A friend of mine sent me a very interesting email. I wish I had known about this when I was in Japan just a few months ago. Evidently March 15 was Penis Day in Japan. Well, the actual festival is called Honen Matsuri (豊年祭り). This celebration takes place in Komaki (near Nagoya, Japan) every March 15th, and that’s when people haul out a ginormous wooden penis to snake through the town for good harvest and having healthy babies. (read more)
.
Here are detailed info on Aperture (F-stop) and Shutter Speed. Print them up, look at them, read them, glance at them, keep them by your side at all times, play games with them, take shower with them, workout with them, sleep with them and memorize them. Send me your email address in the comment box below, and I will send you printable PDF files.
1A) F-stop (Aperture), and Shutter Speed
1B) F-stop (Aperture) and Shutter Speed worksheet
I will go over them at next meeting and every future meetings. It will take you some time to feel comfortable with them, but these things need to become 2nd nature to you like your mom’s birthday.
HELP: Does anyone know how to attach PDF files and make that downloadable directly from this site? (The ones you see above are not PDF files.)
Posted in Photography, Santa Barbara International Photography Group
Tagged Meetup, Photography
Santa Barbara International Photography Group: I must say it was a successful first meeting this afternoon. We have 8 members as of now, and today we had 3 people showed up for our first meeting (… 4 including me). We talked about what this group is all about, cameras, aperture, shutter speed, night photography, fireworks photography. We also talked about what each one of us expect from this meeting. I will have another specifically designed small meetup for 4th of July fireworks photography during the week (before 4th of July, of course!). And some of us are making a little field trip to Santa Barbara Beach Front (TBD) on Saturday night (7/4).
Posted in Photography, Santa Barbara International Photography Group
Tagged Meetup, Photography
Here are some of my favorite images from Sherry & Chuck’s Wedding yesterday afternoon at Moody Estate. (More images will be available for viewing and purchase soon).
Here’s update, more photos for you, click here.
.
Thriller
Billie Jean
Probably no celebrity has been as revered and reviled over the past 40 years as Jackson, 50, who died Thursday in Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press. The troubled, reclusive star was rushed to UCLA Medical Center by paramedics responding to a call from his home at about 12:30 p.m.
The cause of Jackson’s death was not immediately announced, nor were circumstances surrounding it. Jackson was not breathing when Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics got to his Los Angeles home, Capt. Steve Ruda told the Los Angeles Times. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda told the newspaper.
Jackson had been scheduled next month to begin the first of 50 sold-out concerts at London’s O2 Arena, a testament to his enduring popularity with fans around the world, a love affair that reached a peak on that March evening 26 years ago.
The occasion was the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today and Forever television special that celebrated a milestone for the legendary label, but it was also a seminal moment for the King of Pop. A then-record 47 million people watched in awe as Jackson unveiled the moonwalk with an electrifying performance. Other Motown greats performed that night and Jackson himself had reunited with brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Randy for a walk down memory lane with the Jackson 5.
But in that moment, Jackson stood alone in the spotlight, a singular figure riding a wave of popularity rarely seen anywhere. His groundbreaking Thriller— still the biggest selling album of all time — was dominating the charts and Jackson was in the process of reshaping the musical landscape with his videos and celebrity. There were still millions of records to be sold, acclaimed videos to be filmed and record-shattering concert tours to undertaken.
It was also before years of tabloid exposes, bizarre behavior, artistic flops, financial crises, health issues and child sex abuse scandals tarnished his image. His run of triumphs in the 1980s, in addition to Thriller, included the blockbuster albums Off the Wall and Bad.
Since he first arrived on the scene in 1969 as the cherubic 11-year-old phenom singing I Want You Backwith the teen heartthrob J5, Jackson has been at the forefront of pop culture.
The brothers were the eldest sons in a family of nine children born in Gary, Indiana, to steelworker Joe Jackson and his wife, Katherine. The father recognized his sons’ talent and molded them into a singing group, one that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
But it was Michael who transformed pop music as a solo act, becoming the first African-American singer to gain mass crossover appeal. The premiere of videos for songs likeBeat It, Billie Jean, Thriller, Bad andSmooth Criminalwere major events and he helped popularize the then-fledgling MTV. It, in turn, brought him into millions of homes daily.
Thriller won a record eight Grammy Awards in 1984. Virtually every song became a hit single and it changed the industry’s thinking about how albums were put together and marketed. It also opened the door for artists to have more creative freedom and higher royalty returns. At the same time, he inspired legions of imitators and a line of dolls and accessories.
