external monologue

bs hour

it's been a while since i've posted a picture from my tuesday night BS hour. we've moved it around a few times since the old meeting place of durty nelly's. (currently i think we're boycotting nelly's because they fired our friend blair carpenter, but i still haven't heard all the details on that story.) either way, we met for a while at parkway but have recently moved to the back deck at mojo burrito. trying to pour a little money back into the neighbahood...

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i don't typically go in for this kinda of stuff, but as you all know, i really want an iPod. the otherday i discovered this website called freeipods.com. now, i know that this may seem a little sketchy, and i'm not sure that i completely understand how it works, but its worth a shot i'd say. what you have to do is sign up with your email address and then complete one offer. after that, you need 5 people to sign up under you and do the same thing. then you get a free iPod. (one of the offers that you can sign up for is on eBay.com and all you have to do is create a new account and then temporarily be high bidder on one auction. read more about offers here.) yes, there is spam, but i'd recommend making yourself a new throwaway hotmail address to use for the sign-up. so, if you want to do it, and if you want to sign up under me, please click here.

my brother tim graduates from georgia tech tomorrow with a degree in civil engineering. (send congratulatory emails here) the montgomery's and some postons will all be gathering in atlanta tomorrow morning to watch the ceremony and take tim out to lunch. tim will then be on "vacation" for a couple weeks before jumping right into his master's in civil engineering -- dang that kid's smart.

and finally, garden state looks great -- can't wait for it to come to chattanooga (fingers crossed).

jesus loves fresh air

yesterday i helped emily move from her downtown apartment to a house up on lookout mountain where she'll be living for the upcoming school year. as usual with any time that i'm moving something bigger than a book box, i borrowed josiah's pickup truck. those of you who have been in his truck before may recognize the "i heart jesus" air freshner. i won't say anything about this except that i like it, and i'm glad that it's not some lame attempt at irony... right josiah? right?

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last night i finished fast food nation, the eric schlosser book about the fast food industry in america that i've been reading. and, i have to say, i think everyone should read this book. even if some of it is a bit biased, and even if some of the research is skewed (which as far as i can tell, it isn't), it will make you think more consciously about the way you eat and how your burger gets from the farm to the non-biodegradable polystyrene box at your favorite fast-food joint. if you don't want to read the book, at least check out the original articles it was based on.

my brother joel mentioned the band the streets the other day. i found a video of their most recent single, "fit but you know it."

dan sent me a link about spirituality in higher education. i haven't dug into it too much yet, but it looks interesting.

old finster photo

this is an old picture, a scan actually from a series of black and whites i did last summer as a tribute to howard finster. anyone who's been up to our house on lookout mountain will recognize this from the collection of photos hanging on the wall. the small size doesn't really do it justice because its actually printed on 11x14 inch paper and much of the detail is lost in shrinking.

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a few movies i've watched recently. (1) Bubba Ho-Tep: i have to be honest, i was pretty disappointed with this movie. perhaps it was merely because my expectations were so high, perhaps it was because it has bruce campbell and somehow i want to think he can do no wrong, or perhaps its because the premise of elvis in a haunted nursing home is so genius i figured it couldn't miss. but it really does somehow. the opening 20 minutes are solid, even moving, the hook and explanation of how elvis ended up in a rest home. but after that it just seems ridiculous, and not ridiculous in the way that great cult films are. it just starts to fall apart - the villain seems silly and predictable, the dialogue leaves something to be desired... i could go on. anyhow - feel free to convince me otherwise, but after one viewing i'm wishing for more. (2) The Bourne Supremacy - i loved this movie. somehow it managed to maintain the intrigue of the first film without reusing the same tricks or contriving unbelievable new ones (a la James Bond). the way it was shot is both unsettling and gripping at the same time. for most of the movie you feel like you're experiencing with jason bourne whatever he's going through - getting blindsided in traffic by a truck, taking sniper pot-shots at the CIA, all of it.

ratatat has a new remix album coming out with songs by missy elliot and kanye west (warning: parental advisory...)

coolest car in america?

the ford cobra has often been called the coolest car ever made by an american car company. there's loads of other cool facts about these cars that i'm sure i could find and share if i had time, but i'm pretty well loaded up here at work and don't have time to blog. those of you who frequent greyfriar's or lupi's will recognize this as frank (the hot-wheels guy)'s car. the one he bought by selling his hot-wheel's collection. it's a beaut, and he loves it.

