Yashica Electro GSN

Originally uploaded by alf sigaro

Toby and I were walking to grab a bite this afternoon and we popped into the Ditmars Thrift Store. I spent a few minutes looking through records and Toby headed for the book section. While she was reading the 2007 Guide to Las Vegas, I spotted a Yashica Electro GSN in the display counter.

I asked to take a look and everything seemed to be in working order. I couldn’t find a scratch on it and everything clicked like it should. The guy wanted $15 for it, which seemed like a pretty fair price to me.

I didn’t know much about it beyond the fact that it’s a rangefinder camera, but a little bit of research tonight told me that people really seem to love theirs. It’s known for its ability to take pictures in low light and its sharpness. We’ll see once Toby or I shoot some stuff with it.

… but not to the day…

I watched this live on TV that night and pretty much knew that was it for him. Yeee-ahhh!

Richard is a SAG member and thinks that Letterman is a “pig” for going back to work, even after carving out a deal with the WGA.

As he told me, he "starred" in the Billy Crystal/Robert De Niro movie "Anaylze This." Here’s his official Web site

Some guy from Letterman called the cops on him and the police officer made him go up the block a bit.

Vidiot pointed out in my Flickr comments that he was once profiled on This American Life.

“Act One. Self-Deception. This American Life producer Alex Blumberg tells the story of an ex-con-turned-actor named Richie Castellano. After a bit role in the movie Analyze This, he moved to a small town and got dozens of people to invest money and time in a movie that never premiered. Why so many people bought into his grandiose dreams, and what they learned about him—and themselves—after they got burned for it.”

Toby and I both appear in Peter Bochan’s “A Shortcut Through 2007.” This is my first time being in the year-end show. I guess it’s just another benefit of marrying the producer’s daughter.

Here’s a link to listen to it.

It will start playing automatically and you’ll get to look at all sorts of ads. It’s 59 minutes long, but it moves right along.

Here’s a description of the show:

An hour-long retrospective of the year–an explosive, emotional mix of the sounds, music and events of the past twelve months, “A Shortcut Through 2007″ opens with an introduction by the late sonic pioneer, Karlheinz Stockhausen and ends with a coda from Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto. Blending the concerns with our fragile social and ecological state with the clash between celebrity and fame at any cost, the perilous drive to succeed in politics, business and sports by any means necessary, with answers to the question-”What will you remember about 2007″

Featuring commentary from Art Buchwald, Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut, Marcel Marceau, Phil Rizzuto, Jerry Falwell, Gerald Ford, Woody Allen, Ricky Gervais, Alec Baldwin, Don Imus, Oprah Winfrey, Rev. Al Sharpton, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Brad Pitt, Tony Soprano and family, George W. Bush, Michael C. Hall, Baraka Obama, Joe Torre, George Mitchell, Barry Bonds, Larry King, Roger Clemens, Anna Nicole Smith and many others.

Music from Amy Winehouse, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Dre Dog, Bruce Springsteen, The Real Tuesday Weld, Peter Bjorn and John, Forro In The Dark (featuring David Byrne), Iron and Wine, The Sandpipers (with Phil Rizzuto, Tommy Henrich, Roy Campanella & Tommy Henrich), Boots Randolph, Boris “Bobby Pickett, Freddie Scott, Oscar Peterson, Ike & Tina Turner, Max Roach, Joe Zawinul (Mercy, Mercy, Mercy), Robert Goulet, Luther Ingram, Dakota Staton

Tributes to Luciano Pavarotti, Lady Bird Johnson, Porter Wagoner, Lee Hazelwood, Hilly Kristal (CBGB), Evel Knievel, Grace Paley, Don Herbert (Mr. Wizard), Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni,
Merv Griffin, Tom Snyder, Joey Bishop, Tom Poston, Calvert DeForest (Larry Bud), Charles Nelson Reily, Al Viola, Denny Doherty, Eric Von Schmidt, Teresa Brewer and many more.

