Hans'

Disney Aquires Marvel

2009-08-31T16:30:01Z

In a move that caught a lot of people by surprise Disney today announced that they have acquired Marvel for four billion dollars.

While I am a big fan of both companies I am a bit hesitant about this deal. Disney has traditionally been known to put some strict rules on their creative people to insure that everything was very family friendly. The main way that Marvel comics had differentiated itself from DC comics had been that it had made its situations and characters more realistic. This would often involve things that aren't exactly family friendly.

Disney has become more lenient recently but it will be interesting to see how they handle this property. There have already been reports that Pixar (which is also a Disney property) has already been in touch with Marvel and is quite excited to be working with them.

They have said that all of the current movie deals will stay in place but in the future Disney will be planning to distribute all of the movies themselves.

That makes me wonder about the deal that Marvel has with Universal Studios for the use of their characters at their theme park in Orlando which directly competes with Disney. Universal Studios Isalands of Adventure has an entire land with all the rides themed to Marvel characters. From their statement about the movies it sounds likely that when Marvel's contract with the theme park expires they will not renew it which could end up as a huge monetary hit to the park if they have to retheme that entire area. It isn't known when that contract expires but Steven Spielberg's deal with that park was due to expire this year and his deal was signed around the same time that Marvel signed theirs.

While it would be fairly easy to retheme many of the rides such as the Hulk coaster or the Dr. Doom Freefall it is a whole other story with the Spiderman ride. It is one of the best theme park rides in the world and would be a huge undertaking to change it. While I look forward to seeing what Disney could do with this intellectual property in their theme parks I would hate to lose this ride because of the deal.

Driver's License

2009-08-21T16:55:14Z

My driver's license expired on my birthday. I no longer drive but since I am flying to D.C. next month I went to the DPS office yesterday in hopes of getting a state issued ID..

We filled out all of the forms completely honestly. I indicated that I had a stroke since I was last issued a license and I mentioned being visually impaired.

When my name was called I went to the counter and handed in my paperwork again reiterating that I just needed the ID because of my stroke and other problems. The person behind the counter said "Well lets go ahead and take the vision test anyway." She had me look into a device much like what Spock used on Star Trek.

She asked me to read line five so it took me a moment to focus and I slowly rattled off the series of letters and numbers. I finished and after a pause she said "Okay now read the other half of the line." Of course I had thought I had read the entire line. I looked carefully and still didn't see anything I hadn't read before. I let her know and again read what I saw. She said again that I was only reading half and needed to read the other half out as well. I was getting a bit stressed and feeling a bit self concious at this point and I tried again. She sounded a bit exasperated and told me to just read line four instead. I read that one out to her. I have no idea if I got it right or wrong. She said "Good enough." signed the paper and called the next person.

I know my limitations. I am smart enough not to get on the highways and endanger not only myself but others.

If they would give me a license after telling them I have brain damage and bad eyesight then just who all else has gotten a license in a similar situation? That is what will keep me up at night.

Alsdead

2009-08-12T17:19:50Z

JRockRevolution.com has posted has published an interview with the band Alsdead. The images accompanying the article are all ones that I took while on assignment for them at A-kon in Dallas.

Article

Rodeo

2009-07-28T00:19:13Z

Boots and blood, dust and mud
Ropes and rein, joy and pain

Its a thing they call a rodeo.

----

Back in the early nineties Haleigh, Claire and I were extras in the movie "8 Seconds." It was about the career of bull rider Lane Frost.

Ever since then I have been fascinated with bull riding. I would watch it on ESPN and even had a changeling character who was a bull rider but had never actually been to a rodeo in person. I live in a small Texas town and there is even a large rodeo arena a couple of miles from the house. This past Saturday I got to go to a rodeo there and take some pics.

This is my favorite of the pictures. The look in the bull's eye really sell's the image for me.

I also liked this one because this guy just has the classic cowboy look.

In this one I like that you can see the teen girls watching from the upper left corner.

This is the bull from the first pic finally getting some payback on the cowboys.

Calf roping.

Barrel Racing

The daytime pics were a lot of fun. I was able to mix it up between my long lens and wider lens and while maintaining a fast shutter speed to keep the images sharp even with all the action. With the barrel racing I slowed the shutter speed down some and followed the rider with the lens to keep her in focus while blurring the crowd in the background to communicate the speed involved.

The rodeo had started at 7:30pm so the sun went down part way through. Night made the photography a bit harder but added some nice variety to the images. My concert photography has given me plenty of experience with trying to capture action in a low light situation. Unfortunately when you can't get close to the action it is even more difficult to get a clear picture. I was still able to get some good pics but my ration of usable to unusable was worse than usual.

Cartoon

2009-06-23T16:20:57Z

Iran

2009-06-20T23:59:49Z

My heart goes out to those losing their lives in Iran today. Neither of the candidates in their election seemed like a good choice. It seems to me that the people are protesting more than just a possibly rigged election. They talk about liberty and democracy. They talk of overthrowing a dictator.

America went into Iraq wanting to promote democracy when in truth it has to come from a will of the people. Freedom isn't something that is given it is something that a people must take for themselves. I think that both Iran and Iraq's peoples will have more freedom and liberty as the result of these actions but it is hard to say which method was better.

Twitter and youtube have really come into their own with this election. The Iranian government has desperately tried to shut them down to prevent the words and images from getting out to the rest of the world but a floodgate is open that can't be stopped. Words and images can change the world. I am proud of youtube and twitter for perservering and giving people the tools to let their views be seen.

Here are some recent links related to the elections in Iran. The standard disclaimer applies.. You are adults and should form your own opinions about what is going on. The information at these links is likely to be biased and may be innacurate or graphic. If you are old enough to be interested in the links then you are old enough to try to figure out for yourself the accuracy or validity of what people post.

http://iranianrevolution.wordpress.com/

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=iranelection

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_continued_election_turmo.html

Twenty Years

2009-06-12T18:16:52Z

Twenty years ago today Haleigh and I started our journey together as husband and wife.

We had originally planned to get married on or around Halloween but after finding out that we were going to have a daughter we decided to move the date up a bit. At the time we lived in Panama City Florida. Neither of us told our families ahead of time but my Mom was pretty smart. She asked me before I left if I was running off to get married and I denied it. Of course she had eloped as had my oldest sister so while I felt a little bad about the deception it was a bit of a family tradition. (Note to my daughters that may read this, that tradition should stop with my generation.)

