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...

 

It's Saturday Afternoon. I'm ordering watches on Amazon. Also trying to decide which ONE camera and ONE lens to take to Chicago next week.

  Portrait of B. from the past. Original camera: Pentax 67. Lens: 150mm Pentax. 

This is a throw back edition to Swiss Watchmaker's 1955, 50 Fathom Dive Watch series. Hand made by Blancpain in Switzerland. It's a company that has been making very, very limited edition dive watches for a small but extremely affluent market of watch lovers. Established in the 1700s. The cost of this watch is $19,500. With a black nylon watch band. It's a very pretty watch; I only wish they made a version without a date window...

I still doubt I'll ever spend anywhere near that amount on a watch...

But, kind and generous readers...I do have a birthday coming up....

But...

Maybe the watch below makes more sense >

This is a Watchdives dive watch currently being made and marketed as an homage to the line of Blancpain watches represented up above. This watch is available with a glass crystal or with a sapphire crystal. Available in stainless steel case for the glass variant and in titanium for 

the sapphire crystal variant. 

It uses a popular and proven Seiko automatic movement, has a screw down crown and is waterproof to 300 meters. It also features a black, nylon wrist strap. It sells for between $119 - $139 on Amazon.com.

At the end of July this year I ordered one of the models with the stainless steel case and the glass crystal. I've worn it every day since. In the pool for an hour workout per day and, after letting the strap dry, for the rest of the day. I take it off at night. Otherwise the lume would keep me awake. While it keeps accurate time and hasn't needed to be rewound it is hand-wind-able. Not all modern automatic movements are hand-wind-able. It's a feature I value. 

Today I was ordering another couple sets of swim goggles, an extra (Panasonic) battery for the Leica DLUX8 and a few other odds and ends and in the shopping process the Amazon algorithms sent me a glance of the sister watch; the one with the titanium case and sapphire crystal. And coupled the ad presentation with a sale price. I immediately added the watch to my shopping cart. It's too good a value to pass up --- that is, if you like the look and feel of this watch. 

And the idea of waterproof to 300 meters.

And, bonus, no date window. Just utter face simplicity. $119. 

The watches are made in China but feature a Japanese, Seiko NH38 movement. 

It's a bargain. Sure beats the $19,500 price of the original model.

On to more important things. Which goggles did I get this time?

That's easy. Speedo mirrored Vanquisher 2.0 goggles. This will be my sixth or seventh pair. If you use them everyday they don't last much longer than about six months. The lenses, in fact all parts, are made of plastic which eventually fogs from prolonged contact with pool chemicals. And since they are plastic if you abuse them you can break the parts that hold the elastic head straps. If you break the strap lugs and don't have a back-up pair of goggles in your swim bag then workout is over until you can replace the broken goggles. I'm rotating an existing pair from their packaging in my bag to be my new daily users and adding the newly arriving goggles to be next in rotation. I have a bunch of flawed and foggy goggles in the trunk of the car. Just in case. For $25 per it's easy to "Be Prepared." 

I guess that's about it. Watches. Swimming. Am I forgetting something? Was it something about kale???

Oh yeah....the camera quandary. Which camera and lens to take along with me on my upcoming long weekend vacation with B. After much deliberation I've narrowed down the choices to either the Leica Q2 or the Leica DLUX8. Leaning toward the DLUX8 right now for its smaller size, lighter weight and an actual zoom range of 24-75mm (equivalent). It's a brilliant little camera and I just got a back-up, back-up battery for it. 

If I were out to do serious photography on the trip I'd lean toward the Q2. But I'm pretty much set on my role as a "tourist on a family vacation" instead of being a "dedicated and driven" photographer. I figure if the city seems really, really great, visually, I can always go back alone and dive into making photos. After all: "Lonely hunter, Better hunt." 

I am certain though about which watch I'll be taking.... 

Lots of posts. Don't read more than you can handle at one time. 

Here is the latest from Michael Johnston, AKA: TheOnlinePhotographer. He sent this to me a few minutes ago via email. If you are a TOP reader you might find information you want. This re-use is MJ approved!

 Time for an EXECUTIVE DECISION

The Online Photographer

22 minutes ago

I've decided what I have to do. It's becoming clear that the new site is not going to be ready for prime time by October 1, so...

The Online Photographer is moving here to Patreon temporarily. The URL is:

patreon.com/theonlinephotographer

But, TOP on Patreon will still be mostly free. It won't be just for paying customers. Naturally, I love it and appreciate it when people want to join for a few bucks a month, but I'm more comfortable when you can do it voluntarily. So, here on Patreon, you can either join as a paying supporter, join with a free account, or just come to this page and visit—most things will still be viewable that way. Hopefully people will become supporters because they want to, not because I'm coercing them by withholding most of the content. That's the way it's been up till now. Of course, a few things will be reserved just for supporters, because it's only fair. Supporters support me, after all.

How long will this last? Well, certainly until I get my groove back and settle into writing again. Maybe a couple of months. (That might turn into double that—just guessing.) As a way of taking the time pressure off of getting the new site up and running smoothly.

Dad's decision disk
Some people like making decisions early—"there, that's settled"—while others like leaving decisions until the last minute. I actually hate making decisions. Early-deciders think people like me are crazy, but there's an explanation for people who feel this way—it's that we dislike closure, because it shuts down possibilities and makes it harder to react and respond to new insights or new information. It's a version of what they call opportunity cost. When you decide on one course, you lose all the other possibilities. So people like us make decisions grudgingly and late and might still want to leave them open-ended even longer.

Just a personality kind of thing.

Decisiveness is good for certain pursuits—business, probably—but maybe not always; indecisiveness can hamper us in many cases, but in other circumstances it might be what saves the day. I could name examples of decisions reached rashly and too soon. Sometimes, people, or companies, or countries get cornered into having to accept a decision that's clearly wrong. (If I named those examples, it would hijack this discussion straightaway.)

My father's notion was that any decision is better than no decision. He was so frustrated with my indecisiveness that he came home from a trip once with a present, a brass medallion about three inches in diameter. One side was inset with red enamel and said "NO," and the other side was enameled green and said "YES." He told me that whenever I had a decision to make, I should flip it on to the carpet and go with whatever came up. 

So the next time I had a decision to make, I flipped it on the carpet. It came up Yes. I stood there for a minute or two, staring at it contemplatively and pondering, then reached over and with my toe flipped it to the No side. Then I pondered a while longer, and flipped it back to Yes.... 

Laughing emoji goes here....

So that wasn't going to work. 

Anyway, this isn't really a decision either. But I'm overwhelmed and stressed out, and if I don't find a way to relieve the pressure, then these next ten days (the TypePad site will be gone forever on the 30th) will not be pleasant. Or productive: I don't deal with pressure well (never have), and I don't work effectively once the pressure gets too high. When you don't do things until you have to, sometimes it's good. It falls under the category of motivation. But when the pressure gets to be too much it turns into a net negative. 

Again, the new URL is patreon.com/theonlinephotographer. I'll point my domains there within the next few days. The old links will break on the 30th.

As an aside, I've gotten fascinated in the past week or so with videos showing boats navigating Florida inlets—Haulover Inlet, for one—which I never knew was a thing. (The internet is full of surprising things you new knew existed). Boats being buffeted and tossed by chaotic waves—it's like watching a metaphor.

I will be astonished if I don't lose half my audience in the next two weeks, so, if you stick with me through these choppy seas, you're really helping, and thanks. 

If you have any comments, please leave them over there. I'll leave comments turned on here for a few more days, but they'll disappear soon. 

Mike

B. before he could even swim....