i'm okay, you're dead inside

Bioluminescent Waves

2011-10-09T15:08:00.000-07:00

On the way home from work last night I wheeled off the freeway in Encinitas and went to Swami's to see if the coast was still being graced with a spectacular neon blue light show in the waves. The bioluminescence is caused by an algae bloom commonly called red tide. The organisms, Lingulodinium polyedrum phytoplankton, illuminate the crashing waves with a sudden flash. In the background are the lights of the San Diego coastline. I've gotta go back out before this phenomenon ends, and shoot more.

The free portraits project

2011-10-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

It's been two years since I was laid off, joining the ranks of the many newspaper folks who found themselves mid-career and with few options other than reinvention. Along with my colleagues, I applied for jobs and put more effort into my professional presence online. New bloggers were born, people who wrote and edited for a newspaper became online writers and editors. Everyone realized the value of LinkedIn if they were searching for a new job.

In the interest of trying to do more for my friends & former colleagues than just forwarding them links to job openings, I thought of other ways to help. What is it I do again? Oh right, I'm a photographer.

So I started offering free portrait sessions to people who needed them, people whose online identity was defined by a bad cell phone photo, or no photo at all. These days your photo for LinkedIn & Twitter & a blog is how so many people will form an impression of you. So I'm dragging friends out for a quick shoot, and giving them social networking portraits, two of which are below. Some of them are unemployed and searching for work. Some have found jobs where their online presence has gone from Facebooking with friends to representing a company or communicating with students and fellow faculty members. Some are putting their effort and time into blogging, and reaping a reward there.

All of us are moving on from what we used to do at a newspaper, seeing ourselves and each other in new ways.
Journalist David Gaddis Smith writes about Mexico. You can find his work here. His site is being redesigned and as of this writing the portrait is not up yet, so check back.

Jerry McCormick is an Associate Producer at NBC 7/39 in San Diego. He also teaches journalism at Southwestern College.

When Location Scouting Turns Into A Portrait Session

2011-08-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

I was scouting locations at Balboa Park today when a portrait walked up and asked me to take it.

In my bag was a single light stand, two small strobes with remotes, a camera body and a couple of lenses. No light modifiers such as umbrella, softbox, etc. - I was traveling light. This was just a location scouting mission, after all.

That'll teach me.

After spending an hour looking for locations for an upcoming shoot, I was getting ready to head back to my car. That's when I saw Curtis. He was getting ready for his gig at the park, where he dances and speaks to groups in costume as "Zulu Warrior." He seems a little out of place among the mostly Spanish Colonial Revival buildings, but the park attracts all kinds. He was brushing out his black-and-white horse hair armbands when I saw him. I struck up a conversation and asked if I could take some photos. He begged off, saying the photos would be much better if I waited for him to get into costume. I said I'd REALLY really like to get photos of him doing what he was doing, but he was stubborn. As stubborn as me, and that's very.

I normally favor the journalistic approach, and would have pushed back, but as I was scouting locations for a portrait session, I thought "What the hell. Have him stand in for the portrait subject, see if you like the result." So I asked him to meet me around the corner from where we stood, as soon as he was ready.

I was too far away from my car to get a light modifier, so I just set up without what I had. I put up a flash on a light stand and did the old "shoot through the leaves" trick (better version here) for the background and thought I'd just try to feather the light off the subject so he wasn't getting hit directly with harsh strobe.

Here's the setup before Curtis showed up. The light hitting the right side of the palm tree is sunlight.

And here's the shot of Curtis in costume.

Needless to say, I'm going to have a decent light modifier and a light stand when I go back and shoot my (previously planned) portrait session, so I can get better quality and direction of light from the main flash.

I sent Curtis some photos, so by earning a little good will with him maybe I can set up a re-shoot with proper gear. And who knows? Maybe I can even weasel my way into doing something a little more documentary next time, too.

Thieves, the lot of them

2011-06-09T19:30:00.001-07:00

A friend alerted me to this surely fake but popular video making the rounds - it shows a young woman who (supposedly) becomes a bit overemotional while recording an introductory video for online dating site eHarmony. Turns out, she really REALLY likes cats. Especially cats in a basket and cats wearing bowties. And cats on rainbows.

So I wanted to send my friend a copy of this picture I created a few years ago by Photoshopping a rainbow coming out of a kitten's ass.
Original blog post here.

Yes, it's a really bad Photoshop job. With a background in editorial photography, I'm afraid my limited Photoshop abilities tend to be in the area of making an image look real, not making an image up. Plus I wanted extra cheese. I mean... it's a kitten with a rainbow coming out of its ass.

I started looking back through the blog to find it but couldn't lay my paws on it quickly, so I thought hell, I'll just do a Google image search for "kitten rainbow." That'll surely get me to my photo fast.

And sure enough, I found my photo. But I didn't only find it on my blog. Someone stole my rainbow kitten.

This blogger at least gave my stolen photo some decent play, at the top of the post:

This one wasted a good image (ahem) by putting it at the bottom of the post:

Points for creativity - this band called "Rainbow Kitten" stole the image for their Myspace page, but at least they really fucked up the colors so it's not really a rainbow anymore. Makes me wonder about their approach to creating music. As in "steal something cheesy and bad, then make it worse."

Also, Myspace? Really? Is it 2004?

Relief Portraits

2011-05-29T23:13:00.000-07:00

New York photographer, Strobist guest-poster and Alabama native Miller Mobley spent the weekend in Tuscaloosa, doing what he could to help the people in that tornado-ravaged community. And by "what he could," I don't mean helping people clean up or rebuild their homes.

Those things need to be done, of course. But as a photographer, Mobley decided to bring his particular skills to his home state to do what he's good at. He joined several other photographers in creating new family portraits for people who lost photos of themselves and their families when the vicious winds uprooted their homes and their lives.

NPR has the story here. The Relief Portraits Facebook page is here. Mobley's blog item about the effort is here. Take his example to heart and think about what you're good at, and find someone who needs you.

You don't need to wait for disaster to strike, either. I help a friend shoot family portraits every year around Mother's Day at the family shelter in San Diego. Like what Mobley and the other photographers in Tuscaloosa this weekend did, it's a small way to give back to someone who's lost so much.

Manuel Labor

2011-05-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

For a while now I've been meeting with friend, online comics genius and uber-talented graphics artist Paul Horn for a collaborative effort on his strip, Cool Jerk. At first we were kicking around general ideas but mostly we just caffeinated ourselves and laughed our asses off. We used to work together at the San Diego Union-Tribune, but neither of us are there anymore, so we don't see each other too often despite the fact we live in the same neighborhood, City Wok Heights.*

But over the past couple months we've been more actively brainstorming and scripting a series of strips for Cool Jerk in which a long-established character, Manuel, comes out.

We met on my days off and the resulting series of strips (start reading here) was a blast to work on. As proud as I am of anything I may have contributed, I'm more proud that the strips and characters all retain their voices, voices Horn has nurtured and crafted over the past *cough* decades *cough*. We didn't want this to be "a very special episode in which Manuel learns the true meaning of friendship" in any way, with lots of tear-stained faces and happy talk. And I was especially careful in that I didn't want the strips to sound like they came from anyone other than Horn himself.

Plus Horn is brilliant and it was just plain fun to hang with him.

I hope the strips have a feeling of reality about them, and that we avoided the pitfalls in a lot of popcult coming out stories. And that we threw a few curves.

He posted something about the series, and about yours truly, on his blog. Do my ego a favor and read some nice things about me. My Jewish Mother™ will be happy if you do.

And leave Paul some comments on the strips. Let us know what you think. Did we blow it? Did we nail it? Did it need more cowbell? Or maybe I should make that "disco-ball."

*Not really the name of our neighborhood.

Can I Drive Your Magic Bus?

2011-03-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

David Hobby and Joe McNally brought their Flashbus tour to San Diego today. The small flash gurus (wow, that's about the most reductive phrase I can think of for these two guys, considering their talents and careers) spent the day at the NTC Promenade talking to a roomful of photographers about the philosophy and craft of lighting with small strobes. They're witty and fast-paced and they pack an incredible amount of information into the day. If you're in one of the roughly two dozen cities left on the tour they'll visit in their graphic-wrapped bus, just go.

I met McNally for the first time today, but I've known Hobby for years, back when we were both University of Florida photo types. We reminisced about school and swapped stories from when he was an intern at the Orlando Sentinel, where I was working at my first newspaper job. Apparently that lesson about how to deal with pesky TV photographers who jump in front of you at news scenes has stuck with him. It was great catching up. Plus he picked up the bill for breakfast and lunch. Gotta love a per diem. Thank you again, Dave.

All that aside, the two do a great job engaging the audience with everything from the basics to the esoteric when it comes to lighting on the fly. It's about the image, not the toys. Know the subject. Learn to look at light. And of course, they don't just tell, they show.

Here's Hobby gesturing hypnotically. Note the strip of green gaffer's tape he stuck on his sweater, because it's St. Patrick's Day.

And here's McNally demonstrating some multi-flash techniques on a model/grip on tour with them. Note that McNally doesn't need green tape. And note the model/grip looks like a bearded Justin Bieber. I can say that now because the bus is on the road to the tour's next stop - they're halfway to Phoenix as I write this. And therefore it's not very likely he'll kill me for saying it.

Pro for a Day

2010-11-20T23:51:00.000-08:00

Lorise Maynard preps for her role in a mock press conference at the San Diego Association of Black Journalists' "Pro For A Day" j-school boot camp at Southwestern College Saturday. Check out the work our four photo students did - we had a really good group and they did a great job.

Salton Sea

2010-10-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Steven and I went to the Salton Sea this morning. Hard to believe, but it was my first visit. It won't be my last. It's a fascinating landscape of life and decay. Next time, though, I'm going to get there much earlier or later, to get some better light. As always, click to see the image larger.
Dead fish, the north shore.

Bombay Beach home likely destroyed when the Salton Sea flooded in the '70s.

Hasta la vista

2010-09-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Headed home tomorrow from San Miguel de Allende. It's been a wonderful time - with family & friends it's been easy to enjoy the place. Or... now that I think about it, maybe it was the place that made it easy to enjoy the family & friends? Yeah, I think that's closer to the truth. Anyway, one more photo to leave you with until I get back. Unless there's a LOT of airport down-time, in which case I may put a few more photos up.

Keep a light on for me, San Miguel.
Hasta pronto.

I wish I knew

2010-09-24T21:52:00.001-07:00

Another big celebration tonight in the Centro. This one had a kind of religious flavor - and I mean both Catholicism and Aztec religions. I'll try to find out what tonight's festivities were all about and update this post, but in the meantime there was a lot of dancing and .... mostly dancing. And people waiting to dance. I was talking with friend and former U-T photographer Jerry Rife today and he mentioned that he always liked shooting the offstage or backstage activities at an event. Let the audience see what's on stage, he's intrigued by the goings-on where the stage lights start to fall off into shadow. I'm so right there with you, Jerry. So here's some stuff that went on while the audience was watching what was on stage.
Enrique, one of the Apaches from Valle del Maiz.

Warming up by the Parroquia before heading out through the gate and into the crowd.

Waiting to go on.

The stage backed up to the wall of a building, but there was about five feet between the wall and the stage. I saw this guy in the space in between, watching the dancers, with the spotlight casting their shadows around him.

EL Charco del Ingenio

2010-09-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

Took a long walk yesterday, from San Miguel's Centro to the outskirts, and up up up into the foothills northeast of town to the Charco del Ingenio and botanical gardens. The route took me up some very steep cobblestoned streets. No matter how steep you're thinking now, it's not as steep as these streets are. It took an hour and a half to get there and the trip home took only an hour - that uphill was a killer.

Once there, it was a nice walk through the gardens of local plants past a few waterfalls and along a canyon rim to a point overlooking the city. For better light I'd need to be there first thing in the morning, though, and early in the summer.

The city's landmark building, the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel is at right. The dome of the Santa Escuela de Cristo is at left. This view is taken about 15 minutes into my walk, and I'm staying about two blocks from the Parroquia.

Waterfall downstream of the reservoir.

Agave plant on the trail in the botanical gardens.

Mariachi boredom

2010-09-21T19:38:00.001-07:00

The most important miel of the day*

2010-09-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

If I was a food blogger, I would have already told you about the wonderful chiles en nogada covered with pomegranate seeds and a cream sauce (picture a red, green and white meal suited for the bicentenario) I had the other day, or last night's seven amazing little tacos at Tacos Don Felix, each one different from the rest. I have friends who are much better at food blogging than I am, so I'll leave it alone, for the most part.

