Saturday, October 30, 2010

Going By Appearances

Another Pink Dinosaur for Breast Cancer. I don't know what it is about charitable work that brings out the mischief in me. "Oh, it's free -- but it'll cost you."

There are two entities who I wish to address in this blog post. First, society considered as a whole. Congratulations, Society. You are now a proper noun.

Let us be honest. We have an adversarial relationship, and that fundamental fact is unlikely to change. However, you've recently made some concessions that show a generosity and open-heartedness that has taken me by surprise. I must apologize; my judgments of you have unquestionably been harsh to an unwarranted degree.

I would like to do something to show you that I am willing to meet you halfway. I cannot claim that I feel entirely at ease with the course of action on which I'm setting out. It involves the abandonment of principles that have guided me throughout my life. But, Society, given the changes in our relationship, it behooves me to do something that is more than a gesture. Something that will unequivocally state that I am no longer an active opponent of yours, that I am willing to accept my place in your greater being.

So here it is, Society. From now on, I will try and put more of an effort into judging people on the basis of their appearance.

(Yes, Society, I did actually type in 'opinions' instead of 'appearance' just now. Yes, it was a total Freudian slip. But if you keep fucking giggling like that the whole thing's off.)

Now this represents a challenge. First off, I've got a hardcore bias for the underdog. I always assume that underneath a unique, eccentric, or appalling exterior lurks a gem of humanity.

Society, you must grant that this has led me to wonderful experiences with wonderful people. But I must admit to you that my assumptions as to the presumed value of other outsiders has also led me to spend hours, days, years in the company of jackoffs of both the sullen and giggling varieties, human vapors ranging from the thick to the vague, defect collections, self-cutting utensils with bladed handles (my handle is padded, thank you very much), and any number of other sick tools.

I will also admit that some of the attractive people I've known have been very pleasant in their way.

Society, you're the boss. From now on, the amount of slack I cut people will be based entirely on your standards of attractiveness.

This is going to be tricky, though. There are two obvious issues here; I don't get your tastes, and I am almost totally blind.

These are some pretty serious hurdles. But if you are as interested in my participation as you've indicated, then I hope you'll extend a little effort on my behalf.

I think the best, most practical way of handling this is to simply have me only cut slack to people who are celebrities, or whose personal attractiveness -- your standards, not mine, no smart people, no fat people, no weirdos, no slobs, only Benneton-style non-whites, I got you, I got you -- is so overwhelming as to guarantee eventual celebrity.

Here's where I'm going to have to ask for help. And here is where I address the second entity, which is You. You, reading this now. You, a real person who may at some point interact with me.

I will judge you strictly based on your appearance. I promise. But since I seem to have terrible taste in human beings and my vision is isn't a sense so much as a concept, you will have to tell me what your appearance is.

And if I already know you, and you're funny-looking, then stay the hell away from me. But tell me why, so my feelings aren't hurt. If you just duck out of my life I'll assume I did something horrible, so let's keep everything clear and aboveboard.

This is for you, not for me, so don't go acting all weird and defensive. Be clear and concise in your description of yourself. Don't say, "I look like Brad Pitt," because so far as I'm concerned Brad Pitt is a blur only distinguishable from Jennifer Anniston (sic) by pitch. Tell me what you look like and how attractive you are to your desired gender/s.

Don't tell me how attractive I am because I do not want to know. No matter what the answer, it will demolish my sense of self. Just let me figure it out by how mean people are to me. That's how the rest of you do it, right? I'm not asking for anything special that I don't absolutely need.

Oh. This part is important.

No fibbing.

(Follow-up note -- I checked with the missus, and it turns out she's gorgeous. I figured as much, but it's still a relief. Could have been awkward, you know?)

Friday, October 29, 2010

Finally!

The thing that's frustrating about these is that they look totally crappy on a computer screen until they're blown way, way up. I don't know if this works until it's printed, and I don't have a fucking printer up here.

But I think this is finished. I think this is the first of the new Swillistrations. Whee! And it's only three-thirty in the morning. Time to think about getting back to bed.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Additional View


Here we go. Final composition, and time to start burning the image to print format.

More View!

There we go. All the donkey work is done, and now comes the fun part -- taking this hideous jumble of visual information and reducing it to something beautiful and elegant. Really, that's the essence of art -- removing unnecessary information from experience.

And there are no words for how nice the music is. I've got a Shel Silverstein album in the mix, and at one point he makes a guttural noise out of silence and I actually reacted as though someone were in the room. Now it's a collection of classic Stax soul. It is richly orchestrated to a degree that makes me feel like I'm eating a cube of butter. In a good way.

The First Glimpse of the First View


So I need some sky up top and some greenery to fill the gap between the horizon line and the base of the image. So it's a photograph or two and then the fun part -- distorting and processing the disparate elements into a cohesive whole. I'm still hoping to finish tonight, but we shall see. It's starting to seem unlikely.

But we shall see.

Anyway. I now have a very nice CD player plugged into the mixing board, playing through the studio monitors. The sound is insane. It's like listening while the music is being recorded. I'm hearing stuff I've never heard before... This is very nice.

I'll pop back in when I've got the finished basic composition.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Progress!


Thank you, Warren!




So. Yesterday, after my bold talk I wasn't able to take the photos I needed to take to advance on the Swillistrations. I walked downtown, and ran into an old family friend. Honestly, aside from my dad? He's known me the longest. We were very close when I was a small child, and I still think of our times together with fondness.

Well, I mentioned an interest in photography, and he drove me to a camera store, where they stocked a remote for my camera at an affordable price. Doesn't that seem like fate? Like magic?

Of course, I got home and wasn't able to make the remote work. But in my attempts, I found out how to set the camera so the shutter clicks ten seconds after I press it. So I am now officially at work on the next series of prints, currently entitled Fifteen Views of the Downtown Area.

Plus, my CD player is here, and it took me less than ten minutes to get it unpacked, located, and functioning -- and in the process I solved a long-standing mystery. When playing music, we use a laptop running Reason for our drum tracks. We've found that different drum sounds need to have the jack positioned very specifically if they are going to come out of the speakers. And we have been bitching about this for literally years now.

Turns out we were running a stereo signal into a mono track on the mixing board. Haw! Haw! Haw!

(Insider humor is always the best.)

But today? I work on a print, and I've got tunes to play while I'm working. And I get to feel good about it.

This could be worse. This could be a lot worse.

Every Journey Begins With A Stumble

So the lovely SLR camera loaned to me by the very kind Warren Lutz combined with a lovely new macro lens has proven a trial. I finally figured things out to the point where I could take pictures, and sooo-prise! Clicking the shutter makes photos too blurry to use.

But. They do make an inexpensive remote for this camera. (Nikon-D60, plenty good enough for the likes of me.) And they stock it in the camera store where I take my tabletop photography lessons. So my bold 'the future commences today!' has turned into, "Huh. Got a couple of days open. Time for small chores."

So this afternoon, I run about the city making deposits and small purchases. And tomorrow?

Dah-dah-dah-duuuuuuhm. I write my writing resume, in honor of Sr. Lutz.

Because from now on, every day must serve the interests of OafCo.