B&W Photos

Rachel and I went to the Civil War Battlefield out in Manasss yesterday to get the B&W photos for my next class. Im pretty happy with how they turned out.

Fro Wig + Zucini = Funny

I don't know why, but this picture cracks me up. Im gettin' me a fro' wig!!!

Latest Photos...

Didn't go to class last week because I was under the weather, so I have two weeks of pics to post. The 1st group are "portraits" and the 2nd group is experimenting with color.

http://www.pbase.com/image/40021752

http://www.pbase.com/image/40021681

http://www.pbase.com/image/40021680

http://www.pbase.com/image/40021655

http://www.pbase.com/image/40021590

http://www.pbase.com/image/40021518

http://www.pbase.com/image/40021494

http://www.pbase.com/image/40021473

New Wheels...

Here she is...




I decided to go with the 2004 Xterra instead of the new 2005. With the 2005 model just out, I got a REALLY good deal on the 2004 Xterra. Around $5000 less than the 2005. The extra horsepower of the 2005 would have been nice, but so is saving $5000. Plus it's a truck, so I shouldn't be racing around in the thing anyway. Pretty well fully loaded too. Only thing I didnt get that I would have liked is fog lights, but I can live without those. The truck even came with a cool Xterra backpack!!!Sweet!

What Niel does in is man room...

That picture of Niel on his new website gave me a flashback.


Ladies and Gentleman Niel, live from his "man room"....

http://www.funpic.hu/swf/numanuma.html

Been A While...

Sorry for not posting for a while. Been a little under the weather and swamped at work.

I had a really strange dream the other night. I thought I would post it here incase any sort of truth comes of it. I dreamt that I was reading the little book inside the CD case for the Jet CD. And inside there was a photo of the lead singer wearing a shirt with weird looking letters on it. I remember looking, trying to figure it out in my dream. Then in my dream I held the picture up to a mirror and it revealed the message "I keep her in the trunk of my car". So I dont know if this was just all the cold medication making me loopy, nothing at all or 5 years down the road we're gonna find out the lead singer from Jet is a serial killer.

So on Tuesday night I didnt go to class. Since Rachel was working, I popped in the Some Kind of Monster DVD which she had given to me for Valentines day. Without giving too much away I just wanted to write a few bullet points.

- James had a serious mullet going on back in the day
- Lars has really shitty taste in art
- I learned that Kirk likes to surf
- Legendary rock producer Bob Rock looks like a weird mesh of Donald Trump, CC Deville and Fabio
- Metallica let Jason Newsted tell his side of the story which I thought was cool
- Jason seemed genuinly hurt
- Lars and James are immature control freaks
- Kirk is the only rational thinker and voice of reason
- Lars's dad looks like if Willy Nelson and Osama Bin Laden had a kid. Since Lars was a childhood tennis prodigy, I pictured a much more reserved looking father.
- Kirk owns a ranch and dresses like a gay cowboy
- Dave Mustaine refers to Lars as his little Danish friend. I thought that was funny
- There's footage of Lars jogging. I think sloths run faster
- The parts with Lars and Dave Mustaine are very real, and very touching
- There was almost a girl bass player in Metallica!
- Lars is a bitter, angry little man
- Lars can't read
- For some reason Crazy Cabbie is in the movie. Yes THAT Crazie Cabbie.
- Lars's wife is like 6 inches taller than he is
- The parts with the bass player auditions was pretty cool
- James's kids are adorable. Lars's son Myles looks a little queer.
- Closeups are not Mr. Hetfields friend
- I felt like some of the drama was overdone and came off as being fake
- The therapist that travels with the band is a bigger quack than Dr. Phil
- James doing vocal exercises = funny!
- All three of them appear to be going bald. Especially Kirk and Lars

Squilky On the Aisle...

So I kept reading about how great the movie Sideways is supposed to be. It made Mens Health top 10 "guy" movies for 2004 and has been well received by critics. So with Rachel out of town, I decided to check it out. Man was I disapointed. It was like watching the Mets play the Cincinatti Reds. Not a lot of action, and all you can hear is a giant sucking sound.

