standard output

A weblog of nerdy opinions and other detritus by Michael Shane.

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Soon.

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I think Google Glass goes pretty well with a fedora.

[fuckyeahrachelmaddow]

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Presented without comment.

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Adam Davidson, in an essay for The New York Times:

That doesn’t stop both presidential candidates from constantly invoking the magnificent working-class economy we once had and can have again, if only we give them our vote. [...] Calling for a return to the days when everybody who was willing to put in a hard day’s work could make a good living at the factory is a fantasy, maybe a lie and certainly an implicit acknowledgment that nobody has any idea what to do with the underemployed in the slums of Trenton, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Southeast D.C. It’s safer to talk about Pakistan.

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This is one of the best things I have ever read. I know it's one of the best things I've ever read because I wish I had written it.

WE BELIEVE IN CHARACTERS BECAUSE THEY ARE OUR ANCHORS TO EXPERIENCE. OUR VESSELS. AND SAVE FOR THE OCCASIONAL MOVIE WHERE WE ARE MEANT TO LARGELY LOOK AT THESE CHARACTERS IN EXTERNAL TERMS (COENS PLAY WITH THIS BEAUTIFULLY), THEY ARE THE LENS THROUGH WHICH WE ABSORB THE CINEMATIC WORLD. CHARACTER IS OUR VESSEL INTO IDEOLOGIES AND THEMES AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD. IN THIS MEDIUM THAT SCULPTS IN TIME, THEY ARE OUR SIGN POSTS ON THE WAY TO UNDERSTANDING LIFE'S NARRATIVE. MEANING, YES, CHARACTER IS SO MUCH CLOSER TO WHY WE GO TO THE MOVIES. IT ALL COMES TO PASS... IF WE WERE MAKING A PROOF OF HOW A MOVIE WORKS: CHARACTER AND THAT CHARACTER'S CONNECTION TO THE THEME WOULD BE OF GREATEST POSSIBLE SIGNIFICANCE. IT IS THE VERY PURPOSE OF STORYTELLING. [...] EVEN THEN, HULK ADMITS THAT MOVIES ARE MYSTERIOUS, COMPLEX THINGS. CERTAIN THINGS WORK FOR MOST PEOPLE. CERTAIN THINGS DON'T. CERTAIN THINGS HIT THE ZEITGEIST. CERTAIN THINGS DON'T. THIS DOESN'T MEAN WE SHOULD THROW UP OUR HANDS AND SUBMIT TO THE DEPLORABLE GOLDMAN IDIOM OF "NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING," BUT INSTEAD COME TO REALIZE THAT THE FINAL EQUATION OF A MOVIE IS AN INORDINATELY COMPLEX THING THAT DOESN'T QUITE DEPEND ON SIMPLE LOGIC. EVEN TO HULK. MOVIES ARE FULL OF MOVING PARTS AND ENCOMPASS SO DAMN MUCH TO CONSIDER THAT IT ISN'T EVEN FUNNY. BUT HULK ARGUES THAT THIS COMPLEXITY IS ACTUALLY AN INVITATION FOR US TO PEER IN AND SEE WHAT MOVIES CAN BE ABOUT.

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It was a privilege to work with my amazing colleagues at The Verge on this feature about the people who make New York Comic Con (and cons in general) culturally valuable and generally awesome places. Take a look.

Bonus: our video team likes horse masks.

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Style change is usually linked to economic factors, as all of you know who have read Marx. Also fatigue occurs when people see too much of the same thing too often. So every ten years or so there is a stylistic shift and things are made to look different. Typefaces go in and out of style and the visual system shifts a little bit. If you are around for a long time as a designer, you have an essential problem of what to do. I mean, after all, you have developed a vocabulary, a form that is your own. It is one of the ways that you distinguish yourself from your peers, and establish your identity in the field. How you maintain your own belief system and preferences becomes a real balancing act. The question of whether you pursue change or whether you maintain your own distinct form becomes difficult. We have all seen the work of illustrious practitioners that suddenly look old-fashioned or, more precisely, belonging to another moment in time. And there are sad stories such as the one about Cassandre, arguably the greatest graphic designer of the twentieth century, who couldn't make a living at the end of his life and committed suicide. But the point is that anybody who is in this for the long haul has to decide how to respond to change in the zeitgeist. What is it that people now expect that they formerly didn't want? And how to respond to that desire in a way that doesn't change your sense of integrity and purpose.

Milton Glaser (Via The New Graphic)

[eaterofbirds]

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Child's Play -

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In my own view, the important achievement of Apollo was a demonstration that humanity is not forever chained to this planet, and our visions go rather further than that, and our opportunities are unlimited.