I can still remember the drive home the night before where it actually sunk in that I was getting married and I couldn't get that song "Going To The Chapel" out of my head.

We drove up to Tallahassee with two friends that we were going to use as witnesses. Haleigh's friend Chelaka and my friend Marilyn. Marilyn was moving away and was going to be catching a bus in Tallahassee. We got to the Justice Of The Peace office and while Haleigh and I set up the appointment Marilyn went to find a pay phone to check on the bus. Chelaka went with her and we got in line.

When we got to talk to the Justice Of The Peace she said that they were booked for the entire day. We pleaded with her and she said she had a couple of minutes free right then but that was it. We asked if we could wait on our friends but she told us that there wasn't time. So there in a small plain room Haleigh and I said our vows becoming man and wife.

Marilyn and Chelaka were surprised and sad that they missed the event. Marilyn made her bus and Chelaka went back to Panama City while we spent our honeymoon staying at a nice hotel in Tallahassee.

When we got home I fessed up to my family that we were married and they were happy for us.

I went to Haleigh's family with her and her mom didn't take it as well. Her exact words were "I'm crushed." She did come to accept it and be good with it before long. I think it was more of an issue with not being able to plan a big wedding than with having any problems with the marriage itself.

The twenty years have had some highs and lows but there is no one I would have rather been on the journey with. I am looking forward to seeing what the next twenty brings.

Spring Road Trip 2010

2009-06-09T06:52:32Z

Last month I went on a road trip across the South West with my family. On the trip were myself, Haleigh, my sister Kim, my Dad and three dogs all in a mini-van. We headed out from Denver and drove over to Durango. We stayed in a nice house on top of a hill that had a gorgeous scenic view. Unfortunately it had steps to get in and out which made it difficult on my father. My sister had even specifically asked about steps before renting the home and the owner had said there were none but there must have been a miscommunication. Other than that hiccup though the house was gorgeous with a nice game room and hot tub.

On our first day we visited Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde focuses on a number of Anasazi and Pueblo ruins.

You can get up close and personal with a number of the ruins. There was a short but slightly strenuous walk to get to this cliff dwelling but it was well worth the effort to actually see how they are constructed and be able to make out the small details.

This area is known as the cliff palace. They offer guided tours but you have to climb several hundred feet down a ladder on the side of a cliff and with my balance and vision problems I elected to just get some distant shots.

One final shot to show a bit more perspective on the size and location of the ruins. You can make out a tour group in front of the dwellings. While you can't make them out in this image they have found a lot of handholds made into the side of the cliffs where the people that lived here would climb the sides of the cliff to get to their homes.

Also while in Durango we took the train to Silverton. It was a classic old west style narrow gauge train. This wasn't a theme park style ride, they had to keep the fire going in it and it spewed ash and embers as it went. We had to stop twice at water towers to refil the water for the engine.

The train ride was actually a lot more fun than I expected. The scenerey was absolutely gorgeous and the ride was relaxing.

Most of the ride was along a river, this picture was from one of the refill stops where a waterfall is thundering down the hill next to the train and the water is almost splashing through the windows.

The train arrives in Silverton in the middle of the town and while you could drive there it was obvious that most people visit the town by train because when the train pulled in many of the local store owners came out of their businesses and started waving. We grabbed some lunch at a former saloon and wandered around checking out the other stores before getting on the train for the ride back to Durango.

This waterfall is along the tracks just outside of town. You can tell we were pretty high up as there is still snow on the ground near the falls.

National Geographic Adventure Magazine rates Silverton as one of the top extreme sports destinations. Apparently it has some really tough skiing in the area. At one of the water stops the train had picked up a group of skiiers who had been in the wilderness for a while. They mentioned that they were going to sit in the open air car because it had been so long since they had a chance to shower. For those that don't feel like roughing it there is also a ultra fancy resort in the area but it is unreachable by car. The only way to get to it is by horseback or on the train.

The next day my sister and I took the younger dogs with us and headed out early in the morning to The Canyon Of The Ancients. Durango is in an area called "The Four Corners" and it is one of the richest arecheological areas in the states. The Canyon is located near the Hovenweep National Monument.

The walk with the dogs was a lot of fun. Some gorgeous landscape and it was nice to let the puppies get to have some fun.

Some of the local Flora.

Some of the local fauna. I love how colorful this little guy was.

The landscape of the canyon was quite reminiscent of a Road Runner cartoon.

We managed to tire out our four legged friends. This is my buddy Max enjoying a rest in the shade.

We left Durango and drove up to Moab Utah. This time the place we were staying was everything advertised and more. A gourgeous one story home that was really well decorated and didn't have any steps.

Moab is a small town but we were within walking distance of a number of stores and places to eat.

On the first day we went to see some petroglyphs and it really showcased the value of National Parks. To see these petroglyphs you just had to pull to the side of the road in a fairly residential area. There was a small wooden fence that came up to about knee level that was meant to discourage people from getting too near the ancient drawings but it was obviously innefectual. Vandals had carved their names into the rocks as well as their own fake stick figure art. It was a real tragedy and I hope that the local government will step in and find a way to preserve these pieces while keeping them accessible by the public. It is truly a shame that something so culturally significant could be lost due to partying teens or whoever it was that felt the need to vandalise the area.

This image intentionally left blank.
(I am intentionally not posting a picture of the vandalised petroglyph wall as I don't want to encourage people to do such things thinking they might get their work onto the internet.

Moab is adjacent to Arches National Park and that is where we spent the next couple of days. We drove through seeing all the sites one day then my sister and I also went out early one morning to do some photography.

Sunrise in Arches.

Early morning at Double Arch.

This was my favorite location in Arches, it is called Park Avenue.

On our last day in Moab my sister and I again decided to go on an early morning adventure with the dogs. We found a location that sounded fairly easy to get to with a fairly easy walk. The description did mention that the drive would have some switchbacks and a dirt road but that was it. The actual drive was pretty terrifying with a dirt road and sharp turns with "insta-death" drop offs at the edge of the road.

Once we made it to the bottom though it was worth the drive. A nice leisurely walk along a creek bed lead us to a nice view of and arch high on a cliff side.

After leaving Moab we did the drive back to Denver and I eventually flew back to Austin.