Except for today. This I had to share.

Went to Posada Corazon in the heart of San Miguel de Allende for breakfast. It's an amazing B&B with expansive gardens (unusual in the central part of the city) where they prepare meals made with produce grown on site. Locavores, take note. The grounds are shaded by huge trees, which attract lots of birds, which keep the cats' tails twitching. I got the huevo enojados ("angry egg") which comes wrapped in a flavorful green leaf (I don't know what kind) and is served with chilaquiles. Along with breakfast comes a basket of sliced bread, some butter and little bowls of honey and jam.

We were eating outside, and it wasn't long before a honeybee found the jam, took a taste and flew immediately back to its hive to tell the rest of the colony what it had found. And it wasn't long after that before two bees came back and started to groove on the jam. Then three. Then a half dozen. Eventually about 15 bees were flying about our heads or chowing down on the jam. Then one landed in the honey. And another, and another. As good as I think the food is here, I can say the local bees love it too. Click the photos to see them larger.
I'm a little confused by how much the bees went after the honey. Honey is bee vomit, right? Just checking.

Not a great closeup. A reminder that I need to find some cheap extension tubes when I get home, so I can do better detail photos. Next time I'm at breakfast and a small army of bees launches an attack on the condiments, I want to be (bee?) ready.

*"Miel" means "honey" en Español.

Noche Mexicana

2010-09-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

Went to a Noche Mexicana last night - a big traditional fiesta coinciding with the Bicentenario, this one put on by a local church. But the only church-y thing about it was that the padre sang with a mariachi band. But aside from that there was plenty of singing and dancing (three bands) and tequila.

I stayed away from the tequila. Long-standing rule of mine, I've learned my lesson. Just a Cuba Libre for me, thanks.

I only had my little G9 with me, rather than the usual camera gear, but I got some photos from the festivities. My favorite was this one from outside the hall, where a member of the band was tuning up before performing.

Dia de la Independencia

2010-09-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

Spent a good chunk of the day dining with friends - I love a long talk over a long lunch - and made it back to the center of town in time for yet another parade. Being Dia de la Independencia, this was a historical parade, conducted partly by costumed horsemen portraying figures central to the rebellion charging down the street at full gallop and partly by plenty of people walking at a rather slower pace. If you're not familiar with the story of Mexican independence, there's a great video here showing the entire story, as told by schoolchildren. And I mean the entire story, including hobby horses and a ribbon that just won't come off the very important scroll. Go watch it.

I missed the activities at the little escuela, so I watched the parade itself. As always, click the photos to see them larger.

I'm fairly certain this guy is supposed to be Juan Aldama. The scabbard in his right hand seemed very close when he galloped by.

Ignacio Allende reins in his horse.

Post-parade traffic jam, San Miguel de Allende style.

UPDATE: More fireworks tonight, but I wasn't at the Jardin for them. I heard them going off and ran upstairs to shoot from the roof. Not a great shot, but it'll give you an idea of how the festivities ended for the evening.
Red, green and white fireworks over the Parroquia.

Muchas gracias

2010-09-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hey Greg, thanks for the link love from your story about Mexico battling negative news to try to get its tourism back on track. Check out his blog, I'm Black & I Travel!, for this and many many more cool stories.

¡Viva Mexico!

2010-09-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, the 16th is Dia de la Independencia here, but the party kicks off the night before with a "Grito," when the president (or, in a town or city - the mayor) appears before the gathered populace and shouts the traditional cry of independence, which begins with recognition of the heroes of the revolution, and closes this year with:

“¡Viva el Bicentenario de la Independencia!
¡Viva el Centenario de la Revolución!
¡Viva México!
¡Viva México!
¡Viva México!”

Quick and to the point. Then it's on to the celebrations.
San Miguel de Allende's central square, packed with thousands waiting for the celebrations to begin.

Mayor Luz Maria Nuñez Flores waves the flag after delivering her grito to the crowd.

A scaffolding erected before the parroquia (the cathedral) erupts in fireworks commemorating the bicentennial.

And somewhere, the corner of my camera can be seen sticking out from behind some guy's head in a group photo.

Warming up for the fiesta

2010-09-15T23:04:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for the Bicentenario festivities later tonight and tomorrow, here's some of what went on in San Miguel de Allende as evening approached. The vendors were out selling helados, flags, toys, noisemakers, more flags and all kinds of street food. The little chicle-selling kids took a break. The locals watched as the gabachos danced. Then the locals danced. And then some fucking clown came over and put red, white and green greasepaint on my face while I was trying to shoot.

Some fucking clown.

More from San Miguel de Allende

2010-09-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

Big celebration of the bicentenario tonight, with festivities cranking up in San Miguel de Allende. Today there were caballeros riding through the square, athletes from across Guanajuato state bearing torches, and giant puppets. Updates later, after the festivities get into high gear. As usual, click on the photos to see them larger.

Bicentennial noisemakers.

I shall call them "vivazelas."

Giant puppets of historical figures from Mexican independence.

The historical figures from behind.

Hecho en Mexico

2010-09-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

Spending a little time in Mexico, and this week is the bicentennial of their declaration of independence from Spain. It's going to be muy interesante. Click the photo to see it larger.

Trompe l'oeil digitale

2010-08-20T14:46:00.000-07:00

I was having coffee with a photographer friend today and in the course of discussing light (yeah, this is what photographers talk about when we get caffeinated together) I mentioned how changing your camera's color temperature setting and putting a complementary filter over the flash head will keep the subject balanced correctly and let ambient background light turn crazy colors.

There. Did I lose all the non-photo geeks? No? Still some here? Okay, quick and hopefully painless:

Different kinds of light have different colors. We don't see this because our brains correct things to make light look mostly "white" to us, but film (and digital cameras) are not as smart as our brains. You've seen photos taken under fluorescent lights that look green, or under incandescent lights that look orange, right? That's different kinds of light having different colors. We can tell digital cameras what kind of light we're shooting under so our photos come out with correct colors, though, and that means we can set our cameras to accurately record colors under fluorescent or incandescent light, for example.

We can also change the color temperature settings on our cameras just for the hell of it.

The "tungsten" setting on your camera adjusts for light it thinks is too orange. So it corrects for this by adding a bunch of blue. Under orange incandescent light, that makes everything look normal. But what happens if you set your camera to "tungsten" and you shoot in daylight? Everything looks blue.

Except (and this is the cool part) if you throw some tungsten light in the photo somewhere. It will appear normal, right? Tungsten light OR a flash filtered orange (to make it look like tungsten light) will appear white.

I tried to explain this to my friend (I thought everyone knew this) and I knew I was making some sense but not a ton of sense. So what better way to teach than to show, right?

My camera was in the car. She had her Canon G9 with her. Great! I can set the camera to shoot tungsten, and light coming in the window will turn blue. But what about the cool part, the part where I throw some orange light in there and it becomes white in the photo?

I looked in my backpack. And yes, I had a blank CD in a clear orange plastic case. Bingo.
Gear for today's impromptu photo class.

So I set the camera to shoot tungsten & took a photo of her with the window in the background, while holding the clear orange corner of the CD cover over the little flash. That way daylight turned blue in the camera and the flash illumination that fell on her appeared to be white.

It was her camera so I don't have the pictures. So I duplicated the approach at home, by shooting a little bronze statue of a bodhisattva that I had placed near a white wall by a window. So the light falling on the wall is daylight. And when I light the statue (not the wall) with a flash, it looks like this:
Shot on "daylight" setting, so both flashed statue and wall appear correct.

Then I set the camera to tungsten (which means daylight will look blue in the photo) and added an orange filter over the front of the flash (so the camera will see that orange light as correctly balanced) and was careful to aim the flash so no light got on the wall.
Shot on "tungsten" setting, with an orange filter over the flash, so flash light appears correct and daylight appears blue. Blue daylight. Did I just blow your mind?

More dramatic. And easy to do. Note the color of the little bronze statue is the same in both images. The only photoshop work I did with these images was to make sure one was set to be correct for being shot in daylight and the other was correct for being shot in tungsten. And I cropped them smaller for the web. That's it.

This isn't an amazing new trick, it's an old simple one. I've been doing stuff like this since I was an intern (using tungsten-balanced film because digital? What's that?) at newspapers in Florida. But it was new to her, so I thought I'd share.

No justice of the peace, no peace!

2010-08-19T12:53:00.001-07:00

Same-sex couples in San Diego gathered at the County Clerk's offices today, but instead of getting marriage licenses as planned, they protested a stay on the recent ruling that overturned Proposition 8. One couple presented clerk David Butler with a letter outlining their legal reasons for requesting a marriage license despite the stay. Another couple was joined by protesters in blocking the doors to the marriage license division of the office. Nine were arrested in the peaceful protest. (NOTE: I originally posted that 12 were arrested based on information I got from a spokesman at the scene. They revised their numbers down. I thought 12 sounded too high when I heard it.)

Access wasn't blocked, and at least three straight couples entered the offices to get married during the protest.

Click the photos to see them bigger.
Tyler Dylan-Hyde (ctr) and his partner Tony Dylan-Hyde (left) present S.D. County Clerk David Butler (rt) with a letter asking to be granted a marriage license.
Brian Baumgardner (3rd from right), his partner Michael J. Anderson (second from right) and others block the entrance to the marriage license division of the county clerk's office Thursday morning. Both were later arrested.
Protesters block an entrance to the marriage license division of the county clerk's office in the San Diego County Administration Building Thursday. Some protesters were later arrested.
Sheriff's deputies discuss strategy down the hall from the protesters.
Sheriff's deputies gather in the hallway where protesters blocked acess to the marriage license division and warn them they will be arrested if they do not leave.
Protesters block the main entrance to the marriage license division of the county clerk's office in the San Diego County Administration Building Thursday. Some protesters were later arrested.
Sheriff's deputies crowd the hallway and prepare to make arrests of protesters.
Sean Bohac is lifted to his feet by sheriff's deputies and arrested.
Michael J. Anderson (right) tells sheriff's deputies, "shame on you!" before he and his partner Brian Baumgardner (left) are arrested.
Cecile Veillard, the last of the group, about to be arrested.
Cecile Veillard is arrested by sheriff's deputies.

UPDATE: I've seen at least one published report that said heterosexual couples were prevented from entering the offices to get their marriage licenses today. This was not the case. Here's a photo of some members of a wedding party entering the offices to get married, by walking along a wall behind deputies and protesters. That's the happy bride at far left, she's already in the office.

Victory Lap

2010-08-05T03:06:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, Judge Vaughn Walker smacked down California's Proposition 8 voter initiative banning same-sex marriage in Perry v. Schwarzenegger. Afterwards, many pro-equality San Diegans gathered to march through Hillcrest to the LGBT Center for a rally. The march was at a good time of day but the marchers were walking west-to-east, so it was backlit and a lot of photos were pretty meh.

I know, big day like this and I'm complaining the light wasn't better. See how I am? Click the photos to view them larger.
If Harvey Milk were alive today (and if he had a giant papier-maché head) this is what he would have been doing after the ruling.

The crowd gathers at Sixth and University.

Crossing the street to join the crowd.

Holding hands and watching the marchers go by.

Walking down University past Rich's nightclub, draped with a huge "=" flag.

Walking with a much smaller "=" flag.

LGBT Center CEO Delores Jacobs asks the speakers and the crowd to raise a toast to the victory.

Former SD City Council member and current California State Assembly candidate Toni Atkins.

Clergy members from many denominations were at the rally to endorse the decision.

The cheering crowd inside the Center.

SD Mayor Jerry Sanders first addressed the crowd inside the Center, then walked outside to repeat his remarks to the overflow crowd. He admitted that his position on marriage equality has evolved over the years, and even apologized to the crowd for remarks he made when he was first running for mayor.

For a good caucus

2010-08-01T00:20:00.000-07:00

The National Association of Black Journalists' annual convention was this week in San Diego. During the convention, the Visual Task Force had their big fundraiser for student programs, an auction of prints donated by NABJ photojournalists. Here a volunteer picks up a print for bidding.

GB, phone home

2010-07-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck says the White House needs his advice and he points to the red telephone on his desk to tell his watchers that he's waiting for the call. Most recently, yesterday he ended his show by saying "call me" about the Shirley Sherrod debacle - as if someone from Fox News is going to help when it's a problem they helped create (transcript).

