Happy Accidents

I was having lunch last week with my friend Todd who I hadn't seen in quite some time. We had met as interns working on the radio show The Story several years ago.



We both shared a mutual affection for skateboarding and photography and for a world where art and life overlap each other.



We were geeking out over discussions on cameras and lenses and film stock (or the lack there of these days) when our discussion turned photography phone apps like Instagram.

I asked if he frowned upon them because it has been said that it takes the art away from photography. He didn't bemoan the presence of photo apps but expressed that for him, photography was as much about processing as it was about framing a subject (if not more).

He spoke about how he buys expired film. Because he generally cross processes anyway and he likes to shoot with a Holga. One thing he likes about his hands-on approach is that sometimes they'll be "happy accidents" - an unplanned effect that wouldn't hinder the photo but rather add a unique element to it.

I was having problems with my phone the other day while trying to shoot some outtakes during a cover shoot for the magazine I work for and had some technical difficulties for reasons I couldn't understand.

I got some happy accidents.

This is one of them.

Enjoy.

Want to Turn Your Car into a Concert Hall?

I’m excited to announce that I’m now contributing to Chevy Culture, a
lifestyle and auto site sponsored by Chevrolet. Click through for the
full post on Chevy Culture, and come back in the next few weeks and
months for more.


OK.

Now that that is out of the way.

A few months back I was approached to write about how music influences your lives, your purchase power and the way you live for Chevy Culture.

This came about through my blogging duties over at Dadcentric.

I'm a music lover, a music critic and a musician - why wouldn't I want to take on an assignment like this?

I am old enough to remember cars with only AM radios.

My how things have change.

This is what Chevy cars have today.

Pretty awesome huh?

Did You Know?

Did you know that the United States Mint still produces pennies?

I stumbled upon the penny in this picture today. It felt fake. I thought it might have been some sort of foreign currency that had slipped through the cracks.

2012 and we are still making pennies?

Am I the only one that sees this as slightly absurd? I mean the days of penny candy and penny cartoons are long gone.


Shit, the value of a dollar ain't what it used to be. According to the US Inflation Calculator, an item purchased for $20 in 1978 today would cost $70.39.




It costs more to make a penny than a penny is worth.

So why do we still make them?

Rediscovering the Joys of Vinyl

It's not like I ever stopped listening to vinyl records.


They have always been a part of my life: I carted them back-and-forth from college, then across the country and back again, and more recently, from the house I once lived in to one apartment and onto another.


My old place just wasn't conducive to playing music, much less spinning records. I had some bitchy neighbors and it seemed like it was just best not to play any music at all at that place. If I did choose to, I usually laid on the floor and donned headphones.



When I moved this summer, I moved to a much, much smaller place. Which in turn placed my vinyl records right under my nose in the living room. They are now hard to avoid much less hard to not look at.

So now the sound of a needle popping has become a familiar one again.

And shortly thereafter, something magical happened: my girlfriend Sonnie and I discovered an old portable turntable in a dusty corner of her parents' basement.

So we broke it out and dug through the record collection there. We spun Sly Stone, Steely Dan and The Ventures during our stay.

When we left for the weekend, we left the turntable behind.

A month later we returned for a visit to find that lonely turntable staring at us. Once again we answered the call. Only this time we couldn't find it in our hearts to leave the sucker behind.

"Dad," she said. "Can I take mom's turntable?"

He gave an answer that reminded me of Sgt. Schultz on Hogan's Heroes.

So now she is in possession of this lovely little creature, and now after her kids have retired to their bedrooms, we spin records and chat.

Good times.

Good times indeed.

Lake Life and the Boat

One of the awesome things about lake life is the boat. I don't know how people could have a place on a lake and not have a boat.

At the beach, you can stare endlessly and aimlessly out into the ocean.

You can do the same with the lake.

But once you tire of that you'll need something else to entertain you, your family and guests.

I love the heightened state of awareness I get when I drive the boat. It reminds me a lot of being a bicycle messenger. You have to keep your head up and your eyes scanning the horizon twenty-four seven.



Unlike driving a car, or driving anywhere on our nation's system of roads and highways,a boat can go just about anywhere it wants to. And so can anybody else who is driving a boat (or, as they say these days, personal watercraft).

It's kind of what the untrained eye thinks of rugby.

Driving a boat demands your attention.

And I like that.

Sewer

I like photography.

I first got into taking photos as a music critic. The weekly paper I worked at was small and had very limited resources.

But it did have a budget to process photos.

I made it a habit to take my Yashica T4 everywhere. This little camera is badass. But don't just take my word for it, take Terry Richardson's word for it.

Eventually, and I guess this is how it starts with all photographers, I started to gravitate to other subject matter besides bands. For years, clouds were my obsession.

When I no longer worked at the paper (it folded), my hobby waned as I could not afford to pay the price to process film. I jumped over to digital land, and while I loved the immediacy of the format, I felt the photos lacked something that only film prints could give.

These days there's all kinds of apps for phones that mimic film and because of that I have slowly been dragged back into this vice that mirrors as a hobby.

These days, my currently fascinated is urban landscape photography.

One, Two, Three... Go!

I made a personal pact with myself to try to blog everyday this month.

Because what is life without a challenge right?

This is what happens when you have spent the last 15 years of your life catering on-and-off to supplement your income.

When it comes to food prep: nothing is ever simple, nothing is ever easy, but it is most definitely always delicious.