my niece Meegan a cutie pie or what?
Between the Clawsons, the Yericos, the Mulvilles, the Burnses, and the Brundretts, Patrick and I are lucky to hang with some top-notch baby makers.

Photo Essay Winner

Published on July 6, 2005 in photos. 3 Comments

If I could give an award for best photo essay, it would go to my friend Scott. Check this excellent illustration of a fun time over at Oh dog! you sleuth!.

His comments function on his site is down right now, but I had to say how much I laughed and laughed at this. I am very sad and jealous that I missed out on this experience.

Oh, and a Happy Birthday to Jeremy! Hope you had a fun time…

End of the Road

Published on June 9, 2005 in photos and travel. 2 Comments

The trip was fun, but I am so glad to be home to get the summer started right. We finally got back last night at 3 am after another half-day delay at O’Hare. We spent the earlier half of the day at Niagara Falls, but I forgot to take my camera. So here’re some pictures from Charlotte and Toronto instead.

We got to spend the day before Greg and Molly’s wedding with The Clawsons for some BBQ and a visit toSciworks.

Mmmm. Biscuitville.

I didn’t try a bowl, but the cross-section looked delicious.

This was our hotel in the T-to. Some girls we were talking to at the Spoon/Clientele show on Sunday night laughed at us for staying there, but it was being renovated, and we got the room for $69. They also made fun of us for drinking Molson Canadian at the show (which was also the cheapest). Apparently, Labatt’s 50 is more of a beer for watching indie rock shows, and MC is just for hockey. Hmm. Good to know.

View from the room (23rd floor!)

More view from the room

City Hall was next door

One-way signs in Canada don’t say one-way, which was a little disorienting.

I spent a lot of time wandering around to record stores and stuff while Kelly was at the conference on Monday, and then on Tuesday we went over together to gather swag at the trade show. We eventually wandered into the CBC Museum (Free!), which had all sorts of crazy broadcast equipment on display.

This was a sound effects machine for CBC radio in the 80s, there were several drawers like this on the unit, and a wordless control panel on it on top

They had several displays where you could just punch a button with a picture of a show or the name of a historical event and excerpts would play on a little TV. They started out all lit up, and then each button would dim as that clip played.

We ate at a great pan-Asian place on Queen St. West called EAST!, which is situated right next to the best piece of graffiti I saw on the entire trip.

More Road Photos

Published on June 4, 2005 in photos and travel. 2 Comments

Haunted Lifeguard Lockerroom, Lake Erie State Park

Stone House, Lake Erie State Park

Rob & Tam’s rehearsal dinner sound system

Some toys

Kelly at the playground

The cabin we rented after the wedding

The other cabins, which we should totally lock down for a week next summer for a friendly reunion

Eli enjoying corn

Mark and Rob heading to the beach for wood

Fredonia pictures

Published on May 27, 2005 in photos and travel. 4 Comments

Soccer Field, SUNY Fredonia

Giant Wet-Newspaper Sculpture, SUNY Fredonia

Close-up of Giant Wet-Newspaper Sculpture, SUNY Fredonia

Reed Library, SUNY Fredonia (where I’m sitting right now)

The dirtiest suction-cup in the land

Parking space on campus

Kelly rolled down a hill

One of the main campus buildings

Kelly’s new shades

Aldrich’s Ice Cream and Meat Parlour

Gina, Meegan, Clara, Eli

Creepy Grave Statue in Jamestown

Happy Birthday Kelly!

Published on April 14, 2005 in photos. 2 Comments

We’re all very glad you were born!

[obligatory "Tiny Dancer" joke/remark]

Vancouver Video Teaser

Published on March 24, 2005 in photos and travel. 5 Comments

I took a video camera to Vancouver and am in the process of editing down a little movie of our trip, but I don’t foresee having much time to finish it in the next week or so, so here’re some tiny stills.

If you want to know about trip, I think Scott covers the two days we spent with them in a much more interesting manner. Be sure you look at his posts about Seattle as well, so you can see how much better that city seemed. More details later with the video.

SXSW Thursday, in picture form

Published on March 18, 2005 in austin, music and photos. 3 Comments

Kevin Devine, at the Hotel Cafe Showcase:

Ear-plugged Burnses after Kevin’s set:

Gold Chains & Sue Cie @ Beerland (w/ Trei’s camera in the lower left corner)

Sue Cie’s feet

We also caught The Paper Chase and The Skeletons, but they weren’t all that photo-worthy.

Real World Sighting #2: Dillo Dorado, Guadalupe & 17th

Published on March 2, 2005 in austin, photos and tv. 0 Comments

Real World dude, pair of feet
Originally uploaded by activitystory.

Two Real World Austin castmembers and two camerapeople were taking up most of the back of the Dillo Dorado I took home from school today. I pushed past the sound guy to sit as close as I could without getting in the shot. I captured the Real World Dude, and the feet of his female costar with my phonecam.

Overheard quote: "Did you get paged? Dude, I was gonna be like, I’ve never ever gotten paged." Then the dude put his head in the girls lap.

When they got off the bus I realized that there were like four other Real World crewmembers in our midst. As the pair moved toward the bus door, the covert crew members all shared a creepy, knowing glance and followed them off.