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New Snaps 6.23.05
Man, it seems like I've been taking a lot of pictures lately...
Between the Erron Olive show (170+ snaps that night), the Arbor Day show (see below), and just life in general, I've got enough snaps to make a pair of jeans for this guy:
But enough about Fat Joe. Here's this week's snaps. Enjoy them with some ginger snaps (the cookies, not the film).
***************
Neil, Neon, and Dawkins
I really like how the camera is reflected in the glass (in the first photo), and how that streak of light slices through the image. If I ever figure out how to use a photo-backsplash page on Blogger, this one could be a candidate.
I've had these fish for quite some time now, and the more time I spend watching them swim around their world, the more I realize that they've got personalities of their own. Maybe you think I'm crazy because of this, but I stand by it.
Neil (first photo, upper right) was one of the first fish I got when I bought the tank. She's named for Neil Young, and I didn't know she was female until she gave birth a couple days after I brought her (and her ill-fated friend Crazy Horse...they were Neil and Crazy for short) home. I noticed right away that she was very moody...sometimes she would just hide behind the fake plants, and sometimes she'd swim in fast vertical lines along the sides of the tank. Also, when another fish was obviously sick, I noticed her swimming around that fish more and more, almost protectively. She seems very maternal, despite having a dude's name.
Neon (first photo, lower left) is a spirited little guy. He's almost always zipping around the tank checking things out, but he always hangs still when I sprinkle food in the water. Then he'll grab it really quickly and swim away like he's afraid someone's going to take it from him. He's like a dog.
And Dawkins (second photo). That guy's just nuts, and as a result he's the best one to pay attention to for long periods of time. He'll lay on the bottom for hours, just chillin' eating some algae. Then all of a sudden he'll bug out and thrash all around the tank for a few seconds, then SPLAT himself up against another surface and stay there for hours. Sometimes he sways back and forth along the tank wall, methodically sweeping over the glass. The other day when I came home, we was clinging upside down to the bottom of a plant. I had never seen him do that before, and I was lucky to snap it when I did, because he seems to have a preternatural sense of when the camera is near, and flee from it. Incidentally, he's named for Brian Dawkins of the Philadelphia Eagles, who put a crushing hit on the Atlanta Falcons' Alge Crumpler during the 2005 NFC Championship game. Crumpler couldn't walk straight for a few seconds after it. It was gorgeous.
RIP: Crazy Horse, Other Neon, That Guppy I Never Named, all 15 of Neil's children who she miraculously did not eat but still eventually died anyway, and The Phantom.
***************
Puerto Rico Day Festival, E. 116th St
The annual Puerto Rico Day Festival took over Spanish Harlem last weekend, and damned if the weather was going to stop it. The day was warm, humid, sticky, and gray. It felt perpetually on the brink of rain, but tens of thousands of people still poured through the streets. This is taken off my fire escape, early in the day. Zack and I walked around in the midst of the crowds for awhile too, but I preferred observing it from the escape. It gave a much better scope of the magnitude of it all.
***************
Juxtaposition
It always astounds me to see the impenetrable skyline of the city jutting out from behind the palatial beauty of the Great Lawn in Central Park. Not much more to it than that...I just like the image.
***************
Apocalypse on 86th St
These clouds made me feel like impending doom was hanging over the city. A thunderstorm did come later, but nothing like the Lord-of-the-Rings-caliber deluge their ominous visage suggests.
***************
The Escape
I spent the wee hours of last Saturday night on my friend Jess' fire escape, drinking luke-warm Tecate and talking extemporaneously about life. I'm hard-pressed to recall a more fun Saturday night...
These are the mysterious windows of her anonymous neighbors next door. They are much more considerate than her upstairs neighbor, who insisted on yelling and throwing things at us from above.
***************
Arbor Day at Luna Lounge, 6.11.05
New York's own Arbor Day played the final show ever at Luna Lounge. I was still riding the high of Pomranz's show, so I again managed to snap an inordinate number of pictures (somewhere close to 100). I may or may not post a batch of them...we'll see...
