I check these webcams waaaay to much. But this mornings were quite nice.
Guitar Moves: Keith and Mascis
Never heard of this channel before, but two good interviews here to check out.
I've played this video game.....
Like, more than a few times….
A new treasure trove of Webb images has arrived!
Kinda a space nerd so I can’t help but check these images from the Webb telescope, download the HR tiffs and do some clean up on them.
“Webb’s new images are extraordinary,” said Janice Lee, a project scientist for strategic initiatives at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “They’re mind-blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades. Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell a story about the star formation cycle.”
Today I learned: Strobes go boom.
Of course I have a ton of photo gear laying around the studio but I never knew the strobes could blow up. Yikes. Here is a thing from Strobist to help avoid that.
Example: Paul Buff Flashes
1. Dial the power control slider all the way down before turning the flash on. If the flash is a powerful model such as a WLX1600 or WLX3200 (with capacitor switching) make sure the quarter-power switch is not engaged. (You want all of the caps to be involved in the process, and they are not so at the quarter-power setting.)
2. Turn the flash on.
3. Pop the flash for 5-10 shots at the lowest-power setting. (If you can trigger the flash remotely, that probably would not be a bad idea.) This process will partially cycle the capacitor while giving it time to reform the thin, insulating oxide layer that it needs to work properly.
4. Raise the power level one stop and repeat step #4, slowly working your way up to full power. This will help to avoid the possible "thermal runaway" vicious cycle described above and will in many cases safely rejuvenate (or "re-form") a capacitor that may have deteriorated over time.
Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?
The thaw of permafrost soil under a wetland allows bacteria to start reducing that oxidized iron, Cooper thinks. And reduced iron, unlike oxidized iron, is soluble in water. If it's carried by groundwater out into an oxygenated stream, it can once again be oxidized. When that happens, it will fall out of the water as “rust” and turn the stream orange. While digging trenches on marshy ground near Timber Creek this past August, Cooper and Dial found water as deep as 1.5 meters under the once frozen soil, as well as dirt the gray color of reduced iron. New groundwater flows have developed in the thawing earth, Cooper said, and they have “really awakened a lot of these geochemical processes that have been basically stalled out for 5,000 years because the ground's been frozen.”
We stumbled on another burn among the raking willow shrubs as we descended toward the creek, and the trickle from the lumpy black crust there was strongly acidic, too. Below the black spots, an orange slime covered the rocks of the Anaktok, rubbing off on the hands of Alexander Lee, an Alaska Pacific University philosophy professor who was helping to sample fish and invertebrates. A small stream coming down from the hills had a highly acidic pH of 3.5. “Wow, this is crazy,” Dial said.
New Portfolio updates
Working on updating the portfolio a bit so keep an eye on it.
Live music in Portland: Manx at the Railside Pub, Feb 24th.
Got a show coming up with Manx at a super divey bar in Feb. Swing on by!
Have some recordings of rehearsals in the “Personal Art” section of the site if you are curious.
Went as low tech as I could for the flyer, lol!
New Work in the Wild! Nike SB Ishod Wair
Some stuff we worked on with the nice people at Big Giant just went live on Nike SB.
Photography by Jerry Buttles.
Pretty fun being a crusty old skater myself. Sweepers and laybacks, like everyone else my age ya know?
Pretty cool custom couch. Was asked to keep it very film-like. So a lot of little subtle tweaks going on.
Any of you Portland people out there, try to stay warm and stay off that ice… yeeesh…
Gouge Away...
A little Pixie break for ya.
Why Is Everything So Ugly?
Interesting read on Greige and the blandification of everything. Another interesting piece I read, that I will try to dig up, is about how any “authentic” space, like a coffee shop, wine bar or straight up bar bar, has all been smeared into the same styled spaces because of social media. Once on barista posts their new paint, every other barista on instagram does the same shit. I’ll look for it. Anyways, some takeaways from this piece.
“Our new neighbor is a classic 5-over-1: retail on the ground floor, topped with several stories of apartments one wouldn’t want to be able to afford.
...
