FantasticBabblings

I have lost 100 lbs!

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:59:47 -0500

I have lost 100 lbs!

On October 26th, a hole was blasted in the base of 125’...

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:12:46 -0400

On October 26th, a hole was blasted in the base of 125’ tall Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington. In less than 2 hours, the reservoir behind the dam drained completely and the White Salmon flowed unimpeded by a dam for the first time in 100 years.

Stonewall: Out of the Closets and Into the Streets (by...

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:32:32 -0400

Stonewall: Out of the Closets and Into the Streets (by FantasticBabblings

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There once was a man known as Trump

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:05:36 -0400

There once was a man known as Trump
Who inserted his head up his rump.
When it came out for air, there instead of his hair
Sat an orange and serpentine dump.

After weeks of dreary weather it is beginning to feel like...

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:53:59 -0400

After weeks of dreary weather it is beginning to feel like spring in New York. Yesterday was foggy and drizzly for most of the day. I came out of my dentist’s office in late afternoon and the sun had come out and it was lovely. I walked home through Central Park and took some random footage.

Shot with Sony Cybershot DSC-HX1V
Edited with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

Felix and Arthur @ MOMA August 2010

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:02:44 -0400

Felix and Arthur @ MOMA August 2010

Door ornamentation on Gracie Square off East End Avenue.

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:14:45 -0400

Door ornamentation on Gracie Square off East End Avenue.

Artist Suzanne Opton has taken a series of photographs of...

Sun, 17 Oct 2010 23:02:25 -0400

Artist Suzanne Opton has taken a series of photographs of soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan all in the same position, lying on their sides facing the camera. These images have been on billboards around the country. The gallery of images is here:

http://suzanneopton.com/#/soldiers

Public response to the project has run the gamut. You can see more about the project and read comments (or add your own) here:

http://www.soldiersface.com/

Sunday I was in Carl Schurz Park on the East River in the 80s,...

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:53:05 -0400

Sunday I was in Carl Schurz Park on the East River in the 80s, near Gracie Mansion. I was shooting video on the river, but I noticed a small park, maybe 100 square feet or so. I thought I would shoot a couple of stills, but the closer I looked the more I saw.

I Want My Technicolor I just watched David Lean’s 1955...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:35:00 -0400

I Want My Technicolor

I just watched David Lean’s 1955 film Summertime with Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi. It’s a boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy loses girl story, but with complications. They are middle aged, the woman is a virgin and the man is married. It all takes place in Venice. Lean says it was his favorite of the films he made (which include Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Passage to India). Partly because of Venice, which Lean made his second home.

I first saw this on television when I was quite young. I don’t remember how young, but I do remember it made an impression on me. I saw it in a movie theater in New York back when they had revival houses. It was probably at the Regency on Broadway and 68th Street, one of the great old houses that showed classic films in double features with very high projection and sound quality. They often had brand new prints.

One of my favorite aspects of this film is that it is from the golden age of Technicolor, which was one of the earliest processes for color cinematography. There were several stages of development for Technicolor, using various processes of shooting and splitting the light into separate beams and filtering the film stock. Early processes required gluing multiple filmstrips together and running them through special projectors to merge the colors. All required special cameras with prisms and filters. The golden age was Technicolor 4, a three strip process that printed the film in a dye transfer process similar to lithography and the film could be run through any projector. The Wizard of Oz was a great example of Technicolor. Vincente Minelli, himself a painter, made great use of Technicolor in films like Meet Me In St Louis.

Other companies developed less expensive color processes and Technicolor fell out of favor. The newer processes aimed more for verisimilitude. But what I liked most about Technicolor was that it wasn’t naturalistic. It was painterly. The colors were oversaturated, but in a way that reminded me of Renaissance Italian Painting. The technology of cinematography has come a long way, but the artistry of Technicolor still pleases me more.

I wish someone would produce a digital video camera with sensors that could record in a way that simulates Technicolor.

The painting below Bal Masque by Tiepolo reminds me of Technicolor.

Shutter Island I recently acquired a Blu-Ray DVD Player. I use...

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:18:00 -0400

Shutter Island

I recently acquired a Blu-Ray DVD Player. I use it mostly to watch Netflix streaming videos, but I have watched a few discs on it and up until now I didn’t see the big difference from regular HD on television, but on the Blu-Ray disc for Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese’s 2010 psychodrama, the difference in quality was more than noticeable. It made me want to get a bigger TV. It’s all part of the grand conspiracy to deprive me of my money.

