Helluvablog

What the hell is this poem? I remember reading it in a book years ago and it just stuck in my head. Don’t remember what the book was and I only remember a bit of the poem but it is driving me mad…

Scratched by a fall, with moans

As children of weak age

Lend life to dumb stones

Whereupon to vent their rage.

And bend their little fists,

And rate the senseless ground.

Any ideas anyone? There’s a Mars Bar in it for you :0)

Ninjai is the story of a young but incredibly powerful samurai. Animated with Flash it is an amazing piece of work, bloody and in parts profane it is definitely worth a look. Warning: You will need a big fat pipe to download the movies – there are nine so far and they run up to about 8-9MB a piece.

Autopsy Report is the weblog of an american Medical Examiner’s Intern. It’s basically all the stuff you get in CSI but for real. Although gruesome in parts it is also absolutely fascinating.

Go there, but leave it for a while before you eat. You’ll never stick your finger in cake mix ever again.

You may or may not have noticed me constantly plugging SXC on this site. It is a photographic site and community that I’ve been obsessed with since the moment I first found it. See that link over there on the right? The one that says Maffu’s Photos? Well, that takes you to my photos on SXC. See all those Image of the Day sections? The majority of them so far (with the exception of Asya Scheeen) have been from SXC.

Anyway, as of yesterday (Sunday) I’ve been given moderator status at SXC. What this means is that I get to be part of the photo approval/rejection process. It is something that I’d hoped for in a way for a while. So on Sunday I spent my first day in the system sorting through the backlog of uploads that have built up during site maintenance over the last couple of weeks. It was at this point that the reality of what I was undertaking hit me.

In the many months since I first started visiting the site, uploading and joining in the forums there I have made a good number of friends to various degrees – it’s the way of things really when you have a common passion it makes it easier to get to know someone even if you’re on the other side of the world. Now, all of a sudden I’m having to judge their work. In some cases I’m having to reject the work of photographers whose work I have admired and even aspired to in the past.

The thing is that it is a stock-photography site. What makes a good stock image isn’t necessarily what makes a good photograph. Technical prowess is important for both stock and artistic photography, but beyond there the two take quite separate roads. In a photography competition a close-up shot of a key against a plain white background isn’t really going to turn heads. On a stock site it will be a great asset. Stock images that are acceptable, whilst falling within certain guidelines, also need to be judged on ‘useability’. That indecipherable mess of squiggles that you finally figured out is a shot taken of a light bulb whilst pissed may be useless in the village photo competition, but I can guarantee you that there are hoards of dribbling designers who’ll bite your arm off for it if you put it on a stock site.

So you have the dilemma of seeing a photo by an artist you admire, that is artistically exciting/interesting/outrageous but will be practically useless for stock purposes.

And you just have to reject it. You don’t get to say why, other than selecting from a choice of about fifteen possible reasons in a drop-down box. You don’t get to encourage that person or say that you personally loved the image. You just have to reject it. The quality of photos uploaded on SXC is soaring higher and higher all the time and the only way to keep that up is to be strict about the approval rules.

I wonder how long my friends will remain friends.

All of a sudden I find Kate Bush playing on media player. I’ve been feeling a bit down this weekend and try as I might I’ve found it quite difficult to be amongst the people I’m usually with. It’s nothing major and I can spot the cause of it easily enough – with the exception of last Monday I’ve been out on the razz every night for the last two weeks. My energy reserves are just about fucked.

I’m trying to live the same sort of lifestyle I led all through my twenties and, while it is possible to visit the past, you can’t stay there for long. I’m a thirtysomething old geezer and my body just can’t take the beating that I used to give it when I was younger and fitter. Not for long at least. So I’ve found myself out with Rachel or Kev or whoever, surrounded by people having fun – the fun that I’m usually a part of – while I just sit think about how good my bed will feel when I get into it.

Need to stay in a couple of nights and sleep.

Went to see John Hammond at the Robin 2 last night. The guy is just stunning. Went with Rachel, who’d never seen him before and had only heard a couple of songs and Kev who had never heard of him. I bought Kev a ticket for his birthday.

Both of them were blown away, so two new converts.

I’ve just never seen anyone wring so much out of an acoustic guitar – his playing just defies belief. Add to that a huge, warm voice capable of everything from a high, high wail to a liver-trembling bass rumble and a repertoire of songs perfected over the last forty-plus years of touring. Just him on a stool for two hours, no crazy light show, bashing a rhythm out with his foot on the bare boards of the stage, a harmonica in a cradle on his neck, swapping between a standard acoustic guitar and a National Steel guitar, tuning on the fly and throwing out the most heartfelt, authentic blues you’ll ever hear played live. There is nobody else alive playing with this passion and talent. Forget the plodding formulaic (and often dull) acoustic blues played all over the world by this-guy and that-guy. Every song in the set was jaw-in-your-lap stunning, from the frantic, guitar-body slapping screamers to the low, slow blues ballads.

No really – he is that good.

Look:

Here is a list of tour dates.

Do yourself a favour: If any of these venues is anywhere remotely near you go and see the guy play. If you aren’t impressed I’ll give you your money back… (maybe).

As an aside, if you ever go to the Robin 2 wear some old shoes – the floor will suck the soles off of em so you might as well ruin an old pair rather than new ones. Also, take your own glass. I thought the practice of giving plastic glasses had stopped years ago. It certainly has in Birmingham. Maybe it’s because the Robin is in Hicksville. There’s something really demeaning about being served beer in a fucking plastic beaker.

“Excuse me, I haven’t comes to physical blows with anyone since… well, since before you were actually born by the looks of things. All of my motor skills are at peak efficiency and holding onto a glass without dropping it is way, way within my capabilities. I am neither a knuckle-dragging neanderthal nor educationally subnormal and I have actually paid all this money to see a performance by an artist whom I admire rather than to fight people and hurl stuff at the stage. I am well aware of the consequences of such actions and have avoided them since my early teens, and it is very unlikely that I will slip and drop one of your glasses because your floor is so sticky that you need Acme Triple Strength Fortified Leg Muscle Vitamins just to lift your fucking feet off the fucking floor because you haven’t shoved a mop round here in the last twenty years, I am quite obviously over eighteen what with this being a pub and all, in fact I’m quite obviously over thirty and more than capable of holding ceramics without causing myself or others injury – even one-handed – and besides anything else it warms the drink and makes my fucking beer taste fucking HORRIBLE!!”

*pant* *pant*

Three from the awesome Asya Schween today. She’s so cool.

The first one is Aiaiai. Great use of light.

The second is She’s Breathing. Again great lighting and just a beautiful image.

The third is just about my favourite of all her images, BDSM. Just look at the texture in that image, the amount of photoshop work done on this is phenomenal yet it doesn’t for a second detract from the image itself. Wow.

Speak not, lie hidden, and conceal

the way you dream, the things you feel.

Deep in your spirit let them rise

akin to stars in crystal skies

that set before the night is blurred:

delight in them and speak no word.

How can a heart expression find?

How should another know your mind?

Will he discern what quickens you?

A thought once uttered is untrue.

Dimmed is the fountainhead when stirred:

drink at the source and speak no word.

Live in your inner self alone

within your soul a world has grown,

the magic of veiled thoughts that might

be blinded by the outer light,

drowned in the noise of day, unheard…

take in their song and speak no word.

I had exactly no entries for the October competition. Which means that I get to fritter away the prize money on beer and chewy cola-bottles. Mwahahahahaha.