i need to get out and shoot

I get this severe itch if it has been to long... and I have got it BAD. I can't even remember when the last time I went out exploring with the sole purpose of shooting. I love my day job, but it and the whole daylight-savings-time thing severely constrict my possible shooting hours. (& I refuse to use a flash... ha). I had planned on shooting this past weekend until I was stricken with a migraine for the majority of the day saturday, and exiled myself to our guests quarters for darkness and quiet. Oh well, maybe next weekend.... wow just saying that admits the monotony of life that drives me crazy! I need to relax, change will come, and possibly sooner that I know it.

These images up top are from Salton Sea, CA. You can see the entire series here. I plan to do something with them someday... hopefully.

the best of 2008... in this gal's opinion anyway

So this is a big BIG deal to me, something that I seriously start considering at the beginning of the year, and is never far from my thoughts. SERIOUSLY, I guess you can say I am a tad bit obsessed. 

I was a little concerned because up until around the summertime, I had not been genuinely touched by an album, which greatly saddened me! BUT as always the late summer/fall releases came in and saved what started to be a dismal "Top 10 Albums of 2008" list. So hear it is... and know when reading this that many many hours have been spent considering what would show up on this very, very important list. 

... Well let me start with this. I am an album girl. If I want to listen to something, it has got to be something that I can listen to the entire album. So know this: if an album is on my top ten list... the entire thing is good! I am also going to add some singles that I thought were AWESOME, but maybe I did not have a chance to check out the entire album. Looking back at my choices I realize that as far as entire albums go, I generally like moody, reverb drenched or dramatic albums but when it comes to singles... it's the total opposite! HA! go figure. 

So now that you are on the edge of your seat and can not stand one more single second before you know exactly what I loved about music this year... here it is: now you can breathe again ;)

NUMERO UNO... yup Im gonna start with my favorite

1. Deerhunter, Microcastle 

(buy it and listen to it over, and over, and over, and over... then go see 'em live, you will not be disappointed) moody, reverb drenched, and dramatic!

Agoraphobia - Deerhunter

2. Stephen Malkumus & the Jicks, Real Emotional Trash

The entire album is full of great rock tracks, the song Hopschotch Willie, was my personal jam/mantra/song in my head for a solid MONTH. What else would you expect from Stephen (of pavement) and btw: the Jicks drummer is Janet Weiss (of Quasi & Sleater-Kinney)

Hopscotch Willie - The Jicks, ...

3. The Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust

again dramatic and reverb drenched awesomeness, The album makes me want to put on boots and dark sunglasses and walk, with attitude, down the streets of New York City (I don't know, it just does) AND on top of that... their appearance on Conan is what inspired me to force Jana to play drums with the Diamond Center.  

Aly, Walk With Me - The Raveon...

4. Black Mountain, In the Future

This is one of those albums that I fell in love with early in the year. Moody & dramatic, it reminded me of the Jesus and Mary Chain, which is always good. PLUS they have a tambourine playin' female vocalist that makes some Yoko-ish hollers come out, which is just cool. 

Stormy High - Black Mountain

5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Dig Lazurus Dig

Moody and dramatic, I am semi-obsessed with Nick Cave and this album is awesome! 

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! - Nick Ca...

6. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges

OK... so Jim James does sing about a peanut-butter & Jelly in a falsetto voice, WHATEVER! this album is my guilty pleasure and the first one that I put on when I am home alone, and no one is there to judge me (j.k. HA) I am not a HUGE My Morning Jacket fan so I think that I can appreciate some of the chances that they took with this album.

Evil Urges - My Morning Jacket

7. King Kahn & the Shrines, The Supreme Genius of King Kahn & the Shrines

Part of the reason that I love this album is because of King Khan and his over-the-top personality. At the beginning of the summer there was all this festival footage coming out showcasing his outlandish antics... and I fell in love. PLUS, the songs are great, and it sounds like old music ( which is another of my likes ) AND there is a song where he talks about his baby being "Fat & Ugly... but he loves her anyway" now how can you resist that!

8. Vivian Girls. Vivian Girls

This Brooklyn, all girl, trio embraces the moody, and revebed sound I love... plus the songs are simple and infectious.

Tell The World - Vivian Girls

9. Tilly & the Wall, O

This is the first of their albums that I have gotten into, probably due to the fact that some tracks have that 60's girl group flair.... and one of the percussion sounds is the tap dancing feet of a member of the band, now that screams cool! Iv'e gotta see them live!

Pot Kettle Black - Tilly And T...

10. Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak

This album probably would have ranked higher if I would have gotten it earlier in the year BUT because I got it from everyones favorite, santa, I haven't been able to spend the amount of time that I would like to with it... yet. BUT I will say this.. from the moment that I heard Love Lockdown, I knew that album would be awesome. There is this drumbeat/sound that happens throughout the album that is so deep pounding it is like it is drumming on your soul... or something like that.

Love Lockdown - Kanye West

side note: K bought me the 2008 Calexico album yesterday, Carried to Dust, which would have probably made it onto this list if I had gotten earlier and not taken the advice from the weary record store dude... thanks for saving it K baby!

Alrighty, now for the singles:

Kings of Leon-Sex on Fire

Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon

Brendan Canning-Hit the wall

Hit The Wall - Broken Social S...

Deptartment of Eagles-No One does it like you

No One Does It Like You - Depa...

Beach House-Gila

Gila - Beach House

MGMT-Electric Eel

Santogold-Lights Out

Lights Out - Santogold

Marnie Stern-Ruler

The Ting Tings-That's not my name

That's Not My Name - The Ting ...

