Nikon, NASCAR, Rush Limbaugh, and Darth Vader...

I just finished watching the NBC special on a day in the life of the Obama White House, and I have to say it was a fantastic PR piece. Not like I needed it. Just the other day the President was on NPR and I realized just how comforted I was by his voice. I used to claim that hearing Dubya annoyed me, but not until recently, within this new Barack context, have I grasped the full extent of the emotional distress that the mere sound of the prior President's prattle invoked. I now fully admit that listening to President Bush speak was about as agonizing as being anally impaled by a rod of splintered balsa wood.*

While we're on the topic of politics, I would appreciate if Mr. Limbaugh would either run for office or shut the fuck up. Of course, he'll do neither. There's far more financial gain to be had in hiding behind his "e-i-b golden microphone" than there is in any congressional lobbyist handout(s). Much like Barack, I take Rush (and all the other famous talking heads, Dem or GOP) like a WWE wrestler. It's all an act, and they all have their little testosterone soap opera parts to play. Of course he doesn't really possess the courage of his convictions. But hey, that's the beauty of capitalism, and part of me has to admire his hustle. There's always a Darth Vader-esque Yang to the fairer Yin. Oh well. C'est le capitalisme Américaine.

One thing about the Barack TV special, though: Throughout, to accentuate the energy and hipsterness of his 20something west wing staff pool, they repeatedly played an upbeat and catchy disco-like bit of pop music... which just happened to be the intro to The Ting Tings' breakup anthem "Shut Up and Let Me Go".

Hmm...

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There was also a commercial for NASCAR depicting an automobile race with the sound of thundering horse hooves. That's all well and good, except that I seriously doubt that when a stock car blows a tire, they put it to death. Fucking Kentucky Derby.

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Liz had me follow her on a location portrait shoot today, and gave me her second camera with which to shoot alongside her. You have no idea how wonderful it felt to hold in my hands and operate a premium Nikon D2x camera. Recently, I (your friend and humble narrator) have to admit to a sense of losing that lovin feeling with regards to photography. I just don't have the oomph that I once did to take pictures of the random crap surrounding me here in Podunk Ohio. Perhaps because I now have a deep seated grasp and understanding of the once esoteric principles of composition, light, color, exposure, depth of field, etc., the fascination is lost on me. There's no mystery.

I dunno.

But today was an amazingly liberating experience... a catharsis, if you will. To work with Liz creating her (and now, my) brand of high-end professional portraiture is to take every bit of my valuable experience gained at Woodard in Cleveland, strip away all of the cookie-cutter-picture-factory rules, rigidity, regulation, and otherwise bullshit that they leveled on me stifling my creative process, and let her Nikon sing in my OIP trained hands as a violin in the caress of a Juilliard-disciplined musician.

(Oh, the drama!)

We, dear readers... you and I... are on the ground level of something big. I can feel it.

:-)

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* 1000 bonus points (and a congratulatory "shame on you") to whomever can identify the artist and song title of the preceding reference.