blessingx

Hope it’s a fun, big O birthday.

Hope it’s a wonderful day.

Great read… Jazz Off the Record In the late 1960s, the recording industry lost interest in America’s greatest art form. But in a small, dark club on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, jazz legends were playing the best music you’ve never heard. https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/slugs-jazz-ethan-iverson/ Ex. ‘More than Davis and perhaps even more than Coltrane, Tyner is the true architect of what followed. His signature harmonic device, the fourth chord, was disseminated on Coltrane’s hit recording of “My Favorite Things” in 1961 and widely adopted overnight. Lacking the note that would make a chord either major or minor, fourth chords have a mysterious stasis, refusing to commit to the system of tonality that defined European art music. The effect was both ancient and contemporary: a circle of stones, lit by fire, right next to a jet plane.’

I’m sure the cabinets will be beautiful too.

CEO of AI Music Company Says People Don’t Like Making Music https://www.404media.co/ceo-of-ai-music-company-says-people-dont-like-making-music/ 🙃

Beautiful guys.

Adding Magnum photographer Constantine Manos, who also passed away about a week ago. https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/remembering-constantine-manos-1934-2025/

Went to the Battle of the Bulge 60th anniversary exhibit at the [next to NASA Ames] Moffett Field Museum. That tree stump doesn’t stand a chance.

#1 reason to consider buying any Blu-ray player - the oldest film currently streaming on Netflix is The Sting from 1973! That's like yesterday!

Hope it was a great one.

For those without AppleTV+, it’s free this weekend (1/3-5). Time to watch Slow Horses. https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2024/12/get-a-free-all-access-pass-to-apple-tv-the-first-weekend-of-2025/

You and I are a lot alike on the reflection front. What's the old quote I can never find a record of? "We live just long enough to doubt everything we believed in" (or something similar)? Anyway, within photography, and I know not everyone agrees, gear got good enough at least a decade ago (and probably much longer - four decades?) and common big photographic questions answered (at least in pursuit of realism?), so whatever constitutes image making now seems at least partially tied with experimentation and alternative views, no? I mean is a mouth camera much crazier than the fact that the mouth camera is a film pinhole camera in 2024? Anyway, looking forward to other orifices in 2025. 🫠

Vinyl-focused listening bars inspired by ones in Japan are opening across New York, attracting audiophiles and city dwellers looking for a respite from the cacophony outside their doors. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/30/style/vinyl-listening-bars.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mE4.DoPV.rDeIpFwipn7h&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&tgrp=on. (gift article)

I dunno. Maybe. Maybe, even likely, but she's an artist across media for almost 40 years. This is another one focused on image-making and even on the narrow photography front going from EVF to eye contact OVF or waist-level can have impact, why not experiment elsewhere and stare in each other's eyes? I think of Errol Morris' contraptions to do the opposite. Again, this may be all be for attention and notoriety, but there's a decent chance it may not. And I kind of like aiming for relevance. 😉

Whatever your current mood hope you have a decent New Year’s Eve and Day.

The Untold Story of the White House’s Weirdly Hip Record Collection Jimmy Carter’s grandson is unlocking its mysteries https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/05/03/the-untold-story-of-the-white-houses-weirdly-hip-record-collection/

Mouth pinhole camera

Reminder…

2024: A Year In Pictures https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/world/year-in-pictures.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lE4.Dgq5.LZRv4dFGBE4Y&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&tgrp=sty (gift article)

That reminds me of, and maybe based on (?)…