Ligature

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Location: Chicagoland, Illinois, United States

Monday, May 30, 2005

Swoon, part two

Add this to the "swoon" list — grown men who carry backpacks. I don't know why — perhaps I'm nostalgic for academia, but the sight of a thirty-something guy with a backpack always does it for me. Or perhaps it's just my infatuation with Josh Lyman on The West Wing. Just say "no" to briefcases.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

1. What does it say about me …

That two of my most beloved female friends have sent me the following greeting card:

[On the front, two old ladies, one with what appears to be a Bible and fur-like handbag, the other with a parasol.] "Is it 'butt naked' or 'buck naked'?"

[On the inside] "These are the kind of questions I come to you for."

2. My new Mac makes my little interreligious heart palpitate …

Why? Its new typefaces include "Apple Symbols," which includes all the possible hexagrams of the I Ching, and "Gurmukhi," the language of the Sikh scripture.

That new-computer smell

This blog is being brought to you by my brand-new PowerBook G4. My G4 tower (circa 2001) gave up the ghost (dead logic board) and would have cost $800 repair. So I bit the bullet and went out and got a notebook computer. I've since put my "Apple" sticker on my car. Perhaps it explains why I drive a 12-year-old car whose blue-book value is less than that of the computer on which I'm typing.

Alas, the life of a creative.

Speaking of creativity, I've decided I'm the only person in the world who enjoys receiving pre-approved credit card offers with those fake plastic credit cards inside.

Why? They're the perfect disposable squeegee for prepping screen-printing screens. So if you feel like collecting them for me, I'll be eternally grateful.

P.S. Janelle says "St. Scholastica." Thanks, Janelle.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Reader call

I'm starting a new creative project, and would love it if you'd participate. I don't care whether I know you or how you've happened onto "Ligature."

Please post the name of your favorite saint (or a saint you find particularly interesting) in the "Comments" section. (Please note it's now possible to comment anonymously.)

If you'd like to post a bit about WHY you find him/her interesting, that's encouraged, but certainly not required.

My favorite is Saint Genevieve of Paris. Some of you know why.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Thanks for nothing
Tonight's workout accompaniment: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Today's amusing email excerpt:

"Thanks A; these are pretty impressive. Thanks for not sleeping with me. My memory is juiced. I can't wait to - er - finish mastering them and burn them to disc. Hm.

"I'm sorry, in that last graf I meant 'thanks for staying up late, missing sleep, just as I have been doing, in order to do this fun thing really quickly for no pay.' I just noticed it may have came out wrong. You see, I'm really tired from not sleeping around."


Enough said.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

On a lighter note…

Benjie's friend Tessa says he refers to me as "his friend with the cool hair."

ARGH!

My friend's story is incredible ... he left Liberia three years ago. His wife was supposed to follow him a month later, but due to the war and the destruction of identification papers by the rebels, she was stranded there. She fled to Ivory Coast, and then back to Monrovia. She arrived here just a few weeks ago. He worked for 20 years to translate the Old Testament into Bassa, and at one point the rebels broke into his office and destroyed — burned — all the books and commentaries and notes he'd collected. However, the single floppy disk containing the first sixteen chapters of the Bible, they simply dropped on the floor. It was unharmed. My friend says it was God's work which preserved it and made publication possible.

We've been waiting to receive the Bassa Bible for well over a year. It's now published, and my friend has his own copy. He's rightfully excited.

Today, there was a blessing of the translation at my church.

Since I work for the national magazine associated with my congregation, I went to take photos. I talked to the senior pastor, assured her I'd shoot flashlessly to not disturb the service; arrived an hour early to test the light and decide on an ISO and aperture; then selected an out-of-the way spot with a good vantage from which to shoot.

By the time the service started, I was feeling pretty good about getting the photos.

But when the blessing began, someone on the other side of the church stood up — a photographer from the local paper. Not only did he obstruct every possible good angle I'd planned, but he started shooting with flash.

He left as soon as the blessing was over.

I'm happy my friend's story will be told locally, but annoyed as all get-out at this other photographer. Granted, I cover religious events regularly, and perhaps have a better understanding of how to conduct myself in the realm of the spiritual.
But don't you think it'd be common courtesy to ask the religious leader beforehand whether it's okay to shoot with flash? It's extremely disrespectful to disturb a religious service — and I'd feel this way even if it wasn't my own congregation involved.

When I was at the Parliament of the World's Religions last year, my friend Brian told me how disappointed he was with the behavior of the media at the event. The videographers would get right in the faces of people praying, and the photographers had no qualms about using flash during services. It wasn't uncommon to see someone lower a boom in front of someone while they were speaking.

There are techniques that can be used to shoot without flash — in the days of film it was called "pushing," now with digital technology you can simply set a higher ISO.

Regardless, I stayed for the potluck and got some great documentary images of my friend showing his Bible to other participants. I also took some excellent portraits of my friend and his wife. So we'll have good images for the magazine.

But I'm still angry at the other photographer.