Image of the Week for 07-26-10
Photo of a photo, of a cat.
Ending Sentences with Ellipses …
An Attempt to Demonstrate That My Existence is Far More Uninteresting Than YoursTri-X Files #12: 84_07 (The Rude Roll)
This roll features photos taken on Friday, February 17 and Monday, February 20, 1984. Continuing from the previous roll, this set starts off with photos from the Model High School Boys Varsity Basketball game of Friday evening, and then goes to shots of a live band performing at the Model Middle School Valentine’s Dance held on the same evening (and at the same time). The rest of the roll consists of shots taken on that Monday during break and Third Period English in an attempt to finish off the roll so that the band performance photos could be developed for potential submission to the school newspaper.
Five guys from our high school got together and decided to form a band. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no recollection as to the name of this band, and I am not completely certain of the identities of all the members. I know for sure that Ranjan M. was the lead singer, and Aaron F. was the bass player, and that Dan S. and Tom D. were also members, both on guitar, but I’m not sure who was on the drums … Dave S., perhaps? Their style of music was probably in the vein of hard rock/heavy metal; everyone in the band (except Ranjan) rocked the big fuzzy hair that is always associated with mid-1980s rockers. Somehow, they had managed to get a gig performing a set at this dance. I saw the chance for a photo op and another submission to The Observer, so after pep band was over, I walked out of the gym and into the grill, flashing my “press” pass to get through the door (actually, I just said that I was there to take photos for the newspaper, and the people at the door knew that I wasn’t in Middle School anyway).
First of all, like all Middle School dances, it was dark. The windows that made up the walls to The Grill had been covered with black paper, and there were Valentine’s Day hearts all over the place. The band had set themselves up in a corner, dramatically lit with spotlights on the floor. This was the first time, ever, that a “live” band had performed at a Middle School dance, and so the last thing that the kids were doing was dancing to the music … no, they were all gathered, like a gigantic pit mob, in front of the band, watching the fellows play their pretty songs. Because the crowd was so thick, and because of my inherent shyness, I lurked in the back, standing on a chair to peer over the crowd, and took my photos. Like all of my long-distance infinity shots, my plan was to enlarge the photos in the dark room. I was hoping that my use of 400 speed film coupled with the ability to set a long exposure with my camera would yield usable photos. To my credit, the shots did not come out underexposed … but due to the distance, the faces of the band members were virtually indistinguishable. Amusingly, I am able to identify the band members by their HAIR.
Out of the seven shots that I took at the dance, the one on the right is the only decent one, and it is the last shot that I took, as I finally moved away from the back of the room and nudged my way towards the front to get the closest shot of the night. At least you can make out the faces of the band members in this one. From left to right, there’s Aaron, Ranjan (wearing a headband and a Thriller-esque jacket), Dan (I’m pretty sure, based on the hair) and Tom (I’m pretty sure, also based on the hair). You can see the hand of the guy playing the drums — not sure if it was David, Dan’s brother, the same David who was an occasional member of the high school band’s percussion section (unfortunately, he’s not visible at all in any of the other shots). Had this photo been in color, it would have been a groovy album cover. Nonetheless, this photo was still way too blurry for newspaper reproduction; I didn’t even bother submitting it, and so, no newspaper article was written about the dance, and therefore I have no references that list the name of the band. Maybe someone else will remember after this is posted.
On the following Monday, I was pretty anxious to finish off the roll so that I could develop the film and print the shots from the performance, completely oblivious to the disappointment that lay ahead (although I knew that there was a chance that they might not have all come out, but I was fairly optimistic that my settings had been correct). And so, the last eight shots on the roll were taken during break and Third Period English, in and around Mrs. Combs’ room:
Tanya flinging her books around, or desperately trying to avoid the camera? And a bunch of other people standing around, waiting for break to be over (click on the image for more notes on this shot).
The streak continues with the lone Peggy shot on this roll. Peggy is also desperately trying to avoid the camera, almost to the point of saying “Look, I know that you want to get at least one shot per roll, but ENOUGH ALREADY!”
The last four photos are shots of Keith, goofing around. I must have been REALLY desperate to finish off the roll.
This particular set is subtitled “The Rude Roll,” because there were a number of rude interruptions in this batch:
Here we have a shot of the second floor stairwell of the high school wing, just outside of Mrs. Combs’ room. As this area has been established in previous photos as being Kevin and Tanya’s favorite make-out spot, they were probably the subject of the original shot … that is, until someone (I do not recall who) popped out of Mrs. Combs’ room and shoved their hand in front of the camera.
