Thursday, April 28, 2011

Bits & Pieces of Buenos Aires (Good Airs) pt.1

          "A small, vomitous stomach gurgle expanded into an intolerable, full-bodied anguish.  There was no choice for Philbo but to dedicate a bullet either to his own brain, or to the brain of this fellow yammering and pointing at blurry pictures of a drunken Caribbean vacation."

         That is a passage from a splendid novel, one that doesn't exist, about many people's struggle to successfully make their vacation/travel seem even moderately interesting to other humans.  It's peculiar that this issue arises seeing as 37.3% of travel (56.8% in Winter) is to instill jealousy in others.  Our species travels a lot these days, with insane technology for capturing experiences, and thus we have all become much more difficult to impress.  That's not new information, but it demands a reform in presentation methods.  I don't wish to sound like a douche sack who's words extend past his ability, but some pointers below could help prevent your loved ones from daydreaming about dipping their face in lava when you start explaining your travels to them.


i.  While away, try to keep in mind that most major tourist spots have been photographed by much more talented people with much better equipment.  If you think a Google search can find it, set your sights on a different target. 


ii.  Take extra time to make sure the photo is straight and experiment with the composition as sometimes an inch or two of fiddling can slide your image from shittastic to marvelous.


iii.  Keep your camera sheathed when you first arrive in a novel environment.  Breathe, absorb, speculate, imagine, converse, have a beer and such before taking 7000 shots.  Pay attention, as the photo should never be better than the actual experience.


iv.  Put people who live in that country in your images.   Snapshot after snapshot of yourself in front of random stuff offers the same quantity of enjoyment as stuffing wasps into your genitals.  


v.  Once you're home, edit your photos and get your story straight.  If you took 60 photos of a misty mountain sunrise, show us 2. When you tell your tales, pepper them with your favourite adjectives, try to skillfully apply an adverb and avoid the improper use of the word "like".


All of that goes out the window for me when it comes to animals.  You could show me poorly taken photos of llamas & baby jaguars all day and enthrallment wouldn't dissipate.  
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So, these photos and the video were all taken in Buenos Aires in mid February.  It's a city that we fell in love with immediately and recommend visiting.  I called this post Pt.1 because a number of cool things couldn't fit into a solitary bloggle.  The video is supposed to be the real meat of this post, so hopefully all them words up their haven't prevented you from giving it a gander.
 IMPORTANT PART!  PLEASE GANDER! 
IMPORTANT PART!  PLEASE GANDER! 

IMPORTANT PART!  PLEASE GANDER! 
IMPORTANT PART!  PLEASE GANDER! 

Friday, April 22, 2011

Samba do Champlain

Whoopsidaisy!  It's amazing what returning to the employment world can do to one's blog dedication.  But, with the weather as shittay as it is, the need to reminisce and bathe in the recorded media of warmer times is absolutely mandatory.




The ambitious sound and video editing is slowly chugging along, but today's treat is a track called 'A Hora e a Vez do Samba by the maestro, Martinho da Vila from his 1973 album Origens.  This was picked up in Praca Tiradentes from my favourite vinyl street vendor.

The video is actually a time lapsed video of a sunset on Lake Champlain in Quebec from the summer of 2009.  The video was originally 20 minutes but it's now sped up into a 3 minute thang.  Thanks to our lovely hosts who gave us ample food, beverage, fishing and waterskiing/wakeboarding!