Shooting trains in the urban environment is a challenging task. Most great train pictures need elevation above the subject and a background that will not put the viewer into a vegetative state. Bridges solve the first problem - except in our high security world, hanging over a railing brings forth questions not artistic support. Getting a shooting angle, with good lighting, a worthy background and a train takes patience. Many a time I have watched the direct sunlight track across my camera's focus point with no train in sight. Sigh.
Union Pacific 5021 is leading its train into the Los Angeles basin. The remaining miles are primarily single track, so she is not going to slow down for her picture to get taken. I especially like the level train/tracks and the "tilt" that the electric towers make. No bridge available, so down on the ground I go. Shot with a 20mm lens, you can "see" vinnetting in the corners from the circular polarizing filter - Kodachrome 64, f5.6 at 1/250.
Photoshop makes it easy to to create a black & white print which I think can hold its own.
Photos: UP 5021 • Whittier, California
Bogus Slogan Poster #32 - Inside View
Early morning, the Southern Pacific Coast Daylight, is leaving Los Angeles, to run along the California coastline before turning back into the San Joaquin Valley on its trek to San Francisco. Crossing the North Broadway bridge over the L.A. River, is a 1950's era bus taking workers and shoppers into the downtown area. The elevated tracks on the right are the Union Pacific's branch line into Glendale/Pasadena. Behind the bridge is the ATSF Pasadena Division's LA River crossing. In a few seconds, the smoke from the GS-4 steam locomotive, will completely hide the train and bus as the engineer opens the throttle. The video still back drop is a composite made from the excellent documentary DAYLIGHT The Most Beautiful Train in the World.
The concert was an unsanctioned celebration of the Freedom Riders who helped liberate the South of overt segregation in the 1950's and 1960's. People left their ordinary lives to make an extraordinary change. This Bogus Slogan concert was a thank you for the sacrifices made and a reminder that life and liberty are not catchphrases.
Anothert concert for freedom is sure to come, so choose your own method of transportation, but just be sure to get there.
Washes: Loveless Payoff (2004)
When viewed at its original size of nine feet by six feet, the sense of motion is undeniable. A coral reef swaying to the moon's tidal sweep - sixty or seventy thousand flowers in a soft spring breeze.
In layer one, a blue "t" lays seige against a dark purple "i." A distraction to this combat comes from a patch of orange. Layer 3 shows how the painted underlayers are advanced to a more finished painting by bringing another patch of orange as counter balance and additional shades of blue for tonal harmony.There's your girl, the far end of the bar, swirled up in smoke. Ice cold martini. In her purse, a nickle plated .38 special. She's been waiting for you.
SysOps Notice 2006.06.01
I know where I want to hang out with what ever free time I may have. Grand Teton National Park and its neighbor, Yellowstone National Park provide all the physical distractions that I think I would need. All four seasons. I can see myself, trudging in the snow, trying to get to an overlook before the sun rises over the eastern edge of the park. Or savorying an ice cold beverage from the portable cooler as the fading summer sun lights the park floor with long shadows. LAKE JACKSON • Grand Teton National Park
Robert Soelberg (1995)
In a companion blog, "A Greeting From," Family travel post cards are being posted. What a surprise to find Grand Teton and Yellowstone Park locations that I have photographed.
Robert Soelberg (1995)
The locations for Lake Jackson and Yellowstone Falls are easily accesable by motor car and a short walk. The Lake Jackson location has a seating area for probably 1,000 people!
The sunset at Lake Jackson was a happy accident. I had only one day in the park so I scouted this location early in the day and planned my movements around the park to return for the sunset. So much to see, I barely made it back in time. Hurriedly, I set up my tripod/camera next to a woman who was watching her husband fiddle with his wide format field camera. I said hello and mentioned how lucky we were to have a beautiful sunset.
Laughing, she said her husband (and of course herself) had been waiting through five cloudy days. Timing, Light and Luck.
