Round 2!!!

Here we are again. Not even a week later and it's piling up. HO Ho.

Paul… err no… Film is dead

It’s been close to six years since these puppies have seen the light of day. My old film cameras are finally sold to the second hand store. I think they will be used as an artificial reef in a fish tank or some other eco-proper application. The rolls of film which kept them company have an expiration of 2003. I guess the film gods were optimistic. Reports of film’s demise have not been exaggerated. Yes… there are a few diehards still using emulsion technology (do 8-track tapes still exist?). Of course, in order to get a print made they have to scan the negatives to create a digital file then print from that. What’s the point? The point is they have now made a second generation copy from the original. Not unlike making a tape recording of a tape. It gets degraded on each copy. Don’t get me wrong. I grew up with film and a wet darkroom. In my opinion, there is no better method by which photographic, technical know-how is achieved. Film… you have my gratitude.

As I pack these corpses of camera bodies, film spools and pressure plates for the journey to their final resting place, I bid them adieu.

“Film is dead… miss em’, miss em’ miss em” (Beatles fans will get that one)

Marky Ramone and Me

I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and went to Erasmus Hall High School. One of my best buddies was Marc Bell (that’s Marc on the left next to me). We both played drums at the time. We hung together for a number of years in the 70’s. I went on to play drums professionally for 20 years, before I switched to photography. Marc never stopped playing the drums. I hadn’t seen Marc in over 30 years. I’ve seen plenty of images of Marc, over the years. We simply hadn’t connected, face to face, until now. Not for a lack of trying. Through no fault of his, the organization he’s been with had a bit of a security net around him. Now that he’s more on his own, we finally touched base this morning and had breakfast together. We reminisced about old times. We caught up on how our lives unfolded; his wife and kids; and I got to find out about the rest of the old crew. He had a noon flight to Vegas, so, after about an hour and a half we hugged each other and said our goodbyes. My soul hath been stroked.

By the way; you probably know Marc more as Marky Ramone, the drummer from the rock band “The Ramones”… Hey Ho, Let’s Go!

Here's to the Holidays

I was chatting with Pete Coors (need I say more) at a recent event. We share a toast, for you to have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.