Fleet Foxes-White Winter Hymnal

White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Fo...

Wow... well that's that. What in the world would I do if I had no music to obsess over?

heartless

On my drive to work this morning as I was flipping thru the channels of the Lubbock air waves, and found absolutely NOTHING that I wanted to listen to. I again became frustrated with the KTXT situation. I love music, I can not live without music, it is what pumps the blood thru my veins, who needs that muscle "they" refer to as the heart when you have good tunes. Of course I own good music and there are billions selections I could make between the CD's of K's music collection and our growing digital music library BUT that is not what I want to listen to while Im driving. I want to listen to KTXT. I love the spontaneous nature of the radio. I love not knowing what song is going to play next and what mood it will instantly catapult me in to. Whether they play my personal life mantra jam song OR a song that is so bad I wish was never created... who CARES... that IS the awesomeness of the radio and KTXT had that mastered. So here is my next story of the cold-blooded nature of the Student Media decision makers. Just like Kanye says, "how could you be so heartless?" side note: I am currently obsessed with Kanye.

THIS is Wombat, or as the media is referring to him "J. Wombat Porter" and this is his story of what happened on 12 10. 2008. (get out the kleenex, this is a heartbreaker):

Wombat is the station manager for KTXT and this man lives and breathes selflessly for KTXT. On that fateful day he had a meeting with the Student Media, a monthly scheduled meeting in which they were to discuss different matters that concerned the station. Wombat came to the meeting inspired with the love for KTXT and notes on how the station would continue to improve into the 2009 year. It was at that very instant that he was informed that the station would be taken off the air waves in 10 min.... 10 min! Wombat quickly jumped up and ran to the station, attempting to call some fellow DJs and staff on the way to inform them of the fate of the station. Wombat got to the station and was literally  3 steps away from the mic when the station was terminated.... permanently! No final farewell, no last song, no thank you for the last 47 years.... NOTHING! Heartless.

The story is getting some national press. Hopefully it will do some good. HERE is the link to find out what is going on as of now. I believe in the power of the people, maybe it will bring our station back.

side note: I like to pretend that Wombat is actually the red-headed illegitimate great-grandson of, the one and only, Buddy Holly. The resemblance is uncanny... don't you think? btw: this has nothing to do with the afore mentioned story... or does it.

side side note: this is my personal life mantra jam song for the moment

The Millennial Collection

Last Friday night K and I attended a gallery opening for the Millennial Collection at the LHUCA as part of Lubbock's Centennial Celebration. I was involved in the Millennial Collection Project when I was in college and between this project and my photography professor, Rick Dingus, I began creating a solid foundation for my love of documentary style photography. This specific collection was conceived as an open time capsule that is added to continually, it aims to serve as a catalyst for learning and communication within and between communities, and for me it did just this. (HERE is the link to the Millennial Collection site where you can find out more about it and check out all of the photos, student and professional) This project pushed me to explore outside of my daily route, to go places that I had never been and re-explore places that I had been many times. My examinations for this project took me first with my uncle, Kim, who worked for the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication project at the time, to the cotton fields of Littlefield TX, and then a Saturday motorcycle trip with my dad to the small towns around where I grew up, Glen Rose, Lipan, Tolar, etc. I still have a strong memory of every single place we captured, and the roads it took to get there.
The experiences of this class were amplified when upon finding myself in  critiques with my peers. It was then I also experienced their explorations and examinations, and lived thru their stories of traveling familiar and unfamiliar roads to capture something, anything, life, time, experience, doubt, neglect, opinion, age, youth, ANYTHING to document on film.

Here are some images from the collection... some mine, some others. btw... this class is also where I met Sarah, who, as I have mentioned many times before, I give credit to for getting me BACK into photography.... digital style! OH, and blogging too!

photo by yours truly



photo by Robert Mearsa b.p. original, again. My dad and I found this man selling his wares in Glen Rose, Tx

photo by the amazing Sarah Mitchell (now Sarah Holt)

photo by my friend Ruben Castillo


photo by Delilah Clark


... and a b.p. again. This barber shop is in my hometown of Granbury Tx. My dad has been a patron to this little place for 22 years! yup, this might just be where all his style comes from.

i injured my cornea....

...and who knows how it happened, but I think it has something to do with Austin TX, and shampoo (although my eye doctor would disagree). He says there is a Cheeto on my cornea? Yea, a Cheeto! ( I didn't even bother to ask wether it was crunchy or puffy, or even flamin' hot) So for about a month now I have been confined to my glasses, and I am about to loose my MIND! Don't get me wrong, glasses are great when you choose to wear them, or prefer them, a fashion statement of sorts, but being restricted to them, in order to save one from potential blindness, is ABSOLUTELY NO FUN! I go see a specialist next week to see if I will ever be able to wear my contacts again... I miss you ACUVUE Toric lenses for hard of seeing folks... you, and my new target $5 animal print sunglasses, someday... hopefully i can break free...

This reminds me of a conversation K and I had after leaving the eye doc. We recently had our yearly "gateway to the soul" exam, and as we left the office we were both pondering this question: Do you ever feel like the doc is trying to catch you in a lie? He asks so many questions, and they all seem to be rigged, like "1 or 2," "1 or 2," "1 or 2," "1 or 2," "2 or 1," "1 or 2," and I think we can all agree they are way too close to tell a true winner. I think somehow he knows, and when we answer "2" he questions our judgement, because he knows we answered "1" on that one last time. hmmmmm, we may never know.

btw. I practice these faces daily... Maybe not every one, every day, but they all get practiced sometime. btw-2 They are truly more effective/affected in person.