Knuckledragger

I have questions.

Apple accidentally leaked its own top secret hardware in software code, revealing new products across seven categories. Every Apple Secret That Leaked Wednesday. Second generation Apple Vision Pro, which will continue to be less stupid looking than Zucc Glasses.

This is peak Gen Z humor, I assure you.

Final batch. This isn't all of them, but it's beyond my ability to xref which ones I've posted before at this point. If you really require more roverhub, check this tag. Gratuitous bork: Probably my favorite photo of the day. I did a bunch of interior shots, a number of which were marred by the damn lens hood being askew, and others flawed with lighting issues. This one actually nails it. No one mentions "bokeh" when talking about Canon EF 14-40mm F/4 superwide zoom, but the fact of the matter is that it handles OOF highlights very well.

Tim Apple is no Jobs. Joke from 25 years ago:

This guy reel-ly likes analogue.

Where was I? It's kind of a nightmare to cross reference which photos I've already posted, so I'm just going by "date uploaded" at this point. Sharp eyes can differentiate between a Series II and IIa. Bork!

Japanese market Panasonic SA-PM50MD CD/Minidisc system. Serious cassette futurism vibes.

I went to Chicken Alley today to divest myself of a Logitech wireless USB/keyboard combination and a whole stack of Revere Ware pots and pans (which will be missed, modern Revere Ware is not as good as the stuff they made in the 20th century, but I just do NOT have room for it.) I checked their CD stack and picked up two things: Peak 90s trip-pop. I bought it when in '96 when I was stoned out of my gourd it was new. It remains one of my favorite albums of the 1990s. The perfect blend of trip hop beats, dubby basslines, ethereal almost shoegaze vocals and a hint of retro 60s lounge. No skips. (I didn't actually need a second copy, but I have no idea where my original one is, and it was fun to play a CD on the ride home.) Kooky, ethereal Icelandic music that defies description. I had it on CD in 2002 and haven't seen my copy since about ...2003. Weirdly, I still have my 1997 copy of _Von_ which has been on many adventures with me. I played it on the home stereo tonight and my (sainted, octogenarian) mother didn't seem to mind it

[funny accent] This camera is jewelry. [funny accent] $300 thumb grip. [funny accent] It's fun to take photos with it. [funny accent] It's too big to be a compact camera. [funny accent] Chromatic aberration. [funny accent] For north of 5 grand, I want a UD element and CA under control. At that point Sony need to really commit to the Leica price point, give a lens that's much better wide open and charge $7000 for it.

$280K speakers, $150K in amps, $60K DAC, all stuffed into a room the size of a foyer.

I do not like this one bit.

Part Two of *mumble* The Wenlock Barracks apparently. It's a dog photo with some background people and vehicles. That's a lot of square trucks. Time for some pointy ears. What we have here is a Corgi 90 and a Corgi 110, though looking now he might even be a Corgi 130. At the time my (sainted, octogenarian) mother commented that the fella in the foreground was "first to the food bowl." There's a case to be made for the parallels between Corgis and Land Rovers. Both originate from the British Isles. Both are expensive and high maintenance for what they are and can be a bit ...temperamental at times. Both also have loyal (and in some cases, royal) fans who swear on their virtues vs other breeds/brands. Also, both are quite photogenic. Woof.

33 year old space heater.

I have to face facts. There is no way I'm going to be able to park all these Land Rovers in one post. This is the first of ...several. Also, I am not able to identify LR versions with 100% accuracy. This Series II and its odd custom suspension lives on MV full time. Same for this one. It turns out they're very good for advertising. The lighting is brutal, especially with the asphalt. I cheated by converting to B&W. I like the vintage look in this case. It's not an eye patch. Arr! There is an entire industry of replacement LED lamps for old Land Rovers. This ambulance was kind the star of the show. It a 1979 Series IIIa and served as part of a volunteer rescue outfit in the UK. It is a right hand drive model. I talked with the owner an he said did okay, but certain turns could be scary. Defender 90s are my favorite. Short wheelbase, reasonably modern powertrains, and they still look like an actual LR. Don't get me wrong, I really like 110s (and the nutball 130s), but I wouldn't want to have to navigates MV roads (and MV traffic) for any length of time in one. There is a lot to be said about the looks of Series IIs. Not an LR, but still very shiny. The swooped nose is the body style of the microbus that everyone likes. I've read conflicting information on it. Supposedly 1967 is the last year to have it, but I've seen what was supposedly a 1970 model with the V nose. In any case, the new 2025 "ID Buzz" version is downright fugly and has exactly zero charm. To quote my favorite line from one of my favorite films: Tune in next time for more LRs and gratuitous photos of Corgis.

I've been cheerfully obsessing over Oliver Lieb's music for well over 30 years now. His personal studio is the stuff of legend. OL's collection of kit goes deep, and he knows how to use all of it. OL's studio in 1993. OL's studio in the late 90s. OL's studio in the mid 00s. OL's studio in 2013. OL's studio in 2017. Oliver works as mastering engineer for other artists and his own productions are fastidiously constructed and precisely arranged in three dimensional sonic space. OL is the grand master of reverb, delay and compression. His compositions extend to the edge of the known universe. With that said, Oliver himself is very much rooted on planet earth. There are certain other visionary electronic musicians who are more than a bit out there. Geir Jenssen and Jake Stephenson are two shining examples. Both are (sadly, were in the case of Jake) capable of making music like no one else can and have a sound that is instantly recognizable. They are, to borrow a phrase from the late George Carlin, fuckin' nuts. Weirdly, both Stephenson and Jenssen made use of remarkably sparse studio setups. Jake was never hugely successful (he's far more famous in death than he was in life) and Geir is just weird. Gier Jenssen's studio, 2012. Gier Jenssen's studio, 2015. The man himself in his studio, 2017. Jake Stephen's humble bedroom setup in Glastonbury. What he was capable of doing with it boggles the mind. Compared to Jake and Geir, Oliver Lieb is (to quote my favorite malapropism by the greatest stand up comedian of the modern era, Bill Hicks) the complete realm of sanity and reason. In every interaction I've had with him online (going back to a text based internet in the late 90s), OL communicates quickly, concisely and wastes no time. No one as productive as him has time for idle chit-chat. With this said, I've noticed an uptick in Oliver's online presence recently. He's got a personal FB account (which I've been friends with since 2007. Neener.) that he doesn't use and an official artist page. That latter one has been exhibiting a flurry of activity recently. Today he posted this: In the man's own words: There is nothing quite like hearing Oliver Lieb of all people geek out about synth gear.

