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Caught In The Whirlwind
Shadow Photography
Sep 13th 2010
I mentioned briefly that I was taking a photography course this semester. Well, the first assignment has been completed, and my work turned in so I figured I’d post up some of the shots that I turned in over here in an effort to stop this from becoming the weekend recap blog. I’ll probably have some more over the next little bit as some of my shots weren’t exactly based on the topic but I got some good stuff anyway.
The subject was Light and Shadow, capturing how shadows and reflections can create interesting images. So here we go (Click on each image to get to flickr where you can see a larger version)
First up my favorite one I took:
I happened upon this early in the morning at one of the local parks. The shadows from the railing on the gazebo were just awesome. One of the shots I took here that I was praying a morning jogger wasn’t going to run by though. You look a little weird at 8 in the morning, laying flat on your stomach over the steps of a gazebo taking pictures.
Here’s another one from the same park. The assignment also dealt with reflections of light, and I came across this setup with the sun refelcting in the water of the little pond thingy they have, with the hard light shadows on the rocks.
Different park this time (and a different day). This particular town park has a big network of nature trails. This was taken morning as well. The sun at this time shines directly into the entrance of this path making the foliage on the trees kinda glow which looked pretty neat.
This one I didn’t end up submitting, but I kinda liked how it turned out anyway. We’re back at the second park, along the sandy “beach” area. This was another one of those “Please nobody come by” type photos due to how I had to situate myself to get it right.
Jordan Rudess “Speaks”
Sep 9th 2010
I don’t like just linking to videos, but Jordan Rudess, keyboardist for dream theater posted up this amazing improvisational piano piece as his statement about Mike leaving the band. It’s deeply emotional and heartfelt and I think it deserves to be shared.
Stunned
Sep 9th 2010
I sit here shocked, not really knowing what to say. Oh, don’t worry, nobody died or anything like that. In the grand scheme of things this isn’t a gigantic tragedy. And yet here I am, still shocked.
Mike Portnoy has left Dream Theater.
I’m sitting here staring at those words, not really believing that I actually typed them. I found out last night and hoped that I would wake up this morning and it would be a dream or a joke, but it isn’t.
For those reading who might lack the context as to why this is such a huge deal to me, please accompany me on a journey back to…oh…2001, 2002. Maybe a little earlier While listening to a new internet radio station I discovered a song called Fatal Tragedy from a band named Dream Theater. Before this I was listening mostly to top 40/classic rock stuff on the radio, not really connecting with any of it. And when I heard Fatal Tragedy I thought it sounded cool but it didn’t really hit me then. I remember downloading it from Napster and it went into my rotation. I thought the band was some kind of classic rock band that wasn’t around anymore.
Flash forward a bit and I decided to check this Dream Theater band out. I picked up the album Scenes From a Memory and became hooked instantly. I still remember listening to it for the first time, lying on my bed with my headphones on, drinking it all in. This was the first time in my life that I really cared about music. Where I could just sit there…listening.
I started looking around and realizing there was a whole world of bands out there, just like this. People who cared about the music, weren’t afraid of being technical and to hell what the mainstream thought about their 7 minute long songs. I noticed that a lot of the members of Dream Theater had a bunch of side projects. So I checked out Liquid Tension Experiment and Transatlantic. Through Transatlantic I found out about Marillion, Spock’s Beard and The Flower Kings. I got on the Mike Portnoy.com forums and learned about Porcupine Tree and Opeth. Ayreon, Symphony X, Frost*, Bigelf…so many more. Heck even Rush. I knew of rush before but never got into them heavily until now.
My first concert was Dream Theater at The Palladium in Worcester, MA on August 21st, 2004. It was so freaking awesome. They opened with Metropolis Part 1 and I just went nuts. I didn’t even notice that the keyboards weren’t working until 2 minutes into the song because I was just so excited to be there and couldn’t believe they were right there, 40 feet in front of me doing this stuff live.
Since then I’ve seen them 9 times. I’ve met the band once, got my picture taken with them (which was lost when the meet and greet person’s laptop got stolen, oh well). The last time I saw them was earlier this year. At The Palladium in Worcester, MA. The last time ever for Dream Theater as it’s existed, at the same place where I saw them for the very first time.
Dream Theater is responsible for making me CARE about music. Without them I never would have wound my way into this progressive metal/rock world which has truly been a huge impact on my life. This music has been with me through some of the best things and worst things I’ve ever experienced. And one of my favorite periods of time was when I was able to pass on my love for Progressive Metal/Rock to my friend Wassy and experience the journey through her all over again.
