February 27, 2012 4

84th Oscar Thoughts

By in Movies, Soundtracks, TV

Oscar loves poutine

Adam & I stayed home to watch this year, just the two of us and a warm bowl of delicious, delicious poutine (thanks Rachel, for the ‘curds!). I’ve been wildly indifferent on this year’s films (and thus, Oscar nominees) overall, so my heart wasn’t in it for the flicks, for once. Here are my stray observations from this year’s pretty zippy Academy Awards telecast…

  • I don’t have any strong feelings on Billy Crystal as a host. I don’t think I was old enough when he started to be really attached to him from a nostalgic standpoint, but I felt like like his jokes were slightly harsher “digs” than I expected from him as a comedian. Also 3 guys win “Best Documentary” and their mic gets cut off, but Crystal can mug for the camera and wait for the entire room to go silent continuously without problem? That said, we did avoid last year’s tragically disappointing Franco/Hathaway train wreck, so there’s that.
  • I love Emma Stone (but only platonically, so @_WillieClark doesn’t punch me). She just seems to be having the time of her life in everything she does.
  • People I know seem (rightly so) still confused on the difference between “Sound Editing” and “Sound Mixing.” In plain English, from In Contention: “Sound editing [...] concerns the manifestation of artificial sound effects and the overall manipulation of the sonic identity of a film. Sound mixing concerns the balance of those various elements, in addition to music and dialogue, as well as the on-the-set maintenance of production audio.”  Now you know!
  • Similarly, I’ve also seen a lot of people asking about why there are only 2 “Original Song” nominees this year. The short answer is because the music branch is stupid and continually makes the rules stricter and stricter. The longer answer is that there are a lot of criteria the songs have to meet, including a rating system. This year the branch apparently only decided 2 were worthy. (Read a slightly more detailed account of the rationale over at Forbes)
  • That said, “Man or Muppet” is my new theme song and I think it’s awesome, so I’m totally over the moon about Bret McKenzie’s win.

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January 14, 2012 3

Chimney Bluffs & Video Hopefulness

By in Video

Rachel at Chimney Bluffs

Back in April 2010, Rachel, Kevin, Adam & I drove up to Chimney Bluffs State Park to check it out (I’d always heard of it, but had never been). We hiked late into the afternoon and walked along the water on our way back – a really peaceful, lovely way to spend several hours. I was camera-less at the time, so Rachel let me borrow her ole’ point-and-shoot which I proceeded to fill with pictures. I also shot a bunch of video which, now that I’ve joined the Mac cult this week, I was finally able to edit at home. It’s pretty low-res, but I’m really happy with it because, to me, it very accurately represents how I was feeling that day (no small thanks to Bon Iver / Adam for suggesting music until we got to this). Lookin’ forward to unearthing the rest of my old videos & merging “occasional” video back into my life from now on. Watch the ~2-minute lil’ video after the jump.

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December 1, 2011 0

Between the Trees & Ice

By in Mix CDs

See the full tracklist over at my Mix CDs site

I have a helluva lot of respect (and envy) for people who can pop out really great mixes every month (I’m looking at you, Todd!). Me? I’m lucky to get one halfway decent one out a year. Case in point: some of the tracks on this mix have been on my “for next mix” playlist since early 2008. I’m mad slow, but hopefully it’s worth the wait! And really, this just means these are the best of the best because they’ve weathered the years, right? Right. Centered around the feeling of late fall / early winter here in the Northeast, it’s got some crunchy-brown, quiet slate, and chilly gray to accompany your end of the week.

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November 26, 2011 1

Gettin’ Baked

By in Food, Products


It’s tough to photograph food that you desperately want to eat. It’s even worse to photograph food that other people really want to eat. For both reasons it’s difficult to photograph anything we’ve ever made out of the Baked cookbooks. Adam saw the original, Baked, on the shelf at Borders and bought it on a whim. It made such delicious desserts that we picked up the sequel, Baked Explorations, the week it came out, and boy if they haven’t been worth every penny. Just about every recipe we’ve made from them has been amazing, so they’ve become our go-to books for dessert recipes. Below are some of the hastily-photo’d-to-get-on-with-the-eatin’ recipes we’ve made outta the Baked books over the last two years.

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November 24, 2011 1

So long, and thanks for all the turkey

By in Video

Murder Mystery

This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for the comforts I take for granted, however large or small, the fact that I am pretty darn happy with my life right now, and for the support & good times I’ve enjoyed with my friends and family. As I dig through my hard drives for photos & videos to edit, it’s really great to see again and again how many awesome people I know and how much fun we’ve had together.

Every once in awhile I’ve shot some video during events / gatherings over the years, but most of it has never seen the light of day before. Max was kind enough to let me borrow his laptop for a night so I could use iMovie and continue my return into the dark world of video editing with footage from two of these events: the 2010 trip to Comic-Con and a murder mystery at Christi & Rocky’s.

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November 6, 2011 0

Why doors have locks

By in Uncategorized

Bowl of blood

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November 4, 2011 4

Placing the blame

By in Uncategorized

While waiting for a photo subject this morning, I stood around with a crossing guard who struck up a conversation. Adele (her name’s been changed) asked “Are you voting next week?” I said “yes” and returned the question, to which she very resentfully said “no.”

Me: Why not?
Adele: It doesn’t matter if I do. They’ll keep Maggie there no matter what.
Me: Maggie… Brooks?
Adele: Yes. Her. (She spits on the sidewalk)
Me: I take it you don’t like her.
Adele: It doesn’t matter if I do. They’ll keep her. She’s terrible.
Me: They’ll only keep her if people vote for her. You should vote!
Adele: Pffft. It doesn’t matter. They’ll keep her.
Me: Are you sure? I’m pretty sure it’s a ‘majority-rule’ sort of deal. They can’t keep her if she’s voted out.
Adele: Boy, what sort of world are you living in?

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October 30, 2011 0

Cemetery Meandering

By in Photopalooza

By the pond

Giant leaf Cullen-love Dead pet... lamb?

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September 11, 2011 0

Pay No Attention

By in Sunday Sketch

I always doodle more layouts for CITY’s annual “Best of Rochester” issue than any other all year. This one’s for the “Introduction” page in 2009.

“Sunday Sketch” – pairing a sketch with the final image it resulted in – is a way for me to get my terribly lumpy doodles outta my notebooks and onto the web where they can run free.

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August 21, 2011 1

A fort is a fort, of course, of course

By in Sunday Sketch

Once I found out that I had the option to build a fort out of sheets and pillows for CITY’s “Winter Guide 2011″, there really wasn’t any choice but to make it happen.

I hope to make “Sunday Sketch” – pairing a sketch with the final image it resulted in – a reoccurring series since my terribly lumpy doodles constantly crack me up.

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