On the way to the car from the museum. An art car.

 

Live.....It's Saturday Night!!! Can TV generate an authentic the goods for a great museum installation? When it's Lorne Michaels you can count on it.

 

Standing in front of the big "step and repeat" background outside the front door of the museum.

They pulled all the stops out for this one. Photo by B. 

Last week B. and I spent an afternoon at the Blanton Museum taking in a show of Baroque paintings from Spain, Portugal and other parts of the Spanish empire circa: hundreds of years ago. Yesterday we made the short trip over to the Harry Ransom Center (aka: The Humanities Research Center, the HRC) to see a huge exhibit of material sourced from the professional life of Lorne Michaels, the originator of the incredibly long running and popular TV show: Saturday Night!

The usual conservative and quiet first floor gallery at the HRC was hopping. Packed with people. Every demographic imaginable. And all laughing, reminiscing and remembering their favorite episodes, actors and cultural memes. Behind a red curtain in a room last used to show early Ansel Adams photographs was a non-stop video of greatest hits from the TV shows Michaels helmed. Scattered about the exhibits were costumes worn by actors in some of the most memorable skits. Church lady. Two Wild and Crazy Guys. And the wig used by the actor who portrays our current president. The crowd was wild and crazy. And loud. But the exhibit, from the extensive, donated collection of Michael's life's work was still amazing. 

I took along a camera and made photos of the stuff I liked the most. And yes, that includes the mannequins. The camera was the Leica M240 M-E along with a recently acquired Thypoch 50mm f1.4 Simera. It's a really nice lens. Mostly shot wide open which also showed me that my current rangefinder calibration is right on the money. Yay.

The Church Lady. 

Life Coach, Matt Foley. 

The Donald Trump wig.

Hitting the limits of the rangefinder's close focusing.

"We are two wild and crazy guys!"

And, of course, Michaels was the executive producer behind many of my favorite movies....

Hello "Waynes World."

Go behind the red(ish) curtain to see video.

It was a fun way to spend time on Sunday afternoon. So much to see and so much really good stuff. I can't wait to go back mid-week when I have more time, space and quiet to really soak up the details.

Getting out and going to museums and galleries. It's all part of a continuing visual education. 

After the museum we headed over to the Whole Foods Flagship store to hit their awesome and huge salad bar. Fresh fruit, green leafy vegetables, dolmas, hummus, and just for grins, a chicken strip. What's not to like? Later, dinner at home with the boy who regaled us with fun stories about corporate life and also upcoming travel plans. A good Sunday by most any measure.

And yes, it all started with an 8 am swim practice. 

An SL2 gets playful and goes full "monochrome". Just walking around on a weekday. Which lens? Gotta be the Voigtlander 50mm APO. Sweet combo.

So, I kept hearing about how great the dedicated monochrome cameras were at making wonderful black and white image files so I got out an exacto knife and some sandpaper and shredded off the CFA layer from my camera's sensor. That wasn't enough so I used some acetone to strip off the AA filter as well. Now we were playing with direct pixels. That wasn't enough so I spent $12K to have someone re-write all the code in the camera and toss out anything that had to do with color post processing. Then I went for a walk. Look. The camera now does "art monochrome." Too bad I can't switch back to color....

Question? Do you think I might have voided the warranty??? 

Okay. So I'm just having joke. I didn't do any of those insane things to my SL2 camera sensor. I just set the Jpeg parameters to Monochrome HC (high contrast) and walked around shooting photographs of the buildings and sky. Seem okay to me. I guess I could goose up the contrast a bit more and pretend I bought a dedicated monochrome camera but what's the point? 

 

OT: Kirk Acknowledges that he will never compete at the Olympics. But he sure gets to spend a lot of time in the pool. And with wonderful people.

I wrote about retiring and mentioned that my schedule will be open enough to get in a lot of swims without worrying about scheduling conflicts. A commenter wrote to tell me I would not go to swim/compete at the Olympics. Having 69 years of life experience and a healthy dose of higher education I kind of figured that out on my own. But here's a little secret: Most masters swimmers don't show up for daily practice because their goals include getting a gold medal at the Olympics. They do it for social connection. For health benefits. To enjoy healthy competition. To maintain optimum body weight. To maintain muscle mass as they age. To maintain a healthy blood pressure. To stave off cardiac events. To put off hip and knee replacements. Because pushing off the wall in a great streamline is the closest most people will ever come to flying without an airplane. To continue wearing the pants bought in college. Because they are 35% less likely to die of all causes compared with the general population in the same age demographic. Because they get to hang around the pool in a swim suit. Because the people they swim with are in better shape, are happier and more attractive than the general population. Because it's fun not to be at work first thing in the morning. And because swimming helps one sleep better. Add that all together and I think swimming every morning is a better deal than winning once at one Olympic Games. 

Most older men who take up golf in retirement die within 18 months. And in those 18 months they have to spend a lot of time with other retired men in bad outfits. That sounds like a really sucky bargain to me. Exercise? In an electric cart? In Major League baseball games the average three hour game has ONLY 8.5 minutes of actual play. And that's an "athletic" pursuit? Amazing what the public will buy...

If you go to a one hour swim practice I'm pretty sure you'll get 58+ minutes of active, aerobic, and some anaerobic, exercise. A tremendous bargain compared to just about anything else  you can do. 

Or you could just play pickle ball and keep an orthopedic surgeon on retainer. Just saying. 

Kids who swim make better grades. Have more discipline and don't mess up as much as non-swimming kids. Among college athletes they have higher academic achievement. 

B. Already water safe at 2.5.

Prince Rainier Memorial Pool in Monte Carlo. A nice pool in which to do laps.

Tyler is a masters swimmer at Longhorn Aquatics. UT.

Young B. At workout. Still swims now at 29. Still in great shape.

Early habits pay off. 

Rip Esselstyn. He recently set a world record in the 200-meter backstroke for the 55-59 age group in 2019 at age 56.  Yeah. He swims on my masters team. He's 62 now. Still looks the same.

The WHAC USMS swimming pool. Clean water, fast swimming.

UT Swim Center. USMS Nationals

B. Post workout. Better appetite.

Shawn Jordan. Gold medal winner at both the 1988 and 1992 Olympics.

Yeah. He swims with my masters team. 

I might never go to the Olympics. 

I get my rewards every morning at 8.

And for the rest of the day...