Hey, y'all. Remember this thread? So, funny thing... Since moving to MV, I ran out of blades. The stack of Astras I bought in 2013 are long gone. I went through the small stash of Sharks I had earlier this year. Sharks are good for like 2 shaves and miserable thereafter. I will never buy them again. The box of Feathers I had (sharp AF blades, but very unforgiving) is emptied. The Personna blades, which are nearly as sharp as Feathers but much easier to control are doneski. It's more or less impossible to find blades locally. I called around to half a dozen shops on MV that might carry safety razor blades and got either a firm "no" or similar answer, or no answer at all (it is high summer here and the population is 10x that of the winter.) I'm going to have to put in an order this week. Problem is, I have several events where I need to appear reasonably presentable, including one this afternoon. Also, as I mentioned, it's summer and I find stubble to be insufferable in the humidity. I had an impulse to rummage through my travel bag and I found an unopened 5 pack of Lord brand blades. A Lord safety razor was the first one I bought. I (re)learned how to shave with it back in 2013, but I haven't used it since. The handle is too narrow for me to grasp comfortably. It must have come with a couple packs of blades and I forgot about them for a dozen years. So I did my first shave with a Lord blade today. Lord is not exactly a premium brand. TBH, the shave was great. Far better than a shark (damning with the faintest of praise), not as high risk/reward as a Feather. Maybe a step below a Personna. They'll do until I can order some "real" blades.

In an earlier era, I was a regularl reader of The Online Photographer. I haven't kept up with it in years, for a host of reasons ranging from lack of interest to not really gleaning much worthwhile info to entirely too many Amazon affiliate links. One of the entries on TOP from 15+ years ago was "No one cares how hard you worked." I took that one to heart. I've spent ages editing a photo only to earn a collective shrug. Conversely, I've had SOOC jpegs from years ago that get attention to this day. With that in mind... OnnnnOn two occasions recently I've had the hood on my 17-40mm misaligned and not realized it. It's not super noticeable in the viewfinder and I don't chimp (stare at the LCD like a monkey) much. The misaligned hood only shows up in super wide angle shots, say 17-20mm. On Saturday, I had that problem for the entire shoot and didn't noticed until I was done. I have had quite a job with the Healing Brush and Spot Healing Brush tools in Photoshop, painting out the upper left corner of dozens of photos. When that doesn't work, I have to crop. Sometimes, both are necessary. Also, as was the case last year, the lighting conditions were harsh and difficult. I'd already edited 30 or so photos in Photoshop before I decided I was unhappy with the results and ran them through Luminar 4. Let's talk about Luminar for a moment. I pirated it 5 or so years ago. I liked it enough that I bought it. It does a lot with pseudo HDR math, similarly to what smartphone cameras do. The advantage Luminar offers is that it has sufficiently deep granularity in its controls that it's possible to reel in the more cartoonish aspects of HDR. With careful tweaking, Luminar allows for improvement of the dynamic range of images without looking like Photomatix vomit ca. 2006 or Facebook family vacation photos. L4 is no longer updated and in its final state is a quirky and buggy app. I have to make a copy of every photo I feed it because if I use the original, L4 will delete it. I learned this hard way and had to do serious work to replace all the originals Luminar deleted when I discovered this "feature." The app dev Skylum is now pushing the successor, Luminar Neo. They want it to be rentware like an Adobe product, but they don't have ADBE's clout. There is a lifetime license. I bought it on sale months ago for like $120. I am ...underwhelmed. Some of the UI is better than L4, but Neo is enough different that my workflow is much slower in it. Also, said UI is basically a new coat of paint on the same old engine. I find this displeasing. So far I have edited 102 photos (ya rly) including in a number of cases several edits of the same image. If you're really impatient, they're on my Flickr page. It has been been uncharacteristically hot and humid here on the Vineyard, and I swear I can feel my brain swelling. I went over my work earlier and found I had uploaded dupes of at least four different photos. Then there's the issue of figuring out which photos to post here and arranging them. It's exactly like a DJ set in that regard. Anyway, here's a nice bright rear end to tide y'all over while I finish editing The truck. I'm talking about the TRUCK. Stop looking at me like that.

Tom Lehrer, song satirist and mathematician, dies at 97. Also, Tom Lehrer was still alive.

I'm voluntarily getting up at 8AM tomorrow (a Saturday) to take photos of Land Rovers. ^ I wrote that last night and forgot to hit enter. Also I think I managed like two hours of sleep last night. With that said, I made it to the Vineyard Series LR meetup and took a ton of photos. Now replaced with a properly edited version. More when I'm less tired.

Related, Ozzy had a comeback in '88 with his hit song "Miracle Man" which is about Jimmy Swaggart.

Hulk Hogan croaked. I have very little good to say about him.