Real Ultimate Power and Ghost/Aliens!

http://www.realultimatepower.net/index4.htm

Been a while since I checked this site out, but I forgot how funny these guys are! Ghost/Aliens is pretty rad and hope these guys keep doing what their doing. Make sure you watch the video parts on Ghost/Aliens.

http://www.ghostsaliens.net/

Blogging on other Blogs!

So I've kinda been checking out other blogs as of lately. Mainly because I've tried to make the conscious effort to understand and get a little better at communicating through the use of the internet. I was once a skeptic and very anti internet social. I couldn't stand people that were into Twitter and thought "What's the point, I facebook, it's the same thing!" Well, It was probably just that I didn't understand what people were doing or how these other social networking sites were being used. Not only that but I had a big change in my outlook and perspective on things. 2009 was a very rough year for me as well as a lot of others out there and I realized there are things that I must change in order to get better at things that I felt were my weaknesses. Besides the more I looked around and observed the more I felt out of touch. It didn't really bother me except for the fact that I would look at my daughter and realize that she will be growing up with all of these things and they will be second nature to her. And as a parent I felt that I would want to understand the next generations of youth growing up with all this technology around them. I mean, I can't even imagine how things will change by the time she hits my age and I didn't want to get old not understanding my own child and her behavior. Besides there were quite a few things I felt that needed some improvement in my life as well. One being my communication skills with others, and where is a better place to begin than with on facebook. I mean I feel that in order to get better at communicating with those I don't know, I should at least get better at communicating with those that I do know. So I signed up for Twitter, became more active on Linked In, and even started a radio show on blip.fm. I'm still learning how to use and navigate these sites, but at least its put things on my radar. Like this great blog site called "Bit Rebels" http://www.bitrebels.com/ I've found some really good blogs to read. Founded by Richard Darell whom I guess has a previous successful blog called Minervity.com . Richard and his team of really good bloggers seem to find some great online content on a minute to minute basis. Now I know that some may think ah who needs minute to minute content. Well, you don't, but if you want to check it out, there's a site that you can check out and even edit through depending on your own interest. Besides, no one is pointing a gun to your head telling you, "you have to look into this and that" and "you have to be more active on the internet". I'm finding that as things are becoming more available and widespread. So is the freedom to find things out on your own time and at your own level. So far I'm pretty excited at some of the things I'm finding and doing on the internet! Its kind of a new open virtual frontier that you can choose to be a part of on your own time.

The Cove!

Finally was able to see the great documentary The Cove recently. The movie pretty much speaks for itself, showing the visual power of documentary film making. The OPS team does a great job taking the viewer along for the ride through the planning and execution of the undercover operations of finding out what goes on in the hidden cove of Taiji. By the time you see the end credits rolling to the sound of Heroes, you'll probably be asking yourself "how can I contribute to this cause". And thats something I liked a lot about the picture is that it doesn't present an elitist perspective from the people making this committed effort to save these dolphins. Rather more or less asking for your help and contribution to their cause. An almost open invitation to help out in an effort that affects us all or will affect us all in the coming future. The film also does a great job on educating the viewer about the widespread amounts of mercury found in not only the dolphin meat being consumed by an unknowing Japanese public, but also the high levels in larger seafood animals like Tuna. As a fan of the local sushi bar and fresh sashimi, this is a very sad thought to ponder. There's nothing like a nice slab of Toro over some rice dipped in some soy sauce with lots of wasabi. Toro also being very fatty Tuna probably has some of the largest concentrations of mercury. Combine that with over fishing, I'm amazed we haven't fished the sea's to the point of an underwater desert already! For large populations across our planet there are many who depend on the sea for survival. I believe that if we all don't become educated sooner than later, us and our children will be looking into a very grim future for humanity. This film does a great job in that it educates us, as well as gives us a head start to fixing our mistakes. For more info and how to become active in this subject log onto http://www.thecovemovie.com/home.htm and see the movie if you haven't already!

