As my dad and I were eating an early dinner at Johnny D’s, we heard The Bills warming up and doing their sound check. We couldn’t stay for the show, but I picked up a CD of theirs and have really been diggin’ it. Cross Moxy Fruvous with the Resophonics and you’ve got The Bills.
Author Archives: dsz123
I had ice cream for dinner last night after a nice bike ride. Ah, the benefits of being an adult.
I might end up at the MFA tomorrow morning while my car’s being serviced. I was looking at their website today and discovered you can actually search their catalog online. I’m having fun thinking again about the light machine for my dad.
I had a fine weekend in New York that included trips to Zabar’s, Stand Up New York, and B&H; where I acquired lox, laughs, and lenses, respectively. Good times.
I finally got around to cleaning the hard drive off my old iMac, so I put it up for sale on Craigslist. It’s been with me for 5 years (!), so I’m a little sad. But, the prospect of one less heavy thing to move cross-country is not sad.
I saw an atrociously bad movie the other night – don’t ever see What the #$!* Do We Know? For the first minute or so, it seemed like it could have been an interesting movie about science and philosophy, but it degraded pretty quickly into, essentially, a recruiting piece for a cult. Hard to believe […]
As I play more with the D70, I’ve been looking for a good description of how to take pictures using a flash (either built-in or external). The camera offers tons of settings, but the manual offers few explanations of when you’d want to use them or why. The best I’ve found so far is here. […]
So I’ve been considering a telephoto zoom lens for the new camera, and I decided to rent a 80-200mm f2.8 lens for a day to see if I liked it and if I could carry it around for a day without getting sore. It’s a heavy lens – almost 3 pounds – and I found […]
Looking for a small MP3 player to drool over but sick of visiting Apple’s website? Check out mica. Too bad it’s over $300 bucks for the 1 GB model…
The Pi(e) Party on Friday was a great success – thanks to all who came. I didn’t take any pictures this year, but there wasn’t too much debauchery to document anyway. Something to shoot for next year, I guess. I saw Million Dollar Baby last night and was pleasantly surprised. It’s an old-fashioned movie in […]
I spent some time last night doing some experiments with the new camera – check out the results here. There’s plenty more to do and I’ll update the page as I go, but it’s a good start for now. I’m looking forward to the annual Pi(e) Party tomorrow night. I like my pi and I […]
With the wild weather outside (30+ mph winds and white-out snow), I enjoyed an evening in. I made some tasty quesadillas and spent most of the night thumbing through the archives of Galen Rowell’s articles for Outdoor Photographer. The articles might not be that appealing to non-photographers, but no one should pass up looking at […]
I was more than a little surprised when my registration renewal notice from the RMV had an advertisement from Ford enclosed – what gives?
I’m selling a digital camera over on Craigslist. It’s not fancy, but it’s cheap – drop me a note if you’re interested. In other digital news, my new camera arrived at the end of the week. It’s a serious beast – a little bigger than my old Pentax and with tons more features. I haven’t […]
Looks like Bush is trying to slip a provision to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve into the budget measure. Unfortunately, the budget bill can’t be fillibustered and only requires a simple majority to pass – now’s the time to write your (republican) senator.
Seen (here): Use our lay-a-way program. A way to where? A cell phone conversation later on, overheard: “I’m gonna work it out, but she’s going to the slammer with me…” Good luck!
Well, life is slowly returning to normal in these post-portfolio times. We went on Friday night to Chilli Garden in Medford. I enjoyed it well enough, but it’s still no Zoe’s. I’m thinking I’ll pick up a new camera soon. Anyone have any thoughts about getting a longer zoom lens (the camera kit comes with […]
I went to an opening at the Griffin Museum tonight to see a piece that Scott had in the juried show. I ended up winning the door prize at the event, which comprised a Holga, some film, a few postcard sized prints by Arthur Griffin, and a copy of The Fire Within – pretty good […]
I noticed two things in the “healthy/organic” section of the Stop & Shop last night. First, I seem to have an aversion to “regular” brands also making an organic product. I saw Snyder’s of Hanover Organic Pretzel Sticks and was immediately mad that they were trying to cash in on the organic fad. Then, I […]
The portfolio’s nearly done. A little editing tonight, a little binding and construction tomorrow and it’ll be finished – finally! I’m really happy with how it’s turned out, but I’m really ready to move on. Cheers to Tova for discovering that the Royal Sonesta by the Cambridgeside Galleria will let you use their pool, hot […]
Wanna see The Gates, but can’t make it down to New York before the end of the month? No problem, Somerville has it’s own installation: The Somerville Gates.