The Yellowstone Falls is a morning shot and with a steady hand you can match my photo shown above.
ZenithPointStudio PopWorks 3
Bogus Slogan Poster #31 - Inside View
Since most people, happily, hate violence; and therefore try to not support it-
the United States of America's military, the best that violence can be, is critiqued by friend and foe alike. Since our Forefathers explicitly wrote that providing for the national defense is our highest priority, it should be second nature to cherish those who place their healthy lives in harm's way for the continuation of representational government and worldwide freedom for all humans who wish to be so governed.
Supporting bands, Truth Speakers, the Flats & Cons and Seventeen Seconds; were winners of a local battle of the bands contest. Whether they sounded their best, with the professional sound reinforcement system rented by BS, was lost in the eight second reverberation of the armory's interior.
Pacific Trust Collection Art Lottery
The wondrous Pacific Trust Collection Art Lottery within a lottery is here!
Five pieces of art from the Ninety-Seventh American Natural Objects Competition sponsored by the Pacific Trust Collection of Laguna Beach will be given to five lucky lottery winners.
Lottery drawing for the selection of the five art pieces will be June 16th. Those winners will go on special display at the CityView Gallery in the Capitol Building in downtown Laguna Beach until July 15th when a second lottery drawing will be held. These winners will be invited to come and take their prizes home.
No purchase necessary. Place your name into the lottery by filling out an entry form at the CityView Gallery or sending your name and address on a piece of paper to the Pacific Trust Collection of Laguna Beach's Executive Office. Good luck everybody.
Bogus Slogan Poster #30 - Inside View
Once a year, the city authorities in Radiant City let the hair flow freely. One weekend, 72 hours, where everything goes except crimes against another person. Crimes against property can be defended by force, so the mayhem is usually limited to extreme self intoxication and the mishaps that inevitably occur. Medics and doctors are shipped in from neighboring cities. Something like New Orleans on steroids is the result. Most everybody starts with public nudity and the festivities expand from there.
Bogus Slogan has been the Saturday headliner several times, with the third annual Cultural Jam being their first appearance. The concert began on time, but there was so much audience participation that Bogus Slogan did not get on stage til 4am Sunday. The group held the stage until 7am when a wave of naked karaoke carolers claimed the stagefront - placing three different beatboxes, playing three different songs - then everyone chose their favorite to sing. Several attempts were made to regain control of the theatre, but all were unsuccessful.
Abstracts: Wait for Sugar (2004)
An overhead perspective suggests tables in a courtyard, winter trees providing minimal cover as the employees come to lunch. Coming from the side, sets of diamond flags drape naturally behind a designer mesh screen. Looking up - one sees a custom made fresco, reminiscent of a charming seaside villa in Spain. Maybe, the spangles on a belly dancer's constume. Boy, figuring out ths art stuff is hard.
Bogus Slogan Poster #29 - Inside View
One lovely Friday afternoon, as the staff of ZenithPointStudio casually dreamed of the tequila and beer to come - Petal, from N•Verso, L.L.C., the Bogus Slogan's management company, called asking if we could make a commercial poster for the band's appearance at the Three Four Ballroom. This confused us since we already had sent a Three Four Ballroom poster to the printers. On speakerphone, Petal assured us that this was a new one. A new one?
"Sure, Dougie (the BS manager) added a second show and told me to call you guys to get a new poster done. You know - today, by five."
We put Petal on hold, began a cursefest, ended that cursefest, then apologized for keeping her on hold for so long. We asked for the details for the new poster. "Oh - everything's the same - all the bands, same. Only a second show on the 25th. Can I get it today? By 5? Dougie is taking me to the Fragging Dolls tonight. I need to buy..."
We slapped on two bars with the new info, compressed the band names and the new poster was ready by 4pm. A couple of days later, Petal emailed a pic of her, Dougie and Blandy Weathers, the lead singer of the Fragging Dolls. Petal looked hot!
Expressions: Appearing Nightly (2004)
Angular and stubborn. Piercing and unfocused. A new combination with every viewing. Always vulnerable.
