The Underground Man

I am not worthy..

It was a win for the ages.

I think I ended up watching every game in the knockout stages that Liverpool participated in. I've been following them all season (every season), watching them progress in the Champions League, despairing of their form in the Premier League.

Today, they played in one of the most exciting Finals in Champions League history - some are saying the most exciting game ever. Down 0-3 at the end of the first half, they came out of the drawing room like lions and scored three goals in six minutes to tie the game.

AC Milan, their opponents, had played nearly a perfect game in the first half. Liverpool looked a shadow of their real selves, not fully committed, consistenly half a step or half a turn behind.

So it seemed a different team that came out after half time. Rafa Benitez, the coach, changed the formation to a 3-2-4-1 to pack the midfield, believing that Milan's fluidity would disappear when their midfielders were put under pressure.

And he was right.

Liverpool, after a very long overtime (or so it seemed), won out on penalties earning their 5th European Final victory in fifty years.

A stunning comeback and a real lesson for all of us as fans. Never give up!

Crepe cafe, Seattle

I quite like this shot. Taken with the M2 and a new Color-Skopar lens provided by my uncle. I stopped for a late lunch of a crepe on a weekend afternoon and the place as almost empty. There is a bar on the other side of the wall that had the usual collection of rummies (probably interesting material as well).

I found it a nice peaceful scene and wondered how well it might be captured in b&w. I find it interesting that I cannot see anything in the scene that would definitely indicate the era it is from. It could have been taken, I think, anytime from 1920 onwards. Kind of cool because of that.

Scooters in the street..

I was photographing this chap's scooter in the parking lot of the Redmond public library the other day, trying to burn through a roll of TMax before sending the camera off for service. I had figured out that the shutter wasn't working at high speeds and so was stopping the lens down and using longer exposures.

As he sat on the scooter I asked if he minded if I took his picture and he answered "no". But you couldn't tell that from his fierce expression.

I like Fidel..

"Our revolution is neither capitalist nor communist! ...Capitalism sacrifices the human being, Communism with its totalitarian conceptions sacrifices human rights. We agree neither with one nor the other...our revolution is not red but olive green. It bears the colour of the rebel army from the Sierra Maestra."


Fidel Castro, May 21, 1959

tip of the hat to: http://www.artcoup.com/movie.html

Pirate, 1926 R-boat

I'm doing more photographing and less talking about stuff of late, but I suppose that's a good thing (living life).

I stopped by the Center for Wooden Boats" off the south end of Lake Union a couple of weeks ago, drawn there by some masts I could see while leaving a nearby photo supply store. The masts in question belonging to an old sailing schooner that is slowly being restored (like over 10+ years) but they also had a number of smaller boats that were already finished (and in the water).

I have a Flickr friend who took a lovely shot of some sailing tackle that I admire, so I thought I would wonder down to the boats and see what the Rolleiflex could capture.

I really like this shot. I'm not sure that it's really interesting compositionally, but the narrow depth of field perfectly captured the tackle (and vent hood) and the scan really shows off the amazing quality of the lens. Knife sharp.

If you look very, very carefully, you can see the yellow reflection in the vent hood that is me in my yellow anorak, taking the picture. What an obscure self-portrait.

Street photography, London, 1977

I seem to be devoting much of my spare time of late (what little I have) to sorting through old negatives and slides and scanning in select ones. This one gives me some hope that I might be capable of some decent street photography some day. Taken when I was sixteen, wondering around London with a camera in the late 1970s.

At the time, I was more interested in recording memories than taking interesting shots of people in that "decisive moment" but somehow this one snuck into the roll. Miracle of miracles, it's properly exposed and timed.

Race photography

I'm beginning to learn that it's often not the event that is the most interesting, but rather the people attending or watching the event. This was taken of me at a race in Utah in the early 1990s. I frequently left town Friday night, drove all night to Salt Lake City and raced for the weekend and then drove all night Sunday night to get back to the Bay Area.

I was attending a pre-race rider's briefing and for some reason I caught the photographer's eye. He was kind enough to later send me a couple of slides.

I wish I knew his name.

Battlefield computing

This is truly cool.

It's the first battlefield computer I've seen. I imagine the US army has something but most of what I've seen doesn't seem to have the possibilities this does. It's on a Linux OS apparently. What I would want as a battlefield commander is biometrics on my unit members as well (bp, respiration, hydration, etc.). That could be very useful in judging capabilities in the field when they aren't within touching distance.

Of course, this unit better have fairly strong encryption..

1990 Laguna Seca GP

Taking in the days when I was still racing and obsessed:





More on my Flickr site.

