It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas. www.wackytackychristmas.com

Firstly I love Christmas, the memories, the songs, the warm feeling of goodwill, but not what it has become..   Think about it 100 years ago Christmas was basically a secular holiday, family gathering, and light gift giving. Largely seeped in Germanic traditions.  Today it's non-stop exposure to print, broadcast media, even the internet, that invites up to Buy Buy Buy.  Santa ditched his traditional sleigh for a new red Mercedes $250,000 SL300. The media would have us believe that many give new cars to spouse, siblings, wrapped in giant red bows.  Giant RedBows where do you get them anyway? They're not sold in Kmart.  What kind of message does this send out to the masses, well at least to the 99%.. Try harder, work harder and someday this could be you. Or sorry looser, maybe you can dream about buying a winning lottery ticket.  The music. Each year I love to hear all the traditional Christmas songs. Once, not over and over and over, no matter where your go.  Food shopping, why do I need to listen to "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" while buying a can of sauerkraut, some milk.  Or while eating lunch in my favorite store front pizza joint?  If a little medicine is good for you then lets take more cus it must be better.  Well at least until the Alzheimer's, or death takes them away I still have those special memories of Christmas as only a 5 year old can have. All was good, all was bright and Santa and his Sleigh were coming tonight..

But how about WackyTackyChristmas I did this website about 6 years ago as a lark, just a virtual sandbox to play around with I feel is an overlooked segment of the Holiday, mainly bad Holiday outdoor lighting.  Tasteless, excesses, all are fare game.

As   Clark Griswold Jr. said to Senior in that venerable holiday classic movie   Christmas Vacation "Dad. I owe everything I learned about outdoor lighting to you"

Currently playing in iTunes: Fir Coat by Widowspeak

Technorati Tags: blogging, Projects

Thanksgiving - A Retrospect.

Well gang, it's time to again turn on Professor Pebody's "Way Back" Machine, and set the dial back to thanksgivings when I was a kid.

For us, or at least me, the Holiday was segmented into two parts.

Part 1…   AM  on TV, Watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, more specifically the toy add, many of which it was the first showing and of course the end when Santa in the Fire Truck arrived at Macy's and climbed up the ladder to take station in Toyland.  That was it! The official start to the Christmas count down.  Before the event, nothing, like trying to Trick-r-Treat before Halloween, after that moment ,All Christmas all the time.  When the New York Macy's Parade was over we sometime would switch over to the Detroit Parade just to kill time.. The Detroit Parade didn't hold the fascination for us as we wen't  familiar with the local Detroit media personalties,  or the sponsoring  local merchants. But I do remember it always seemed to be snowing there, of which we had seen none of since the winter before and they had more toy adds.  Usually we would drift back to our rooms to entrain ourselves until the afternoons event.

Part 2 PM "the meal

I can remember Hot steamy windows, crowded tables. Turkey, always turkey.  Filling/stuffing,  Whipped Sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping.  Mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and the contents from a can of cranberry sauce , laying on it;s side. Sliced for your convenience. ( I swear I was the only one who ate it).  There was always deserts but I can' t remember anything past the pumpkin pie.

 

Here's a link to my Thanksgiving meal on Flickr/Vimeo .

 

Bellydancer's Passionate for the Pink V2 (update 11/11/11 -AM )

Local updates 01/01/12- AM

At least one pic from each act has been posted to the Flckr. Some images may have the wrong performer listed… If so, many apologies. Contact me and I'll correct quickly.

This weekend was the second annual running of "Belly Dancer Passionate for the Pink". To say the large assemblage of amateur Dancers (Middle Eastern, Modern, Ballet ), of all skill levels, coming together to showcase their craft in support of the "Susan G. Komen for the Cure" , was truly awe-inspiring, would be somewhat of an under statement. Captured 60 gig of media (over 1100 images and about 2 1/2 hours of HD video.) and filled my last chip, on the last shot, of the last act. Up side? Venue, performers, their performances, organizers, and of course the audience. Down side? Lugging about 100lbs of kit up three flights of stairs to the balcony, and then back down again to the car. What! Builds character and stamina you say? I'll have to take your word on it. . Hopefully the videos will follow suit. (? They all have some problemst).  Enjoy.

