One of my goals since college has been to see Flying Lotus perform live. Last night I accomplished that mission, along with seeing performances by his friends Thundercat and Teebs at the 9:30 Club. All three were fantastic and my ears still haven’t recovered yet. Seriously, I think I need to invest in earplugs next time. You can see more photos on my Flickr account.
Last week I decided to purchase myself a Nikon D7000 to replace my D100 which has really been showing its age. To test it out, I took a trip down to Richmond to shoot some of the art left by the Richmond Street Art Festival. There were plenty of amazing graffiti murals all over the city. You can see a few of them here.
Download: ♪ CoverCast #4: 9/6
[audio: covercast4.mp3]As I mentioned on The Cover Up, my job’s been a little stressful recently. So this week I put together a mix of tracks that are good for keeping me sane during my daily 9 to 6. The impressive Astrud Gilberto edit by Shigeto comes from a free EP download available at the ISO50 blog. I’ve also used a track from Nicolay’s fantastic new album, Shibuya: City Lights Vol. 2, released this week. Now get back to work.
1. Herb Pihofer – Hail Ceasar
2. Jeff Parker – Beanstalk
3. Koushik – Coolin’ (Instrumental)
4. Jackson Conti – São Paulo Nights
5. Astrud Gilberto – Berimbau (Shigeto Edit)
6. Triorganico – Correndo
7. Nicolay – Omotesando
8. 9dw – Thinking Makes A Mistake
9. Savath & Savalas – Pavo Real
10. Quantic & His Combo Barbaro – Undelivered Letter
11. Quarteto Novo – Síntese
12. Cut Chemist – Spoon
13. Samon Kawamura – Out-Take 0810-012
14. Bibio – All The Flowers
15. Tortoise – Charteroak Foundation
16. Toumani Diabaté – Elyne Road
Download: ♪ CoverCast #3: Three
[audio: covercast3.mp3]Unfortunately, I didn’t make many Cover Up posts this week. But I did put together a new CoverCast. This week I wanted to share some great electronic music and a touch of instrumental hip-hop. Some old, some new, some sort of new. Thanks to Ed for sharing the Joy Orbison track. It’s crazy. Everyone loves dubstep these days, right?
1. Phaseone – Marty & Sonietta
2. MONO/POLY – The George Machine
3. The Clonious – Emora
4. Daedelus – Get Off Your HiHats
5. Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo
6. Clark – Mercy Sines
7. Zomby – One Foot Ahead Of The Other
8. Dr. Who Dat? – Laws of Clover
9. Squarepusher – Greenways Trajectory
10. Yellow Magic Orchestra – Technopolis
11. Bumps – Tryplmeade Gorsmatch
12. Teebs – Untitled
13. Thavius Beck – Under Pressure
14. Ceephax – Hull Pressure
15. Plug – Brave Lick
16. Hudson Mohawke – Rising 5
17. Gonja Sufi – Ancestors
18. Ras G – Incoming
19. Stevo – Milky Way Driver
20. 00Genesis – Geomancer
Download: ♪ CoverCast #2: Jazz Epic
[audio: covercast2.mp3]Very soon after I put together the first CoverCast, I decided to pull out some of my favorite records and stay up until 5 AM to create an epic 45 minute mix of loud, soul-churning jazz-fusion. This is the end product. The plan was to make a non-stop blend of heavy jazz-rock, like tracks two through five. But I decided to spread it out a bit, eventually splitting the mix into movements (ala the epic fusion suites of yore) with appropriately epic titles (I’ve never heard the word “PEREGRINATION” before). Fusion was a staple of my music diet in high school and on, so I hope you enjoy it. I know I did… Click the link or covers to downloat the zip file, which includes the tracklist.
