Does anybody remember laughter????

Since we are now in the digital era it has becomes incredibly difficult for me to remember the last time I bought a real physical cd. Luckily today I actually did. Living in Los Angeles I should probably take advantage that I live in a state that has 3 Amoeba Records. Amoeba being the mecca of all that is holy in music.
I browsed the clearance racks and came out with some stuff I cannot wait to
listen to....


Beth Orton - Trailer Park
Gomez - Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline
Her Space Holiday - Let's get quiet Vol. 1
Gogogoairheart - S/T
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Hard Promises (original issue)

Film : Fuji Sensia 200

This is my film of choice as of late. There is something about the powerful colors it brings when you process this slide film as a negative (look up: cross processing) that make only the best colors come out. A lot of green undertones reminding me of Lomography 200 xpro film. I always find it tricky using slide film because I never want the colors to be too far away from what they are suppose to look like. I hate the strong fuchsia colors that some of the other fuji slide films give you. Yet with sensia you are playing off your own colors in th picture. So far I am a satisfied customer and have started to live off this film. So far so good.

love love love...

#6042010

Let's get lost somewhere for a minute...
In my head there have been soo many emotions.
I just came back from a trip from San Francisco, always short, always sweet. Jen is leaving and heading to New York in August and my reasons to visit that great city would be cut short.
Change seems to be in the air in all directions and if I knew where it was taking me I think I would be dissapointed.
Last night a homeless man asked to clean our windows at a gas station and eventhough we insisted he didn't, he started to anyways. This man was so happy cleaning our bug infested windows that it brought me to tears. I just couldn't understand what a dipshit I have been being for the last few years. That man had almost nothing and he had a smile on his face while he recounted silly stories about washing strangers windows.
I just kept thinking "I am so lucky..and I can't even take one second to realize that"
I cried the rest of the tears I had left but luckily left with something in the end of that trip.
Cheesy? probably. But I am so sick of being unhappy and most say happiness is a choice and I would normally argue with that but it's true. Make good life choices and the rest is the outlook you choose.

I will remind myself to read this when I am feeling crappy again.

Film: Kodak Tri-X 400

At times I like to think that I know a little of what I am talking about. I have a good sense of people and why they do the things they do. Being completely self aware (not that it helps me) makes people constantly want to open up to me, which I love. What does this have to do with film you might ask? Well I always thought that photography was beautiful in it's primitive (for lack of a better word) form. Black and White film always feels like it captures something on a different plain than what color film can do. As if in shooting people in black and white you can almost see feel more of a connection. I have been using Kodak Tri-x 400 for a while now. To be honest I never was really happy with the results . I feel like it flattens a lot of my images. I think I am going to start using more Ilford since they are the kings of Black and White. Never the less here are some pics taken with Kodak Tri-x 400



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Gloomy as heck!

I am currently at work listening to Built To Spill - Carry the Zero and trying to not fall asleep. Can I just tell you how awesome Dinosaur Jr. radio is on Pandora!!! All these great songs are coming on everything from Lemonheads to Smashing Pumpkins. Oh Smashing Pumpkins , they are but a bump in the history of my generation but I somehow can look back and find at least 3 songs of theirs that are milestones in my life. Weird how seemingly a band could not affect you but still somehow have a relationship with you in your life.

"Today" happens to be one of my favorite songs EVER!!! The lyrics and the melody even the music video seems to be etched permanently in my brain. Billy Corgan's bald head reminds me of a time in my life where music made sense to me and at the time the rest of the world. Now when I think about him though I think about all his problems with Courtney Love.

I will end this with the music video for one of my favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs

Camera Rant: Why I love my Diana Mini!

This little piece of plastic might look like it can't do much but really it packs such a punch.
If you are familiar with it's predecessor the Diana F+ you know that the magic to these cameras is in the plastic lens. Luckily with the Diana Mini you are not sacrificing too much in the size.
The Mini keeps the plastic lens to still give you those soft focus images and eventhough it shoots in 35mm format ( a feature I find to be a million times more convenient) it still gives you the square image that the Diana is famous for. Since the Mini cannot be made into a pinhole, the lens doesn't come off like the regular Diana, it does give you the option of shooting half frame. So on a 36 exposure roll you can shoot 72 pictures, and you don't have to stay committed to half frame through out your whole roll you can actually go back and forth. This is my favorite feature since for years I had been trying to get my hands on an Olympus Pen an older camera that had that feature back in the day. Then I found the golden half a camera made by superheadz that seemed to do what the Pen did but lacked in the picture quality.The Mini does everything the golden half does and more. I also must rave about the panoramic options you have with it, it's really what I have been experimenting with and so far so good. I must end this by talking about the focusing. I have never been good at judging focusing on meters but I feel that with the Diana Mini it's a little more forgiving. I tend to always get a good shot.