The above image is a screengrab from the online clip of the show (here, but it's at the very end - this site is a pain in the ass but for you, dear reader, nothing is too difficult).

So call me, White House! Why don't you call? As my viewers can see, I'm waiting for your call so I can help!

Please note there's no cord coming from the phone. Prop comedy is so very '80s, Glenn.

Alternative energy

2010-07-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

The San Gorgonio Pass wind farm, near Palm Springs. You've seen it while driving through the desert east of L.A. - one of the windiest places in Southern California. Constant grit in the air, the only way to safely change lenses was to do it in the car.

Fair food

2010-07-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

I know there's much more going on at the fair, but the food is what people talk about. And it's why a lot of people go.

My business card can kick your business card's ass

2010-06-30T19:42:00.001-07:00

I don't know why this man is so angry about everyone else's business cards, but he is. Very, very angry.
Thanks Earnie.

Butter baby with a fauxhawk

2010-06-28T13:51:00.001-07:00

Butter sculpture being made at the San Diego Fair.

Photos from the 15th Tijuana Pride parade (and first festival)

2010-06-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

Click the photos to see them bigger.
The big rainbow flag heads down Avenida Revolución.

I can't vouch for whether the show is actually good, but the word "travesty" is just a misspelling of "travesti" - transvestite.

Well, they say that on St. Patrick's Day everyone's Irish, right? I guess the same is true for Pride. Welcome, Elmo.

Found poetry

2010-05-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

A lot of people don't pay much attention to the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. To many they are little more than an excuse for a three-day weekend, they have something to do with the military and beyond that the distinctions blur. Well here's the difference. Veterans Day honors those who served in the military and Memorial Day honors those who died while in military service.

You'd think someone who wears American flag bling and is paid exorbitant speaking fees to question the legitimacy of others' patriotism would be able to tell the two days apart. But it seems Sarah Palin can't.

So on Memorial Day weekend she tweeted the following:

There's a number of things wrong here, not all of which are obvious at first. First, her all-caps reliance on VETERANS and VETS is the kind of thing you'd expect her to tweet on Veterans Day and not Memorial Day. It wouldn't surprise me that she's one of those folks who doesn't know the difference between the two.

But if she does know the difference, then she's picked an odd weekend to randomly tweet about what she feels veterans mean to society. Talking about service members who died while in the military makes a lot more sense to me on Memorial Day weekend.

Then there's the matter of what she's actually saying. That veterans "give" us the freedom of the press, the right to vote and to peaceably assemble. And she specifically says these rights come from vets, "not politicians" among others. I'm calling horseshit on that.

First of all, they are rights and not gifts. Second, vets (and those who died while serving) have done many things. You can definitely say they support and defend those rights, and sometimes died defending them. But they did not "give" them to anyone. On the contrary, those rights can be found in amendments to the U.S. Constitution. So if you want to be picky about where those rights came from, they came from politicians. Politicians who were elected by a popular vote of the people.

We the people, Sarah. We the people have the power to enshrine rights in the Constitution. We do it by electing people who will do as we ask, and they codify those rights we feel are important.

And that's the whole point to a representative democracy. If members of the military were deciding what rights people had, that's usually called a plutocracy. We don't have one of those.

But here's my favorite thing. The ALL CAPS SHOUT OUT TO VETERANS portion of her tweets? That's not even her writing. She stole that from a poem written by U.S. Army vet Charles Province called "It Is The Soldier."

It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

It wasn't all copying and pasting over at the Walled Wasilla Compound this weekend. That she changed "soldiers" to "vets" or "veterans" really jumped out at me, and it's why it seems that she may be conflating Veterans Day and Memorial Day. She made a point of wedging the V-word in there for some reason, right?

Well I hope Mr. Province is flattered that Palin decided to plagiarize his poem (or, at the very least, copy from it liberally, ahem, and not credit him). Because if he's upset, she'll find that it's the VETERAN, not the half-term governor, who has given us copyright law.

Judge not lest ye be asked to

2010-05-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was one of the 29 judges for this year's San Diego County Fair photography exhibition. About a thousand photographers submitted some 4,000 photos to compete in 27 categories, from b/w scenics to digital composites and everything in between. Including a couple hundred dog, cat, parrot and camel photos in the "our best friend" class. I judged the photojournalism division along with Al Bruton. After we worked our way through the news, sports, feature and documentary images (and that was before lunch) we dove into the OTHER six crates of photos.

Our. Best. Friend.

Yep. Dogs and cats. Some of them wearing hats, sweaters, sunglasses. So many photos of pets in human clothes my eyes bled. But the funny thing is, it was a lot harder for Al and me to decide on the final four best images from that category than it was the journalistic photos. The best of that category were very good.

While I was there I shot some video of the judging. Here's the result.

Dog Beach moment

2010-05-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of opportunities to participate in crowd-sourced, theme-based photographic exercises. There's the Facebook Photo Shootout. Variations on the "a photo a day for 365 days" theme. People who shoot clouds all the time.

I don't usually participate in these but the NY Times' Lens blog had such an opportunity today, asking people everywhere to shoot photos at the same time. Their hope is that the assembled submissions will "create an international mosaic, an astonishingly varied gallery of images that are cemented together by the common element of time." The "Moment In Time" idea caught my interest and I don't know why. I just like the idea of waking up earlier on a Sunday than I normally would and going out to look for a photo, I guess.

The photos all had to be shot at 15:00 G.M.T., which translates to 8 a.m. San Diego time. I gave it a little thought yesterday. Where do I want to go? What do I want to shoot? I decided against having a plan (not always a good plan) and ended up at Ocean Beach. I left my coffee in my car and headed out to look around.

At 7:45 I saw surfers in the parking lot off Voltaire getting ready to hit the waves, people walking their dogs, a little old guy setting his folding chair out on the sand to read the paper. The tide was low - very low. I could actually walk on the sand around the jetty, so I headed closer to the mouth of the San Diego River, to Dog Beach. More dogs and their people. A guy waving a metal detector over the sand. I liked how the low tide left a large swath of beach covered with a thin glassy sheen of water, so I worked that.

I set out not knowing what I was looking for, but hoping for people. I think I ended up with a cliché. Oh well. This is what was in front of me at 7:58:56 this morning, what I submitted.

Did you participate in this worldwide moment-capturing? If so, send me a link to your photo (or the photo itself) and I'll post 'em here.

Class action

2010-04-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

I've had the opportunity to fill in part-time as photojournalism instructor this semester at Point Loma Nazarene University when the usual instructor, Dave Gatley, is away. It's been a very rewarding experience, and I hope the students feel the same way.

This week the students had to shoot a surprise assignment - they showed up for class and were given an assignment to shoot a mock press conference in an adjacent room. I stressed the deadline nature of the assignment and ushered the students into the next room for their faux presser.

All the information the students were given was fake, but they were asked to submit that information on their captioned photos as if it were an actual event. See for yourself, at the end of the video, how they did. My thanks to friends and colleagues Howard Lipin and Fred Greaves for playing their roles so well.

Angry photojournalist...

2010-04-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

I wonder what else Angry Photojournalist will be angry at. Thoughts?

Low light, high anxiety

2010-04-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

The following was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend today.

Dear Shabby,

I just purchased a new Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. It's a remarkable digital camera, able to get photographs at higher shutter speeds in lower light than I'd ever thought possible. The low-light performance of this camera makes photos possible where the human eye can barely register light at all.

Here's my problem: I was photographing an event in very low-light conditions, but was able to use a higher shutter speed than ever before in such a situation. So my camera was actually able to catch the subtle color shifts in wavelength created when a light filament is vibrating at super-high speeds. This is natural, as light filaments do this all the time when they are excited by the electrons running through them. It's how artificial light is created. Normally we (and our cameras) just see a relatively continuous stream of light. But with my new camera I am seeing successive frames all with slightly different colored light. A little green, then very green, a little orange, then very orange. It drives me nuts! I know I can "fix" this color in Photoshop or other programs, but as a journalist I am left with a thorny ethical dilemma: Aren't ALL these colors in fact accurate? Should I be fixing them at all?

This worried me so much that I tried an experiment. I shot photos by candlelight. And it turns out FLAME ITSELF HAS SLIGHT BUT PERCEPTIBLE COLOR SHIFTS! Not even flickering flame has steady and repeatable color!

So my question is, how do I convince everyone, everywhere, to go back to black and white photography, which we all know is more realistic than that Whore of Babylon, color?

Signed,
Photographer In Sunny San Diego

Dear PISSD,

Is that camera so good at low light that it can shoot things while you have your head this far up your own butt? Wow, that is a good camera.

I recommend you do what photographers have always done. Blame it on the reproduction and the crappy newsprint. And congratulations on your new camera.

Hot, dry and full of art

2010-03-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

I was in the high desert this weekend, near Twentynine Palms, shooting the work of dozens of artists from seven University of California campuses. The massive exhibition, Dry Immersion 3: Desert Projects, is based on students' immersion into the landscapes (and inhabitants) of the Southern California desert. For a much better idea of the scope, content and intent of the exhibition, catch Steven Biller's blog post here.
Elizabeth Chaney walks into the "Untitled: Bristol Salt Lake" installation.

Elcin Joyner's "The Orange Pataphors Nomadic Ziggurat."

Jared Stanley stands near "The Desert Die" in its pedestal as Matt Hebert gestures toward it.

The "UR Rituals" sound performance piece is set up.

Red sash attached to the outside of the "Untitled: Bristol Salt Lake" installation.

Updated to include a link to Steven's post.

Wet 'n' wild

2010-02-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

I have no idea if it was a post-Chilean-earthquake tsunami or just a really fast-moving high tide, but when I was in Newport Beach this morning, shooting at a fish market normally 30-40 yards from the high tide line, waves at one point washed into the beachside outdoor market where I was shooting.
Fortunately, I had a pair of dry shoes in my car.

To add a point of reference, later in the day I went back and shot from the pier to show some scale. The shoreline is at bottom left, and the ramshackle brown building on the beach in the upper right is the market where I was shooting from in the first photo. That's a lot of water.

Cloudy with a chance of recalls

2010-02-20T12:46:00.000-08:00

Way to spoil my plans, weather gods. It's southern California and I needed a couple days of clear weather. Not usually a problem. So I head out at oh-dark-thirty and instead of spectacular or even passable, I get clouds. Lots of clouds. And wind. And cold winter storm. Even when the sun popped out on occasion, the photos looked cold, since people were bundled up. Hey, it's California. When it hits the 50s here, people dress like it's Chicago in January. So a good trip was mostly frustrated, but the client rescheduled so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather gods give me more blue sky than this next time.
Balboa Island, where the sky is always blue. At least a little.

Vote for Zsa Zsa's husband, he'll legalize pot and sell his Viagra disco mix CDs to balance the state budget!

2010-01-27T02:28:00.000-08:00

Mr. Zsa Zsa Gabor is running for governor of California. His name is Prince Frederic von Anhalt, but let's all agree right now to just call him Mr. Zsa Zsa, it'll be easier to remember and more fun to shout at press conferences.
Photo courtesy prinz-frederic-for-governor.com

His platform? Legalize pot and tax it. Raise the taxes on liquor and cigarettes. Lower the DMV fees. Tax the oil companies. Go solar. Lift the import ban on Cuban cigars (Is that a state issue? I don't believe it is). And overturn Prop. 8.

"Throw the Divorce Lawyers a Bone and quiet the Gays. I believe in marriage between men and women, but I am also a defender of the constitution which says equal rights for all. Let them be as miserable as the rest of us."

Isn't that cute? Yes, he actually capitalized "Divorce Lawyers," "Bone" and "Gays" but not "constitution." My guess, it's a German thing.

Check out his Web site. In addition to his platform and a link to make donations, he's also selling his horrible "Viva Viagra Viva Amore" paen to priapism CD, but don't buy it. I know, you were thinking about it. Just go here and give it a listen. It may be the worst Euro-disco ever recorded, and that's saying a lot.

And that link to make donations? He really wants you to use it. Following is his current list of donor. Singular.

$24? Way to put yourself out there, Dirk.

One other thing. On his main campaign page, he says:

"We've had Irish-American, African-American, Armenian-American and Austrian-American Governors, and now it's time for a GERMAN-AMERICAN to lead the state."