It's not exactly what I would consider a "guy" movie. To me a movie like Old School or Animal House is a guy movie, Dirty Harry and John Wayne movies are guy movies. But maybe that's just me. Easily 50% of this movie revolves around wine and wine tasting. So if that's your idea of fun, maybe you'll enjoy this movie more than I did. I'm not a big wine drinker, so I found this to be very dull. I have no problem with people tasting different wines. I'm not opposed to tasting different wines. But Paul Giamatti's character in the movie is a fanatic about wine. He won't drink certain wines because the skins on the grape are too thick, or if the clarity isn't perfect. It's crazy. Come on guys, it's grape juice with a little punch to it.

I can see why critics would like the movie, because there is a lot of symbolism in it. The fragile grapes used to make Pinot Grigio were symbolic of Giamatti's character who was fragile and senstive after his divorce. I know Im a bit of a caveman at times, but I get that. And the acting of Paul Giamatti as this manic, confused man going through a midlife crisis was brilliant. But what I couldn't get past is how dull the story was. Don't advertise and hype the movie up as a buddy picture. The premise of the movie is two guys that travel from San Diego in a convertable and drive up the coast as a last hurrah before one of them gets married. Sounds like a great premise for a movie. But the characters don't really do anything all that exciting. There's one scene on a golf course that was entertaining, but it was all of about 3 minutes in the film. And there is a scene towards the end where they have to retrieve the wedding rings that was humorous and exciting to watch. But there just wasn't enough of that. Most of the movie is conversations over dinner and drinking wine. If I want that, I'll go out to eat and listen in on what the people at the next table are saying.

I give this one 5 out of 10.

This is Squilky wishing you buttery popcorn, icy cold soda and a comfy seat!!! oh yeah and caviar dreams!

SUper Bowl and This Weeks Assignment

I was pleasantly surprised that the Super Bowl was as close as it was. I was expecting it to be 28-7 by the half. I think the score isn't really indicative of how outplayed the Eagles were though. I don't like Tom Brady, but I do respect his achievements. Donavan McNabb looked like crap. He was just winging the ball and if it wasn't for his receivers and some fortunate calls, he would have been picked off a few more times. I think McNabb may go down in history as being a Jim Kelly sort of guy. He gets his teams to the big games, but he just doesn't step up like the greats in the past have to take them to the next level. He's still fairly young, so he can improve, but if I were an Eagles fan I wouldn't have any more patience or comfidence in him.

As far as the commercials go, I think Bud Light had the best commercials. I especially liked the one of the skydivers where the instructor throws a 6 pack of Bud Light out of the plane. The dumbest commercials were the ones for some job web site. It featured a bunch of chimps in different office situations. I get the concept behind it, but I thought it came across as idiotic.
The cruelest commcercial was the one featured Mc Hammer. I don't even know what company the commercial was for. But Hammer was just looking old and tired and they have him in his giant gold pants dancing around like some circus act. That's just mean. Assholes like Joey Buttafuoco and John Bobbitt are ok to kick when they are down, but Hammer supposidly fell on hard times because he was such a nice guy. He employed all his friends he grew up with who were on hard times. I just thought it was cruel and unecessary.

I thought the pre game ceremonies featuring Alician Keys paying tribute to Ray Charles and the armed forces was very moving. I thought the pre game ceremony in general was well done and classy. Made me feel very patriotic and thankful to live in the greatest country in the world. I know alot of people were complaining about how sanitized the half time show was, but this white boy would much rather see Paul McCartney perform over Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. Paul has more talent in one of his fingernails then those two morons last year will ever have. It may now have gotten me to want to get up and dance, but I was singing along to all the songs he performed. In between bites of the cocktail franks we were eating hehe.

Ok so for this weeks assignment we had to demonstrate different types of lighting. Here's what I came up with...

Candles...I like this one because the candles are the only light source in the room. I love the way the candles go from a bright glow at the top, and fade into blackness as the lightsource diminishes.
http://www.pbase.com/image/39506097

Make a Wish...Some may say the pink candles off the side are a distraction. I took several of these scene from different angles and I thought the ones without the color in the back were kind of drab. So I picked one with the back coloring.
http://www.pbase.com/squilky/image/39505992

Sunflowers...I like this one because sunflowers are usually very and vivid. By using subtle lighting, it makes them look kind of sickly and almost menacing. http://www.pbase.com/squilky/image/39506024

Wall...I like this one because even though I didn't convert this to a black and white image, it appears to be black and white because of the different shades of white and gray. It's just a wall sconce shining light on the stairway in my house.
http://www.pbase.com/image/39506503

Runnng From His Shadow...I've always thought the expression scared of his shadow was a funny one, so I decided to experiment with the old wooden dummy and a desk lamp to create this...
http://www.pbase.com/squilky/image/39506004

IFZ OJFM!!!!

