August Photography Show

There will be a show of my wet darkroom prints at Crooks Corner in the month of August starting Monday and running the entire month. This is the culmination of so many skills and a convergence of people and places. Starting with Flickr 2 years ago and only shooting a point ans shoot digital. But having local friends like AmosFly who were also camera-centric and Flickr filmist friends like Flowerville, Jeff Dameron and Anne Marie Simmard who were constantly encouraging me to shoot. Meeting a nice group of Flickrites called the Raleigh Social Group and entering their summer project show last year which opened my local connections up wider. Beginning my adventure with film with a Nikon I bought at the thrift store! Meeting local photographer Bill Bamberger who told me my prints were good and gave me inspiration to shoot more. Meeting Elizabeth Mattheson who told me I had an eye but needed to adjust the format I was using (a crucially wonderful change). Meeting John Rosenthal, who patiently critiqued my portfolio(s) and later gave me lessons on how to frame an image. And even meeting John Menapace with whom I had a delightful conversation about shooting and printing and what makes a photographer tick. I appreciate all these people, its been a magic carpet ride of sorts as all kinds of doors have opened for me and I am grateful. So in order to to do this show in the last 6 months I have...

Bought 2 new Medium Format cameras

Shot 50 rolls of 120 film

Scanned 600 images

Learned how to print in the wet darkroom

Darkroom printed at least 200 images

Made a final portfolio of 40 of which 14 were
generously selectd by Elizabeth Mattheson for this show

Walked 25 miles of the Eno River

Walked 15 miles of New Hope Creek

And about 10 miles of the Haw River

Cut mattes for and framed these images below.

I must say I would not have missed a single minute of it.

World Wide Photowalk

As part of the World Wide Photowalk on Saturday July 18, 2009. 40 some Photographers participated in the Raleigh Photo Walk on and around Moore Square. My first real outing with my new 1967 35mm Nikkormat. Most of the Raleigh walk crowd consisted of people from the Raleigh Flickr group.

There were:

8.324 photographers register for local walks
47 Countries had participating cities
44 States in the US had Photo Walks
A total of 236 cities worldwide
More than 1,017,125 photos were taken on walks that day

This is a selection of photos of some of the Raleigh Flickr Group on the walk. My actual photos fromt the walk of Raleigh are going to be up at my Flickr stream.

Christian Marcalay's Video Quartet

Now showing at the Nasher Museum of art is Christian Marcalay's "Video Quartet" four simultaneously running adjacent screens of images that are sampled from more than 700 Hollywood films featuring images of hands on keyboards, horns and violins, as well as men and women singing, dancing and making other noises. Making a unique visual and sonic collage. From Jimi Hendrix to Marilyn Monroe and glimpses icons like Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, Video Quartet is a cultural flash card. Watching the settings and social norms of American culture is almost as interesting as the visual play that has elements like a falling drum cymbal turning into a vinyl LP. In the spirit of Marcel Duchamp's "ready mades" this art may have been found but it was painstakingly put together in revellatory new fashion. This is indeed art.

Also at the Nasher at the moment is "Photographs From The Duke University Special Collections Library." A wonderful show featuring printing styles and photographic subjects through the entire history of photography. Alot of iconic photographers are found in the show including; Atget, Bresson, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Minor White and Sally Mann. Having only seen these photographers in books it is wonderful to see their work in person printed. I particularly was drawn to the Minor White photo that is in the exhibit of an Appalachian coal miner. The detail and sadness of the Atget image of a very short man selling flowers. Also exhibited are negatives and projections of images on the walls digitally.

Elvis Costello at Regency Park

Elvis Costello brought his ace Americana backup band to the Koka Booth Ampitheatre in Cary tonight to do songs from his latest recording "The Secret, Profane and Sugarcane."
This crack band included the Dobro Ace Jerry Douglas, fiddler deluxe Stuart Duncan and the ever-talented Jim Lauderdale on vocals and guitar. The mostly acoustic set included some unusual covers and some Costello standards along with songs from the new album.

Predominantly material from "Profane" and "King of America" along with plenty of songs from "My Aim is True" stuck in the set as well. The dapper and energetic Mr. Costello set up the songs from the new record with jaw-dropping stories about the not-quite-courtship of Hans Christian Anderson and the Barnum Singing Sensation Jenny Lind set in time around the 1850s. The songs from this song cycle are brutal in content. "Red Cotton" for instance about selling scraps of a red (metaphorically soaked with the blood of antebellum slaves) dress in souvenir lockets. The song "She Handed Me a Mirror" being about the time Hans Christian asked Jenny Lind why she could not return his love (and HCA being so unattractive) she handed him a mirror.
Leave it to Elvis to take songs intended for an opera about a Swedish singing star and convert them into an Americana influenced song cycle.