I was desperate for exercise last night, so I went for a run, the second half of which was in a reasonably heavy rain. I was in noticably worse shape than the last time I ran (two months ago), but it still felt good. The portfolio is coming along but taking up most of my […]
It’s been a rough week already – there’s an article in the New Yorker about the US repatriating prisoners to countries when the government knows they’ll be tortured, and Gonzales was sworn in – but now we have to deal with this?! I don’t know how anyone in the Bush administration can sleep at night.
I saw five hawks in trees along the highway (spread out over a few miles) this morning, a very foggy one. I’ve also noticed that I see the hawk that lives near the office more often in bad weather. Any thoughts why? Maybe I’m just better at seeing them in the rain. Still enjoying the […]
Since I’m starting to run out of space for the site, I’m going to be doing some reorganizing and (mostly) deleting of images in the next couple days. If you’re trying to find something in particular and you think it ought to have stayed up, you can send me email.
I’ve been using my new computer a bunch and really enjoying it. I’ve also been following this thread about getting the two-finger scrolling (featured in the just-released Powerbooks) working on older models. My vote is for SideTrack – it’s not free ($15), but it’s much more powerful, and works like a charm. I tried East […]
After a mercifully quick stop at the Home Depot on the way home, I put together my light tent and started snapping some pictures. I think it’s a pretty good setup, especially for such little money. You can check out the setup (pops in new window) or some sample results (also pops). [ Just a […]
Gonna be in New York between February 12th and the 27th? Check out The Gates while you’re there. The new computer rocks! I’m currently debating whether or not to buy AppleCare, the extended warranty plan from Apple. Word on the ‘net is mixed – some say you won’t need it, others swear by it. In […]
I’m posting this from the kitchen from my new computer. Yep, the five year-old iMac has been relegated to the closet (or it will be soon, anyway) and I’m all modern and updated with wireless, bluetooth and all sorts of other doodads and whatsits. Fun times. I saw The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou last […]
This is the first time I’ve worn regular shoes out of the house rather than boots in quite a long time. And I probably should’ve worn boots – it’s a slushy, slushy world out there. After looking around for an appropriate program to create my portfolio in, I settled on the new Apple program Pages. […]
I had a busy weekend with cross-country skiing at the Middlesex Fells on Friday, pancake making (for the Nave Gallery fundraiser) on Saturday and some portfolio work yesterday. Check out some pictures from sledding and skiing last week and a few from pancake making. Good times. Nerve.com has a couple of pieces up about Malcom […]
I finished taking pictures for my portfolio yesterday, and started thinking about the layout last night. Fun stuff. I also edited a few of the pictures I took of the finished bench and updated the piano bench page, maybe for the last time. I’m really happy with how it came out, though it’s always tough […]
I guess it’s not that hard to believe, but I’m starting to hit the 100 MB disk quota for my website. I’ll figure out in the next couple days if I want to start rotating the image galleries or add more space… In the meantime, check out this picture I took at Christmastime in New […]
I braved the cold out in the garage this weekend long enough to make a couple tools to disassemble my Canonet. The shutter and aperture blades were pretty sticky, to the point where the shutter fired in slow motion – it took about 5 seconds to open and another 5 to close. The tools worked […]
Done! The piano bench is done! Look for pictures early next week. It reached a balmy 11°F today, and the only time I’ve spent outside so far has been between my back door and basement to do laundry. Guess I should be thankful since the projected high was 10° – one whole extra degree warmer […]
Looks pretty certain that my Canonet QL17 has got the sticky shutter syndrome (hope it’s not contagious). I got a roll back that included a number of pictures taken outdoors. In this cold, the shutter is super-slow, so the pictures are way overexposed. The overexposed frames also seem to bleed into neighboring frames, ruining otherwise […]
Work on the portfolio continues – I took some pictures at work last night using the strobes and 4 megapixel digital camera we have. They came out well, and I’ll bring in some bigger items (the piano bench and coffee table) later this week. The piano bench is sooo close to being done, but the […]
Benjy threw quite a party on Friday night (incriminating pictures already posted by Samara) – it was a Studio 54/1970’s themed affair. Scrounging at the last minute for a costume, I found some awesome, 70’s style sunglasses (visible in pic #2 on Samara’s page) in my desk drawer. Only after 20 minutes of wearing them […]
I was scanning in some medium format negatives last night (from the Rolleiflex) and came across a roll of film I’d pretty much written off because of the light leak in the camera. One frame turned out to be salvageable, and produced a pretty okay image of my grandparents – check it out here.