I don't think California has ever had an African-American governor, Mr. Zsa Zsa. Douglas Wilder, Deval Patrick and David Patterson are the only black state governors I can think of, and none of them were from California.

Is his candidacy a little bit tongue in cheek? You tell me. His Web page closes by saying "if elected I will demand a recount." You wouldn't be alone, Herr Zsa Zsa.

El Niño week

2010-01-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

It's a stormy week here in America's Finest. An El Niño system is hitting the west coast with rain, winds, a big swell, you name it. Yesterday we even had a tornado watch, which I believe is a first since I've been here.

But this morning broke very bright and sunny. I went to La Jolla to see whether the big waves were hitting the coast. Indeed they were, and before long the wave-watchers showed up too. I may have more weather photos for you later in the week. Click the images to see them larger.
Access to the breakwater was closed off due to the high waves. The seals have climbed pretty far up the beach.

Most folks stuck to the walkway off the cliffs, watching the high surf from afar.

Only one surfer ventured out into La Jolla Cove Wednesday morning when I was there. He took one ride in the hour I watched him, and got a faceful of water kicked back by the onshore breeze.

Manchester Hyatt boycott continues

2010-01-09T20:08:00.000-08:00

The LGBT community has been boycotting the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego since its owner-operator, Doug Manchester, contributed $125,000 to the Yes on Prop 8 campaign in 2008. That was the proposition that repealed same-sex marriage in California. This weekend, the American Historical Association met at the hotel for their annual convention, and a coalition of groups thought the time was ripe to remind people of the boycott with a rally.

Some 285 members of Californians Against Hate, Courage Campaign, Equality California and labor groups came together to rally outside the hotel. Click the photos to see them larger.
Nancy Egan, a UCSD history grad student, participated in the rally even though the AHA topics being discussed inside were of interest to her. Here she wraps caution tape around trees outside the Hyatt before the rally.

Longtime LGBT activist Cleve Jones (right) worked up the crowd while Californians Against Hate founder Fred Karger (left) spoke.

The activists circled the hotel twice, chanting "Boycott the Hyatt! Check out now!" Some carried a banner made just for this event, addressing the historians meeting inside.

After the crowd circled the hotel chanting, they partly made their way toward the main entrance before being stopped by security. They decided against going into the hotel's lobby.

Alright, I know rainbow flag photos are a cliché but this was really sweet. Felicity Bradley, left, and Kelsey Hoffman hugged and listened to speakers at the end of the rally.

Hamthrax

2010-01-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

The San Diego County Health & Human Services Dep't had the first of their mass influenza vaccination clinics today at Qualcomm Stadium. I dropped by to get a H1N1 shot and left with another kind of shots. Turnabout is fair play after all.

Kicking '09 to the curb

2009-12-31T19:20:00.000-08:00

2009 sucked, there's no getting past it. So in the tradition of the human animal thinking that round numbers and arbitrary dates on the calendar are suffused with importance, I'm taking this opportunity to navel-gaze just a bit and kick the bad crap in the ass. And in the process I hope to kick-start something better and move forward with it. So I went down to Sunset Cliffs for the last sundown of the year and saw some cool stuff that I thought I'd share, by way of saying here's to a better new year for all of us. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to read my thoughts or look at my photos over the past year (even if you were brought here because I had the phrase "secret Canon 7D Accessories" in a post - that one's still getting so many hits it's the #1 result in Google, who friggin' knew?). I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2010.
A guy was jumping for photos at the cliffs as the sun set.

Coming in from the last session of the year. And this was the last frame I made this year (unless I take some photos before midnight - always a possibility!) Drive safe, kids.

The 18 Percent Solution

2009-12-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

There aren't a lot of T-shirts with photo geek designs on them that I'd wear in public. I've seen a lot and few are any good. Among the biggest offenders are the "Been there, shot that," "Will take pictures for food" or "Size matters" (beneath a graphic of a camera with a telephoto lens) shirts. Then there's the ever-popular graphic of a point-and-shoot on the chest, with camera straps pointing up toward the shirt's shoulders. See? I have a CAMERA. And I wear it AROUND MY NECK. And apparently it's made of CLOTH AND INK.

So I was very pleasantly surprised to get this gift: a T-shirt with a (possibly) neutral 18% gray card on it.

Gray cards are used a couple ways in photography. When you're out shooting, you can take a meter reading off the gray card to determine your exposure. This is especially helpful if the scene is predominantly dark or light, either of which may fool your camera's built-in exposure meter. An 18% gray card will (ideally) accurately reflect the light falling on the subject and not be fooled. The other primary use for a gray card is in post-processing. During the shoot, you take a photo of the gray card itself. That way, once you're doing your digital processing in Photoshop, Lightroom or whatever, you just tell the application that the card is a neutral gray and it corrects the white balance for the photo, a series of photos or the entire take.

I have a neutral 18% gray lens cloth in my bag. Sometimes I'll throw it out into a scene or hold it up to have that neutral reference for color correction later. Or now I can shoot my shirt. Because this I will wear in public.

Hammer time! 'Tis the mochi season.

2009-12-21T22:08:00.001-08:00

Remember when I told you about mochi? Well, it's that time of year again. Time to steam a few tons of sticky rice, pound it into gelatinous submission and roll it into tasty little gut-bombs.

And violá, mochi. That should keep us well starched for a few weeks.

A bad day (shooting ) surfing is better than etc., etc., etc.

2009-12-10T16:40:00.001-08:00

Maybe it didn't live up to its huge hype, but the first NW swell of the winter hit San Diego this week. Which means heading out to shoot some surfing. The following are from Sunset Cliffs.

Novel graphic

2009-12-04T22:24:00.001-08:00

University of Minnesota associate professor PZ Morris crafted this epic flow chart showing arguments on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate.
Click to embiggen.
The data for the chart was compiled from Facebook quotes in June 2009. And yes, I know Britney's name is misspelled. Maybe that'll be fixed in v1.4? I don't know, but it's a small complaint as compared to the overall coolness.

PZ's got some great content on his blog, check it out.

Great Moments in Online Journalism, yet another in a series

2009-12-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

One sure way to put your holiday lights on the map is to string them up above Barack Obama when he delivers a major policy speech at West Point. Thank you East Valley Tribune for the holiday themed design.

Spring forward, fall back

2009-11-01T08:58:00.000-08:00

SignOnSanDiego.com unveiled its redesign last night, and it's definitely an improvement. Also, it's definitely a work in progress. The first thing you see is a rotating widget with photos and text blurbs linked to stories deeper in the site. Problem is, they're using white type running over photos, and the words are often unreadable. Here's their link to a Chargers story (click on an image to make it larger):
White type over white uniforms? Not so much for the legibility.

As a photo guy I've argued against type on photos many many times. It's not a reflexive thing. I'm not doctrinaire about it. If you ask designers I've worked with, you'll hear that I've told them, "let's try it and see how it looks." They'd mock up a page and we'd discuss it. My problem with type-on-photo is that it tends to be an unnecessary gimmick that interrupts and obscures real content in the image. Sometimes I've said sure, let's do it. Those times tended to be when we were working with feature stories and wire images that had clean negative space in them. Photos that were often shot in such a way that there was a logical place for type to go. Usually Getty Images was the best place to find this kind of photo. If it was the news of the day and if it was a staff-generated photo I'd be hard-pressed to see a reason to put type on a photo.

But I've never worked with a designer who wanted to run white type over white parts of the images. I don't know how they allowed this to happen but I assume it'll soon be fixed with a dark screen behind the words to make them legible. In the meantime, the image they picked to tease to the story on the redesign itself is almost comically unreadable, as not only is it white type on white parts of the image, it's white type on white type.

Reading past the rotating marquee, the look is cleaner, as it needed to be. The old SignOn was overburdened with far too many links. Pages no longer look like they're trying to give the reader a case of ADD. Unfortunately, I think there is now far too much wasted space. Check how many pixels are devoted to the header on the Sports main page:

There's a lot of wasted space there that can be tightened up - this is pretty much the top half of the page as I see it in my browser window. That's a lot of space for very little news. When reading stories, there's too much space between paragraphs as well - more wasted screen real estate.

There are broken links. Old pages are having some problems being viewed in the new templates. There are coding issues...
No, that's not how she spells her name.

As for photos, it took a while to find the galleries. They're here. There's no link to them from the front page. And they seem to be totally disorganized with pro sports, news, college sports, entertainment & more all thrown onto one page. Once again, coding problems, as seen on a page here:
You may need to click on this image to see it bigger. Yes, that's a giant box of miscoded caption info perched above the photos.

I have a friend who's out of town today. He emailed me to say the links in his morning e-mail newsletter from the U-T are broken. And that the "Today's Paper" (online package of stories & photos that duplicates that day's printed product) is gone and he's so far been unable to access the e-edition without having to pay a new yearly fee, on top of the current subscription he pays. I assume the "Today's Paper" is gone as a way to encourage people to go out and buy the paper. Which is a great idea, and it should lead more people to buy the printed paper locally. Until you leave SD on vacation, for example, and want to see some benefit from your paid subscription. Perhaps they can reinstate "Today's Paper" and simply black out IP addresses in the area from getting it, so people out of town can see the paper?

As with any retooling of a Web site, there are bound to be glitches here and there. Broken links, missing features, dysfunctional functionality, old code conflicting with new stylesheets. Those sorts of things will be fixed in time, I expect. The redesign is long overdue and at last it makes SignOn look like something that wasn't designed in 1995. Bravo for that, in a big way.

I know a lot of work went into the SignOn redesign. I'm eager to see what's next after they fix the bugs and listen to some of the reader feedback. The above-linked story on the redesign is currently the most-commented story on the site, and it's not all yahoos typing their all-caps "BUILD A FENCE!!!111" screeds, either. So go check it out, let them know what you think.

NOTE: I used to work at the San Diego Union-Tribune. I have a lot of respect and care for the people who are still there, and for the work they're doing. And the U-T is still the best single source of news & info in the region, hands down. This isn't meant as a slam but as a critique. When I was part of the team working on a redesign and relaunch of SignOn's sports coverage a couple years ago, we learned that Web site redesigns aren't a done deal at the moment the switch is flipped and the site goes live. You see things you didn't see before and you get feedback on functionality and appearance from readers, and you make improvements based on that feedback. This is feedback.

Great Moments In Online Journalism

2009-10-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Just saw this on a certain local news Web site.

Meat swords? Really? I guess when they review some vegetarian restaurants the headline will be twigs and berries.

Secret Canon 7D accessories include laptop compartment, bottle opener

2009-10-10T15:02:00.001-07:00

While idly looking for info on the just-released Canon 7D I came across some accessories for sale at Amazon. Nothing really important like a lens or a strobe, but something that would be waaaay down the list if I decided to get one.

I said "if." So shut up, Earnie. Can't I just look? This is meant to be a humorous blog post, not a declaration of intent to spend any money on anything.

Back to the lame accessorizing. I saw Amazon's taking pre-orders for the BG-E7 battery grip for this camera.

For those who aren't photo geeks, this item attaches to the bottom of the camera and allows you to double your battery power.

And, in my mind, it isn't very useful. It adds weight, it adds bulk. Yes, it makes the camera easier to handle when you switch to shooting vertical but is that worth the price of admission? I know there are people who use one but I've always felt these things were mostly sold to people who wanted to look like they spent big bucks on the top of the line cameras, which look like this, cameras with all that big grippy battery holdy stuff built in and not tacked on.

So my thought was, meh, who cares? Why pay for the dubious privilege of looking like I have a better camera than I really do when I could spend that money on something that will really make better photos? Like an aforementioned lens or strobe or a trip somewhere photogenic?

Note I said that was my thought. Then I read the "technical details" for the BG-E7 on Amazon's page and I saw there was so much more.

Laptop compartment? Built-in bottle opener? I'm sold. I just hope it's also available without the ultra-hip "street art graphic" silkscreening because it might clash with my rave-inspired day-glo camera strap.

Zombie plan spoiled by UF officials, undead sure to get upper hand now

2009-10-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

The day before Zombieland opened in wide release, University of Florida officials pulled their zombie apocalypse preparedness plan from the school's disaster exercise site. Bad timing, Tigert Hall!

