Inspiration

Lyndsey Bowling 01, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So Lyndsey and I went bowling Saturday night with a good sized group of friends, and I have to say... a bunch of great pictures came out of the evening.

This picture of Lyndsey is one of my favorites and I've got a crapload of work to do in photoshop to get them and a bunch of other stuff uploaded, but anyway, it was tons of fun, and should make for good blogging material. All in all, the experience made me want to watch the Big Lebowski, join a league, and bowl with friends on a regular basis.

The fun was large enough that it almost completely drowned out the fact that I scored somewhere between the 50s and 70s on each game. Not my proudest bowling outing, that's for sure.

Strange Group

Yard Sale 06
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Last weekend I was home in Philly to visit my Aunt who's in the hospital. While I was down, I helped my mom take a bunch of stuff to a yard sale and hung around for a couple hours, taking random pictures here or there. These guys where hanging out in the 10 cent bin or quarter bin or something like that. I thought they made for a pretty awesome little group shot, and a fine question:

Who will be snapped up first? The Squishy Monkey? Crang, the evil brain? The really creepy cadaver from X-files? Or the Gordon's fisherman candle who looks to have gotten pretty beaten up on his way to the sale. Honestly, I doubt any of these guys are going to fly out of the bargain bin anytime soon, but they do make for a nice Friday visitor.

Have a great weekend!

Least Appealing Farmstand Ever

Least Appealing Farmstand Ever
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

These signs have been up around the neighborhood lately and they crack me up, because everytime I see them, they make me think of farmstand signs. I'd give an explanation of what they're really up for, but that wouldn't be any fun, now, would it?

Happy Wednesday Randomness!

+John

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!