Filed under: Photography, film by ramune

The xx – Intro

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I’ve been watching the winter Olympics quite a bit this year and was reminded of how much I like this track by The xx. You may have heard it in this commercial. I find it amusing that they advertise (what I consider to be) horrible music in the “official” Olympic soundtrack and follow that up with Olympic commercials that actually have good tunes. Strange. Speaking of the Olympics . . . I wonder if it’s too late for me to become an Olympic ski jumper (regular or aerial) . . .

Onto the photos . . . I went to B&H the other weekend while in NYC and picked up a few goodies. That store is like a candy shop for photographers (the sales guy even offered me candy and threw a bunch extra in with my purchase). If you are into photography and have not been, I recommend going the next time you are in NYC. Even if you’re not into photography, it’s fun to see their Willy Wonka-like theft-proof system in action.

While at B&H I picked up a good quality tripod (that I hope will last me a lifetime or more) and a Holga. I’ve wanted to shoot medium (square) format film for a while now and since a Hasselblad is a bit out of my price range right now and I love the photos I’ve seen taken with Holgas, I was pretty excited to buy one and test it out in NYC. Here are three photos from my first roll. I was playing around with multiple exposures and the colored flash. I look forward to playing around with this camera some more in both color and black and white film.

Filed under: Events, Exhibit, Photography by ramune

As I mentioned before, my photo has been selected to be in this year’s DCist Exposed photography show. The opening is Saturday, March 6th, from 6pm-10pm, and it looks like it will be a good time. I designed an e-flier of sorts from my photo (above) and pasted the press release below. I will be at the opening and hope to see you there. If you can’t make it opening night but would like to see the show, it will be up for two weeks until March 21st.

Washington, DC — DCist.com is pleased to announce its fourth annual DCist Exposed Photography Show, at Long View Gallery, running March 6 to 21, 2010. Out of over 1,000 individual entries submitted through Flickr.com, 47 winning images were selected by a panel of judges to be included in this year’s DCist Exposed exhibit. DCist.com prides itself on engaging and promoting emerging local photographers through its daily use of images from the popular, reader-generated DCist Flickr photo pool.  Each day, DCist.com selects photos from the pool for use in its daily coverage of local news, arts and entertainment, food and sports.

This year’s opening reception will be bigger and better than ever, to be held Saturday, March 6, 2010 from 6 to 10 p.m. At the bar, mixologist Scott Palmer from Dino will have a special punch, Leopold Brothers will host a liquor tasting, and Pabst Blue Ribbon will hold down the fort with plenty of beer.  Nage will provide hor’dourves, while DJs v:shal kanwar and Sequoia spin tunes.  Reception is $5 per guest at the door.

Long View Gallery is located at 1234 9th St. NW, just a few blocks from the Mt. Vernon/Convention Center Metro. The 2009 DCist Exposed event welcomed over 1,000 people on opening night, and with this even larger venue, we expect our biggest crowd ever. All photographs selected and displayed at DCist Exposed will be for sale at prices well below traditional gallery shows. Regular gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 12 to 5 p.m.

DCist is also bringing back the popular special event for emerging collectors, Emerge Exposed, on Tuesday, March 16 from 7 to 9 p.m. Co-hosted by DCist and the Pink Line Project, a panel of experts — George Hemphill, Leena Jayaswal, and Max Hirshfeld — along with moderator Philippa Hughes, will share tips and ideas on how to begin collecting art. The Emerge Exposed event is $8 in advance, $10 at the door.  RSVP to rsvp@pinklineproject.com.

The 2010 DCist Exposed Photography Show is sponsored by Ten Miles Square, Pink Line Project, and Pabst Blue Ribbon.  The attached logo was designed by Lynne Venart with photography by Angela Kleis.  Images from the show provided upon request.

Filed under: Doodle by ramune

Lykke Li – Let It Fall

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It’s a bird.

The other day (while waiting for some friends at a bar) I had the urge to draw something. I asked the bartender for a pen and this bird showed up. He appears to be falling. The other side of the napkin has a big-toothed fish on it, but I doubt you will see him. Enjoy.

Filed under: Postcards by ramune

Phantogram – Let Me Go

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This past Monday I saw Phantogram at DC9 and quite enjoyed it. The more I go there, the more I like DC9 as a venue and bar . . . it’s kind of like having a band play in your (large) living room (if it had a bar, booths instead of couches and a good sound system). It was probably the most packed show I’ve ever been to at DC9 and it was well worth it.

This week’s postcard is a little different from the other ones. I have always wanted to get into paper cutting (like I need more hobbies and interests) and felt the urge to try some simple cutting for this postcard. It’s a bit hard to tell from the photo, but there are two sheets of cardstock (dark beige and red). I cut into the beige one and glued it to the red one (hence the curling in the second photo). I am sure it’s some combination of the fact that I was cutting into cardstock and that my x-acto blade isn’t the sharpest, but I am not super excited about the results. I want my cut lines to be as clean as my drawn lines, so it might just take some practice and better materials. Last night I almost threw out the card, but slept on it and then tried to salvage it . . . so here it is . . . postcard 6.