Dream Theater will continue on without Mike. But he was such a force in the band that it’s never going to be the same. He handled all of the live production, setlist construction, business deals, album art, promotion, live releases and was a gigantic part of the core writing team of him, John Petrucci and John Myung who have been together for 25 years. Heck, his dad was the one who came up with the name!
The band may be continuing on in name, but it was Mike’s baby, and it’ll never be the same. I’m having a hard time imagining going to a live show and not seeing his gigantic drum kit back there with him spitting everywhere.
Whatever happens and whatever the reasons for the split. I just want to thank (yeah, as if they’re going to read this) Mike and the rest of Dream Theater for 25 years of amazing music. I hope the new Dream Theater can rise to the challenge and give us another 25 (Well, you know what I mean. 25 is probably going to be pushing it at this point)
RUSH!
Sep 3rd 2010
Yesterday, as I’ve been mentioning for a while now was the day that Rush played the New York State Fair as part of their Time Machine tour. This was my first time seeing Rush (my previous first time was thwarted by my sister scheduling her wedding for the same day as the concert and refusing to move it) so I was pretty excited.
I had originally planned on going alone to the fair and the show but I ended up asking my Mom if she wanted to go with me during the day to the Fair and then we’d part ways when it was time for me to head to the grandstand, so that’s what we did. Despite the extremely hot weather, I had a good time wandering around the fairgrounds doing various fair type activities. Checking out the butter and sand sculptures, eating various foodstuffs, checking out some animals. Eventually the time came and I wandered over to the grandstand to find my seat and wait for the show.
Thus comes my one and only complaint about the show, and that’s the moron who sets up the track seating at the state fair. There’s about 2 inches of leg room per row which can be reduced to 0 inches if the person in front of you has pushed their chairs back. Thankfully the sitting didn’t last long as we ended up standing and folding the chairs up so we could have more room. I chatted a bit with the people next to me while we were waiting and eventually the lights went off and the opening video began.
I was sitting about 13 rows back, dead center (a lot closer than the picture above makes it out to look. The opening video was awesome, involving a music producer with a contraption designed to make a band called “Rash” sound good. The guys in Rush played various roles in these hilarious video bits. As the producer fiddled with the machine turning The Spirit of Radio into various versions from a disco song to polka, he eventually hit a big red button labeled “Time Machine” and the real rush stepped onto the stage and started playing the real The Spirit of Radio.
About this time I’m pretty sure I got a gigantic grin on my face. The stage show was awesome, the band was energetic and the playing was spot on. I am sad to admit that my Rush album collection isn’t complete, so the first set contained some songs I wasn’t too familiar with. I’m setting out to correct this oversight now though.
My real highlight of the show was the playing of the classic album Moving Pictures front to back. Tom Sawyer was awesome, with a video of the band as chimps playing along with the song as the real band was playing on stage. The other highlights included YYZ, seeing all of the solos being performed right in front of me. The big one though was hearing The Camera Eye. It’s one of my favorite Rush songs and I’m glad I caught this show to hear them play it. Witch Hunt and Vital Signs aren’t my favorite Rush songs ever, but I like them well enough and they capped the album off nicely.
The two new songs they played (Caravan and BU2B) worked out really well live (and were accompanied by a lot of special steampunk-y effects which was really cool). I also like to mention Neal Peart’s drum solo. I’m not a fan of drum solos generally but this one was REALLY cool. Lots of tricky drum bits but very well structured not to be complicated just to be complicated. And the animations in the background during the third section were amazing.
I was also a fan of the section of 2112 that they played. I hope someday they play the entire song again, but the first bit is good enough for me.
After the show was over I stumbled out to a parking lot (after realizing that it was the WRONG parking lot and I had to stumble back through the crowd and out the correct gate to find my car). And it took a while to get out and back on the road, but I ended up getting home just after 1am, eating the McDonalds I picked up on my way (I was hungry!) and then falling straight to sleep.
Very glad I decided to go see this show. It’s been a year of really good concert experiences. Transatlantic, Dream Theater, and Rush, plus TSO and 3. And I still have Roger Waters to see!
Book 23: Just A Geek
Aug 30th 2010
Title: Just A Geek
Author: Wil Wheaton
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 296
Summary
An actor from early childhood, Wil Wheaton is best known for his roles in the movie Stand By Me and his recurring appearances on Star Trek. However, faced with the prospect of Star Trek becoming his entire life and after an experience of seeing the cast of the original series on a Star Trek cruise, a teenaged Wheaton made the decision to quit the show and concentrate on his movie career.
