Making Phytograms on a breezy Saturday afternoon.

It’s been a while, but an idea for a short film is starting to take shape. Something that’s been in the back of my head for a long time. Shot a bit of test footage last week, and it looks promising.

A few favs from the weekend. Testing out a new camera.

Kodak 250D / Caffenol / Olympus OM-2n

I guess all the Shimoda Explore YouTube reviewers who were all “Who needs a big flappy water bottle holder?” had never tried to fit a microphone blimp in a backpack before.

Just discovered that BBC Sounds now allows you to open a track directly in a streaming service. So much more useful than the artist stub page it used to link to.

Currently reading: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin 📚

Making an actual flow chart / mind map of a backup routine for two people, and media storage, was really helpful. Arrived at a pretty good balance between local, and off site backup requirements, I think.

Building a field recording kit on a budget. A fixed up, yard sale mic blimp, second hand Tascam DR-40 recorder, and the Audio Technica AT2022 stereo mic. Perfect starter kit to capture the sounds around me.

When you spend half a day troubleshooting a reasonably complex problem, and discover the issue is DNS.

One of the most useful things I’ve read about yoga is, “Hold your pose, not your breath.”. Aside from being a good reminder, in general, it also holds up Jon Kabat-Zinn’s assertion that yoga is meditation. From a very practical level, it makes sense. You’re focusing on where your body is, spatially, and also on your breath. Both of these, your mind has to keep coming back to. Which is meditation.

Yesterday, I tried Stage Manager again, on MacOS. It didn’t go well. I really wanted to like it, but it’s not ready yet. Today, I wrote a long, not even close to elegant, one liner in ksh. It worked (nearly) perfectly. There’s a witty observation in there, somewhere, I’m sure.

It’s been a bit of a mechanical weekend. The new rollers for my 16mm projector arrived, so I’ve started cleaning, and replacing the old, gooey ones, as seen in this before image.

Aging wheelbarrow, (that was here when we moved in) needed a new tire, so I seized the opportunity to take it completely apart and give it a de-rusting and fresh paint.

Topology of Sirens is currently streaming on MUBI, and well worth checking out. Especially if you like cinema on the slow side. Long takes, with acoustic, and electronic drone / ambient music feature prominently (Sarah Davachi even has a role :), that helps you float along, as you follow the progress of a low key mystery.

Something I didn’t know, until recently, is that Leatherman tools are warrantied for 25 years. Sent my Rebar out for repair, and it arrived late this week in perfect shape. Glad to have it back!

The balance between available time, and number of podcasts in the queue has shifted. Weekend catch up is in order :)

Case for my mbp is starting to come together.

First ever commitment of daily exercise is getting off to a good start. Day two. Bonus of being able to bring a camera(s) along, on the days when I’m outside. That does make it difficult to not stop every 10 seconds for a shot though :)

It occurred to me this morning, that I’ve been listening to Brian Eno for just over thirty years. I have favourites across his catalogue, but the one that I return to most often is Thursday Afternoon

Another shot from that evening photo walk.

Redwing Blackbird spotted on an evening walk. A bit surprised that all of the variables of 500mm, handheld, and manual focus actually came together.

First peas!

There’s something about the format of a ‘music film’ that I find really interesting. Not musicals, concert films, or music videos, but some kind of amalgam. Most of the ones I’ve seen almost work, but not quite. This one is so close. I love the album, and this is an interesting companion. www.youtube.com/watch

Digging through a folder looking for something else, and found a phytogram frame from about this time last year. Have to make more of these.

First time 3D printing something as a ‘print in place’. Both parts together, with working hinges. Nice design too.

www.printables.com/model/459…

Moved from Blot to Micro.blog today. My goal with Blot was mostly to have a place for links / ideas, and a Mastodon post backup. The Bash, and Apple Shortcut combination I made was working ok, but there was too much tweaking needed on the Blot side. Looking forward to fine tuning the new setup :)

New podcast discovery that I’m going to try out before throwing into Overcast: www.badvoltage.org/2023/06/1…

Mapping out my new gear insert for a shoreline photo walk, if the weather holds out.