I still can’t release any photos from my shoot with James Hetfield (singer of Metallica) for Sutro Eyewear, so instead, I offer this blurry picture from the last (epic) Die Antwoord show. And while I’m at it, here’s something recent from Radio Revolt and an oldie from the Dukes of Hamburg. What do they all have in common? Devil may care…
Alabama Shakes, at The Independent, San Francisco, January 27th, ‘12. This is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Right up there with Minor Threat at The On Broadway, Die Antwoord at The Rickshaw, and The Dukes of Hamburg at some house on Mission Street.
Of course, they were nothing like any of those bands. It sounded more like the re-birth of soul, blues and rock and roll, all on an unassuming Thursday night. I’ve never seen Led Zeppelin or Janis Joplin, and now I don’t need to. This woman has a world of talent, a voice that can make the dead dance, and the kind of honesty that is so rare these days. I wish I could have captured it better with my 3 song limit, but I was lucky to get even that, having shown up with no pass or credentials. Luckily, the kind manager sent my card back to the band and they agreed. And thanks to the song limit, I could actually enjoy the show.
Here’s a link, and their album’s due in April…
Recent (and not so recent) shoots…
…a Holga iPhone attachment for Maclife magazine. I can’t attest to the fun factor of having one of these, but busting out the gels again reminded me of the gel-tastic days of yore, when I never left home without them - especially for this shoot that I found in the archives of JT the Bigga Figga. Fillmoe, of course. SF Bay Guardian, before 2000. I wonder where he is now…?
and speaking of beats, since there are as many DJ’s as there are photographers, there’s a healthy market for serving them with the likes of this vinyl-free option from Stanton. (Maclife Magazine again) I don’t know if the pros consider this the musical equivalent of a Holga iPhone attachment, but it felt pretty good to my novice hands…
Fire in the belly
It’s cold outside. Maybe not east coast/midwest/rest of the Northern Hemisphere kind of cold, but it is 15 degrees colder than a usual day in San Francisco, and for us, that’s freezing. Plus, it’s raining. Sort of. Anyway, this is all an excuse to get warm by a fire, and lacking a fireplace, the next best thing would be a piece of toast. Also, I haven’t set anything on fire since the shoot that Patrick Kawahara (http://standardtaste.com/) helped me on, and I think I scared us both off pyro for a while. Incidentally, hand sanitizer works marvelously for creating controlled flames that you can shape across a surface:
But back to toast: Hand sanitizer wouldn’t taste so good on toast, but I figured it’s nearest consumable - yet flammable neighbor - brandy, would be delicious. But if you don’t feel like reading anymore, I’ll save you some time and just say it doesn’t taste good at all, at least not the way I did it above. What started as a crunchy, delectable delight of wintry comfort, turned into a soggy, bitter piece of bread that you can’t eat because it’s on fire. But if you insist on doing what I did, be careful when you light a heated pan of brandy with a match. You want to keep your face far enough away, and check the precautions on your hair product. Also, have an extinguishing strategy. That’s something I learned the first time around. Some mistakes you only make once, or rather, you only get one chance to make them.
Anyway, from failure is born brilliance, at at least a good piece of toast. What follows is a loose interpretation of a recipe I found on the World Wide Web. This is what you’ll need:
Make sure that your butter is soft, your bread is good, and your heart is warm with anticipation.
You’re going to zest some orange peel, about a full teaspoon. The amount of sugar will be roughly equal to the amount of butter. Add cinnamon to your own taste. And the brandy? I lost track. Maybe 2 shots? 3? (I wasn’t drinking any. And despite the fact that it says VS for “very smooth”, it’s not. Get a better brandy if you can.) Now artfully combine all these things in a mixer, starting with the butter first. (Thanks Kim!) It should look like this:
Then lovingly spread it on your bread, comme ca:
Place in your oven at 350, or toss in the toaster oven and set to toast medium-high:
then finish it off on broil - or in your broiler - and keep a close eye on it, as the lovely lava boils:
ta-da
and this is what it looks like going past the teeth:
I have to say, and Kim will concur, this was delicious. Interestingly, the Cinnamon-Brandy-Butter “matured” overnight, and it had much more of a brandy kick the next morning. The orange zest brightened it nicely, and because I used a finer sugar, it lacked the junk-food-crunch that my usual recipe delivers. But nothing beats a true original, and if you’re home late, and someone drank all the brandy and you ate all the oranges, this is a quick accompaniment to a Family Guy rerun.
butter
mixture
Add the magic. Try to make it look like the sand dunes of Morocco.
to your health
Truth be told, my drink pairing during these tests last night was Fat Tire Amber Ale. (The hops balanced the sweetness of the toast quite nicely) but this was my chosen pairing for the finale this morning:
Ground and brewed, of course. This is also a sneak peak at my upcoming short film (currently in pre-production, so be patient), “I’ll Make My Own Coffee, Thankyou.”
It’s Alive. Film is Dead.
