Friday, September 30, 2005

The Rides

My parents' house:


I'm currently staying at my parents' house, or 'exiled in suburbia' as I like to think of it. I grew up here, so it's pretty comfortable, a relaxing, temporary getaway from urban life. The problem is that I like to ride my bike to get around, and it is expected here that polluting the air fueling oil wars driving is necessary to be a fully functional member of society. As much as possible, I get around on my trusty Cannondale which I brought back with me from San Francisco:



Behind it is the fossil fuel guzzling vehicle I use when I need it. Note the bike rack. It has treated me well, so I won't call it a monstrosity. It's been in my brother's care for the past two years, but now it's mine again and I think it's happier with me driving it. My brother has bad car karma (although his parking karma is simply astounding, thanks to the power of prayer). One of his cars just pooped out on him, after serving me just fine for the past few months:

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Welcome to My Lomo Diaria

So I've been twiddling my thumbs over how to configure this blog. As a diary, conceptually it should be done in a "real time" sort of way. But as a LOMO diary, that's impossible, as lomo is film, requiring rolls to get finished and then processed. Lomos being posted might ultimately be almost a month after the day it is diary-ing.

What a conundrum. Only I should have problems like these. Should I backdate the posts so that the date stamps reflect the actual date of the shot? Or should the date stamp not matter and the actual date be in the body of the post? Which is more confusing? Which is more eye-catching? If I backdate posts, the front page will never seem current. What sort of lag should there be between publishing backdated posts, since when I get a roll processed, right there I will have a backlog of days to weeks worth of posts!

On the other hand, what is a diary but an ongoing story, a confession, an exposé? The story should not be stymied by technical considerations. As a diary-ist, what I'm telling you is most important, and the lomos, albeit the subject matter of any post, are just illustration. Is that even right?

I guess part of the fun will be figuring it out as I go along.

For instance, I got my lomo last week, and since then I shot a roll of Tri-X and got it developed. I got it back today. I'm posting this in real time. I've loaded a color roll into the lomo and I'm shooting about one picture a day, holding to the diary concept. In the meantime, I have 36 shots I can post.

You know what? Fuck the time stamp. I could just erase this entire post, but this is my thought process whatever. My excruciating and tortured thought process. It's a wonder I can get anything done (and I really can't).

That said, let me introduce you to my small town in New Jersey, two miles north of the George Washington Bridge. Population: rich people.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

A Visit From the Lomo Stork



Happy birthday, fisheye lomo. I'll consider today, your arrival date in a USPS Priority box sitting atop-a my mailbox, as your birthday. Before this lomo diary, not pronounced DI-uh-ree, but di-AH-ree so that it doesn't sound so gay straight gay retarded, can begin, I need to quickly finish the first roll and get it processed, which unfortunately will take over a week since I loaded Tri-X in it and it takes that long to get it processed since I don't have a home film processing set up. Until then, you can twiddle your thumbs. I am.