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not much to report, and no time either. more tomorrow -

(in)action jackson

(note: i've tried to post multiple times this morning by my freakin' computer keeps locking up halfway through and losing my half-finished post. therefore, this post is a truncated version of the original unfortunately.)

i've probably mentioned it before, but i'm trying to give some of my photography a more cinematic feel lately. the hope is that that it will transition well to cinematography one day if i ever get around to making any films. to that end, i sometimes crop the photos down to a 2.35:1 aspect ratio giving it a more widescreen feel. sometimes i'm more successful than others, but this one in particular i liked. (more about aspect ratios can be found here.) i picture this as a transitional scene from some quiet reflective film. perhaps some iron and wine plays in the background as the camera slowly pans around our hero...

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last night isaac and i had a long discussion about the music industry and the struggles of bands that get signed by labels, especially major labels. i found it all quite fascinating as it gives a very different perspective on the life of a rock star. one that's less than glamorous and in the end a little sad. then i found this article by steve albini (one time producer for nirvana) about the problem with music today. it's sorta long, but if you're interested in knowing more about the downward spiral from (debt-free) garage band to (nearly-bankrupt) rock star its worth a read.

speaking of music, my morning jacket recently released a new EP which was reviewed on pitchfork. this led me to discover their website and a bunch of free music from prior albums. so, the friday-mp3-of-the-week is from their sophomore release, at dawn and its called lowdown.

emily and bethany

more photos from our afternoon at BORDERS last friday in memphis. (strange, i don't think i've shot a single new photo since i got home and its nearly friday.) emily and bethany broadwater were talking outside while i photographed them. it's difficult to make people feel completely comfortable with a camera lens only inches from their face, and i'm slowly learning how to try to carry on a conversation while still shooting. its a strange experience because conversation is such an important thing to me that its difficult for me not to give it my full attention and i feel a bit silly chattering away while photographing. but, emily was a willing subject and has a pretty natural ease in front of the camera so i think i got a few good shots. this one was (obviously) converted to black and white - for some reason i just liked it better that way. i'm still not completely satisfied with digital B&W conversion, but its improving.

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aaron, whose posts seem to get better every day (or however irregularly he posts), pulled some interesting stuff from the sufjan stevens website recently. sufjan has such a powerful way with words, and sometimes captures the struggles of the christian journey in ways that nearly bring me to tears.

and finally, a question. recently i've been trying to reduce my coffee/caffeine intake. i've read and heard a number of things lately that make me think my 4-6 cup-a-day regimen probably isn't exactly healthy. so, i've reduced it to 1-2 cups in the morning -- which is acceptable in my book. however, i find myself nearly falling asleep around 3:00 in the afternoon, and what i'm wondering is if anyone is aware of a good substitute for coffee. something thats more natural perhaps, or with at least less caffeine? i was thinking something like yerba mate, or perhaps a green tea. either way, i need some kind of pick-me-up in the afternoons and all suggestions are welcome.

weekly lamppost

more lamposts, more beautiful skies... just can't stop myself. this is in the parking lot of a BORDERS books in memphis - about 5 minutes from the wardell's house. we hung out there on friday afternoon, passing time until the show at the arcade. this might be my favorite lamppost yet, although, there's some retro looking ones over on highway 27 i was noticing the other day that i think i need to shoot...

