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.