Piecing creation
In sculpture, a theory persists that the statue is already inside the stone – the sculptor just needs to chip away the unnecessary bits. I have a similar theory (but more involved and weirder, since I do most of my work on a computer). I believe design creation is a fluid puzzle with talking pieces. Sometimes they sing about how they fit together, they whisper in the details, and before I any conscious thought into it, the finished work is floating happy on the screen.
In photography, the pieces are the hinted emotions – the lines and colors, the overall feel that I want to emphasize or downplay.
In web design, they’re the style and theme, dictating how the text shows up and which points are emphasized. When the pieces are chatty, the design process simply flows – smooth, uncomplicated, fast, fun.
In writing, the pieces are my characters. They have definitive ideas on everything. If you know your people, your scenes will write themselves. In any given situation, there’s only so many things a character will do if he remains true to himself.
This is all well and good, until the pieces go off to have a smoke and flat out refuse to show up. They can be fickle that way.
V5 & portraits
Welcome to the fifth version of And Anything! Had some time yesterday and decided to put it to good use. To celebrate, here’s the sweetheart shoot of Christian and Vicky:
I look forward to doing Vicky’s site and the cover art for their next cd. (She’s a pianist, he plays the violin.) For the poster, I wanted to focus on the upcoming cd release.
Emusic Daze IV
I had five downloads left over for April, out of fifty. However on the plus side, I discovered a new love – Metric. Their sound is perfect, or maybe perfect for my mood. But then, I’m partial to rock bands with female vocals.
EDIT: Apparently Metric is huge in Canada, seriously big. I found them through emusic, thinking they were a good but unknown indie band and they turn out to be the top dogs of rock. So, does that mean I have excellent taste? Or am just utterly clueless? I’ll go with the former.
Metric – Grow Up And Blow Away, and Fantasies. I love Fantasies, especially “Gimme Sympathy,” “Blindness,” and…well, the entire album. It’s the new staple on my playlists.
Stars – Set Yourself On Fire. Very interesting band. I’ve very attracted to some of their songs, and as truly cannot stand others. Overall, the good outweighs the bad, and the good is very good.
Solo – “Songs ‘N Sounds.” A good song, but didn’t find much else on the album I wanted to keep.
Julianna Barwick – Florine. No lyrics, few instruments. She layers her voice, deeper and higher, in an ethereal mix of voice and light. Very different.
DJ Keri – “Ocean Blue.” A great, soothing electronic piece.
Years – “Kids Toy Love Affair.” Another different, instrumental number. Sounds like the soundtrack to an off-beat/fantasy indie film.
Cut Copy – “Midnight Runner,” “Out There on the Ice,” and “Feel the Love.” Emusic totes Cut Copy as “Killer dance punk from Down Under.” I don’t entirely agree. The songs I chose are more poppy, airy, with a semi-electronic, sometimes almost old school feel. I really enjoy these songs, though didn’t find enough in the album to burn my last five downloads on.
Concert in strings
I shot a show for the Main Street Cafe, as they raise funds for building renovations. Denise said they could be open again in the summer, I hope so.
This show was hosted at a church in midtown, and featured one of the members of Sailor Sequence and the Bradley Hathaway group.
Searching for HGCS-free pop
I decided to give up corn syrup after hearing they use two different poisons to make it (think King Corn). This is difficult, since the stuff is in practically everything. However Jiff and Peter Pan are corn syrup free, and since Heinz now offers an organic ketchup I figure I’ve got most of my bases covered. Only one other addiction remains to be seen to – Mountain Dew.
So I’m on a mission to locate corn syrup free pop. Here are my findings so far:
With caffeine
# Jones Soda (Pure Cane) – Strawberry Lime, Cola, Sugar-free Cola, all have caffeine. The other flavors (at least of the Pure Cane line) do not.
# Coke from Mexico, available from a Mexican grocery, is also supposed sweetened with sugar. There’s one in the area, so I plan to stop by next week.
# RC Cola says it’s made with corn syrup and/or sugar.
Without caffeine
# Whole Foods offers a great variety of caffeine free sodas, all pricey and un-caffeinated.
# Lost Trail Sugar Cane Cola – high class stuff, worth the extra cost. This applies to everything Louisburg Cider Mill puts out. Though, their cider has lost the top spot in my all time favorites, in favor of Simply Apple juice. That stuff is amazing (and also corn syrup free).
Not as many as I hoped for, though more then I expected. Tune in next week for more heart-pounding discoveries in the soda aisle.
Happy 16th
Shontail asked me to shoot her son’s 16th birthday party, and I was more then happy to be there. Very well thought out, put together, and moved along. He is very much loved.
While the camera hated the lighting (over warm between the wood sloping rafters and the red table clothes), I made it co-operate in the end. That’s what I do.