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so, i've been reading fast food nation every night before i go to bed the last few weeks. if you haven't heard of it, its a pretty fascinating book. its a combination of history, sociology and investigative journalism of the fast-food phenomenon here in america. granted, its a little one-sided, everything is i suppose, but it certainly gives one a lot to think about especially around meal time. part of what's so interesting is that its a very personal take on the issues and the author really got to know a number of people in the biz: employees, managers, and executives. all this to say that the reading before bed is starting to affect my dreams i think. last night i dreamed that i stopped in at our st.elmo long john silver's and spent some time hanging out with the manager. turns out he's a really great guy and even let me borrow his mid-1980's honda accord without even asking why i needed it. (which is probably good because as far as i could tell there was no good reason to borrow it...) dreams are so strange. anyhow, i do recommend it - just keep in mind that it might make it difficult to scarf fast-food for lunch anymore, and to sleep for that matter...

the twins

there's loads of photos from the weekend in memphis, and i'll probably try to put together another story series before the end of the week. for now though, just one at a time, and i think this might be my favorite photo from the weekend. i'm not sure what it is, but it just cracks me up. for those of you who don't know them, these are the totten twins, david and chris. it was late friday night at the arcade diner in downtown memphis, and everyone was looking pretty tired. the twins had just come off playing a long set of dance-able covers (think "Hey Ya!" etc) and somehow got into a serious conversation with lang martin.

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a quick request: tonight is the twice-yearly meeting for the AEC's independent film series committee. i haven't had much time to get my list of films together, so if anyone has recommendations of things they'd like to see here this fall please get them to me before 6pm tonight. thanks!

for anyone wanting to see some rebuttal to michael moore's fahrenheit 9/11, david kopel has put together a list of 59 deceits from the film. its definitely worth a read, regardless of where you stand on the spectrum.

more of brady

i don't think i said much previously about our dinner last monday with brady. as you can see from the photo, taken at the little thai restaurant in st.elmo, he's in pretty good spirits. he's definitely lost a good bit of weight and isn't quite as energetic as the old brady, but for what he's been through i think he's in pretty amazing shape. his entire right arm is in a cast and his left arm is somewhat bolted together, but the doctors expect a near full recovery. he may never have great range of motion in his left wrist, but he expects to be walking before too much longer, and running not long after that.

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we got back yesterday afternoon from the wedding in memphis. a pretty great weekend all around. about 20 of us stayed at the wardell's house, er, the wardell hotel, and spent a lot of time sitting on the porch or around the pool. aside from the hellish heat that seems to never leave memphis, i think everyone really enjoyed themselves and abby and ryan are successfully hitched and on their way to san francisco for a couple weeks.

generation 4 iPods have arrived, and with any luck a certain employer will be buying them for certain employees as a bonus before long.

telling stories

so, i have this new idea for the blog. i'm realizing that i take quite a few more photos than ever get posted on here, and seeing as i don't really do that much with the leftover photos i started thinking that maybe i could try to get more on the site. especially after posting two photos yesterday and thinking about some of the shots ive taken lately i've got this idea about telling stories with the photos. that is, perhaps 3, 4, 6, 8 photos that tell a story of an entire event or day, instead of just one. i don't suppose its really that different from what i've been doing, just more photos. so... here's the first story.

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the evening started with a beer, a hoegaarden on tap, one of my favorite summer brews, and pizza at a place in east atlanta called grant central pizza. the salads were so-so (it's no lupi's) but they make dang fine pizza pie, which we munched on before heading around the corner to...

the echo lounge. which, by the way, gets some really fine acts. check out their upcoming shows section on the website. makes me wish they didn't get started so late (more about that later). i've been to the echo once before, i think. it was to see the promise ring, back in the heydey of emo. back before they disbanded. back before indie was the new mainstream. anyhow, as i've mentioned before, tonight we had come to see...

sufjan stevens. and hanging in the front window, was this really freakin' cool poster, personally signed by the man himself. this one was for sale, for more than i wanted to pay, but thankfully there were some smaller ones stuck to the walls. kiko snagged one and i was able to get him to sign it when we were talking after the show. i can't remember who made these posters though... some cool little company there in atlanta. i'll have to check and get back to you about that one. anyhow, there were a couple of so-so opening acts, and then...

sufjan finally appeared on stage, with a special guest, the state of michigan. which you can just barely make out behind some guys head, on the right in this photo. he spent most of the show telling the stories behind the songs, the events of which primarly took place in the state of michigan. growing up he travelled a great deal in the state and moved from one city to another as his parents found different jobs, changed their views, and finally were divorced.

i found his show to be absolutely captivating. now and then people in the back of the room would start talking too loudly and i wanted to go over and shake them and tell them that they were missing the most incredible show. he poured his heart out for this crowd. so many of his songs are sad and when he closed his set with "romulus", one his more tearjerking songs, i was afraid he might run from the stage weeping. but, he pulled himself together, said goodnight, and proceeded to spend the next hour chatting with fans in front of the stage. apparently he's not on tour right now, and this was just a special show that he came down to atlanta for, which i think probably explains the more heartfelt performance. or, maybe he's always that way...