He spent his life under the glare of paparazzi flashbulbs, but in recent years, he has more often been the subject of negative news about his eccentricities and personal life. Jackson’s seemingly charmed life started to change when a pyrotechnics accident during the filming of a Pepsi ad set his hair afire and burned his scalp. He got outpouring of sympathy after that and won a $1.5 million settlement from Pepsi, which he donated to charity.
But his health also became a public fascination, especially as he began to change his appearance through plastic surgery. He had several nose jobs, his lips thinned, and chin clef put in, among other alterations. Meanwhile, Jackson’s brown skin grew progressively lighter, rumored to be the result of skin bleaching, but later diagnosed as vitiligo. The skin disorder causes a loss of pigment.
Jackson himself fueled gossip column by leaking false stories that he slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, reportedly to slow the aging process, or next to the bones of Joseph Merrick, the 19th century Englishman known as “The Elephant Man” because of his congenital deformities.
He addressed many of these issues in his 1988 autobiography, Moonwalk, in which he also revealed that he had been physically abused as a child. That same year, he built his $17 million Neverland Ranch near Santa Ynez, Calif., replete with an amusement park and exotic animals.
And while none of his post-Thriller albums matched its success, 1987’s Bad, 1991’s Dangerous and 1995’s HIStory were still commercial successes. Jackson reminded the world again of his power as a artist with an exhilarating halftime performance at 1993’s Super Bowl XXVII before a U.S. TV audience of more than 135 million.
But despite such triumphs, curiosity and controversy were his constant companions. Not long after the Super Bowl, he talked abot his troubled childhood, his vitiligo and other tabloid issues in a wrenching 90-minute televised interview with Oprah Winfrey. Later that year, he was accused of sexual abuse by a 13-year-old boy. The stress of that situation led Jackson to become addicted to various painkillers and rather than stand trial, he ultimately settled with the boy’s family for $22 million.
His reputation never fully recovered, even when he married singer Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley, later that year. They kept their Dominican Republic ceremony secret for nearly two months, and had an amicable parting two years later.
Jackson’s 82-concert HIStory World Tour in 1996 was seen by 4.5 million fans. It was his biggest ever, and also his last. It was also during the tour that he married Deborah Rowe, a dermatologist nurse with whom he had two children — Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. in 1997, and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson in 1998. They divorced in 1999, with Rowe giving Jackson full custody rights.
Again, this parting proved amicable, but his split with Sony Records— his label since Off The Wall— was anything but. Just before the release of 2001’s Invincible, he accused Sony chief Tommy Mottola of being a racist. It was another commercial success, though short of Jackson’s standards.
In 2002, Jackson had a third child, Prince Michael Jackson II, who he claims was conceived via the artificial insemination of an unidentified surrogate mother. The tabloids scandalized him again after he dangled the baby over a hotel room balcony for photographers.
The following year, he was charged with nine felonies relating to the molestation of a 14-year-old. The charges came after a documentary, Living with Michael Jackson, showed him holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with the boy. Jackson was acquitted of all charges at a highly publicized trial five months later and he left the United States to live in Bahrain as a guest of Sheikh Abdullah, a member of the royal family who had paid Jackson’s legal fees. Jackson constantly struggled with his finances after the 2003 trial, with news reports describing the 2009/2010 London concerts as a fight to erase his crushing debts.
Relations with Abdullah soured recently, with Jackson reaching a settlement in November in the sheikh’s $7 million breach-of-contract suit. He had accused Jackson of reneging on a deal to produce an album, an autobiography and a musical for his 2 Seas Records company. Jackson, who earlier in the year was photographed at a Bahrain shopping mall disguised an Arab woman, moved back to California, living in a rented home near the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills.
In November, Jackson gave up the title to his 2,500-acre Neverland ranch, transferring the deed to a company he partly controls. Jackson had gone into default on the $24.5 million he owes on the property and had faced foreclosure before the real estate investment company Colony Capital bailed him out earlier this year by purchasing his loan.
Jackson’s most recent controversy found a spokesperson refuting British tabloid reports that Jackson, who has been seen in a wheelchair and frequently wears a surgical mask on his face, was in dire health suffering from Alpha 1-antitryspsin deficiency, a rare lung disease. The rumors stemmed from an interview given by Ian Halperin, author of an upcoming unauthorized Jackson autobiography.