I really enjoyed the trip and even more than the scenery and excitement I enjoyed just getting to spend time with my Dad and sister building new memories. It takes a lot out of my Dad to go on these trips but getting to go on these adventrues with him really is something that I will always treasure.

I am a published photographer!

2009-05-20T22:27:54Z

One of my photographs got picked up for use in SXSWorld magazine!

It is always hard to predict what others will like. I thought this image was decent but it wasn't one of my favorites and I even felt that some of my other photographs of her came out better.

To my surprise this image was picked up by SXSW for use in their magazine SXSWorld. It is the guitarist from Stereo Pony playing Japan Nite at Elysium. I wasn't assigned to photograph the show but since I am a fan of japanese rock I was there on my own time.

Stereo Pony is best known by Americans for doing one of the closing credit songs for the Anime series "Bleach."

SXSWorld comes out four or five times a year with several of the issues being published during SXSW and the others being sent out to the SXSW attendees during the year. This issue is one of the ones being sent out.

New Star Trek Movie

2009-05-14T02:06:39Z

I have been a fan of Star Trek for a long time.

I drew the above picture when I was a kid back in the seventies.

At the time one of my favorite toys was the Enterprise Bridge play set. This was prior to Star Wars and the "action figure" craze that it started. The Star Trek playset used large sized figures which had decended from GI Joe dolls so they had actual clothes and hair. As you can see, the color scheme on it didn't look very much like the show and had heavy seventies overtones. Nevertheless it was a favorite toy.

Fast forward through a bunch of different serieses and movies to 2009. On mothers day Haleigh and I went to see the new movie. I had completely avoided spoilers only knowing the basic premise for the movie. I did see a couple of spoiler free reviews of the movie that said that it was really good. I was a bit worried that this would get my expectations up too much.

The movie didn't just meet my expectations but exceeded them. They did a wonderful job portraying all the characters and the effects weren't overdone. The plot was well written and interesting making everything seem completely plausible.

The quality of this prequel really brought into sharp focus how lame the Star Wars prequels were. Trek had cameos and characters we recognized without them being forced like they seemed to be in Star Wars.

I am looking forward to seeing where they go with these new Trek movies. Hopefully there will be a long series of new ones in this new setting.

Disney Star Wars Weekends Posters

2009-05-06T19:11:31Z

Here is a link to some really creative and funny promotional posters that Disney has put together for Star Wars Weekends at Disney World.

On a side note, if you haven't heard they have finally gone into production creating the new ride film for Star Tours. They have been talking about it for years now and it always proved to be a false rumor.

When the prequels came out there was a lot of talk of turning Star Tours into a pod racing simulator. Personally I found the pod races to be one of the most boring part of a generally boring movie.

I was quite happy to read that the Star Tours 2.0 ride will have a similar format to the current ride. It will once again involve a chase through outer space but it will be updated to include some elements from the prequels. Apparently this time the craft will be being chased by Bobba Fett and will also involve Admiral Ackbar at some point. They will also keep R2D2 and C3P0 as part of the ride. I just hope that they will still keep the original ride film operating on occasions as it really is a classic.

A bit of trivia that you may not have noticed. On the current ride the robot host is voiced by Paul "Peewee Herman" Reubens.

Vacation

2009-05-05T17:34:18Z

I am in Denver visiting my sister and father.

We are going on a road trip visiting some great southwestern parks including Mesa Verde, Arches and Canyonlands.

On the trip will be me, Haleigh, my Dad and sister along with three dogs.

I have never been to Mesa Verde but after some research on youtube I believe that the visit will probably go something like this...

Scary

2009-04-26T15:29:49Z

This swine flu stuff is looking kind of scary.

Mexico has shut down their schools until May 6th

Here is a pretty scary article by the BBC with some insight into what is going on in the Mexican hospitals.

There have been several cases reported in San Antonio as well as a number of other US cities. I hope this is something that we can get under control.

CTRL And Funker Vogt

2009-04-25T20:45:06Z

Thursday night I got to photograph two bands. CTRL and Funker Vogt.

CTRL is a local Austin band that I had heard of a few times before. I would often see where they were opening for bands that I was interested in but this was my first time actually seeing them. They have been around for a good while and have a number of albums out. Their music is electronic dance with a touch of an industrial sound.

The headlining band of the night was Funker Vogt. They are an EBM/darkwave band out of Germany which also have a heavily electronic sound with a bit of an industrial edge.

I did manage to get some good shots but it was a bit harder than for previous shows. They didn't use much front lighting which made for a darker show and that combined with a lot of fast movements by the bands made it much harder to get photos that were in sharp focus.

It was a fun night over all. Both bands were really nice guys and the crowd was pretty good. By the end of the night there were a lot of drunk people in the club but while they were doing a lot of dancing they were still pretty considerate of others near them.

Recent And UpcomingPhotography

2009-04-23T17:35:30Z

This past Friday I got to photograph two bands at Elysium. The first band was called "Death Is Not A Joyride" and the second was "Voltaire And The Skeletal Orchestra."

I confess to having not heard of "Death Is Not A Joyride" before seeing them on the bill with Voltaire but they were quite a pleasant surprise. They had previously done well in the Austin Music Awards getting first place in the experimental category and second for goth/industrial.

Their sound was good and their visuals had a lot of interest. The whole band had a lot of energy and the lead singer had good stage charisma. I love how my images came out from this show. The colors are so vibrant and while their masks hide their eyes they do add a lot of interest and give the photographs a unique look.

The headlining band was Voltaire and The Skeletal Orchestra. I have seen Voltaire many times before. He always puts on a great show and this was no exception. This is the first time I have seen him with a full band and they did give him a much richer sound. The cost for that though was losing a bit of variety in the songs he could perform. It was mentioned a couple of times that the band had only had a chance to practice together on certain songs. That meant it was a lot less likely that we would get to hear any of his more obscure older songs. Still he did a nice mix of new material with classics and didn't disappoint.

The "orchestra" for the tour consisted of a violin player, a cello player and an accordionist. In addition to the band members Voltaire had his fiance with him whom he talked to from the stage.

The photography for the show went really well. I had contacted Voltaire ahead of time to make sure I could secure all the proper permissions to be able to shoot the show and not only did he give his permission but he also put us on the guest list which was really above and beyond what was necessary. He is a nice guy.