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so that's the first story. i can't promise that i'll have time to do this very often, but i think i'll enjoy it more. it's nice at least to be able to do something more constructive with these photos than let them sit on my hard-drive.

i'm leaving in the morning for memphis for ryan's wedding, so perhaps there's another story there. and dinner with brady on monday night had a couple of good moments. i don't know that i'll have time to post tomorrow, so until monday...

double shot

sorry about the missed picture yesterday. i haven't been getting into work very early lately and that means i don't usually have time to blog right off. which also means that if its a busy day, i may not get around to it all day, which is what happened yesterday. so, today it's a double shot - more photos from the martin's housewarming party. up top, the infamous and well documented, john totten, striking his familiar serious-face pose for the camera. from all the photos of him on here you might not think he's one of the funniest people you've ever met, but have no doubt - he is.


and up next, it's a shot of capria jahssen (sp?) who i don't think has turned up on the blog before which is a shame because she and her husband paul are about to move away to seattle, and then i probably won't have any pictures of them for a long time. but then, i'm sure we'll have a serious throw-down when they depart and there should be some good shots from that.

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ugh, wednesday mornings are tough. we have a 7am prayer meeting at susan kent's house and i seem to be slowly turning up later and later each week. not that 7 is actually even that early, just a lot earlier than a usual day and i seem to be averaging about 5 hours of sleep a night these days.

which, actually, probably isn't going to change any time soon either - we (emily, mesh, brent?, kiko?, josiah?) are leaving friday morning for memphis to attend ryan dixon's wedding. it's been about 8 years since i've been to memphis and i'm looking forward to seeing it again, not to mention staying at isaac's house and visiting some of his high-school haunts.

and finally, because i forgot to post an mp3 last friday, here's a whole album on a wednesday. this is the new album by the secret machines. i was just telling b.horner the other day that i was having a hard time getting into these guys, that they sound too much like a flaming lips knock off. but, since b. typically has such flawless taste in music i'm going to give the album a listen today and perhaps reconsider.

another "martin"

a new face here on loapher. this is daniel white, lang martin's cousin who is living with them for the summer in the "new" house. which is where this photo was taken on friday night at the martin's housewarming party. there was a pretty impressive turnout for the evening - there must have been over 50 people at one point in the night - and about halfway through we spent some time praying over the house and exhorting lang and charity in their future plans with it. i left at three, but apparently things went on for some time after that.

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a few of us (beck, mesh, horner, and kiko) went down to atlanta friday night to see sufjan stevens play at the echo lounge. it's a small venue, and a small crowd, but the music was fantastic. just sufjan on stage with his guitar, and his special guest: a map of michigan.

surprise! i just found out brady's in town for the evening - so hopefully we'll grab some dinner, and maybe i'll get a pic for tomorrow.

and, i'm going to see spider-man 2 again tonight... woo-hoo!

more hattie

the battery died in my D70 earlier this week and i haven't gotten around to recharging it yet, so today's another backlog photo. this is from the trip out to colorado last month when i was visiting with the stuarts. i think this was on the day i was leaving. hattie was watching something on TV (blues clues?) and jake was trying to wake up.

