14, 27, 28. . . . . . 19

As many of you know, I will be basically incommunicado next week. So, I've been preparing myself for the 14 hr days and the lack of a healthy eating habit by getting plenty of rest and eating better. The latter has taken me almost everyday this week to Whole Foods in Union Square. See, don't tell anybody, but I have this strange infatuation with the voice-over lady in the express line that calls the numbers. She sounds hot! Maybe early 30's, well educated, used to be a painter, but gave it up to pursue her dream of calling out random numbers so that the good people of Whole Foods can buy $11 organic grapes and 'pluot's' (50% plum, 50% apricot and 100% delicious!). I guess my new thing is dis-embodied voices, I wonder if there is a forum on the internet for people with this affliction? Maybe I should call Dr. Phil?. . . . . . . . by the way, there is also a man's voice in the non-express lanes, but ladies, he sounds pretty old and is probably a smoker. Sorry.

Miss Teen USA 2007

I'm speechless.

3 Minutes Of Fame

I believe it was Andy Warhol who said "Everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame." Well in 2008, I'm gonna eat up 3 of those minutes. Let me explain. We attended a taping of Comedy Central Presents the other night, featuring 2 comedians. For some reason, one of the producers of the show decided to place our group in the front row. Now, ordinarily this would make me a bit nervous, that is until he came over to us and said the phrase, "You guys are gonna be on camera ALOT." Then I became really nervous. Now, I'm not a big fan of being in front of the camera, I prefer the other side of the lens, and when I'm shooting it's generally not seen by 30,000,000 people. But I did live in LA for awhile, so when the camera was on I pretended like what I was watching was the funniest thing I have ever seen or heard. My jaw actually hurt from smiling so much. You can see my acting prowess as 'Miscellaneous Audience Member Pretending To Laugh' in early '08. That leaves me 12 minutes remaining. . . . . . . hmmmmmmm, I wonder what Paris and Lindsey are up to, they are always good for ideas on how to embarrass oneself publicly.

Empire State

Josef Robert Rothenberger

Lets call him JR for short! The JR I'm speaking of is the newest addition to my brother's family, all 5 lbs 4 oz of him! That makes 4 so far, c'mon Fred, 1 more and you have a starting 5 for Basketball! You might want to check with Theresa first, maybe she just wants a foursome for Golf. Anyway, Congratulations! I'm just sorry I missed it by a couple days. Hey, one more reason to visit Chicago!

My Subway Stop

If you see posts like this in the future, don't worry, I don't have the shakes from heroin detox or anything, more than likely they will be motion experiments with my new camera. They are a work in progress, but eventually I might try to incorporate this type of effect into my work. That is if I can perfect it. Right now, it's all trial and error. Please be patient.

Camera Obscura

I finally broke down and purchased a point-and-shoot camera after months of research and analysis. I am very pleased with my purchase! My very first photo with this camera of a blurred NYC skyline from my terrace is depicted above. (Now if you can care less about the technical minutia of camera specifics, just stare are the photo above for a couple seconds to make me happy then go back to your productive lives and ignore the following sentences). The camera is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2. It is 10 mega pixals, is fully manual, can shoot in RAW, shoots 16:9 ratio (see photo above) which is more panoramic than 35 mm, and is equipt with a leica lens! It has a ton of special scenic features that I'm actually finding useful and I am very pleased so far with the quality of the image it produces. You will see alot more documentation of NYC in the coming months. Hey, It only took me 4 years.