These pictures are ones from back in 2003 when I had black hair. Nothing special about the pictures; no funky editing, no special lighting (as they were takent before that knowledge), just showing off my black hair. You like?
{gallery}images/BlackHair{/gallery}
Archive for the Pictures CategoryThese three pictures are pictures of myself with Kalysta at the hospital when she was born. Nothing special is done at all to the pictures, just ones that I wanted to show. These pictures were taken by Natalie in a cemetary close to my house. I want to do something like this again sometime. If only time would permit it.
Well, I got bored. I have lots of stuff that needs to be done but don’t know where to start or what is most important. I started doing some picture organizing/transftering and then while doing that I got out my camera. I started taking pictures, then I got an idea. It was a good idea in my head, however, it didn’t turn out as good as I hoped. A lot of those ideas I have for pictures really turn into videos; short videos that would only be 3 seconds long and the videos themselves are acutally only multiple pictures put together but still. I couldn’t bring across what I wanted to show without it moving in some way. Anyway, this is what I got out of what I took. I wanted to start with a picture of me at my computer, nothing on my desk, nothing in my hands. Then turn into me doing one of the many things. Then after that, the thing would be sitting on my desk while I started another project, etc etc. Continuing until my desk is full of stuff and me getting overwhelmed and shutting down. Well all that would involve a little bit of transparency change while looking at the picture; a slow desolve even. GIF images that move are just not for me. They look too abnormal when on a webpage so I decided against it. Instead I just took about 4 to 5 pictures out of the bunch, changed the transparency, choose what should be on top and what should be on bottom, then saved it. Didn’t take too long yet I need to go to bed soon so I wanted to end it. I know if I said “I will finish this tomorrow” that it would never get done so here it is.
The visuals were simply creative, obscure, and also amazing. The lighting was good; they had some new “effects” that I hadn’t seen before but NIN and Tool have been more creative. I can’t really compare them to Arcade Fire thought because they are on completely different levels. It is always slightly hard for me to judge sound at a concert. When I talk about sound, I don’t mean the lyrics. If I didn’t like the lyrics I wouldn’t be at the concert. When I talk about sound, I am talking about accoustics and also mixing of instruments and vocals. So the sound was done quite well. I stood by the audio booth and was watching the girl play on the audio board. I think she didn’t like me watching her because it is a “looking over the shoulder” annoyance. After about 10 minutes she asked me if she could help me with something. Sorry to whoever that was, I am just a little kid that am interested in lights, knobs, and sliders. Now for the good parts of the concert. I will be leaving some stuff out (opening band, waiting in line, etc) for just making this a shorter post. I mean no one will be reading this in the first place, but if I do get someone reading this, I only want the good stuff in it.
When I saw the stage I thought “damn, that is a lot of shit”. The first thing I noticed were these white-looking strips that might have been attached to mic stands that were at their hightest height. Then the 5 white circles that were attached to lighting tripod stands. I didn’t really know how those would be incorporated into the show but I will tell you that one later. Then I noticed the small set of hanging pipe organs. Finally the numerous amps that were on stage. I believe there were around 8 or 10. There were 2 keyboards, one of those large-ass wood intruments (ya know the ones you have to stand up to play that are higher than you), the playing part of the organ, some guitars, drum set, and some misc brass intruments. There were tons of different instruments up there. There were also what looked like 2 projectors in the back next to FOH (front of house which means audio).
When the show began, those white circles turned into a moving animated logo of their new album which is called “Neon Bible”. So my first thought was that “hmm…maybe there are 5 different’ projectors somewhere? No that would be way too hard to aim, what if they got moved by the people playing? Maybe it will be a set image, a moving one at that. hmmm….”. Those 5 or so white strips were actually lights and when they first turned on they sorta flashed a pretty lighting color flash and then turned red. There were more of that same type of lighting along some of the different platforms. There was one more of those circle projector (or what I thought might have been a projector) on the kick drum as well. They came on stage and started playing. All their music was pretty good. They played some songs from their first album but I wasn’t very fond of their first album. Not quite my cup of tea (especially because I don’t like tea). Okay, so more on those circle things. I found out from my observing techniques that they were in fact projectors. The circles were being projected from the rear (rear projected). And it wasn’t anywhere backstage but better yet, attached to the circles. The white circles weren’t just white circles but red squares with a white circle in the center. I believe they did that so you could only see a circle of the image that would then be projected.
Also, they did not just project their current album logo. They had grainy looking recordings of people playing instruments. I say grainy but I am talking about just poor quality cameras or low end. Then, as I looked closer at the people playing, I noticed that they were in rythm of the people on stage playing. Upon further looking I saw that even the hand movements were the same. Then I said “no….no, it can’t be, can it? Holy Shit, it is! There are cameras on stage, cameras about the size of pennies or nickles probably”. There were probably 10 or 12 cameras in different positions on the stage. Throughtout the show I also think I decided that they might be able to move as well because someone would be singing in the center and the two cameras, and the two circles that were showing the camera images, the cameras wouldn’t be quite on center with them. I saw movement (very very very slow smooth movement) of one camera, then bam, she was centered. Then I saw the other one move and she would be centered again. I don’t know what type of small cameras they were or how they got them to move, but I know they were moving, I know it.
