Knuckledragger

There's a reason I'm posting this song now, ...but I ain't gonna explain it.

Oh man, a twofer. RIP Richard Simmons an man whose voice one can hear at mere mention of his named, passed at 76. His birthday was yesterday.

There's a guy on MV selling a bunch of DSLRs for quite cheap. Most were of no interest to me (Canon Rebel T2i, Canon D40, Nikon D90, Nikon D3200) but he also had a 2005 vintage D200 paired with the 18-200mm VR (which is apparently a really good lens.) My main interest is attaching my 300mm F/4 to it and using it as an effective 450mm. The seller dropped it off this afternoon and I've been testing it out. Of course, it's absolutely pouring right now so I'm somewhat limited in what I can do. With that said, That's the 300mm successfully attached. I had to figure out how to remove the Nikon F to Canon EF adapter (a nontrivial task.) Did you know you have to set the aperture to smallest and flip a switch on the lens before you mount it or the camera displays a "fEE" error? Nikons are weird. The other lenses are the 18-200mm VR and a 50mm F/1.8 D I bought from a certain DACses hoarder like 15 years ago(!) Looking out the back door (with apologies to John Fogerty) with the 18-200. A not very good photo of a Night Herron taking shelter from the downpour. I should not be handholding a 300mm in the rain) or at any other point.)

RIP Dr Ruth who passed the tender age of 96. Anyone alive in the 80s will remember her and late night talk show hosts doing impersonations of her.

Introducing the 🙂🕶️😎 TICEberg. https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/giant-phallus-shaped-iceberg-floating-in-conception-bay-surprises-residents-of-dildo-canada

20+ years ago, this was the funniest thing on the internet.

Bringing out the big guns: Cracking open a roll of Velvia 50 for the first time in 16 years. I've been going out to Sweetened Water Farm (the property across the street from me) many evenings during the golden hour. It's an amazingly scenic vista that is largely unspoiled. The family that own the farm were smart and bought up a lot of MV property when it was cheap and have sold it off over the years. That means they've been able to keep such prime real estate in its agrarian state. Normally I shoot with with my 5D IV and either the 50/1.8 or the 17-40, with a side order of iPhone. I thought "what if I do the same thing, but make it much more difficult and expensive." That thought process lead me to best (and among the least forgiving) film stocks on the planet. Of course, this evening came and I didn't expose a single frame of Velvia. For the past few days there's been a spectacular spider web floating in space by the pond. I tried to capture it with my 85mm (which I had attached for the above shot) and realized immediately I a significantly longer focal length. I dug out my 300mm Nikkor and spend half an hour wrestling a tripod framing, manually focusing and cursing. TBH I could really use a 400 or 500mm lens. Don't hold your breath. With that said, 300mm is not exactly a useful focal length for normal photography. I really have to work to do ...anything with it. I puttered around the yard, attempting to find interesting things to frame. I didn't get much, but I do like this shot:

Was just gonna post about him. I watched Fernwood Tonight (and later America Tonight) not when it was a new show, but as reruns on Nike at Nite (which had some amazing content in the early days.) Not everything he did was funny (his comedic music albums were ...mixed at best) but his screen presence was amazing.

Gratuitous cat picture that didn't make it into my Tivoli Model CD post.

RIP Donald Sutherland, who passed at the tender age of 88.

"Communists in Cars Getting Coffee."

In March of last year, the skies over MV got really weird. All I had with me was my iPhone 13 and a newly purchased version of the Moment cameraphone app. I barely had idea how to use it at that point, but (as always) the best camera is the one you have with you. In classic me fashion, I then sat on the photos and did nothing with them until last week. These weird, undulating formations are called asparagus asperitas clouds and these photos do not come close to doing them justice. I pulled over in a couple different locations and photographed them as best I could. I met a nice elderly lady and her dog (not photographed). The woman said she'd lived on the Vineyard for 50 years and has never seen anything like it. The dog indicated that the clouds did not warrant a delay of walkies. There's entirely too much pseudo HDR math going on in these photos, even with Moment. With that said, it was the only camera I had on hand it's more than likely I will not live to see another phenomenon like this.

Dayum. Anyone want a deluxe repress of one of the most famous 90s ambient albums? Warp is re-releasing Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works vol II for its 30th anniversary (also SAW II came out 30 years go, oh god am I old.) The wooden boxed set version will set you back a cool $300. There's also a plebeian vinyl release for $50. I hope it's better pressed than, ahem, some of the Warp vinyl re-releases have been. The music itself is of course excellent. Richard D James has never not been a bell end of the highest order. He's also released an awful lot of wank over the last 30 something years. With that said, his good moments are about as good as British electronic music ever got. SAW II represents him at peak, more or less.