This self described “worst decision” of his entire life set Wil on a path to self discovery and transition from a famous actor to a person who’s famous because he used to be famous to his current status as a writer.
Notes
I picked this book up after a friend linked me to one of Wil’s appearances on the TV show Big Bang Theory. I was compelled to search the internet to see what he thought of his portrayal of Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: TNG now that he’s older and stumbled onto the fact that he wrote this book.
I knew he had a website and a popular blog and all that but never really followed what he wrote there. So I picked up this book and read half of it the same day. The rest would have been done this weekend if I wasn’t so busy.
The blurb on the front of the book is 100% correct. What this book contains is a very personal, unflinchingly honest (yes I stole that from the book cover) account of what Wil went through in his struggles to distance himself from Star Trek and live his own life. It consists of about 50% blog entries from his website and the rest of it is commentary on those entries. He points out where he was full of crap and just trying to put up a front to make people think he was on the verge of success when, in reality, he was in the clutches of depression and near financial ruin.
In the end though, I think he found the right place. He’s a fantastic writer and his story is told in an extremely gripping way.
Next Book
I’m still reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. I’m about halfway through now, but I got unexpectedly interrupted by this book.
Busy Weekend Recap
Aug 30th 2010
So I’ve survived my busy, busy weekend. Here’s a little recap. As the title says:
Saturday was the 3 concert in Bearsville. We left at around 3pm for the show and arrived around 5:30-6pm. It was at this time I found out that I was an idiot who misremembered the time the doors opened, meaning we were by far the first people there and we had to wait an additional hour before we could get in. Ah well…it was annoying but we brought books and eventually ended up sitting outside by one of the fountains for a while. By the way, driving through Woodstock is a strange experience. You’re on this small, windy road through a forest when suddenly it opens up and there’s this town with people everywhere. This time we saw a streetside harp player, for example. Lots of people hanging out along the road and playing music and drawing/painting.
If you’re not familiar with the Bearsville Theater, it’s a very tiny venue with a open floor area on the bottom (with some seats in one corner of the room) and a small balcony on the back wall with chairs. We headed straight for the balcony area as we didn’t want to stand on the floor the entire time for this show (which is why we got there so early so we could sit up there)
The opening band was all right (Ricochet I believe). Then the wait for 3 to come on. They are the absolute slowest band ever for setting up. The opener started at 9, played about…15-20 minutes. 3′s set started at 10:30. In between Joey Eppard’s uncle John the Baker played some acoustic songs. He’s…an odd character. I’m not quite sure what to make of what he did on stage. He had a song about crack babies for example.
Anyway, 3 came on finally and the show rocked. The first couple songs were rocky as Billy Riker’s guitar amp was malfunctioning and he was having a heck of a time trying to fix it. Eventually Joey ended up doing an acoustic version of his solo song The Game during which the guitar got fixed and the concert went off as planned. They played a bunch of new songs which sounded really good along with some older stuff. This the first time for me seeing them without their former percusionist Joe Stote (Wow, can’t believe I spelled his last name wrong. I blame lack of sleep) who was simply awesome in his quirkyness, but they managed to do the old stuff really well without him being there. I miss his stage presence, but the band plays on.
After the show we wanted to find someplace to eat that was open 24 hours just so we could grab something to help on the 2.5-3 hour drive back. I found a Denny’s in Albany near our route of travelon my GPS so we headed that direction, only to find that what the GPS said was a Denny’s was really a Lutheran church and seemed like it always had been. There was a McDonalds nearby as well but it happened to be one without a 24 hour drive thru. Foiled! We ended up getting back on the thruway and stopping at the next rest stop for something to eat and drink and arrived home a about 3:30am.
My weekend fun didn’t stop there though. I woke up and wandered off to Whetstone Gulf State Park to hang out with my family at our annual reunion there. It was a good time. Although I said I never would again, I broke my promise to myself and ended up doing the 5 mile trail around the edge of the Gorge with my sister. We walked it in 3.5 hours with me stopping along the way to take photos for my photography course. I haven’t gotten a chance to see what I took, but I’m not sure if it was what I needed for the assignment. Ah well.
Surprisngly, after doing the hike I’m feeling pretty good right now. The problem is my back and arm due to the long game of horseshoes I played after the hike. Owww. But it was a fun time. Hung out by the fire for a while, enjoyed talking with family. Very fun day.