This candid cheer shot (taken at the basketball game on Friday, February 17, 1984) was rudely interrupted by the streaks caused by either bad film or areas being exposed to light. It’s too bad, it would have been a good shot otherwise.
And here Randy H. rudely interrupts my shot of the basketball players and cheerleaders offering congratulatory handshakes at the end of the game. I remember that he just walked right into the frame, saw me out of the corner of his eye, turned and made the face. Darn you, Randy!
If I had been doing my Image of the Week feature at the time, this photo definitely would have made it in:
This is probably one of my favorite photographs taken in my freshman year. I really like the angle (not having taken very many photos like this), but also the contrast of the girls’ uniforms against the hardwood floor, how their shadows fall, and the overall lighting of this shot. One of the few photos that I took on this roll that did not require any modifications after scanning.
IN THE NEXT EPISODE (July 30th): DHS Invades Richmond, Part One!
There were 21 shots on this roll. You can see all of them at the Flickr set for this roll, along with additional commentary. Plus, all of the sets so far can now be found in one collection.
NOTE: You can click on any of the images above to get a larger view.
Facebook readers: Click on “View Original Post” to see the images formatted the way they were meant to be.
Image of the Week for 07-19-10
July 20, 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of my debut sound recording, “Toasting Mr. Pizza Company Man.” Unfortunately, due to rather poor planning on my part, there will not be a commemorative CD re-issue of that album on this date … you might have to wait for the 25th anniversary Blu-ray audio double-disc set instead. But don’t hold your breath.
There are a lot of elements in this image that tie in with the album. The obvious one is the cut-out head of the Pizza Company Man (the on-campus pizza take-out service at the University of Kentucky in 1990) stuck in the toaster, hence the title. There’s also a molecular model kit threading the hash brown which tied in with the song “Carbocations” that appeared on the album. Some of the other miscellaneous objects (the tube of toothpaste, the telephone recording suction cup, the tube of Oxy-10) were going to be mentioned in songs on the album but ultimately did not.
And then there’s the coffee cup which, of course, ties in with the first single, “Drinking Coffee” (if you are looking at this entry after 2010, this link might not work, as I may have deleted the file by then).
Post Six Six Six
For those who have been keeping score, this is the six hundred and sixty-sixth post on this blog. Post #666.
Then and Now #6: Peggy and the Soda
Peggy, enjoying a refreshing beverage, April 1984 (Cincinnati Zoo)
Peggy, enjoying a refreshing beverage, June 2010 (Nashville, TN)
Both photos were taken at picnic tables.
Tri-X Files #11: 84_06 (The Blank Roll)
This roll is a bit of a mystery. There is no proof sheet for this roll. Out of the first 13 shots, frames 2-7 are either overexposed or were otherwise damaged in the developing process, so there are only seven shots on this roll. All of the shots after the first 13 were either not shot or the film was otherwise exposed because the film is blank. These photos were taken between February 14 and 17, 1984 (more on how this was determined later on). There were basketball games on those two dates, and I know for sure that there are two different games on this roll because the cheerleaders are wearing different uniforms (as will be evidenced in the following images). The next roll (featured in the next episode) also features shots from the game on the 17th, along with photos from a middle school dance that was taking place at the exact same time, which might be the reason that I aborted this roll halfway through (although that sort of behavior does seem inconsistent with my photographic habits up to this point).
The roll starts off with this shot of Mr. Stephens, sitting in the balcony of the Shirley Kearns Gymnasium, baton in hand, waiting for the Junior Varsity Basketball game to end. This was taken on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14, 1984, before the Boys Varsity game against Western Anderson. I have never been able to successfully print this photo as it always reproduced too dark, and I could not adjust the contrast to make his face visible (until now, obviously) — I had no idea that he even had a baton in his hand! Note the lines that cut across the image … this was not the first time, nor the last, that I would experience scratches on the negatives during the developing process, caused by microscopic foreign objects in the developing tank or the film not being properly wound onto the reel. Also note the extremely washed-out area to the right: the next six shots after this one are mostly vaporized. There are some faint outlines in the images, but none of them could be detected by the scanner. I am not sure if the film was bad, if it was exposed (which is not possible without the photos after this spot being ruined), or if something just went wrong when the film was developed … or if I just had the wrong settings on my camera (which would not be the first time, either). I really wish I could remember exactly WHAT I was shooting on those six frames … or maybe it’s better that I never know.