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josiah has recently taken to finding mp3s of old super-poppy songs and playing them at full-blast from about 4pm on every day. today being friday he got a bit of an early start and we've worked our way through the roxette catalog, along with hits from mc hammer, michael bolton, c + c music factory, marky mark and the funky bunch. right now its annie lennox's "broken glass." the funny part is that as saccharine as most of these tunes are, its strangely enjoyable and takes me back to all these random memories from my adolescence.

he also played this which is one of the funniest things i think i've ever heard.

kung-pao

the other day when i was shooting that self-portrait of the back of my head i took few other photos of my hands, one of which was this fist photo. the human hand is endlessly fascinating to me in its complexity and versatility. i think its part of why i love climbing so much. sometimes when i'm bored i'll catch myself just staring at my hands or making these strange little motions that i'm amazed they're capable of. some interesting facts about hands here. this is fascinating:

"We work our fingers by remote control. Of course, in one sense, we work all of our moving body parts by remote control - the control center is our brain. However, the fingers are special, because there are no muscles inside the fingers. The muscles which bend the finger joints are located in the palm and up in the mid forearm, and are connected to the finger bones by tendons, which pull on and move the fingers like the strings of a marionette. "

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microsoft wants to give google a run for their money with their new googlized search site. fat chance...

dogtown and z-boys arrived today from netflix. hoping to watch it tonight. bubba ho-tep also arrived, but was quickly snatched up by fellow copticians.

more skies and lampposts

i'm getting a little addicted to these photographs of the sky with lampposts in the foreground. i don't know what it is, but something about the two together make a much stronger photograph than either item on its own. not to mention the sunsets have been incredible lately. i pulled over on the ulgiati bridge the other day to get this shot and must have sat on the side of the road for a good ten minutes watching it change. when i stopped there were just hints of orange and pink, but by the time i left it had begun to look like the sea of rolling clouds you see here.

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the family guy is coming back. oh yeah...

the fourth on the bridge

chattanooga did their annual fourth of july fireworks display on saturday the third this year. tad bevan and i (along with half of chattanooga) went down to watch from the walnut street bridge where we bumped into the roes, mesh, brent, and even lindsay (davis) perkins. this is the first time in 9 years of living in chattanooga that i've been downtown to watch the fireworks on the fourth. and unfortunately, i have to say i was a little disappointed. they counldn't have lasted more than 10 minutes, and there was really no grand finale to speak of. perhaps even the fireworks budget is feeling the crunch in this struggling economy...

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yesterday day we had a workday here in the office in which we put up a new mailbox out front and attempted, unsuccessfully, to hang some walls. hopefully today we will make more progress. if we do, i'll be sure to get some photos.

yesterday i finally bought the new sufjan stevens album. i've known for a while that this was going to be a good album, but i'm amazed at how truly great it really is. it may have just supplanted the walkmen as my favorite album this year. (on a side note, my praise for this album may be slightly biased by the fact that i got to hang out with sufjan last summer up in new york when i was visiting friends in brooklyn.) you can hear one of the lesser songs here.

jump and run

this is another photo from that (fateful) afternoon at the williams house. like i said, the kids were all outside running around, and being generally more photogenic than we adults were inside, talking quietly and eating potato salad. i had been trying to get a good photo of maran (sp?) williams on her trike when, in one swift motion, she leapt off in mid-pedal, causing the trike to crash to the ground, and took off running towards the sandbox.

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friday-mp3-of-the-week: will is my friend by devendra banhart -- beautiful, quiet folk music.

so, richard linklater made a sequel to his 1995 film before sunrise. its (not surprisingly) called before sunset and apparently its pretty good. i love linklater's dialogue-centric style, and i think all of us who saw the first film wondered if he'd ever come back to wrap things up. apparently even this second film leaves room for a third.

and finally... i'm not quite sure how to handle the uproar over the "kitten photo" from a couple days ago. i'll respond to it by comment later today, and i apologize if its really upset anyone.

self-portrait III

it being the first day of the month, its self-portrait time again. you know, taking a picture of the back of your own head isn't as easy as it looks. (then again, maybe it doesn't look easy?) but i must have shot this photo about ten times. you have to get the light readings right off the back of your head, which means taking a reading with your back to the camera. then you have to set the auto-timer on your new DSLR, that you still don't quite understand, and then stand with your back to the camera and hope you're in the right spot. i suppose i could have had someone else help me shoot it, but then that defeats the purpose of a "self" portrait, am i right? at least its all digital though so its cheap and easy to review.

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i'm loving my new gmail account. labels are cool...

spider-man 2 was incredible... nearly flawless. another one of those summer movies where i think i just sat through the entire film with a silly grin on my face, the occasional laugh of disbelief escaping my lips...