Daily Logs May 5-May 11 2004

May 5 2004

Barber Shop

One thing that sucks about moving is finding a new barber. I'm sure it's more difficult for women to find a "hairstylist", but guys need a good barber too.

Today, I went back to Williamsburg, to ask Earl to recommend a barbershop. There's a spot called Platinum that sounded "urban" enough, so I gave it a shot. I walk toward the shop and some random guy tells me to wait outside, because the barber/owner just left and would be right back. That made me really feel like I was in the right place, cause that's the whole barbershop mentality that I'm used to. Always a bunch of charecters that live by their set of rules.

The owner walks up toward the door and lets me in. I always find it difficult to describe what kind of cut I'm looking for, but eventually I got the idea across. He did a pretty good job and the best part about it was that it only cost 10 bucks! That's including, trimming the beard using the sharp edge for lining purposes. I used to pay 23 bucks for that in cali and I felt ripped off. So, there you have it. Stay tuned tomorrow as I search out for the best place to get my nails done. Not quite.

May 6 2004

DJ Spooky vs. 3D Jerry

This morning I got up early so you know it must have been a special occasion. Spending a good portion of my day with 2 brillant artists satisfys that criteria.

I just realized that I failed to mention that David & Lauren are back, welcome home! Lauren, as I'm sure you know by now, writes for high times magazine and today I tagged along with her to interview DJ Spooky. We get to his loft in Tribeca and the vibe is a bit awkward because we were invited in and he went back to sitting at his computer. I was unsure if he was blowing us off or just waiting until we were setup. Lauren handled the situation perfectly and over the course of the interview, he loosened up and had some great things to say about video games and the impact theyre having on society. I'm not going to get into the details because the article has not been written yet, but when it is, I'll spread the word. Hearing what he had to say made me a bigger fan of his music.

Next we met up Jerry Marks for lunch. Speaking of lunch, I've been searching for a good burrito since I left Cali, so it was nice to find a good spot. Ok, Jerry's speciality is 3D Imagery. Now's a good time to check out his site www.pulltime3d.com to get a better idea of what he's done because his work is extensive.

At Jerrys place, I was shown many 3D photos, some from as far back as the 1800s! And yes, I did get a pair of 3D glasses. Here's the situation, I have a great desire to learn everything about photography and Jerry needs an assistant to help with his current project, the history of dance photography. Long story short, we start Monday. I'm not getting paid, but so what. You cannot put a price on an experience like this.

May 7 2004

Job Interview?

I decided not to go to the job interview today at the ImaginAsian Television station. Simply put, it isn't on my path. So here's how it went down.

Thursday night, I was wrestling with the idea, but went anyway to buy some slacks for the occasion. I can't tell you how long it's been since I've dressed up like that. So I got dressed today and it didn't feel right. Not only that, but I kept hearing Terra's voice say 'I can't imagine you in a suit'. Well, I wasn't rockin a suit, but I couldn't imagine myself in what I had on either, as you can tell. Believe it or not, I also took into consideration, that no one suggested that I get a full-time job on the latest poll question. My final thoughts on this are that, I've changed many other areas of my life and I can't stop the metamorphosis now. I can't take something that is going to have such a rigid schedule every-week.

SO, there you have it. I'm feeling good about the decision and I know that the right opportunities present themselves IF I'm actively looking for them.

May 8 2004

Midnight Athletics

Tonight I went into Manhattan, camera in jeep( not in hand cause it was freezing) and set out to shoot something but I wasn't sure what. It's weird, but sometimes I'll have an urge to go to a specific place and other days I'll just cruise the streets looking for who knows what. I was in Chelsea headed toward the westside highway when I came across a full-fledged soccer game, saturday night around midnight.

This was no impromptu game in the middle of the street by a bunch of kids, but a match complete with two distinct teams of grown men sporting uniforms on a well lit soccer field. I know New York is the city that never sleeps, but I never even heard of such a thing. So I spent about an hour or so just watching & photographing this spectacle. One thing that sucks though is that I forgot to bring my digital camera so you're going to have to wait for that film to get developed.

Much to my delight, adjacent to the soccer field is a basketball court. For a night owl like myself, I'll be all over that. Look out for the daily log saying, "So I sprained my ankle today attempting to dunk for the first time in 5 years".

May 9 2004

David & Lauren

I unpacked the remaining items that I had boxed up because of space concerns today. This came after the official word that Lauren & David found a great place to live about fifteen blocks away. I'm about to be sentimental here so if you don't want to hear it stop reading.