One of the things that I enjoyed about getting to photograph this show would be that it would be a nice contrast to show how my photography has improved over the past couple of years as I have photos of Voltaire that I took from this same club in pretty much the same positions.

Photos From June 2006

Photos from April 2009

For both of the shows this past Friday I left the flash in the bag and didn't use it once. I mixed up my shooting between shutter priority and aperature priority but after reviewing the pics it is pretty obvious that aperture priority is the way to go. If I shoot that way with the aperature set as low as possible the lens seems to be fast enough to capture the action while still getting good lighting and bright colors.

Tonight I will be shooting two bands at the same club. CTRL and Funker Vogt. They are both synthesizer heavy EBM dance/darkwave bands.

I have also arranged a shoot next month of two bands for a music website.

On the non-music front I am going on a road trip in a couple of weeks with my sister and father as well as Haleigh where I am going to get a lot of photography in. We are going to be visiting Mesa Verde and the Four Corners area of Colorado as well as Moab Utah and Arches National Park and the canyonlands. I am really looking forward to getting to spend time with my family and get in some good photography.

Tonight I will be shooting two bands at this same club. CTRL and Funker Vogt. T

SXSW Recap Day Nine+

2009-04-22T19:31:46Z

I need to bring this recap to a close or it will never end.

Day nine started out in Seattle. Well, actually it started in Austin at the SXSeattle party. Haleigh and I got there early but it was already wall to wall people. I was there to see "Natalie Portman's Shaved Head." I was able to make it to the front of the crowd and get a good spot to the side where I wouldn't be blocking anyone's view.

The band hit the stage and put on a great show. They were all dressed in plaid flannel as an homage to Seattle's most infamous contribution to music, "grunge." They had a lot of energy on stage and I was able to capture a lot of it with my photos. Prior to seeing them I mainly knew them by their song "Sophisticated Side Ponytail" that I posted here a while back. It turned out that the resto of their music had male vocals which was okay but it did give them a different sound than I expected. I still really enjoyed the show and would gladly go see them again anytime that they are in the area.

Interestingly, I hadn't sent the band any links to my photos but they found them on flickr and even favorited this one.

When I was taking this picture I actually wasn't focused on the action at all. I was hoping to spotlight the Obama watch he was wearing. Where I normally lock focus on the eyes or face, for this image I had locked it on Obama and had been trying to follow that as he moved his arms around. It was luck that I was able to capture the singer at a vibrant moment at the same time as getting the watch in focus.

This is my favorite image from the shoot. While he does have the mic in front of his face, I love the energy in the shot combined with the angle and the grunge feel. Normally the poor lighting at this venue would have been a disadvantage but in this case I think it worked well.

This image isn't an amazing concert image but I really like the emotion that you can see on her face. She sings lead on the one song and it is obvious that she had really enjoyed hamming it up for the audience.

The next highlight of the day was shooting Echo And The Bunnymen. They were playing the "Bat Bar" in the convention center which is the area set up by Directv so that they can broadcast bands live from SXSW.

Because of the live broadcasting everying was being run very strictly with crowds being shuffled in and out on a very tight schedule. With this being such a high profile venue they were also strict on photography. With a pass I was allowed to photograph the first three songs only and no flash would be allowed. We were escorted to the front and like clockwork as soon as the third song ended security escorted us to the back of the venue which is fairly standard for photography at most large shows.

The concert itself was extremely lackluster. If you have ever seen the movie Galaxy Quest you might remember the scene where Tim Allen's character is unshaven and hung over in his apartment. The aliens show up and he thinks they are wanting him to do an acting bit. He does it but puts no effort into it and acts like he is bothered by having to do it the whole time. That is exactly the vibe I got from Echo and the Bunnymen. They came out, muddled through some songs as quick as they could but had no energy. Seeing them the night before at a more intimate venue would have been a better choice but at least the lighting was good.

While the pictures I got are adequate I think the bands apathy shows through and brings them down.

That night was Japan Nite. All the bands did a great job

I like this image of the band Stereo Pony. They are best known in America for doing one of the end theme songs for the anime "Bleach." I shot this image looking up at her and I love the way I was able to catch her hair in motion to help communicate the movement that was going on. The angles add to the feeling of action in the image and the fingers at odd angles help to emphasize her skill on the instrument. My only regret was that I had to use flash to be able to properly stop the action and get the image. Musicly, Stereo Pony was my favorite band of the night. They have a good rock sound with lots of energy.

This was another favorite shot of the night. It is the guitarist from the band "Special Thanks." I just like the classic rock n roll pose that is reminiscent of The Ramones.

The headlining band for the night is Quaff.

They are a visual kei band from Japan with a unique and interesting look. By the time they went on their were a lot of extremely drunk people in the audience. There was a guy next to me that kept wanting to tell me how they stole their look from Hanoi Rocks and how he wanted to give them a piece of his mind. He did eventually get the attention of one member of the band between songs who he started giving a very loud drunken lecture to and of course the band member just stared at him kind of blankly obviously not understanding much english.

There was also a very drunk frat boy who was sure he was the life of the party. He had on Tom Cruise/Risky Business sunglasses and would climb onto the stage at every opportunity to raise his beer in the air and dance with the band only to be escorted off by security.

The band themselves took it all in stride and put on a great show. Their music came off a little bit glam metal for my tastes but their showmanship was great and they did know how to play to the crowd.

This image shows why many big name bands restrict photography to the first three minutes of a show. By the end they are drenched in sweat and not looking their best. At the same time this is what photographers want to get as it shows just how hard the band worked during the show.

This shot is from much earlier in the show. In this one they remind me a lot of the hair metal band from the eighties, "Poison."

I will end with my one of my favorite shots from all of SXSW. It was taken in concert but seems very portrait like.

This was the last big night of SXSW. Sunday evening we did go see the nerdcore showcase with MC Lars and MC Frontalot but I have already posted some of those pics so I won't repeat those.

SXSW 2009 was an amazing experience and I am already looking forward to next year.

Odd

2009-04-18T02:14:16Z

The world is an odd place. In the past year I have done two separate posts talking positively about Paris Hilton. Once about her response to McCain and then about her performance in Repo The Genetic Opera.

Well now I am doing a post about a bunch of different people that I never thought I would have in a post together.

Ashton Kutcher was on Oprah today talking about twitter. This past week he has been having a battle with Larry King/CNN to see who could get to a million followers on twitter first.

