Ellen Feiss

Macenstein has a really neat interview with Ellen Feiss the pseudo internet celebrity from 2002. (Remember back then?) Well if you don't remember her you probably weren't really all that hip to technology. I remember her little Apple Switch ad like it was yesterday. Back when technology was really just started to infiltrate every single tiny niche of our lives. Read the interview here. And just in case you weren't there for the first time, here it is again. Fresh from five years ago.

Assistants

I've shown pictures of Adela before, but here's another one I just dug up. I'm quite proud to have her as my assistant. She's fun, talents, smart and drop-dead gorgeous.

Sunday night...

For those of you who follow this blog, you're probably pretty familiar with the fact that I tend to reserve Sunday nights exclusively for the chance to reminisce about old-girlfriends and growing up. Well, this Sunday is no different. As time goes on I find that not only do I reminisce about the old girlfriends, but more and more so I begin to ask myself and probe, why exactly these relationships failed. It's a cliche of course, of the 'hi-fidelity' sense, but I am absorbed by the process none-the-less. I was reading a report recently on how 60% of Americans spend more time with their PC than with their significant other. I'm afraid I must admit that as a career centric person- my PC actually _IS_ my significant other and through all the love's and up's and downs, the internet has always been there.

Kinda pathetic.

But that's my life none-the-less. In a story fit for "This American Life" I've found that I have a hard time letting go of older PC's that no longer fill any purpose in my life. Logic seems to say I should 'let them go', sell them or something. But I don't. I keep them, in pieces mostly, as I bat around any number of do-it-yourself type projects that might seem to breath new life into the machines. Robots. Fancy Alarm Clocks that play mp3's. Video Recorders. File Servers. But despite my best attempts to create an afternoon project for myself I'm always left with the realization that I don't need Mp3 alarm clocks or Video Recorders (I don't even watch television). It's sad in a strange way. There's no place left in my life left, but yet I still don't want to let go.

Of course, I don't mean to compare old loves to obsolete computers. Not at all. But I think there's something about my personality that seems to be illuminated in this little anecdote. When I look at my collection of old cameras, old cell phones, old computers, old *things* I realize more and more that I simply can't let go of things that don't any longer have a place in my life and what I find is that my life actually gets fuller from all these things. They no longer function, no longer 'give back', yet they contribute to sense of 'wholeness' that withdraws me ever so slightly more away from the desire to go out there and 'get new stuff'. I certainly could purchase a television. Or Cable Tv. Or any number of fancy 'things', but actually I don't.

Transpose this analogy and suddenly I'm thinking perhaps it's time to stop reminiscing about old girlfriends and loves. I'm young and by no means anywhere near a truly defining relationship that might mean marriage, kids, etc... the truth is my life is becoming unduly full of moments that don't connect to the present nor the future.

As my mother would say, "just get over it".



But I don't get aroudn

Raw Developer

I am constantly in search of a better program for developing my RAW files. Since I've moved to MAC I've tried a whole new assortment of tools. My favorite along the way has been Capture One, but since the switch to MAC I've sort of forgotten about it. Great results on the PC though. Fabulous.

Instead I've been hooked on Adobe Lightroom. Now, to be fair I have to say that the Adobe Camera Raw conversion engine is really not satisfactory for Nikon Image files. The colors are just not accurate. The detail is just not acceptable. The noise suppression algorithms often completely miss the mark. Adobe Camera Raw is often so bad for my digital files that I question Adobes commitment to quality products. After all, if Adobe can't get digital imagine right- who can?

That said however, I love the way lightroom handles my work flow. It's really a breeze (a few things to clear up but it's still in Beta so I forgive them). But if it's critical Raw Developing work- I export to .DNG and work with something else. Which brings me to the title- Raw Developer. I just purchased Raw Developer from Irident Digital the other day after trying it out for a couple days. Fabulous raw developer program. Oh the colors are so nice (thus far, I haven't tested it too intensively yet) and the noise suppression thus far works like a charm. I shoot quite often at slightly higher ISO's and I need it. Raw Developer tames my noise without destroying the integrity of the image. And like I said, the colors are great. I've actually decided to go back to shooting with a grey card so that I can color balance easier in Post Production. (Yep you heard me right. For awhile I stopped bothering to even gray card my digital shoots because if I knew I would be using Adobe Camera Raw to develop I knew I had so much color correcting work ahead of me that a grey card won't matter. To the other pro's out there I know this will sound like blasphemy, but gray cards have consistently failed to give me anything near automatic results in ACR. The gray might be gray, but the skin will be green, green, green.

So. Now that I've made a purchase, I'll be using Raw Developer in much greater portions. I will keep you in touch.