I did not see this film in the theater. It wasn’t overwhelmingly successful and the reviews were mixed. My response to it was mixed and begs further viewings. That’s all part of the conspiracy too. I will have to buy the Blu-Ray disc so that I can watch it many times over the coming decades. Some movies do that do me; they get richer with repetition. But here is my first impression. After the second, I may not have that feeling. Maybe I should watch the Netflix copy again before I shell out money to own it.

In brief, if you haven’t seen it or even if you have, the story is about two US Marshalls who are ferried to Shutter Island to investigate an escaped inmate at this hospital for the criminally insane. The main investigator is Leonardo DiCaprio, whose wife died in a fire and haunts his memories. His partner is Mark Ruffalo, who mainly shadows DiCaprio asking “Are you OK, boss?” They discover some scary and unethical things going on on the island and the hijinks begin. I won’t spoil with details. And by hijinks I mean gloom. It is a somber film

Starting off the film seems to me to be an ironic, subtle parody of B-films and TV shows in the 50s, but with the most sublime production values. Much of the dialogue seems clunky unless you view it through meta-colored glasses. Or hear it through meta-colored… make up your own damn meta-phor. There are moments of dry wit, particularly from Max (big Noggin) von Sydow. At many times the film works on a cerebral level, but misses on a gut level. At times, but inconsistently, Scorcese looks like he is doing an homage to Hitchcock, but he couldn’t seem to find a spare McGuffin lying around to make us care. I found the film seductive most of the time, but it never really paid off with the thrill that seduction promises. Ain’t that always the case? I appreciated the film most when I held it as a detached curio rather than trying to get inside of it emotionally.

All that said, it looks gorgeous. It sounds great. The performances are all competent with a couple of really nice scenes from Jackie Earle Haley and Patricia Clarkson. I liked a lot of the music from 20th Century composers like Penderecki, Ligeti, Cage, Nam June Paik, Max Richter, Mahler. I know Mahler was 19th Century, but he influenced the 20th. My favorite part of the whole piece was the music in the closing credits taking the vocal track from Dinah Washington’s “This Bitter Earth” and remixing it with Richter’s “On The Nature of Daylight” (play video above).

After watching the whole thing, I did have an overall emotional response to it, but subtle. There were no emotional wallops in the course of things; the pace was a bit metronomic and calm. I was left with a gentle melancholia.

I have been playing with the image of wheels lately. I am...

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:25:30 -0400

I have been playing with the image of wheels lately. I am collecting pictures and video. I’m not sure what I am going to do with them, but I got a nice one today. This is a Lexus hubcap that I saw at the corner of 75th Street and First Avenue in NYC.

Lower Manhattan seen from Brooklyn Heights, August 2, 2010.

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:43:52 -0400

Lower Manhattan seen from Brooklyn Heights, August 2, 2010.

Coffee in the Nude - OMG He Saw My Pee Pee!!

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:18:46 -0400

Coffee in the Nude - OMG He Saw My Pee Pee!!

Coffee in the Nude - Is it Post Gay Yet?

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:20:24 -0400

Coffee in the Nude - Is it Post Gay Yet?

A video I liked on YouTube from Bean829 in Australia. It looks...

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:01:00 -0400

A video I liked on YouTube from Bean829 in Australia. It looks great in HD full screen.

BP Rap Featuring the New World Order Symphony

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:08:45 -0400

BP Rap Featuring the New World Order Symphony

Simple, but brilliant animated short film.

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:26:00 -0400

Simple, but brilliant animated short film.

Mirror Inside, a poem

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:14:39 -0400

Mirror Inside

Dreadful and shy
He peers in the mirror
Dying to feel what he’s trying to feel
But he feels is denied him
And the mirror’s inside him

Head full of sky
The clouds hide the sunlight
Head pierces skin soon he’s peering within
Dreams beginning in ebon
Light streams in like a ribbon

Furtively spy
Through the camera obscura
Shadows resolve reveal images of
Shapes dissolve desperation
Luminous liberation

Straining to fly
Secret winds in the doldrums
Boldly to hope not to beautifully mope
Gravity’s a cruel master
Quick escape quick fly faster

Copyright 2010 by Philip Davis

Too fat for Manhattan!

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:50:30 -0400

Too fat for Manhattan!