Harbour Chronicles Exhibition: The life's work of Rich Harbour!

Rich Harbour has been making some of the best surfboards for over 40 years. On Saturday Feb. 13th, Rich's life work as a shaper/designer/photographer was honored at the Harbour Chronicles: A Life in Surfboard Culture Exhibition in Costa Mesa, CA. From the Rapier, San-O, Banana, and Cheater, Rich has demonstrated his mastery at Surfboard Design and Shaping. The minute you see one of his boards firsthand you'll either want to buy a board adding to your quiver or perhaps take some surf lesson's and start surfing. The glassing is always super glossy with some of the coolest color ways I've seen out there. I've just always liked how Rich's boards looked aesthetically. The Concave,Nose Channels, Stringers and Tail Block work all seem to flow perfectly with each different board I've seen. Having a 9'8" San O, I've come to really appreciate the board design and how it performs from paddling out to surfing a wave. Rich helped me pick out my first surfboard and since catching my first wave I've been hooked on the feeling of flying across the water, and cruising down the line of a right or left. This exhibition also has a companion book that is due to be released on February 26th. The art show will be running up until April 9th at the Frank M. Doyle Art Pavilion at Orange Coast College. For more info on Harbour Surfboards log on to: http://www.harboursurfboards.com/index.asp

Photo by Rich Harbour.

A Shapers Workspace!

Check out that Gun!

Current line up of Rich's modern longboards.

Professional Photographer and friend Daniel Hennessy, Quan Nguyen, and Nabeel Hatin. Thanks to Dan and Melissa Hennessy for getting me into surfing.

Legendary Waikiki Beach Boy Rabbit Kekai and Langdon Taguiped. Langdon's going to be my random sightings guy who happens to pop up in my blogs from time to time.

A classic Harbour pin stripe design!

Me and the man of the hour Rich Harbour. Hope to see you in the water soon!

One of my all time favorite Photographers: Herman Leonard!

Buddy Rich, NYC 1954 © Herman Leonard Photography, LLC

Herman Leonard is an American Photographer who is known for some of the coolest portraits of jazz legends during some of the best era's of jazz. Around 1996 I was at a book store trying to find "Fuck You Heroes" By Glenn E. Freidman. I was checking out the Jazz book section and happened to come across a book with some of the most amazing black and white portraits of all the Jazz greats. Poeple like Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, and Buddy Rich to name a few. One thing that struck me about the photographs was Herman Leonard's use of light. Now I know that back in those days they didn't have all the fancy strobe equipment that most of us modern photographers come to rely on. So its either using the available stage lighting or sculpting something with hot lights. Either way Mr. Leonard is obviously great at lighting, composition, and tonality of his photographs. Also you can see a great relationship with the subject matter, there seems to be a very personal feeling to all of his imagery. Each photo always felt somewhat posed and not posed at the same time. Almost a choreographed sense of reality that I love about each portrait. Whether its cigarette smoke billowing in front of a saxman like Dexter Gordon. Or a backstage/rehearsal moment with Charlie Parker. Leonard has captured a great photo of a great individual in an exciting time during the jazz age. As a Photographer myself, I've strived to create timeless imagery. There are certain moments in the musical landscape that will never exist again. Its always a great discovery to find that someone has not only captured it but has captured it in a way that makes the documentation Art worthy. To see more of Herman Leonard's work log onto http://www.hermanleonard.com/ Upcoming gallery shows at Fahey/Klein Gallery on April 1, 2010 and currently at Jazz at Lincoln Center-New York,NY Exhibit Oct.13, 2009-Feb. 14, 2010. Thanks to Geraldine Baum at Herman Leonard Photography, LLC for letting me use the above image of Buddy Rich!

Too Much Fun on Blip.fm!

