Friday, November 21, 2014

Re: Another Video

A couple posts down I talked about Henry's use of me as Schtick in a few of his videos.  During one of the shoots for the 3D People, Henry grabbed his camera and shot for a few minutes.  He turned it into one of the invitation pieces for a party him and I are doing at my studio.  Hit the blue link, Carol.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Tallynn

"Hey, you just missed Lynn."
"Which Lynn?"
"You know, Tall Lynn."

Another of the Utah Death Portraits.  Lynn.  If the person sitting next to you at the Utah doesn't know which Lynn you're talking about all you have to say is Tall Lynn.
Done.

She's not really as tall as the photo suggests but I'm thinking when people walk into her wake, we'll have this as a life size print greeting everybody….maybe add another foot to the print to really emphasize the point.
She doesn't look down on anybody though so this shot doesn't represent that at all.  







And since Lynn is so angelic.  Here she is right after Death and that whole bright light theory thing.


Friday, October 10, 2014

And the Oscar for Best Whiskey Glass commercial goes to…...

Man, I had to do a lot of takes on this one.

And by the time Henry finished shooting I was a bit tanked, faded, toasted.

Henry's brother was in town awhile back, he's a glassblower living in New Orleans, and the two of them talked me into a drink in the middle of the day.  Quite a few of them actually.  Ben makes these absolutely beautiful whiskey glasses.  He stamps in designs or words in the bottom.  They feel so good in the hand, big bunch of glass at the bottom gives it a perfect heft, a gravity. The slight irregularities from the hand made process can be felt with the fingertips.  The rim is a sensuous delight on the lips.

They wanted a little spot done for Ben's website.  I was their actor dude.

Henry knows me and so there was music playing while we filmed it.  That's where the snapping of the fingers, the tapping of the knee comes from.

Glass Blower Ben

Best friend Henry

Also, just for a little history lesson here.  Henry shot this video of me making a liquor cabinet a couple years ago.  In it I spontaneously come up with my moniker…MakerUnknown.


Friday, September 12, 2014

The Utah Death Portraits

The bar that everyone knows my name in, in San Francisco is the Hotel Utah.  Corner of 4th and Bryant.  Over a hundred years old with the usual sort of SF history of bawdiness, drunks and thieves.  It's a corner bar with big windows that wrap around both Bryant St and 4th St.

Instead of facing the bar I like to face the windows and watch life float by.  It's like watching real reality TV.

It has a large group of regulars most with Utah supplied nicknames.
There's Midnight Jeff and Goodlooking Jeff
Toothless Paulie and Shoeless Paul (me)
Aussie Joe and Kiwi Lisa, Minnesota Bob and New York Bailey
Undertaker and The Watch Man
And many many others…some already gone.

I've decided each needs a death portrait to be taken.  You know you go to wakes/services nowadays and there's always the usual slide show looping.  Always with lame photos. By the way I'm saying for the near and far right now.  Do not do the looping lame slideshow at mine.

What we need are "Official Death Portraits" ok'd by the dead person to be placed around the event.

Thought I would beforehand do a little post on them.  I know some will say no, some will say yes, go ahead post me up.

Lee said yes.

Lee….no nickname…just Lee.

Lee worked at the New Lab right down the street.  They processed E-6 back in film days.  The New Lab is how I started going to the Utah.  Drop off film on a rush basis, go up for a beer and the film would be done by the time the beer is finished.

Lee was head of the Dupe Dept.  Great title for a job, don't you think?

I had known Lee for several years before one night at the Utah he mentions he was in VietNam.  Class of 71.
He keeps pretty quiet about it which we all respect but I do like those odd times when he feels like bringing it up.  Pretty fascinating to listen to his stories of sights, smells and sounds.
He grew up on a dairy farm in upstate NY….on land that been in the family for generations.  I guess that gave him that wholesome practical philosophy way of looking at things in life.  Self reliant.  Let's just get'er done.
He's a curmudgeon lots of times but a lovable curmudgeon.  He tilts at most every organized windmill out there. Loyal as hell to his friends, loves the cute young thangs, as well as martinis and ciggies. He's able to make friends at the bar with a newbie in about five minutes.  That sort of guy that you trust immediately from his big smile and the twinkle in his eye.

Good sport too.  He allowed me to poke fun at him for his love of his vices.

Like that Cindy Nelson line from "Don't be Ashamed of Your Age."

"Don't mind the gray in your hair
Just think of all the fun you had putting it there"

I left all of the lines, wrinkles and gray hairs that Lee has earned.




He wishes it was real.

Lee and Priscilla  1971

Damn, Lee, we're going to miss you when you're dead.





Monday, September 8, 2014

Not Oaxaca, but Polaroid.

A week and half ago Annie and I were handing our passports over to the man behind the AeroMexico counter at SFO around midnight.

Just a short one weeker in the mountains of Mexico looking for the best molĂ© and mezcal we could find.  Our plan was to go out of the city and back in the hills to find it.

It seems though there was this silly notion that one's passport needs to be valid.  Mine it turned out was not…. by one month.  Didn't see that one coming at all.

Man behind the counter said "Nope, you're not coming into Mexico."

So we did a re-group and booked a flight to somewhere domestic.  Spent the week soaking in natural hot springs deep in the forest, getting snowed upon, hiking, hiking and hiking and having drinks in dive bars (ok, that last one I like to do).

