crickets

so, i ate crickets. i had two flavors the chili flavored and a lime/garlic flavored bag. not bad, the chili was really salty. i probably won't get them again as its odd to find a leg stuck between my teeth.

day 1

oaxaca, mexico.

i came up to a appo protest. over a year ago the government slashed funding to the schools. the teachers protested and went on strike. they got the interest of appo, a socialist student group. and last year they clashed with the federales. this was the anniversary protest of three people passing away from police actions.

made it through day one, eight rolls of film down. but i least i found a place to buy more stuff if a really need it.

the challenge is to get to mitla and tlacoluma tomorrow.

i can't believe that the hostel tv is on its second bad american movie...

logistics

logistics is probably the must fun part of traveling there is a sense of controlling my own destiny, trying to predict the options of my future.

right now i'm waiting for my sister to get out of the shower to drive me to the airport, i already woke up late. *sigh*. but the back of my head is thinking should i ditch the 6 hour layover and flight to oaxaca and take the bus instead. i think if i had a lonely planet before i purchased the ticket i may have just gflown two and from mexico city and bussed it the rest of the way

so the options include, 1) staying at the airport 2) cab into central play for 4 hours cab back 3) cab to tapo, buy a red eye to oaxaca 3) bus to puebla, red eye to oaxaca. 5) cab to tapo, go straight to oaxaca. so much to think about, i've got 7 hours to figure it out.

but first i need to get to jfk.

light leak

it's official, i have a light leak in the mamiya press. right now i'm not sure if it is in the body or the back, i'm hoping that i could loan a body from someone at icp to check it out. sucks. hopefully the light leak doesn't stem from the lens, but the pattern doesn't seem like that the case.

i've placed some bids on ebay, but i doubt that i'm going to win any of them. i'll probably think of it more when i get back from mexico -- which i still have to pack for

october baseball

world series starts tonight. without the yanks in it all i do now is check the box scores and maybe the highlight reel, sad. i might try to catch a few innings on the radio, we will see.

for the past few weeks, i've been listening to movies at work. just the audio track. it's great. i usually listen to all the classics that i've seen 80 times like goodfellas or princess bride. however, today i listened to '61*'. seemed like the over the top sports movies, i'm overly familiar with the story so the pictures seem to fall into place. maybe tomorrow i'll listen to frida to get ready for mexico.

the best part of listening to 61* i think was hearing bob shepard as bob shepard. i can't hold down a job for more than 14 months and the voice of yankee stadium has had the same job since 1951. he's 97 years old now.

i miss eddie layton.

data

so the challenge today is to move data around i have 3 servers.
A. has a fast internet connection, but limited drive space.
B. has a slower internet connection, but more drive space.
C. has a fast internet connection, and lots of drive space, but is inaccessable from the real world
right now A has all my data but is running out of space.
B has a limited backup of the raw files from A.
C has a full backup of A.
so B needs a full backup of the raw files from A.
B needs to process all the files for to be internet ready and then send those to A.
C has to take backups of A and B.
confused yet? i am.

my fortunes

last thursday, i had dinner with a photography instructor whom i've assisted for a few times. chinese food, mediocre at best. it was up in the village so we got the obligatory fortune cookie. my stance has been an individually wrapped cookie is worth much more to the restaurant than me. firstly, i don't enjoy the taste of the cookie. secondly, i don't believe in my fate decided on a piece of paper (in a bit of flat cake). i believe we create our own destiny.

but my fortunes were opened up

what an appropriate fortune for me.

i thought about playing those numbers in the saturday's lottery, but i held fast to my beliefs and saved my dollar. only 1 number matched, the 8.

10 years ago, a few friends and i were in a lottery pool. five of us buying the same numbers every week for a year, rotating who would buy tickets for the week. we didn't win a dime. i haven't played since

a friend of mine still plays every week. quick pick. he understands the losing odds and is pretty logical about it. he is a computer consultant and realizes that there isn't much he can do in his life to really change it into that direction. so twice a week, he throws two bucks towards the new york state education system (what the n.y. lotto is set up to support).

today, i struggle to not put the money into the megamillions jackpot -- even though it is 43 million dollars.

actual odds 175,711,536:1 for the jackpot; chance of winning something 39.89:1.

end of an era

the total extent of my knowledge of the issue comes from passing a tv last night and reading the ticker and the front page of the new york post headlined "SHOVE IT." joe torre declines his one year extension to his contract. 5 million and a million for each level of the playoffs he gets past -- that seems a good deal doesn't it.

over the last 12 years he's picked up four world series, countless division titles and all the good stuff. but he hasn't performed in the last few years. baseball always wanted more parity, and it now has it. only 1 team from the 2006 playoffs went back to the playoffs this year, even though they had a disastrous first half. the same will probably be true in the next season. the days of dynasties are probably over.