NIK Color Effects 4 "The Cats Meow"

Been a fan of NIK software for some years now with HDR pro and Silver Effect 2 being my go-to Just upgraded to Color Effect 4 and have been trying to get my head around it for about a week now. Are all reworks of old images using the software. The more I play the more impressed I've become .

A Tale of Two Days Rolled Up Into One.

October 1 2011 Some days are pretty much empty, some are full. Saturday was one of the full ones. Dateline AM. 1115 Scott Kelby 4th Annual World Wide Photo Walk - LochRaven Dam Townson Md. Cool, cloudy, a hint of moisture. Been meaning to visit this place for some time.. And todays PhotoWalk made it happen.. I love dams, flat-out simple. Germany, Pa., of MD.. It doesn't matter, I will go out of my way to visit them. Dateline PM - 1700 Baltimore Trail Riders Association MC Flat Track. Delta Pa. Cooler, a light mist in the air turning to a light drizzle. If one would have offered a wager this event wouldn't run to completion, I would have taken it. And of course lost the wager.. Maybe one of the fasted cards on record, but every one who came got to race. And in the course of shooting I hit on something technique wise that might pay off at the indoors. Test

"X" marks the spot Part 1

First Happy Labor Day to those in the US.. Relax and enjoy The firestorm around Apples release of their premiere Video editing platform, Final Cut Pro X, continues to burn. At this juncture there seems to be two very distinct factions involved here. New users who find it a easy to use, powerful piece of editing software. And users of the older, now legacy software, Final Cut Pro 7 and older. As a new user of Final Cut Pro x (frankly I could never afford the old full version, only a watered down variant. Final Cut Express.) I have to say, with a little help from Ripple Training ,the venerable Lynda.com and not to forget the virtual online sources like fcp.co and it's window to a growing user base, Final Cut Pro X is getting, familiar and easy to use. And I think this (training) is at the heart of the issue. FCPX is so much different then FCP7 that it seems some users try it, mark it as unusable because it just doesn't fit into their workflow, and join the badmouth team. Of course some of their bitches are legitimate. No support for XML, old plugging architecture, high end tape imports, and a propensity to crash (a lot). I'm sure the program was mature over time just as the orginal Final Cut Pro did over it's twenty year lifespan, which at the time was labeled and buggy, ill thought and hard to work with. (you get the picture) Next time we'll look at some of the features I love, love, love.. And why the program is working for me.

A Perfect Storm of sorts.

Sometimes out of the most spontaneous of events, doors can open, curtains can be pulled back, on new worlds yet unseen by this seasoned traveler. Let me set a stage of sorts. Midweek a very close friend and colleague, MaryStarMagic, discovered Jay Kishor, Sitar and Surbahar maestro, and frequent visitor to her house was placed in a hard spot by some very short deadlines for a cover photos for an upcoming CD. I was asked if interested in helping, and true to form I jumped in to offer full support to the project. About the time we were talking up the shoot, a tropical storm named Irene decided to take aim on the Eastern Seaboard of the US, of which last I looked, was where the Washington DC area was located. Saturday arrived, both the scheduled day of the shoot and projected arrival of the hurricane later that evening. To say there wasn't some frantic emails back in forth would be a lie. But press on we did arriving at the site of the shoot early enough to hopefully avoid the storm.. What unfolded was more then the sum of the parts. Jay turned out to be one of the most warm and open people I've had the opportunity of meeting in many years. As the sky's darkened outside with the hurricanes arrival, inside the shoot progressed with a easy productive tempo. With a subject such as Jay it really didn't take long to get our shots, We were treated to first a wonderful lunch by Jays production manager, Savana and then to a short sampling of music form their upcoming CD.. Does magical seen to strong of a word for the experience.. Actually it's not. As it was. I could have stayed all day, but Hurricane Irene had other plans for us. The rains had started and we high tailed it back up north to home and kin.. Nuff for now.