Zero X Net

Not too long ago, I get an email out of the emptyness.

"I walk my dog by your place and I was hoping to come inside so I can see what goes on inside."

So he comes by for a visit and cocktail.  He's a cool young super curious, graduated in Chemical Engineering guy.  We're talking about work stuff while sipping our drink.
I had to pause and think about the last real job job I had.
"I think it would have been late 1970's working as a carpenter.  I haven't had a real job where I worked for the man since."
I could see his mind starting to twirl.

Last couple days I've been gripping and gaffing for a small production with Josh and Brett.
It was a series of interviews for an investment firm (from what I could tell) that bought companies, re-organized, rebranded, re-CEO'd and then, I dunno, sold them or something.

Lot's and lot's of talk about 2, 3, 4 X Net.  One man even said 5 X Net investment.  It's unheard of!
But that's these peoples jobs.  Every day.

Josh and his EyeDirect.  A 60/40 mirror that allowed the respondents to talk directly into the camera while looking at the questioner off to the side.

Not putting nobody down here, I get it that whatever gets you through your life is alright, alright.  Just something I couldn't do every single day.  Get up and head down to the office to make money by moving money.  It could be because, damn, whatever they were talking about just didn't seem to have much soul in it.  It felt like 0 X Net.

Kees and Josh downloading the files.

Monday, Henry and I are flying out to shoot a job. It's Henry's job.  What we're selling I'm not sure yet but just spending the time with Henry is a net gain on my tally sheet.

An out of the emptyness bonus pic.  Rough cut shape of Ken's brother's tabletop along with the cutoffs.

Best Dream Here

An addendum to this recent post where we adopt the little triangle across the street from Here.  This truncated point looks at the adopted triangle.  It too got cleaned up (well, for the moment) and planted with some succulents.  Hoping that the 4AM shit dumpers don't dump their shit right here.  Thirty feet away...that's better than right on the point.  That's the best dream here.
You're also looking at the death fire car area mentioned in the above post.

The view from the living room this morning.

Heard the "How can you live like this?!?" before.  I just love traipsing through curly cherry shavings from a sharpened plane to the morning cup of coffee.  To me, ain't nothing better then open warehouse living.  A little project of making a table top for Ken's brother in the midground.

And glory be, done with the permit process with the city of Oakland for the voluntary earthquake retrofit. Took two years of hoop jumping. The retrofit included welding a steel frame inside the brick walls.  Gotta look on the positive side here as it did provide built in shelves (although I would trade bare walls for shelves.)
The two big openings in the building had 6"x12" steel I-beam moment frames built around them (and tied into new huge foundations under them.)

I listen to music via CD's.  No computer, no mp3's, no spotify, no playlists.  One CD in a one CD player at a time.  Love the physicalness of the whole process, the choosing, the committing to one thing and listening from the start to the end.
Human is music.  So mysterious how it inhabits every sense in our collective spirit.  Our greatest discovery.  It's been with us from the very beginning in ritual in storytelling in sorrow in exultation.

I use the moment frames to hold my music in glowing states of resting dreams.  

Edit.  Was just reading about the transformation of musical instruments and part of it spoke about the oldest known instrument, a flute dated to 45,000 years ago.  Boggling.

Warm Cold Brewski

Apparently this beer is no longer available according to Mary.  Apparently though they still need photos done of it, I'm guessing, if they run another batch through the copper.

Fake Ice.  It comes in small dried granules and once you re hydrate it, it blossoms into this.

At this point it's too big for my purpose so I cut it up with the Xacto into tiny bits and place them onto the can of beer with the tweezers.

The can here is horizontal.  I could shoot it horizontal and you wouldn't be able to tell, but since I'm also shooting glasses of beer to add to the finished shot later, I may as well only do one set up and shoot it vertically.
Also at this point I add more ice and drops on the can knowing I can remove later.  Easier to remove than to add when it's on set.

A light spritz with an atomizer that's a combination of water and glycerin.  This first spritz is light since it's easier to add more later.

Then larger drops of glycerin are added with the tip of a bamboo skewer.

From the back of the set looking toward the camera.
The two mirrors do a nice job of adding gradation to the "chrome" letters.  Later on in PShop I'll accentuate, enhance and add more.

Here's a tight crop as it comes out of the big camera.  I'm not showing the whole can for you.  That it'll be up to seeing somewhere out in the wild.  Note the dark blog within the circle.  It's something on the sensor that I can not remove.  It's a damn burden I must carry and retouch it out of every single damn shot.  Most Every Frame.  There are a few instances where the it's hidden because of the subject matter that I'll let it go.

A couple bonus pics courtesy of the City Of Oakland.  The building inspector insists I paint something to pass final inspection.  I mix my own shade of gray.
Spirals...they're everywhere.