Layer one sets a double horizon line and then immediately challenges this figure with dark vertical clouds. On to layer 2 and textured colors, sweep to and fro - setting the canvas into motion. Additional shapes (see layer 3) restrict this freedom of motion, but now add the complexity of multiple asymetrical shape combinations. Appearing Nightly, no cover charge.
Bogus Slogan Poster #28 - Inside View
The Hiawatha of the Milwaukee Road fame graces our Shank Hall Bogus Slogan Poster. This 3/4 photo gives evidence to the power, speed and beauty of steam rail. Gears, wheels, pipes, valves are hidden behind the streamline cowling of 1930's industrial design. This magnificent engine is probably cruising at 60+ mph. Nearly too fast for the shutter.
The Proletariat Artist League combines imaginative people from all avenues of the world of art. Their annual Benefit All Mankind™ concerts are consciousness raisers on the futility of war. Each year a new location is used to help spread the word. Funds raised are used for commercial campaigns to advertise the crimes of despots and corporation abuse of the environment.
This concert was a ripping success. Drunk with Lead was called back for a second encore which cut into Bogus Slogan's set time. But this was not a problem - Bogus Slogan's encore was two songs in one. A musical trick the band has used since their beginnings. The drums held a steady rhythm as bass / keyboards played "Belittle One" and guitar played "ReSpirited." Vocalist, Mason Kimmers, alternated between the two.
Abstracts: Coming Down the Mountain (2004)
With so many years of recorded media and the worldly scope of the internet, today's artist needs only to create - (If an artist wants to make a living or be famous, then crank up the publicity / marketing machinery) - We, the audience, have seen innumerable images, heard countless sounds; and with so many choices, have expectations of paying little or nothing for our art "fix." Comics, novels, music, magazines, tv, newspapers... All are inexpensive inter-changable alternatives. The meaning of life has been co-opted into 15 minutes of attention. Fame, a la Andy Warhol not being necessary.
Before high quality repoductions were available, an original painting had to present its meaning and symbolism in an inspiring image. Today's image "Coming Down the Mountain, is a throwback to those earlier times. C'mon...smile. Stay with me.
Bogus Slogan Poster #27 - Inside View
Girls with Snakes. In their farewell performance. What should have been a 35 minute opening act, lasted 3 and 1/2 hours, ending in a bedlam of chaos as the County SWAT team cleared the Orpheum in what was clearly not a practice drill. G w/ S was a foursome of shapely, heavily tattooed women who were highly prized as performers by the locals. Music was an after thought because eventually, the girls writhed as much as their pet snakes did.
Our men of Bogus Slogan happily watched from the theatre's backstage, as each girl brought forth (from large storage boxes at the back of the stage) their beloved snakes. By the end of the musical part, all four girls were center stage "dancing" with the reptiles. At this point, one would assume that after a few minutes, the writhing would end and the next act, Man and Pearl, would get their 45 minutes. Nope...
Benjamin Owen, BS's drummer, walked on stage and started playing on the G w/ S's drum kit. As a stripper's "bump n' grind" beat echoed in the hall, the remaining BS members ran to the dressing room to get their instruments. Now everybody was happy.
After ninety minutes of audience participation, the theatre's management became unhappy. Responding police saw 2000 delirious fans. When it was learned that cutting the power to the stage would make the whole theatre go dark, (a public safety issue), the authorities called in the professionals.
SysOps Notice 2006.05.01
In a Bogus Slogan poster, I used a radial blur filter that took my Mac Dual-core 2GHz PowerPC G5 processor over an hour to complete at 100% usage on both cores (27" x 40" @ 300 dpi). At the same time I was watching TV on a second monitor and surfing the internet, with the Mac OS polling the email server every 15 minutes. The amount of computer processing had to be incredible. In the first few seconds, my system probably surpassed one of the original computers, the ENIVAC of the 1940's.