Set List:

Mystery Train
All Time Doll
Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down
Down Among the Wine and the Spirits
Blame It On Cain
Our Little Angel
Femme Fatale
I Felt the Chill Before the Winter Came
The Delivery Man
The Butcher's Boy
Indoor Fireworks
Hidden Shame
New Unpublished Song
Wicked Wine
Friend of the Devil
She Handed Me a Mirror
Everyday I write the Book
She Was No Good
Chocolate Town
Brilliant Mistake
Red Cotton
The Crooked Line
Red Shoes
Sulfur to Sugarcane
The Race is On
Allison
What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding
Changing Partners
Five Small Words (thanks D. Menconi!)

X at the Cats Cradle June 9th 2009

X is still a band to be reckoned with, judging by last night's scorching-hot set at the Cat's Cradle. Billy Zoom still has the Zen calm to go along with his classic metal-flake Gretsch Jet guitar and classic guitar licks (and an eye for the ladies), John Doe sweating profusely, grinding hypnotic rhythms and almost knocking his mic stand down, Exene was calm and aloof center stage as the cacophony of break-neck rhythm droned all about her and enthusiastic fans called her name and sang along. The band sounded as fresh and exciting as they did 27 years ago when I last saw them in Raleigh at the Pier and the punk generation in attendance got a long awaited fresh infusion of the real thing. This band and their music is timeless.

Notable Songs in a terrific set included We're Desparate, This House is Not a Home, Breathless (!), and Los Angeles...

Set list to be posted.

Geez, What Have I Been Up To?

Been to see lots of local bands including a terrifc show by The Old Ceremony at the Cat's Cradle for the release of their new excellent record "Walk on Thin Air." Great moments from this show included the new song "Plate Techtonics" and the old chestnut "Reservations." The Love Language opened up this show and were polished and very enjoyable. Other bands I've seen lately include Wye Oak, who did a super Sunday night show at the Local 506, the quirky and very original Americans in France, and the Raleigh trio Gray Young. At Reebus Fest on Sunday this past week I caught Kenny Roby and the Mercy Filter's tight, melodic, rockin' set in the 90 degree sun. Let's just say it was so good I didn't run for the AC until it was over. Lots of songs from his last release which sound as fresh now as when this great recording came out a couple years ago. There is alot of great local music out there we are so lucky to have such good bands.

Out of town bands I've seen lately include an excellent Tim Easton show at the Berkley Cafe in support of his terrific new recording "Porcupine." All the Tim Easton standards were thrown in for good measure, "Lexington County Jail," "Let Me Be Next to You" among others. Tim did have a nice rhythm section with him that was somewhat remindful of the Crickets of Buddy Holly fame. Another band I've seen recently is Australia's own An Horse. This powerful man/woman duo band kept the rhythms tight and the songs focused. Their single "Postcards" from their first EP was a real highlight.
Also seen at the Local 506 recently were the energetic and superb Pains of Being Pure at Heart. This quintet of rockers from NYC are destined for great things with their atmospheric arrangements and hook-filled choruses.

Photography wise I have been shooting and printing like crazy. Attended a superb lecture by noted local photographer David Simonton titled "Time Served: The Evolution of A Documentary Project." A presentation of David's work photographing the deconstructing Polk Youth Center beside the Raleigh Art Museum. As the buildings deteriorated and nature took over Simonton's skilled photographic eye made gold from them decaying hills. Also I recently bought a superb book called "Celebrating the Negative." No, its not an anti-positive thinking tome. But a cool book filled with images of negatives of famous photographs. You can see how the image was cropped or the fact that alot of them are 4x5 or 8x10 glass plates. Bresson's famous jumping man negative is a fraction of a cropped frame of 35mm. Fascingating stuff....

A taste of the book can be found here...
http://www.ethertongallery.com/html/specialprojects/negative/portfolio.htm

Mid Century Moderns

This building and I go a ways back and were born in the same year 1961. From the News and Observer - "The National Trust for Historic Preservation's magazine calls the Garland H. Jones Building an 'eye-catching landmark.' Local architects say it's one of the best examples of Modernist architecture left in downtown Raleigh." As a boy my step father worked in this building so I saw it often. It was all shine and reflective chrome, glass and marble. The building it replaced was a lovely double arched victorian wonder of an corner building. And in our never-ending race to seem less provincial we have now torn this building down to the ground as well. But here it and I are one and reflected each to the other...