ShortBus

I just saw the movie ShortBus and I have to say yes, it is extremely sexually graphic. But it is also one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. It's essentially about peoples exploration of their own sexuality and it's purpose in their lives. One of the reasons why I find it such an amazing film is that more so than almost any other film I've ever seen, I think it actually relates to people's real human experiences. I don't know anyone who has ever flown a spaceship, kunfu-kickboxed while flying, dodged bullets, or robbed banks in elaborate 12 member super teams. But I can't even count the number of people I know who wake up every morning still trying to put together their sexuality and what it means for their relationships and their lives. If you can get it- see it. You might think it's a really weird movie about really weird people, but take a step back for a minute and you'll realize that you are pretty freaking weird in your own way too.

Young girls and beautifull skin.

People always wonder why the fashion industry uses such young girls. Well here I present to you exhibit A. It's a behind the scenes shot from my magazine beauty shoot yesterday. The model is 15, and that skin is her real skin. No retouching. The makeup is a transparent moisturizing base. This is exactly why fashion uses young girls. Their skin can be incredible!

Weather

Well, the balmy southern winds have gone. It's still sunny, but the temperature has dropped nearly thirty or forty degrees and this morning Prague is buried in snow. I guess it's about time!

The Weather

Today is yet another in a long series of gorgeous, beautiful, warm, sunny days. All in the middle of January! Global warming my friends- should be obvious at this point. It still has yet to snow. There is still- NO SNOW. It's not even below freezing. It's quite normal to see people outside in shirts- no coats. And it's the middle of January!

As a side note, last week saw several days of windstorms where the winds hit 180kph at peak and tore roofs from buildings!

More Space

On the subject of space, there's a great article in the Guardian today about how even if there is life elsewhere in the universe, AND even if they are looking for us, the universe is just so freaking huge that they still wouldn't have found us. The article notes that one scientists calculations put the number at around 10 billion years to search only 4% of the inhabitable part of this galaxy.

Yeah, and considering we know about how old the galaxy IS, there just hasn't been enough time to elapse for us to make contact with anyone. Which leads me back to my thought that we are probably at, relatively, the beginning of time rather than somewhere in the meaty, juicy, middle part.

Sick

I'm sick at the moment. I'm staying in bed, drinking tons of water and sleeping every few hours.

When I was younger I seem to remember being sick all the time. Indeed nearly every time I return home to where my parents live I become sick again. I've long thought there was something in the atmosphere, or maybe the soil, that I was just plain allergic to. It might sounds strange, but I've gotten sick not long after going home so many times that my body actually has developed a twitch at the thought. It's sort of like Absinthe. I used to drink it frequently (It's not illegal in the Czech Republic, and indeed has made something of a comeback in recent years) until once I had the misfortune of laughing at the very moment I took a drink, blowing the stuff out through my nostrils.

Now, if you've never had Absinthe yourself, suffice it to say, the stuff is nearly pure alcohol. Indeed I can't imagine why when it was first made anyone could have thought that it wasn't just pure poison. Needless to say, blowing it through your nostrils is about the most painful experience possible. The stuff is so pure and evaporates so quickly it is impossible to breath for several minutes. Every breath in you take evaporates further the alcohol already in your nostrils and trachea, so your lungs fill with an explosive alcohol oxygen vapor. Horrible. Simply horrible. It's been years since that happened, but just the sight of the green liquid puts my body on the defensive. It remembers the whole event quite clearly and I doubt it will ever forget.

Anyway,

In Europe I'm sick very infrequently. Perhaps it's just because I am older, but generally I would say I get sick perhaps twice a year. Interestingly, as I get older, I find myself becoming more and more superstitious in a sense about the experience of being 'under the weather'. I rarely take medicine for the flu or a cold. To be honest, I can't say I think they work. They seem to suppress symptoms, but they don't seem to make the 'getting better' part any fast. Indeed I feel like the times I have taking medicine to relieve symptoms, I've actually been more miserable longer.

Now at the first sign of a sniffle or congestion I immediatly start my time-honored and perhaps superstitious routine to warn off illness. I drink lemon juice- I buy a bottle of the stuff and do 'squirts' every couple hours. I eat whole raw garlic, by the clove. I eat a lot. Cranberry juice. Tea. Eggs. A recent addition: KimChi (the Korean delicacy) It seems to help. Combined with sleep and rest and no alcohol (it seems to make me sicker) and no smoky places, keeps my sickness generally to just a couple days. All and all the experience at least FEELS shorter in duration and less miserable than the side effects of antihistamines and such over the counter drugs.

So that's me right now. Sick. I'm on day three so I think I have about three more days till I'm back in shape. I'll stop now and go order Korean Take Out.

Paulina Porizkova

I'll admit, I wasn't really around all that much in the 1980's but still I was pretty thrilled to get to assist Giles Bensimon for the past two days and work with Paulina Porizkova.