Despite what you may see of him in Dude Where's My Car or Punk'd, Ashton is quite intelligent and a savvy businessperson. As I have mentioned before I am a fan of his reality shows "Beauty and The Geek" as well as the other inner beauty one he did. His acting in The Butterfly Effect was also top notch.

Lately he and his wife Demi Moore have been very active on twitter and have let their geeky sides show through. They communicate with their fans on a regular basis and have been working to use their celebrity for good purposes.

Another surprise from twitter is that P Diddy actually comes off as a pretty nice guy. All of his tweets are very positive and he really seems to care about people and trying to make a difference.

It was also amusing recently to see gossip blogger Perez Hilton going toe to toe with Miley Cyrus. He has criticized her extensively and she has stuck by her guns saying that he needs to be nicer to people and not so critical. It is interesting to see how some celebrities act when they aren't being filtered by any sort of PR person. It is obvious that many of them do their own twitter posts and you get to see more of their real personality than what their people want you to see of them.

Back to the Oprah episode today, Ashton did a good job of discussing the democratization of media. How a single person using social media can command as much audience as a media giant such as CNN. Oprah tried to credit him with that change in the way things work and he quickly pointed out that he didn't start this concept that he joined in late. He even mentioned Kevin Rose and digg.com. It wasn't long before Kevin Rose twittered that him getting mentioned on Oprah finally got his mom to be proud of him. :)

Oprah herself did her first twitter today and she fell for the classic n00b trap of using all caps. Of course, Shaq's reply was equally annoying.

Britain's Got Talent

2009-04-14T06:25:24Z

I am not a fan of American Idol. I will occasionally watch it and every now and then I will like one of the singers but not often enough to watch the show on a regular basis.

Of course everyone knows who Simon Cowell is and part of the charm of the show is how hard it is for a singer to please him. He gives out insults left and right with compliments only occasionally coming out later in the season.

Simon is also a judge on Britain's Got Talent which has a similar format in the uk.

This clip is from the most recent episode of that show which aired this past weekend.

I am not going to give away anything about it but just trust me that you should watch the clip. It is well worth it and be sure to watch all the way through to see Simon's comments after the performance.

SXSW Recap Day Eight

2009-04-13T17:23:39Z

For day eight I was assigned to be back at the Scoot Inn. This time it was to be for the entire night shooting all of the bands. The club was hosting the Ubiquity/Wax Poetics showcase.

The night started off with dj sets from Chicken George and J-Boogie. At first I hadn't realized they were part of the showcase, I had thought the club just had a DJ but fortunately I was chatting with the stage manager and she mentioned that they were showcasing so I was able to get pics of them. Otherwise I might have just enjoyed the tunes they were spinning while waiting for the bands to come on.

The first band was called The Juggs. They had a bit of a bluesy sound which I don't particularly go for but they put on a good show and the lighting was good.

Another highlight of the night was Mayer Hawthorne. The crowd really got into their show. By the time they came on the club was packed and there was a lot of dancing. They had a nice classic look and the hipsters were out in force to check them out.

There was a rap group on the bill called HSID. They had a lot of energy but because of the constant movement were a bit difficult to photograph.

Other bands on the bill were Chin Chin, Brownout and 9DW. Chin Chin was a lot of fun. They had good stage presence and really got the crowd energized. Brownout was a huge band. They had over a dozen people on stage playing a variety of instruments. They were a local Austin band and I have to wonder if they added some people to their band just to get them into SXSW.

I had high hopes for the last band, 9DW. They were a japanese band but again their musical style was something I wasn't into. They did a sort of jazzy style that I would classify as elevator music. I did like their stage show okay but I would have enjoyed their sound more if it had a bit more energy. I can't really criticize them much though. I was there cause I had to be, there were plenty of people that showed up because they were fans and I am sure they got what they were expecting.

The showcase ended and I waited for Haleigh to come pick me up. The venue emptied and slowly everyone cleared out. The bands left and the other SXSW workers headed home until eventually it was just me. Finally after about an hour Haleigh showed up. Her final showcase had lasted longer than normal and traffic had been bad. She had tried to call but my phone battery had given out earlier so I hadn't gotten the message. We headed back to Elgin glad to be able to get some rest. This was my final full assignment day but there were still two days of SXSW to go.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T03:52:58Z

As usual The Big Picture has a nice set of photographs up. This time they are covering holy week around the world.

To round things out here is a clip from a 1995 production of Jesus Christ Superstar produced here in Austin starring The Indigo Girls.

hansmwatson @ 2009-04-07T12:13:00

2009-04-07T17:17:03Z

This is my current favorite picture.

Its cool enough that the llamas ride on top of the vehicle but the fact that they deliver anywhere at anytime is an epic win.

I am going to be seeing Voltaire in concert at Elysium in downtown Austin later this month, perhaps I should get a llama delivered during the concert. Nothing brightens up a night like a llama.

I should learn to trust my instincts

2009-04-07T14:30:35Z

I really should learn to trust my instincts.

The Alamo Drafthouse has been advertising that they were going to have a free screening of Star Trek Wrath of Khan and they would show a few minutes of footage from the new Trek movie along with it.

Yesterday they mentioned that Fantasticfest badge holders could reserve tickets for it and that there would be no cell phones allowed so don't even bring them because you would have to walk back to your car.

Of course this made my spidey senses tingle. I was guessing that this was actually a disguised advance screening of the new Trek film aimed at finding out what actual Trek fans think of the movie and I even sent Haleigh a message saying that exact thing They had said there would be walk up seats available but we ended up not going down to check it out. Back when Kevin Smith had come to town to host a screening of "House Party" I had thought he was going to show his new movie and I had been wrong so doubts had overcome me and we decided not to chance it.

Well I got an email this morning from someone who did go.

I was absolutely right. Not only did they show the new Star Trek movie but three of the writers and Leonard Nimoy were in attendance! If it weren't bad enough that I missed seeing Spock himelf, one of the writers of Trek was Damon Lindelhoff! For those of you that don't recognize the name right off, he is one of the two main writers for the tv show "Lost" which is by far my favorite show on tv right now. I follow his podcast and he is one of my favorite writers in the business. People were dissapointed that JJ Abrams didn't show up but to me Lindelhoff is far cooler than Abrams.

I guess I will know in the future to trust my instincts when it comes to Drafthouse stuff.

