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Remembering Kuma

This date, three years ago, was a Sunday. Kuma loudly meowed, demanding to go outdoors, earlier than usual. He was untypically agitated, pacing around the front door and sliding glass that opened onto a small balcony. I usually let him out after first light—sometimes as early as 6:30 but usually not before 7, and I started the trek with him into the back alley.

But this day, I broke routine, letting him out at six, into darkness. He went alone. I vividly recall the majestic Maine Coon looking up at me, making eye contact—as if to say “You’re not coming with me today?”—before slipping out our apartment complex’s back gate. I never saw him again. 

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Flickr a Day 15: ‘Cherry Pop’

Choosing a camera is as much about how it looks as how good the photos can look in the right hands. One reason I bought the Fujifilm X100T is the retro-design. But I made few compromises, given the compact’s benefits. Flickr member Janine, and that’s all the name she gives, confesses choosing fashion over photography.

She shot the selfie, on July 10, 2010, using her then new Sony NEX-3, which she mainly bought for the color. Janine explains: “Meet the new toy, Cherry Pop. In hindsight, I realize I should’ve just bought the NEX-5 cos it can function with a remote. But I really, really want a red one…I’m justifying”. 

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Amazon Echo Isn’t

You just gotta love Amazon. This morning, at long last, I received my invitation for Echo, the sizzlingly voice-controled streaming speaker that I raved about just two months ago. As a Prime member, I pay half-price, just $99. What a deal! Since then, I jealously waited while reading what others blogged about how much they enjoyed their Echoes. The device fits squarely where I contend is the next iteration in user interfaces: voice. Touch is just so passé.

In retail, customer impressions are everything. My first reaction was excitement, but the second turned it to dust. This thing won’t ship until sometime between May and July? Seriously? It’s like a bad Consumer Electronics Show joke, where the hottest tech device in this solar system debuts in January, but sales don’t start until November. Don’t sell me something I can’t get for at least five fraking months

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Flickr a Day 13: Lucky Shot

The unluckiest number is good designation for a photographer caught in the rain—making his own luck. My feature photo on the thirteenth day comes from Flickr newcomer Iliyan Yankov, who joined just 12 months ago. He also posts to Facebook.

He describes himself as a “student in Italy studying arts. One of my passion is the photography. I love to travel around the world and capture it. If I have some free time I love to go out on the street with my camera and spend hours there capturing the atmosphere”. Ha! When i previewed Iliyan’s self-titled “Raining London at Night”, my wife remarked: “It has a lot of atmosphere!” He describes his photographic style well. 

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Good God, Gawker, You Had Me at ‘Hi, There’

Nick Denton’s little publishing empire often doesn’t get the credit deserved. Among the new media ops, click-whores like Business Insider, BuzzFeed, and Huffington Post grab the spotlight. But their granddaddy, Gawker Media, knows better 13 years since its founding—literally three lifetimes as measured in online publishing. Forget dog years. Denton’s shop is ancient, and it thrives by reincarnating in place. The Gawker in 2015 bears little resemblance to the circa 2002—Hell, even 2013. That’s a good thing.

What I always liked about the new media property: Application of newspaper-like editorial ethics for getting scopes, sourcing stories, and producing original content to online news gathering. All the while writing is current and cantankerous, and editors experiment with different design, content production, and stylistic strategies. Stated differently: Gawker is the best of print tabloid journalism applied to online publishing. Bottom-feeding aggregators that imitate the tabloid headline style, and dong so grope pageviews, are piss-poor imitations. 

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The Old Man

With the exception of song lyrics (see “Empire State” and “Surrealistic Pillow“), my storytelling has mostly been non-fiction. My forthcoming serialized ebook My Blood will be the first fictional foray. But for years, I also considered writing short stories. “The Old Man” is draft version of one of them, for an anthology with tentative title Unhappy Endings. I can’t say that I will ever complete the concept.

The opening sentences are real life. Once, while standing in a pharmacy line, I heard an elderly gentlemen spat those snarky sentiments at the clerk. None of the rest of the story is based on any living person in my life or experience with anyone whom I know. Some of the cat description comes from our lost Maine Coon Kuma. Any resemblance to reality stops with the opening and the feline.

Something else: I am not an angry or resentful person, so writing about someone who exhibits such emotions is unfamiliar territory to me, which is one reason for undertaking the storytelling exercise. They say you should write about what’s familiar; my attempt is the opposite. I wrote the draft story a few days after San Diego Comic-Con ended in July 2013.

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Flickr a Day 12: Tribos Bar

Tight describes the playing of great rock bands. It also applies to the photos Alvaro Sasaki takes of them—in Brazilian clubs, cafés, and bars, where getting the shot means close quarters, big crowds, and hostile lighting. His best photos pull you into the performance. You can taste the sweat in the room, breathe perfume and liquor, and tremble to the vibration of music and stomping of the crowd.

The image above isn’t my first choice but the second, and I started with an unusually large initial selection—about a dozen, which is the most for any photographer in the Flickr-a-Day series. Alvaro’s musician performance pics are that good. I chose the audience shot because of the entire album set—Mestre Ouriço @ Tribos bar; 26 photos. 

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This is Me Then and Now Too

Following my embarrassing confessional comparing photos of me in 2004 and 2014 comes another: 2005 vs 2015. Midday, my wife and I sat inside the local Panda Express, where she commented how I look like a different person from what I used to.

I’m lighter. In the photo on the left, from a decade ago in March, I weighed 95 kilos (210 pounds). Anne snapped the right pic while she ate lunch when today I weigh 63.4 kilos (139.8 pounds). That’s down from 70 kilos (152 pounds) in August 2014. 

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Flickr a Day 11: Trope

You can discover the most interesting people on Flickr, unexpectedly and with little effort. I found this photo by searching “trope”, and for no particular reason. What I like: Contrasting focus, and how it’s composed, with the game player bokehed (gasp, probably not a word, but frak it) and Nintendo 3DS XL focused. The device’s rich red pops. This would be a perfect product shot for marketing purposes. But it’s not.

The credited photographer, Anita Sarkeesian, is a controversial feminist game critic. Three years ago, her Tropes vs Women in Video Game series Kicktartered (I swear that’s gonna be a word) asking for $6,000 and raising $158,922. Her Feminist Frequency website is down as I write, but its YouTube has vids for the series, which stirred up trouble—like threats against her. 

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Comic-Con Heroes: The Dark Knight

For San Diego Comic-Con 2015, I am required to reverify my press status—the second time since starting to attend as news media in 2009. I submitted the required documents and story links in early December 2014 and now anxiously await my SDCC fate. If denied, I will unlikely attend this year’s Con, having missed other opportunities to register. If that happens, the world won’t end. Life will go forward. But my birthday, which occurs during the July 9-12 dates, will be somewhat sorrowful this year.

I love Comic-Con for what it represents: Storytelling and attendees being or associating with the people they wish they could be. I laid out my thoughts on the latter concept in July 2010 post “The Roles We Play“, which I adapted as the introduction to my 2013 event project: Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth. I had much hope for the ebook, when published about 18 months ago. But sales were never good—and as distance grows greater from the events told, time diminishes the content’s value.