Author: swanksalot

Always good to have a second user look at things

Special Events and Physical Therapy

swanksalot0 comment

no idea where this was: I was just a passenger, with a camera.

one of those shots I wish I could take over: because the car was moving, it is slightly fuzzy, softer than I wanted, and thus cannot really be printed very large.

Reading Around on January 5th through January 8th

swanksalot0 comment

A few interesting links collected January 5th through January 8th:

  • Letters of Note: Art is useless because… – Included in the preface to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is the now famous and often misconstrued line, ‘All art is quite useless’. In fact, following the novel’s original publication in 1890, Oxford undergraduate Bernulf Clegg was so intrigued by the claim that he wrote to Wilde and asked him to elaborate. The following handwritten letter was Wilde’s response.
  • The Airport Scanner Scam | Mother Jones – Beyond privacy issues, however, are questions about whether these machines really work—and about who stands to benefit most from their use. When it comes to high-tech screening methods, the TSA has a dismal record of enriching private corporations with failed technologies, and there are signs that the latest miracle device may just bring more of the same.
  • Never Underestimate the Power of Stupid People
  • Buddyhead’s Best and Worst Records Of 2009 | BUDDYHEAD – Animal Collective – “Merriweather Post Pavilion”Lazy music journalists tried to act like these nerds armed with bongos and delay pedals were the second coming of The Beatles or some shit. Everyone from Mojo to Rolling Stone to Pitchdork seemed to have these fruitcakes somewhere in their top five records for 2009. These dudes couldn’t write a song if their lives depended on it, they are to songwriting what “Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” is to cinema.

Robot and Mary Anne

Evening rush hour hipstamaticly

swanksalot0 comment
Evening rush hour hipstamaticly
Evening rush hour hipstamaticly, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: John S
Film: Kodot Verichrome
Flash: Off

decluttr

there’s a new iPhone phone app called Hipstamatic that’s sweeping through the Flickr community. Sort of a quirky application, but fun nonetheless. I’ve already snapped dozens of shots in a few hours worth of use. Doesn’t seem like it saves high resolution versions though, which is a flaw, imho.

Another way to pretend our fancy smartphones are toy cameras or Holgas.

Kinzie Bridge in the Rain

swanksalot0 comment
Kinzie Bridge in the Rain
Kinzie Bridge in the Rain, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

North Branch of the Chicago River

View On Black

from last Yom Kippur1, if I’m not mistaken. I smooth-talked us into celebrating in nature instead of wasting time in a shul2

Ooops, my mistake, taken on Rosh Hashanah3 instead.

Footnotes:
  1. יוֹם כִּפּוּר [↩]
  2. אסנוגה [↩]
  3. ראש השנה [↩]

Reading Around on January 1st through January 3rd

swanksalot0 comment

A few interesting links collected January 1st through January 3rd:

  • Daily Kos: State of the Nation – Remember the Naughts – Don’t forget the naughts, because this decade, no matter what anyone on the right might say, was conservatism on trial. You want less taxes? You got less taxes. You want less regulation? You got less regulation. Open markets? Wide open. An illusuion of security in place of rights? Hey, presto. Think we should privatize war by handing unlimited power given to military contractors so they can kick butt and take names? Kiddo, we passed out boots and pencils by the thousands. Everything, everything, that ever showed up on a drooled-over right wing wish list got implemented — with a side order of Freedom Fries.They will try to disown it, and God knows if I was responsible for this mess I’d be disowning it, too. But the truth is that the conservatives got everything they wanted in the decade just past, everything that they’ve claimed for forty years would make America “great again”. They didn’t fart around with any “red dog Republicans.”
  • Ptak Science Books: Mapping the Invasion of America, 1942 – The following maps appeared in a two-page spread, detailing ways in which the Axis powers could combine their efforts, focus on America, and take over the country. Maps such as these with arrows being drawn towards America were absolutely uncommon during this time.

  • d r i f t g l a s s: “…if Christ is Not Risen – Sometimes he had to pee, but did it fountain-like, leaning backwards out the bathroom door limbo-style it with one ear cocked for the brrrring…and never flushed or washed his furry little paws for fear the white noise of running water would drown out the sound of Opportunity Calling…which is also why he hadn’t done laundry for a month, and why his sink was piled with sticky, old dishes.

    And so, as he sat in his stink, panic closing slowly over him as a tiny voice whispered to him that The Call wasn’t coming — that he was finally facing a long-overdue oblivion which would have engulfed him 20 years before in a Better Universe — Jokeline decided to take matters into his own hands, and do the one thing GUARANTEED according to the ancient and sacred rules of his lodge to earn him the approbation of the douchebag gatekeepers standing between him and the warm, healing light of the teevee cameras.

    Punching some imaginary hippies for nonexistent crimes.