Frame #8 is this rather silly novelty shot. Keith and I were watching the game (and the cheerleaders, heh) from our vantage position of the doorway to the gymnasium, right next to the row of bleachers. Keith had the bright idea of composing a photo to make it appear that a gigantic hand was coming through the roof of the gym, reaching down to grab one of the cheerleaders. Of course, in a shot like this, either the hand or the girl is going to be out of focus, and there you go. Note the bright white area to the left of the photo — this is the last remnant of the ruined frames of film between this shot and the first one on the roll.
Next, we have a frozen moment in time, where a cheer routine is captured in the middle of the action. The three girls in the front are halfway through their jump, the next three girls are about to take their jump, the two girls in the back will be jumping in a second (there are actually three girls in the back but I cut off one of them). The image from left to right looks like a series of stop-motion animation frames, which was certainly completely unintentional.
And here we have a photo of … a wall. It appears to be a wall from inside the gymnasium, probably in the entranceway to the gym floor or even the stairwell to the second floor balcony. Judging by the angle, I am fairly certain that I accidentally hit the shutter on my camera while heading back to the Pep Band section. My camera did not have a shutter lock and so this sort of thing was not uncommon. What I would usually do in order to prevent this from happening was to not advance my film after taking a shot (because pressing the shutter without advancing the film would do nothing), but apparently I did not do so this time. Interestingly, this shot is actually more or less in focus.
Every roll in this series has had at least one Peggy shot, and this roll is no exception. This streak finally gets broken in [SPOILER ALERT] episode #14, so keep that in mind. This is the sole Peggy shot on this roll, and it is the most important shot on this roll, because it helped to identify the proper date that these photos were taken. Note the heart-shaped pendant that Peggy is wearing — I gave her that necklace the previous day, February 14, and so this photo must have been taken on or after February 15, 1984. Originally, I had the two basketball games on this roll as taking place on January 13 and 24 (discussed in much detail in episode #9), but this was before I had scanned in this image and enlarged it and then noticed the necklace, which placed this photo as having been shot at least on or after February 14th.
Back to the basketball game. With the Peggy shot acting as a separator, and since the cheerleaders are wearing different uniforms, this basketball game must take place on Friday, February 17, 1984, against Mercer County. There are more photos from this same game on the next roll, featured in the next episode, which I know for sure were taken on February 17th, as it was the same date as a middle school dance at which I took some photos.
And here we have the last shot on the roll, number 13. After this shot, everything goes blank for no apparent reason. Looking at the frame, there do not appear to be any white-outs or washed-out areas that would indicate that there was something wrong with the developing process or the film itself (in fact, the whole frame is pretty much defect-free, making it one of the clearest shots on the entire roll). It is possible that I decided to abort the roll and put in a fresh roll for the photos from the dance. I don’t know. I’m drawing a blank on this one.
IN THE NEXT EPISODE (July 23rd): Rock and Roll, 1984 Style!
There were seven out of 13 exposed shots on this roll, out of a potential 21 (as far as I can tell). All of the shots on this roll were featured in this episode, but you can see larger versions of them in the Flickr set, along with expanded explanations and more useless information. Plus, all of the sets so far can now be found in one collection.
NOTE: You can click on any of the images above to get a larger view.
Facebook readers: Click on “View Original Post” to see the images formatted the way they were meant to be.
KY2010.06 - June 8 & 9, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010. Getting an early start to depart from the Bluegrass State, as have an appointment in Nashville around 1:00pm and that’s five hours away …
Hey, Sean! We’re leaving! Is 8:00am too early in the morning for ya?
The Speedway on Versailles Road right before you get to the Bluegrass Parkway (as well as the one at the Richmond Road exit of I-75) has Ale8-1 on tap. How ridiculous is that? It’s also really watered down. How ridiculous is that? It just seems rather odd that the only Speedways to feature Ale8-1 on tap are ones that are on the edge of Lexington; I’ve never seen the drink featured in any Speedway IN town (although, granted, I haven’t been to all of them) …
Absolutely THE BEST photo that I have taken, to date, of the Dinosaur World sign, FROM A MOVING VEHICLE. Now I can stop trying.
Tennessee Welcome Center on I-65 South … CLOSED? Well, that is most certainly NOT a warm welcome. Screw you, Volunteer State!
Hey, kinda forgot about this time called a time zone, and we arrived in Nashville almost 45 minutes earlier than planned. Heh, whoops. Hey, look, it’s Peggy (who I haven’t seen in almost 20 years) and Abbi (who I have never met)!
Peggy took us to I Dream of Weenie, the coolest hot dog place that I have ever visited in Nashville. Or anywhere else, for that matter. I mean, how many hot dog places do you know that operate out of the back of a van?
