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Just got back in from my usual, frenetic Christmas travels. We switched things up a bit this year, spent CHristmas eve at mom’s and Christmas day over at dad’s. Usually it’s the other way around. Everything went well, everyone seemed to like their gifts. It’s always a relief t know that you didn’t screw up…
I picked up the shelves from my dad, no I have something to pt my stereo on! I brought up all of my LPs and I’m now listening to a record for the for the first time in years!!! I remember why LPs died off, what a pain in the ass. They’re big, heavy, and fragile. But I couldn’t help but smile when I started flipping through my collection. Lots of stuff I’ve missed, all of my Rolling Stones, 80’s stuff (Greg Khin, Cyndi Lauper, Duran Duran, Human League, Madness, Waitresses, etc.), groups from SST, Fugazi, and a handful of K-tel albums (remember Pablo Cruise, or maybe Frank Stallone’s “Far From Over?”). Plus, the stereo system never really looks right without a turntable…

I also got one of the silliest presents ever, and I love it! It’s a toy rabbit styled after the one in Monty Python’s Holy Grail. It has enormous teeth and is about as silly as can be. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Isaac

I’m sure all of you know that I’m a camera snob, I have just cemented that in my own mind. I have used the best that the commercial world can offer, Hassleblads, Leica, Schneider LF lenses and Japanese precision large format cameras. Now I’m having cameras custom made for me… I ordered two cameras from a guy in Austrailia, he modifies old polaroid cameras that use obsolete film into ones that use current real film. I’ll be getting a 4×5 rangefinder camera and a 6×12 rangefinder. They’ll be like big, folding Leicas! I feel like these will allow me to shoot the way I like to with a minimum if compromise. More importantly, I’ll be able to carry these with me and take them on my travels. Since they fold up into their own hard shell, they will also be pretty impervious to damage. I’m pretty excited, but I’ll have to wait a while. He doesn’t expect them to be done till late Feb. or early March. Oh well, good things come to those that wait, right?

Isaac

Those of you that know me pretty well know that this is usually my least favorite time of the year. Christmas in retail can be hellish. Long hours, limited time with family, cranky customers and coworkers all add up to trying times. Or at least they used to. I gotta say that this year is a piece of cake despite all of the other things being the same as ever. In addition, I’m continuing to loose weight and I’m making more money now than I ever have in the past. Not bad eh?:-)

I’m giving credit to several cd programs and a book that has really turned my perspective completely around. I mentioned the Mind OS book before, it’s given me a way to look at the way I’m thinking and redirect it to ways that are better. I’m still reading it (it’s close to 400 pages) but just reading the first 6 chapters has had quite an impact on me. Brian Tracy’s “The Psychology of success” cd program is chock full of good ideas and strategies for doing better in life. It can be a bit cheesy at times, and a little over the top, but it is effective. I’ve gotten more done and made more money already just by using his techniques. The last one is “How to be a no Limit Person” by Wayne Dyer. He was THE guru in the 70’s on self improvement, and this was recorded in the late 70’s. Because of that, it sounds a little cheesy, and the music is ridiculous, but the message is still relevant. I was struck most about his “parking space” talk. Have you ever had to go someplace when you knew it would be crazy busy? You say to yourself, “There won’t be any parking spaces. the parking lot is full…” and then you go there and you’re looking for no parking spaces! You expect it and it shapes your reality. I’ve used his ideas to virtually (not completely mind you) eliminate my road rage with DC traffic and my apprehension of nasty customers. Good stuff, I highly recommend all of these to anyone that has anger problems, motivation problems, or just don’t understand why you do certain things. This things can’t answer every question of course, but they have given me a way to look at the things I’d like to improve and make some headway.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Isaac

I was in a 4 week intensive class learning to be a sommelier. It cost me 5 or 6 grand and somehow I decided that it was worth it for some reason. Turns out that I had a knack for being a wine snob and could match wines with meals really well. Why not, I tend to lean towards the snobbish side of most things it seems… The teacher was impressed with how quickly I picked up the differences in the wines. I even enjoyed the taste of some of them, a real smooth, warm kind of wine. I don’t usually taste things in dreams, but this was pleasant enough. Of course I don’t really drink at all, I can count the number of times I’ve had wine on one hand. It was a pretty lucid dream, no weirdness that usually occurs in dreams. It was odd though, I woke up thinking WTF was that about? I guess I should be happy my dreams are just odd instead of terrible like some people’s…

Isaac

24 of my auctions ended on Ebay on sunday. By tomorrow I will have shipped out 21 boxes. I still haven’t boxed up any of the Christmas presents I need to send out yet… I had sunday off but I won’t have another day off until monday, and then no more until Christmas. I’m such a whore, I asked for the hours and I’m getting them! I’ll actually get paid for them this year too, the way the checks work out, we get three in december, that’ll help. Woog I’m tired, better get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow…

Isaac

Found a still from Bergman’s Persona and promptly put it up as one of my rotating wallpaper images. This was one of the first mind blowing films I ever saw and it had quite an impact on me. The still is part of the “dream sequence” where liv Ulman is running her hands through Bibi Andersons’s hair. It is a weird mix of eroticism and creepiness. This was the first scene in which I picked up on the vampirism theme running through the film. No, not literal vampirism, but a symbolic one, of one person feeding off of another. It’s an intense film, and odds are you won’t be able to follow it completely with a single viewing, but it’s worth the effort.

