Sunday, April 13, 2014

Israel's New Racism: The Persecution of African Migrants in the Holy Land

Sigh Fi (or ode to analog cameras)

Went to local Target and Best Buy, neither sell camera film. One red shirted youth in Target looked at me as if I asked for a saddle for a horse. "I don't think THEY make film anymore."

"But your photo department downstairs?"

It only developes digital photos.

"Ain't that 'bout a bitch!?" I thought, descending on the escalator. I've lived long enough to see my fancy tech become artifacts. I know I can get film from CVS or another chain pharmacy, but the idea of my beautiful Nikon FM2 becoming a relic... So this is what forty feels like.

Funny as hell to think that just a few months back I wished I had one of those old school twin lens reflex cameras, the ones that you hold waist high and look down into the view finder. I was feeling nostalgic for a time I never lived in. Didn't know while I as surfing lomography sites that I had some ancient tech in my closet already. Ancient photographic technology from nineteen hundred and eighty-seven!

Funnier still, when you snap a picture with this camara, it sounds just like an iPhone when it locks. The sound engineers at Apple must be in their forties too.

My beloved NIKON FM2 taken w/iPad Mini

 

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Time Machine

Daddy what's that noise.

"That's vinyl."

Seeing my little one bopping to Wes Montgomery's BUMPIN' album feels like Spring. In a world where Hip Hop is a minstrel show and pop music all sounds like... wait, I haven't listen to the radio in so long...

Wes Montgomery's Bumpin' album was recorded in 1965, yet this dub step teen can dig it. How fun it was to show her how to put the needle on the record.

It would be low hanging fruit to compare iTunes to my record player, but it's just a different sound, different experience. Every generation thinks it's youth was the golden era.

No comparison of iTunes and records here, both are time machines.

Wes Montgomery / Bumpin' album / Bumpin' / Verve records / recorded in May 1965

 

" , "

I was there on business. She was my client and after the outage I wanted to see if she had been inconvenienced. Walking in on her mid-sentence, she comma'd a smile. I paused. That smile, as sincere as a black and white photograph. She made my day.