stefangutermuth.com

A satire, a post-appocalyptic circus, a mechanical spectacle; performances by Mark Pauline and SRL are all of these. Started over 30 years ago in San Francisco, SRL has become a venerable force in industrial art and robotics. This was the first SRL show since relocation to Petaluma. It featured the Running Machine and Big Arm. While there were no pyrotechnics and no fumes or noise, that old element of danger was still there. A steel bar from the photo kiosk that was destroyed early on, went flying off at almost lethal velocity but landed in a random (and empty) section of field nearby (pieces of the demolished kiosk are seen in the foreground of photo #1). Mark Pauline is in the black cowboy hat.

There have been a lot of changes in photographic media in the last 5 years. Though I love my Nikon DSLR and my Lumix point and shoot cameras, I long for contact sheets and other lost materials of the analog world. I miss the local one-hour photo shop that did super enlargements and prints from film or cd. I miss Polaroid film (I have just one, outdated package of 600 film left, that I am saving for some special photoshoot with my 680 SLR).

The Impossible Project has saved the day for Polaroid lovers. They have just introduced a newly manufactured black and white Polaroid film for the SX70 camera (I’m going to have to bug my Dad to look in the garage, because I think he has an SX70 in a cabinet out there). Soon, The Impossible Project will have a new color film, and they have good stock of surviving 600 film right now.

What a cool endeavor, The Impossible Project. Dutch scientists took a ten-year lease on an old Polaroid factory and proceeded to reinvent the unique Polaroid photography process. As the world becomes digital, TIP is valiantly preserving the analog.

Here is a mini gallery of favorite polaroids; Ships restaurant in LA, demonstrates the rich natural color the film was capable of; a thousand-year-old egg that was a chinese new year gift from a student; a birthday card, based around my son’s arm cast, which we had just painted. © stefangutermuth 2010.

A few weeks ago, in September, there was a lot of media hyperbole about the release of the complete Beatles oeuvre in digital remaster.

The hyberbole was largely justified and even if you were laid off this month, especially if you were laid off this month, I would suggest shelling out the 16 bucks to get the White Album. There is tremendous value in this new package. You get an entire universe on these 2 cds.

The Beatles White Album is a full out masterwork, juxtaposing poignant rustic melodies with dense orchestral arrangements and careening rock and roll. Listen on high fidelity headphones to get the full effect! The new release overflows with an abundance of fidelity. Even if you have heard the songs one hundred thousand, million times, you will hear something new in these remastered cds. If you grew up listening to this sublimely creative LP, you will revel in the sound quality of this new release. If you have somehow never heard it, welcome to a plateau of all modern culture, an epiphany, a revelation. Don’t hesitate, you can even buy it at many Starbucks stores.

I spend most of my time sitting in front of two computers. My waking hours are consumed by the Adobe Creative Suite, and other software. My eyes track colored pixels and photons across a vast electric plain.

Saturdays and sundays, I need to focus my eyes on something softer and multi-dimensional, and I’m ready for a lot of fresh air. Hiking is the answer.

The cost of living has always been high in California, but the access to outrageous outdoor environs is good compensation. The San Francisco Bay Area has some of the most accessible outdoor getaways of any urban mega-city, and some of the most spectacular. Now, that is threatened by recent fiscal disasters and budget deals, so that some parks will be closed, perhaps as many as one hundred.

Certainly an easy target for closing is a small, historic state park such as Olompali, near Novato. I hiked at Olompali last sunday and caught a tiny blue bellied lizard in my hat. The dappled forest light soothed my eyes and the oaks shielded me from the intense sun. It was cool in the woods and ferns. I paid eight dollars to park in the parking lot for 4 hours, and I had access to a huge, uncrowded, wooded preserve just minutes away from my home. I would pay twice that. I would also pay a vehicle licensing fee of fifteen dollars, another idea that was floated to solve the crisis.

There must be a way to keep more parks open.

We need all of them.