(Photo by PLD)
Back on the road, to Starkville, Mississippi, via Jackson, Tennessee, taking US 45. It’s a peaceful drive, not as hectic as an interstate, but pretty long. Hey, it’s Casey Jones!
We make it to Starkville and the Comfort Inn Suites is booked solid. Fortunately, the Hampton Inn has one room left. And then our keys do not work. Apparently there’s some sort of educator conference in town. Whee. Dinner is with Dr. Donna Pierce at Harvey’s, the second time we’ve been there and we had the exact same thing (we’ve been to Starkville twice) because it’s just so damn good …
The following morning, Dr. Pierce introduces us to the Starkville Cafe, in scenic downtown Starkville. For a city that hosts an SEC school, their downtown is rather quaint and stoic, not at all like a Lexington or Baton Rouge. The Starkville Cafe continues to project that image, a roadside diner where the waitresses call you “‘hon” and your coffee cup is always full …
Out of Starkville, down to Jackson, west to Vicksburg and across the Mississippi …
… and into Louisiana. Found a geocache at the Welcome Center. And that was it.
Flickr set (with lots more photos and useless expository text)
Tri-X Files #10: 84_05 (The Silent Roll)
This roll has a little bit of everything for everybody: Peggy, Keith, cheerleader shots, band shots, third period English … the only thing that it is missing is the obligatory Tanya photo. Oh well, can’t please everybody at once.
As you can see by the proof sheet, there continued to be problems with the developing process — note the washed out area running alongside the bottom of the entire roll as well as portions that are either washed out or damaged by the negatives overlapping. We were still trying to work out the kinks. It would take a few more rolls.
As a result of the poor developing and the bad proof sheet, I never really looked at the first strip of negatives. I didn’t really know what images existed in the first three shots until I scanned in these negatives and began processing them. There were quite a few “surprises” that revealed themselves as I began to modulate the brightness and contrast …
The first shot is that of a television in a dark room. I really do not recall why I took a photo of the television screen in a dark room (other than being the first shot on the roll and there was the possibility that it would not come out). The greater mystery is when the photo was taken. The basketball game featured on this roll definitely took place on Tuesday, February 7, 1984 (more later on the deductive process behind this particular date). The previous roll ended with shots taken during third period English on Monday, February 6, 1984. There are two band classes on the roll before the basketball game shots, which tells us that those photos were taken on the 6th and 7th, and so the first photo on the roll had to be taken on February 6th, either during third period English, fourth period Biology, or fifth period Health Science. But … the program being shown on the screen does not look like something that would be shown in any of those classes! In fact, it looks like a scene from “General Hospital.” Also, the angle of the screen is rather odd — almost all of the televisions used in the Model High School classrooms at the time were placed upon tall carts (seen in the background in this shot). I seriously doubt that I will ever discover the truth behind this photo.
The next “surprise” photo is this one of Peggy, in fifth period Health Science, casually reading her book with some interest and doing her best to ignore the camera. This would have been a nice shot had it been in focus and not washed out by the developing process.
The next photo, however, was the biggest surprise, because I had no idea that it existed, and absolutely no recollection of taking it. These were my friends from eighth grade (clockwise from lower left): Shay Q., Andy T., Chris S. and Josh M. This photo must have been taken between fifth and sixth period on Monday, February 6, 1984. It was a genuine surprise to see this photo, and if it weren’t for the light streaks and other glitches on the negative itself, this would be a fantastic photo.
The fourth and final “surprise” photo is this one of Neil J. “directing” the band. Mr. Stephens had to step out of band practice for a few minutes and he passed the baton on to Neal J., for no explainable reason. I don’t know; maybe there was an explanation, but I never heard it. I did remember taking this photo and, in fact, used this image for Neil’s “portrait” in the Band Yearbook.
It was at about this time that I made the conscious decision that I was going to produce a yearbook for the high school band. I had been taking photos for several weeks and, other than the occasional contribution to the school newspaper, didn’t have any other reason to be taking photos (other than, of course, for my Peggy collection). I had always been disappointed in the lack of coverage of the high school band in the school yearbook, although, to be fair, the band was only one of many student organizations, and it seems a little silly to be upset about something as trivial as that. But I felt that the band needed a commemorative publication, and I had the film, and I had the idea, and so I decided to go for it, in spite of the fact that there were only about three more months left in the school year. But I already had photos from the fall concert and the holiday parade, and some random shots from pep band performances, and so all I had to do was to take some photos from rehearsals as well as get some individual “portraits” and that would be enough material for my yearbook.