Isaac

Here’s the last batch of searches that ended up at my website, quite the motley group.

14.29% cheap stingy bastard.com
2 9.52% why the demand curve slope downwards
2 9.52% photography is not art
2 9.52% concepts of rational choice
2 9.52% david melito
1 4.76% isaac crawford mac
1 4.76% isaac crawford ithaca
1 4.76% chrysotype photo process steps
1 4.76% rodinal fp4
1 4.76% albienz
1 4.76% darkroom toning primer
1 4.76% silkscreening advances
1 4.76% flashlight band ithaca -a flashight
1 4.76% ipod stuff
1 4.76% guitar playing prosthetic fingertips

I particularly like the last one…

Isaac

For those of you that read my “Frank Black and The Pixies” piece on my website, you might remember about my “obsession” with female bass players. I listed a few on there and one of them wrote to me tonight! No, not Kim Gordon, Kim Deal, or Tina, but Dayrlynn did. She was the bass player for flashlight, a band in Ithaca. It was a little weird, I mean, I said that I was obsessed with specific women, and I called one of them petite, adorable and (cranking) out the nastiest bass grooves, and she wrote to me! Granted, she was correcting my butchering of her name, but it was a lot of fun to hear from her:-) My most vivid memory involving her was on a holloween night. There was another band that the drummer and guitar player from flashlight were in (4 souls down?) and they had a gig in collegetown if I remember correctly. Anyway, Brett, her boyfriend at the time (and now her husband) was dressed as Prince and was invited to sing with the band. He sang “If I was your Girlfriend” to her and I thought that they were going to have sex right then and there. There was an obvious connection between the two of them, only a fool would dare get in the middle of that…

I updated the Frank Black piece with her correct name and a link to the band’s page. I have also updated my demand curves page. I’ve been getting a decent number of hits on this, interestingly all from outside the US. England, Canada, Ireland, and India have all visited the page. What is it about the Commonwealth that wonders about downwards sloping demand curves? Anyway, I’ve put a little more meat on the page. Let me know what you think.

Isaac

OK, I’m intrigued… The post had a review of last night’s Sinead O’Conner’s concert. She didn’t do any of her hits, but instead concentrated on her new musical love, Reggae. Hmmm, I’ve always been a fan of hers and I’m intrigued. Yes, she’s a nut, but what a powerful voice. And no matter what has gotten into her head, there’s no doubt that she believes in what she’s singing. Come to think of it, remember her Pope picture tearing incident on SNL? Does anyone remember what she sang before that? It was “War” as popularized by Bob Marley (From a speech by Hali Sallisai). It was a capella if I remember correctly, and she was ON! That was an intense rendition and it was one of the reasons that the picture tearing had such an impact.
The post reviewer was very complimentary, she has hired some real reggae heavyweights for her band. I’m the typical white guy that loves Marley, I own the best of Jimmy Cliff, and I have a few King Tubby albums (is that more Dub than Reggae?), but I really don’t know any reggae band members unless their names are Peter or Bunny… I think I’ll pick up the newest Sinead CD one of these days. I have her two big albums and an album of standards (which she does very well) so it’ll be interesting to hear how she tackles this.

Isaac

You knew it was just a matter of time before I started to think about camera equipment again… I really love large format, and I would love to take pictures using a large format camera when I go to Egypt, but they’re too big. They’re too heavy, too bulky and completely impractical. Umm, except this one. It would be like using a Leica, except with massive negs. I could also use film backs like a 6×12 cm back with roll film. The only thing that I can see that I don’t like is the price. Yikes! Still, the cheapest one would be less than half of what my photo gear sold for. Oh yeah, that’s still a lot of money. Still, I cringe at the thought of capturing images on the biggest adventure of my life (so far thank you very much) on a dinky little 35mm piece of film. Don’t talk to me about digital cameras, even if there was a reasonably priced camera that I like the image quality of, I can’t imagine using those ergonomic disasters with the squinty, tiny, dark viewfinders. Yes, the Leica has spoiled me…
I think that I will set up my teaching savings account to save up for a camera for the trip. I have almost hit my goal of savings for the trip already, and I don’t leave until the end of August so I shouldn’t have any trouble saving up for it. We’ll see, I’m bound to change my mind again by that point…

Isaac