Words on Words

Click above for more pictures of the Mosque Rallys from last Saturday; it was interesting to cover but I don't have anything important to say about it that hasn't already been said. I felt a little guilty shooting pictures and being part of the group of media that was recording such a silly debate and perpetuating it and making it into news. So instead of talking about that I will just show you some of the pretty pictures interspersed with some words about news and media.

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This post is going to have a lot of words; throwing up jumbled notes taken on a class reading here:

Functionalist interpretations of the purpose of the news as being anything people need to know in order to function as citizens in a society are always going to be a bit iffy due to varying definitions of what it means to "function".

I feel like knowledge of huge things - disasters, political elections, wars - only bears on a small portion of my functioning in society. Important, granted, but still small.

Most of the actual day-to-day functioning as a citizen I do relies on a massive intake of largely irrelevant "small" information. In my particular case it is webcomics, blog posts (Steve, Alia, Warren Ellis, Coilhouse, Zo, etc..), some news sources, photo blogs and a few other oddball things.

Focus on these things is not at the exclusion of "important" news that deals with more "serious" things mentioned above. The massive quotes used on those two words are there because we have to spend some amount of time sorting through all media deciding what is and isn't relevant based on our interests.

Often in Journalism classes a teacher will be surprised that people do not know what is going on with X STORY. They will be shocked and disappointed. People do this to other people too; they're shocked when other people do not share their interests.

I'd like to think that one of the goals of journalism, or maybe more generally the goal of anyone creating media (that is, everyone) is to work towards getting rid of that shock.

Everyone has a THING or set of THINGS that they believe are relevant to them. Mine are above - comics, blogs of interesting people, some news sites. I will occasionally venture outside that set, but the primary hunk of media I consume will be relevant to that set of THINGS.

The shift in mindset that is happening right now is a departure from "This is THE important thing that is relevant to YOU right NOW" to the more personal statement of "This is what I think is really important and relevant to you and here is why I think that".

We are all becoming niche consumers of media, and the conversations we are having with Strangers (that is, people not intimate with the same THINGS as us) are less about the context we all share and more about sharing our own context with them.

I'm mostly done. If the above was interesting to you, feel free to comment. If the above was interesting to you and you're single and female, we should get dinner some time.

Changing Spaces

It's been over a year since I first posted here, and after a long absence I'm returning to some old subject matter: graffiti.

It's interesting the things that are written to people anonymously. Notes about life, a written history of love on a street pole. These bits and bytes are being written by someone and will be viewed by thousands who pass by, whether the author knows it or not. Now that I'm here sharing it with you, even people who didn't pass by Union Square will know that this was the place that Kittin and Muffin loved each other.

There's something attractive about the fact that someone writing a note on a bathroom wall, which seems like a really small act, will be viewed by everyone who goes into the bathroom at this cafe. Now, because I took a picture of it, the already public piece will be viewed by people who might never visit this cafe or even New York City.

This is an exchange that was written on one of the subway ads for philosophy classes at the 169th St. stop on the F train. You can click through to read it more clearly.

We pass by complex thoughts every day without knowing it. There are people who talk on walls, who discuss and debate and put forth ideas that you might never see because you weren't looking at that phone booth or at that street sign. There is a character to the world around you that's defined in part by these anonymous messengers. They're speaking their mind and not censoring themselves because of outside pressures. There is honesty there.

I had a part in writing this today on the board at the Honor's Commons, and I have a connection to all of the words there that is different from the connection that anyone else will have. Specifically, the words remind me of two very important people who left New York City at the end of this summer and the memories I had with them over the past few months. On looking at this I can't help but think of their faces and all the words we shared.

There is beauty in how those words on that blackboard relate to me, but there is also beauty in thinking about it the opposite way. All the other pieces of graffiti in this post have a story or a thought process behind them that is greater than what you see written on the wall.

Think about the stories that are behind the wall.

Jim Joe's Advice

Good advice for anyone walking up or down the Bowery.

Click through for more Jim Joe pictures, as well as some other things.

More to come later tonight. Be good to each other.

Jim Joe Has A Posse

I've always been fascinated with bits of graffiti left around the city by street artists, and recently I've been seeing a lot of pieces by Jim Joe downtown. A lot of people see things like this and just see something illegal and defacing, both of which are true.

It is illegal, at least most of the time; I'm not sure on the legality of writing on a junky air conditioner (pretty sure it falls somewhere between "who the fuck cares?" and "waste of resources!" in the grand scheme of things). Jim Prigoff, who writes a lot about graffiti, doesn't like using the terms 'legal' and 'illegal', instead preferring 'with permission' and 'without permission'. That's an interesting way of looking at it, that there is some art which exists because other people want it there, and some that exists because only the author wants it there. Some of it is collaborative between owners of space and creators; but the vast majority of it is a statement solely by the artist, they are forcing the change to the space themselves.