Intro
1. Laurence Welk & Orchestra – Moon River / Soundcraftsman – Instructional Test Record
Movement I : The Vivication
2. Tony Williams – Some Hip Drum Sh!t
3. The Mahavishnu Orchestra – Vital Transformation
4. Jean-Luc Ponty – Enigmatic Ocean, Pt. 2
5. Al Di Meola – Morning Fire
Movement II : The Peregrination
6. Weather Report – Scarlet Woman / Trazana Beverley – No Assistance
7. Airto Moreira – Wake Up Song
8. Larry Corryell & The Eleventh House – Yin
9. The Mahavishnu Orchestra – Inner Worlds / Arthur Ashe – Learn Tennis
10. Tony Williams – This Night This Song
Movement III : The Ascension
11. McCoy Tyner – Fly With The Wind
12. Flora Purim – Open Your Eyes (You Can Fly)
13. Ashok Ingle – Raga Darbari / Devadip Carlos Santana & Turiya Alice Coltrane – Guru Sri Chinmoy Aphorism
Movement IV : The Resurrection
14. Stanley Clarke – Life Is Just A Game
Download: ♪ CoverCast #1: G4G4
[audio: covercast1.mp3]Today I’m posting G4G4, the first ever mixtape (I don’t want to call it a podcast) for my Cover Up blog. I’ve wanted to create a mix for a while, so I pulled together some of my favorite tracks and artists from this year to see what I could come up with. It’s mostly a selection of hip-hop and electronic music. The track list is below and you can click the covers to download. I plan on doing some more mixes later. For the front and back cover I used photos I took at the Freer & Sackler Galleries in D.C. (I put a slideshow below for fun). I hope you guys listen and enjoy.
1. Triorganico – Balloons
2. Blu – Amnesia
3. Prefuse 73 – Regalo
4. Mabanua – Liquid
5. Misel Quitno – Pull It Down Somewhen
6. ZKPRZ – Phantasmagoria
7. Flying Lotus – Parisian Goldfish (Take Remix)
8. Harmonic 313 – Dirtbox
9. Willie Isz – Shine
10. Samon Kawamura – cp2sk (Featuring Christian Prommer)
11. J Dilla – Spacecowboy vs. Bobble Head
12. CO$$ – Be Like You (Featuring Terem)
13. Exile – Stay Tuned (Here)
14. Dak – fortheSUN
15. The Gaslamp Killer – Baiafro
16. Luke Vibert – Computer Complex
17. Squarepusher – Seb-1.02
18. 9DW – Begin To Sing For Appetite
Last Thursday I went to see The Budos Band and Chopteeth perform at The Black Cat. The show was amazing, but I didn’t get many good photos. The lighting was dark enough when Chopteeth was opening. As The Budos Band took the stage they lowered the lighting even more. So I did a few long-exposures. I took the last few seconds to take some flash shots, since they’re not technically allowed. But that’s all fine because it was a really intense show! More photos on Flickr.
Last Thursday I went to see The Budos Band and Chopteeth perform at The Black Cat. The show was amazing, but I didn’t get many good photos. The lighting was dark enough when Chopteeth was opening. As The Budos Band took the stage they lowered the lighting even more. So I did a few long-exposures. I took the last few seconds to take some flash shots, since they’re not technically allowed. But that’s all fine because it was a really intense show! More photos on Flickr.
When I was in high school I was a serious anime fan. I attended the Otakon anime convention in Baltimore, MD 5 years in a row. When I finally got to college, I became less interested with the scene and stopped going. But I decided to revisit the convention this year with three of my cousins and my girlfriend. It was wild. I also managed to get some decent photos, although the overwhelming amount of people to take photos of made it hard to concentrate. I posted a lot more on Flickr.
Thanks to my cousin and grandfather I had the chance to go to the DC Caribbean Carnival. It was basically a parade down Georgia Avenue celebrating Caribbean cultures with loud music, colorful costumes and a lot of dancing. Of course, I took this as an opportunity to take some crazy photos. There are more here.
I got a nice surprise this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday I attended the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival on the Mall in front of the Washington Monument. I saw a few groups, but the highlights for me were The Terence Blanchard Quintet and The Nicholas Payton Quartet.
What made Nicholas Payton’s set so special was the surprise inclusion of two of my current favorite musicians, bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding (top) and drummer Karriem Riggins (second). I had no idea they would be performing, so I was a little bit in shock when I saw them setting up for their equipment. It was the highlight of my week. Maybe my month! I managed to take some interesting shots, thanks to being able to get right in front of the stage. There are more shots here.
