i tried this once before, but i was terribly unorganized. this time, i am gonna be a bit smarter about it. i would like to branch this list out a little more, just because it’s so much fun, and i like getting feedback from everyone.
here’s what i would like to do.
i have two prints, from my personal collection that i would like to give away. they are 5×7′s, and may or may not have been featured on this site. they were going to go on my wall, but i think it might be fun to put them on someone else’s wall.
so, here’s the trick.
the first two people to get 15 people to sign up for this list, gets them. i owe ARRRrrrr a print from my last botched attempt to do this, so he gets one, and this does not count as part of the two.
ideally, the people who sign up should like photos (not necessarily photography) and stories.
here’s what they need to do:

1. go here and sign up.

2. confirm their subscription

3. come back to this entry, and leave a comment that says “so and so sent me…”

4. the count will be tallied chronologically.. for all to see..

have fun!

grado phono cartridge on vinyl

this one goes out to RRRrrr .

he requested a photo of something like “massive stupid retarded quantities of vinyl.” although my collection is nowhere near the status of some of r’s friends’, i would imagine mine kicks some pretty good ass in the land of mere mortals.

i still listen to alot of vinyl. hell, there’s a record spinning on the turntable right now (it’s the soundtrack from “the graduate”).

although i have converted most of my cd collection to mp3, and i have hundreds of megs of them at my fingertips from any room in the house, there is just something about vinyl that is missing from my connected digital life.

i tried to figure out what that might be, but it eluded me for awhile. then, one night, i was laying on the floor, watching the candle bounce shadows off the ceiling and listening to a record, and i realized what it was. vinyl offers something to us that we really have no regard for anymore. commitment.

it is now SO easy to start a playlist, and after the second or third song, throw another one on. it’s really easy to do this for hours on end. you have no commitment to the album that is playing. i think humans like that kind of commitment.

we look over all the vinyl choices. grab one. remove it from its sleeve. clean it. put it on the turntable and drop the needle. all of a sudden, you are committed for 20 minutes of your life. you are going to listen to that record.

in those 20 minutes of committment, you and the artist can sort of get to know each other.

this photograph was taken by candlelight, just for the hell of it. the album on the turntable is john and yoko’s double fantasy

it happened to be playing, and i happened to have a camera handy.

i bought that record when it came out. i was in the 5th grade. that afternoon, this girl named kyra (one of my sister’s friends) came over, and we ended up listening to the album together.

i think we were sitting indian style, or something, on the floor i so distinctly remember that when the yoko songs came on, we kinda looked at each other like.. “wtf?”..

now, listening to that album, those yoko songs really are cool songs. good songs punctuated by moments of “wtf?”.. but still a really listenable ablum.. even after 27 years..

if my calculatoins are correct.. today would have been the birthday of my boy ayche..

although i only got to see him every month or so, i did get to tune in to his show on wruw every week.

i could go on and on about ayche stories, but i think i have an “all ages” audience here.. kids.. if you are lucky enough to run across a kid like harold in you travels, consider yourself lucky..

ayche, ol buddy.. i am sure you are still cranking out a great radio show, wherever you are .. and i am sure that you are still the most knowledge guy around wherever that might be..

i bet if we all put our heads together, we could put together some sort of antenna that would catch your show..

anyone else out there remember old ayche?

click here to share some stories..

just to keep everyone up to date.. i was in california the week before last. i was there for a little over a week, and it has taken me a week to get back into the swing of things. i rode my motorbike out there.. i did 7,000 in 9 days.. that rocks..
one of the things i wanted to do was see the place i grew up. i had not been there in 20 years, and i was curious to see the place where i got wired up. most of the photos i took there would not be that interesting to most folks, so i will only post a few from the trip.
so this is mary. i was sitting in a coffee shop (the santa paula coffee company) on main st. in santa paula while i was working on some stuff for the office in ohio. we struck up a conversation, and i told her i had just ridden into town and was checking out where i grew up. she was a nurse in santa barbara, and had moved to sp to retire.
she asked if i would take her around main st. and tell her what i remembered about the place.
the walk through main st. with mary was awesome in that it forced me to think about all the things i remembered from being a kid. where i got my shoes, where the leather fixing guy had his shop (i think his name was jess), the place where i learned photography (john nichols gallery), and the places where i came of age.
we talked mostly about the people who influenced our lives and made us who we are. she vowed to me that she would start working in the library, teaching kids to read and write english. that rocks. it would be the coolest to know that sp still pumped out people who cared about each other.
rock on, mary..

were there people who made a huge difference in the course of your life? at some point, make sure you go out into the world and let them know this.. it’s important..

more unrelated stuff…

there is absolutely no way i could express in words how awesome it was to travel our country on top of a motorbike. i would do it again tomorrow, if i could. BUT! there are some very important things to consider..

i wrote them all out in a rough sketch for anyone who is thinking about hitting the open road. if you need someone to go with, i’ll go..

click here for the full story..

the smiths in review.. i just had and article go up over at scoremusicmagazine.com. for those of you who just can’t let go of the 80′s, be sure to check out my review of the new smiths dvd..

go here for more info..