SXSW Recap Day Seven - The British Embassy

2009-04-06T19:30:15Z

By day seven Haleigh was done with all of her shifts. She had put in her time and the rest of SXSW she could do what she wanted.

We started out in the afternoon with the Japan Nite preview party. The club it was being held at was small and dark.It was already packed wall to wall with people when we got there. Maki Rinka was on stage and I made my way to the front to get a couple of shots of them. I had seen them the previous year and enjoy their look. They are a fourties style japanese band so there performances tend to be fairly photogenic.

When they ended the crowd shifted with a good number of people leaving while others came in. Peelander-Z was up next so I shifted to a better spot and Haleigh joined me. They did a great show as usual but the crowds and darkness made it difficult to get many shots. Since I have shot them several times in the last year I instead just focused on enjoying their performance.

At this point Haleigh and I split up for a bit. I had to work in the evening so I had a photography staff meeting to go to before heading to my assignment. I went to the convention center and right next to where our meeting was going to be taking place, Devo was doing a panel discussion. I got to see a good bit of the panel and get some shots of the band.

They started out the panel by premiering a video for a soon to be released song "Don't Shoot, I'm A Man!" The video was great and the song was catchy. It was really Devo on top of their game. It was obvious that even though it has been a good number of years since their last hit, they haven't lost their touch. The band then came out with their signature hats in their hands which they kept on the tables in front of them throughout the panel.

I enjoyed their talk, it gave me a new appreciation for how talented every member of the band turned out to be. I had heard of Mothersbaugh's work on television and in the movies but I hadn't realized how much other members of the band had done.

The one disappointment of the panel was that Mothersbaugh came off as a bit of a grumpy older guy. There was a lot of talk of how Mtv made a lot of money off of their videos and didn't share any with them. He also talked about how Toni Basil spent a long time with them before going and choreographing the Talking Heads "Once In A Lifetime" tour. They all agreed that much of the dancing that is considered to be iconicly David Byrne were actually Mothersbaugh.

The other surprise for me was that during their Lollapalooza appearances Devo had become close with the members of Nine Inch Nails and one of the current members of Devo is also a member of NiN. That is a nice blending of old style with not quite as old style.

I had to leave Devo a little before the end to make my meeting which went quick.

After the meeting I still had a while before my first assignment. I headed to Elysium to meet up with Haleigh. She was already in line waiting to see Peter Murphy and I joined her. We were in the badge line and by the time they started letting people in the line had gotten huge. Even the line for people with badges stretched a long way down the street and the line of people wanting to pay the cover charge stretched into the distance in the other direction.

The doors opened a little late which worried me that I might have to leave to make it to my assignment before he even went on. Fortunately SXSW runs a tight ship and he hit the stage within a few minutes of the crowd being let in.

Peter Murphy was lead singer for the band Bauhaus. They are widely thought to have started the entire goth movement and their song "Bela Lugosi's Dead" is the stereotypical goth song played on South Park or SNL when they do a skit about goths. Back during the eighties I saw Peter Murphy in concert at "The Moon" in Tallahassee Florida. To this day that is still one of my all time favorite shows. Murphy is an extremely charismatic performer that knows how to play to the audience and make each person feel as though he is performing specifically for them.

This year while Haleigh was working registration she checked in one of Peter Murphy's people. She mentioned to them that she was a big fan of his and a few minutes later he came over to meet her. That ended up being the highlight of her SXSW experience this year.
later
With this performance it was obvious that while he had a few more years under his belt Murphy still had his charisma. Unless they are headlining at Stubb's or Auditorium Shores, every performer at SXSW gets fourty minutes and the same was true for Peter Murphy. Because of that he stuck strictly to his new material leaving his classics for his more traditional concerts.

I got off a few shots but sadly used flash on all of them to make sure they would come out with the eyes lit. I had intended to switch lenses after a few shots but it was too crowded to be able to get into my camera bag.

Because of the late start time I only got to stay for a couple of songs before having to make my way out of the club to my assignment. I later found out that during one of the songs after I left he reached down and touched Haleigh on the cheek. She really had an amazing time and I'm glad she got to see the whole show.

My assignment was to spend the whole night at Lattitude 30 shooting every band that was performing. For SXSW Lattitude 30 had been transformed into "The British Embassy." For the length of the festival it would exclusively host British bands and they had even repainted the front of the club to showcase that fact.

The club had a decent layout and the lighting wasn't amazing but it wasn't horrible either. It was in a nice location just off of Sixth Street which was much nicer than the way Scoot Inn was located far from all the other clubs.

The first band on the lineup was "Frank Turner." His music wasn't a style that I go for but he and his band were charismatic and fun. I later found out that the band he was with was one that he had hired specifically for SXSW and not the people he normally performs with.

After Frank was a band called "Wild Beasts." They did a fun show and had some fairly catch tunes.

When they finished, "Hatcham Social" hit the stage. Haleigh dropped by and caught their show. She really enjoyed them a lot and has talked about how much she enjoyed the show a good number of times since then. They had a nice sound with strong percussion. The one thing that really stood out about them to me was that the drummer stood up while he was playing the drums.

The next peformance was by Jay Jay Pistoleta. I had heard of him before and thought it was going to be a good performance but I was disappointed. I didn't care much for it but maybe it just wasn't my style. It seemed to be something that would appeal more to girls in their teens or early twenties. He was a male singer/song writer with the music not being very beat heavy or energetic.

Here is a clip of his performance...

Haleigh headed on to her next show and I stayed waiting to shoot the next band. I am sitting on a bench to the side of the stage and while I am changing out my lens a girl comes over and sits next to me and starts up a conversation. She was Puerto Rican but living in New York City. She came to SXSW with her boyfriend and they were at the club because he was looking forward to seeing the next band. It was a nice conversation but it was obvious that her boyfriend who was standing in front of the stage was getting increasingly jealous. He kept glaring over in our direction and even though nothing was going on it was starting to worry me. It was late enough that there were many drunk people and the last thing I needed was a drunk boyfriend thinking I was trying to hit on his girlfriend. Fortunately the next band took to the stage and I was able to excuse myself to do my photography.

The band was called "We Have Band" and they were my favorite performance of the night. They had a fun dancey sound with a synth that had a nice rock edge to it. The club was packed for their performance and there was a lot of dancing going on.

Here is the video for what I felt was their best song of the night.