I’m tempted to start a photo blog, but I will resist. My girlfriend’s father was displaying work at the SoWeBo Arts Festival in Baltimore, so we decided to stop by. I got some interesting photos, my favorites being that of a band called “Ms. Sara & The Help“, above. There are a few more shots here.
Today I got to visit the DC Record Fair. It was fantastic. Not only did I find a lot of records and CDs I’ve been searching a long time for, but I also got to talk to some interesting people, get Go-Go music inventor Chuck Brown’s autograph and handshake, and got some decent photography out of it as well! I love things like this. More photos here.
I saw the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra perform a few days ago, a group I’ve been listening to for a few years. They play African funk, derived mostly from the work of Fela Kuti, the inventor of “Afrobeat”. Ignoring the “No Camera” signs posted in the club, I took about 300 shots anyway. (Their website says photos are allowed, so…) It was a great show, despite my ears ringing for over an hour afterward. You can see some more photos of the show here.
Today was Record Store Day, a day to celebrate independent record stores across the country. I have a thing for indie music stores and have to visit new ones whenever I travel. (Records in Italy are overpriced) DC has a decent amount, but two of the best recently closed (DJ Hut and CD Warehouse). But I managed to run by a few and get some free stuff along the way. Record shops are usually good for photos as well. In this case, Som Records (top) was especially photogenic. Below are older shots from two of my favorite shops, Plan 9 in Richmond, VA and Safe As Milk Records in Roanoke, VA which has been closed for several years now.
These are some shots that came out of that Petri 2.8 camera I picked up at the thrift store. All the pictures came out really blurry, dark and dirty. Of course, I like that. I also think it’s interesting how much highlights stuck out in some of them. The camera probably needs to be cleaned, but then what would be the point?
Our final assignment in photography class was to illustrate the quote “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” So I had my friend Lane prepare to jump off a bridge in jewelry and a fancy dress. Yeah…
Some of the spots in the middle picture our blown out, which my teacher doesn’t like much. But I’m not sure if it’s worth it to drive all the way back and take more shots… I had fun taking the pictures, though.
After carrying my camera around in Italy, it felt natural to do the same thing in Richmond. I’ve taken a few decent pictures now that I’ve started walking to Cary Town instead of driving.
Also, I recently had all of my rolls from Italy printed. Flickr only allows 200 photos, so I’ve posted them all on my Facebook account. Here are the links:
Italy: Nikon Shots #1
Italy: Nikon Shots #2
Italy: Nikon Shots #3
Italy: Vivitar Shots #1
Italy: Digital Shots #1
Italy: Digital Shots #2
I’m back in the US from my month long trip to Italy. I didn’t realize until recently that Flickr has a limit on the number of images you can display, so I’ve also uploaded a lot of pictures to my Facebook account. Here are the albums: One & Two. I also have 18 rolls worth of pictures coming today, so I will scan them eventually.
I bought these two cameras at the thrift store this weekend. They use 126 film. In other words, I’m probably never going to use them. But I love how they look. A lot of people on Flickr seemed to use them as kids. I guess I’m late. I took pictures of them with my Nikon. I’m surprised how nice they are. Really makes me want to take a photo course this summer. Also…
Appearantly my little Vivitar crap-cam is getting popular. People are buying them for 30 bucks on Ebay. I think that’s insane. It’s really not that much of a camera. The lo-fi camera craze is to blame. But really, if I’m going to get a crappy camera on purpose, I want it to be cheap. I got mine for $3 at the thrift shop. I love it. But it ain’t worth $30. Also…
Taz.
This is my girlfriend’s hamster. He is cute. I’m finally trying to figure out how to use the digital Nikon my grandfather gave me. So many buttons… Anyway, First Fridays was cool last night. A lot of people I knew were out. Usually I don’t know anybody. Mr. Meganck had some stuff up at the theater. It was cool. Also, there was a “Buppet” show in front of ADA. I have a few more First Friday polaroids on Flickr.
I’ve been taking a lot of pictures with two Vivitar cameras I picked up at the thrift store. I just recently got a lot of rolls printed. I’m thinking about putting my Flickr account to use and posted a lot of them there. Speaking of photography, I recently bought my girlfriend a Holga camera. She loves it. It’s sort of reinvigorated our interest in photography. I just need to learn how to properly use my Nikon D100…