Picture of plugs:

The result was the below. It’s upside down, but let’s be honest, who can tell. P.S. The “H” in the bottom-right was my doing. I kinda set the standard pretty low.

What’s new.

And by the way, Carole was laughing, not crying. Although, I think in this case the latter might have been acceptable, too.

MUSIC.

In case you’ve grown tired of glancing to the right to see if I’ll ever change the songs I’m “currently” listening to, just know, I have. Changed them.

A huge part of my musical digest is dominated by pre-1980′s wonderfulness. As you can see, this is where I am. Right now. …maybe not in three weeks when I forget to update them, but for now.

Dyer Maker is one of those songs that got it’s foot in the door because it’s a plain-good song. But when I hear it, what really makes me feel good is remembering being nineteen and walking around in Washington D.C. by myself. I always like to explore, especially cities, so I was already in a good frame of mind. But at the same time I was away from all of my friend and family, and that tends to make me a little regretful. As I was walking I heard this amazing music (I hadn’t never heard this song before then) coming from a cover band in a bar about a block ahead. And, because the place was absolutely packed, I didn’t go in, I just sat on the ground outside leaning against the wall.

It was just me. Listening to Dyer Maker muffled by the nighttime mugginess that was July.

Okay, no, really I stayed outside because of the $10 cover. I had a dwindling food budget and that cover would have brought me dangerously close to being…dangerous. Yeah.

Everybody Plays The Fool. Come on, who doesn’t love motown. Secretly or passionately, you’re there. Don’t lie.

Next.

It wasn’t until the other day when Reshanda asked me what my favorite song was did I realize the strong attachment I have to This Old Heart of Mine by the Isley Brothers. I think before she had even finished asking the question, the answer was out of my mouth. It’s as if it skipped my brain knowing that thinking about it would just slow down the same inevitable answer. What can I say. It’s the best. There.

LIGHTING.

A while back my Dad sent me this website that lets you draft out your lighting set-up. I don’t use it too often because I sketch it out by hand in a notebook, but it comes in handy for online stuff (mainly, it saves me from having to scan/upload my embarrassingly awful illustrations).

Here’s how I did my latest facebook profile pic. It’s nothing special, and it was a very simple, one-light setup, but it has kind of a dramatic feel to it, so I wanted to share it. In the illustration, I’m holding the reflector in my left hand and the camera shutter-cord in my right.

The only strobe I’m using is acting as a rim light to cut out my silhouette from the background. I used a super-thin depth of field (around f/2.2, I think) so that I didn’t have to use a backdrop, just my regular wall. And I put the ISO very low and the shutter as fast as I could sinc to get rid of all the ambient light (the room was normal brightness). The only other thing was using the reflector to bounce a little of the light back to the front side of me, since I wasn’t looking for a true silhouette. Also, I didn’t gel the light because I was planning on doing it in black & white, so the color didn’t matter. All in all, the whole thing took about 5 minutes!

Too good to pass up. The kids actually wrote the lyrics. Awesome! There are a lot of good things in this video. And it’s local :)

Steve & Daniele who play gypsy jazz.  And in true gypsy jazz style Daniele plays the same guitar as Django Reinhardt and sites him as one of his main influences.These two mimes invited us to stay at their bunkhouse in the bywater.  They were very serious.  I give out my card to just about anybody and everybody.  But these I didn’t.  They were kind of scary.

I’ve been playing this same gig since I was a senior in High School.  So, when I walk in each month, I automatically skip over the different coffee smells, eclectic wall art, and dim lighting–all because I’m so used to seeing it.  Even taking pictures of bands that play here seems a little blasé.

This time was different though. I brought my camera and did a reversal. I took pictures from the spot where most photographers would be taking pictures of.

Here they are.

And as a little bonus, Sal grabbed my camera while we were at Frankie & Johnnies before the show and took a snap of me. Even though I’m out of focus, I like the effect. To his credit, it was kind of dark and that never makes focusing easy!

hipsters.

I was very amused.

On a cool note, I had a chance to meet Attitude.  You’ll know him even if you don’t recognize him yet.  He’s been around for a while, but a few years back he signed with Warner Bros. Records and frequently collaborates with Timbaland.  And most recently with Yo Gotti.

Mike & Megan.

guy in vneck.

travelin broke.

Alex in Ray Bans.

Oz the bouncer.

Jason on duty.

3 musicians.

Larrell.

Attitude.

Heinrich.

Nick & Britney.

blue street Shoes.

couple.

Sean.

Alex, the manager & Howard.

tried to get a picture of an awesome fight.  and these guys needed a picture.

bouncer who looked like a guy from something and Howard and Tony.

On a humorous note, it took some time for the boys from New Orleans to adjust to the open-container laws.

Smiles.

There was much more here at Austin, but I’m about to run out of internet time. On the road. We’ve slept in someone’s uncle’s weight room; crammed 7 seven people in a hotel room; and it’s still going.

Check back Monday for more

!

Literally running out of the hotel room!  More pictures in this post…probably coming Saturday!

don’t look at me like that

Not from Sam, but I’ve been totally loving this song. Great band, too. A personal favorite.

PSA: This post lacks continuity from Context to Syntax.  I know this.

For Que’s last shoot, they staged at my house because it was centrally located.  I missed most of the make-up because I was at church, and I missed the shoot because I was feeling crappy.  I have four pictures to prove I’m not making this up.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the last picture, yes, that was definitely champagne at eight o’clock in the morning. But only because we had red, plastic cups.

And while I’m at it,  

I came across Jeff Bridges’ photo website the other day.  Check it out–very cool behind the scenes pics from IronMan and other things.

And this coming Thursday they’re going to be in Austin for The SOUTH by SOUTHWEST Festival.

Good times.

There will be a lot of pictures happening.