too fixed, or is that fixated?


you know how sometimes in trying to get something right, you make it wrong, but it's still right?

like for example, I drove across country this summer, trying to get to my new non-job so that i could write some books, perform in shows, and dash off a few meaningless articles. All of my pictures from that trip look like this. From inside my car. Cause I could not slow down, since i had shipped my stuff well ahead of my eventual departure date. By the time I left, I didn't even want to go. I didn't want to do anything but lay down and cry for a very long time. I actually only last week realized that I had not lost my will to dance, which was a relief since I'm a dancer and all.

So my five year old son took this picture. I did discover that he was a pretty good shot. All of the good photos happen after I pick him up from Mississippi, which was half way the trip. But on to today's matters.

This morning, and actually late last night, kinda like right about now, I realized that I needed to black some tapes since I was transferring images in the morning from 8mm to MiniDV. For those of you not into all things video, you black tape to make sure that the time code is as accurate as possible, and also to find out if a tape is defective. The time code accuracy is established by setting one, continuous "image" of the inside of the camera lens for the duration of the tape. That way, when you actually start laying image and sound onto the blacked (if you say 'blackened' does that mean it's spicy?") tape, should you stop and start during the recording, the time code does not falter.
OK.

SO I Blacked these MiniDV tapes, and then I panicked--what if I messed up the audio strip by recording room presence, and the sound of sausage cooking (which was this morning's urgent project) while doing a sloppy blacking (if it's on a face, then do you get smacked?)? So I made it to my appointment on campus only to discover that the media help guy was a huge Mumia Abu Jamal supporter. In fact, he was the guy who launched the attack on Michael Moore's latest book, in which Micheal says that Mumia did it. My name is Bennett...

Anyway, I told him about my tape blacking (will it need to tap too?), then he kinda chuckled and said that since it's digital, that's not really an issue--yet another moment when good black goes bad. No really, so much effort trying to make it right for no reason, cause it was never wrong, or prudent.

Later on I was forced by the smell in my house to go to the laundry mat. I had made these discrete colored-coded piles like I used to back when I had my own machines, only to realize that I didn't want to spend $30 doing laundry. Less effort, more effectiveness.

Posted: Mon - December 1, 2003 at 11:21 PM      

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