The night ended with the band "Temper Trap." They put on a high energy show and the audience was rally into it dancing and singing along.

It had been a long but fun night and Haleigh showed back up while the last band was playing. They finished and we headed to the car to make the long drive home. It was close to five a.m. before I got to sleep but SXSW was slowly drawing to a close so I didn't mind too much. There would be time to sleep next week.

As a bonus here is a clip of Devo performing their new song "Don't Shoot I'm A Man!" The sound isn't perfect and the band doesn't show up and start singing in the video until about two minutes in but if you would like to hear their new material this is it.

SXSW Day Recap Day Six

2009-04-05T07:42:06Z

Interactive was now over, Film was winding down and Music is starting to kick in.

iPhones are still everywhere but now the people using them have a lot more piercings and tattoos. In previous years it was a bit of a joke amontst the interactive attendees that stayed over though music about how different things are. Suddenly no one has heard of twitter and no one is trying to start a company. Well at least one of those has changed. While twitter isn't as prominant during music as it is during interactive, now most of the bands have at least heard of it and many of them use it.

My day started out fairly early at the convention center. I dropped by what had been the Adobe Day Stage and with the change it had now become the SESAC Day Stage. It is a cafeteria style area and I needed to change lenses on my camera. I had the fast lens on from the night before but needed to change to my more multi-purpose kit lens.

I sat down at one of the tables and start switching and cleaning my lenses. As I am doing it a guy gets up on the stage where there are a bunch of microphones set up unusually close together.

He starts speaking into the mics and the voice comes out over the speakers but keeps repeating after he stops speaking. He keeps this up checking the mics and occasionally walking into the audience to see how it sounds. Once he is satisfied he gets on the stage and starts his show.

He is called Hyperpotamus and I wrote about him on here right after seeing him. His show was energetic and unusual. His music was an odd mix of beat boxing with opera and word jazz. He sang passionately and danced around the stage using his hands and feet for percussion. Only a few minutes into the show he kicked off his shoes to better be able to operate his looping boxes with his feet. His show was unexpected and a great way to start off the first day of music.

After his show I dropped by the trade show. It had also transformed over night and had all new exhibitors. In the big plastic box up front was someone important whose name I didn't catch. He was talking about working with Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger.

When he was done the band Data Rock were lead into the box where they talked about their music. I got some shots of them then took in the trade show and walked out to see what else was going on. I ran into Peelander-Z who were in line waiting to get their badges.

For my first music assignment I am supposed to shoot two bands at the Scoot Inn at night. The Scoot Inn is fairly far from the convention center and Haleigh won't be getting off in time to give me a ride. I call up my oldest daughter, Claire, and see if she is busy. She was supposed to have band practicebut it has been canceled so she agrees to give me a ride. She picks me up in the afternoon and we head down to South Congress where we grab a bite to eat at Guero's and check out a San Francisco party. They have some custom made tshirts on sale and the bands seem okay but nothing special. I really enjoy getting the time to hang out with Claire. The time that I get to spend with her has gotten less and less over the last couple of years and I really miss her.

After a while we decide to head on over to the Scoot Inn. On the way we pass by the Levi Fader Fort. I had never seen it before and it is pretty impressive. It is one of the most popular party places at SXSW. Supposedly, in addition to free food and an open bar they give free jeans to everyone that shows up. This year on Saturday night they had a not so secret surprise performance by Kanye West. The list of guests for that night were all people on his record label with the last performance being listed as "special surprise guest" so most everyone had figured out ahead of time that it was going to be Kanye. I had gotten an invite to the Fader Fort but ended up never having the time to go over there.

Claire dropped me off at The Scoot Inn. I make it in and find out that it is a large outdoor venue. The place is almost completely empty. The SXSW staff member in charge of the venue sees me and says she feels sorry for me getting stuck here. It isn't long however before people start to filter in.

I am not assigned to shoot the first bands and it is probably a good thing. A guy comes on stage and says he is with the band called "Homopolice" and that on the way to SXSW two of the members of the three piece band were arrested so he would be doing the show solo. He sits in a chair toward the back of the stage hunched over behind some speakers turning some knobs which makes something vaguely resembling music. I am guessing that the genre that it would be considered to be would be "experimental." I am not one to criticize others tastes but this wasn't a type of music that appealed to me. I often enjoy odd sounding music but this was beyond my tastes. To top it off the show was completely unphotogenic. He stayed almost unmoving in the dark back area of the stage hunched over and often blocked from view by equipment. I was very glad that I wasn't assigned to photograph this band.

The first band that I was assigned to shoot was called "Complete." A number of fans had shown up and I chatted with some of them. They said that the band had gotten quite a following on youtube and was a favorite of the son of the guy who started SXSW. Since then I have researched them and found out that part of their following appears to be because one of their first videos was considered by some to be so bad that it was good. I went into their show not knowing this. The show itself wasn't bad. The band wasn't my style of music but they had some stage charisma and weren't particularly horrible but weren't great either.

To give an example of how the band was received on the internet, here is a thirty minute long video someone put together about how bad they think the band is..

The other band I was assigned to shoot was called "Easy Action."

They had a bit of a punk vibe going on and a classic old school Social Distortion style punk rock look to the band.

In addition to these two bands I caught "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth" that played between them and they were pretty good as well but nothing I felt a need to rush out and buy.

Haleigh showed up before my last shoot and hung out with me. Toward the end of the night the lead singer from Complete came over to us and thanked us for showing up for the show. He gave me an autographed copy of his CD and seemed like a really nice guy.

SXSW Recap Day Five

2009-04-04T06:03:06Z

Day five was a Tuesday. I felt refreshed because the previous day had actually ended early enough to get a decent night's sleep. Most nights during SXSW I would only get a few hours to sleep. My normal laptop was having issues so I was on my older laptop. It couldn't read my SDHC card I have been taking pictures on so I was having to hook the camera directly to the laptop via USB and download the pictures that way. This was an excrutiatingly slow process which I would then follow up by copying the photos off to an external hard drive. The older laptop had a tendency to overheat and shut off so I had to keep an eye on the process. It would generally take several hours a night then I would need to be up early the next morning.

My first panel on day two was called "Photojournalism In 2009 And The Big Picture." It was hosted by Alan Taylor and though I had scanned the description enough to know that it had something to do with photography I hadn't actually read the description close enough to know how cool it would be. It turned out that Alan Taylor was the man behind one of my favorite web sites. "The Big Picture" feature on the Boston Globe's web site. I had seen "The Big Picture" mentioned in the title but hadn't put two and two together.

