The Real Deal: Red Dirt

I see all these trendy fashion blogs posting photoshopped images to look "vintage" and to have "grunge." And for a bit I'm tempted to buy into the nostalgia of it all. Then a day like this comes along, and I laugh at the thought of models posing in anything remotely close to this. No warmth or texture added in photoshop. Just pure, red dirt, baby!

Also, notice my wind chime is taped together...

Carnies and Bunnies

Went to the Panhandle Plains Fair today! AKA the Bunny Fair, since I pretty much just go to see the room full of rabbits since I'm not big into foods on a stick, and just the smell of funnel cake is enough to make me feel sick. But I DO love bunnies. Also, I can now say I've officially been swindled by a carney. Given, I was aware of what I was getting myself into when I stepped up to the game booth, I'm just not the kind of person to object over the details a game of darts or ring toss, so maybe it doesn't count. Oh well, I won a prize and saw hundreds of bunnies. 'Twas an indubitably good day.

It is almost fall! I love this - can't you just feel the crisp morning air and the warm morning light? Taken last year, but soon enough I'll have the fall weather and fall light to snap away in.

Will Rodgers statue

Geek Out

So I ran across this post on Not Cot about Hatsune Miku, a Japanese pop music sensation that is ... completely computerized. This is not the first time I've heard of her ... (it?) ... I actually wrote an entire paper analyzing virtual bands for a senior level elective class I took in the College of Mass Communications (I would like to note that the course title, Rock 'N' Roll Media, is completely deceptive in making it sound like an easy class) and was totally weirded out the more I learned of Hatsune Miku. I had originally planned on focusing the paper on one of my favorite bands, The Gorillaz. It took me 8 pages to thoroughly explain and analyze why this fad is important to the media/advertising/interactive landscape. And only about one page to suck all the fun out of the topic. Luckily, a picture is worth a thousand words and these vids are 24 frames per second and over a minute long. So, just watch:

The Japanese pop sensation hologram that sold out an L.A. concert in less than two hours:

A band with cartoon avatars, and the star power to get Bruce Willis to cameo in a car chase:

And while I'm at it, I might as well post a link to footage from the Video Games Live concert I went to in Dallas. (Thanks to whoever is allowing me to re-live the awesomeness via YouTube!) I have seen bands with much cooler reputations, but a concert venue filled with video game nerds psyched to sing a long with the Super Mario theme song? Best. Concert. EVER.

This is awesome footage to begin with, but man am I loving the post production work! Also, how did they get some of these shots?!

Skyliners Paris trailer from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.

Don't smile. You'll get dirt in your mouth.

I've lived in Lubbock going on five years, and the past couple of months have resulted in some of the most bland landscape I have yet to see [if you're not familiar with Lubbock - that's a bold statement.] So bland that I, a native Texan who has taken it upon myself to prove my worthiness of said bad ass lineage through the ceremonial sting of cactus needles to the palm [read: accidentally using a cactus to break my fall while hiking... meh, did the trick] actually got excited to see this cactus blooming. Really excited. What's that? You, too, are now SO intrigued by the above cactus that I am using as a thin veil to hide my need to dedicate an ENTIRE blog post about the very same drought that everyone else in Texas is complaining about daily in 140 characters or less that you are compelled to continue reading??! Ok then... more back story on my cute lil' cactus photo.

My friend and I drove to a local winery to take photos for a magazine [shameless plug coming soon] , and all I can say is I've never been surrounded by so many fields of well looked after dirt. Poor West Texas. 108 degree weather, nothing but dirt to the horizon line, surrounded by chilled wine, and I choose to freak out over cactus. Anywho, this winery was smack dab in the middle of these dirt fields, and since it was well landscaped it felt like a little oasis. They don't even grow their own grapes.... no romantic looking vineyards, no rows of lush greenery to allow for any type of fleeting, vicarious Tuscan fantasy. I was just that excited to see cactus.

Unexpectedly Cool Spokesmen

I present to you three unexpectedly cool dudes in ads:

Tom Bodett’s celebrity status (if you could call it that) was created by speaking in a humble sounding voice about a discount hotel chain. So much so that every Motel 6 spot begins with him introducing himself. Until I just googled his name I actually thought he was the CEO of Motel 6. Apparently his voice is just that perfect for their brand. “Hi, I’m Tom Bodett… [insert witty motel-related quips here] … and we’ll leave the light on for you.” If you want more proof: I know you just read that in your head using his voice. Crazy, right?

Hear more on his web site: http://bodett.com/motel6commercials.htm

om

2) Ben Stein manages to pull off looking like a total intellectual while sounding like a lame tourist who forgot his allergy meds at home. He's too smart to care about something as menial as eye drops, which is why you should stop wasting his precious time and go get some Clear Eyes already. TAH DAH! Best spokesperson for eye drops ever.

3) Isiah Mustafa actually had his name “out there” well before the Old Spice commercials. But he’s a household name now, all because of deodorant. And if you asked any of the “Man your man could smell like” fans what he did before demonstrating what kind of man men could smell like, very few people would know he was in the NFL. And by now you're actually tired of hearing about him so much. I’m on a horse.