But despite all of his peccadilloes, Jackson remains a revered figure to those in the record industry. A broad range of pop artists, such as Jay-Z, Kanye West, Akon, Britney Spears, Usher, Justin Timberlake, R.Kelly, Chris Brown, baby sister Janet, and dozens of others cite his influence on their music and even their desire to be entertainers.
Will.i.am, who this year produced three remixes on the celebratory reissue Thriller 25, explained: “It was the first time a black dude was on MTV. It was the first time you saw things that were happening in the ghettos and kids in the suburbs were copying it. It was like Broadway fused with street performance and his wardrobe was fly. He made it possible to be yourself and be free and just do you.”
Jackson is a two-time inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Jackson 5 and solo), a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, a 13-time Grammy winner, and has 13 solo No. 1 hits and another four with the Jackson 5. Thriller alone sold more than 27 million copies in the USA.
Whether he was wowing fans as a singing/dancing machine, turning heads with his outlandish wardrobes, or alternately amusing or horrifying everyone with his kooky behavior, Jackson could never, would never be ignored.
The King of Pop was always center stage. And the world was always watching.
.
Posted in Art, ちょっと聞いてください, Dance, Life, Movies
Tagged King of Pop, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson Dies, MJ
I had an opportunity to be in a live recording of a local cable TV show (Channel 17) this evening. The show is called “Arte, Musica Y Comunidad”, and yes, it’s in Spanish and talks about art and music in our community. It will be aired tomorrow evening 8:30PM, and again next Monday morning 9:00AM. You can find out little bit of our community in 30 minutes. The church lady would be saying “Well, isn’t that special?”. Evidently I can have my own show if I come up with some sort of interesting products. Anyone wanna pitch in some ideas?
< SB Channel 17, Thursday 6/25@8:30PM, Monday 6/29@9:00AM >
TV Station/Production Facility
Producer/Director: Rene Correa
Musical Talent: Peter - The Host: Francisco
The Control Room
Special appearance by Kenij
"Audio ready, Camera ready,...3, 2, 1 Action"
Dealing with a minor glitch
¡¡ Parangali Cutri Micuaro !!
Happy Production Crew (minus Station Crew)
< SB Channel 17, Thursday 6/25@8:30PM, Monday 6/29@9:00AM >
.
I’m not completely back yet but back enough to face the world. I met a cool artist today at FedEx Kinko who does even cooler illustrations for cards and T-shirts. David Carroll is a self-taught artist and lives here locally. He is in the process of starting his own multi-media company called “BENT®”. If you want to contact him for commission work: stained57@hotmail.com (562)-552-7751 (LA) Here are some samples of his work.
bruce & the pony
clarence trims his dick broom
zieg heil
Da Artist: David Carroll
.
Some of you may know today is my 23rd anniversary, and I make photos of myself today and every June 13th. My previous June 13th have always been good, but this year my neck is giving me a problem. It’s bad enough that I’ve been at home for last two weeks, but it’s not too bad to be hospitalized… I guess. Could this be because today is Saturday 13th? Because 23 years ago today, it was Friday and I got run over by a car in a parking lot (pictured). My very good friend of mine Gigi took these photos below. (Well, obviously the color photo was done by me/self-timer 23 years ago)
Gigi and I
.
The spot: I was lying down on my left side and a car had stopped and sitting on top of me. The hot steel something was running across my body, pressed against my chest down and around to my lower back. The weight of the car crushing me or the burn from the hot metal is hard to explain by words, besides I can’t remember how painful or how hot it was anymore. I sometime wonder if it’s a good thing I forget that. Is it?
.
I run into this photograph the other day. This image was shot 23 years ago today, and it was Friday the 13th. My buddies and I were at the East Beach approximately 30 minutes prior to my fateful event.
.
.
I’m sad that I am not feeling good at the moment. I’ve been on Ibuprofen, Valium, Vicodin and Weed almost for a week for my neck. I was worried that I might get addicted to Vicodin, but now I am seriously hooked to my cervical collar more than anything. I’ve been wearing it everyday and I fear that I might never be able to let it go. Stayed away from my work for a whole week and tried to be still by being in bed, but to be horizontal wasn’t easy task either. Lack of sleep, I feel very irritated, and now I’m sad. I’m going to pray to god, buddha and many other gods out there to give me my healthy neck back.
Last night I found out that there is an alternative way to get better besides an operation that my doctor had suggested: Steroid Injection. I will find out more about it soon.
Monday June 8th, 2009
.
Moshi Moshi Kenji 