2005-03-25 - 10:56 p.m.
What I'm listening to: All of my Love-Led Zeppelin, on vinyl
I'd like to revist late Led Zeppelin at some point. Although I'm a fan of their earlier British Blues (anything up to Houses of the Holy), the later work has some arrangements that aren't too bad.
This album is an original pressing, given to me by my brother. We had, and still do, informally, an arrangement where if he buys somehthing on cd that he already has on vinyl, I get the record. Granted I can't say for sure, but I think it's a pretty good guess that this record sounds just about as good as it did when it came off the shelf in 1979.
A tube amplifer is the next toy on the list of purchases. I'd love to get something vintage, for the look as well as the sound, and the general coolness, but realistically I'd like to spend more time enjoying than repairing. As long as I get to watch the tubes spark to life, that's all that matters. I found one with a built-in phono stage which is nice. Most of the 'budget' tube amps that are new don't come with on-board phono.
I must admit, with all the work that I have to do (yesterday I was so tired that I was pain, and had to stop, because I couldn't work anymore), I feel better than ever. I feel more like myself than I have in...months...since the beginning of the school year. The caring, compassionate person who respects difference is finally surfacing again. It feels really good. A lot of this has to do with learning about my friend who became bipolar, as well as my colleague who may be austistic (I'm not sure of this, but it makes it easier to reference). There are other reasons for this revival, but I'll have to think about it a bit first before I can isolate concrete factors for this change.
Didn't end up seeing the butterflies as planned today. The wait was way too long. We ended up just hanging out, and eating really good poutine. I enjoyed it mostly because I got to photograph with my grandfather's Leica rangefinder from the 1950s. I use this from time to time, to keep it going (so it doesn't gunk up eventually) and also because of the family history associated with this camera. I can only imagine the amount of things that it's seen in 61 years. Also, the lens is just beautiful, nice and contrasty with tons of depth of field.
I got to do some cool portraits too of friends. I've always wanted to photograph on the bus. I did so today, in the mid-afternoon light. I also like the neon light of the bus at night time. Looks very urban cool chic. I also took a two person portrait against a big window where we ate the poutine. Can't wait to see the results. Even though I was shooting colour, I'm still thinking and composing in black and white. When I eventually scan the negatives, I can convert the images to grayscale in photoshop at some point anyway.
The latest painting that I've started is working with a lot of umbers and ochres. I started it in the fall, so the colours are rather contextual in that way. It was after this that I started to look at peoples eyes much differently than before. In addition to the normal eye contact, now I'm looking at subtle hue variations within the eye that I never really noticed before. I try to incorporate these subtle hues in the painting that I'm working on now.
Hit the canvas? Nahh, I should be a good student and go to bed early so I can get an early start on schoolwork tomorrow. That's what I love about painting. I can start, stop, and pick it up whenever I want. And, I don't do it to be 'great', I do it because I like it. Now photography on the other hand, is something that I can attest some sense of skill to, so my personal standards for this craft are in a totally different league-if I didn't come to grad school, I would have been a fine art photographer.
Learned powerpoint tonight. Feels good to be multilingual.
