iPhoto Viewer.
A handy way to see and select photos in your iPhoto library without having to wait around to open the whole damn program. This is very, very slick. I need to play with Automator a lot more, too. Tiger only.(via, via)
Schoolhouse Electric
An alternative to Rejuvenation, but similar products. (via)
Revisiting Desert One.
Mark Bowden, who wrote Black Hawk Down (the book), wrote a feature for The Atlantic on the failed hostage rescue attempt in 1980. I heard the NPR interview this afternoon and stumbled on the excerpt later.
Our neighborhood sprouts signs like weeds every spring and fall; usually they are centered around telephone poles by busy intersections, and usually they are hand-lettered announcements of tag, rummage, and estate sales in our immediate vicinity. I dragged Jen to a couple this past Saturday morning, after a particular sign caught my eye: CAMERAS DOWN HERE. We found a salty-haired old gent standing in front of a card table with ten or so different cameras, and one caught my eye: a tall black square with two lenses stacked atop each other, looking like a NASA-certified cousin to my Kodak Duoflex. This was something more, though: Large teutonic lettering above the lenses identified it as a Rolleicord, the inexpensive brother to the famous Rolleiflex medium-format twin-lens reflex camera.
I talked to the guy a bit, and he claimed it had been serviced last year (about $100, if one can find a technician who still knows how to service these cameras), and a test of the shutter proved he was right. I paid him for the camera—probably a little more than it’s worth, to be honest—and brought it home to add to the collection. Some research indicates it’s a Rolleicord III, made sometime between 1950-1953 (s/n 1169169) and it takes regular 120 film, still available at better photographic shops worldwide. The negative is a 6x6cm image, much larger than standard 35-mm film, and with a good lens the image is sharper and lends to larger, clearer blowups.
We took the Duoflex with us on our trip to Ireland last year, filled with black and white TMAX, and shot some pretty amazing stuff.
I’d say the results were good in a LOMO kind of way—the imprecise glass lens of the Kodak added some blurring and distortion to the shots, which added to the general sense of melancholy and mystery.
I’m pretty excited by this find, and it’s something I’ve been interested in for a long time. Thanks to my father, I have an excellent 35-mm Minolta on my shelf, and I’ll never sell it. I spent many expensive months attempting to learn how to use it properly in college, and many more expensive months learning how to develop the film. I have a gaggle of antique 620 cameras, each in perfect condition and ready for a new adventure. They will accompany us on our next trip to parts unknown, and bring back imperfect, atmospheric snapshots that mean more to me than a crisp digital file.
This camera, though, is a step above the average, and it demands I take the time to learn how to use it, which is fine by me.
Highlights:
1. Staying in a hotel suite directly off Times Square/Boradway, overlooking the Jumbotron and across the street from the TKTS booth. Jen and I calculated that our suite, located on the 39th floor, would cost something like $4000/mo. to rent if it was a standard apartment.
2. Channel 2 is still CBS, 4 is NBC, 5 is WOR, 7 is ABC, and 11 is PIX. The way it should be. Also: Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons still rock the newsdesk. Word!
3. We had a client meeting in 30 Rockefeller Center, which was pretty fucking amazing. The building is timeless, and it fills one with a sense of HOLY SHIT THIS IS ROCKEFELLER CENTER.
4. After the client meeting, we were offered lunch and a tour of the building—the cool stuff. So, we walked the set of Dateline NBC, and happened to see Brian Williams in the hall. Then, we toured the Conan O’Brien set (a tiny little set, and freezing) and then the editing and control rooms for NBC. Imagine the control room at NORAD in about 1/10th the space—you get the idea. From there, we were led onto the set and stage of Saturday Night Live, which was awesome. (While we were walking the stage, the standard NBC tour group was peering down at the set behind a glass wall from behind the top bleachers. Suckers.) Next, a walk through the datacenter of NBC, which is the largest, coldest, biggest datacenter I’ve been in. Wow. Then, we walked from 30 Rock across the plaza (Passing Tom Brokaw in the lobby) and into another building, where we found ourselves on the Today show set. (And me, without my camera.)
5. The Munch exhibit at the new MoMA, which was phenomenal. Jen was able to see the original version of a print she’s had for sixteen years, and we got to see some old friends, plus walk the halls of the new building, which is spectacular. Go.
6. HOLY SHIT THIS IS ROCKEFELLER CENTER.
7. St. Patrick’s Cathedral, as the noon mass on Thursday was letting out, was beautiful.
8. Fifth Avenue, up to the park, is a beautiful stroll on a spring day. And the park itself was relaxing and peaceful. We sat by the water and rested our feet for a while, watching the ducks paddle around and a raccoon jump the fence into the skating rink to raid the dumpsters.
9. The train ride up and back is definitely the way to travel. 3 miles from our doorstep to the Amtrak BWI terminal, up to Penn Station, and a 5-minute cab ride to the hotel. Sweet.
10. Passing the Milford Plaza hotel, and remembering one of many old commercials from the 80’s:
The Milford Plaza is
The Lull-a-bye
Of Old
Broad
Waaaaay!
Anybody remember the Ritz Thrift Shop? Crazy Eddie’s? Potampkin Cadillac?
11. Rudy’s Bass Shop (Our hotel looked down on the Sam Ash store on West 48 Street), a third-floor walkup, which featured a mid 60’s Fender P-bass in sunburst/tortoiseshell and a nice old Rickenbacker 4001.