I particularly like this one, because it shows the whole band, but more because it shows their dynamic:
This is obviously my take on it, but the vibe I get when I see them perform is that they embody various "high school nerd" stereotypes. I don't say this in a derrogatory way at all (so guys, if you're reading this, please know that I mean no offense), but the first time I saw them, my brain immediately categorized each member as a different "nerd":
The singer is the poli-sci nerd...he looks like he'd be the debate team member who summarily destroys all those he faces.
The guitarist is the literature nerd...he looks hyper-intelligent, like he's already written several nascently classic novels, and he's just sitting on them, waiting for the right time...
The drummer is the athletic nerd...he's the guy that was on every athletic team beside all the cool kids, but it's not until just before graduation that the rest of the school realizes he's cooler than everyone else.
The bassist is the science nerd...he's the dude who spent his spare time in the physics lab and is destined to be the next Niel's Bohr.
The trombone/Theremin player is the movie/music nerd...he knows everything there is to know about both, which makes him geeky in high school but immediately vaunts him to popularity in college.
So, given that my mind unwittingly jumped to that conclusion, how bizarre must it be for me to see them unleash their tight, calculated, pop tunes that rock when they're supposed to?
The answer: Moderately.
They are excellent, and they brought the house down rocking out to "Louie Louie" to close their set and Luna's doors. Many audience members piled onto the platform stage for some instrument-juggling noise-chaos that would have made the cast of Animal House proud.
This is Ben and Steve, pre-show outside Luna. Even though it was early in the night, this is a good representation of the end of it: blurry.
***************
Banks are offering some interesting rewards these days...
No explanation needed. I could include this one in my eventual "graffiti" series, too. I don't know who the people in the reflection are...just anonymous passers-by.
***************
*Editor's note: this turned up in my image search for Fat Joe. How's that for bringing things Full Cycle?
*****N*T*G*****
Between the Erron Olive show (170+ snaps that night), the Arbor Day show (see below), and just life in general, I've got enough snaps to make a pair of jeans for this guy:
But enough about Fat Joe. Here's this week's snaps. Enjoy them with some ginger snaps (the cookies, not the film).
***************
Neil, Neon, and Dawkins
I really like how the camera is reflected in the glass (in the first photo), and how that streak of light slices through the image. If I ever figure out how to use a photo-backsplash page on Blogger, this one could be a candidate.
I've had these fish for quite some time now, and the more time I spend watching them swim around their world, the more I realize that they've got personalities of their own. Maybe you think I'm crazy because of this, but I stand by it.
Neil (first photo, upper right) was one of the first fish I got when I bought the tank. She's named for Neil Young, and I didn't know she was female until she gave birth a couple days after I brought her (and her ill-fated friend Crazy Horse...they were Neil and Crazy for short) home. I noticed right away that she was very moody...sometimes she would just hide behind the fake plants, and sometimes she'd swim in fast vertical lines along the sides of the tank. Also, when another fish was obviously sick, I noticed her swimming around that fish more and more, almost protectively. She seems very maternal, despite having a dude's name.
Neon (first photo, lower left) is a spirited little guy. He's almost always zipping around the tank checking things out, but he always hangs still when I sprinkle food in the water. Then he'll grab it really quickly and swim away like he's afraid someone's going to take it from him. He's like a dog.
And Dawkins (second photo). That guy's just nuts, and as a result he's the best one to pay attention to for long periods of time. He'll lay on the bottom for hours, just chillin' eating some algae. Then all of a sudden he'll bug out and thrash all around the tank for a few seconds, then SPLAT himself up against another surface and stay there for hours. Sometimes he sways back and forth along the tank wall, methodically sweeping over the glass. The other day when I came home, we was clinging upside down to the bottom of a plant. I had never seen him do that before, and I was lucky to snap it when I did, because he seems to have a preternatural sense of when the camera is near, and flee from it. Incidentally, he's named for Brian Dawkins of the Philadelphia Eagles, who put a crushing hit on the Atlanta Falcons' Alge Crumpler during the 2005 NFC Championship game. Crumpler couldn't walk straight for a few seconds after it. It was gorgeous.
