Self Potrait, November, 2012

Stop complaining about no parking.  Stop asking to be the same as everyone else.  Stop drinking.  Start Drinking.  Stop Drinking.  Stop standing in line.  Stop feeling "in danger."  Stop thinking when it's convenient.  Stop touring.  Stop buying in.  Stop buying.

Grasshoppers

Today I woke at 3am and fell asleep at 5am.  Roommate decided to have a slumber party.  Where I live has no walls.  Work at 9:30am.  Crawled around inside a new temporary wall for awhile, talked to co workers, had a production meeting.  Worried about getting in trouble from bosses.  Bosses seem pleased for now.  Still worried.  Crawled around in wall some more.  Crawled out, noted back pain, noted plasma I had installed IN wall needs switched, burned screen.  Tried to switch.  Found tripped electrical breaker, alerted facilities.  Checked cleanliness of galleries, closed, locked, lights off.  Boss wanted to talk, feared, worried.  Boss wanted to have a drink and bullshit.  Welcome beyond belief.  Had Drink.  Museum Nerd Out Session.  Came home.  7:50 ish pm.  The other boys turn for door tonight, don't have to go to the bar....  Fix loose memory in computer, stupid techs, restart, working.  Deliberate getting a drink.  Send ex-boyfriend email with a recently processed photo of him, looking handsome.  Consider drinking more.  Make blog post with recently processed image of that fourth of July nearly 4 summers ago on the other side of the country that rolls of films are still showing up from.  Miss Heat, Summer, Humidity, Friends, Lovers, Loves, Brothers.  Fields.

Today on the way to work, my three block bike ride, at "Yerba Buena Lane", between 4th and 3rd, on Mission, I smelled the distinct smell of a field full of grasshoppers.  I may have been hallucinating.

more exploding

Been a slacker again.  Just dropped off some film the other day. Harder to drop off film when the spot isn't just around the corner anymore.
Upgrade at job see's me in place of Sr. Preparator for an interim period after a shuffle in the dept.  Learning lots of cool shit from friend/co-worker above me who has stepped up into his own interim set up.  First steady work since before I moved to San Francisco, lasting at least until mid-July ish.  Save that money. Make that money.  Make more explosions.
Buying things to fix Minolta.  Miss her.  There is much to be said for the size and aspect of medium format.  However, there is something to be said for the portability and number of shots with 35mm.  Especially when what you are attempting is to get some more immediacy in your life in regards to work.  To get back into the groove.  To get going.  It's a lot easier when what you're carrying around doesn't weigh as much. and has its own light meter.

OX

We left our house and walked to the bar together.  We walked in, smelled the piss and beer.  We took off our jackets.

Dressing on opposite sides of the warehome, separated by a wall.  The same outfit.

This is my friend, roommate, and often artistic collaborator, Mica.

Portraits of Visitors IV: Sister Vis'tor

In the past I've posted portraits that I've made of friends passing through San Francisco. (Visitor I, Visitors II & III).  I plan on continuing this, though I have kinda slacked on the past few.  I admit.  Although some of them have been doubles, or I just forgot.  Regardless...  This past December, my sister Molly came to visit.  She hadn't been to the west coast since she was probably 10 or so for an ill fated wedding.  Now she's an adult and made the trip no problem, despite having probably not flown since that previous west coast encounter.  Not only was I proud of her for that, but was astounded by the dualities I noticed within her while she visited.  We had moments of smart conversation, and moments of child like awe at getting to see amazing things together.  We are viciously close, and getting to hang out here, in my new home, was some bit of amazing for the both of us.

The trip was of course well documented between camera's, phones, film, digital, etc.  But these are ones I have chosen.  If I chose just one, to follow along in the Portraits of Visitors series, it would be the one on top.  It fits the model the best.  It's a good piece of bread on the other side of I and the meat and cheese of II and III.  But if I chose to add some mayonnaise and wait for more bread, from some other visitor, I would probably select the one immediately following, because it breaks a bit from the rest of them.    The others I am posting because I like them.  And they are a good document.  

The first image is of her sitting on top of Corona Heights, where I often take visitors for the walk ability and the view, though that was when it was very close to my old house.  The image was taken while I made her sit with me for over an hour as I shot a video straight up to the sky, gathering footage for an upcoming video project.  (please don't tell her that I ended up deciding I can't use the footage)  It was a nice sort of zen out moment, as neither of us spoke the whole time.

The lower images are from a drive down the coast we took with a friend.  I wanted to just drive for awhile and let her see how the landscape/plants/environment is so different from what we were used to from the East Coast.  It's something I've always taken note of with a fascination.  We drove towards Santa Cruz, our driver holding a secret plan to ride a roller coaster before sunset.  However, it was decided that if we kept going to the boardwalk, we would actually miss the sunset, and the drive back home (which follows the coast vs. the mountains which get you there) would be a waste in the dark.  So we turned around and got on the 1.  We drove for awhile admiring the flat fields stretching out to the great Pacific, and eventually pulled off.  We stopped at a small little beach where Molly met the Pacific Ocean for the first time, and we watched the sunset.  Soon we got back in the car, and headed home.  All the while, Molly intensely staring out the window.  Not missing a second of the colors in the sky and on the ocean as they changed hues, flowing like the waves, and slowly fading into their infinite black with the occasional blinking light.

P.S.  Oh, but before we did all that, we went HERE!!!!

FFFFrustrating but needed.

Today I was supposed to do a little file / hard drive work and then spend the afteroon scanning and editing.  However, I ran into some problems and unforseen loooooonnnngggggg file transfer times.  Aye!  So I spent the day instead looking into new music, learning about coding, flash, and similar things.  All the while I was wrestling with hard drives.  But since I set out to do photowork today I snuck this one off my back up drive and played with it for awhile.  


This is a shot of a whole bunch of Thomas family members walking towards my cousins rehearsal dinner night type soiree on the banks of Lake Michigan this past summer.  I thought it was a neat shot.  It's rare that my mothers side of the family can get together, but when they do it's always amazing. Very Very Cool Persons.

Hole In The Wall Saloon, January 31, 2011

Masterwork

This is a video I've been working on for awhile.  I've been doing videos in collaboration with my friend and new roommate Mica Sigourney as part of a residency he is doing at Counterpulse, in SF. 
You can find other videos here, but this is the trailer for the work. 

And no.   It has nothing to do with the work.  And yes.  It's supposed to be bad.

PHOTOGRAPHY CUM SHOT

Open Camera,  2011

Dear Everyone.
I've missed you.  Dearly.  For awhile I was eeking along using a kind roommate's neg scanner, which eventually left when she did.  And then life was really wild and crazy for awhile.  I lost a dear dear friend.  I lost my housing, as a result of the death and sketchy land lords / leases.  But things are exploding.  Can you tell?  

After working a grand amount, I'm now up and running at a new place.  With artistic collaborators as ware-home-mates.  Video projects are coming up like bum piss on my new street, which means often.  And now, finally, I'm scanning away on my own, personal, negative scanner.  Once again, I am a photographer with an output.  Expect alot.  I've been shooting, thought at times sparingly due to money, since I moved here and haven't had much output due to the cost of processing.   But this makes it all better.


I've missed you.

John