Lawrence Pt. 2: Jazzhaus

Guys, let me tell you about this band I like; they’re called Midnight Success. I don’t just like them because my friend Gus plays for them, nor because I’ve known some of the other members since high school. No, I like this band because they create good music. On top of that, they put on a good show live; lots of singing, and even a little choreographed dancing.

So anyway, a while back Gus told me they would be playing in Lawrence, so of course I wanted to take the short drive over for the show. I would have gone alone, but I asked my best friend Scott if he wanted to come with me. He didn’t disappoint and was eager to go. We both went to college there and I hadn’t been back to Lawrence in a while, so we went early and grabbed some dinner on Mass Street, and then met a few more friends who still live in Lawrence at the Jazzhaus for the show.

We were both a little nervous about going to the Jazzhaus, because last time we were there, we got thrown out for trying to burn the building down. Don't worry, it wasn't as intense as it sounds and there was no malice behind it, and there was no actual act of trying to burn the building down; just a concert flyer that somehow caught fire at our table. It was also over five years ago, so we weren't actually nervous, but we did have a good laugh about that time.

There were three bands playing that night. I don’t remember the order off the top of my head, but one of the bands sucked pretty bad; lead singer had no energy and really put the place to sleep. The other was pretty good, if I remember right. Midnight Success was great. I definitely want to see them again if I’m ever in Wichita for a show, or if they ever make it back to Lawrence or even to Kansas City.

Me for Monday

Here's a little bit of me for your Monday.  I took this back in July of 2009 while in Vidalia, Georgia.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:07:23 4:33 PM
Exposure time	1/4 sec
Focal length	18mm
F-Stop	f/3.5
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

Towery Thing

I’m watching this documentary called Spellbound right now.  It’s following 8 kids competing in the National Spelling Bee.  It’s moderately interesting, but the best part is this spaz named Harry who is hyperactive and talks like a musical robot now and then.  The rest of the kids are average and boring.  The only other funny part was when a former winner cracked a joke about winning not really helping his love life, but maybe even being a liability to such a thing.  Here’s the thing about the Spelling Bee though.  When a kid gets a word wrong, they play a ding sound.  In the history of the world, this is the only place that a pleasant ding signifies that you’re wrong and you lose.  Everyone else uses a buzzer.  I hear the ding and think ‘good job, nerd’ but then the kid looks disappointed and I remember that the Spelling Bee is backwards and uses the ding.  I feel like the spelling bee would have a lot more credibility in the world of game shows and contests if they would just conform to the standard buzz for an incorrect answer.  We’ve been conditioned since the days of Pavlov to know that the ding of a bell is a good thing, but these guys just have to be different and try to break this conditioning.  I don’t know what they’re trying to prove, but it’s high time they pack it in.  But that’s enough about that, lets talk about this.  This, referring to this photo, which I took a few days ago after work.

What is it you ask?  Who really knows (I know).  Where is it?  Another mystery (not really, I see it every day driving to work).  Not unlike Stonehenge, or those big heads on that one island, we may never fully know what this is (again, not true; it’s clear what this is if you saw it in real life).  Pretty mysterious; maybe the History Channel will do an hour long special on it someday.  What we do know is that it’s a photograph I dig (this is true).

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:03:26 5:25PM
Exposure time	1/2500 sec
Focal length	50mm
F-Stop	f/1.8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

Mormon Rocks

Also known as the Latter Day Saints Rocks, it has been said that these rocks were the site of a trip and fall that slightly inconvenienced Jules Verne during a hiking expedition in Southern California, supposedly leading him to criticize the Mormon religion in a small part of his book Around the World in 80 Days.  These rocks are also where a group of Mormons passed through the mountains on their way to Los Angeles in the 1850’s, after fleeing Utah and a homicidal Mormon Militia.

OK, so I may or may not have made parts of that up.  These rocks really are called Mormon Rocks, apparently because some Mormons Manifested Destiny through the Cajon Pass, between the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains, where these rocks are located.

I don’t have much experience with black and white photography, but I think this one looks pretty good in black and white.  I converted it to look like Kodak Professional T-MAX 100 black and white film.  Generally I like color photographs more because of, well, all the pretty colors.  Like I said though, I think this looks pretty good in black and white, and I wanted to try something different.  I will probably eventually post the color version as well, because I like it a lot too.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:11:07 17:53
Exposure time	1/100 sec
Focal length	50mm
F-Stop	f/10
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

New Equipment!

As I alluded to in Slender-Snouted Crocodile, I recently bought a new piece of equipment; a vertical battery grip.  It's a pretty sweet little accessory for my camera.  It attaches to the bottom of my camera and has a shutter button and all of the other necessary buttons for me to control the exposure of my photographs while holding the camera in the portrait orientation.  It also holds two batteries which were included in my purchase.  When I bought it I figured it would be nice to have while shooting in portrait, but I hadn't expected it to be as much fun as I have found it to be.  Having this should encourage me to shoot vertically more often.  I don't regret this purchase for a second.

You can see the new grip at the bottom of my camera in this self-portrait I took while in Texas last week.

Black and White Flowers

I took this photograph quite a while ago in Wichita while I was home from college one summer.  As I was playing around with the post-processing I wondered how it would look in black and white.  As I converted it, the background magically disappeared and I loved the resulting image.  A few more adjustments and tweaks and I was done.  I took this photo outside in the bright mid-day sun, but you'd be hard pressed to know that from this photograph.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!