It certainly left my original Apple II in the dust. A 6502 cpu running at a snail's pace. I was very loathed to leave that simple world behind; especially since I had been able to program in assembly (machine) language. But, Apple EOL'd (end of line) the II. I continued to use an Apple IIe, even buying a replacement from a friend when my original motherboard failed. But then I saw the bouncing ball of the Amiga 1000. I know now, I wasted my money, but that machine was fun. The Amiga also introduced me to a couple of professional programmers writing ada code for the Department of Defense. They introduced me to Q, their roommate who was writing games in 6502 assembly. Q ( David Van Brink) wrote the Tempest arcade game look-a-like "Tubeway." His second game, "Ankh (64 Rooms)," was released just as the game distributor, Datamost, went bankrupt.
Q, coded his games using only a green screen 9" monitor. He did not have a printer. He wrote and debugged his source code on the screen using a special display code to indicate color.
My amazement was so sincere, that he gave me a copy of Ankh (on 5 1/4" floppy disk). It took me a week or two to solve all the puzzles, but that was just the start. Also on that disk were his source code and the editors for creating the elements of the game. I tried to return the software, but Q said don't worry about it. So I wrote Ankh 2.
Photos: UP 3755 • Cajon Pass, California
Not an overly dramatic photo. Darkening, and cropping the lower portion would help. But here are the challenges of a class one railroad. Moving tonnes of freight over miles and miles of the United States of America as quickly as possible. Everyday. Heat, cold, rain, snow. Mountains. Physical breakdown of machinery. Government regulations. Labor union requirements for safety. Environmental restrictions. Public indifference. Past due account receivables... In about 20 minutes there will be another one. And then another... Cajon Pass is always busy.
Union Pacific 3755, a General Motors' Electro-Motive Division SD40-2 capable of 3000 horsepower is heading a mile long intermodal container train going to Chicago and eventually the East Coast. Running hard on the BNSF North track, there is still two miles of mountain before reaching the Summit and the High Desert of California beyond. Behind 3755 is UP 2401, a General Electric C30-7 (3000 hp). Then UP 4948 (ex-Southern Pacific), SD45T-2, (3600 hp). Lastly 3 UP 5000 series SD70Ms, each 4000 hp. 21,600 hp, lashed together, pulling...
Here comes a train.
Bogus Slogan Record Release Party
The primary tracks for 14 new songs, were finished in February. In March & April, the group recorded the overdubs, re-tracks and mixed the new full length album, "A Little Heart."
The American debut record release party will be at the group's favorite hang-out, Prestos. Tickets will be available beginning May 1st from the Bogus Slogan fan club, Sloganeers. The album will be released in America on June 20th. Advance copies will be given to all who attend the party.
The first single, "Running Out of Nice," was inspired by a group member receiving a two page "Honey Do" list three days before last Fall's European Tour began.
Bogus Slogan Poster #26 - Inside View
Belisima Project Forum is a special showcase arts theartre, with a capacity of 1500, that Bogus Slogan likes to use for international fund raising events.
The theatre, oval in shape and with an opening in the roof was built through corruption and extortion over 100 years ago. One man, with vanity on his mind, converted, the money, time and resources of others to a personal vision of "public good." His private theatre of human depravity lasted only 2 years. He was assassinated by his second in command.
Though the origins were stained, the architect chosen was a master. Acoustics similar to the Greek and Roman outdoor amplitheaters made the need for a modern sound system unnecessary. For electric concerts, a long extention cord is run from a next door residence and the groups uses their practice amps to rock the house.
Bogus Slogan uses "Advertise in the First Amendment"™ as a moral underpinning for spreading the tools of free speech throughout the universe. The Belisima Project Forum is one of those tools.
Washes: Chunky Brand Style (2004)
Sunshine. On a cloudy day. The David Nagel's series 9 brushes paint a delicious squiggle - I chose multiple colors and the finished set can be seen in layer 1.