This too was a moment.

This too was a moment that hovered there, before me. Beautiful, tender, and fleeting.

But the truth is, sadly, that not all of these moments have any meaning to me. Here, in this photo, it looks like a moment captured of a girl I might have once loved. It is sweet, earnest, and loving. But actually, this is after a job in a cab ride back to the office. I don't remember her name, and I doubt is she remembers mine. I saw her once, maybe twice in my whole life. I don't actually know her at all. There isn't even a faint story of a dreams between us. It was work. And a hard days work at that.

Strange isn't it? Beauty possibly being meaningless.

Winter- Or the lack there of.

So, it's nearly the middle of January. And you know what? I just walked outside on my porch in a t-shirt and boxer shorts (yeah, I just woke up) and it's *warm* outside. I mean, not warm in the summer sense, but nearly sweltering in the middle of January in sense. It's warm outside. It snowed once for a total of five seconds. There has yet to be ANY winter as far as anyone can tell. In the park people fly kites, Rollerblade and hang out. In the newspapers here commentators contemplate the identity of Czechs without snow (they are very fond of winter, snow, and all that comes with it). There just isn't any. There just isn't any winter at all, thus far. Every day feels like something between fall and spring. It's fresh out side, a sweater and scarf suffices. Go figure! I for one welcome the next thousand years of punctuated equilibrium.

To give you a better idea. It's nearly 60 degrees here today. Middle of January folks. Northern Europe folks. Remember, the Latitude of Czech is 50° 05' N. That's about the same as Moose Jaw, *SASKATCHEWAN* Canada. (50° 20' N)

Traveling

It currently costs $92 (with airport taxes included) to fly round trip from London to Marrakesh, Morocco.


That is CHEAP.

Space

As you know, I occasionally drift off into philosophical topics. And this is one of those occations.

So recently, I was thinking about space. I've personally always assumed that we weren't alone in the universe, just by the pure statistics of the thing. It's sort of like playing the lotto- on a in billion chance. Except, in the lotto of the universe you buy trillions and trillions of tickets. Yeah. You don't just win once, you win over, and over, and over again.

But lets say we are alone. Even though the universe is already billions of years old- what if in the scope of time, universe and everything, we are actually just at the very beginning of everything? What if *this* is the beginning of the universe, and we are alone because we are the first?

Well, it's a sad thought for me. I'd really hate for us to be all there is. But there is a bright side. I suspect we will eventually get off this planets (moon, mars, etc...) and eventually get out of our solar system. I'm going to make the claim that once humanity gets off this planet we will never, ever, ever, cease to exist. Right now there is the fear we will get smacked by some asteroid or destroy ourselves or something. But if we do get off the planet, then what happens to earth will no longer really determine the fate of our species. See? Humans will go on, and on, and on. We will exist until the very end of time, the very end of the universe, because little seeds, little groups of humanity will spin off in all directions across the stars. There will always be humans somewhere in the universe. And perhaps we will colonize other planets, and perhaps we will bring flora and fauna from Earth, and perhaps it is *WE* who populate the stars.

Wouldn't that be interesting? What if god created us, here, on this planet only, with the express purpose of filling the universe? And fill it we will. Will will traverse the stars for millions, billions of years. And then, after billions of years, the universe will be alive with our descendent's. But they won't be humans as we recognize them today, they will evolve and change and mutate and differentiate. A billion years from now earth will be forgotten. Our history will be forgotten. The story of how we traversed the heavens will be forgotten. And there will be people in other places, looking up, thinking-hoping-praying, that they are not alone.

And they won't be. Because of us.


Perhaps I'm strange, but thoughts like this really comfort me in a deep, deep, way. It's purpose, meaning and a sense of belonging to something far greater than we will ever understand. All in one. You look up at the stars, and your not lonely. On the contrary, you will fill the stars with light.

Fish? Maybe now is not the time.

I received this Article from my father about the declining fish populations and impending collapse of the ocean ecosystems from over-fishing. My father only sends me the things he really believes, and trust me, he's a pretty smart man. Anyway, It's making me reconsider my 'fish only' diet that I have been enjoying as of late. (Lots of sushi). It's certainly a luxury diet, (especially considering I live in a landlocked country. Consider all the ways I contribute to environmental pollution just by having this fish brought here so I can eat 'sheik') and a diet I think I will have to reconsider. I don't own a car because it does not make sense environmentally, especially since I would primarily drive it around alone. Something that is highly environmentally un-sound. For the most part, if I don't take public transport- I take Taxis. It's considerably cheaper as well.

Presents

A courier today brought me a present from MAXIM magazine. Turns out they sent me a bottle of aged Scottish Whiskey. I'm not a big drinker, but I have to say, what a freaking cool present.