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January 20th, 2010

NAMM 2010

Taylor suite @ NAMM 2010

Jason Mraz in the Taylor Guitar Suite

This year’s NAMM show was pretty quiet – no doubt an impact of last year’s economy – with an exhibit floor that was missing major players (Apple and ProTools), a dearth of Rock ‘n’ Roll booth babes, and no line at the complementary hearing test trailer in the basement. That was all fine though, we didn’t have to yell to be heard on the exhibit floor. Jason gave me an interactive demonstration on the nuances of fine cymbals, and then after seeing the results of my hearing test realized I didn’t really have any appreciation for what he was talking about.

I did have a great appreciation for live music in the Taylor Guitar suite however. Doyle Dukes stunned us with his pickin’ chops, Night Ranger did an acoustic set followed by a Damn Yankees reunion. They dropped into a successful acoustic version of ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ – something that shouldn’t even be tried. Finally, Jason Mraz took the stage in a 3,600 sq. ft. room with inadequate air conditioning for the 600+ people who were crammed in there.

Damn Yankees @ NAMM 2010

Damn Yankees Reunion

Ted Nugent @ NAMM 2010

The Nuge

Doyle Dykes @ NAMM 2010

Doyle Dykes

Serj Tankian @ NAMM 2010

Serj Tankian of SOAD

Jason Mraz @ NAMM 2010

Jason Mraz

Jason Mraz @ NAMM 2010

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Styx, via phone pic

Yea, all that and Styx at the House of Blues.

January 6th, 2010

Remember Film?

Remember Film?

Color negative and scanned version in Lightroom

Now that we’re only a year away from being empty nesters we’re thinking about bringing all our old photos into the digital age. The kid in this shot is now 17.

I’m testing out scanning negatives on the Nikon Coolscan V ED that I have been using for scanning slides. The image quality is coming out beautiful, but it’s taking way too long (over 3 minutes per negative after it’s done all its processing).

Next two options: shooting with my camera on a backlit macro set up and processing in Photoshop, or just paying a service to do it all for us.

January 5th, 2010

Crossword Puzzle Solving


A timelapse video of my approach to solving crossword puzzles. I start with the first word I can enter and expand from there, rather than doing all the across or down clues first.

One frame per letter shot on my Canon 40D and processed in Lightroom and Premiere.

See it in HD on Flickr or Vimeo. Or even better, click the ‘HD’ option in the frame above and then play it in full screen mode.

January 4th, 2010

Droid Review

Droid

My Droid

I’ve been living with my Droid for about a month now. Friends have been asking for a review, so here it is. Note, I haven’t used an iPhone so I can’t do a comparison between them.
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January 4th, 2010

Minigolf

Minigolf

Minigolf

Day 4 of holiday family days. Wow that’s a lot of green.