To make the "ribbon" float, a dark grey base layer (layer 2) is set below. Layer 3 shows the beginnings of the brown color swirls. The final brush strokes, bring a soft black "highlight" topping for a sense of dimension.
Mimi's cloudbrushes, a ZenithPointStudio favorite, builds up texture that confuses the vertical with the horizontal, and gives this 9' x 6' charming illusion its own style.
Bogus Slogan Poster #25 - Inside View
Girls. Girls. Girls.
Men's magazines focus on the many curves of a woman.
Bogus Slogan focuses on what the female is saying. How her lips move. How her eyes and facial expressions convey the multitude of human emotions.
Exploring a woman's feelings, in a candlelight dinner, can satisfy even - whoa - whoooaaa. Where's that real world.
Bogus Slogan cherishes it's large groupie collection. The perks of the rock star life is groupies and more groupies. As long as you can hold the stage for at least 45 minutes, some girl in the audience is going to throw her panties. She goes in the database. Whew! Feeling better now.
The Daisy Foundation, created by jewelry designer Roberta Kline, holds monthly fundraisers for their charitable medical research programs. This concert, at the Blades Lounge, was unique in that only invitations to women were made. And they were allowed to bring one guest, of course another female. Each of the supporting bands were all girl groups. Headliners, Bogus Slogan took home a record number of panties.
Expressions: Available for Parties (2004)
I would be somewhat unhappy if anyone looked at "Available for Parties" and began to talk about their high school chemistry class. Attraction of covalent bonding molecues. Suff like that. Please, let us gravitate toward seeing two distinct personalites at a cocktail party. There, much better.
With the photoshop brushes from David Nagel, I painted quick slashes of black and grey. A tighter nap brush with predominantly blues and yellow, looping on itself to create a "rope" effect, is used to build up the object on the right. A fan brush "dots" the span between the two.
Only twice was I ever called to my high school Principal's office. Badder living through chemistry was the reason for one of these requests.
James Mallord William Turner
The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up (1838)
Because humankind has a consciousness, and has recorded its passage through history, we can "remember" time... by reading a book or watching a movie. However a painting must stand by itself (if you don't read its caption).
Imagine you are standing on a bluff, overlooking the river. It rained earlier, but the sun now sets as you watch one of those new steam contraption ships lead an obsolete, wood and sail man of war to her demise. Shortly, the wooden steam tug will be replaced by iron, then comes steel. History repeats. A "modern" man of war, the U.S.S. Missouri (BB 63) is towed across the Pacific Ocean to be permanently moored in Pearl Harbor as a museum. Tugs in space. Lunar salvage yards. - Just looking at a picture, painted some 170 years ago - remembering history - projecting a future. Pretty neat to be human?
A few years later, Turner painted rain so heavy that it obscured our vision - of a steam train crossing a bridge- into the beginning of abstract expressionism.These pictures can not recreate the magic of a great painting. Photographs can show our living world, but a "live" Van Gogh is magic. I think Turner is the same.
Art entertains by distracting you - from the realities outside - to let you use your imagination. Turner painting from his memory, his sketches or another artist's depiction, gave us a different way to remember.
And he had four names.
Bogus Slogan Poster #24 - Inside View
Live Rock n' Roll at its finest. Mister Smoothy and the Villains just tore up the crowd. Bogus Slogan hit the 18 foot x 6 foot stage by entering through the traditional Roc-Shak snake train. The snake train requires that at least half of crowd make room by leaving the Shak. From the parking lot, in comes the band, in comes the fans. Time to rock n' roll.
Ida's Shack-a-Delic lasted a full decade before the city government forbade gatherings greater than 15 customers. The record attendance for the Shak, was a Banters concert when an amazing 536 people truly filled (cubicly) the little building.
The Shak originally was a water turbine powerhouse that generated electricy for the local farms. Now it is a little cafe - with most of the tables outside. Directions are on the poster.
