Author: fifteenkey (Page 53 of 95)

Newsweek recently asked this question and its author critiques the use of software like Adobe’s Photoshop for digitally distorting “a record of something real that occurred in front of the camera.” This criticism seems like that of the art “establishment” who railed against French revolutionaries in the late 19th century for creating “mere impressions” of their subjects. Still, how real is the “real” photography of the pre-digital world? Isn’t it reasonable to think the great photographers have attempted to “control” their images with camera settings, filters, lens manipulation, and darkroom dabbling? In the end, if the two dimensional image viewed isn’t exactly the image seen by the naked eye at the time of the shot, is it real, or just an impression?

As for Newsweek’s question, one commenter wrote something like, “there’s a website called Flickr. Go visit it and then tell me photography is dead.”

For now, I’m too cheap to spring for photo-editing software, so pics from my new Nikon D40 will be um, digitally unaltered. Even a blurry shot can capture a memorable moment.

What do eggs, flour, sugar, buttah and coconut have to do with digital music? Well, on Thanksgiving Day, Auntie San and Auntie Barb delivered a Coconut Custard Pie from Luberto’s Pastry Shop. They even put in a special order to “go easy on the coconut,” but the slip seemed to indicate “easy on the custard.” I can’t see how an “easy on the custard” custard pie would be, um, custard pie, but once it passed my lips to a longing sense of taste, it was clear Luberto’s can handle a pie.

As simpletons who easily regress to the mentality of teenagers, my brother Corey and I giggled over the custard connotation, but quickly moved to dissect the Led Zeppelin song as we did the pie. Corey even voiced the opening Jimmy page riff to the elders curiosity and bemusement. A few hours later, “Custard Pie” and the 14 songs that follow it from 1975’s “Physical Graffiti” were surging a digital pipe filling my hard drive. It’s a great song and probably my favorite Zep studio record. I couldn’t find a live version of the song, but here’s a creative montage with the studio version by “ginaitaliangirl” on YouTube:

Oh, and I picked up the new Zep reissue CD/DVD “Mothership” for baby bro’s 43rd…

I appreciate the efforts and the prayers of a friend who recently wrote, “Get down on your knees, put aside all your pretenses and posturing and all the crap about how God doesn’t exist or care or whatever…and give Him a chance to show you that he does?” Hey, that day may come, but right now I’m focused on keeping everything cool with Santa Claus so I don’t end up on the “naughty list.” I also want to go on the record and state, unequivocally, I am not a participant in the “War on Christmas.” I am all for anyone’s peaceful celebration of this holiday, whether they celebrate in a religious or secular fashion.

It’s a cliché that people should never talk about “politics or religion,” because the discourse often veers into discord. Why is it then, that the Republican presidential candidates, and the party in general are so fixated on religious issues? The answer is that those issues help them win enough “red states” to win the White House every four years. I contend the right puts Christian “hot button” issues like abortion and gay marriage into the spotlight to manipulate evangelical voters into voting Republican and this trickery gave us the worst president ever in the last 2 elections.

In the CNN/YouTube Republican debate Wednesday night, candidate Fred Thompson astonished me by saying, “I think (Overturning abortion rights precedent Roe v. Wade) should be our number one focus right now.” What? We have thousands of people dying in a hellish desert and we’re burning trillions of dollars contributing to it, and Mr. Thompson thinks overturning Roe should be our top priority?

On September 30, 2007, Republican Presidential Candidate, Senator John McCain of Arizona clarified his notion that the U.S. is a “Christian nation,” by saying “…the United States of America was founded on Judeo-Christian values, which were translated by our founding fathers which is basically the rights of human dignity and human rights.” I agree with Senator McCain’s clarification and he further illustrated this fundamental tenet of what we should be when he scolded former MA Governor Mitt Romney over waterboarding:

“And, governor, let me tell you, if we’re going to get the high ground in this world and we’re going to be the America that we have cherished and loved for more than 200 years. We’re not going to torture people… and how in the world anybody could think that that kind of thing could be inflicted by Americans on people who are held in our custody is absolutely beyond me.”

Human dignity and human rights… Pretty basic stuff. I’d like to know how Christians that vote Republican reconcile these seemingly un-Christian positions:

• Treating those who cross our Southern border seeking a better life as criminals
• Denying people in love to marry
• Supporting the death penalty
• Using war as an instrument of foreign policy
• Opposing universal health-care for all

What would Jesus do?

Like home prices lately, you just know as soon as you buy anything electronic, its price will go down. Hence, I’ve been paralyzed for the past couple days scanning the net for a “better” deal on a new, grown-up camera. The risk in this game is that supply and demand is in play and unless you slept through day 1 of your Econ 101 class, you know that if supply gets exhausted, you’re screwed, or even worse, you’re forced to buy a Canon. Yeah, my old, badly repaired Canon can still take a nice shot, but its got limits I’d like exceed.

The object of my digital desire has been the Nikon D40, but my DDDS had prevented me from pulling the ecommerce trigger until this morning when I rang up:

• Nikon D40 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera Kit with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens
• Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR Zoom Nikkor Lens
• Kingston 2 GB Elite Pro Secure Digital Memory Card

That’s a lot of digital photography for $611.00 and free shipping! Oh, and my pals at Amazon threw in a nice camera strap and a UV protection filter on the house! Yes, I did consider the D40x 10MP big brother, but my exhaustive research led me to conclude it’s not the size of your megapixel that matters, but the aperture of your lens, and the D40 is identical in that department to the more expensive D40x… At 6:58am I’m very happy with my deal, but buyer’s remorse is a side-effect of treating DDDS and I expect that could hit before lunch. Stay tuned.