It turned out that Mr. Taylor was basically an I.T. guy for the Globe who did web work for them. On hiw personal site at the encouragement of some friends he had started posting images from around the web in a larger than normal format. It got to be kind of popular so he tried to sell the Globe on letting him do the same thing for them with the images that come across the wire.

He was eventually able to convince them that it was a worthwhile venture but even today after its rampant popularity he still doesn't get to do it exclusively. His primary job is still I.T. with them letting him do The Big Picture in addition to his normal duties.

He talked at length about the power of photography even when compared to the rise of video. He talked about how photography freezes a moment and lets you examine it far more closely than video. When you see an image you can take the time to let your eye wander throughout the image and pick up details you might otherwise have missed. In video the moments pass by and can be missed.

He felt it was important to post high resolution large sized versions of the images to give the full impact of whatever is being depicted.

He also mentioned that he never plans ahead for what subjects he will cover. He just goes through the images and a theme will eventually make itself apparent to him. The most moving or interesting images become obvious and that will end up being the next subject.

One of the other things he mentioned was his choice to run it only a couple of times a week. He felt that more frequent would make it less special and have it lose some of what makes it so moving. He went through a lot of the images he has posted and discussed them admitting that he often becomes emotional going through the images and it can be rough seeing the unfiltered flood of images coming out of some of the more violent locations.In addition to image selection he went over the difficulties he has in moderating the comments left on the site and how much criticism he gets depending on the subject he chooses. Hardly a posting goes by without someone claiming he was biased or influenced by some outside force. In truth though he says he really just picks the images based on what strikes him as interesting or particularly photogenic.

Here is a link to a recent Big Picture covering the subject of "Spring."

The next panel I saw was called "Building Strong Online Communities." On the panel were Drew Curtis from fark.com, Alexis Ohanian from reddit.com, Ken Fisher from Ars Technica and Erin Koteki Vest from blogher.com.

It was interesting to see the interplay between the different panelists. Drew Curtis is known for the more free wheeling way that he runs Fark and his fondness for alcohol where Kotecki Vest is known for having Michelle Obama as a guest blogger on her site. They were all fairly charismatic and went back and forth discussing how they handle user problems while still building community. It was the general consensus that there is always a small number of people that are very vocal about their dislike of any changes a site makes but the majority of users sit back quietly and only occasionally participate in the community.

You could tell that community is still a prominant issue on the web as this talk was held in Ballroom A and was standing room only.

After I finished up with this panel I stopped by a panel featuring a conversation with Richard Linklatter.

Linklatter is another Austin local film maker. He got his big break with the movie Slackers but I know him for the movie "School Of Rock." It turns out that the night before this conversation he had done a secret premiere of a new movie "Me And Orson Welles" starring among others, Zack Efron. I really wanted to like this panel but I found it boring. Linklatter came off as though he was kind of stuck on himself. I will give him the benefit of the doubt though, I may have just been getting the wrong vibe from this. I didn't stay for the full conversation, leaving after about ten minutes so that someone who might enjoy it more could have my seat.

I went over to Sixth Street to find some lunch and on the way I got a tip from one of the SXSW employees that "Wavy Gravy" who was famous for appearing at Woodstock was going to be doing a surprise appearance across the street giving away ice cream. I staked out the area for a while and he never made an appearance.

It was the afternoon before the first day of music so all the bands had started to arrive. Sixth Street was buzzing with activity. It seems like every club had a semi next to it unloading crates of beer.

When I got back to the convention center there was a large crowd next to the press room waiting to get into a panel.

It turned out to be the Vivid Video panel.

It is often said that the adult industry leads the way when it comes to online video and really drives the technology. The panel consisted of two of the business guys behind the company and two of the adult actresses. The business men really seemed to know their stuff and came off as quite intelligent when it comes to business. They talked about video aggregation and how it has effected their business model over the past five years. The girls seemed to be there mainly to draw a crowd. The main thing they contributed was saying that the business was a lot more legit than people think. They both talked about how they have agents that book their films for them and there really isn't a "casting couch" type of situation that people imagine. Some of the audience members asked about their contracts and wondered if they were worried that the company was taking advantage of them. They reiterated that they have agents that are well versed in contract negotiations and that lawyers make sure everything is fair for all involved. While this panel did turn out to be sort of interesting I ended up ducking out of it a bit early too.

I then had a long walk from the convention center down to congress avenue and over almost to the river where I got in line to wait for the live taping of The Totally Rad Show.

After having seen the Diggnation line I made sure to show up plenty early which meant a long wait in line. They guys next to me in line had skipped out on work over at NASA in Houston and driven over for the show. I tipped them off on where the Vivid Video girls were going to be partying later that night. For some reason I found amusement that the rocket scientists might get a chance to go party with the porn stars.

The time to be let in came and went without the line moving. The guys from TRS had came by earlier but the line stayed still. It was a good half hour or fourty five minutes after the announced start time that they started letting people in.

That was when people realized there was another big problem. It had been advertised as "all ages" but that was not the case. Kids who had been waiting in line for two hours were told they couldn't come in.

Being techy geeks the TRS guys came up with a solution. They were able to set up a system to show the video of the taping live on the side of the building outside. It wasn't an ideal solution but it was the best they could come up with on short notice.

The bar itself where the show was being taped was relatively small but not tiny. The show opened with Jonathan Coulton. It was good to see his full set. Particularly amusing was when he sang "RE: Your Brains" and had the crowd shouting "Brains!" in a very zombie like manner.

After Coulton ended the show began. It was plagued with sound problems so that it was practicly impossible to hear even when relatively close to the front.

After the show I was down by the street and got to talk to one of the guys from the Eye-Fi company. They make SD cards for cameras that upload directly to flickr from your camera via wifi and can even geotag your pictures. They were in town for SXSW taking pictures and having them directly upload to show off how well the product works.

Prior to the start of SXSW I had picked up a 16gb SDHC card and filled it up on a regular basis. Having the safety of having the pictures backed up to a flick account as they are taken would have been a nice thing to have. After talking to the Eye-Fi person it sounds like they may be able to work with SXSW next year to get cards to the photo team to use as promotion for their product.