Greatness for the Summerness

Who doesn't like the right soundtrack to go with their sunnyhappysummermonths? I sure do! That's why it's with great glee that I write today to make mention of a super-hot summertime album I've located. The disc (or download for all ye itunes hipsters) is Return to the Sea by Islands. It was released awhile back and I ignored it, even though Pitchfork really liked it. I came across it recently on somebody's best of all best great summer music lists, and I decided to check it out! Now, I will momentarily get a little more descriptive, but perhaps it will suffice to endorse it by sharing my favorite song title from the album, "Don't call me Whitney, Bobby." (Link is to superfun bizarro video)

Come on... who names their song, "Don't call me Whitney, Bobby"!?!?!!?!?!?! Geniuses, that's who! Anyway, it's upbeat stuff that is riddled with complex layered fun sonic landscapes, and it's just plain enjoyable. It makes me feel like I'm driving my car to some bizarre European beach. So you should check it out and buy 6 copies to give to all your beach bum buddies. Right. Sure. Okay. Happy Monday. Clearly I'm in a weird mood this week.

The 90's

So, as I was working away this morning, my nifty little itunes playlist decided to crank out some Presidents of the United States of America, the song, "Kick out the Jams," to be specific.

Friggin great stuff.

Anyway, busy busy busy these days... such is life.

Hey, if anyone is looking for a fairly good new CD, check out the new Spoon album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Gagagagagagagagaga... it's Good.

Or just pull out your old copy of the Presidents of the USA and re-listen to some 90's classics like Kick out the Jams or perhaps my other favorite of theirs, Naked and Famous.

More Photos of Matt & Mikeo's Wedding!

Matt Mieko Wedding 16
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So last week I got ambitious and photoshopped a bunch more pictures from Matt & Mieko's wedding. I've still got a bunch left over to crop/color correct, and upload... but I'm working my way through. Unfortunately my little point and shoot didn't compensate all that well for the lighting of the space so there's quite a bit of color correcting on most of the images, but I'm making progress.

It's been awhile since I've posted regularly... hoping to shift that a bit in the weeks to come.

More from Random Photo Weekend

58 Obtuse Hill
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So, among many other unremarkable places I wandered through this weekend, I visited Obtuse Hill. Great name. Not much to see, but I did manage to track down a house that had the street name displayed. Hence, you've got evidence that I did, in fact, visit Obtuse Hill.

Hooray for randomness!

Smart Cars! YEAH!

So hopefully by now you have realized that I'm obsessed with Smart Cars. Oh, you didn't realize that? Well, crap. Anyway, it's a fact. I'm obsessed.

I also, on a related note, think that Canadians are generally pretty cool. To connect these two seemingly random tidbits check out this story about a father and daughter traveling cross-country in a Smart Car. They only needed 89 gallons of gas to do so. How 'bout that?

Can't wait to start seeing these beauties scooting around the streets of America!

Thanks for sending, Flev!!!

A Weekend of Random Photography

Used
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So, it was a pretty lazy weekend here in CT. Lyndsey and I stayed put @ home (no travels out of state until Chicago on Thursday) and hence there was good time to make use of the new camera, and use I did make!

Saturday morning we met up with a friend for breakfast and then Adam and I chatted on the phone. While we were chatting Lyndsey went for a walk and since the ladies weren't back by the time I got off the phone I wandered in the nearby neighborhood snapping pictures of random garden gnomes, comic book shops, etc. This picture is one of my favorites in awhile. I like the way that Batman peeks through the U of USED. I've been meaning to photoblog a bit more for months now, and I've come out of the weekend with literally hundreds of images to upload, so consider this image a warning shot!

There's more to come, get ready to catch it or duck and cover.

Good Call

Lazy week... little blogging... Allstar Game tonight! Anyway, here's something cool I just read at Huffington Post: a sort of open letter to Barak Obama, and a letter that I think offers a great idea.

Check it out.

More soon.

Save the Internet & Net Radio

Hey, so here are a couple pet causes of mine lately... but more than being my pet causes, they're very real access issues everybody who cares about free exchange of information should care about. Net neutrality is both advocated and explained in pretty simple terms in the following video.



No such luck with a catchy video for saving Net Radio, but it's as compelling a situation. The case is laid out pretty well as follows:

On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry’s future.

At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 – that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters’ royalties will grow exponentially!




You can click on the link above to learn more or take action on saving Net Radio.

Happy 4th of July

Patriotic Sky
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Well, Lyndsey, Jane and Brad are out to get some corn from a local farm.

Chester Ellis, Chester Bonnaccorsi and I are chillin.

So I thought I would post this heart-wearming flag-waving, god-fearing, apple-pie and big-mac eating true blue American freakin picture. I took it over the weekend, and I'll admit I dodged the flag a wee bit in ye olde Photoshoppe.

Happy 4th of July!

Tryout for Little Miss Sunshine

07
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So I went to the eye doctor today, and they dilated my pupils for my exam. In such a state, when I got home I could do very little, except of course take rediculous self-portraits. There are a dozen posted on flickr here. I recommend watching them in slideshow format.

Funny that my left eye is much more dilated than the right.

Intimidating, right?

Fox Noise Gets Sued

So a school administrator in Maine is suing Fox News Channel because they repeated on air as fact news that was completely false. Apparently their source was a site not unlike the Onion. The site is called Associated Content. If you want detail on this, you can check the article here.

The sad thing about this is that after Fox tossed this piece into their echo chamber the result was that wingnuts from all over creation started calling the school, the administrator's home, sending hate mail, etc. Great move nutjobs.

Thanks for being what sucks about America.

Sure, some might say it's great that nutters can be entitled to act as nutty as they like without interference or any recourse. In this case, it looks like the drum leader of the nut parade might just pay a price for kicking off the festivities. Good deal. Happy 4th of July folks! Let freedom ring.

Sex, not cats

Dragonflies 03
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Dragonfly sex, that is. So judging from their position and the fact that I know squat about biology I could be off on the whole sex thing, but I was continuing to experiment with my new camera this afternoon and captured a zillion and a half pictures of these two dragonflies flying around on each others backs.

I was pretty happy with at least four of the 1.5 zillion, so I posted them to flickr. I also wanted to prove I could take pictures of non-furry animals.

That last piece is a lie really, the thought of proving something never really crossed my mind until I was writing this rambling somewhat pointless post.

Nate, this one's for you!

Chester Bonnaccorsi
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Awhile back Nate suggested that I may have been treading a little too close to a line called, "cat lady" by taking too many photos of the family cats (and posting them with somewhat rediculous stories). To be perfectly honest, he had a good point. Sad to say it, but regardless of the validity of such warnings, I still find the animals a good subject for photographic fun. Hence, it should come as no surprise that one of the first photos I've uploaded from my 180 picture weekend of fun with a new camera is... that's right (you've already seen it), Chester the cat.

The week is off to a great start, with beautiful weather outside, lots of good pics from the weekend, and a whole lot of work to dig into!

Cheers

New Camera Giddiness

Second Day Sky
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So... I got a new camera this weekend, and I literally don't quite know what to do with myself or it. I've been running around taking pictures frantically and randomly since I got home with it and charged the battery Saturday evening.

The adventures so far have been somewhat hilarious... including the fact that I probably at some point need to tone down my photo quality settings because I'm fairly certian I don't need to take every shot with the set-up such that it creates a 3 megabite jpeg. Yeah. A little excessive? Perhaps.

Anyway, that's all, really for now. That and I'm giddy. Did I say that already?