Photos: Farmhouse • Wheelock, ND
Outside of Wheelock, ND, probably west, is where this photo was taken. Shot from INSIDE an Amtrak "Empire Builder," at 60 miles an hour, this blur of an abandoned farm house might be my favorite photograph.
Grey overcast clouds, treeless prairie - travel by foot or wagon would have been long and uninteresting. Facing foward in the train, I saw this house coming, fast. A mad scramble for the camera bag, unzipping, putting the lens on the body, turning on the camera, unscrewing the circular polarizing filter and lens cap, throwing them on the seat, clicking the shutter halfway to set the focus, pressing the shutter to take the picture. One shot at f 5.6, Kodachrome 64, with an unknown shutter speed.
In a science fiction future, this land may become filled with human activity, but here it exits, with its single deserted occupant.
Bogus Slogan Poster #23 - Inside View
The Single Clerks turned into one of the great rock bands, the Fragging Dolls. When lead singer, Blandy Weathers entered rehab for the third time, Single Clerks finally broke up. Six months later, Weathers left the rehab facility and rejoined with bassist Boss Plumber to form Fragging Dolls with new guitarist, Moss. Their drum chair mimics the saga of Spinal Tap. The constant turnover is now written into their employment contracts for drummers. A fan favorite, the Fragging Dolls are constant tourers. When Neh•Na Records released the first album, "The Inner Mind Attacks" - the Frags became a legend.
Big Gun Productions, during the 70's, was THE promotion house in Orange County, California. When they tried to grow beyond CA, their affiliates mis-mangaged enough concerts that the parent company had to cease operations. This Bogus Slogan Concert in Balboa, California might have been BGP's first as promoter. The Rendezvous Ballroom was a 1930's icon and is probably gone only because it sat on land too valuable for public entertainment.
Also "Fleet Maneuvers at the Rendezvous" was one of the earliest BIG venues that Bogus Slogan played. A special double sized print (54" x 80") of the poster hangs behind the reception desk in the ZenithPointStudio lobby.
SysOps Notice 2006.04.01
Analog. Digital computers just do not know the joy of an inbetween state. Spinning the dial of my 1980's Sherwood receiver exposed a soft chaos of static soon replaced by the strong signal of a Los Angeles FM station. One fateful night, I spent 12 minutes going back and forth on the FM dial while recording the result to tape. The experience was as galvanizing as Jimi Hendrix's "same old explosion, goin’ through my mind" (Burning of the Midnight Lamp). I finally lost my nerve to continue, but the recording was a time capsule of American Culture. Of course, this artifact is lost - would you expect less. But it was so cool.
Everyday of your entire life, the media provides politicians and advertisers access to you. The politicians annoy me because they conceal their motives, but I like the commercial world. They spend money to convince me to spend money. They make goods and services and then try to convince me I need them. The less I buy the more I win. Yes, I know my conclusion is absurd.
Finally, we get to the Guitar Center. As a recording artist, GC, a Southern California music icon, has been a dream factory, where a credit card will get the next great version of a favorite musical toy. They also used to make the greatest radio commercials. Intense, end of the world. A driving music bed and a big voice narration. You had to buy, on sale for only 3 days. 50% off. And then next week there would be a new radio ad.
I loved the commercials so much that I began to record hours of FM radio to catch them. From that beginning, dubbing songs, snippets of dialogue and other commercials into a collage became a pastime. I played them while driving the highways.
I ended up with 330+ cassettes. At 102 minutes per cassette (Maxell made a cassette with 50+ minutes per side), that's over 550 hours. Who needs a life. Click on the button to download PopWorks 1a (51m). The link will be active for at least 30 days. More to come.The collage has one rule: Do not expect the sound you are hearing will continue - the collage reserves the right to change at any instant. Definitely abstract fidelity. Here is PopWorks 1b.
I never tried to make a second attempt with the Sherwood. I had no faith that I could catch that spirit again. And while the PopWorks series is edited, it was done in linear time. New elements were added to a "work tape" which, when filled, became the next collage tape.