BANDCAMP ROULETTE FOR VALENTINES DAY

Tired of everyone crying about Rihanna playing the Super Bowl? Or “overpriced” merch from Gojira? Then just go to Bandcamp, click on three random items that just sold on Bandcamp, and see if you can’t find a new favorite artist.

Glitchy, speedy electronic music. It’s tagged “psytrance” and it’s from Norway. Whatever, this is fun.

Selenoplexia present six songs of “Blackened Death in Chicago.” Good stuff!

Released today on Valentines Day, K, Le Maestro put out this remix, I think. Pretty groovy.

NIGHT TIME PHOTOS

Since getting my new camera I’ve been intrigued by diving into more of what I can do with the manual settings. I mean, I’ve been using cameras for decades, but mostly in the auto-mode, shooting from the hip, and taking what I can get.

Now though it’s interesting to dig through PDFs, watch some YouTube videos, and figure out how to make some nice photos. I have literally no idea what I’m doing, as you can tell by how grainy and well, not great this photo is, but… but this is what I want to get to, taking good night time, spooky back street photos.

ARTISTS ARE ALWAYS WORKING

From ‘The life and the work are equally important‘

“Let’s face it—artists are always working, though they may not seem as if they are. They are like plants growing in winter. You can’t see the fruit, but it is taking root below the earth.”

André Gregory

My goodness, I believe this to be true.

I feel like my creative life has had so many stops and starts, as if it must be one continuous flow to be valid, but this quote above reassures me I’m wrong.

(via Austin Kleon)

GOODNIGHT, METAL FRIEND HAS A WEBSITE NOW

I finally got around to setting up a website for my Goodnight, Metal Friend mix series, something I’ve been working on since 2020, when the pandemic started. I can’t believe I’ve been doing these for that long!

The site is still rough around the edges, and I needed to fill in some areas of course, but I’m happy with it. The mixes will still be uploaded to Mixcloud, but this gives a “home base” for this series, and lets me add more context, photos, and stories.

FILM ADVENTURES CONTINUE

The camera on the top is the camera I used back when I was a teenager going to shows a few times a week. I’d then drop off the film for 1-hour processing while I worked next door at the grocery store. After my shift was up, I’d stop over at pick up my film.

Both are loaded with black and white film, and they’re ready to rock.

BACK TO THE NIGHTMARE

We endured a pandemic. Life shut down. Live music stopped. No more going to the movies. It was take-out only at food stops. I avoided aisles at the grocery stores when it was filled with too many people.

Through all that, and a million Americans dead, it’s like we just couldn’t wait to get back to being miserable.

I’ve talked to a handful of people recently, and no one’s fucking happy. Short fuses, bad tempers, and people being shitty everywhere.

Oh, we can get back to “normal” a bit? Great. Time to be miserable.

SCREEN RATIO NERDERY

I have absolutely zero skin in this game, as I haven’t owned a TV since… 2008? I don’t even watch much TV, but have fallen in love pretty hard with all the Star Wars material on Disney+, and of course sports on Sling.

What I love most is someone post a video about aspect ratios in the year 2023 and it can be seen 215K times.

(via Garbage Day)

BACK IN THE CAMERA GAME

I finally got around to buying a real camera (Nikon Z30), and I absolutely love it. I haven’t owned a digital camera since my Bike Nerd days back in like 2010 or so, and I’ve never owned a camera this nice, period.

Sure, the camera on the iPhone is nice, but using something that just does one thing is real nice. And when I pull out my iPhone to take a photo I could see a notification about an email, a message, or whatever else.

The camera is just a camera, and I love that.