The exercise plan was a simulation only. Surely the hurried way in which officials at my alma mater scrubbed zombie-oriented information from their Web site couldn't be construed as evidence of a cover-up about their real knowledge of the very real threat of campus-wide disruptions in the wake of an attack by the undead? Surely they'd never want to keep this information from the students?

Where's the harm? Students and faculty need this kind of training, this kind of preparedness. And this kind of paper-pushing. The plan contains two pages of forms to fill out if a UF employee needs to "dispatch" an undead co-worker. Including reminders for HR to stop cutting paychecks to shambling brain-starved recently-risen-from-the-grave employees.

UF administration should have kept the plan in place. As someone who graduated years ago, I'm jealous that students these days would have this level of training and preparedness for dealing with the undead if school officials let them. There's nothing like that here. I had to go to the local Ace hardware store for my zombie protection.

Frank's out today

2009-09-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

When Roman Polanski was arrested overnight in Zurich on 32-year-old charges he had sex with an underage girl - charges he has been evading since he fled the U.S. after his guilty plea in 1977 - the world's media sprung into action.

Except for Frank. Frank was out today.

At least according to a story AP moved Sunday morning, Frank's out.

It looks like someone mistakenly moved a message meant for internal use on the main wire. I guess it could have been their fancy new journalism take on the story, something that would be oddly appropriate considering that style is as dated as Polanski's flight from justice. But since the AP isn't exactly known for an ironic treatment of breaking news stories, I'm going to go with the "oops" idea instead.

The best thing to come from all of this is a spoken-word version of the message recorded by wickedly funny actor James Urbaniak. Urbaniak is officially my hero now.

And Frank? Frank is likely Frank Jordans, AP correspondent in Geneva. You picked a bad day to be off, Frank. I'm sure if you'd known, you'd have been all over the Polanski story, though. Because New York is really hot on this.

Live from New York, it's the F-bomb face

2009-09-27T01:39:00.000-07:00

Unless you've been hiding in a cave (a cave without broadband) you already know about the recent expletive-not-deleted "keep fucking that chicken" moment from WNYW anchor Ernie Anastos.

My favorite part of the video is the look on the face of Anastos' co-anchor, Dari Alexander. That's her on the left, looking exactly like you'd expect someone to look in such a situation.

Cut to ten days later, a different TV studio in the same city. It's the season premiere of Saturday Night Live and new cast member Jenny Slate is in a skit about biker chicks. She and fellow SNL'er Kristen Wiig are sprinkling a liberal amount of "frickin'" into their lines when Slate says, "You know what, you stood up for yourself and I fuckin' love you for that." Which was immediately followed by her realizing what she had just said, on live TV, as indicated by this expression:

It was the best moment of the show. Not because it was that funny - it wasn't - but because it was the only original thing that happened in 90 otherwise uninspired minutes. And it showed that when you're a pro, you should always make sure you alert the audience to the fact you or someone else said "fuck" on the air, just in case we were wondering, "did I really hear that?" The F-bomb face says yes, you really heard that.

Raiders of the Lost Spark

2009-09-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

For a mere $3,400 you can own a 1937 comic book that holds the first four-color appearance of Tom Mix. But for those of us who are not big fans of the Hollywood cowboy, the best part may be the ad for Eveready batteries on the back cover, which features the life-or-death story of San Diego reporter Eugene P. Lyle III, who fell into a well at Mission San Diego de Alcalá and was saved in hyperbolic noirish style by his flashlight.

Well of the Padres His Living Tomb

"For nearly two hundred years this death-trap had awaited its human prey... that was the grisly thought uppermost in my mind as I fought for life in the ancient crumbling mission well of San Diego de Alcalá," writes E. P. Lyle III.

"First, as I was climbing down to explore an opening at the water level, a loose tile struck me on the head; then the rickety ladder slipped, plunged me dazed and bleeding into the water."

Holy shit. I'm making some popcorn.

"But I had clung to my flashlight and as the cold water cleared my senses, I could see it shining under the surface. Paddling to keep afloat, I swung the light as best I could around the well. A rusted old pipe attached to the wall offered a hand hold, and was stout enough to hold me as I fought off growing dizziness from loss of blood, and climbed hand over hand to where my companions could reach me.

"They would have pulled a corpse out of that well if it hadn't been for the DATED Eveready batteries in my flashlight - batteries that were really fresh when I bought them months before. I would have certainly lost consciousness and drowned before my friends could have reached the mission (a quarter mile away) and returned with rope and a light."

The lesson here isn't to be careful when going down a ladder or to have a spelunking buddy or even a rope, but to have balls like church bells. And to pack the right batteries into your flashlight.

The ad seems to be an early version of Eveready's totally awesome pulp marketing approach, which was essentially "if you don't use our batteries, someone will die." In these ads, flashlight-packin'-adventurers live on the edge and (thanks to the fact they picked the right battery) survive narrow scrapes with bloodthirsty sharks, killer snakes and gravity itself in comic strip ads with names like "Drifting with death in SHARK RIVER," "Death on the flying trapeze!" and "The cold kiss of DEATH!" More ads here and here.

Screw the Energizer Bunny, I want my batteries pimped by real adventurers who are only distinguished from Indiana Jones by their fey pencil-thin mustaches.

9/11 truthers in the Star Wars universe

2009-09-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

If you were a stormtrooper in the Star Wars universe, wouldn't the Death Star be your 9/11? And therefore, wouldn't someone be passing around YouTube videos that "prove" it was an inside job?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Notapalooza

2009-09-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

A photo making the rounds and purporting to show the crowds at Saturday's anti-Obama FNC-sponsored teabag-fest in D.C. is actually from 1997.

If you go here, you see the following photo:

When you mouse over it you see the file is called "912aerial.jpg." I've left that unchanged.

The photo is not from 9/12/2009. It seems to be from the Oct. 4, 1997 Promise Keepers march. If you do a Google image search for "promise keepers 1997," it's the second image to show up. You can also find it here, where it was uploaded in Feb. 2008 and it refers to it being a Promise Keepers image from 1997.

As proof the Freepers have a short attention span, the image was used on their very site after Obama's inaugural to try to dispute and minimize the numbers of people who attended.

For those who will circulate the photo anyway, take a close look. Check out the upper right part of the frame. Not sure what to look for? I'll give you a hint: It's the National Museum of the American Indian. It opened five years ago so it should be in any photo taken today. Check here (mouse over the buildings to see which is which - again, the disapperaring museum is at upper right) and then here to see what you should be looking for if you're not familiar with it.

One other thing I ran across while raking the Freeper muck:

That's right, the poster was asking if anyone had a screengrab of something heard on the radio. Brilliant.

There will be discussion in the coming days over how many attended, and of course the numbers will be disputed by those on different sides. Estimates range from tens of thousands up to 2 million. So far. Also, this conservative tweeter says Parks & Rec. is doing crowd estimates now? DC's DPR is responsible for Pop Warner football games and making sure the pools & recreation centers are open. Does she mean the National Park Service, that entity actually responsible for the National Mall? They stopped doing crowd estimates on DC marches in 1996, only offering its institutional opinion once since then - Obama's inaugural.

Don't close your eyes

2009-09-04T23:04:00.000-07:00

The LENS blog over at the Gray Lady is hosting an important discussion about a photo by AP photographer Julie Jacobson that shows a U.S. Marine mortally wounded while on patrol in Afghanistan. The AP published the photo over the objections of the Marine's family and the Defense Department. Please visit the links below and then come back.

Click here for the photos and the blog entry.
Click here for Jacobson's multimedia diary of the event.

My first thought is that it's a terrible moment. An awful event that the photographer recorded.

There are many reasons it's a powerful photo. It's brutal and immediate and sad and horrifying. It's the most shocking of events in the most mundane of settings. It shows what happens in war, to civilians and (in this case) members of the military alike. It depicts a moment when the results of a violent act have been visited on a frail human body, and some fellow Marines are heroically trying to do everything they can to save their buddy's life.

What was not mentioned in the LENS blog (but was mentioned in the story about the photo linked from the blog) was the date the photo was taken, August 14, 2009. It was the middle of the bloodiest month yet for American forces in Afghanistan. This kind of thing is happening every day and we rarely see it. And that's one more reason this is a powerful photo - we have not become desensitized to images such as this because we see them so often. Quite the opposite, we don't see them much at all.

Perhaps we have become inured to hearing the daily number or names of fallen U.S. service members. A few died today, a few more died the day before - it's a constant but by now almost subliminal postscript, a passing mention sometimes lost in the day's news.

Hell, every Sunday when I watch "This Week" on ABC, they list the names of U.S. war dead and I have to force myself to not fast forward the TiVo. Instead I make a point of looking at the names, the home towns, the ages. And I do pay attention to all of them then.

I can tell you this, and it makes me feel sad: I cannot remember a single one of those names. But I have a feeling I'm going to remember LCpl Joshua Bernard.

How can you look at that photo and not have it seared into your memory? How can you not think, "that poor guy, he's on some patch of scrub and dirt in a nasty corner of a third world country, between a mud wall and a irrigation ditch and he's bleeding to death. I bet he had plans for his life that didn't include this. I bet he wants to say his goodbyes right now and he can't. I bet he's scared shitless and in a lot of pain and dammit no one should have to go through what he's going through right now."

If my first thought is that the photo depicts a terrible moment, my second thought is that the photo must be published. If our country is waging a war, the cost of that war cannot be hidden or minimized or sanitized. To do so is almost a criminal act - it allows the public to somehow believe that the war is not costing lives, or to think that the lives lost can be tidily summed up and digested as a series of numbers and nothing more. It allows politicians to abstract the war and use it for their political ends, rather than having to deal with the fact that war is a bloody, costly, terrible mess. To not show death in a war is an unforgivable lie because it makes war itself that much easier to swallow. It makes the lives lost that much more forgettable.

Saying a photo like this should not be published while putting a flag pin on your lapel or a yellow "Support the troops" ribbon sticker on the back of your Ford Explorer is to turn away from the real, concrete sacrifices people are making. It's saying LCpl Bernard's death is not important enough for us to see, or that we need to somehow be protected from seeing the true cost of sending him and others overseas to fight and die. It's saying that vague nationalistic expressions are fine, but the real not-so-pretty truth of what is going on in Afghanistan and Iraq is too much for us to handle.

Hiding a photo like this is to say we can safely sweep LCpl Bernard's sacrifice under the rug and see what else is on TV because we don't want to be disturbed. It's saying "continue lying to me because I don't want to think about anything heavy."

LCpl Bernard didn't have the luxury of closing his eyes and wishing away what happened to him in that village in Afghanistan. Since he died in my name, and in your name, neither should we.

This undated photo provided Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009 by the US Marine Corps shows Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard, 21. Bernard was hit with a rocket propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Friday, Aug. 14, 2009 in the village of Dahaneh in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. He later died of his wounds. (AP Photo/USMC)

That 7D show

2009-08-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

Photo via Canonrumors.com

Info about the Canon 7D is starting to leak out from the Canonrumors site and others. I can only assume that the naming convention is a kind of marketing bait-and-switch though. Hearing "7D" I'd assume it's an evolution of the 5D and the 5D Mark II full-frame digital SLRs. But it actually has the smaller APS-C sensor, like my current 30D. But dual-DIGIC processors which would be sweeeeet.

Interesting thing though, the 7D seems to have a higher continuous-shooting frame rate than the 5D (8 frames per second vs 3.9 fps), and better autofocus (19 cross-type AF points vs. 9-point AF with one cross-type at the center). So is the 7D a sports camera for the smaller APS-C size sensor? Something for the sports shooter who doesn't want to spend more than twice as much and buy the 1Ds Mark III?

The DPReview forums are going apeshit, predictably. But as usual, the signal-to-noise there makes it almost pointless to even look. Shouting, feature wishlists, dead-certain absolute assertions based on next to nothing at all. Fun! but not very enlightening.

I'm eager to see some images from this camera, but unless it somehow matches the image quality of the 5D, I think I'll save my pennies.

UPDATE: If you're curious, Canonrumors.com today posted a Google-haphazardly-translated press release.

Webbing the surf

2009-08-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

Mondays are hard when you have no job to go to. Yes, I know - "looking for a job is a full time job." I know, I know. What are you, my mother?

NOTE: You might be. My mother reads this blog. Hi, mom!