Jim Joe's stuff is definitely a forceful statement; he prefers very public and visible places to place his work. The works presence in a space is as important as the statement that might be written.

The second argument, that it defaces spaces, is also true. It removes the image that was put forth by architects, designers and other original creators and replaces it with one altered by the artist. Sometimes it's a complex illustration put on an otherwise blank and featureless wall. Other times it's simply a name or a phrase placed obviously on something we see everyday, as in the case of "Jim Joe" on a postbox.

Because a lot of Jim Joe tags are in such public/temporary spaces (like scaffolding), they quickly get cleaned up or painted over. This means that a lot of his work exists for maybe a few days, maybe weeks if it's in a hard to get to spot. Most of his work will exist directly in the minds of people who see it, and in pictures taken during the window where it still exists. Something about the impermanence of it is attractive, especially in an age where we like to catalog and document everything. The idea of graffiti art as 'an event' is interesting.

Will be photographing downtown tomorrow, mostly people for an up-coming post but I'll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for Jim Joe.

The House of the Setting Sun

Took shots yesterday of probably the most peculiar sun-related phenomena in Manhattan, where the setting sun lines up perpendicularly with the street grid. Sunsets are always pretty gorgeous times to take pictures, but this event in particular is pretty special because you can view it setting over Jersey and it's framed perfectly by tall buildings.

Our little group set up around Herald Square looking down 33rd St., which gave a pretty cool perspective because of the pedestrian walkway that took over that section of Broadway this past year. Theres a little island that looks straight down the grid that makes it look like you're in the middle of the street, even though you're perfectly safe from cars.

As 8 o'clock rolled around a big group of photographers, amateur and pro alike, started to congregate around us. Mike had already set up by this point as you can see in the above picture (taken by my indispensable assistant Alia). He took an eight minute long exposure of the whole event with his neutral density filter on, which looked pretty sweet in camera when it finished processing. I'm sure he'll make it look even sweeter in post and put it up somewhere soon.

My favorite pictures from the actual moment of the sunset don't seem to be of the sun itself setting, they're more the ones where pedestrians blocked the sun itself and got this very cool silhouette and rim light on them. One guy in particular stopped during a light right in the middle of the street and began dancing in front of the sun, which yielded some really nice frames.

All in all it was a great day. Great shooting, great company, and later great artichoke pizza. Can't wait to get another crack at shooting this on July 11th as well. Because the street grid isn't oriented perfectly East-West, it happens twice in periods roughly equal in time from the solstice. Should be fun!

35mm Cooking Theater: Fig and Ginger Ribs

Earlier in the week aomeone pointed me over to a lovely food blog called The Hungry Mouse, which is full of wonderful things to do to meat (and some nice cakes I'm gonna try to). I decided to take advantage of a weekend my mom was away to cook up something nice for my dad and I.

I took this recipe for these fig and ginger ribs and decided to have a go. It's really simple; slather some pork in a disgusting-looking-but-wonderful-smelling mixture of fig preserves, ginger, salt and cider and apply heat!

They were really good on top of a parsnip and potato mash, which was also inspired by Ms. Mouse. The succulent pork flavors were really balanced with the caramelized fig-ness, and the ginger provided a nice contrast-y hot note. This was my first time cooking any really big meat dish and there was a bit of pressure because I was cooking for just my dad, who's a guy that knows a lot of things about cooking meat. But it all turned out really great! This might be the start of a series of posts about ribs and roasts and other protein-themed things.

I think this recipe could also work well with beef ribs, but with a stronger marinade; maybe something with a soy base for the liquid, so the fig is almost a back note. And then you could reduce the marinating liquid with the drippings and make a pretty kickin' sauce.

Magnolia

After the trip to the park on Saturday I met up with the lovely Magnolia Song to do a shoot at St. John's University. It was a pretty overcast day, so we decided to use the fourth floor of D'Angelo as our location. It has a very long hallway, a newly painted white wall and rows of GIGANTIC windows. It's basically a dream location for doing headshots outside of a studio, and it's never busy except if there are school functions going on.

This was what the ambient looked like when we got there. Really a great quality to the light coming in through the big windows on the left, so all we wanted to do was even out the exposure by placing a big light source to the right. Chose to go with the big softbox since it's pretty soft while still having a specular quality, which gives some subtle contrast to the light on her face.

Magnolia was completely natural in front of the camera, varying her pose just a little bit but enough to make each shot feel unique. The big light sources we were using allowed us to play around with poses and positioning really freely. By just moving to the window, we shifted from having the softbox filling in shadows to having it provide a rim light which made the shots have a fashion-y feel.

Great shoot. Great model. Great day!