The Broadcast flag is dead

Well, the courts slapped the FCC upside the head today in a victory for truth, justice and the American Way.

As of July 31, it was going to be impossible to record HDTV signals that were broadcast with a "record flag" turned on. At the behest of Hollywood, the FCC had mandated that this feature be added to HDTV sets/receivers so that we home users couldn't record HDTV shows (and possibly share them with each other).

Only those who bought hardware before the July 31 date, or cobbled together their own reciever/DVR package were going to be able to store their HDTV shows.

Rumours of collaboration

One has heard for years the stories of how American corporations collaborated with the Nazis throughout WWII and how American interests ($$) in the Krupp factories in the south of Germany led to them not being bombed during the entire war. Incroyable.

Well, I was reading the Grumpy Old Man's site this evening and saw a reference to where the Bush family fortune had come from. Apparently Prescott Bush, Herr Bush's granddaddy, collaborated with the Nazis during their rise to power (and into the first years of the war).

It's amazing how many of the wealthy and powerful in this country seemed to sympathize with the Nazis between the wars. I believe the Kennedys were implicated as well (as were the Lindbergs).

Shocking, simply shocking.

A Champions League Final

Yes!

For the first time in twenty years, Liverpool are back in the Champions League Final. Of course, it was the Cup Winner's Cup back then in the mid-80s but it was the same competition.

A brilliant game of staunch defending away at Chelsea where they clearly looked the better team on both attack and defense and then a great game at home. Huge support from the fans (hard to feel on TV but the commentators were floored by the volume). A goal in the first few minutes put Chelsea on the back foot and they never gained any fluidity in the their moves.

Lord knows what Mourinho was trying to do fielding a 3-man midfield but Liverpools now-familiar 4-5-1 Champions League formation dominated the middle of the park. Very disciplined positional defending with a mix of man to man and rotating zone (where the free man comes over to help out). Very well conceived and nearly flawlessly executed. I think Chelsea got maybe three or four shots on goal from free play for the entire match.

Would that Liverpool could play this way in daily Premier League play. But perhaps that is too much to ask. This was a victory of will, where the sum of the parts is definitely greater than the payroll of the individuals (unlike Chelsea).

Whomever they have to face in Istanbul in the Final in a couple of weeks should prove an interesting match. Whomever that team is must by now be uncomfortable knowing that they made it through the easier side of the bracket and they are facing the Cinderella team that beat the two favorites (Juventus and Chelsea) in successive matches.

Liverpool has now conceded only 6 goals in 12 Champions League matches. Brilliant defending and just enough offence to eak by.

I'm taking May 25th off to watch the match.

Thorens

Got my Thorens TD-280 going last night. Bought it for a song on ePrey and it even came with a cartridge. Took some time to align the tonearm and cartridge (and I haven't really completed the alignment procedure because I don't have a mirror).
It's complicated. Probably takes 15-20 minutes to do properly.

In any event, I was able to play some old albums I've stored for the last fifteen years or so (been lugging the bloody things around from home to home for all that time).

First album was Ahmad Jamal's At the Penthouse, a recording which seems to be hard to find these days (not available on CD). Lovely album. It's funny though how fast one has to get up to flip the album -- I've become so accustomed to the 45-50 minute cycle of a CD.

Really nice tone. The belt slips a bit and if I help the platter along it manages to come up to speed nicely. Seems like the belt is marginal, even if it is new. Apparently it is a problem with these turntables.

Street Photography

Took some time today to visit Gasworks Park on north Lake Union today. Thought it might prove fertile ground for some photography. I found that my Rolleiflex wasn't the ideal camera given the territory. However, my Leica with newly-purchased Color-Skopar 35 seemed to be close to perfect. I was trying for candids, "street photography" of people in the park.

I shot through a roll of Kodak Gold 100 and then put in a roll of Kodak TMax 400. I have no idea what this new film is like and can only hope that my technique will do it justice.

I also played around with a Kodak Stereo camera loaned to me by another friend. (Boy, three cameras, all borrowed from friends and family. Am I lucky or what?)

I was fascinated by the slides I've seen from it. I spoiled a couple of pictures by opening the back to check if it actually had film in it (I was told it did but the action was funny on winding). I don't think I spoiled the whole roll but developing will tell. Some ASA 100 film in there.

I ended up taking photos of some wire walkers (and a couple of cute girls who came by to try it), a couple of dogs, some kites, and some skateboarders. Unfortunately, the skate borders were cr*p but I would think a visit to a skate park (or competition event) would prove for some great subject matter.

I'm dying to see how this new lens proves out. A gift from my uncle. Beautiful little thing, quite compact and quite fast (f2.5).