I got a chance to scan in the latest roll of pictures from the QL17 – check ’em out here. There are certainly no major issues with the camera (light leaks, etc.), though I have noticed the shutter seems a little sticky – there’s a small delay between pressing the button and when the shutter […]
We had brunch on Saturday at Sabur and really enjoyed it. The snowstorm kept the crowds to a minimum (in fact, we shared the restaurant with one other group of people), and the food was fantastic. Highly recommended. Craft Day yesterday was a great time – thanks to everyone for coming over (especially Lauren, who’s […]
I got back some more pictures I took with my new camera. They came out quite well, and I’ll post them when I have a chance to scan them in. I definitely need to take a little more time when I’m taking pictures with it, though, to get the exposure & focus right. It’s craft […]
I watched the PBS documentary on Ansel Adams last night (from the American Experience series). The film itself was alright, but not as good as it could have been. For a show focusing on a photographer, there was remarkably poor treatment of his photographs and the venues he shot them in. The director, Ric Burns, […]
I put up some info about how I fixed the flash that came with my recent acquisition (the Canon QL17) – you can check it out here. No pictures developed from the camera yet except for the all-too-grainy 800 speed film ones. I also got a ton of work done today on the piano bench […]
Well, my new (old) camera arrived yesterday! It’s in much better shape than I expected it to be, and seems to work perfectly. I loaded up some ASA 800 film (grainy stuff, that) and took a quick roll of pictures last night. I might post more of them, but in the meantime, check out my […]
I finished making a new focusing screen for my Rolleiflex last night. It ain’t perfect, but it’ll do for the time being. You can see it here.
I guess it was around 9:30 this morning when I was still in my pajamas that I realized I wasn’t going to work. There’s about 8″ of snow outside, though, so I’m not entirely without excuse (the driving really wouldn’t have been fun). I won an E-Bay auction for a Canonet QL17 yesterday – hopefully […]
I’ve got an end-of-the-year bonus coming my way that’s been burning a hole in my pocket. Fortunately, I’ve found something cheaper than a DSLR to spend it on – I’m hoping to find one of these in decent shape sometime soon. Everything I’ve read about them say they’re quite fun little cameras, and lately I’ve […]
Over the weekend, as part of a cleanup effort, I dug out my old Zip drive and 5 years of backup disks (1995-2000). Eventually, I’ll burn the contents to CD’s and get rid of the Zip disks, but in the meantime, I spent a few strange hours reading about my life. Honestly, I was surprised […]
When I woke up this morning, the sky was pretty red. Now, I remember the first line of the rhyme: “Red sky at night, sailors delight.” But the second escapes me: “Red sky at dawn, sailors move the pawn?” “Red sky at sunrise, sailors eat french fries?” Ah, these guys know: “Red sky in the […]
I’ve been reading up a bit on audio recording under Mac OS X. My situation is this: I used a MiniDisc device to record an interview with my grandmother recently, and I’d love to have that audio on my computer (a Mac) in digital format. It appears I have at least the following options: Attempt […]
Well, there was a little bit of good news amongst the photography-related failures of last week (the x-rays first, then some bad exposures with the flash): the few pictures I took at Regionals in October came out quite well. Check ’em out here. Craft Day yesterday was as fun as always – you can see […]
It’s sad that Wigu will be finishing up at the end of the month – it’s one of the few comics I read regularly and really enjoy. Hopefully Jeff’s next project will be equally engaging. Well, I went for another run last night and discovered I might actually enjoy running. Who knew? The obvious answer […]
I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind last night (I really have been on a movie kick lately) and definitely found it the best Charlie Kaufman movie yet. While Being John Malkovich and Adaptation were really concept movies, Eternal Sunshine was about people and their relationships. It’s not the best movie ever, but I […]
It’s official – the first part (essay & forms) of my application is submitted. All that’s left (ha!) is to make a portfolio.
I got back a roll of film taken with the Rolleiflex on Friday and was pretty disappointed to discover it’d been damaged by X-rays from my air travels. Even the TSA says you can have film hand checked, so I guess that’s what I’ll do from now on. Bummer.
