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Posted by Marlene at 6:07 PM 0 Comments

Hey mama, don't you treat me wrong/Come and love your daddy all night long...

As Cory and I unpacked our things in the upstairs room in my parents' house in Charlotte, my knee bumped into the edge of the amplifier.



We've been blessed with some semblance of musical genius. My father, brother and I can all pick up an instrument, and after tinkering around for a few minutes, can play a few things by ear. My dad can also sing really well. Me, not so much.

My dad bought some guitars a lonnnnng time ago, and he and my brother would play 'What'd I Say' by Ray Charles for hours, with the amp up at its highest limit in the basement.



I remember being 7 or 8 and feeling the hum of the bass line resonate within the thin walls of our house in Colorado, and I'd come downstairs, and watch them.

They would sit facing each other with the amplifier between them. My dad's leg would thump out the rhythm and he and my brother would compete, to see how long they could keep up ad-libbing with the guitar, making it wail out what Ray had put to wax so many moons ago. Sometimes my dad would would belt out his own invented lyrics, perhaps conjuring some memory from his days as a youth.

See the girl with the red dress on
She can do the Birdland all night long
Yeah yeah, what'd I say, all right

I was the girl, unable to penetrate this bond of boys, but to feel as though I belonged, I would drop the latest Babysitter's Club book on the floor, push my glasses up on my nose, sit down cross-legged behind the amp, and place my hands and face near the hollow of the rear of the amplifier, to feel the cold air of sound and rhythm tickle my fingers and puff my hair out as if I were walking briskly in some faint breeze. I'd soon become bored, and retreat upstairs to the kitchen, to meet my mother pursing her lips and groaning over the steam of rice cooking away in its red pot, after hearing them play from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., worrying that they'd disturb the neighbors. But I think, deep down inside, she was happy that some family bonding was taking place.

Every time we packed up and moved, the basement would be their refuge, their place to get away from 'The Women;' my sister, my mother, and I.



These days, the guitars sit against the wall, untouched, gathering dust. In terms of bonding, a pool table has replaced the music sessions, whenever my father comes up from Charlotte to see all of us. We now hear the clack of pool balls and hollering, instead of an old dusty amp resurrecting Ray.

Hey, don't quit now! (c'mon honey)
Naw, I got, I uh-uh-uh, I'm changing (stop! stop! we'll do it again)
Wait a minute, wait a minute, oh hold it! Hold it! Hold it!

Posted by Marlene at 11:58 AM 1 Comments

Charlotte/Atlanta trip!

We went this weekend to SCAD-Atlanta, to check out the digs. My niece might be interested in attending for interior design and I wanted to check out the area [and the photo dept] just in case we relocate (not set in stone yet...just in pencil :)

We traveled to Charlotte first, and left to ATL first thing in the morning, like around 5:45. I stayed up long enough during the ride to get photos of the moon:



and the sunrise. As can you see, I had to improvise. Filters have more than one use :)



Um, then I fell out [like for real, my niece says I was knocked out w/my mouth wiiiiide open LOL).

We got to SCAD, ate some cookies, drank some lemonade, got a tour of the campus:



(Yes, those stairs are THAT AWESOME. Not an optical illusion.)



These are the windows of one of the SCAD dormitories. I felt like IKEA was in their brains when they designed this campus.

(AND I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH IKEA I LOVE IT SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSO MUCH. I wanted to put everything in my pocket or pack it up in the car and put it in my house.)

My niece banished me to the parent's waiting area so she could go talk to the interior design professors/students herself, b/c I'd 'make her nervous' (her words not mine). I solemnly walked back to the Hub, SCAD's super awesome cafeteria, and stumbled upon this:



Pops. He discovered one of the pool tables in the cafeteria and got into a very heavy game a SCAD student. He proceeded to whoop on poor SCAD student. I swear we can't take him anywhere.

[I'm kidding. I love my Dad!]

While waiting for him to finish up his game of pool, I snapped this:



And ate a cookie probably. My niece finally came back and we headed out to check out the neighborhood.

These were snapped in the Bankhead area of ATL.







We'll probably be back sometime this summer and I'm sure I'll have about 2238940238408 photos. Lemme just add that at SCAD, literally every piece of student work hanging on the walls and on display in the halls...took my breath away. paintings, photographs, concept designs, mixed media, etc. It was soooo inspiring.

I snapped these this morning before we hit the road:



All of those decorations you see have been in our family foreeeeever LOL. I always take photos of them. Nostalgia? Missing my parents? Yeah, all of that and then some :(

I also did most of my assignments for my large format class over again (more on that in a future blog, hopefully this week!), and also took my digital.