Produced by Peter Bochan

Pretty good:

Here’s a question I’ve had to address more than once: Could a morbidly obese goalie shut out an NHL team?

Well, Todd Gallagher did the research for his book, Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan.

And it’s funny! Read it!

A friend asked a few questions about Flickr and I wrote up a response. I thought I’d post it here as well. Feel free to add more pointers in the comments.

Hey Matt, do you think you could give me some tips on how to use flckr to its potential? Just maybe a quick map of your workflow (how many photos you put up at a time, whether you use plug-ins to get them there, and if you cull your pics before/after the upload? things like that?) Because I have no idea what I’m doing, and I haven’t really given myself the time or space to experiment…

It really depends on how you want to use it. Some people just use it as a photo dump and upload everything they shoot. Other folks use it more as a photoblog sort of thing. That’s what I do (did?) and that’s how I like other people to use Flickr. Why clutter the site up with 100 pictures of the same tree, ya know?

Back when I paid more attention to what I was putting up, I’d put up 2 or 3 a day. They generally went together in some way (similar content, similar colors, similar composition, from the same event, etc.)

On my old computer, I used the uploading client located at http://www.flickr.com/tools/. It was pretty good, but I haven’t bothered installing it on my new computer. It makes it really easy to upload your photos. You don’t even have to go to Flickr to upload and you can tag and add photos to sets right from the client.

As far as workflow, it pretty much breaks down like this.

Shoot pictures -> look at what I shot -> take the “good” ones and put them in a folder called “keepers” or something -> go through keepers folder when I want to post something and find some (2 or so) to post -> edit them (if needed: crop, adjust color, etc.) -> post -> tag -> add to sets.

Tagging seems stupid now, but you’ll thank yourself later when you want to find a picture of “movie” or “meat” or “trees” or “tunnels” a year from now. Toby is much better about tagging than I am.

I tend to avoid putting things in groups, but it’s a really good way to give your pictures more exposure if that’s something you want. Avoid putting them into too many groups. That’s annoying and just bad form.

I have a pro account, though I probably don’t need it. I just like knowing that I don’t have to worry about any sort of restrictions getting in my way.

Any other questions, let me know.

I came across a New York Daily News story about office hookups (Office Party Hookups, All Year Long). Gee, who could this “Bill” fellow be who was mentioned in the About.com blurb??

Let’s see. I used to work at About.com in the editorial department. I like beer. I just got married in July. Nah…

The Price is Right is must-watch TV in our household…

Despite our somewhat recent interest in cooking new and exciting dishes, Toby and I didn’t eat much at home this weekend. Here are four places we ate:

Los Amigos Mexican Restaurant (Astoria) - We’ve lived in the Ditmars Blvd area of Astoria for a little over a year now and this is the first time we went to this place. I have no idea what took us so long. The food was pretty good and we’ll probably be back.

King China Buffet II (Astoria) - This is one of those places that we sort of went to as a joke the first time, but we’ve been back again and again. It’s a great place to go while doing laundry and I love my chocolate pudding, chocolate ice cream and cheese cake concoction for dessert.

P.J. Horgan’s (Sunnyside) - We decided to head over to Sunnyside to get a sense of the area on saturday night. After a walk up and down Queens Boulevard and Greenpoint Avenue, we stopped into P.J. Horgan’s for a drink. The food looked pretty good so we had dinner there as well. The turkey burger was pretty good, but the chicken pot pie didn’t come close to what you’ll get at McReilly’s in Long Island City. That said, I could easily see myself spending more time in this and the other bars of Sunnyside.

Indian Taj (Jackson Heights) – We drove out to my soccer game this week. On the way back, we stopped off in Jackson Heights for Indian buffet. I guess we have a thing for unlimited amounts of food. The Jackson Diner gets a lot of the attention, but I’ve never been. This place does the trick for me.