I’m glad yesterday turned around – after a crappy start to the day (bad weather, etc.) it turned out to be quite a good evening. When I got home from work, I was craving exercise so badly I actually went for a run. I know, shocking, right? It think, frisbee practices aside, it’s been a […]
I forgot to mention that, while in Seattle, I had a chance to check out the new library. It’s really a great space you should see if you’re in town – it’s modern and very funky without being overpowering or distracting, and it’s gorgeous. In a ridiculous move, the City of Somerville is considering divesting […]
I went last night to the Somerville Theater to hear the Signature Sounds 10th Anniversary Concert – good stuff! Every act/artist was fantastic, which is quite impressive considering there were 15 of them, and they all seemed to be having just as good a time as the audience. Also, I put up a picture of […]
I’m back from NYC after a nice holiday visit with the fam. In addition to eating lots of good food, we went to see The Incredibles – great movie! My aunt and I also squeezed in a little time to work on the camera and sucessfully riveted the two metal arms in place. Look for […]
It’s been pretty slow for the past few months, but the Style Invitational at the Washington Post from a few weeks ago made me laugh awful hard when I read it today. Check it out here.
Still left on the “to-do in Seattle” list: have a cupcake from Cupcake Royale. I came so close this trip – I even bought a cupcake to eat on the airplane, but then left it, in its bright pink box, at the check-in counter. By the time I realized I’d left it, the fate of […]
I’m back! And off to NYC on Thursday morning. December ought to be a little calmer, travel-wise, though. I was glad to have my bed back last night, and my radio station this morning. I can’t say I’m entirely disappointed I missed pledge week on WERS last week – though I’m happy to support them, […]
I went out dancing last night at Blues Underground on Capitol Hill – it really redeemed Seattle in my dance eyes as my experience on Monday night at Sonny’s wasn’t so hot. The scene last night was great, though – lots of groovy music, good dancers and great dances. Check it out if you’re in […]
In case you needed further proof that Seattle is a gorgeous place, I put up a few more images from the beginning of this trip here. And I can’t take a picture that would communicate it, but the coffee here is fantastic.
Here’s the view this afternoon from where I was staying in Seattle: The Sheraton downtown, where I’m staying for work, doesn’t have quite as nice a view, but it’s not that shabby, either.
Three words: go see Ray! I really enjoyed the movie – I thought Jamie Foxx was spectacular, the music is great, of course, the sound engineering very well done, and the story well told. I’d really recommend it. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy my 10 hour trip to Seattle very much – a couple inches of […]
I saw Sideways last night and really enjoyed it. It’s not the best film ever, but it was definitely worth my ten bucks, and it made up for Alexander Payne’s previous film – the abysmal About Schmidt. I’m off to Seattle tomorrow for a week split between vacation and work, and although I’ve been traveling […]
I put up a little page describing my experiences with my old Rolleiflex camera – check it out here. I’ll put up more info as I have time and as I continue to fix up the camera. For something 70 years old, it works amazingly well and makes me happy every time I use it.
If you’re in need of any advice on repairing an old camera, Ken Ruth is your man. He spent almost half an hour with me on the phone helping me think through a fix for the Rolleiflex (essentially, I need to make a very small rivet to replace one that broke) in spite of the […]
We got our first snow last night! After the 60° weather on Sunday, it dropped to just above freezing yesterday evening and snowed just a little bit. It’s definitely getting to be winter time – if only knitting and drinking hot cocoa gave the same health benefits as biking and playing ultimate frisbee twice a […]
The official, version 1.0 release of Firefox comes out today. Check it out for all your pop-up-free browsing needs. So I posted some stuff up on Craigslist last night in the Free section, and was instantly innundated with about 75 emails in 10 minutes! The responses ranged from “Gimme everything!” to “My dying grandmother told […]
One idea I’ve come up with for my portfolio (part of my application to grad school) is to make an interactive digital picture frame/portfolio. I’ve found a few articles (like this one or this one) on hacking up an old laptop to act as a just a picture frame, but they don’t address a few […]
I got some good woodworking done this weekend (hopefully not the last with such good weather) and made progress on the piano bench. It’s slow going, but the end is definitely in sight… I was in Indianapolis for a couple days at the end of last week – if you can avoid Indianapolis, do. I […]
Today’s dose of moderation comes from an unlikely source – William Safire of the NY Times. Check out his remarkably grounded editorial from this morning, in which he calls on the administration to keep their far-right wing plans in check. Surprising, but smart. What’re the chances Bush’ll follow this advice?
Really? Him again? It’s really depressing. What makes me the most unhappy isn’t that he won – I’m almost ready to accept that 51% of the country voted for Bush. The thing that gets me is that he and his administration somehow view the election as a mandate that they’re 100% right. Nearly half the […]
Don’t forget to vote! It seems that Tova’s gone international! Anyone know Korean?