But it's good to have friends, and it's better to have good friends. They'll take the sting out of Mondays. Today I met a friend for coffee. She was on vacation when the axe came down, so we hadn't had a chance to catch up. After that, I went to the People's Republic of Ocean Beach and met former co-workers Lekili and her roommate Liz for lunch at Hodad's. Lekili has a serious burger Jones and she hadn't been to the O.B. landmark yet, so off we went. Like we need an excuse.

I'll let her burgerblog about the food. I'll just say the company was excellent. I miss those two.

Afterwards, I felt the need to walk around the beach because.... hello, unemployed. I have some free time. And as long as I'm not spending every day like this, drinking out of a paper bag, it's just harmless fun. Also, I brought my camera gear because I heard the waves were supposed to be good today.

Sure enough. The waves weren't great but the surfers were out.

You may notice an annoying watermark. Yeah, people have been swiping photos from my blog. I've decided to watermark my work so you good people can still see the images but the dirty, nasty thieves will be less likely to want them. I don't know if I'll do it for all my images going forward, but I'm definitely going to do it for photos that I want to protect.

I like the following series. A little bit of what happens sometimes out on the waves. Hey! Sharing is caring, guys!

The best part of funemployment is reminding myself that I have other skills, skills I haven't been using so much recently. So, yeah, going out and shooting just for my own head is a blast. I miss it. So I'm taking this opportunity to get reacquainted with my cameras.

Ex Libris

2009-08-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

Lucy's loyal sidekick came by last night for pizza and beer and résumé updating skillz-sharing. To make way for said pizza on the coffee table I needed to move the stack of books recently brought home from the desk where I used to work. Oddly enough, no Strunk & White, no AP Stylebook. My dog-eared copies of them always stayed at home, since there was a bunch of them in the newsroom. Well, there were a bunch of style guides in the newsroom. Not as many copies of The Elements of Style, but I knew where they were hidden. My personal library from work:

News Is A Verb by Pete Hamill. More of an essay, it's Hamill's argument for newspapers that are better, not worse. He says they need to be focused on news, not gossip and celebrity, and that they need to be more interesting to women and first- and second- generation immigrants than they are now.

Woe Is I by Patricia T. O'Conner. A guide to better English in plain English.

A Mathematician Reads The Newspaper, John Allen Paulos. How to make sense of all kinds of numbers, how to look for leaps of logic, fallacies and assumptions in reporting (and reading) almost anything that deals with numbers. A lot of the time we (journalists and readers) are being spoon-fed BS by people who use numbers to try to convince of us of something. This book allowed me to be skeptical and not snowed.

Photojournalism, An Introduction by Fred Parrish. Uncle Fred taught me (and many many others) photojournalism at the University of Florida. This is the college text he worked on for so many years. I contributed an essay back when I worked at the Arizona Daily Star and yeah, that's me on p. 8, going through an edit with Star photographer Benjie Sanders.

Down In Dixie, Peggy Peattie. A co-worker documented the role of the Confederate Flag in modern Southern life, especially in South Carolina, where there were protests surrounding the flag's presence at the capitol. The flag was removed from atop the state house and placed in a monument on the state house grounds in 2000. Peggy took a look at the flag and what it means to modern Southern whites and blacks.

The Good Citizen's Handbook: A Guide To Proper Behavior by Jennifer McKnight-Trontz. Obviously I never even opened this book.

Actually I did. It's a snarky book filled with lots of genuine civics lessons and scouting manual material from decades past, taken out of context and jammed into one helpful nationalistic package. I would always say The Pledge Of Allegiance before reading a passage. And I mean the real version, with "under God," as the Founding Fathers intended.

Baseball, Chicago Style by Jerome Holtzman. Gotta represent. Yes there's some Sox content in there (a lot, really) and the American League hardly exists as far as I'm concerned, but it's in the context of the role of baseball in Chicago. And we all know that means the Cubs, first and foremost.

Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon by Joe Queenan. Former Spy Magazine guy Queenan's take on low pop culture in the U. S. of A. Also, he criticizes critics in case you need more snake-swallowing-its-own-tail in your life.

The Conch That Roared by Gregory King. Tells the tale of Key West seceding from the Union, and declaring itself the Conch Republic in 1982. Don't remember this happening? Yeah they were a bunch of drunks and it didn't go far. Rick Perry, take note.

Gay, A Shetland Sheepdog. A designer at the paper got this for me because she wanted me to have a bright yellow book with the word GAY on the cover at my desk. Done.

I left a bunch of stuff that I won't need any more, like the Padres' 2009 media guide. They're someone else's problem now.

What books do you keep on your desk at work?

Defriending mom and other stories

2009-08-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

So the other day I lost my job. This is a complete bummer. On the plus side, a lot of friends have let me know that they too feel it's a bummer. I got emails and phone calls and texts. I got a couple supportive tweets. But the biggest outpouring by far was on Facebook.

So many friends and family came through with love and support. I updated my status to "Unemployed. Just like that," a short while after I got the news. Sixty-five people commented on that post. There were another 26 wall comments. There were 36 messages. It was an outpouring of support from across the country, and it helped me make it through the initial shock.

Meanwhile, my mom was on vacation. I didn't want her trip spoiled by hearing the news. So rather than tell her what had happened, I figured I'd call her when she got back. Easy peasy, right?

But mom's on Facebook. What to do? She'll log in and find out! There was only one thing to do.

I defriended my mom.

That way, she wouldn't find out. She could keep sleeping in, reading all day, going for walks, finding cool little cafes. Live the life of a temp expat. And if she checked Facebook, she wouldn't see anything about me. I'd call her when she got home from vacation. Foolproof plan.

All I had to do was contact family who might rat me out. And that's where it went horribly wrong. Let's just say that I now refer to my aunt as Aunt Who Has No Poker Face. Because she spilled the beans and then mom called me. I'm so busted.

Not long after we talked (mom assured me that she wouldn't let the news ruin her vacation and some part of me wondered "No? Not even a little?") I went back on Facebook to invite mom to be my friend again.

As of this writing I've had no response.

Our Lady of the Doggie Door

2009-08-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

I was at a friend's house last night, we were drinking wine and talking about life. And journalism. And Apple notebooks. And Flipper (but that's a post for another time). I went to his kitchen to get a bottle of some Spanish white wine from the fridge and saw on his doggie door was the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe. Holy flap!

I may live in San Diego, but that's as close as I get to Juan Diego. I am not predisposed to witnessing miracles, apparitions, ghosts, UFOs, Sasquatch or Elvis. But I know a good Virgin-Mary-on-a-cheese-sandwich episode when I see one. Here's the goods. ACTUAL UNRETOUCHED PHOTO OF THE VIRGIN MARY BELOW:

I know, right? That's so totally her. Need proof? ACTUAL UNRETOUCHED PHOTO OF A PAINTING OF THE VIRGIN MARY BELOW:
Also her, and you can totally see the resemblance. Yes the face on the Doggie Door Virgin™ is a little stretched out, almost like an Edvard Munch painting. But I see the shawl, the glow, the clasped hands lower right..... that's her. Totally.

So you know what to do. Spread the word. I want Rex's house to have a line of devoted Catholics around the block by next week. Plus that way maybe he can declare the house a church and *presto* no taxes.

And those of you who know me, I bet you thought my first blog post this week would be about this, am I right? Psyche!

"... And I hear God on the phone.."

2009-08-09T01:36:00.001-07:00

There are plenty of things to complain about with the iPhone 3.0.1 software, that's true. One thing I'm not complaining about is the ability to stream a concert right to your phone.

Oh yeah.

Underworld is one of my all-time favorite groups. Yes, I know they haven't been the same since Darren Emerson left, but the remaining Karl Hyde & Rick Smith-centric sound is still amazingly amazing. I first heard "Mmm... Skyscraper, I Love You" at Heaven when I was teaching in the UK, and I fell in love with them. You may know them from "Born Slippy NUXX," on the Trainspotting soundtrack. I know a lot of folks out there may dismiss them reflexively as club music, electronica, whatever. But Underworld deserve a listen even if you aren't high as shit on E, waving glowsticks around.

So when I heard that Apple had managed to score the first live-streamed concert to the iPhone and it was Underworld, I was pretty damn excited. It was time to hook the good headphones to the iPhone.

Apple and Akamai figured out this amazing process for streaming content to the iPhone and though the sound wasn't crystal clear (it tended more toward the muffled/compressed side), the concert was listenable and watchable for a couple hours. On an iPhone.

When I feel like listening to Underworld live, I go to town with my Everything, Everything DVD and watch it with the giant flatscreen and the 5.1 surround and all that. Screw the neighbors. No, this wasn't that experience. But considering it was bouncing off a fucking satellite and into the palm of my hand, it wasn't bad either. And I bet the neighbors didn't notice.

The show was Friday night at the Fox Theater in Oakland. So I didn't get to watch it live but it was a first and I was damn happy to see it.

After a couple of encores, Karl Hyde closed by shouting to the crowd his thank-you to "Apple... for broadcasting yooo to the uuuuniverse toniiiight!"

Cool beans, Apple. I'm looking forward to more events like this. It's one thing to be able to watch a TV show on your phone -and can you believe we're taking that for granted? But it's something else entirely to see one of your favorite bands ever, performing live, on an iPhone. Look for streamed movies, TV shows and more concerts in the future. Now if you could just put the kerning back where it used to be, and fix that damn switching-back-from-landscape-lag thing I'd be really happy.

UPDATE: Added a video, "Rez" from "Everything, Everything" so you don't have to look too far if you're curious. Also, the above link from "Mmm... Skyscraper, I Love You" takes you to that video as well.

Born identity

2009-08-04T01:32:00.000-07:00

Anyone need a "Born Gay" birth certificate? Call Orly Taitz, she's printing up fake backdated birth certificates (actually, they're "certified copy of live ghey birth, long form") at this very moment.

Beer Summit Goggles

2009-07-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

Damn that dude is hot. I'm gonna go talk to him.
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

The Jeremy Clarkson Beatbox - how hard can it be?

2009-07-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

For the Top Gear fans - what do you get when you throw a handful of this crass, boorish and funny auto journalist into your Ableton and video editing software? The Jeremy Clarkson Beatbox.

By Swede Mason, Hat tip to Tim.

Sharing is caring

2009-07-22T12:01:00.001-07:00

Rachel Maddow corrected several of the statements from Pat Buchanan during a show last week (see previous post). They include, but are not limited to, Buchanan's statements that Sonia Sotomayor hasn't written any Law Review articles, that she was on Yale Law Review because of "affirmative action" and the notion that this country was "built, basically, by white folks." And the racial makeup of the U.S. Olympic track team. And more. Take it away Rachel...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Patshit crazy

2009-07-17T01:56:00.000-07:00

It's been an interesting week, and at the Senate confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the SCOTUS our nationwide discussion on race has become an open shouting match. A lot of people watching the proceedings are calling some senators racist. Senators and a lot more people watching the same proceedings are calling Sotomayor racist. When the hearings go into recess for the day, the talking heads are talking their heads off. And more often than not, they're talking about race.

On MSNBC, Pat Buchanan just about got into a fight on air with Eugene Robinson Wednesday during Hardball. And on Thursday he and Rachel Maddow talked. Well, she talked. He's in full-on rant mode. I'm surprised he didn't stroke out.

This is a long clip, more than 11 minutes, and it's disturbing.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Yes! Yes, yes, yes!

2009-07-14T00:24:00.000-07:00

Honda announced today that they'd be taking their CR-Z hybrid 2-seater into production, and models will be rolling efficiently off the assembly line in 2010. The CR-Z has been positively compared to the CR-X 2-seater from a generation ago since its first appearance as a concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2007.

It's a good move from Honda's new CEO, Takanobu Ito, who designed the all-aluminum chassis of the groundbreaking NSX. I hope that the car's description as "sporty" isn't simply a description of its appearance but that it can get up and go as well.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it won't be a true sports car replacement for the sadly-discontinued S2000. But if it's the first performance-oriented hybrid and it isn't flimsy and annoyingly noisy like the new Insight, it's a step in the right direction. I hope I can afford the future.

The audacity of crops

2009-07-10T02:13:00.000-07:00

Photo by Dario Gambarin
Italian artist Dario Gambarin created a giant portrait of Barack Obama in a field in Mena' di Castagnaro, near Verona in Northern Italy, with a tractor. Gambarin worked over some 27,000 square meters without marking or tracing on the field, for 90 minutes on July 5, 2009. The artist said he wanted to create a message of "respect" for the land. Obama is currently in L'Aquila, in central Italy, attending the G8 summit.

