Summer Distraction #1: Scottish Highland Games

Lots of plaid. Yummy food. Men in skirts. British cars.

Very fun day, all around.

Rule of Three

This week we lost three American icons: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. All three lead lives full of success and failure, both professionally and personally. While we remember the positive, it's impossible to forget the negative.

Still, the legacy left by each will never be forgotten. They will live on through video, photos, and music.

Ed McMahon was the perfect sidekick to Johnny Carson throughout their Tonight Show run. I'm not of the Carson/McMahon generation, but I do remember his commercials for the American Family Publishers sweepstakes. He never did come to our front door.

Farrah Fawcett was THE 70s sex symbol. My mom loved her hair so much, she even styled mine like it when I was a toddler. And mind you, that was in the mid-80s.


Michael Jackson was the King of Pop. No matter what you may think of him personally, everyone has a favorite MJ song or video. I remember watching the Thriller video every year on Halloween despite the fact that it scared the crap out of me. I still look forward to it each October.

Digital 1, Film 0 (But Paul Simon's the real winner here)

This photo's not Kodachrome, but it was taken with actual film.

Kodak announced today that it would be retiring Kodachrome, the company's oldest film stock, due to the growing prevalence of digital photography.

While I personally love using old school film, I find myself relying on my digital camera more and more. It's quick, convenient, and less expensive. But something about it also feels a bit impersonal. There's just something special about holding an actual physical photo; it's like touching a piece of the past. You just can't get that feeling from a digital file, even if you don't mind fingerprints on your computer screen. (Be honest, how many of your digital files actually get printed?)

Digital also makes it entirely too easy to destroy any photo that is remotely unflattering. Sure, you're Facebook profile may be full of lovely posed shots, but where's the spontaneity? Where's the fun? Film preserves the moments of our lives where we are most ourselves, even if we don't always look our best.

So am I ready to throw out my USB cord and step back to the pre-digital era? Nope. But I will continue to use traditional film. I may even use it more than I normally would. This truly is a "if you don't use it, you'll lose it" situation. Just ask Polaroid enthusiasts.

So what's Paul Simon got to do with all this? In case you didn't know, in 1973 Simon released a little ditty titled "Kodachrome," which celebrated the "nice, bright colors" produced by the film. You'll likely hear it or see it quoted in every news story about Kodak's decision to discontinue the Kodachrome brand (I heard it twice this evening, once each on the CBS and ABC evening newscasts). Still, I'll post a video of the complete song because it is pretty awesome (starts at the 13 second mark):

Something you should know

I'm a regular listener of the "Stuff You Should Know" podcast, published* by the How Stuff Works site. I recently sent an e-mail to podcasters Chuck & Josh regarding Nikola Tesla and teleportation (if you listen to the podcast, you'll understand).

I received this reply:

WHOA – that is definitely Tesla overload. That dude is blowing up!

Nice artwork too, btw!

Thanks for listening,

-- chuck

So you see folks, it pays to set up an automatic signature, place a link to your site in said auto sig, and forget it is attached to every outgoing e-mail you send. You might just get a pseudo-celebrity to look at your work. :)

Definitely check out the podcast. It's very informative, and quite entertaining. It's free on iTunes, and who doesn't like free things? And if that doesn't sell you on it, then I don't know what will.

*Is published the correct word to use here? With technology growing at the rate it is, the English language has a tough time keeping up.

No updates...

...but for a good reason: I've been busy working away on a couple projects. I hope to post some more in progress photos soon, so stay tuned!

In Progress...

After a long creative lull, I've found myself in the middle of an inspiration boom. When this happens I tend to start a bunch of projects at once, but only finish a couple. I hope this summer turns out to be an especially productive one.

This is a craft project I'm working on. Stay tuned to see where it goes from here.