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Snapshots

Under Construction
   
A photo session in Emeryville.


March 22nd, 2006

Even Mention It
Wednesday. OK, so the doctor says it's not sinuses, this aching face of mine, but probably changes brought on by the jaw operation now six years old. Other options weren't mentioned. A sinus scan has been scheduled. I am now home contemplating the four day weekend I'm taking starting tomorrow, the idea to go into the studio and learn a couple of things with the lights in preparation for the session coming Saturday. And to sleep in late. And to get away from the office. I said I was going to start in the studio last Saturday, but found the aching face a deterrent. Those two bottles of sake Saturday night might have been a factor too.

I had an urge to buy a bottle of sake on the way home from work this afternoon, but it passed, remembering my last less than wonderful result. I am learning how little I like less than wonderful results. I'll probably have to learn it all over again, of course, what with the usual crew of malcontents talking about tasting the latest batch of home brew after work tomorrow, but, you know, what the hell? This session is scheduled after I've finished in the studio, of course, having (no doubt) made great progress. One must celebrate one's progress.

Both of the Chinese soaps I've been watching for these last many weeks on Channel 26 have ended and their replacements seem unwatchable. The series most recently ended was occasionally unwatchable, but with odd twists that brought me back to it each evening. It is one of what I assume are a genre of fantasy Kung Fu epics set in some mythical-mystical Chinese past well known and understood in Asian markets that have the feel of a genre we're all familiar with here in the West: a standard slap stick boy meets girl comedy designed for a younger audience, a genre I haven't given up on totally, but care very little about now that I've become an old coot who carries a camera.

The twist they've added to this Asian genre is the addition of tragic beginnings, middles and endings. The three major female characters who find true love with, well, two of the major male characters are murdered. The fourth major female character, who happens to be one of the villains, is killed in the end by the last remaining lead male character who then spends his remaining years raising his brother's son (the brother having sacrificed himself for the surviving brother in the battle with the young female villain) arguably mad as a hatter living alone with the son in a desolate valley. Which is reasonably weird for a Western slap stick boy meets girl comedy ending. At least the ones I'm familiar with. Here in Oakland.

And this means?

Nothing, I suppose. Odd enough to be watching Chinese television. Odd enough to be looking forward to watching the next Chinese-Korean-Japanese television series coming down the pike. Or is it odd to even mention it?

 
The photograph was taken at a photo session in Emeryville with a Nikon D2x mounted with a 17-55mm 2.8 Nikkor lens at 1/160th second, f 7.1, ISO 100.

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