Just been going a little online DJ crazy as of lately. Martin Wong over at Giant Robot turned me onto this new DJ social network site called Blip.fm. You as well as everyone you know can now become a virtual DJ on the web. Which is totally okay and rad because so many people are self proclaimed DJ's anyway. Don't get me wrong, there are some great DJ's out there. But they hard to come by and just like a good live band, you either know about them or you don't. Well you can have some fun too and create your own playlist's online with what seems like a large database of material to pull from. I really like this site for a lot of the live tracks that I've found as well as just putting up some of my favorite songs. I've also linked it to my twitter account which is linked to my facebook account. So every time I list a song on my playlist it updates the other 2 sites as well. This may annoy your twitter and facebook friends. But I haven't heard any negative comments yet, but if your annoyed with my posts. Sorry twitter and facebook friends! Join in the fun and create your own playlist, I think a playlist of songs says a lot about someones personality and mood. So its definitely cool to see what kind of a playlist you may come up with. I'm just having fun with it and hopefully it doesn't get me to addicted, although I guess I could be addicted to something much worse. Anyway, its a fun way to listen to music and listen to your friends taste in music. http://blip.fm/BenClark

Extra juice with the iPhone mophie case!

Not sure how often the rest of you run out of battery power on your iphone. But this happens to me all the time. Especially if your running applications, watching movies or surfing the internet. Well I recently purchased one of these battery life extender cases made by Mophie. Not only will it double your iPhone's battery life, but its not that bulky and still contours to the iPhone's sleek design. The case acts like a separate battery that you turn on when your iPhone is down to about 20%. Then the mophie will act as a charger and charge your phone back up. You can still charge your phone through the mophie usb wire also. It'll run you about $80.00 which isn't a big investment if you depend on your phone a lot. I'm constantly being surprised at how high tech gadgets are changing the way we live. Apple and its accessory companies are constantly turning us all into high tech humanoids.

iPad, iPad, iPad, you know you want one!

Okay, so there's a whole bunch of people out there already talking about the iPad. I'm sure there's a million blogs out there about the product as I'm writing this. But I just wanna say, Apple has pretty much done it again in creating another computerized mobile devise that we all want. Think of the future generations of the iPad, will it take over, and will it evolve the personal computer and laptop as we know it. I do think that we are just beginning to see the potential of what may come ahead in the future. Just remind yourself that this is a 1st generation of this apple product and to me, it looks pretty damn awesome for the first of its kind. Kinda like Led Zeppelin I, what a doozy of a first record. I don't think another band or musician has topped that record for a 1st record. Lets just put it this way, as a photographer I'm seeing several uses already. One that could save the print magazine world, if that world is open to it. Lets face it, I love checking out the magazine stands and printed material is always nice. But the future of the media is changing and so are a lot of things. We are now in a part of our culture that says keep up or fall behind and fade off into obscurity. Which is fine if you like being obscure. I just think that if someone can develop the app or program to make magazines online. It would even cut print costs for the magazine's out there. Just imagine getting a folder emailed to you with a file that is an issue of a magazine. You would still have either a subscription or there would be some online mag store to purchase these files. You then have a virtual magazine that can be viewed by your iPad. Now I know its only 9", but like I said this the 1st generation and apple can decide later if it will create larger or even mid and smaller versions of the iPad. Magazine's could still charge for advertising depending on their circulation and popularity. They could still even release a printed product if they like. If the content is good I would still buy a magazine. Or even if a magazine just created an annual printed edition at the end of the year. The online material could be something that could create a tangible book edition at the end of the year and could be sold as a collectible. This could be pretty thick and they could probably charge more for it than a news stand cover price. I'm just throwing this out there because I see the potential in the future. I've heard that apple has already made a deal with college textbook companies that will probably increase the number of sales of the iPad and eTextbooks to that age group. Now that sounds like a vision of the future out of some Sci Fi movie. A bunch of college students walking around or sitting at table's on campus with their iPad. You now just need Marty McFly to cruise by with his hover board. And thats supposed to be 2015 I think, which is 5 years away. All I'm saying is that the potential is just scratching the surface and it will be up to new generations of Entrepreneurs to lead the way. And Apple is definitely one of those Entrepreneurs in the now.