If you would like a one of a kind hand-doodled postcard, email me here with your mailing address. I will only use your address once to mail the postcard and then I will delete it from memory.

Filed under: Photography, Travel by ramune

Tipper – California Rolls

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A couple weeks back I went to San Francisco to visit friends for a week and to celebrate my birthday. During my trip I drove down to Santa Cruz and Monterey with a friend. I had a fantastic time and hope to go back again soon (looking for work if anyone out there would like to hire me). These photos are from the Santa Cruz portion of my trip. I am absolutely in love with the cyprus trees along the coast (as you can see in the photo at the bottom taken by my friend) and would take one home if I could.

Photo by Alex P.

Filed under: Postcards by ramune

Moloko – Over My Head

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With all of this snow lately, it seems to be all that’s on my mind. If you are not a lover of snow, have no fear, my California photos will be up in the next week or so. I took a little break from working on them to get the snow photos out of the way while the topic was still fresh. I wanted to build an igloo, but after all of the shoveling and wandering around taking photos (and then trying to get back to normal everyday things), I have not gotten around to it. Instead, I decided to draw one. In hindsight I wish I hadn’t put that “snow drift” next to the igloo.

If you would like an original hand-doodled postcard, email me here with your mailing address. I will only use your address once to mail the postcard and then I will delete it from memory.

Filed under: Photography, snow by ramune

Massive Attack – Psyche (Featuring Martina Topley-Bird)

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Lately I have been in a bit of a music funk, so I was pretty excited to hear the new Massive Attack album that came out this week. I had a hard time picking one song (since I like all of them), but I am especially hooked on Martina Topley-Bird’s voice in this tune.

In other news, we’ve had even more snow over the past two days and broke records! I love it! During the blizzard yesterday one of my neighbors came around to tell everyone he was bringing his grill into the parking area to grill burgers and brats. A bunch of us gathered to eat in the cold and shovel out cars. It was good motivation and the shoveling went quickly (it helps when one of your neighbors borrows a snowblower from work).

Here are more photos from this past weekend when we got 32 inches. Please excuse the ziplock bag that slipped into the photo below. Although you can’t really see it in the photos, it was snowing quite a bit, so I put my camera in a large ziplock bag to protect it from the elements. Enjoy!

Filed under: Photography, snow by ramune

Arovane – Windy Wish Trees

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If you live around DC you may have noticed that we’ve been getting a ridiculous amount of snow lately (terms include Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse, SnOMG, Snogasm and more . . . I prefer to just call it snow or a winter walloping). In my neck of the woods we got some 32″ in two days. It was fantastic! If I had not used up all my energy shoveling like mad and wandering around taking photos I probably would have dug tunnels, built an igloo or built the largest snowman I could build with my own strength (which after all that shoveling would probably be pretty tiny). Some people complain about the snow, but I love it . . . even if the plows are a little slow at making the rounds or doing a quality job. Snow makes winter worthwhile. I am not as much a fan of cold unless there is snow to back it up.

Although it’s been wonderful and beautiful, many trees have either lost branches or completely fallen down all around town. I am glad I moved my car because the spot I usually park in was the dumping ground for one hovering pine tree.

Here are some photos from this past weekend’s broken and fallen trees. Strangely many branches and trees fell between cars and not directly on them (although there were a couple of those too). More snow photos to come . . .

Filed under: Holiday, Photography, Silliness, nutella, taste by ramune

Tom Waits – Chocolate Jesus

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It’s that time of year again . . . it’s World Nutella Day! It’s been snowing here most of the day, but I was determined to hunt down the illusive Nutella jar and get its photo (then eat its contents). I found this one attempting to hide in a tree. Busted. Here is last year’s Nutella Day post.

Ms Adventures in Italy
Bleeding Espresso

Filed under: Postcards by ramune

Duran Duran – Planet Earth

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Please excuse my absence from this past week (or so). I was in California visiting friends, driving along route 1, celebrating my birthday and doing other fun vacation things. They say it’s winter over there but I say it’s spring. The weather was perfect . . . 50s-low 60s, gorgeous (almost stormy) clouds in a blue sky. On my six hour flight across the country I took some time to draw postcard #4. I had a window seat and used my ever changing view as inspiration for the card.

On the flight I decided to treat myself to one of the following:

• Absinthe for $8
• wifi for $12.99
• movie for $8

Absinthe was the clear winner and was well worth it. $8 is steep for a movie I don’t care about on the small screen and I can live without being connected to the world for 6 hours (I later found out it was free for the month of January). The absinthe even came in a pretty glass bottle (photos below).

I am hoping to bombard you with posts in the next couple days because 1. I am behind on a few and 2. I probably won’t be going anywhere since according to the weather gods we are supposed to get 20″-30″ of snow (this number keeps going up, so by tomorrow it might be 20′-30′ . . . wouldn’t that be swell).

P.S. I think it’s safe to say postcard #2 went missing. I am sad about this. No more round postcards.

If you would like an original hand-doodled postcard, email me here with your mailing address. I will only use your address once to mail the postcard and then I will delete it from memory.