Hi Elizabeth,
Happy Sort-Of-Late Sunday Night : sort of late because you're in Albuquerque instead of Middleton, so you're an hour earlier than usual. That is great news, and I am happy that you have a new work project. Is it for a tour, or a video? Maybe both? I know you had posted some tour dates from a couple different bands lately, bands that were about to hit the road, so maybe it is one of those? All just guesses on my part of course, but it's probably along those lines somewhere.
I imagine New Mexico is pretty cool, and especially very scenic, if you are able to get out to the desert. I have no idea the layout, having never been there, but I know it's high elevation, with lots of mountains too. Your post and photo of the pool was funny, and appropos. I don't know about New Mexico, and I think in general they are a bit cooler than we are because of the elevation, but 70 degrees in the West is what you would call "barely warm", lol. Unless a pool was heated, you wouldn't find too many swimmers on a 70 degree day, or even an 80 degree day really. Pools here are generally used when it is 90 or over, and especially when it's closing in on 100.
50 degrees on the other hand, i.e pool weather for you guys, is barely above freezing for us, and to jump in an outdoor pool - even heated - on such a day would almost require a membership in the Polar Bear Club of ice water swimmers, haha.
It's weird, the weather. I mean, here in The Valley, in the last five years at least (since climate change really took hold), our Spring has begun in February, and this year it already feels like early Summer. We are already doing 80 to 85 degrees for a couple weeks straight now. The so-called El Nino, which was guaranteed by meteorologists, never materialised, other than about three or four rainy days. So it's almost like we waver between Springlike weather and mild Summer weather all year, with about 8 weeks of blistering 100 degree heat in August and September, and 4 to 6 weeks of freezing our butts off in 55 to 60 degree weather (but 36 at night) in December to mid-January.
In short, we don't "do" cold very well, as I've noted before.
I hope you are having a good time in NM, with whatever is happening, tour or video or whatever. I am still not totally clear on what is going on, although I did see a few posts by you today, and they all seemed to indicate "tours", meaning friends of yours in bands who are playing shows. So, I figured the general message was "on tour", kinda like last December. I just think it's great that you're getting work, and as I've said before, I know it's gonna continue. :)
I watched the Oscars tonight, and I thought it was - overall - a pretty good show. I had only seen a couple of the nominated films, and I wasn't familiar with some of people in contention, but in the technical sense of putting on a good TV show, it was more or less the same as always. Chris Rock did a pretty good job, better than I expected actually, and though they almost overdid the "diversity" issue, it must be said that he leavened it by making fun of the protesters, too, multi-millionaires like Will Smith and some others, and just the whole issue in general.
I could have done without some of the off-color language. I mean, my own vocabulary is not beyond reproach, but this is the Academy Awards, and in the past, when it was always hosted by Johnny Carson or Bob Hope, is was known for classy humor, even if a bit racy, it was never crude. Still, all in all Chris Rock did a good job, and brought everybody down to earth.
I was happy to see that they honored my Dad's old boss at MGM, Roger Mayer, who was also my boss for a few years. He was the head of Metrocolor and was an early champion of film preservation way back in 1981, a generation before dvds or Criterion or anything like that. I was at the lab when they first started to pull old nitrate reels of film out of the old wooden sheds on the MGM lot, where they'd been stored (and were deteriorating) for many decades. A lot of that effort was at Mr. Mayer's impetus, and I remember as an adolescent hearing my Dad talk about "Roger wants to do this"......Then I would up working there myself, for a few years.
It's funny, because nowdays I am almost more into old movies then I am the new stuff. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of really good new movies out in recent years, but because of my Mom's influence, I came to favor movies from the Golden Era (Westerns, Noirs, melodramas, musicals, war movies etc. etc.) And that is all the stuff that, because of film preservation efforts, was saved and restored and ultimately made available for mass viewing on dvds.....
So yeah, the Oscars........
On my own home video front, I think I discovered one reason, at least, for the mediocre quality of my video picture the other day. You see, I had never heard of a "speed rating" for the memory cards, and had never noticed the little circled number on the cars, "4", "6", "10", and higher. The number is enclosed, almost completely, in a circle with a slight opening. But it's printed so small on the card that unless you knew what you were looking for, you'd never notice it. And the card I bought the other day was a "4". Too slow for good video, according to my camera's manual, which - surprise, surprise, haha - I've never bothered to read before.
I don't wanna read manuals, doggonitt! I just wanna take something out of the box, turn it on and start using it. For me, the act of picture taking is a contract between me, my eye, the subject matter before me (usually nature these days), and the camera in between.
I know that's a slightly ridiculous position, and the larger truth is that I do eventually learn what the various buttons do, or at least some of them.......
But I come from the era of film, when there were just three basic things you had to do to take your picture: set your f-stop, set your shutter speed (both based on the ASA of the film), and then focus the lens.
Well, in any case, now I know to go back to Best Buy and get a #10 memory card. Then my next video, even if it comes out crummy, will at least have a sharper picture.
That's all I know for tonight. I will see you in the morning. Post if you wanna..... :)
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxxo :):)
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