Eye On The Music

I'm listening to Death Cab's new(est) album now, Codes and Keys. I'll tell you what I think by the end of this post.

I just stumbled on a cool site for finding new music which is potentially interesting, not just annoyingly obscure and mediocre, as we know indie can often be (what's with lowering quality standards under the guise of being "different"?).

Anyway: Indie Rock Cafe.
Interesting things I discovered include newer indie bands, like the Black Whales and ....Said The Whale.... (I swear it's not just me liking whales, they were independently interesting), but aren't limited to indie. I found a Metallica + Lou Reed track you have to hear to really judge, an awesome Buddy Holly tribute album - "Rave On Buddy Holly" - featuring a nice array of good artists, and more stuff I don't remember right now. But a link definitely worth checking out.

And some jamming we did at Todd's house mid-homemade-brew-tasting:

 Todd

David

So the new Death Cab: People said so many bad things about it, I really wanted to hear it and decide differently. But it really isn't up to par for the standard past albums have set, in my opinion. Only one song even caught my ear, it was mostly bland songwriting - no scenic backgrounds with strings and vocals, nothing that made me move, nothing I'll remember the catch or words to. The songs I did look up were sappy... and I like sappy songs, in general, but these were not noteworthy. So I hate to give it a bad review, but let's say I'll stick to listening to old stuff, and I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.

NEW CAMERA!!!

That's right. New camera.

Well, oldish camera technically, but if it's at 25% the original cost I'm okay with that. It is a Canon EOS Rebel XTi, a digital SLR. So in essence I've upgraded to the bare minimum anyone with a real photo hobby will touch. Fortunately I've learned most of the fundamental functions of photographing on the old Canon, a PowerShot SX200, before moving up to this (relative) beast... and how I love Canon, that was a sweet little camera too. I realize I never did show it before:

I'm a little more legit, now equipped with 2 lenses (one of which I haven't even tried yet), 4 SD cards, an extra battery and charger for it, a bean pod for outdoor stability (I never knew these existed), lens cleaning cloth, hand/shoulder straps, and the technical stuff. 

Oh yes, and a bag, a gigantic mondo bag. Which is great for storage, but for going out I actually found this smaller old Polaroid bag in my closet I've held onto since stealing it from my mom as a little kid. Hipster much? Shamelessly.

I am, of course, still on a seriously lengthy learning curve. I haven't gotten f-stops down very well, and my "vision" and art to the composure need developing. Settings I HAVE begun to grasp are exposure, shutter speed, white balance, macro, manual focus, (usually) horizon alignment, and I probably can't think of other stuff because there's probably not much of it.

I would like at some point to restore some old film cameras I got from my mom, if they're worth anything. They have name brands, but I'm guessing some are hopeless or weren't ever worth buying. 

Without further ado, here are some photo's I've taken so far:

 graffiti on industrial buildings behind the train tracks

 david on his camera day 1

solar panels at the biosphere 2

panels next to the geodesic lung

solar panal installation on the lawn with high schoolers