scott d. feldstein

One of the things our youngest received on Christmas was Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always.  We started reading it the other day and, though I generally never do this, I went ahead and read the second half of the book on my own last night.  I definitely recommend it for anyone 10 and up, even younger if you intend to read it aloud to them (and they can stomach some scary stuff).

I really admire the way Barker, a guy who writes adult novels, has written for this audience.  The narrative is simpler than it would be for older people, but it still delivers the impact and excitement of a grown-up story.

I really enjoyed it the first time through, so I won’t mind reading the second half again aloud over the next few nights.

By the way, a 2010 film is in the pipeline. 

Next up to be read aloud in my house, Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book.

When I go on an all-day wedding shoot I usually start by meeting the bride at the salon where she and her bridesmaids are getting their hair done.  I often don’t even see the groom until I arrive at the church where I get a few shots of him puzzling over his bow tie and whatnot.  But the last wedding I did was different.  The groom and his men were getting shaved at Groom for Men down in Milwaukee’s third ward and I couldn’t resist.

The place has a very inviting feel to it from the complimentary shots of Jameson to the all-female “barbettes.”  And sure enough, the guys were getting the full deal: hot towels, lather and a straight razor shave.

All this for like $30!  I’m trying it.

Tag this “pet peeves.”  I hate when the volume on the television is at that range where you can hear about three quarters of the dialog but not the whole thing.  You can pretty much hear what is being said, but inevitably the actor’s voice will drop in volume, or maybe a truck drives by a few streets over, and you can’t hear a word.

Sometimes this phenomenon even has a comical aspect to it, such as when the most pivotal words in the scene are precisely the ones being dropped out of range.

Dying person: “There’s something I need to tell you about Roger.”

Other person: “What is it?”

Dying person: “He’s–” (sound of truck shifting gears down the street) 

Other person: (look of shock and disbelief)

This kind of situation naturally leads one to make stuff up a la MST3K.  What was it about Roger, anyway?  Was he…an alien?  A wildcat in the sack?  A woman?  Running away to join the circus?  Right behind you?  Keyser Söze?

The problem is more common when you primarily watch DVD movies instead of television programming.  My understanding is that the audio on films is mastered to be played through a theater  sound system with the volume on 11–precisely the way you don’t listen to it when you’re at home on your couch and your kid is (hopefully) sleeping just down the hall.  Am I right?  Yes I am right.

Sure, you could put the captions on or something.  But if you’re like me you just crank it up.

At the invitation of good friends, Karen and I went to see Rusted Root at the Rave last night.  I had heard their name but wasn’t familiar with their music.  A quick Google/Wikipedia search left me with this nugget: they are a folksy, rhythmic “jam band” in the tradition of the Grateful Dead and Phish–two other groups I’m not really familiar with.  Armed with only that knowledge, I went to the show.  Now that I’ve heard them live I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be picking up one of their albums in the near future.

Thanks for inviting us, guys!

Santa was good to me this year for sure.  I now own a terrific new lens: the Nikon 85 mm f/1.8. I haven’t taken a ton of pictures with it yet, but I’ll soon remedy that.  It’s great for portraits and I may also use it for some wedding ceremonies the same way I often use the Sigma 50-150mm f/2.8.  It doesn’t have any zoom, nor as long a reach, but it’s sharper and faster.

In all seriousness the only other lens I could use would be something in the 70-200mm range with vibration control.  That kind of glass costs a mint and even thought I’d sell the 50-150 to defray some of the cost, that’s still a lot of cash.  Maybe someday.

What I really need now (aside from love, sweet love) is to step up my lighting game with a second flash unit such as the Nikon SB-800.

It’s really nice to have good kit.  These days when I show up at a shoot I feel extremely confident in my gear.  In addition to a boatload of batteries and chargers, here’s what I typically bring to a wedding event:

• Nikon D300
• Nikon D50
• Nikon SB-600
• Gary Fong Lightsphere
• Small umbrella stand with shoe mount bracket
• Nikon 50mm f/1.8
• Nikon 85mm f/1.8
• Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8
• Sigma 50-150 f/2.8

With this stuff in the bag I can do almost anything.

What am I doing for New Year’s Eve?  Staying in downtown Waukesha, that’s what.  And why not?  Every time I turn around there’s another fabulous new place opening up down there.  Just last night Karen and I visited two of them: Taylor’s People Park and Generations At 5 Points.  

Taylor’s is a small but classy sister bar to the Taylor’s you know next to Cathedral Square park in Milwaukee.  Generations, on the other hand, is more of a restaurant.  The menu looks terrific and the bar is well stocked.

Neighbor’s, Nice Ash, House of Guinness, Sprizzo, The Black Trumpet–and now Taylor’s and Generations.  Welcome to the neighborhood, folks.  See you Wednesday night!

As I usually do, here’s my ten favorite blog entries of the year.  I chose all ten of them on a single pass through the last 12 months of scottfeldstein.net, no second guessing, no do-overs.  It is what it is.

• Announcement
• Teaching Multimedia
• Noisy Dining?  No thanks.
• White racism and right-wingedness?
• Off-camera flash
• I stick with Windows because…
• Made: J. K. Lee style
• Toiletries: A List
• Music History
• If I were really, really rich…

First the bad news, as it were.  I watched Mixed Nuts a few days ago.  It’s awful.  Don’t be tempted into renting it simply because it’s got a holiday theme and some name-brand acting talent.  It’s a dog.  A dog that should be put down like Ol’ Yeller–if Ol’ Yeller had been put down with a tire iron instead of a gun.  And I’m not just saying that because it has the professionally annoying Adam Sandler at the absolute pinnacle of his obnoxious schtick, nor am I saying it simply because it has Juliet Lewis, who I find so breathtakingly unattractive that she curdles the very cream in my coffee whenever she’s on screen.   Trust me: the movie is awful completely independent of those factors.

On to a more pleasant review.  I read Thomas Harris‘ novel Red Dragon years ago when everyone was so pleasantly creeped by the film adaptation of his work, The Silence of the Lambs.  I’m happy to report that the 2002 Red Dragon movie is also quite good.  Dragon is actually a lot like Silence, only the FBI agent is played by very capably by Edward Norton instead of very capably by Jodie Foster.  I definitely recommend it.  (I do not, however, recommend Hannibal.  It was just so disgusting that it actually offended rather than entertained me.)

I happened to be in Boston Store the other day finishing up some Christmas shopping when I saw this fleece Balaclava on sale for under $7.  I’ve been meaning to pick one up for probably a few years, so I picked it up.

Talk about excellent timing.  Not two days later the high temperatures here are not even reaching positive numbers.

What really astonishes me, though, is the nubmer of people I see out and about–in the grocery store parking lot, for example–who wear nothing on their heads at all.  I mean, it’s minus 5 outside and these people are trekking across the parking lot dressed exactly the way they were when it was 30 degrees warmer.

I feel like walking up to these people and, regardless of age, ask the obvious: “no hat?  What would your mother say if she could see you?!”

Me, I was wearing two pairs of pants, hiking boots, two shirts, the balaclava, a hoodie (hood on), my winter parka (hood on, natch), and some work gloves.  I felt very comfortable, even out in the blistering cold.

Happy Hanukkah.

We woke up to a foot of snow on Friday.  And today, the first day of winter, we woke up to a balmy temperature of six degrees below zero.  Plus blowing snow and a 30 below wind chill factor.