Music Films and Documentaries

Posted on May 10, 2007 by joe

I’ve been on watching a lot of music documentaries lately, including:

Jandek on Corwood — a documentary about a reclusive musician who lives in Houston, TX and has released 33+ records over the last 29 years. If you were very sick or out of your mind on drugs or both and woke up in the middle of the night hallucinating, Jandek’s music might be what you’d hear outside your window. Highly recommended for fans of outsider art. One of those films that sticks with you for a few days after you’ve watched it.
The Flaming Lips: The Fearless Freaks — If you’re a big fan of the Lips, you’ve probably already seen this documentary. Things get sidetracked at times, and the narrative doesn’t always flow well, but there are some great moments in the film including old photos, home movies, hilarious comments from Gibby of the Butthole Surfers, and a segment on Wayne Coyne’s bizarre outer space movie.
Black Flag Live (1984) — really bad sound and bad video editing. But even in this age of high definition this and that, I don’t care — the performance kicks ass. If you’re a fan of Henry Rollins this video is a must see. The material from My War is over the top.
Frank Zappa: Dub Room Special — Two Zappa performances, from 1974 and 1981, edited and interspersed with sketches and demented Bruce Bickford claymation. Track listings and plenty of editing complaints in the Amazon reviews. I liked it anyways. And Ruth Underwood rocks!

Coney Island duabubble lens cyanonegative

Posted on May 9, 2007 by joe

Untitled — by J. E. Piper (aka Raven Cat)

Photography News: Take One — Free

Posted on May 8, 2007 by joe

Take One — Free — by Joe Reifer

Don’t miss Paul Butzi’s The Artist’s Way of Commerce
Leo Fabrizio’s fascinating bunker photos via muse-ings
Chuck Westfall’s Canon Tech Tips for May
PDN takes a look at Flickr
Excellent airport travel advice from the pros articles from Think Tank

Interview: Randy Smith of Holgamods

Posted on May 7, 2007 by joe

Monkey — by Joe Reifer

I shoot a couple rolls with a Holga ever month. I got my tricked out Holga from Randy Smith’s www.holgamods.com. For just a little bit more than a stock Holga, Randy offers some really useful customizations. His standard mods include:

aperture modified to have f/8 or f/11 instead of just approximately f/13
focusing modified to allow close focusing down to 2 feet
modified mask
black interior flocking to reduce light leaks

My Holgamods holga also has a pin that allows you to do time exposures — excellent for night photography! Randy also does pinhole Holgas, pinhole body caps, and Holga lenses grafted to SLR body caps.
Deborah Lattimore interviewed Randy for JPG magazine issue #8. I had a few follow up questions, and he kindly agreed to an email interview:

Joe Reifer: How long have you been modifying Holgas?

Randy Smith: I believe I’m in my 6th year

JR: Are there other handmade camera builders or hackers that were an inspiration to you modifying Holgas?

RS: Not really. Most of my Ideas come from my needs, customer suggestions or from browsing some of the photo forums.

JR: How many Holgas do you usually modify in a day’s work?

RS: Too many — about 10-15 variations of my Holgas, maybe 4-8 digital Holga body cap lenses and a few pinhole body caps. Prior to doing the interview for Deborah Lattimore in JPG magazine, I was sending out about 250 Holgas a month. Since then, I’m up over 600 a month now. Can’t wait for it to slow down a little.