Critiques and bongos
I went to my second Digital 102 class last night. The class started off with a critique. I brought some of my East Atlanta Strut shots for the critique and everybody liked them. The instructor even said I have a “good eye”. I’ve been waiting a while for someone to say that, it’s a very big confidence booster. I’ve been getting a lot of compliments on my recent shots, I think I’m finally starting to make some progress. I want to get to the point of being completely confident in my abilities as a photographer. I hit that years ago as it relates to computer knowledge. It will be nice once I get there for photography. Don’t get me wrong I still like it when someone says I’m good with computers or is impressed with something that I do. It’s just that I don’t need that to know I’m good (man, I’m sounding like an arrogant dick here). Of course there is always more to learn (bad cliche’). Especially with computers and there will always be someone who knows more (another bad cliche’). I like where I’m at though. Photography though, is something I really love. People that know me are aware I jump around to a lot of different interests. Dropping most of them after an intense short-term interest but I’ve stuck with photography for quite a while. I have put it down here or there but I always come back to it. The technical aspect is part of the reason it attracts me, it satisfies my geekish tendencies, especially now that I’ve gone digital. But the main reason I’m drawn to it is to create something unique. Since I don’t program, my computer escapades don’t fulfill that need. Building a computer or fixing a problem doesn’t give me much satisfaction. However when I look at one of my photos and think “wow I took that” or someone says nice photo, it make me glad to be alive.
Now switching gears (damn, another bad one), after class I went to the EARL (surprise) to see & hear Dub is a Weapon and Elemental Harmonics. I ended up going by myself. The strange thing is I don’t mind going out by myself when I’m out of town. I almost always have a good time and meet interesting people. When I’m home though I usually don’t, it tends to make me uncomfortable. I don’t know what the difference is, maybe because I don’t have a choice out of town. Well whatever it is I want to start breaking the habit, there have been numerous times I didn’t do something because I failed to recruit anyone and I’m sure I’ve missed out on some good times. As I was waiting for the show to start I wanted a cigarette bad. Part of it was the nicotine calling me but mostly because it would have given me something to do. For some reason I feel better hanging out by myself with a cigarette then without one. It’s like I’m not here alone, see I’ve got my little friend ciggy with me. I held out though, when I pulled up in my driveway after the show I did light one up but tossed it down after taking a quarter drag. It tasted like shit, it was one of my backup packs thankfully. If it were a Dunhill I might have smoked it.
Ok, back to the show. Elemental Harmonics is an electronica Atlanta band that has a little dub mixed in. Really good chill out music. Dub is a Weapon is a dub (no, really?) band from Brooklyn NY. They put on a good show, their bongo player Larry McDonald was phenomenal! He used one drum and it sounded like two or more. Occasionally they put echo effects on it and it was really crazy then. I’m no bongo expert but he is definitely the best bongo player I have ever seen. I did a quick search on Google this morning and found out he has played with Bob Marley, Toots Hibbert, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, the Skatalites, Gil Scott-Heron, Taj Mahal and Shemekia Copeland. After the show I went to tell him how good he was (as if he didn’t know) and I said something to the effect of “dude you kicked ass!” which is just like saying “hi, I’m a dumbass and can’t think of anything to say to you so You Rock Man!!!!! whooo!!!!”. I think he appreciated the comment though. I didn’t have a lot of beer only three or four I think, I did do a shot though and I’m paying for it today. I just can’t drink like I used to anymore. That’s four cliches in one post! Actually I never drank a ton but I could hold my own.
I promise no cliches in the next post…
-Alex
