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Over the holiday break, I picked up a Tori Amos CD I’ve been wanting for a while.

“The Beekeeper” was released in February of 2005 and features 19 songs by the singer-songwriter I first heard in the early 1990’s on The Johnny Carson show.

Has it been that long ago?

So far my favorite track is “Witness”, however, “Orange Knickers” may not make my itunes folder.

Recently, I’ve been digging her music and really enjoy her 2002 album “Scarlet’s Walk”.

What can I say? Amos is a beautiful singer. She has a unique style and voice and she’s a prolific songwriter. Her latest album “American Doll Posse” has 23 songs.

Her music has an eloquent sense of timing and rhythm. I often use the pace of “Scarlet’s Walk” to time my cadence during 5-mile power walks on Sunset Beach. If you don’t have an ocean nearby, listen with closed eyes and imagine the rhythm of the waves, the dunes, and the ocean breeze teamed with her voice. You’ll see why this is a perfect choice.  

Being a new serious listener, I’m looking to expand my collection of her music. Are there any diehards who can give me a clue on which way to go?

_______________________

You’re not colored blind and there’s nothing wrong with your monitor.

I’ve been working over the last week changing the color scheme of my blog to match (somewhat) the colors on my portfolio site.

I’m finding I like to tweak with the wordpress style.css file and I’m learning more each day. Next, I want to figure out how to put an image in the sidebar.

Today, I upgraded to wordpress version 2.3.2. This is only my second wp upgrade and I’m getting the hang of it. Pretty soon upgrades will become easy and I won’t feel the urge to blog about it. Oh my, what then will I blog about?

rlh

I remember the day vividly.

Bob Spears and Debbie “Hutch” Hutchinson had invited me for dinner at their home on Markham Street in Durham. During that summer in 1989, I was new to the city and always enjoyed the company of close friends.

As I walked into their living room, I noticed two things. The smell of the grilling pork loin set my mouth to watering and the sounds from the stereo made my toes tap. I listened quietly as the fast moving piano riffs filled the room and a deep low grunting sound followed the melody at sporadic intervals. “Who is this playing?” I asked with a note of guilt. Somehow I had the feeling this was someone I should already know about.

Bob announced with pride and confidence.

“It’s called ‘Oscar Peterson in Russia’ and it’s the greatest album ever recorded.”

He told me about the making of the album recorded live on November 17, 1974 in what was then the Soviet Union. Peterson (a Canadian) was one of the first western musicians allowed into the communist country.

We started the album over from the beginning and listened to the progression of the entire concert. I closed my eyes and visualized the audience. I imagined seeing their faces as they clapped lightly in response to the most amazing finger work on piano keys. I could see them looking around worried if their clapping would be considered too enthusiastic by attending communist party officials.

When Bob put on the second disc (this was a vinyl copy) and played the selections with Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass and Jake Hanna on drums, you could tell the audience members didn’t care anymore if their names were taken. They were persuaded by Peterson’s talent to let down their guard and feel the power of the music.

I, like the concert’s audience, allowed this music to change me. Peterson was a talent so great, politics and governments would tumble under the excitement of his skills. He was a man for all ages.

Thank you Bob and Hutch for introducing me to this music.

Oscar Peterson
August 15, 1925 - December 23, 2007

Click oscarpeterson.com to learn more about the life of the artist or click here to view a wonderful video recorded in 1974 with Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen. The video is well worth the time.

rlh

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On Saturday I was given a wonderful request to photograph centenarian Mildred Barr during her birthday celebration at the home of Garden City Beach resident Lynn Hicks. Ms. Barr has lived with Lynn for the last several years and they enjoy a strong mother-daughter like friendship.

The two met thirty-years-ago just after the death of Lynn’s mother. Mildred filled in as role of grandmother to Lynn’s kids and now Lynn cares for Mildred in her later years.

I worked on the video in sessions, playing with the edit between my 4 other weekend photo requests and a little after work. I finished the timeline sequence on Saturday evening and added the music and recorded dialogue on Sunday. The music came from an audio archive I keep handy for just this type of video.

Looking back, I wished I would of sped up the pace of the timeline a little. It seems a little slow and forced. I like the audio and loved how the subjects interacted. There is a part of the audio I wish I had edited out were Barr talks about how long her and Hicks had known each other. She had said something similar earlier.

If you want to know more, you can go to the link at myrtlebeachonline.com and read my colleague Johanna Wilson’s story.

Getting a birthday card from Vanna White would be would be pretty cool.

rlh

Abbot Chao Khun of Wat Carolina Buddhajakra Vanara in Bolivia, N.C. gave these New Year messages for members far from a quick drive to the Temple. This time we decided to include a message in Indonesian for those native to that language.

***** Hello to my friend Ian in Bali if you see this post. We wish you were still at the Temple in terra cotta robes. I hope life is treating you well.

These messages can be time consuming to put together. I’m struggling to keep the best sound quality that will stream on the Internet. For those with slow internet connection speeds, let me know if they are working and streaming smoothly for you.