I’ve finally resurrected the 500 ELX. The original batteries died years ago, in the midst of the shutter winding. And, as a horrible Hasselblad owner, (and lapsed film shooter), I let it sit around, more helpless than the man in the Diving Bell. That is until Anne and Carlos at Pro Camera fixed it and pointed me toward the replacement batteries on Ebay. There’s a guy named “Bibb” who makes canisters that hold 9 volt batteries. No more recharging, and two of them will give you up to 1500 frames. He’s from Texas, and to add to his King of the Hill mystique, the only other stuff he sells are bug sprays and rat traps. Another 2 clicks led me to another fella who sells “freshly picked” praying mantis egg cases…”we pick only the best, 100-300 babies per case”. Apparently, this is one of your options if want an organic, insecticide-free garden. But I digress…
A little quick math of the film I’ve processed (for myself and as an assistant) comes to about 9,000 rolls, conservatively. At about 8 oz. of chemistry per roll, I’ve used about 2,250 gallons of developer, stop, hypo-clear and photo-flow. This doesn’t include fixer or water rinse. It also doesn’t include C-41 or E6. Nor does it include 669/679/689 polaroid and all it’s accompanying cardboard, aluminum, foil, paper and nasty-ass developer gel. I can wax-poetic with the best of them about film, vinyl, cassettes and reel-to-reel. And I’m psyched to start shooting film again. But I’m even more psyched to see if I can put a digital back on this old horse and make the most of my Zeiss. I’m sure digital comes with its own waste, as we’ve seen in the tremendously good film Manufactured Landscapes. But I’m guessing that digital uses a lot less. And as far as the “magic” of analog goes, I have to say that I got the same tingly feeling the first time I saw a frame from the D3 shot at 3200 ASA. Economics notwithstanding, there’s never been a better time to be a photographer.
Toast Recipe #1
This one comes from my memory of a recipe in a Betty Crocker Illustrated Cookbook that I got when I was 6 (?). In fact, it’s the only recipe I remember from that era of DIY breakfast and Saturday morning cartoons. I’d already perfected Cream Of Wheat, so I needed a culinary challenge. I can’t remember the name of this toast, but a Googling has turned up The Noble Pig, Alabama Eggs, Toad In A Hole, Cowboy Eggs, Gas House Eggs…you get the idea. And although I’ve done my best to de-elitist any spin I might put on the original, there was no way I was going back to using Country Crock Margarine. That was something we thought was healthier than butter, back in those days of Watergate, and I’m sure I have an action figure made of trans fats doing a polka in my aorta. So, with that exception, here’s what you need to make a “toast sandwich with a winking egg in the middle”:
Butter or ”healthy” margarine or, what the hell, bacon grease
2 slices of sandwich bread
1 egg
First get your bread slices, and judging by the size of your egg, pick a drinking glass with the appropriate sized hole for making your “egg frame”. (Hormone-free eggs may require a more nomal-sized hole).
After making holes in both slices, fry one of them in a pan with a generous amount of butter/margarine/leftover grease. While that’s getting golden on one side, butter the inside of your other slice and place it - butter-side-down - over the slice in the pan, expertly lining up your holes. Now is the time to drop your egg in the hole. Fun!
With expert timing, your egg should be halfway cooked as the bottom slice reaches the perfect shade of crispy-fried-goodness.
At this harmonic convergence, flip the whole thing, and cue up a re-run of Hanna Barbera’s Huckleberry Hound.
At this point, I’d throw my “bread holes” in the pan. (These are begging for a better name (toast coasters?), so I’m taking suggestions.) Your Toad In The Hole should be done right around the time you need to flip your bread holes, and the whole thing will come together perfectly with a cup of really strong coffee. You’re going to need something to cut through all that fat.
With my first attempt, I have to say, it was perfection. At least, perfect for what it was. The description that came to mind was “deliciously gnarly”. This preceded the stomach ache that lasted for two hours. Perhaps, this could be the perfect hangover helper, but I leave it to you to experiment with that…
In from the cold
I used to think of my full-time job as something of a comfort, not unlike one of Carre’s spies who traded wintery “dead drops” and gunplay for thoughtful analysis of world order while sipping brandy. I had given up “The Hustle” for what some had called “golden handcuffs”. Well, I’m back out there again, it’s back to freelance. And even though it looks topsy-turvy-what-the-hell-is-happening-in-photography- out there, I gotta say, it feels like coming home again. It’s a different kind of comfort not knowing what’s next. It’s a thrill that keeps me warm. And so far, it’s been a fairly soft landing with some great clients and some awesome shoots! I’m incredibly grateful. And what better way to begin than with a picture of my “First Assistant”? This will be followed shortly by a weekly toast recipe. Why? Who doesn’t love toast? And cats? (No offense meant to Patrick, Scott or Daisy). And oh yeah, I’ll also have other photos too, behind-the-scenes, insightful industry wisdom…yadda yadda yay!