5 Cubed!!!


LLMDXEAEELTYMNISSAOVPODNE

Black History Month

Happy Ground Hogs Day and Happy Black History Month my bruthas and sistas!!!!

Landscapes...

This past week our assignment was to shoot some landscapes. Landscapes have always interested me, but I've never been particularly good at shooting them. Im much more comfortable shooting still lifes and photos indoors where I can control the lighting, the background and general environment. What's cool about this class is that it's forcing me to explore all kinds of shooting. I wasn't particularly impressed with my landscape shots, but the professor seemed to like them. One of the sign language translaters stopped me in the hall and said she really liked the old shack shot. I like that one too. It's not a very pretty scene, but there is something about it I like.

This time of year is tough because the trees are baron, and the grass is generally frozen and drab looking. But on Friday Rachel and I drove around to a few spots and did some shooting. I try to get a variety of different scenes, but wound up picking two similar photos of a church and a chapel anyway. I've learned a few handy tips from my professor, so I hope I continue to improve and can use what I've learned so far to improve my picture taking.

This weeks assignment is lighting. We have to explore different types of lighting. This is something that really interests me. Dramatic lighting can really make for a great photo. Our professor showed us some examples last night in class which was really cool and got me thinking of some ideas I would like to explore. Since I never officially used the wooden figures for my assignment, they may have to come back out for this one :-).

Here's the pics I used for the Feb 1st class assignment.

http://www.pbase.com/squilky/image/39298276

http://www.pbase.com/squilky/image/39298278

http://www.pbase.com/squilky/image/39298314

http://www.pbase.com/squilky/image/39298316

http://www.pbase.com/squilky/image/39298320

http://www.pbase.com/squilky/image/39298323

Man on Burger Action...

Click below for hot burger f'ing!!!

http://andrewteman.typepad.com/worldchamp/2005/01/mcdonalds_wants

On the Aisle...With Squilky

Traditionally to be a successful movie critic, you have to have some sort of "hook". Like Gene Shallet has the wacky hair. Roger Ebert used to be a fat ass, now he's a big pile of extra skin. Rex Reed is flamboyantly gay. So today, as I review Million Dollar Baby, I'm typing this wearing nothing but a leopard print thong. You'll have to take my word for it...

Million Dollar Baby... Going into this movie, I was expecting more of a Raging Bull or Rocky type movie. Million Dollar Baby is quite different. There isn't a lot of gore or hellacious beatings like in Rocky. Although there is one scene when Hillary Swank breaks her nose that is pretty gross. I guess they went easy of the blood because it was a female lead. I think viewers may have been turned off watching a woman going the distance in a 12 round title fight.

The boxing in the movie is really secondary to the relationship that developes between Hillary Swank and Clint Eastwood. They definitely have some great chemistry together. It's almost like watching a closely knit father and daughter team. I guess old Clint is a softy inside after all. What sad is that Clint does the stereotypical old man move of wearing his pants up around his nipples. Not sure if this was part of the character, or just Clint being an old man. Hard to see Dirty Harry so old and rinkly.

The beauty of the movie is how Clint Eastwood, Hillary Swank and Morgan Freeman all use boxing to fill voids in their lives. You have three very different people, all with short comings and hardships. Three seemingly good people, who have had bad things happen to them throughout their lives.

So don't expect a true sports movie. There's a good deal of Million Dollar Baby that doesn't take place in the gym or the ring. I would have liked to see more of the training that made Hillary Swanks character who she was. She sort of went from being clumsy and uncoordinated to knocking people out. My favorite parts of the Rocky movies are his training sessions. Seeing how he developed speed, stamina and power. That's something lacking in Million Dollar Baby. But overall it's a good story, just different than what I was expecting. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being best, I would give Million Dollar Baby an 8.5.

This is a thonged up Squilky....on the aisle!