And that's the way it isn't

2009-07-10T00:24:00.000-07:00

I'll let up on the Sarah Palin posts soon, honestly. As soon as she stops being crazy entertaining. Or entertainingly crazy. Both. But until she stops tweeting random quotes and Snapple-bottle-cap aphorisms I just can't take my eyes off this particular train wreck.

Thursday night she posted the following:

Full disclosure: the above image has been Photoshopped. I cut out and swapped the positions of the two tweets in order for them to be read the way Palin sent them. If I had not done that, the last part of her statement would have been displayed first. And it would have made even less sense.

Anyway, she decides to pimp an upcoming radio appearance in Squarebanks by saying she likes that medium more than newspapers. Perhaps it's because us newspaperfolk know the difference between "anxious" (the word she uses) and "eager" (the word she likely means to use), which makes her uncomfortable. Nah, I doubt that. The rest of her tweet explains that she obviously feels newspaper peeps are more liberal and therefore... I don't know. But apparently that's bad to her. She uses a quote from Walter Cronkite to support this.

Too bad for Palin then that Cronkite, who sadly is near the end of his life, didn't mean what she thinks he meant. Here's an exchange from a Time Magazine interview with Cronkite in 2003:

YOU HAVE BASICALLY COME OUT AND SAID YOU'RE A LIBERAL. HOW DO YOU RESPOND WHEN CRITICS SAY, "AHA, I KNEW REPORTERS WERE LIBERAL, AND THIS IS WHY THE MEDIA IS BIASED"?
I do not consider a liberal necessarily to be a leftist. A liberal to me is one who--and it suits some of the dictionary definitions--is unbeholden to any specific belief or party or group or person, but makes up his or her mind on the basis of the facts and the presentation of those facts at the time. That defines what I am. I have never voted a party line. I vote on the individual and the issues.

Damn newspapermen and their facts. They always get in the way of a good half-baked talking point. Weird though that she has such disdain for newspapers since as we know she reads "all of them."

Gone fishin'

2009-07-08T00:30:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin just tweeted about that famous Alaskan work ethic. You know, because of how they are all such hard workers who never give up and everything.

"Advancing in another direction"

2009-07-03T23:10:00.000-07:00

When Sarah Palin announced her resignation today, she said a lot of very curious things. One day universities may offer degree tracks in trying to figure out what she means when she speechifies. But in the meantime I'm focusing on a few choice lines. The following is from a transcript of her speech.

"...Only dead fish 'go with the flow.'... Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time... to BUILD UP."
"And there is such a need to BUILD up and FIGHT for our state and our country."
"You can choose to engage in things that tear down, or build up."

All this talk of building. It must be much on her mind these days. I understand when she and Todd want something built, they go to Spenard Builders Supply. Not a big-box store, they're known for their personal service. Just sayin.'

There's oh so much more to this. The weather in Wasilla is cloudy with a 90% chance of the other f-me boot dropping.

Stars of CCTV

2009-06-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

No, not these guys. Different stars of CCTV. An unsigned band from Manchester, The Get Out Clause, performed in public, in front of a bunch of surveillance cameras. They then used the Data Protection Act (similar to the Freedom of Information Act in the U.S.) to get copies of the tapes of themselves. Which they then edited into the following video, currently going viral.

I'll keep my Hard-Fi, thankyouverymuch. But with this hype, The Get Out Clause won't be unsigned for long. And also, CCTV cameras in cabs? Serious?
Thanks to Wilson for the tip via Garagespin.

30-year-old retro tech confuses, disappoints boy

2009-06-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

To commemorate the launch of the Sony Walkman 30 years ago, the BBC Magazine asked Scott Campbell, 13, to trade in his iPod for a portable cassette player for a week. British muted hilarity ensues.

Scott found the Walkman to be huge and clunky, unattractive, hard to use (it took him three days to figure out that the cassette had two sides) and limited in its capacity (12 songs!). Worst of all, it elicited mocking from his schoolmates and nostalgia from his parents and teachers.

Put me in the "nostalgic" column. I worked at a camera store when the first Walkman models came out, and we sold them. At lunch time I would pull the display model from the glass display case, slip a cassette in, put on the orange foam headphones and walk around the mall. Ahh, suburbia. And ahh, musical me-time. It may not have been an iPhone but this was before we had personal computers, cell networks or wi-fi. So our expectations were lower. The simple act of making music personal and portable was groundbreaking enough.

The "bottom" line

2009-06-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

I'm sending the Daily Show a bill. What do they charge for writing one gag? My tweets from yesterday's Gov. Mark Sanford press conference/meltdown:

And their gag here, at the 1:39 mark:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Governor Mark Sanford's Affair

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Jason Jones in Iran

Ahhh screw it. I'll let this one slide, Daily Show. Just hire me and everything is forgiven.

And on that bombshell...

2009-06-23T00:40:00.000-07:00

Though viewers of BBC America won't be able to watch it for a long, long time, Sunday night was the premiere episode of Top Gear's season 13. Those on the other side of the pond (and those who, ahem, found a copy off the Interwebs) were treated to the usual amazing entertainment, including a look at the droolworthy Lotus Evora, a record-setting lap in a Ferrari FXX and one of the best Top Gear races yet, a 1949-era-throwback challenge. In that race a steam train was pitted against a Vincent Black Shadow superbike and a Jaguar XK 120 between London and Edinburgh. Oh and they threw in the usual gratuitous German joke. Because, you know, the war.

But that wasn't the big news to come from the show. The big news was that, after all these years, they revealed the identity of The Stig.

If you're not a fan, The Stig is their perpetually-helmeted "tame racing driver," the one who wordlessly puts cars through their paces on the show's test track. His identity has been the subject of much speculation over the years.

Last night they unmasked him. Or rather, unhelmeted.

And it turned out to be none other than seven-time Formula One champ Michael Schumacher.

Here's the clip, legitimately posted by the BBC and everything.

Only thing is, when I first saw the Stig they showed us during the show, I thought, "he looks smaller than usual." And I don't just mean smaller than the bloated American Stig they used once, or the pear-shaped Truck Driving Stig from last season. I mean Schumacher looked smaller than the usual Stig seen on the show. Sure enough I'm not the only one to have noticed. Jalopnik is sticking with the theory that there are multiple Stigs, and Schumacher was on the show because the incredibly expensive, incredibly exclusive Ferrari FXX that was driven on this episode was only going to be driven by its owner. And Schumacher owns one.

If that's the case, I'm okay with knowing the identity of only one of the many who wear the white racing leathers. As they say on Top gear, all we know is they call him the Stig.

Goycott at Trader Joe's

2009-06-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

I was at Trader Joe's earlier and noticed all the Israeli couscous was gone.

As that is not normally something I would eat, it was not normally something I would notice. I made a point of checking because I was looking for certain goods on the shelves at Trader Joe's. I heard there's an anti-Israeli movement against TJ's and other stores. Some groups are trying to squeeze Israel economically because they don't like the Jewish state's policies and actions toward Palestinians. The "Don't Buy Into Apartheid" campaign is part of Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT), though the DBIA site has been scrubbed of any reference to Bay Area LGBT lefties save for the URL. Different colors! No triangles! The word "queer" doesn't appear there! It's like they're all We're Here, We're Here, Get Used To It on one Web page and on the other page they've.. umm.. straightened up the place. Doesn't sound very radical to me, but I digress.

They describe their goycott method as "deshelving," which sounds vague as hell but it comes down to finding Israeli products on store shelves and removing/hiding/damaging/stealing them so they cannot be sold. When I heard about it I wondered what Israeli products TJ's may carry. Dates? Oranges? That makes no sense -- we're in California. A colleague mentioned couscous so I thought I'd try looking for that. Sure enough, they have it. Sure enough, there was an empty spot where the boxes should have been.

Whether they were sold out or they've already been "deshelved," I don't know. There were boxes of non-Israeli couscous on the shelf next to the empty spot, so I can only assume people were looking for that stuff in particular and there wasn't a run on all wheat-pellet-based foods.

People, if you want to politicize grocery stores, just do what everyone else does. Set up a table outside Trader Joe's and try to get me to sign your misleading petition while I'm struggling with an armload of groceries. My response is generally a muttered "go blow it out your ass," you can't miss me.

I'm feeeeeeling dowwwwwwwwnnn...

2009-06-18T12:33:00.001-07:00

After watching this, I may need to change the name of this here blog because now I am dead inside.
Yes, that's Jerry and Gary Lewis on the Beatles cover. It doesn't start right away, but watch the show's intro, it's worth it. Thanks to James Urbaniak for the tip. Now I need a Silkwood shower.

Bone thrown

2009-06-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Pete Souza/The White House
President Obama will sign an executive order Wednesday granting same-sex partners of federal employees the same benefits as straight married spouses currently have.

But wait. There's less.

Turns out it's a memorandum, not an executive order. So it will expire when Obama leaves office. And the benefits may not be the same (for example, no health benefits, WTF?). And of course this applies to all domestic partners, not just the same-sex ones. Unless it doesn't. Basically we won't know until his Wednesday evening for-the-cameras signing, so he's got time to think it through and get it right.

We all know why he's doing this. The double disaster of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and DOMA has led many in the LGBT community to step back from this "fierce advocate" recently, and some are taking their checkbooks with them.

In the meantime, we're left wondering about the bone that's being tossed our way. What will it eventually be? And how neutered will it have to be to not conflict with DOMA and DADT? For example, how can he get around the fact that those in the military would be covered by this and by DADT? I'm eager to see what happens.

Until then, I'm going to be stapling homemade posters to the telephone poles in the neighborhood. They say "LOST: OUR FIERCE ADVOCATE - REWARD IF FOUND"

Sunday Funnies

2009-06-03T01:08:00.000-07:00

The Anti-Defamation League is in mid-tsuris over last Sunday's Doonesbury strip, in which they are seeing three kinds of anti-Semitism. In a press release they say, in part:

"We agree with the numerous people who are contacting us that Sunday's Doonesbury misquotes the Bible, maligns Judaism, and promotes a Christian heresy, all within eight panels. It reinforces age-old stereotypes about Judaism that have been the cause of much suffering and pain over the centuries, and which have been rejected by a variety of Christian denominations over the last decades."

Here's the strip in question (click to make bigger, or go here):

My take? The comment about the money-lenders is a fairly obvious one about the banking system and the fact that many are upset the financial sector has gotten the U.S. economy into some rather well-publicized trouble recently. It's not about the Jews.

Confirmed Bachelor of Arts

2009-06-02T23:50:00.000-07:00

The Gray Lady is reporting that Harvard will endow a chair in LGBT studies, the first such named, endowed chair on the subject at an American university.

The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus raised $1.1M to fund the chair, a visiting professorship named in honor of F.O. Matthiessen, a literary critic and English scholar at Harvard.
F.O. Matthiessen by George Skadding/Life Magazine 1948

Matthiessen, according to a bio on the HGLC Web site, pursued his undergrad studies at Yale, where he also became a member of a certain secret society - I don't believe I gotta mention its name.

"As a senior, he was admitted to the influential... Skull and Bones, where he apparently revealed that he was attracted to men. Matthiessen’s homosexuality, which was later to become a more or less “open secret” during his tenure at Harvard, was publicly offset by his exceptional academic and extracurricular achievements, which won him the admiration and recognition of his professors and peers."

According to a Q&A posted on the Web site, a student pursuing study in this field would be able to get a degree in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. The money raised ($1.5M is the target) will allow Harvard to pay for visiting faculty (one semester per year or the full academic year every other year), teaching two courses each semester plus work on other projects.

Harvard also intends to collaborate on a joint conference with Yale's Larry Kramer Initiative in Lesbian and Gay Studies. Skull & Bones not interested this time?

This just in from Sarah Palin's hometown newspaper

2009-05-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

And you know she reads it. She reads all of 'em. She said so.

Anyway, from the latest edition of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman:

The answer? Duh.

"But will the Antichrist be a homosexual? Having seen what the Bible says of sodomy, we have no further to look than the book of Daniel, chapter 11 to find our answer. It says, “Neither shall he [Antichrist] regard... the desire of women....” As I said at the onset, I am not the first to draw attention to this, but the verbiage is clear."

But it gets better. The author then says the Big Gay Antichrist is here, now.

"...in their unbridled lusts they burn for their own gender... The time is ripe for such a leader."