Next up on the fun events schedule: Rush at the state fair on thursday! Wooo!
Class
Aug 26th 2010
Well, another semester of college has started, and yet again I’m taking another course. This time it’s a Basic Photography course that’s web based, so I’m not going to actually have to visit campus much this semester. I’m still trying to figure out a way to go to school more but…it is what it is at this point.
I’ve been excited to take this course for a while now because, if you remember, I went off and got myself a Nikon D3000 earlier this year and, while I’ve played around with it some, I haven’t really gotten used to all of the manual mode settings and such how I wanted to. So now I’ll get to learn about proper technique and how to meter properly and all that good stuff.
Expect to see some more photographic output from me in the near future as I go through the class. The first assignment is light and shadow.
Busy Weekend (But Not As Busy As Next)
Aug 23rd 2010
So this weekend was an unexpectedly busy weekend for me.
Saturday evening we went to my roommate’s sister’s engagement celebration get together. I was figuring we’d stay for a couple hours, have a good time and then go home but we ended up staying past midnight and having a very fun time hanging out, eating, drinking and chatting with various people.
Sunday saw me going along with my roommates as they went to some open houses. They’re looking at buying a house as soon as humanly possible (for a lot of various reasons that I don’t feel like getting into. Basically the situation in the apartment is kinda awful between our neighbors and the building management not doing anything. I don’t really want to go into it because I’m tired of talking about it.) so they went to some open houses to see what’s what. The two we went to yesterday weren’t really great prospects. One had an awesome lot but the house itself was really old and needed a TON of work, in addition to the rooms being tiny and the floorplan being pretty…bad. The second’s downstairs was good but the upstairs suffered from the same “tiny room” syndrome and it needed waaaay more work to get going. But it had potential for future improvements. Neither seemed to be a potential leading contender in the search though.
However, that was nothing compared to my activities next weekend:
- Saturday 3 concert at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, NY. Going with Wassy and driving back after (probably won’t get home until around 2am-ish)
- Sunday Family Reunion gathering at Wetstone Gulf State Park, probably going a little more in the afternoon so I can sleep in after the late night driving.
And then, not the weekend but, September 2nd I’m going to see Rush at the State Fair. Woo!
Book 22: Lord of Chaos
Aug 17th 2010
Title: Lord Of Chaos
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
Pages: 720
Summary
The adventures of Rand and friends continues in the 6th volume of the Wheel of Time. Rand as the Dragon Reborn consolidates his strength while fighting of enemies from within and without, while the female leads of the series begin their search for a powerful object that will possibly fix the weather.
Notes
Yet again, my standard Wheel of Time complaints apply here, so if you want to hear about how he writes women, or his tendancy towards gross over-description of dresses, you can read one of my past wheel of time note sections.
This book is all about political wrangling. There’s very little real action until just at the end and what’s there isn’t a huge main plot point as it has been in the previous 5 books, but rather what seems like something that’s there just because the book needed a big action sequence climax.
The story is still interesting once you get to it. This is the part of most series where the pace slows down and the situation is set up for the big climax at the end, so it’s not surprising most of the book is political wrangling with very little progress forward in events. I expect it to be the same for the next several books as there’s a lot of setup that has to get done.
I should also note this is the last book of the wheel of time that I’ve read, so moving on from here I’ll be reading them fresh, for the first time.
Next Book
I’m taking another Wheel of time break, this time with The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, the first book in the Gentlemen Bastard’s series which was recommended to me by my friend Kris.
Time To Jinx It
Aug 17th 2010
Nearly every time I’ve mentioned that I’m trying to lose weight again on my blog, it ends in miserable failure. So this time I’ve waited about a month’s worth of progress to actually say anthing.
So yeah, I’m trying to lose weight again. Last time I did this (successfully) I was down to under 250 before I fell off the bandwagon, but since then I’ve gained back the 25-30 pounds I lost and put on another 25 to boot. I’m tired of this and at the urging of a friend of mine (Kris) I’ve joined him in his attempt to lose weight as well (strength in numbers!) and so far I’ve dropped about 5 pounds, just with modifying my diet. So yay! Once I start evening off I plan on reintroducing exercise to help break through the plateau situation.
So…so far so good. Hopefully I can keep this up. I’ve seen the first visible progress of things so far because I was able to tighten my belt another notch. Seeing the numbers go down on the scale is one thing, but noticing that you need to tighten your belt or your pants are going to fall off is a much cooler sign.
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