David & Lauren are the most generous & loving couple that I have ever met. There is a constant synergy between them, with plenty of love and concern to share with other people in their lives. I came to New York with a few possessions, a little bit of money & some ideas about how I want to live. They've helped me in realizing some of those ideas and I am forever grateful. There's so much more that they've done for me in addition to letting me stay at their apartment that it's impossible to name. My life is much richer and if I was to leave New York today, it was worth the trip just to have them in my life.

They're in L.A. this week for the E3 video game conference and tomorrow I'll provide a link to a website where you can watch Lauren broadcasting live from the show.

May 10 2004

Working with Jerry

Today was the first of many great days working with Jerry! I learned so much stuff from him today, I feel like a human encyclopedia. I can't share it all, but I'll give you a run down on how the day went.

As I mentioned before, the project we're working on is a history of 3-D dance photography. Jerry has taken a vast amount of stereoscopic photographs and most of the one's we're working are in slide form. He has a special stereoscopic viewer(forgive me if I'm butchering the terms) where you drop in the slide and can see it in 3D. Remember those Viewfinder toys with comic figures; well that's what it's like. So how can we take this slide and manipulate it so that it appears in 3 Dimensions on your computer screen?

The first step is to scan the slides(or film) into the greatest program ever made, photoshop. From there, the dual images are cropped and labeled carefully for the left and right eye. The next step is pretty complicated and I don't understand it all, but there is some channel manipulation (R,G,B) and the images are made to slightly overlap. Jerry's a much better teacher than I am on this subject, but that's an overview of what I've learned so far as it relates to 3D photography.

I'm soaking all this in, it's like being a kid in a candy store and you've got all the time in the world to check everything out. Many great stories coming soon...

May 11 2004

A Costly Mistake

My day was almost over before it began today. I got up around 8:30am, shut my room door and walked into the bathroom. I started the shower and headed back to the room to get my towel etc. To my surprise as I turned the knob, it was locked. Half conscious I made a stupid mistake of locking the door before closing it.

Thoughts:

'Don't panic you have an hour and a half to figure this out before meeting up with Jerry. Ok, your keys are inside the room, so call Shelly to see if she has a key to the room.'

Numbers dialing, no answer. Left message. In the meantime, looks around for a spare key. Time passes...

Thoughts:

'I hate to do this, but I'm gonna have to call Lauren & David even though it's 545 cali time'. Voicemail. 'Look at the door to see if you can take it apart'

Phone Rings. Lauren says "There's no key for that door. Try credit card if that doesn't work, call a locksmith."

Thoughts:

'This is going to take longer then expected. Call Jerry, alert him to the situation. Done. Now, how to get this open? My wallet is in the room with a couple of cards I'd love to destroy, but can't get in.

Looks around for flexible objects finds none. Sits on the couch and thinks. Drifts off...

Awakened by the sound of a door opening. Shelly enters.

"Do you have an old credit card or something that I can use to open my room?"

"Let me check......Here's on old safeway card try that."

"If this doesn't work I'm gonna go ahead and call a locksmith, but I need to borrow some money to pay him because my wallet is inside"

"No problem, I'll bring up the phone book just in case. I'm going to sleep, call me if you need me"

Hours later and many lost layers of epidermal skin on the hands, still no luck.

Thoughts:

'Time to pay up there's no other way around it. Call and get an estimate'

"Yes, hi How much will it cost me to get a locksmith to open an interior door?"

"Uh sir we don't give estimates over the phone, I can send a guy out there to check it out for free and then we'll go from there."

Thoughts:

'Sounds shady, what other options do I have?'

an hour passes. Phone rings.

"Hi its the locksmith."

Yum yum checks him out to see if he's shady. He passes the test.

"So how much?"

"65 for service & 75 for new lock"

"Yo, can you open this without breaking the lock?"

Locksmith tries the same technique I used, but with a thicker piece of plastic. No Luck.

"Well, uh thanks for coming and checkin it out, but I want to try get this done without paying that much and breaking the doorknob."

"Ok, than its just $65"

"For what?"

"Just for coming out here"

"No that's not what they told me on the phone. I'll call them right now"

Company denies telling me the estimate was free. I get upset. Conversation gets heated with the outside company. Guy tells me to hangup and offers me a "deal". Explains that I can pay him directly and not the other company and he'll do the whole thing for $100.

"I can't afford that. I don't want a new doorknob"

We chat some more.

"Let me call my downstairs neighbor to get some assistance."

Phone rings. Voicemail.

Thoughts

'I should have stayed in bed today.'

"Okay man, open the door, I'll give you $75 but I don't want the doorknob destroyed. I'll put a new one in myself."

Get's his drill and another tool. 20 seconds later the door is open.

Thoughts

'I'm in the wrong profession. Shoot no cash on hand.'

"Hey, I have to go to the ATM to get your money ok?"

"No problem"