Now back to the beginning. When they came out I thought maybe some stage hands came out as well but no. There were ten people playing stuff. 10 band members! There were two on the back right (house right) platform playing brass intruments. Two on the floor in front of them playing woodwind intruments like violen and that big standing intrument that I can’t think of the name of. The main guy vocalist had a small guitar type instrument that I think was wooden. The girl to HIS left (or house right) was the main girl vocalist and was playing some winding instrument. It was like a fat wooden guitar. She wound it with her right hand and somehow played it with her left. She (or another girl) also had an accordion. That was awesome. Those things are so cool. There were two blow horns on mic or lighting stands. Ya know, those things people hold and talk into to make themselves louder The electric ones. They had mics attached to the end of them as well which is quite creative. There were some misc single standing instruments that you would normally find in a set; like a symbol on a stand, standing alone, or a snare drum. They were off to the left (house left). It seems like almost every song, they were shuffling spots or jobs. The drummer came down to play on the keyboard while the main girl vocalist went to drums and put on a headset mic so she could still sing. That is pretty cool. One of the middle songs I looked over to my left and there were two girls dancing in the aisle. I believe they were doing somewhat of swing dancing, which was cool. The song was correct for that type of dance anyway. My face lit up with joy to see that. I love when I see audience members get into it as much as that. The lead girl vocalist danced a little on stage too. She had a very pretty black dress with a red cloth type belt I think, or it went over her shoulder somehow. Finally, my favorite visual thing which had me drop my jaw. They said that it would be their last song and they walked off stage. The stage went black but I saw a few roadies put something on stage. It was a human size cutout of the guy lead vocalist. His face wasn’t there though. It was white. Of course I didn’t think of it at the time, but once it happened…yeah. They came back out to play. He played “My Body Is A Cage” and was at the organ spot. Very soon after that the white spot on the cutout wasn’t white anymore but instead was an image. It was one of the camera feeds. It was just of his face so it looked like his cutout was singing at the mic. Beautiful, creative, inventive. I believe they played two other songs after that. Two of the band members, they were mainly playing on the left side (house left), were switching instruments like crazy. They also played those single, solo instruments. They were going all out. One of them was singing into the blowhorn mic, then throwing it up in the air, only to catch it again and sing the next part. He did that a bunch of times. The other had drum sticks in his hand and playing the cymbal along with a snare drum. Later he picked up two cymbals with handles on them and clashed them together. Fucking ingenious. I loved it. Again, overall I thought the show was awesome. Creative ideas, new inventive use of graphics, mass amounts of instruments, and all the energy to use them along with giving us energy. I am glad I got to go. {gallery}images/04-09-06{/gallery} These pictures were taken a while back. Wow, over a year back. Imagine that. Damn I am slow. I have more pictures to put up before I put up the pictures I took yesterday. I will try and get another set or two done by Friday. I hope.
So while driving down main street towards the tracks to turn on front street I see lots of kids and their moms and dads. Kala is still sorta grumy though. Of course, we got stopped by a train so while I am sitting there, I see kids getting easter type stuff from a store on my left. They were little flower pin wheel type things. It was a freight train so I know I will be there a while. I put the car in park, unbuckle my seatbelt and get out without really saying where I am going. I am sure my mom was thinking “where the hell is he going? He is driving!” I run over, ask nicely for a pink pin wheel and then run back to the car. After opening the car I say “Hey Kalla, look what I got you?” She perked up a little after that. We went into Carlsons, I got what I needed to and then we decided we had enough time to walk some of the streets so Kalysta could get some treats. She was half grumpy and half not (more on the not grumpy side though). Of course she was polite and cute for the people giving out gifts. She got some candy from The Popcorn Store as well. While in The Popcorn Store, 3 girls (maybe my age or a little younger?) came in. They asked me “how does this place work?” or something like that. From what I understood, they have lived here a while but have never been in here. I was sorta blown away but of course explained it. (not that there is much explaining) “You sorta wait in line, when it finally moves up, you can put candy in your bag. If you want popcorn, you can shout it, or try and get their attention and then tell them what you want. Lots of times they will just ask if anyone wants popcorn. Once you get to the counter, they count your candy and you pay.” {gallery}images/ErithPics{/gallery} Here are the final 8 Pictures I promised awhile back. |
So I didn’t mention this earlier because I forgot I had the ticket and, well, yeah, I forgot I had the ticket. I went to the Arcade Fire Concert in Chicago at the Chicago Theatre. The concert was way better than I was expecting it to be. For the record (you probably know this if you know me) I am not one to like new bands that come around. I am stubborn about that type of stuff. So for me to be introduced to a band, like them enough to listen to them quite often, and then hear about a concert and attend is a pretty big step or it just says a lot about the band. *shrug*