Neil Armstrong (1930 – 2012)

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Yo dawg. -

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Andrea Daly wrote some new songs - [Andrea Daly][] is my better half, so consider this a plug with absolutely no shame whatsoever. I'd appreciate it very much if you'd give a song or two a listen. If you like her stuff, click the button [on Facebook][] (it actually does more than you think). [andrea daly]: http://www.andreadalymusic.com [on Facebook]: https://www.facebook.com/AndreaDalyMusic

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A good Manhattanhenge spoiled - I headed to the eastern edge of New York City on Tuesday evening [to photograph Manhattanhenge][] for The Verge, but unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans in mind: opaque storm clouds to the west. I still wanted to share this photo though, because it's an excellent example of something the Canon 5D Mark III does really well so far.[^1] I only used Aperture to process this file, and it's *not* an HDR. There's a lot more post-processing applied to the image than is usual for me, but I was able to push the shadows further than I normally would. *Way further*. That's probably obvious to anyone familiar with current digital post-processing techniques, but I think it's an interesting photo (click the photo see a larger version). Making pictures is all about trade-offs, and that's true for the gear too. I'll discuss how that applies to the 5D3 in more detail later. [^1]: This is a .5 second exposure at f/22 and ISO 100. [to photograph manhattanhenge]: http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/29/3050601/show-us-your-photos-of-manhattanhenge

[pactressia-blog]

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Danse des petits cygnes - From [Swan Lake][], by Tchaikovsky. [swan lake]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_des_petits_cygnes

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Space Shuttle Enterprise flies by New York City - On Friday, [David Pierce][] and I [photographed the Space Shuttle Enterprise][] for The Verge as it flew by New York City on the back of NASA's [Shuttle Carrier Aircraft][] (SCA), a modified 747 used to transport the Shuttles. David shot with a [D4 on loan from Nikon][], and I brought my Canon 5D Mark II. We rented a 400mm f/4 lens for the D4, and I covered the wider shots with my 70-200 f/4L. David and I claimed our spot very early that morning. We positioned ourselves right on the river, downtown in Hudson River park, about even with Chambers Street. I chose our location because we didn't want to fight the crowds at the Intrepid Museum, and Battery Park to the south was almost surely going to be more crowded. This gave us a great view of the aircraft as it approached from the south. We were fortunate to see two good passes before the SCA headed across town to JFK airport. Also, shooting on the west side of the city meant that the sun would light the aircraft from behind us. It turns out we were right. Our spot wasn't crowded; a few photographers and regular nice folks turned out to wish the Shuttle well on its last journey. The nice thing about bringing an absolutely monstrous lens to an event like this is that people generally assume you're there to work (which of course we were) and they stay out of your way. That said, we had some great conversations with some really nice people. NASA always brings out the best in people. Our strategy was simple: get there early (the shuttle was scheduled to fly by anytime between 9:30 and 11:30), watch the light, meter for the well-lit, puffy white clouds at f/8, and go. We kept our shutter speed at 1/1000 or faster to ensure sharp photos of the aircraft as we tracked it laterally. I think in the end we had less than 3 minutes with the shuttle in front of us to make pictures. And we made **a lot** of pictures. The Nikon D4 can shoot 11 frames per second, and the 5D2 can push out a respectable 3.9 (let's just call it 4, okay?). We obviously couldn't publish *all* of our keepers on The Verge, so David uploaded a ton of photos to [Google Plus][]. I wanted to pick out a few of my favorites from my CF card and publish them here. If I could do this again with a bit more lead time, the only thing I would change is our location. I would have loved to have gone to the Jersey side of the Hudson to photograph the shuttle with New York City in the background. That would have presented a new set of challenges with the sun, but I think it would've been worth the trouble. That said, this was an amazing morning, and I hope you enjoy the pictures. [d4 on loan from nikon]: http://stdout.co/post/21039456616/this-is-the-sound-of-a-nikon-d4-holy-crap [shuttle carrier aircraft]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Carrier_Aircraft [David Pierce]: http://dpierce.org [photographed the Space Shuttle Enterprise]: http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/27/2980852/nasas-space-shuttle-enterprise-new-york-fly-pictures [google plus]: https://plus.google.com/photos/100601380617286837373/albums/5736161647269576369

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NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise: the NYC fly-by in pictures 

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This was so much fun to shoot with [David Pierce][]. [david pierce]: http://dpierce.org/

[tcrcase]

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Space ninjas! -

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Yom HaShoah on the highway - Thursday was [Yom HaShoah][]. Every year during April or May (the day falls on the 27th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar) the world stops to remember the millions of innocent people murdered during [the Holocaust][]. This video of an Israeli highway at the moment the sirens sounded is from last year, and it's amazing. (via Dave Pell's newsletter, [Next Draft][]) [the holocaust]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust [yom hashoah]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_HaShoah [next draft]: http://nextdraft.com