I watched the whole thing. I have very mixed feelings about it, as I do with everything related to Pantera. Since I first heard "Heresy" on college radio in 1990, I've loved Dimebag's riffs. I have never particularly liked Phil Anselmo and my opinion hasn't exactly improved in the last 34 years. When I heard a few years ago that Phil was going start performing live as Pantera, my reaction was not a good one. "Are you serious? What kind of disgusting cash grab is this? Can you piss on Dime and Vinnie's graves any harder?" I didn't GAF in the slightest that he had Rex back. Rex, bless his heart, has always been the least interesting member of the band. Then I heard Phil hired Zakk Wylde to play guitar, and Charlie Benante on drums. Charlie has quietly been the engine of Anthrax for nearly 40 years now, along with his nephew Frank on bass. Zakk needs no introduction. Nothing is ever going to make me like Phil, but I became at least open minded to the idea a live version of Pantera. The above video is both kind of what I expected and quite a bit different. Zakk's guitar tone is kind of awful, but that is (in all seriousness) a proper tribute to Dime. The best description of Cowboys From Hell I ever heard was "the best worst guitar tone." Certainly, Zakk has full command of Dime's riffs and solos. Similarly, Charlie's drumming is on point but to my ears he sounds poorly mixed. The drums might have sounded great coming out of the stage PA, but in my headphones they sound a bit anemic. Phil somehow sounds worse than I remember. With all of that said, the energy the band puts out is impressive and the crowd is clearly really into it.

The main road to Grindavík right now.

At least I think that's the name of the holiday.

Legendary Sony squares: The Esprit APM-4s are ~100 lbs. The APM-8s are a stout 220 lbs each. There's also an APM-6.

Let's talk about Lucy Vincent and Gay Head. The former has a bunch of famous rock formations, which I mostly failed to capture: Approaching minimalism. Nifty 50, 5D IV. A study of the rock formations. 50/5D. iPhone uh 13? with the "Camera+ Legacy" app. I will never like mobile phone camera apps, but Camera+ allows for some taming of the pseudo HDR bullshit Apple does out of the box. It also has a really neat white balance control. (More on that later. Much later.) ibid. The town of Aquinnah, MA was known as Gay Head from 1870 to 1997. The townsfolk elected to change the name to honor the native people who lived there and certainly not for any other reason stop snickering. Aquinnah is famous for its brick lighthouse and brightly colored cliffs. Said cliffs are still called "The Gay Head Cliffs." They're among the most photographed things on MV. All taken with the iPhone/Camera+ app. You can't tell from here, but that guy in the water is naked. It's is not a nude beach. The one feature about SMRT phone cameras that I really like is taking panorama shots. The cliffs and lighthouse seen from the lookout platform in the most touristy area. Fortunately when I was there most stores were closed and it wasn't crowded. The walk from the parking lot to the beach is actually quite long. I took this shot from the start of the jaunt. The building to the left is the <mumble> museum, which was closed. 50/5D. Minimal editing (I am obsessive about having a perfectly flat ocean horizon line.) The view from the lookout platform. 50/5D. Next time: Asparagus in the sky! (AKA asperitas clouds.)

As promised, I divested myself of the Canon 28-90. I made some attempts to use the Canon 35-80mm F/4-5.6 III, which is slightly less bad but still awful. Color transmission and contrast are both lacking. Distortion is present, but far less so than the 28-90. The MV museum's parking lot. 35-80 @ 64mm, F/18, which is probably well into diffraction territory. I worked this image over pretty thoroughly in Luminar 4 and Photoshop. A few feet back, also 64mm and F/20 which is ...excessive. EDIT: Hours later. One goddamn wrong link fixed. Sweetened Water Farm, across from my house. Golden hour sun. Less editing than one might think (contrast enhancement mostly). 80mm, F/18. That famous little shack, which is one of my regular test subjects. 35mm, F/14. Much work done in Photoshop correcting distortion, boosting contrast and colors. That's probably it for me and the 28-80. It manages to suck less than the 28-90, which is damnation with the faintest of praise. Tune in next time when I take the Nifty Fifty to the famous Lucy Vincent Beach and the Gay Head Cliffs (yes, that's really their name.)

Nothing like beating a joke to death. I showed the above meme to some normie friends of mine. They more or less all thought that the darTZeels were among the ugliest pieces of electronics they'd ever seen. One pointed out that "dartzeel" is an anagram for "zed alert." That gave me an idea. New DLC for KF1 just dropped! Don't tell @MexicanDragon

Good lord. Anyone live near a Microcenter and have need of a low end Mac? Via Reddit it seems there are two prices depending on location. Either $350 or $380. 8GB is not enough for most things (and it ain't upgradable) but at that price, I'd find a use for it.

Porque no los dos? Introducing the new "drumpFZeel" monoblocks. (TBH I always though they looked like excessive computer cases aimed at the LeeT GaMeR market. That'd explain the darTZeel name at least. Also, I mention this every time the brand comes up: Frank Herbert modeled House Harkonnen after the Swiss.)