has torre been a good coach. sure, but not great. over the course of seasons he's kept the team from collapse (ala 2007 mets), he's managed the different personalities in the clubhouse and everything. should he have pulled joba out of game 2 in the alds? of course. should he have tried to use and build confidence in other members of the bullpen? probably. of course the past is always crystal clear.

the old boss probably would have fired everyone in 2001 after dropping the series to arizona, definately after 2004 after dropping the alcs to boston.

growing up i was always used to having a new manager every few years. billy, stump, buck, dallas, pinella and yogi -- i think that's all of them. what next year brings, who knows. mattingly says he's not ready and all i am thinking is anyone but willie.

arduous

in the middle of a long arduous process of renaming all the scanned images on my server so i can track them right back to the negative. it is nice to look back at trips i took 6-8 years ago, but mostly i think -- i'm a much better photographer now. or at least i use alot more film.

oddly it seems everything i do is long and arduous.

070915, Echito, New York, NY

070915, Echito, New York, NY by ewah

Two years ago today, I decided to take responsibility for documenting my street. I photograph everyday life, make street portraits, and share them with the denizens.

My project is to document the diversity and inevitable change on Eldridge Street. Spanning eight blocks, Eldridge borders on Chinatown, the Lower East Side, Loisaida, the East Village and NoLIta. I was raised on the street and have seen major changes to it over my lifetime.

A few blocks away foretells the future of the street -- full of hip bars, trendy cafes, hotels and froufrou galleries. Rent prices on Eldridge have tripled since I started. Construction has already begun on hotels and high priced condos. In New York, it is inevitable.

Over the next few years, I will continue photograph on the street and eventually the inside the local businesses, and resident's homes. I will soon record interviews with locals to understand how the street was and imagine what it will become.

classes

no secret that computer programming supports my film addiction. before i left for spain in 2006, i worked for a university registration site. it was lots of work, but at the end of the day and the project it felt like i made a difference. i reworked their entire reporting systems, created a javascript toolbox to handle their form validations and a slew of other things. for the past two months, up until last week, i moonlighted their to help out in some reporting code.

awkward thing about the company is they were bought up by this mega corporation and the people i worked with never had full control. since i left, a team of 6 or 7 from my consulting company worked on my stuff. they are slowly being rolled off because they want to move the base out to la la land.

so we are having drinks tonight.

probably sneak an errand into adorama before that pick up knick-knacks like a screen protector, a soft shutter release and another camera case. i am spending way way too much money.

kids with cameras

born into brothels is a fab movie, makes me feel that i can make a difference and i should make a difference with my photography. (though have yet to) two weeks ago i eavesdrop on a talk by zana briski, born in to brothels photographer, at icp.

bored at work i read through a few forums, lonely planet's thorntree and lightstalkers . an amateur photographer was sick of having about 40 or 50 rolls of film hanging around her fridge so see offered them up on thorntree. even though they were color, i took them i figured i had a better chance of using them or finding someone to use them than she did. a week later, on lightstalkers, a photographer was looking for film and everything else for a kids with cameras project in zambia. so i passed the film along to him.

i had gone through the email newsletters and website over the past few months. he's back now and has a show/talk at the soho art gallery. so that is where i am headed tonight. i wonder if gisa will be there, she is a member of that gallery.

digital cameras

so now i finally own a digital camera.

five years ago if you asked me what camera i would get it would have been the latest and greatest nikon. i even bought a f3hp and a pair of nikkor lenses to get in the mood. last year, if you asked me, i would have responded quickly with a canon 5d and a 28mm lens. if olympus made a body the fully supported the om lenses i would have pounced on it, but the abandoned their 35mm system.

i've toyed around with the idea of getting a small point and shoot camera to have around and carry in leiu of a light meter.

because of this globeroamertv thing, i needed something to travel light and to couple with a film body, so i got the m8. a canon system would have been three times the size.

i still have 11 months to figure out how to shoot well with it. i figure i need another lens, either a 90 or a 75mm to complete the set. but i was hoping to try those focal lengths before i get into deep.

on first look the m8 is thicker than the other m. my hand is sorta loss without the advance crank, the shutter is much louder and has a funny whirl to it. and the shutter release button is a bit sticky. and i have yet to figure out whether i do need to 6bit encode my lenses.

over the next week i have to get a slew of acessories, 4gb sd card, oem batteries, screen protector and soft shutter release are the first things that come to mind. that being said, unless something drastically changes i'm not bringing it to oaxaca.

the m8 w/ the 28 is the most expensive thing i own -- by far. i'm going to need some insurance.