Passport requirements.
Head…inch, inch and three eighths
plain background
full face view with a neutral expression

Dusted off the view camera, pulled the Polaroid from the fridge where it's been hibernating since 2001 and shot my own passport picture.

Took two exposures to get the right exposure.  I was the type that never used a light meter.  I could usually nail it after a couple of polaroids.

I'm assuming you know that the image is upside down in a view camera's viewfinder.

As neutral as I can be.

No Mezcal is made in these mountains.

Passing through one of many Native American reservations we stop in at the Silver Dollar.

We asked why it was called the Silver Dollar because there wasn't a silver dollar in sight.  The owner's daughter who happened to be there said they were glued all over the floor over there…she pointed…but we just put on a new floor over top of them.  Seemed strange to us not have them visible. 







Wednesday, August 27, 2014

What Time Is It?

Why it's Gin time of course!  And what the hell, let's have it be Absinthe time too.

Good friend Tony, did the labels for these two.  Some point I should devote a post just to him, his talents and how much trouble we try to get into.
But for now it's Gin time and that label Tony designed for it.  Damn good gin, made on Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay.  Tony, John and I went out the other night for some music and before the show had some drinks and there on the shelves of Absinthe (the bar in SF) was Bummer.  Naturally had a Negroni made with it.  So good.

Check out the gorgeous illustrations  by Tony's friend Mike.

Now that I have a couple cases of it and as well as the Absinthe (the liquor) I'm set for awhile.
Up next will be a day shooting the bottles for beauty shots.



Bummer and Lazarus were two dogs in San Francisco back in the 1800's that became famous for their rat killing propensities.  They have their own wiki entry.


@100%


And the Emperor Norton Absinthe.  Again, a character from early SF.

Seven C-Stands, Three hard lights, One soft box.



Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Pre-assembly Saw Support Arm

These are two views of the Saw Support Arm portion from this post.  Although I've read things on the web that mentions that there are many photos out there of this saw, I am not finding that to be case.  At least photos that aren't crap photos.

After the whole thing is put together I'll photograph it comprehensively so that there will be a set on the web that will be searchable and legible.

The rear.

The front.


Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Untitled

Don't think I can tie all this together into one neat Hollywood ending.

One thing that is nice with doing what I do is that I don't always know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

Old friend called me out of the blue.  Is GM of a bus company, wants some photos of his buses around The City.  Spent the day with him, the driver and me tooling around to all the tourists sites in and around San Francisco.  They brought some beer onboard.  We'd pull up somewhere, I would pop out, pop off some shots and off we'd go to the next spot. That day was fun. I took the name of the company off the bus.
Got a new rangefinder.  I've been taking it on jobs.  Spent a couple half days up at my friend Carol's place in Sebastopol.  She and David have a farmette with lots props left outside to weather and get good looking.
The Set Up.




David in his beautiful chicken coop converted workshop. 




Another Set Up




The laptop in situ.




Carol brings a pot of tea and her housemade Hoshigaki.  
Later she brings a feather from a Kite



The next day I'm shooting for a start-up 3D printing company back in San Francisco.  Can't show anything from them though.  Top secret you know.

And like a day should end sometimes, I'll end this at the Utah on the corner of 4th and Bryant.
A couple friends of mine.












Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Working to Plans

Apparently the pile of cut wood on the bench is going to become the thing on the hanging plans behind the bench.

I'm not going to do a build along but will document it as there seems to be a dearth of good photos of this thing on the information superhighway.

I don't normally, well at least not since the last house I built up in British Columbia, work to a set of plans. There really is a disconnect I'm finding.  You look down at your cut list and then you cut those dimensions into some wood.  I guess a lot of people like building reproductions and or having a set of plans in front of them but for me…..no.

So, every now and then I'll sprinkle some photos as it comes together and then at the end do some clear studio shots of it.


Friday, May 30, 2014

Home

It's in it's final spot…finally.

Kevin helped with the carrying, the top itself was a brute,  We got it about 20 feet from the truck and enlisted two more men when we needed to drop it in place.





The base went together smoothly.  I had fitted the two boards for the seating in the workshop and they went on easily.  The top I never dry fitted it but only eyeballed it and had determined that it would go come the time we dropped it over the tenons.





And drop it did…with a little friendly persuasion.


Pounded in the wedges in the tenons to force them outward and we're calling this one done.  Later on in the summer, I'll come back and put on some more finish after the sun does it thing and even out the tones.

Jeff, the head guy at the winery had come out to take a look at the table.  They were pretty much in the dark about what I was going to bring to them.  I had shown some sketches I had done earlier but those sketches I had drawn before I actually had the wood in the workshop.  Once the wood was in the shop I changed the direction of the design.  Before steel held the table together, now…traditonal joints held it together. 
Jeff left, a few minutes later he came back with a case of wine on his shoulder for me to take home.  Gotta love the wine industry.

A half hour later, Cindy, a VP of sales and marketing, shows up with a six of beer.  Again gotta love that.








Tuesday, May 27, 2014

One Final Step before delivery

Music is playing, right now it's some Southern spirituals a friend, CLo, gave me. Maybe up next will be Tupac…edit..turned out I put on some MadLib.

Rip sawing the kerfs in the tenons to accept the wedges when the assembly is done on site.  Very meditative.