Here are some shots I have taken so far with the Mini

It was a nice break

... and now back to the real world.

Utah, I had been there twice before and both times I loved it. This time it was a little different. I was surrounded with friends, I had a lot more money and it was fucking snowing. After a fourteen hour drive and a four hour pit stop in Vegas we finally made it. Downtown SLC is very interesting, it's a city and yet not. I remember walking down the streets of temple square when there were no sky scrapper buildings but now it's like stepping into a different state within a one mile radius.

The cold is what really caught me off guard being babied by California weather anything below fifteen degrees is always a shock. I spent most of Thursday night and Friday searching for a Walgreens. I google mapped the fuck out of that Walgreens and it seemed that anywhere I turned I was going the wrong way. Big tip to any major city DO NOT HAVE MULTIPLE STREETS NAMED ALMOST THE SAME!!! I get that 400 s. and 400 w. are two different streets but when I'm walking and lost I can't remember which way is which at that point. Shadi and I went on a 45 minute walk to the mecca that was Walgreens and then found out we could of taken the train there (awesome). You know your life isn't really that interesting when you spend most of your day in a different state looking for a place to buy bobby pins.

The best part was when I was stuck in the hotel elevator for 20 minutes with the most obnoxious guy. He didn't mind being stuck in there because in his words "he had nothing to do".

I would have punched him if they didn't come rescue us. RETARDED...

We spent our last day there going to Sundance to see what the hoopla was about. Unfortunately we didn't get to see much hoopla since we had no tickets to any movies and it was nearing the end of the festival. Regardless Park City is a very beautiful place to visit. I just kept thinking that this was the backdrop for all those hallmark christmas cards. Snow everywhere which always makes me happy since we don't get a lick of snow in Downey,California.

I would normally talk about the show here but there was really nothing to say besides the fact that it was pretty awesome. I don't normally judge Brand New shows mainly because it's rare for me to not enjoy one. Obviously I enjoy some more than others but I can only think of one bad show in the seventy or so that I have been to. So therefore the show was good and definitely worth sitting in the car for 14 more hours on our way home.

So verdict about Utah : will visit again yet not anytime soon.....

Years end...

It seems that the year came as fast as it went. I don't even remember how the year started and not that it was bad but I am glad it's over. There is a lot I want to get to so hopefully new year new beginnings.

Yesterday Shadi and I went to the Observatory. We both hadn't been there since we were younger. It's amazing how many great places there are in LA that we take for granted. The view from the top was amazing and I got to capture some awesome shots with my Polaroid Land Camera. After the Observatory we picked up Luis and headed to The Grove, our usual lunch spot The Cheesecake Factory kept us full!!! Then we watched "Up in the Air". I personally loved the movie it was everything that I expected. Such an insightful look at someone who has build their life being a hermit. I loved the ending, I hate when movies end "happily ever after" just for the sake of leaving you happy at the end.






I got my pictures back from NY these are some of my favorites.. all taken with Lomography 800 speed film.

New York...forever and always..

I spent a glorious week having my usual visit to New York during the holidays. Living in California we lose out on the novelty of Christmas. It is almost always 76 and sunny here (excluding last week of course.) Sometimes I just need to see everything decked out in lights, or just the need to feel the cold on my face. The cold I felt, EXTREMELY! I spent most of my time though with Diego in his apartment just watching youtube videos. (we know how to party)

I love Brooklyn and forget that the city isn't always the be all of everything. The culture and some of the sights that you see in Brooklyn could be easily as stunning as anything in the city.

I do go to New York a lot so when I arrive I like to hit up my favorite spots one of them being Grand Morelos , which I affectionately call "dirty mexican food". They are notorious for cheap mexican food at odd hours of the night and somehow they love to give you your check about two hours after you are done with your food. We hit it up on a Friday night and didn't end up leaving till 5:30 am.

It was awesome to see Diego and Rusha!!! It was sad though because there were soo many peopl I didn't get to see :( It's okay I should be back soon. It feels nice to have such good friends so far away and still be completely close to them. Speaking of great friends that are far away Jenn was in town from San Francisco! She was researching schools and it was GLORIOUS for us to reunite in New York. We hit up this awkward karaoke bar on her last night. The bar was filled with men in suits and after Eric went to have a smoke he informed us that a review outside said "an interesting mix of bankers and hipsters" they were on the dot about that one.

Highlight of the trip was getting to see the Who shot rock n roll exhibit at the brooklyn museum of art. I still get chills thinking about it. Next trip is at the end of January and trust me I cannot wait till Utah.

pictures by Michelle and Jenn