RIP: Crazy Horse, Other Neon, That Guppy I Never Named, all 15 of Neil's children who she miraculously did not eat but still eventually died anyway, and The Phantom.
***************
Puerto Rico Day Festival, E. 116th St
The annual Puerto Rico Day Festival took over Spanish Harlem last weekend, and damned if the weather was going to stop it. The day was warm, humid, sticky, and gray. It felt perpetually on the brink of rain, but tens of thousands of people still poured through the streets. This is taken off my fire escape, early in the day. Zack and I walked around in the midst of the crowds for awhile too, but I preferred observing it from the escape. It gave a much better scope of the magnitude of it all.
***************
Juxtaposition
It always astounds me to see the impenetrable skyline of the city jutting out from behind the palatial beauty of the Great Lawn in Central Park. Not much more to it than that...I just like the image.
***************
Apocalypse on 86th St
These clouds made me feel like impending doom was hanging over the city. A thunderstorm did come later, but nothing like the Lord-of-the-Rings-caliber deluge their ominous visage suggests.
***************
The Escape
I spent the wee hours of last Saturday night on my friend Jess' fire escape, drinking luke-warm Tecate and talking extemporaneously about life. I'm hard-pressed to recall a more fun Saturday night...
These are the mysterious windows of her anonymous neighbors next door. They are much more considerate than her upstairs neighbor, who insisted on yelling and throwing things at us from above.
***************
Arbor Day at Luna Lounge, 6.11.05
New York's own Arbor Day played the final show ever at Luna Lounge. I was still riding the high of Pomranz's show, so I again managed to snap an inordinate number of pictures (somewhere close to 100). I may or may not post a batch of them...we'll see...
I particularly like this one, because it shows the whole band, but more because it shows their dynamic:
This is obviously my take on it, but the vibe I get when I see them perform is that they embody various "high school nerd" stereotypes. I don't say this in a derrogatory way at all (so guys, if you're reading this, please know that I mean no offense), but the first time I saw them, my brain immediately categorized each member as a different "nerd":
The singer is the poli-sci nerd...he looks like he'd be the debate team member who summarily destroys all those he faces.
The guitarist is the literature nerd...he looks hyper-intelligent, like he's already written several nascently classic novels, and he's just sitting on them, waiting for the right time...
The drummer is the athletic nerd...he's the guy that was on every athletic team beside all the cool kids, but it's not until just before graduation that the rest of the school realizes he's cooler than everyone else.
The bassist is the science nerd...he's the dude who spent his spare time in the physics lab and is destined to be the next Niel's Bohr.
The trombone/Theremin player is the movie/music nerd...he knows everything there is to know about both, which makes him geeky in high school but immediately vaunts him to popularity in college.
So, given that my mind unwittingly jumped to that conclusion, how bizarre must it be for me to see them unleash their tight, calculated, pop tunes that rock when they're supposed to?
The answer: Moderately.
They are excellent, and they brought the house down rocking out to "Louie Louie" to close their set and Luna's doors. Many audience members piled onto the platform stage for some instrument-juggling noise-chaos that would have made the cast of Animal House proud.
This is Ben and Steve, pre-show outside Luna. Even though it was early in the night, this is a good representation of the end of it: blurry.
***************
Banks are offering some interesting rewards these days...
No explanation needed. I could include this one in my eventual "graffiti" series, too. I don't know who the people in the reflection are...just anonymous passers-by.
***************
*Editor's note: this turned up in my image search for Fat Joe. How's that for bringing things Full Cycle?
*****N*T*G*****
posted by JMP at 12:10 AM
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