So there it is, your bible study for today. A big problem, of course, is that not everyone agrees the king Daniel refers to in those verses the Antichrist at all. But hey, when you're trying to twist scripture to make political points you can pretty much say anything you want. It kinda misses the larger lessons to be found in most religions, but the fact some people will do that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Searching for a clue

2009-05-28T23:49:00.000-07:00

According to the Fox Business channel: Firefox, Microsoft and Apple are search engines.
Thanks reddit.

Foxbiz, let me break it down for you. Firefox is a Web browser. Microsoft and Apple are corporations. None of the three you mentioned are search engines. But thanks for playing. Even Jim Cramer has better business information than this.

Thousands march in San Diego to protest state Supreme Court decision on Prop. 8

2009-05-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

Somewhere between 5,000 - 10,000 marched in protest against the California Supreme Court's 6-1 decision to uphold Prop. 8 today. The ruling sealed the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, though there is already a challenge filed in Federal court.

Meanwhile, people took to the streets. All photos are copyrighted, keep your damn mitts off. Strangers have stolen enough from me today.
Marching south from Balboa Park toward downtown.

Trapped under the HRC's giant "equal" banner pre-march.

Save the date.

Every gay event must have a tiny dog. It's a rule I think.

The crowd heads south on Sixth Avenue, signs and voices raised.

That's Rex in the yellow shirt, center of the frame. Still jet-lagged from his trip to Australia, but working this story like a crazed dingo.

A marcher held his sign up for southbound commuters to see as the crowd crossed a bridge over Interstate 5.

The crowd filled the street for blocks.

Lisa Sanders, right, daughter of San Diego's mayor, held one side of the banner at the front of the march. At the end of the march she addressed the crowd. "Can I get an applause? I walked the whole way in my high heels today."

San Diego's mayor, Jerry Sanders, prior to addressing the crowd at the end of the route, the Hall of justice.

Openly gay San Diego City Council member Todd Gloria walked the route and addressed the crowd from the courthouse steps.

A closing thought.

Prop. 8 upheld

2009-05-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Cali Supremes have upheld Prop. 8 on a 6-1 vote, but haven't imposed a mass divorce on the 18,000 same-sex couples who wed last year. Saw this one coming, but still. So are there two classes of marriage in California now? That in itself seems basis for a legal challenge.

And it's been .002 seconds since the ruling was announced and I've already gotten a fundraising email from the Courage Campaign.

Still waiting for the day when the rights of a minority won't be put up for a popular vote.

Let's hope it's a trend

2009-05-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

The Cali Supremes announce their decision to either uphold or overturn Prop 8 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time Tuesday. For updates, just open your eyes. The news will spread like wildfire, so if you're in front of a computer screen or a TV you'll hear about it. Just make sure you're at a news site and not stealing music or looking at yuppie porn, and you'll know pretty damn quick.

Meanwhile, the top trending topic on Twitter is #rejectprop8.

The tweets are coming fast and furious.

All those sentiments flying around in 140-character nibbles have no impact on how the Supremes will rule in the case, but I like the sentiment.

If Magritte had a laptop

2009-05-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

Nice piece of video art here, courtesy of Dutch artist Evelien Lohbeck. It's almost perfect except for the fact her pulp notebook is running Windows. Maybe that's how she keeps it from crashing? By not being an actual computer, that is. Her work is a brilliant mix of hand-drawn and stop-motion animation along with video.

Car-B-Q

2009-05-22T01:48:00.000-07:00

So it didn't have the power and awe of a Viking funeral, but some people know how to go out in style, that's all I'm saying. Don't bother asking, I'm not explaining. If you don't know what this is about, you're not meant to. Nothing to see here. Please move along.

St. Carrie of La Jolla

2009-05-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since I updated, mostly because some bad stuff has been going on and my mind is elsewhere. So I'm going to tiptoe back by posting something that takes little creativity or input from yours truly. With that, here's a couple comments about the Carrie Prejean tempest in a C-cup, courtesy of the Daily Show and Keith Olbermann.

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Bigger screen, small steps

2009-05-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

It still has those awful chicklet buttons littering the bottom. It's only b/w with 16 shades of gray. And unbelievably it costs nearly $500, but at least the first commercial e-newspaper reader has finally been announced - Amazon's Kindle DX (it's unknown whether stories about gays will be too "adult" to work on this device).
Press release here. Gizmodo coverage here and here. Engadget here. Quick look at the specs here:
Larger 9.7 inch screen that auto-rotates to landscape mode
PDF support
Free 3G account for downloads pretty much anywhere populated except a plane or a subway
More storage at 3.3GB
Oh and have I mentioned it's $489? Yeah, that's incredibly lame. But here's the kicker. The must-have idea if newspapers want devices like this to work is that the newspapers themselves will need to pay for some or all of the device, to make it easier for more people to switch over from the print version. With the Kindle DX, e-subscribers to the NYTimes, Washington Post and Boston Globe* will get an as-yet unspecified subsidized price if they live outside home delivery areas for said papers. That's at least half wrong.

First, why not subsidize the device for every reader, not just the ones who can't get home delivery? Second, I realize that switching from paper to electronic delivery of newspapers will not happen overnight, but eventually a device like this should be almost fully subsidized by the paper. Expensive? Yes. But so is delivering a print newspaper to hundreds of thousands of individual homes every night. Just look at the costs newspapers currently incur with fleets of trucks, diesel, rolls of newsprint, barrels of ink, the purchase and upkeep of printing presses, etc. Those are costs newspapers (and therefore, advertisers and readers) are already shouldering. Long-term costs. Plus there are the long-term environmental costs of filling up landfills, diesel exhaust, ink and paper production and distribution, etc.

So this model is part of the answer. It's a first step. But it's not the whole answer.

I live in San Diego and I can get the Times delivered to my front door. Steve can get it in Palm Springs. My mom gets the Times delivered in Miami. All of us would need to pay full price for the DX. Sure, there are lots of places all over the country where you can't get the Times home delivery, but will the Kindle DX be useful there? I'd love to see a map that overlays Amazon's 3G coverage with zip codes where you can't get at-home delivery of the 16-shades-of-Gray Lady. I have a feeling it's not a hotbed of people who have been waiting to subscribe.

Nice start. But I have a feeling that in two years, anyone who bought a Kindle DX for that much scratch will be kicking themselves. So... exciting, yes. But they deserve a golf clap and not a standing ovation. Who's next?

*If the Globe is still around, that is. Keep your fingers crossed for them.

Cargo pants

2009-05-05T23:39:00.000-07:00

I know why the caged bird sings. Because it (and a dozen of its friends) is tied up in some dude's pants.
This undated DOJ photo shows the bird-insulated stems of one Sony Dong, who was indicted on bird-smuggling charges today after... ah, hell, I don't care about the story. I just wanted to run this photo, it's endlessly entertaining. His sad tale is here if you want to read it.

Oh and Sony? Enjoy your time behind bars. Think of it as a little karmic payback for a guy who would put wild birds in cages the rest of their lives.

Always a bridesmaid, never an opposite bride

2009-05-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

I checked out the Google trends to see what people were searching for today. I can be randomly curious that way, like a cat. Or an idiot with the attention span of a fly.

Poor Carrie Prejean. If only Dom DeLuise hadn't died today you might have come in first. But then they don't hand out tiaras for having people search for dirty pictures of you on the Internets, so maybe that's not the win you wanted. Anyway, these figures change regularly (just like yours!) so check back later, you might have that #1 spot. Get your acceptance speech ready.

Think of all the new flags we're gonna have to make

2009-05-05T03:17:00.000-07:00

I came across this Google ad today.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to trust the financial acumen of someone who can't tell the difference between 50 and 52.

Media elite totally doesn't care about little old newspaper in San Diego. BTW we were sold on Monday.

2009-05-05T01:41:00.000-07:00

The journalism world's favorite Web site for all the news that's fit to print about those who are fit to print all the news had 17 linked stories on Monday about the ongoing negotiations between the NYT Co. and the Boston Globe's unions. And whether the NYT will close the Globe. What college papers have to say about the Globe. How "fuzzy math" figured in the Globe story. And more, more, more.

Meanwhile, here in San Diego, the Union-Tribune was sold to an equity firm on Monday. Not a word from the Gulf Coast Media Elite. It's been like forever since you've heard about a newspaper actually being sold, as opposed to closed, and yet.... no love from Poynter.org. So if a top-25 newspaper passing from the hands of the family that has run it for more than 80 years isn't very interesting, what do you have to do to get a mention on Jim Romenesko's site these days, anyway? Get invited to some prom?

Uhh, yeah, apparently that'll do it.

Okay, so maybe my news judgement is a tiny bit affected by the fact that I work there. And we've been on edge for the better part of a year now, waiting to hear if someone would buy the paper, and who.

So for that reason, hearing the sale was finalized today was great relief after nine months of stress and distraction and endless baseless rumors. Did you hear me, rumor-spreaders? It's over. Stop now. You were wrong about nearly everything anyway.

What's ahead is unknown. What little I've heard gives me more hope than fear. Best of all the waiting is over.

So as Platinum added another line to the history of the U-T, the Copley name mostly was gone from the building by end of business Monday. But if you look hard enough you can still see a remnant of the former owners here and there.

Amazon to announce news-Kindle this week?

2009-05-04T02:32:00.000-07:00

The Gray Lady is reporting that Amazon could release a newspaper e-reader as early as this week.

I think I just peed my pants just a little.

I've said it before - newspapers can go electronic but giving it all away for free on the Web isn't the answer. Having a closed-system portable electronic e-news reader for newspapers and periodicals that has text, photos and ads just like a dead-tree paper, but better is the future. It's got to be.
The Kindle 2 (current model - too many buttons, not enough screen)

The Plastic Logic device (not available yet)

"Perhaps most appealing about this new class of reading gadgets is the opportunity they offer publishers to rethink their strategy in a rapidly evolving digital world. The move by newspapers and magazines to make their material freely available on the Web is now viewed by many as a critical blunder that encouraged readers to stop paying for the print versions. And publishers have found that they were not prepared to deal with the recent rapid decline of print advertising revenue.

Publishers could possibly use these new mobile reading devices to hit the reset button and return in some form to their original business model: selling subscriptions, and supporting their articles with ads."

I wonder though... will their e-newsreader be able to have any stories about teh gheys in it? Or will they be mysteriously blocked?

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I recline

2009-04-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

Economy got you down? Do you now think in terms of "back when I had a job," or maybe "soon I'm going to think in terms of 'back when I had a job?'" Worried about pirates, Pakistan and the 'porkalypse?

Me too. It's stress out the wazoo these days. I think I need to stay home this weekend, seeing as how I'm running out of surgical scrubs and Purell. Hunker down on the couch with some comfort food and a bunch of movies. But what to watch?

I'm assembling a marathon of movies to match the current zeitgeist, which is IT'S ALL FUCKING ENDING. Rather than escape, I want to soak in the dread, so when I emerge from the house on Monday it'll seem like a bright sunny day with little birds and kittens and unicorns all around. So in no particular order, these are my top picks of movies to watch as the world ends. What are yours?

I Am Legend Will Smith is good in just about everything he does, even here as he spends most of the movie acting opposite a dog and a green screen.

The Road Warrior I know Mel is a douchenozzle now, but this was back in the day, when he was hot and you couldn't tell his political leanings and anti-Semitism from his movies. Plus assless chaps on the biker guy, hawt.

Shaun of the DeadThere is no funnier horror movie, and few funnier movies, period.

28 Days LaterJust when you thought the undead zombie rage virus monsters were the scariest things you've seen in a while, here come the uninfected soldiers. Who's the monster again?

Night of the Living DeadCheap, fast, scary and it was a racism parable. What's not to like?

Dr. StrangeloveThere's nothing I can say here that hasn't already been said about this movie.

The Stand (never saw it but... extra points for super-flu scenario!)

The Andromeda StrainSorry little monkey.

Planet of the Apes (not the Marky Mark one - the real one)Charleton Heston chewing scenery and Roddy McDowall chewing the inside of his rubber mask. It's a mad house. A mad house!

AkiraThere's so much to this movie that I still don't understand (those "kids," wtf?) but still... the visuals, the soundtrack, the whole damn thing. And it's more than 20 years old. Amazing.

On the BeachThe "Waltzing Matilda" scene is heartbreaking genius.

Oh, for a Snuggie or a Slanket. Do they come in Kevlar?