Chao Khun and temple resident Shane Huddleston enjoy a recent warm afternoon at Wat Carolina with Beckham the cat. 

Chao Khun’s message in English

Chao Khun’s message in Thai

Chao Khun’s message in Indonesian

rlh

During my day off from work, I avoided the rain by getting the different elements together for a personal video about one of my favorite photographers.

Iva Clayton, who is a cousin through marriage, has become an inspiration and great friend during the years my father and her aunt have been married. Iva travels the world documenting with her Nikons, cultures often overlooked on the tourist lists. She just returned from Central America during a 3-week visit to Guatemala, Belize and then to Mexico. The latest trip was her second to the area this year. Four months ago she traveled there in a late model Volvo station wagon. Seeing the car in her driveway today, you can tell she had an interesting journey.

Here is a preview of a still sequence I may or may not use with the piece. There’s no audio, but I learned to batch process with Photoshop and this saved me much labor and time.

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My visit to Greensboro was memorable and included beautiful walks, fabulous dinners, and in-depth discussions of art and photography.

I recorded many of these conversations and documented our “beer is thicker than blood” journey through the nightspots of Green Town.

The image editing comes next and then the music and sound recording and editing. I look forward to seeing the 20 photos she’s chosen for me to use in the piece.

rlh

Here’s another photo for my “From the hip” series.

This photo was taken inadvertently last night while getting gear together for coverage of a presidential candidate in Myrtle Beach.
I was going to blog about covering the event but I must admit, this photo is much more interesting than the candidate.

If you must know more about the above-mentioned candidate, read my colleague Lorena Anderson’s blog about the evening. The post is funny and sad and a bit deep cutting in its truthful account of the evening. I think her account holds true for all the presidential candidates I’ve seen the year.

Democrat and Republican.

rlh

I bet my colleagues out there have taken similar photos.

You’re fumbling for your keys, wrestling with your notepad, trying to carry your cameras. You have a sound recorder bag on your right shoulder, video gear and your overnight bag on your left.

Suddenly you hear this sound……

For some reason here’s one I didn’t delete.

I like the idea of accepting small gifts that are not expected, so I’m going to make “From the hip” a category on the blog. We’ll see what the results are……

Also I’d like to thank megat azim jamil .com for my new wordpress theme. It’s so simple and the posts really stand out.

Thank you Megat for your hard work.

rlh

The visual dictionary is a collection of over 5000 images of some 3000 words from signage, graffiti, advertising and tattoos. I could see some cool uses for site design or video titles. I’m in the hunt for cool words to contribute to this community. No problem here, Myrtle Beach is the signage and graffiti capital of the world.

I put together a little welcome sign for my visitors

When asked about copyright issues, Matthew Knight the site’s originator said though e-mail, “The images are generally uploaded via a Creative Commons license, which allows them to be used for non-commercial projects, along with an attribution for the author (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). I always check with the authors though, and link back to the visual dictionary if in doubt.”

If you see this blog entry Matthew, does this mean I have to contact each “words” author and ask for permission? Man, that might take a while. Until then, I’ll just use for fun stuff like this blog or a personal video. I will not use them for the newspaper’s videos. I think I’ll be safe as long as I credit the visual dictionary website. 

rlh

Somehow, while I was out of the office, I was assigned the task of churning out the 2007 Sun News Toast of the Coast portraits. This duty takes place twice a year with the fall schedule being the biggest with 8 athletes to photograph. So many times I’ve done this it’s getting difficult to be creative and unique with the request.

Click here to view a gallery of the images

The portraits are good for the kids and gives them something to hang on their walls. The sports desk publishes the photos over a week and gives each sport it’s own page with a story by preps writer Josh Hoke.

It is an assignment I dread until I start, but then I usually have a lot of fun doing.

These businesses in downtown Myrtle Beach: The Gay Dolphin, Wild West Old Time Photos and The Fun Plaza were the background for a lot of the photos. I took one at the Sunset Beach Bridge with the help of local photographer Ron Holden and another on the Georgetown waterfront at Independent Seafood.

rlh

This week I designed using Wordpress and the K2 theme, a new interface for my Rusty Rails video project. It’s nothing fancy but shows a start in what can be done to design quick interfaces for multi-media projects. Wordpress and the K2 theme are free downloads and open source software.

I changed the colors on the K2’s theme to match the colors on my portfolio. This is done by editing the style.css file located inside the K2 theme.

Links for tutorials and software. 

Wordpress 

Free K2 Wordpress theme

Wordpress flash movie player

K2 community forum

Free Wordpress video tutorials at optiniche

Paul Stamatiou’s five part series on modifying the K2 theme

The Rusty Rails project was a training tool for me. I used this story to teach myself video production software. As I work more with video, I learn new techniques that are quickly making these videos look dated.

At a smaller paper like The Sun News, I have to do and learn everything about getting these projects on the web. The interface is the latest in a long series of things I needed to learn.

rlh