White Car

 

I was driving home from work the other night and I came upon this at a stop light

It’s the Google Street View car!!!!!!!!

 

Artist: Yes/ Album: Drama

The Book Report

 

This afternoon Catherine and I were chatting about common interests and, of course, the subject of books came up.  Now, I know I have previously stated I’m not exactly the biggest reader these days, but I was actually quite the voracious bibliophile in my youth.

That being said, my favorite book EVAR is Currer Bell Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, so when I came across a book entitled The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde several years ago I was intrigued.  I bought it on a whim and have read them in their entirety every summer, always waiting for the next installment!

    

It’s a bit of a challenge to sum up the series in a couple of sentences, but I’ll do my best.  Set in an alternate England in the 1980’s, Thursday Next works for a literary policing agency (black market Shakespeare and Byron are hot commodities) and discovers that she has the ability to travel into the book world.  In The Eyre Affair, the villainous Acheron Hades has also figured out a way to do just the same and has absconded into Bronte’s Jane Eyre, holding the characters from the original manuscript ransom—for if you change something in the original, all subsequent editions of the book are changed.  In this alternate reality, Bronte’s work ended with Jane leaving the Rochester estate and never coming back (boring!!!), but, through her dealings with Acheron in the book it becomes the ending we know today. She goes on to join the policing agency within the book world under the tutelage of Miss Havisham of Great Expectations fame and in the course of the series are introduced to the “real” versions of the literary characters of lore.  All that to say… I’m not promoting it to be high literary art but it’s super clever and gives me some semblance being well versed in the classics without ever, you know, actually having to read them (Oh that Heathcliff, he’s such an ass!)

These works, along with Doctor Who and Catherine Tate, are often my go-to conversation starters whenever I meet someone from across the pond.  Case and point, I knew that Hester and I were going to get along famously when she too was a fan of the Ffordse’s!

At any rate, the newest addition to the series, One of Our Thursdays is Missing, came out yesterday and though I haven’t had a chance to get to a bookstore yet… it’ll happen sooner rather than later.

Come to think of it, this sounds awwwwwfully similar to my favorite game, “Um… Hey guys, where’s Hester?”  Why do you Brits keep on disappearing!!!!

Artist: Clark Gesner/ Album: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown

Take Her to the Mardi Gras

 

I mentioned in a previous post that I got stuck in Boston with my friends Sarah and Jennifer during Mardi Gras five years ago.  And I gots the PROOF!!

 

MISS YOU!!!!!!!!

Artist: Harry Connick, Jr./ Album: Harry on Broadway, Act I

Color and Light

 

In honor of this, my 200th post, I thought I would kill a couple of birds (and redeem myself as a good Texan) with one post.

It’s new header time!!!

In honor of Texas Independence Day, which I missed on March 2, we are looking at the work of Austin resident Trey Ratcliff, specialist in High Dynamic range (HDR) photography and creator of Stuck in Customs, a blog devoted to his pictures and the process he uses to make them.  What is HDR photography exactly?  A dry definition, courtesy of wikipedia, explains it thusly:

[…] set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wide dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.

It’s a bit easier to see the difference, however:

According to the photographer “… it was shot about two hours outside of Austin in a little town called Brady.  You’d like it.  They have a Sonic there.”  Omg I WOULD like it!

 

In fact, Trey’s picture of Fourth of July fireworks over Lake Austin was the first ever HDR image to be shown in the Smithsonian Institution.  Not too shabby, eh?

 

A shout out to my Savannah relatives!

 

“I found this beauty salon one evening when driving between Houston and Austin. It was just sitting there, all neglected…. and I felt like someone needed to pay attention to it, so I did for a short while.”  By the way, I’d totally get my hair did there.

 

“A Sea of Glass- The Chihuly Exhibit at the Belagio” God, I could go for some Skittles about now

 

In a weird way, this is kind of how I see the world… or at least how I try to see it.  If it’s gonna be in color, then why not Technicolor, right!? It’s certainly no wonder that some of the movies I have recommended previously (Amelie, The Fall) are skewed through a similar lens.  Even before I saw some of Trey’s work I would photoshop my pictures trying to evoke not necessarily what the camera saw, but the image I remembered, ambiance and all.  Two examples from my D.C. trip:

 

Before           and                       After

 

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not even beginning to try and compare myself to the above. For one, my camera consists of, well, my phone. While they may turn out relatively well for small proportioned blog usage, their nowhere NEAR Smithsonian standards. Photography is the one medium of visual art that I think I might even have the capability of doing well, and this style has certainly intrigued me.  So forget that watch (because I’m sure some of you were juuuuust about to buy it for me)… daddy wants a CAMERA!!!

Oh, and speeeaaaaaking of photography, I thought this would be the perfect time to announce that tomorrow I am starting my new job as Assistant Director at the John Cleary Gallery!!!!!  (You may recall I have posted about it ummmm here and here and here and here ad infinitum… … …) I’ll actually be the one to read about this in a GoogleAlert email tomorrow at work :)

That’s right, baby, I can now check something off of my list of life “to-do’s”!!!  It’s not ever really been something I’ve talked about, but I’ve always thought it would be the most glamorous thing to work in a gallery.  Which just goes to show—blog about something enough and who knows where it’ll lead!!! (It maybe also helps to know the owner?)  It’s just a three month stint until I head away to Europe again this summer, but I am going to revel every. single. day of it!

PLEASE DON’T FIRE ME!!!

Artist: Stephen Sondheim/ Album: Sunday in the Park with George

A Boy Named Sue

 

So remember the other day when I was really really craving a coffee? Well, this is the result:

 

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Ummmm… THAT’S NOT MY NAME!!!!!!

 

It’s actually quite shocking the number of times that my name is misspelled.   I can often see the thought process going on inside their heads as they are writing it:

So-and-so: And your name, sir?

Me: Joseph.

So-and-so: *writing* J-o-e… … … *pause*

Okay, so one of two things usually happens here. 

1. Realizing they have used the “e” in the wrong place and, seeing as how they technically don’t have any more to use, decide to just go on and finish out with the remaining letters.

or

2. Seeing they’ve already made one mistake they try to cover their tracks by spelling the last half of it correctly and hope I don’t notice the difference. (ie: Joeseph)

Hell, I’ve even had someone ask me “Is that ‘Joseph’ with a ‘J’?”  (You know, as opposed to Joseph with a 'K’?!?!  I mean, it’s not even like my name is Christen or Karin or something that might be spelled differently. 

Double-u tee eff, Starbucks!

Artist: Johnny Cash/ Album: At San Quentin

I Wanna Drive You Home

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget that…

IT’S

DANCE PARTY

FRIDAY!!!!

 

And, in honor of it being Mardi Gras weekend and the beginning of Spring Break time for colleges across the country, a reminder from Reno 911! to not drink and drive… get a D.D.!

Artist: ZZ Top/ Album: El Loco

Black Coffee

 

You know that saying about “eating your feelings?”  Well, I thought this morning I would do a bit of “sketching my feelings.”

Also, I’m pretty sure this woman used to work at Flim Flam in Ann Arbor.

 

Now true, I’m not a smoker, but if black and white cinema has taught us anything it’s that cigarettes make great dramatic props (well, not if the U.S. Postal Service has anything to say about it!)

 

Artist: Eileen Farrell/ Album: Eileen Farrell Sings Torch Songs