Let me just say I will never be a nature photographer. I'm too loud. I was chasing a little finch from branch to branch for like 20 minutes and then gave up and worked on more stationary subjects:



My parents' house is across the street from a huuuuuuge farm. With horses!



While I had my back turned Finch-Chasing, guess who crept up on me:



I took other shots but lately I've been on a parts-of-the-whole kick w/my work, so I took more to this photo than the others :)

This weekend was great. I got to hang out w/my family, see a new place that might be a future home for us, and got to use my parents as my large format guinea pigs :)

I wish Charlotte wasn't so far. Yes. Separation anxiety at its finest. :( I know. I'm a sap.

:)

Posted by Marlene at 10:04 PM 1 Comments

Out of many, we are one.

I voted in the primaries today.





For many of us, it was a moment in history.





For many of us, it was a first time ever being able to have a voice in this country. Not just a whisper, but a deafening shout.



For many of us, this year will mark the first time we turned our televisions permanently to CNN and watched into the wee hours of the morning, the first time we logged onto candidates' websites and really read what their stance on issues are, the first time we actually FELT the stirring of possibility, of CHANGE, move in our hearts and minds.

For me, it was all of those things, some experienced first hand, some experienced vicariously.

For all of us, this year marks an awakening.

Posted by Marlene at 8:49 PM 2 Comments

Shameless Plug: Cartoonists of Color Protest the Lack Thereof in the Funny Pages

Hubby was featured in a Washington Post article the other day, and you can read it by clicking here

Here's his strip for today:



To see other cartoonists' work for Sunday's paper, click here


He was featured on CBS Evening News, and for those of you who might have missed it, click here.

If you'd like to read Cory's strip daily, you can subscribe to it here.


Annnd if you don't see Cory's strip gracing the pages of your local newspaper, write your editors! You have a voice.

Or, if you're eco-friendly :) and want Watch Your Head delivered to your email inbox daily, subscribe by clicking here.

Posted by Marlene at 12:37 PM 2 Comments

...er, 33/366?

today there was a beaaauuuuutiful sunset. I shot it through the window screen as it was setting:




annnnnnnnnd.....*drumroll* this is Behemoth, my large format camera:



to be fair, I have shot a few photos with Behemoth, I just haven't developed the film yet because I have to find a light-tight box to store the exposed shots I got. sooooon though.

ooh, and I'm getting a newwwww (well, old, really, but new to me!) twin lens reflex, a Yashica 44 LM. It uses this really hard to find film, but I'm uber-excited about it, and I'll be even more excited when it arrives (ebay, y'all). I'm really interested in familiarizing myself with as many formats as possible in photography, and shy away from digital for the times when immediate delivery isn't a priority.

:-D

Posted by Marlene at 8:15 PM 1 Comments

kathy + mike: I DO!

Kathy and Mike were guests at Evelyn's wedding, and they tracked me down to shoot their engagement photos!

My first couple of the year! I was so excited! But Mother Nature wasn't on our side the times we set up to meet...

We finally woke up to a sunny (but 23-degree) morning, and it happened to be Martin Luther King Day! We started off at the Lincoln Memorial and ended at the Monument (which NONE of us had ever been inside of--I've been at the steps of the Lincoln, to reflect, though. Okay, fellow Washingtonians, pelt me with your stones...).

I even coined a new term: Numb-Butt. It's what happens when you sit on cold marble. Repeatedly. :)

Here's some of my favorite shots:









Kathy + Mike have never been shot by a photographer, so I was really really really happy to be chosen to be their first!

Take a peek @ the slideshow:




Thanks for being such troopers, Kathy and Mike! I can't wait until the wedding! :-D

Posted by Marlene at 1:59 PM 2 Comments

M.I.A.

Where have I been?

a) busy

b) chillin

c) running around withOUT my camera

All of the above. It's proven to be a tougher challenge than I originally thought to take a photo each day. I'm still going to try though. I have to take my GREs which will either make or break my financial situation for a grad school I have in mind, so that's been occupying the mental shelf space that I had reserved for photographing something each day...

Anywho, I did shoot a few photos today. I visited my friend Melanie, whose maternity photos I shot some time ago. We went to visit a verrrrryyyyyyyyy talented artist by the name of Chinedu Felix Osuchukwu [check some info on him here] is using one of the photos I shot as an inspiration for a series of paintings he's working on. We got to see the work in progress today and I was blown away! I've never had an artist use something I shot as a means for their art, so it gave me the warm fuzzies something serious. I don't want to show the entire work just yet, I want him to be good and finished before it's revealed, but I did get a couple shots in his studio:

This is Langston, who was inside Melanie's belly for 9 long months :)



When we shot her maternity photos [in a sweltering AC-less room on a summer afternoon], I shined a light on Melanie's stomach to get the desired effect, and Langston responded soooo strongly! It was amazing. He's a great baby, very chill.