oaxaca

i didn't want to photograph another halloween in new york. i already did that three years in a row. so i bought a ticket for oaxaca from oct 27th to nov 5th and a moon handbook. 10 days or so there, i hope its going to be good.

four years ago, i went to patzcuaro for dia de los muertos. that was one of my top three short (short is less than a month) trips in my life. it was the combination of the country and traveling with k for the first time. i hope this trip lives up to that one, except k isn't there.

hard to believe that i've only been traveling with k for 4 years. before she headed for au it was mx, gt, myanmar, ph and a handful of ski trips. but she's the one i've always traveled best with.

now i have to decide what to bring -- looks like it might be calgary minus the sleeping bag. much much more 3200 speed film on account of all overnigt dia de los muertos photography.

i'll probably book a hostel for the duration of the trip if i end up making overnight trips in and out i won't consider repacking.

here is new york

so tonight, i went to a 'here is new york' reception hosted by the new york historic society. here is new york was 'a democracy of photographs' of the events of september 11th and the aftermath. they had asked people to submit pictures, the would scan them and sell prints, the proceeds would go to a series of good causes. great idea. i submitted a handful of prints.

there are about 1000 prints cramped and unlabelled in two large rooms. one of them was mine. the picture isn't the best i've taken, actually i was quite suprised they picked that image. i didn't think it was good enough to scan. *shrug*.

about 800 artists all together, so theres no reason to get a big head. i recognized a handful of the other photographers in the mix from icp. it was short, i avoided the wine, the bread sticks were good.

the show is up 'til the end of the year.

whoops

got up this morning to photograph 'a great day on eldridge street.' the eldridge street project setup a concert series of klezmer around new york state starting out at symphony space this sunday. today they were going to assemble all the musicians (and then some) in front of the synagogue.

i decided to shoot 6x9 with a 90mm lens and an m6ttl with a 28mm. very reasonable. unfortunately, when i got downstairs, the strap snapped off of the 6x9 camera sending it crashing to the ground. at first sight it seems that pistol grip is cracked (not too bad) and a tilt and swing rod is busted (thats bad). i ran back upstairs to grab another camera -- i'm not sure why i didn't pickup a long lens.

picture i think will be pretty 'eh'. i spent a lot of the morning disappointed i dropped the camera. i perched myself on the roof too long. i was also heavily hungover from the night before. but i ran through 3 rolls of film somehow.

now i click around ebay to see how much it will be to replace it. tonight i'll duct tape it together and see what i get... (maybe it will work)

insidetrack

five years ago, i started on a contract with morgan stanley to create a huge global time tracking web bit of software. it took fourteen months of my life, but the people i was working with was one of the best groups ever. after that i've bounced around different consulting gigs. most of the team is dispersed now. a few months back the handful who remained got transfered over as full time employees.

we still keep in touch. one of the ex-coworkers is throwing party tonight, it will be the first time i'm seeing them since the full time situation. it's the ex-coworker's wife's birthday, she works for fotolog -- i'm going to pitch an idea to her about them sponsoring me for the globeroamer trip. we'll see what happens.

i'm bringing a bottle of wine from spain -- marques de riscal, rioja 2001.

incidentally, the project a morgan was called "inside track".

my back... my aching back.

my life resolves around the darkroom schedule of icp. no open printing in black and white tonight so. i'll process rolls and rolls of film -- 11 rolls tonight to be specific. right now they have great potential, they can be the best images i've ever produced, but chances are they are crap.

tonight is the test of whether i fixed the back to my mamiya press camera properly. the last run of film through that back didn't sit the frames evenly on the rolls so shots would be cut off at the beginning of the roll and the end, the spacing was all over the place. that i fixed, well worked around, by jiggling a part of the back as the film is being loaded. there was also a light leak on the top of some of the rolls of film -- i am not sure if i've gotten rid of this.

on these rolls are some of the workman of the synagogue i shot on monday. i also shot a handful of rolls nondescript saturday of eldridge street.

i really have to get into homes.

050812, Lhasa, Tibet, China

050812, Lhasa, Tibet, China by ewah

Layout changes?

031102, Erongaricuaro, Patzcuaro, Mexico

031102, Erongaricuaro, Patzcuaro, Mexico by ewah

This is actually a test of the flickr 'blog this' link. In reality, I only have a handful of image on flickr so i probably won't use this too much. But it is a nice feature to throw in.

The big picture. This is one of my four pictures I feel good enough to be "of social value." I'm thinking of going to cover dia de los muertos again in Mexico again this year but this time in Oaxaca.

mail test

testing mailto: functionality for the blog...

the third incarnation

this is third incarnation of a blog here. the previous two had either one problem or another. now i have to figure out how i setup the second incarnation and set things up again. but this time hopefully i have a title.