So now I had a purpose, so to say. And the band class photography began …
Believe it or not, I was able to extract three portrait shots out of the above two photos.
This roll was originally identified as appearing later on in the month of February, but it was after scanning and enlarging the image to the right that I came to the realization that the opponents in the basketball game were from Estill County — you can barely make out the words on the black jerseys, but you can see where they would fit — and, according to the pep band schedule, that game took place on February 7, 1984.
Pep band would go like this: The band would set up 30 minutes before the game started. 15 minutes before the start of the game, the band would go through some tunes, for the purpose of entertaining the crowd as they entered the gymnasium. Five minutes before the jump ball, we would play the fight song as the team was officially introduced, coming out of the locker room. Then we would play the national anthem, go through the fight song one more time for the cheerleaders, and then the game would begin. We were basically allowed to do whatever we wanted as long as we were back in place with three minutes left to go in the second quarter, for the halftime performance. Keith and I had been spending our time during the first and second quarters in the balcony, watching the game, but we had slowly begun to migrate down to the floor level, where we positioned ourselves against the wall in the entranceway.
At this time, I had come to the realization that the shutter on my camera was virtually silent. It made a soft click when pressed, but that sound was very hard to hear, and only if you were listening for it. And since I did not use a flash (didn’t have one for the camera, and it was 400 speed film), I discovered that many people did not know that I was taking their picture, as either the flash or the loud click of the shutter would give away a photographer’s presence. And so I had worked up enough courage to take some cheerleader shots that were a lot closer than some of my earlier efforts:
I attempted to pitch these candid shots to the newspaper and yearbook, but they didn’t bite, even though I thought they were pretty darn good (the light defects were probably the primary reason for their rejection).
Other highlights on this roll:
Hey, it’s Peggy, zoned out for a second! Hey, it’s Tracy G. in the upper lefthand corner! Hey, that’s an ancient projector on the table (it was ancient back in 1984)!
Hey, it’s Jonathan B! It’s the first photo that I ever took of the son of the doctor who brought me into this world. It took a lot of processing to bring this one to light (so to say) …
Hey, it’s the guy who was the observer in our third period English class whose name I absolutely do not recall!
IN THE NEXT EPISODE (July 16th): Light defects, along with many other contributing factors, result in a roll that doesn’t really exist! But we’re going to do an entry on it anyway …
There were 22 photos on this roll, although one of them (#13) was damaged while developing, and so I didn’t bother to scan it in (all you can see in the shot is the edges of the gymnasium floor). You can see the other 21 images in the Flickr set for the roll, along with more insightful (cough) commentary. Plus, all of the sets so far can now be found in one collection.
NOTE: You can click on any of the images above to get a larger view.
Facebook readers: Click on “View Original Post” to see the images formatted the way they were meant to be.
KY2010.05 - June 7, 2010
The last full day in Kentucky. This is the part of the trip where, inevitably, every time, we are worn out and not really ready to leave (while simultaneously being quite ready to leave) and are rushing around trying to do as much stuff as possible. This is also the point where we are so busy doing stuff that I usually forget that I have a camera (or, in the case of this trip, three cameras). So, fewer photos. And shorter descriptions.
On the way to Frankfort. This is the first sign I saw upon getting off the interstate. Oh, which way to go …?
Lunch with Jill and Mr. Roberts. Hadn’t seen Mr. Roberts in about 20 years (the last time was during one of my random visits to Model Lab in the early 1990s). He was certainly a lot less threatening …
The bustling metropolis of Frankfort! Actually, photographic opportunities were aplenty, but there just wasn’t any time …
Obligatory UK skyline photo! And some new mystery building clogging up the pristine lawn that once existed in front of the Administration Building! WTF?!
FINALLY managed to get a CLEAR photo of the horses at Joseph-Beth’s:
Dawn B. Hadn’t seen her in, oh, I’d say, 20 years, not since the first summer when she came back home after her freshman year at college. The 20 year theme seemed to be the recurring theme of the day, and would continue tomorrow …
Last meal in Lexington: Mi Mexico on Richmond Road. First time there, as we like to try at least one new place in Lexington whenever we visit. It was … okay. I don’t think it will be added to the regular rotation, though …
Stocking up on Ale8-1s for the drive back to Louisiana. Then we’ll have to turn back and immediately return to Kentucky so we can stock up on Ale8-1s for the rest of the year …
NEXT: Gnash and Spockville! Old friends! And, we end the way we began, with PANCAKES …
