A week or two ago I finished reading the novel Netherland by Joseph O’neill. I thought it was amazing, probably one of the best books I’ve read recently. This might be attributed to the fact that so many parts felt as if they were mirroring my current life. It’s a finely woven tale with an amazing ending. Here is a passage that resonated strongly with me.

“No, it was simply that I was uninterested in making, as I saw it, a Xerox of some old emotional state. I was in my mid-thirties, with a marriage more or less behind me. I was no longer vulnerable to curiosity’s enormous momentum. I had nothing new to murmur to another on the subject of myself and not the smallest eagerness about being briefed on Danielle’s supposedly unique trajectory – a curve described under the action, one could safely guess, of the usual material and maternal and soulful longings, a few thwarting tics of character, and luck good and bad. A life seemed like an old story.”

I’ve been a fan of Douglass Rushkoff for close to five years now. I just think he’s a genius and spot on with the gospel he preaches. I first discovered him in the pages of Arthur Magazine. He has a new book out called Life Inc. and it seems pretty amazing. It coincidentally deals with our current financial situation but was actually started well before and before going to print had to be rewritten in the past tense. Anyway, check out this link, watch the video, spread the word if you agree, create a community, and get to changing this world.

No sooner had I posted that last post and I stumble upon this, which is a great use of media.

Lately I’ve read a lot of chatter regarding new media and the convergence of photography and video. I found it interesting, if anticlimactic, when Greg Williams used a video camera, the Red One, to create the story and cover of Esquire Magazine featuring Megan Fox. It made me wonder if one day everyone will be capturing their photographs at 30 frames per second, and thus what will really happen to the art of photography. For now there is a consciousness and rhythm to hitting the shutter. If you see a moment happen and hit the shutter you missed it. In the future, not to worry, just mark your timecode and check 5-15 frames back. Perhaps I sound like a film shooter circa the late 90’s, but it is interesting food for thought.

Slightly unrelated and shifting gears, I really like what SHOWstudio did this past weekend where they were streaming live from a Nick Knight photo shoot for Another Magazine. They did the same thing (NSFW) a few weeks ago for Wallpaper magazine. (Personally I can’t wait to see the issue on the news stands.) I’ve always checked my blog reader too late to actually catch either of the streams but I would be curious to see one. I’d also be curious to know how long the average time spent with the stream is, because, although I’m fascinated, I could see the whole thing becoming mundane quite quickly. Nonetheless they are an example to me of someone who is really working out the kinks of the rapidly changing landscape.

With these two things rolling around in my head lately I wonder it is possible that we’ll be using video cameras to capture the photographs in the future while at the same time streaming our photo shoots through the lens live?

From that launching point I begin to wonder if certain events that are normally recorded on video couldn’t just be streamed at the same time. Mainly I’m thinking about a skate-filming trip. My guess is that you can’t stream over a 3g network but if, or when, you can it could be interesting promotion. The whole trip, live and online, anytime the camera is on. I suppose there are some other similar uses out there for any lifestyle industries that heavily rely on video for promotion. It won’t hurt if your key market group is in the 12 – 17 year old age range.

A few weeks ago I photographed the band Jail Weddings in L.A. Here is one result.

I’ve been struggling with these for a while. I think one has risen to the surface, yet I still second guess it.

It’s important that you watch this all the way through.

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
-Edgar Allan Poe-

http://www.zarias.com/?p=284

The video really gets going around 1:20 into it.

“I create a thousand layers of garbage on top of a photograph!”

January was mostly spent attempting to tie loose ends together. Due to the impending moving concerns I was trying to trim my already barren material life. I tossed many magazines into the recycle bin but not before leafing through them to tear out any gems. Some of those are shown below. Photo credits weren’t provided.

My parents had given me the Warren Buffett biography The Snowball; Warren Buffett and the Business of Life for Christmas. I’ve had recently the goal of trying to get through a book every month and alternating those between fiction and nonfiction. I really have to set aside the time or I just won’t do it. Weighing in at 838 pages, this book was easily consuming lots of my time. I like the book though. I would recommend it, although I realize it is probably not for everyone. I’m still reading it actually but less than 100 pages to go. Given its size I’m pretty content with finishing it in two months. I just wanted to bring up two interesting quotes from it because who doesn’t love a good quote. I also think they sum up a couple of the themes of the book.

“People ask me where they should go to work, and I always tell them to go to work for whom they admire the most…. It’s crazy to take little in-between jobs because they look good on you resume. That’s like saving sex for your old age. Do what you love and work for whom you admire the most, and you’ve given yourself the best chance in life you can.” Let’s just absorb that and not bother with erecting the walls of cynicism, because he is right.

“You can always tell them to go to hell tomorrow,” which is attributed Tom Murphy yet sort of espouses Mr. Buffett’s philosophy.