Felix's studio:



Melanie, being inspired by the work, and writing. She's currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Lesley University and is a phenomenal writer. She read two pieces that she wrote off being in Felix's studio:



If you stand away from the computer screen, approximately 2 feet away and hop up and down and make a noise like an ostrich, you can see a glimpse of Felix's 'BellyProject':



Hard @ work:





Felix is soooo talented! I wish I could paint 1% as good as he does!

Once he's finished with the project I'll be sure to post some pics of it.

----

So...the other day, in my quest to become a better photographer, and try out different formats before I begin my MFA, I saw an old Twin Lens Reflex sitting on a shelf at Penn. I made an offer for $20 and it was mine. I did some research [after doing an extensive cleaning; I hope I didn't inhale mold and/or powdered syphilis while scrubbing and air can puffing :( ], and learned it was made in the 1950s!

And, as my dear hubby so eloquently put it, it's a 'Bobo.' Kinda like when you're not able to buy Nikes, so you buy Bikes instead.

[Admittedly, instead of Nikes, I had L.A. Gears and Pro Wings, so I can completely relate to this]

It's called Wardflex, and was manufactured for Montgomery Ward.

I planned ahead. I found and printed out the instruction manual:



And the catalog it appeared in during the 1950s:



And even bought film.

But something wasn't right.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't rig the little switch to adjust the aperture. I was sad. I really planned on using Wardy, The Old School Camera in my mission to photograph more often. Especially now that I have darkroom time with my large format class.

I decided to return it Friday. I saw another one on Ebay and was going to make a bid today. I found one with a nice case and everything! In working condition! I was soooooo excited! And no one bid on it! Oh joy of joys. Wardy, The Old School Camera Jr. Esquire, was going to be mine and we'd build a legacy of 2 x 3 photos that would last a lifetime.

And then...I fell asleep. And missed the auction by 10 minutes.

I want to kick myself.

I'm just hoping they put it up for auction again soon.

:(

Someday, my TLR will come.

Posted by Marlene at 9:18 PM 0 Comments

13/366: Dinner for a Gloomy Day

Today was a perfect day to head to some museums. When it's cold, but not freezing, and the sun is covered by clouds, I long to be within the walls of these magical buildings that hold so many creations of people here now and wayyyy before me.

Okay...any day for me is a great museum day, but being a museum visitor doesn't exactly pay bills, sooo...

anyway, on overcast days where it seems like the sky is holding fistfuls of rain in its cloud-hands, I'm usually in the mood for chili.



It definitely hit the spot today.

Disclaimer: As you can see, I need to perfect my food photography skills :)

P.S. I can't find the lens cap to my nifty fifty lens :( anyone know where I can find a replacement?

Posted by Marlene at 11:08 PM 1 Comments

12/366: Mashed potatoes and Baby.

Yeah, number 11 is missing. :-( It was either run back in the house, grab my camera off the couch, then drive in to work and spend $14 on parking, or spend significantly less on the bus ride to the Metro (but please don't think I didn't seriously consider running back up the hill to my house :)

I did make up for it, however:



Mr. Hammy. Today he was extraordinarily ecstatic, I'm sure it was because Grandma fed him some mashed potatoes before I started shooting (which everyone knows, is possibly the best food in the whole wide world. I'm talking nirvana, even.). His top teeth are slowly growing in, and as if to confirm what I already suspected, he gave my hand a nice little nibble. You know, just to show off his new wares :)

I think the world would be a much better place if babies existed everywhere. Can you imagine? They'd just entertain everyone, doing baby things. Like, flicking the door stopper (I have yet to get a photo of this, because the minute he notices the camera he either wants to ham or try to taste my flash unit. I'm going to have to go on stealth mode and shoot from around the corner with the telephoto). The BOOOOIIINNNNG keeps him enthralled for hours.

Okay, not really hours, because he has such a short attention span, but at least a good five minutes which is like a decade in baby time.

Offices would be cheerier places, if a) babies existed in every cubicle b) they had door stoppers to play with, and c) guilt-free, non-fat mashed potatoes were served in vats. The economy would be stable. People would rediscover the value of a smile. World leaders would just hug it out, because you can't be angry at each other when you've just seen a baby BOIIIIINNNNNNG a door stopper.



Babies, world peace, and...mashed potatoes. The possibilities are endless.

Posted by Marlene at 1:13 AM 2 Comments