"Helloo, can I get a ticket on the next flight *OUT!* (to some place far, far away)?"
...And the next thing I am heard to say (after the ticket rep asks 'will that be round trip, sir?')
... is "no, one-way will be just fine!"
(("There must be some way outta here, said the joker to the thief,
There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief..."
Bob Dylan, 'All Along the Watchtower', best performed IMHO by Jimi Hendrix.))
Well, that's what I felt like a week or so ago.
Both of the hard drives in my Mac G4 seemed to be dying, and that would mean I have lost a shitload of work, and image files.
I had too many thoughts, all at once, including the mention of 'digital decay' in my last post.
(No sooner than I mention it, than it happens to me! Is there something ironic or karmically symmetrical about this?)
And whenever I have these kinds of thoughts, I look over my shoulder to my closet, where I have ALL the film I have shot in the last 18 years, and a whole lot of stuff from even further back than that, dragged from the east coast, 18 years ago.
No 'decay' there, at all. Not a bit. Film *lasts*, unless you get burned down, or flooded.
(Since I am on the 4th floor, flooding is pretty much out of the question.
Fire? my apt bldg. has sprinklers everywhere, and the suitcase the film is in is a very old and tough one.)
But, hey folks, the sad reality is that digital decay (or loss) can happen anytime - it's all just 1's and 0's, and if the smallest something gets corrupted, guess what? ..you're fucked! (and not in way you would find enjoyable, at all).
Soooo.. that next scanograph I was gonna talk about? "RIP" it's in the ether somewhere, it's gone.
Maybe I'll find it sometime...but most probably not.
The lesson?...pretty obvious,
"a word to the wise is sufficient" -
BACK UP EVERYTHING!!
I've certainly learned my lesson.
Don't wait 'til you have to learn this the hard way!
Let's catch up on whatever crazy/interesting has happened in the world lately....
(and then a word about the next darkroom post)
For Photographers, the Image of a Shrinking Path
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/business/media/30photogs.html?hp
“There are very few professional photographers who, right now, are not hurting,”
said Holly Stuart Hughes, editor of the magazine Photo District News.
Boy, ain't that the truth!
In my professional lifetime (starting in 1976 as an ass't art director/paste-up guy at an ad agency in Baltimore Md... 'til now, having grown thru art directing, architectural photography - 10 years, 1982-1992 - and freelance photo-illustration, '86-'98...and a few other things along the way)... this business has changed so much, it's unrecognizable.
It's still about images, but EVERYthing else about it has changed.
As far as I am concerned?..NOT for the better.
A 'shrinking path' indeed.
But not to get too depressed, we just gotta change, as best we can.
Nothing will be as nice as shoots in a photog's studio were in the late '70's/early 80's -
Good times, & many times, good smoke, too!... AND! we got the job done! :-)
-----------------------------
April 6, 2010, 6:15 pm
'Tree-mendous'
By OLIVIA JUDSON
Olivia Judson on the influence of science and biology on modern life.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/tree-mendous/
"Yet although trees are familiar to all of us, many aspects of their biology remain enigmatic: because they grow slowly and live for so long, they’ve been hard for us to study in the laboratory. Which is why they are my nomination for Life-form of the Month: April."
Olivia writes 'deep and long' - a very good blog.
-----------------------------------------
April 6, 2010, 8:14 pm
Remembering Namir Noor-Eldeen
By MICHAEL KAMBER
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/remembering-namir-noor-eldeen/?hp
"Namir Noor-Eldeen stood out among a gifted group of young Iraqi photojournalists who emerged from the war. His well-composed photographs showed his natural sense of color, and his gift for capturing the dramatic moment.His death, in 2007, is now at the center of a public controversy over whether the American helicopter pilots who shot him acted properly — or callously."
'The fog of war' indeed.
----------------
"Donkey Cart explodes at police post, kills 3 children"
http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/19/bomb-strapped-to-donkey-kills-afghan-boy/?hpt=T2
What could possibly be stupider than this???
If Islam is a religion of peace and moderation, you moderate intelligent non-violent Muslims better show up, make your voices heard, and deal with these (emotionally and intellectually) 'petulant children', who can't stand that the rest of the world doesn't agree with them.
In America, we can 'agree to disagree', without (for the most part) taking up arms, and killing each other.
It's called 'democracy' - it ain't perfect (what is?)... but it's a whole lot better than blowing up donkeys, and school children!!
---------------------------
Madman, Perhaps; Survivor, Definitely
Dennis Hopper
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/movies/11dargis.html
Sounds like Dennis is not long for this world? - his spirit would/will surely be missed.
---------------------
Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again
By John Tierney
Published: April 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html?hpw
Well, it sure did take ya a while didn't?
Like we didn't already know this in about... 1969? Helloooo!?
Native peoples have been using what we now call 'drugs' as medicine for a very long time.
Cannabis, peyote, mushrooms, opium, coca leaves, you name it, they used it.
It's only us modern (neurotic? confused?) people who have a problem.
I live in California, and I'm definitely voting for legalization in November.
I used psychedelics in the late 60's/early '70's, and never jumped off a building.
I did do a lot of rather weird artwork, though... and my mind was definitely changed, forever.
Time to legalize (and tax) all of it - if you can't handle it? Hopefully the taxes can pay for some of your recovery...
but frankly, I think that if you have a 'drug problem', it's not really a 'drug' problem - it's a personal problem of some sort.
------------------------
Last but not least, the LATimes travel section seems to keep expanding it's 'western road trips' section.
Last time I checked, the headline was '100 road trips...' - now it's 161?!
61 more ways to get oh-so-pleasantly-'lost'!. :-)
161 road trips in the West
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-roadtrips-page,0,7620686.htmlstory
Next entry, I'll get back to the heart of the matter, some darkroom montage, something I printed on New year's Day, 2010.
An hourglass... of sorts.
If you'd like to see what else is in store for Darkroom 2010:
http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/2010/index.html
Last but not least, a musical interlude:
'A song for life' - Eric Johnson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV5dMDId7uY&feature=related
He plays this on a steel string guitar, however it sounds so much like it could be played on an acoustic/nylon stringed/classic guitar.
Beautiful stuff. I think Segovia would be happy...
...and another one, Eric Johnson @ House Of Blues 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5llfHPzt4H4&NR=1
EJ is one marvelous guitar player - he has technical chops... but he also has *soul*! (more than enough to go around!),
and if you have the first one, but not the second?, I am not sure you have that much to crow about.
"I'll be back" ;-) in a few weeks.....