For Halloween this year, I went as a cubist painting: Matt and I independently came up with costume ideas on Friday night and spent Saturday afternoon at my house making them. Pictures of his (awesome) costume should be up on his site soon. As you can see (more or less, anyway – sorry for the […]
Looking for lots of reasons to vote Bush out of office? Look no further: list 1 and list number 2. Election day is less than a week away!
Maybe yesterday was the end of the world: the Red Sox won the world series, there was a lunar eclipse last night, and I got a cell phone. Unfortunately, the only call I’ve made on the new phone was to 911 to report a pretty horrific bicycle vs. taxicab accident I saw last night after […]
I finally got a chance to put up a few pictures from camping and hiking in September and October – you can see them here. I quite like the jet-trail picture and the one of the pond at Beartown State Forest. Looks like I’ll pick up my new cell phone from T-Mobile tomorrow morning. Ack!
Sadly, one thing the California trip showed me was that I really ought to get a cell phone again. Since I got rid of mine a couple years ago, I’ve definitely enjoyed being cell-less, and in fact relish being able to say “I don’t have a cell phone.” Unfortunately, the pro’s now outweigh the con’s, […]
I really didn’t have a chance to post from California, so there’s a lot to catch up on. My luggage eventually did arrive, but not before it took a detour to San Diego and then LAX. Unfortunately, somewhere in that detour, the TSA opened it up and rearranged the contents in such a way that […]
Though I happily arrived in California last night, my luggage did not. Apparently, 45 minutes isn’t long enough for a bag to switch planes (though I changed planes, too, the flight number remained the same). Also, it’s apparently difficult for the airlines to discern between Oakland and San Diego, as evidenced by my bag’s side […]
I’m off to California tomorrow for a week in the Bay Area. I’m looking forward to some good eatin’, seeing lots of friends, a reunion with my old roommates who abandoned me for Berkeley (understandable, really), maybe some dancing, and a chance to look at the Joint Program in Design. Anna, Danielle and I are […]
I went out to Devens this weekend to watch some of the NE Regionals ultimate tournament. Congrats to all the folks on 6 Trained Monkeys (including Simone, who hasn’t updated her website in a year) for kickin’ some butt! I got a bunch of portfolio work done this weekend – Sunday night was spent taking […]
Alright – here come the photos… First, some B&W; ones from the annual Brandeis University Physics Department Eric Jensen Memorial picnic – check ’em out here. Next up, more/updated color pictures from the Rolleiflex from around Boston last weekend – they’re here. Still en route are pictures from camping as well as Dan and my […]
A couple teaser pictures from this weekend are up here. More to come soon.
I finally got a chance to watch Rivers and Tides over the weekend (it recently came out on video/DVD). I enjoyed the film, as it’s a real insight into Goldsworthy as an artist as much as a great presentation of his sculptures. He’s certainly a peculiar man, but very interesting and in the end likeable, […]
More sad news in the photography world – Richard Avedon has died. Known recently for his work in the New Yorker, he started as a fashion photographer before expanding his work into portraiture. You can see the New York Times article/biography here.
I came up with a new design for the piano bench – you can check it out here. The basic plan is to use two of the nice big pieces of birdseye maple from the original design in a new way, while keeping it simple enough that I can finish the bench in a reasonable […]
Craft Day yesterday was a great success – the weather was just right for spending the afternoon outside painting, constructing, drawing and woodworking. This morning, I came across this chip that seems to be exactly what I need to get the robot arm up and running again. I knew such a IC must have existed, […]
Last night, Rif, Anna, Danielle and I checked out the new Indian restaurant in Harvard Square, Tamarind Bay. It definitely breaks out of the typical Indian restaurant mold, and ought to be pretty successful. It took over the location from Casa Mexico, and they’ve really squeezed about as many tables into the basement space as […]
Last night we went out to Chez Henri for Matt’s birthday (happy birthday, Matt!). Boy is that place great! The bartender mixes drinks perfectly, and the food is always top-notch. Full from dinner, I somehow managed to get myself over to Medford for a late-night (under-the-lights) frisbee game – it was probably good to work […]
I finally had a chance to scan in the prints from the medium format pictures from Ithaca. Check ’em out here.
It’s about time for John Kerry to do something. I’m not sure it counts, or if it’s enough, but he made a stellar speech about Iraq at NYU recently – check it out here. The hype about Kerry right after he won the nomination was that he was no Al Gore. Unfortunately, it seems to […]