Oh, and here’s one more reason I’ll never buy another Canon…

There was no “goooo mournee” like the previous hundreds of times I set off the alarm summoning her to the counter of my local Brite-Kleen. As I counted 5… 6… 7… to the end of my shirt pile, I looked up to see the spector of the follicle fiasco suppressing this poor woman’s usually friendly wall of sound.

Does a bad hair day affect you or do you simply give it a “whatever” and go on with your day?

The mudslinging will ebb slightly in 343 mornings as partisans shuttle the pandered pliable to the polls. Just after lunch, charges of voter fraud will churn and spin will be spun. Sadly, all it takes is one backward state (Al Gore, meet Florida) to screw the country for eight years and kill thousands forever.

Currently we have a field of 16 presidential candidates from the two major parties exhorting their appeal to the outer reaches of their respective parties. Speaking of outer reaches, a quiz assessing ones views on the issues aligns me with Mr. Spock himself, Dennis Kucinich. Maybe I really should move to France. I don’t agree with everything the man believes, just 65% of it and some of the Democratic front-runners are close behind. Still, I agree with Mr. Kucinich on these basics:

• Reject war as an instrument of foreign policy
• Cut the Pentagon budget to fund education, healthcare, diplomacy, alt-energy and rebuilding our national infrastructure
• WPA-type program for veterans and others will create jobs and rebuild America
• Healthcare access is a basic right in a democratic society
• Affirm intention to work with the world community
• Americans’ social consciousness should override cheap goods and exploitation of foreign workers
• Lead world to sustainable energy production
• A clean environment is not a luxury
• Raise CAFE standard from 27.5 mpg to 45
• Double our energy from renewable sources by 2010
• Public financing for elections
• Ban sale or transfer of semi-automatic guns

Where do you stand on the issues facing your country and your world?

Our medical odyssey with Kyle has been like a speed-dating contest with a line of doctors winding around the block waiting to connect or dispassionately go through the motions. The rapid round robin process produces rapid relativity and it becomes natural to compare experiences from one doctor to the next. Acute competence has usually been paired with sincere kindness, but there are exceptions…

Given that it’s Thanks, um, giving, today’s medical review will focus on two extraordinary women who are literally saving Kyle’s life. The two doctors, Madelena Martin and Christy Stine are a Metabolic Geneticist and Neurologist respectively at the UMass Medical Center in Worcester, MA.

Yeah, they order a great deal of bloodwork that terrifies my boy, but with it, they are getting at the source of Kyle’s maladies. Together these women are an amazing team and just love Kyle. On our first visit, they spent the large part of 3 1/2 hours with us during a scheduled 2 hour appointment. (Note to self: Never again bitch when doctors are running late…) Tests reveal Mr. Daley has elevated levels of homocystine in his system, but we haven’t yet nailed down why. A regimen of custom B6, B12 and Folic Acid supplements plus a compound labeled cystadane is prescribed to lower these dangerous levels. While Dr. Martin has focused on the metabolics, Dr. Stine is doing the uh, legwork on what she’s theorized as increasing spasticity in Kyle that is inhibiting his walking.

Yesterday during another consultation she legibly wrote a script for Baclofen to ease the spasticity and possibly improve Kyle’s urinary difficulties. Later, Kyle, his mom and I thanked this wonderful team for their work and compassion treating Kyle, then waited anxiously for the feared Phlebotomy. Oh, did I mention yesterday was Dr. Stine’s day off, but she came in to see Kyle? Yeah. Unbelievable. Even more so was when she came back into the room to help calm Kyle during the prickly procedure! What doctor does that? Well, one who Kyle might describe a “practically perfect.” Late last night, after a couple doses of Baclofen, I could see improvement. As Kyle sat on his bed, Megan appeared to say good night. “Get up and give your sister a hug and a kiss,” I requested. Kyle rose from his bed unaided and walked gingerly to his sister to lay one on her…

Put me down for thoroughly thankful.

I have six minutes to get upstairs for Countdown communion with Keith Olbermann. I’m juggling balls in my head representing deliverables and diagnoses and have nothing at all to write about. Oh, sure, an obligatory snide recap about the futility of NFL pretenders being shredded by the merciless Patriots is just filler in the void. I want to know the drugs will help and dance lessons remain a possibility. Do turkeys get nervous? Times up.

A look at the sports headlines tells how sad a world it has become:

• Federal grand jury indicts Barry Bonds – I stand by my disputed contention that hitting it on the screws 762 times off major league pitchers is quite a feat, but cheatin’ Barry’s going down.
• ‘Pacman’ Jones plea deal set in Vegas – This guy gives a bad name to a classic video game.
• Jeter, New York State in tax dispute – They’d never go after their golden boy if this wasn’t legit.

The news isn’t all bad:

• Dolphins welcome Williams back to team – Ricky has been banned for smoking weed, but if you’ve ever seen his “60 minutes’ interview, you know he’s no dummy. Now pay your child support, asshole.
• Bibles allowed in China Olympic village – Religious tolerance in China is a good sign even though their smog is going to be the story.
• A-Rod, Yanks discuss $275 million deal – 10 more years of regular season glory for “Mr. May.”

In other news… I watched the entire Democratic debate last night. If Hillary Clinton is elected president, it will be a remarkable achievement. Last night she was asked about “the gender card,” her comments regarding the “old boys club,” and incredulously whether she preferred diamonds or pearls! I believe it’s more a case of her being “Hillary Clinton” than of being a woman, but she is being held to a much higher standard than any of her peers… and prevailing. I wonder if Dick Cheney is in his secluded location planning the coup with Blackwater for when she wins a year from now?