8.20.2007

in my last post i bitched about mexican fast food and the frosty dairy dessert from wendy's. well, i had chipotle for the first time yesterday, and it was pretty good. i didn't doubt it would be good. i'm not going to say it's the future of fast food, but it was tasty. i still like my local mexican joints. also, i had a frosty dairy desser two nights ago. i enjoyed it as well. i still don't think it's the only stuff that's worth leaving the house for.
moving on...
i'm in the middle of revamping my film transfer machine. two years ago i modified a super 8 projector for converting film to video according to these plans. it worked, but the projector i was using got damaged after i bought it off of ebay. i'm embarrassed to say, but i took the original projector into the bathroom to clean it after it arrived at my house, and i dropped it on the floor. many vital parts on the inside smashed into little pieces. i felt very dumb. i was able to rig it up, and i completed the machine, but it was very temperamental. it didn't like to accept film reels that had too much or too little leader on the beginning or end of the roll. i eventually stumbled upon another projector of the same make and model, and i converted it for use in the telecine machine two days ago. it's almost ready to go. i need to mount it to a stationary board, and then line all the lenses up, and things should be fine. awesome.
the machine is in wellesley right now, and i'm in boston. i think i'm going to drive out there just to work on it. i really want to work on it. do you ever get that desire to work on a project? i do, and i usually don't stop until it's finished. it really bothers me that the machine isn't in my house right now. i've gotta go.

sincerely,
jim

8.11.2007

i got sucked in to watching morning tv while i was eating my cereal today. first it was the cn8 candlepin bowling challenge that got me. those guys are good. i'm not sure if you've ever bowled candlepin style, but it is wicked hard, and very frustrating. the bowlers on the cn8 candlepin bowling challege rise to the challenge of performing on low rate cable television, and kick major ass on those lanes. i surfed through the channels during a commercial, and stumbled upon the phantom gourmet. those guys are douchebags. they were talking about fast food chains, and they were saying how awesome chipotle grill was for mexican food. i'm sure it's a pretty good place, but what the fuck. there are several small local chains that sell awesome fast food mexican that weren't mentioned. they went as far as saying that chipotle was the future of fast food. doesn't macdonald's own chipotle? so, the phantom gourmet is telling us that macdonalds is the future of fast food.
wow, what a daring statement.
anyway, as horible as the show was, i couldn't stop watching it. not only could i not stop watching it, but i was craving all the crap that they were talking about. it was maddening. before each commercial break, they would say, "coming up...the only fast food worth driving to." of course they string you along until the very end of the show when they announce that the fast food worth driving for is wendy's frosty dairy dessert. the fucking frosty. i like frosties, but jesus christ, you can get a better milkshake/dessert/ice cream product just about anywhere, especially if you live in the boston area - which they do. i reassert that those guys are douchebags. so, the show ended, and then i started watching drilling footage of that crazy mine in utah where those guys are trapped. evidently they are going to send a camera down there soon. now i'm not watching tv. i had to stop. it was not rewarding.

best,
jim

8.09.2007

it somehow seems unjust that i should get a cold in the summer. my foot is well on the way to being awesome again, and now i'm afflicted with a stuffed head and an inflamed throat. also, my eye is all red again. it was fine this morning, but it turned red at lunch. shit is crazy. this is a bad summer for me.

oh yeah...after lunch i went into my desk drawer to look for a china marker and it looks like a mouse got in there. the mouse ate a package of smartees, a cough drop, a root beer barrel, a chocolate egg and much of the china marker i was looking for. he left the skittles, the rolaids and the werther's originals alone, though. peculiar... you may be thinking it more peculiar that i have such an array of hard candies (and otherwise) in my desk. after writing the previous passage, i thought it strange myself, but there is an explanation. i buy a/v equipment from several vendors. some vendors (sweetwater in particular) send little packages of assorted candy with completed orders. i think that's really nice of them, but i don't eat a lot of hard candy, so it sits in my desk until i have a hankering, or until someone says, "jim, do you have a werther's originals or other hard candy that i could have." no one ever says that, so the candy stays in my desk. i've never seen a rodent in the jewett arts center, but something chewed the wrappers off of those things, and i don't think it was a wellesley student. oddly enough, i've kept lots of foodstuffs in my desk and other places in my office over the years, and i've never had any other desk break-ins. i usually have a bag full of almonds and raisins in my desk as well. you'd think a mouse would prefer that to a generic cvs throat lozenge, but that is not the case. i don't know what else to say.

best,
jim

8.01.2007

if i said to you that i would provide you with a service that you needed - for free-, would you respond to me by saying that you were so inflexible, that i, the one doing you a favor, would have to reschedule my life to accomodate you?
a friend of mine asked me if i could do him a favor, and when i told when and where i could accomodate him, he suggested that i reschedule rather than he. i think that's funny. i will not be rescheduling.
i've been in new york the past few days, it was pretty fun. i should have stayed longer, but that wouldn't have been fair to andrew. my friend just bought a fancy new condo in brooklyn, and it is awesome. small, but awesome. for the past few days marleen and i lived in his shiny new abode with andrew and his dog. it was a little cramped. now i'm at my parents' house. it's much bigger and quieter, and it's cheaper to buy food here. the downside is that there is not much to do. they do have a pool though. i'm not much of a swimmer, but i assume marleen will coax me into the pool at some point today, even if i swear i don't want to. time off is nice, but i keep thinking of stuff i need to so. i can't get my mind off of it. i'll be home on friday night, and i already have stuff planned for saturday. it's going to be a crazy, action packed weekend. today will be the opposite of that.
i shot some super 8 footage while in new york. we were in battery park in the early evening two nigths ago, and there were two kids frolicking in the fountain. the fountain consists of around 15 or 20 illuminated strweams of water shooting straight up, and the kids were running through them. i don't know if the footage will come out, but if it does, it should be really cool. what am i going to do with it? beats me, but it will be cool. yesterday, i shot some footage of marleen in the pool. that should be nice, too. i didn't bring my big camera, but i wish i did. we went to the ICP and saw a ton of portraits, and two tons of stephen shore pictures. seeing a bunch of awesome photography made me wish i brought my fancy camera. next time i will.

i'm going to get some food.

talk to you later,
jim

p.s. it's august. i am the featured artist in the photographic resource center's northeast exposure online program.