esprit de l'escalier

Guess where I am

It's not that hard. My visit is brief, and I'm en route to Wisconsin.

Love at the click of a shutter

Sigh. I've missed film. Missed the texture and dreamy quality that you can't get with digital. I was giddy when I first held my new/old camera, but it was love with the first click of the shutter.

I ran a roll through it this weekend and hoped for the best. I was more than pleased with the results. I think the Pentax K1000 and I are going to get along splendidly. Here are a couple of photos from that first roll.

Recent Craig's List scores

Ah Craig's List... I used to wander it, looking at furniture and apartments for rent, building a fantasy home in my head. A friend (you know who you are), used to be sort of obsessed with Missed Connections, and ended up with a boyfriend for a while from it. I got my mother hooked on the furniture section, too. She's scored some good finds too, which are now piled in our garage.

Every so often I would check Craig's List for photo equipment, but I haven't done it in a while. Lately I've been wanting cheap, old, manual camera. In a perfect world, I would find a perfectly preserved Olympus OM-1 for about $50. I learned how to use a camera on an OM-1. Unfortunately, I haven't found one yet. Instead, I ran into a Craig's List ad for a twice-owned Pentax K1000, a fully manual workhorse of a camera. Several photographers I admire on Flickr have one, and I figured I might as well jump on that bandwagon too.

I met up with the guy selling it outside of a Tim Horton's with my friend. (You know, in case he was crazy.) He was a sweet guy who thought he'd get back into photography, but didn't, at least not the film aspect of it. His grandfather is a photographer with a darkroom and encouraged it. The camera was a friend of his. I giddily handed him $50.

My second find was a Kenyon student selling 5 packs of Polaroid 779 film at cost. Polapremium had a promotion for it in June and I bought 2 boxes, but wished I had bought more. I emailed with her and she did what I feel like I do when posed with questions. That is, rattle on good-naturedly. In fact when I met up with her, both of our first instincts was to hug, which is always a good sign. I also got a little day trip to Gambier and Kenyon out of it.

All in all, while my wallet is a little lighter, I am excited about my new purchases. I have some road trips coming up and I know they will serve me well.

Upcoming movies

That I can't wait to see (besides Harry Potter).

(500) Days of Summer

An Education

Whip It

Julie & Julia

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Some summer images

Some summer images to share.

Oh, and I am way too excited about the latest Harry Potter installation. I really wish that my copy of the book wasn't in the far corner of my storage unit, because I kind of wish I could power through it again before I saw the film. It was my favorite book. (I also love the Fugly girls' take on how Hermione is growing up.)

It was a dark and stormy night

I recently found myself watching (in rapid succession) the first 9 or 10 episodes of CBS's horror show Harper's Island. This was a couple of weeks ago, back when my laptop was still operable. I had caught part of an episode on television and found it more engaging than I initially judged the program, based on the previews I saw. I got pulled in and hooked. The last two episodes air tonight, but you can catch them all on CBS.

The premise is this, Abby Mills (played very well by Irish actress Elaine Cassidy) returns home to Harper's Island for her best friend's wedding. She grew up on this island, about 40 miles off the coast of Seattle, and hasn't returned since she was 17 or 18, after her mother and several others were brutally murdered. She returns home to try and come to grips with the past (including her estranged father, the local sheriff, and an old flame). Before long, people start disappearing and dying in terrible ways. (In fact some murders only the audience sees and the characters never fully understand or see.) Could it be the work of the original killer, John Wakefield, a copycat, or some new deranged psycho? Each episode, more people are killed and the story is slowly revealed.

From what I understand, the show hasn't been a big ratings grabber, but I think the idea for the show is interesting, and I think that it pulls off what it's trying to do. I find the serial mystery a great idea for tv. It's hard to pull off, because people who haven't seen all the previous episodes could be confused, which could detract late-comers. God bless the internet for this problem. (Think if Twin Peaks was done today and all of the internet tie-ins that could have happened? Sigh.) The first episode I saw was well into the series, and while I didn't get the ins and outs, it was entertaining enough for me to stop and watch. And I was impressed by what I saw to stop before I got overly spoiled and then started from the beginning.

I think that the shows fulfills its promise. The episodes are tense and sometimes scary. The acting is good - everyone commits fully to the premise and genre. I think Cassidy as the heroine is fabulous. What is nice about a horror film unfolding over 13 episodes is that you get character building that you never get in a feature length. Alliances shift a little back and forth, but the core characters learn about what they are made of, and it is interesting to see the interactions in a more meaningful way. I think it makes you care more about the outcomes than you really do in a slasher movie. Although, CBS has been playing up the characters as being stock stereotypes - the "good girl," "flirt," "nerd," etc.

Abby's best friend (the groom) is well played by tv veteran (or seems to be at this point) Christopher Gorham, who summered on the island, working on the docks. He's getting married to a wealthy man's daughter, who also summered there. The shows plays with class issues, friendships, secret affairs, betrayals, etc., as you would expect a good stuck-on-a-remote-island-with-an-unknown-killer type plot to do. Also, the location, the remote island that is foggy and drizzly, is perfect for the plot. Not to mention straight from Agatha Christie's playbook (and not in a bad way, the woman knew what she was doing). The plot builds in a satisfying way, even if I do not quite understand the hows and whys yet. I hope all the ends are neatly tied up.

Tonight I'm going to cozy up to the tv and watch the final two episodes. I've got a blanket ready to hide beneath, in case it all gets too much. Catch the episodes here, if you're looking for a thrill.

This is your life!

(Editor's note: my laptop recently died, and the data on it is irretrievable. As a public service announcement: please back up your data IMMEDIATELY. Thank you.)

The last ten days or so have been a veritable "This is Your Life" for me. It started with a visit to some dear friends from college who just adopted an adorable baby girl. The visit was short, but easy and fun. (They live in Cincinnati and I'm excited to see them next.) It's so good to reconnect with friends and have it feel like you're continuing a conversation from the day before. Little did I realize that this would set the tone for the next week or so. Thanks Gail, Sam and baby Nevy for being awesome.

Besides a parade, fireworks, and one street fair, this weekend was full of lots of old faces. I had my 10 year high school reunion, which was much more fun than the movies would make it seem. Then again, I have always been fairly good at working a crowd. My twin brother, who's even better at mingling, came too. I loved the randomness of the people who showed - it was a great cross section of social circles and it seemed like everyone chatted and swirled around the giant bar in the tiny venue.

I ran into so many people I've known since we moved to Ohio in elementary school. There was one guy I was talking to and in my head I kept picturing his fourth grade photo. It felt grounding to see these people from my past. I also reconnected with a good friend from middle and high school, who I had lost touch with. We had dinner the other day and it was again like we picked up like no time has passed. It makes my heart feel very full.

My final face from my past was of one of my favorite musicians, Josh Ritter. (You're shocked, I can tell. You've never heard me mention him before, right?) My lovely friends Tina and Julie roadtripped with me up to the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland on a Tuesday night for an excellent night. We all went to work the next day too.

The show was rocking and joyous, which is par for the course with Josh. Highlights: the poem read by T.S. McMillan to music and the three little girls who helped the band close the night with "Empty Hearts." (I love that song and those girls have the coolest parents ever.) Tina and I got hugs and a polaroid too. Not a bad night.

I've had some good times lately. I hope your summers are fun-filled as well.