I demand an explanation!

I don't understand why whoever put this sofa off the side of a dirt road, surrounded by a huge field, bothered to position it so nicely. I now wish I had taken a photo from behind the couch to show what it was facing. I was too concentrated on trying to frame the couch with the lines behind it. For some reason this reminds me of a pigeon I saw on the way to work while I was driving on an overpass. The pigeon was on the side of the road, watching traffic speed by and looked like it was contemplating trying to WALK across to the other side. Had it not been on an overpass I might have thought the thing couldn't fly. Don't ask why my brain connected these two situations. My only explanation is that they both have to do with things on the side of roads that have no reasonable explanation for being there. Explain yourself, couch! And as for you, idiotic pigeon, I hope at least your feet are quick.

Dramatic "Whyyy???"

Ok so I was cleaning up old photo files and found these. I took them for a photography class last spring and I have never received so many matter-of-fact "that's a great photograph" comments. I'm not one to turn down a compliment... but I wish everyone in the art department had given a little more than "that's great." I did bother to ask, and several people cited "interesting symmetry." But if that's all it took to make a photo great I wouldn't bother blogging about photography, would I? I think if I had shown this to my photo professor in the College of Mass Communications the feedback would have been entirely different. So, my question to the blog world.... do you agree with the mass communicators or the artists? Why?

My 2010 in Text Messages

So here it is, my 2010 in text messages. I should mention that all of these were sent by me to spare my friends and family the embarrassment of admitting they’re involved in such bizarre conversation. Most of these are just goofy, because in person, when I’m busy I’m normally consumed by photography, class and project-oriented endeavors, it’s just my nature. Some are about big deals (graduating college). So proof that work does not consume all of my thoughts:

Sigh. I did see some of those chocolate gold coins at CVS yesterday and laugh about our smell conversation.

Ok. So it’s a deal. I intern in exchange for a reasonable pie stipend.

Let’s play spot the ostrich!

Have you ever heard of being Rick Rolled? I’m going to do that to you now, but with text messages and ostriches.

They’re announcing names over the intercom… it was Boone… the announcer accidentally said it as Buffon, laughed, then hung up.

H20 Squash.

Giant game of on-campus zombie freeze tag again this year. Think it’s here to stay. Take THAT for awesome tradition, A&M!

Whatever, just take the chinchilla hostage.

I’m officially a college grad!

I’m returning with show-and-tell quality geodes. Be glad with me for not getting arrow heads for your son… I saw that going badly.

I thought anvils were used as a surface for blacksmiths to repair other stuff… do we have a conundrum?

Did I read that right?! What ??!! Wow! THANK YOU!!! Love you, too!

I feel like I owe Maslow a personal thanks for providing justification for my seemingly absurd actions.

… Apparently Ryan was Sub Zero for Halloween SEVERAL times. To that I say… REPTILE WINS!!!!! Happy Halloween!

There is a free Simon app! Under top 25 free. I consider this important, breaking news.

Like nurf guns, but they shoot limes? And you put in a whole lime and it has a slice feature before it shoots? We’ll go with your idea. [Note: I realized after I posted this that this one probably seemed alcohol related. It's not. I just really like limes. Weird, I know.]

Should have gotten me some beaver nuuuuggetz!!!

Was it a baby squirrel? Young and naïve? Hahaha

[still regarding squirrels] If the knocking sound is coming from half foot above the ground, don’t answer!!!!

Are you sure it’s that bad?! Because the world’s largest sno cone is there today and….

It’s unfinished business. I still have time to beat it! Leaving class. About to become Robin Hood. [Regarding Donkey Kong and Halloween trick or treating at the Children’s Hospital]

Ahh! I just discovered that the ranch next door has miniature ponies! And they totally love me!

I’m having a long day. I need a random person dressed in a gorilla costume to get on the bus I’m on, or something strange like that.

And the best text message of the year award goes to my father (who sent this lovingly) during the period of unemployment I endured to focus on my last [grueling] semester of school:

A little fairy fluttered in my ear and whispered that you needed money. Killed it with tennis racket.

Coming soon!... [It's not snow]

Well, the new year and my last semester of school has begun. It's freezing here (read: 8 degrees Fahrenheit) and windy (nothing new there) but I have yet to be rewarded for putting up with this weather (read: snow or better yet, a snow day). So I guess I'll just have to reminisce:

My first real try at fully manual exposure of snow. (But I've been into photography for so long! How could I just be photographing snow? Refer to beginning of post.) A bit tricky, especially mid-day when mass amounts of snow seem to glow, so I learned.

Looks almost like a tilt shift photo, no?

About an 8 second exposure @ ISO 320. It was also 20 degrees, but there was zero wind and that whole "being surrounded by mountains" thing kept me pretty content.

And so begins my love/hate relationship with sun flares.

Speaking of reminiscing and the new year... by request, be looking for my "2010 in Text Messages" post soon.