Doll Hospital

CD cover of "Doll Hospital"

Warning! This is a blatant promotion. For one of your better neighbors, of course. Heather Eatman. Remember her? She's the bestest! She's got her band's CD out already, also called "Doll Hospital".

Jane and I heard the band perform the numbers in the CD in the East Village, in New York, late last year. They're all excellent!. The best tracks are "My Ex-Wife" and "Bluebird Ballroom" (these tracks can be downloaded for free from their website). They're like twisted swing tunes with an edge, and fun! Great lyrics. Cabaret-ish and Burlesque-ish and all that. And yeah, check out her other releases too!

There. I think I've done my duty as a big fan.


XXX

P.S.

Send my regards when you see her.

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Spice Store (This is a test)

© Joselito Briones

I was looking at Erwin Olaf's works yesterday, and, as is usual when I see something I like, I try to see if I can do it myself. (Remember when I did a sorta kinda Pierre et Gille somewhatta?)

This time I deliberated on how to achieve his signature desaturated colors, digitally. It's his colors, after all, that he is most famous for.

The photo on top is the finished product. I guess it wouldn't be worth showing anyway if I thought I didn't succeed in emulating his colors. It's not exactly perfect yet, but I think I've got the principle.

© Joselito Briones

I guess I'll just have to make it a little bit less reddish, and still a bit less saturated. Oh well.

The photo below is the original. The photo was taken using my Canon powershot digital camera. Boring picture. It's a spice shop, close to the center of city, in the pedestrian zone.

Next step: How do I achieve the same effect using film and traditional darkroom printing? I have an idea, of course, but whether or not I'll have enough interest to actually test that idea remains to be seen.

XXX


P.S.
I started storing some of my blog photos in Flickr. Here's the link.

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Eishaus

© Joselito Briones

It's such a welcome respite from the heat. It's become a routine for me to, right after German class, go to the Zentrum, binge on heart-attack food (Bauch Brötchen - roasted pork belly with crispy skin, in bread) and ice cream afterwards.

I've tried several ice cream vendors, and they all seem to be generic, taste-wise. Good, but nothing to write home to mom about. What they differ in, though, is the size of the serving. Eishaus, for 70 €uro cents, gives you the equivalent of at least 3 scoops of ice cream from the other stores. And as if you won't think that's a lot already, they put it in a tiny crispy cone which makes it look like an enormous amount of ice cream. The first time I had it, I was stressed. How does one eat this without making a mess? You end up trying to gobble up as much as you can in as little time, or you'll have to deal with the stuff dripping all over your hand. Try and lick your hand in public.

For a grown man, eating this amount of ice cream from a small cone (or for that matter, any amount of ice cream, in any size of cone) ranks up there with eating bananas or deep-throating wieners in public. There's just no dignified way of doing it.

XXX