Attempts have been made to classify structures like this one and the ethos behind their appearance: SimCityist, McCentury Modern, fast-casual architecture. We prefer cardboard modernism, in part because The Josh looks like it might turn to pulp at the first sign of a hundred-year flood.
...
In 2020, a study by London’s Science Museum Group’s Digital Lab used image processing to analyze photographs of consumer objects manufactured between 1800 and the present. They found that things have become less colorful over time, converging on a spectrum between steel and charcoal, as though consumers want their gadgets to resemble the raw materials of the industries that produce them. If The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit once offered a warning about conformity, he is now an inspiration, although the outfit has gotten an upgrade. Today he is The Man in the Gray Bonobos, or The Man in the Gray Buck Mason Crew Neck, or The Man in the Gray Mack Weldon Sweatpants — all delivered via gray Amazon van. The imagined color of life under communism, gray has revealed itself to be the actual hue of globalized capital. “The distinct national colors of the imperialist map of the world have merged and blended in the imperial global rainbow,” wrote Hardt and Negri. What color does a blended rainbow produce? Greige, evidently.”
Music Mondays? Sure! Tom Waits - Glitter And Doom Concert Experience (2008)
Who can’t use a little bit of Tom Waits for the start of your work week?
Podcasts!
So as I sit here drawing every day for 10 hours, I tend to listen to a lot of podcasts. Here are some of my regular ones I go to. Got a long car drive or a run, check some of these out.
Politics
Good in-depth legal discussions where they usually explain all the complexities of some of the fuckery going on in the world.
Because Preet was not deep enough in the legal weeds for you, have a bunch of lawyers really, and I mean really, dig into current court cases and legal fuckery going on. Trump’s Trials and Tribulations are always informative.
A bunch of ex-election professionals talk about the current state of politics and elections. Generally a bit funnier, but also much more opinionated than the above.
Music
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
Do you happen to be looking for a 4 hour podcast on The Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star”? Hoo, boy do I have the podcast for you. It covers the culture of the time of the songs and the impacts of it and all sorts of other sprawling interesting tid bits. The Velvet Underground episode is also really good.
Why does this or that band have such a cult / cultural impact? Well, here ya go. Op Ivy? Check. Fugazi? Check. Insane Clown Posse? Sure, why not. Go for it.
Look, just sweep the mids. Wanna learn about LA-2A Tube Compressor? Pultec? How to mic drums? How to best EQ? Well, here ya go. Audio nerdy goodness.
Games
Focused on the MMO genre of games. WoW, GW2, New World, etc…
Just good overall general gaming podcast that covers all genres and systems.
How Corruption and Greed Led to the Downfall of Rock Music
Good backstory by Rick Beato on payola and more scumminess in the music biz circa late 90s. Rent backs? Check! Kickbacks? Check! Self dealing? Check!
Wheee!
Tinkering with some FLIP stuff with help from a tut. Thought I just throw thi sup here cause it’s fun. Hopefully will develop it a bit further.
4000 of my closest friends- Cat and Girl
Web comic artist Cat And Girl comic on finding her name in the theft list from AI companies scraping her art. Kinda hits ya right in the feels don’t it?
Storm a' Brewing
This mornings web cam in Yachats is Gnarly.
Music Fridays!
Happy freaking Friday everyone. A slightly different music Friday here. I just went ahead and posted a page with a bunch of recordings of my different bands. Some rehearsals, so be forgiving with those, some videos and some EPs. Just figured why not post some of this stuff instead of just sitting on it. Anyways, here’s a bunch of crap-o-la to listen too, lol!
Happy New Year!
Happy New year everyone! Spent some time in lovely Oceanside, Oregon to recharge a bit and had a lovely hike with friends in Forest Park yesterday. Here’s to 2024. Have some iPhone snaps. ;)
The Invisible Bunnies That Power World of Warcraft
Old piece I stumbled upon about how World of Warcraft used to mostly be ran by invisible bunnies that would be used to trigger events and aim turrets. But this is the take away quote that made me laugh.
“The WoW team’s tools have become more refined over time, so they don’t have to duct-tape rabbits to lasers as much anymore. “Sometimes,” McCathern said, “you don’t know designers need a kitchen until they’ve made ramen in a flower vase with an iron.”