These photos were taken on a 20 min. walk thru my neighborhood. I had purchased a used camera and needed to take some photos to verify that it worked. The camera is a bit unusual in that I bought it from someone in Japan and unfortunately it was incorrectly described to me when I bought it. This is the second time this has happened with a Japanese Ebay purchase - lessen finally learned. But because it’s a pain to ship it back I decided to keep it. Anyway it’s a Fujica ( Fujifilm) HD-P which means Heavy Duty - Panorama. It is water resistant to several meters. It is all mechanical and it uses zone focusing.
Anyway - back to the neighborhood - I just took photos of things seen along the way including a dead squirrel, remnants of snow, a truck loaded with hay - the owner Fred and I talked for a bit. He has 30 head of cattle in San Luis, Colorado - I’ve never been there but it’s the oldest continuously settled town in Colorado. I will have to put it on the bucket list of places to go.
Today the @librarycongress librarian Carla Hayden named ‘Bright Size Life’ among 25 selections as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage. #NatRecRegistry
“The National Recording Registry will preserve our history through these vibrant recordings of music and voices that have reflected our humanity and shaped our culture from the past 143 years,” Hayden said. “We received about 900 public nominations this year for recordings to add to the registry, and we welcome the public’s input as the Library of Congress and its partners preserve the diverse sounds of history and culture.”
The recordings most recently selected for the National Recording Registry bring the number of titles on the registry to 575, representing a small portion of the national library’s vast recorded sound collection of nearly 3 million items.
I have my brother Al Nitka to thank for introducing me to Pat Metheny who I’ve listened to ever since. This album came out in March, 1976 - right before I graduated college. I think it wasn’t until Winter of ‘76 that I went to a concert of his in Denver with Al. I thought that Metheny was European because his label ECM is German. It took a few years before I realized that he’s from Missouri ! Here is a clip from Beyond the Missouri Sky - a real gem
Ran across two connections to Central New York . The first one is a photo made by David Plowden of the Main Street in Cazenovia, NY. A street well know to anyone who has been to ‘Caz’
The 2nd one was a discovery of female photographer that was born in Syracuse in the 19th century but went onto fame in the 20th century. I had never heard of her but she was a very remarkable person. Therese Bonney
Ricoh RZ 1050 - I purchased this from Blue Moon Camera as ‘new old stock’ which means the camera is new but it’s from old stock - usually not being produced anymore. This one has that 90’s look of a crappy plastic designed for a forgotten style. While that may be true it does have a lot of nice features. Consumer Alert: do not ever buy this camera. I just got the negatives back and while there were some useful images the hit rate was really bad. It can’t focus worth a damn for anything closer than about 6 to 8 feet. Several of the negatives had side to side scratch - don’t know if it was the camera of the developer who is rather sketchy or should I say scratchy? I can’t really use this camera because I will never know what I’m gonna get. I did better with the Harman all plastic point and pray camera. At least I got 2 rolls of film and the camera for ~$25.
Went to Red Line Gallery yesterday to take some stills for the Denver Month of Photography. My new iPhone said it could make a movie for me so I let it.
SPECIALNOTE. - this blog entry was from over a year ago that somehow never got published. I am publishing it now to show how things can change. I originally took this photograph in April, 2000 at a garage sale. I liked the sentiment it expressed as everyone has at one time or another said they’d like to be in charge and things would be different.
Fast forward to 2021 and this amongst a few other Dr. Seuss books have been decommissioned but the Dr. Seuss Foundation - they weren’t selling well and there were distinct racist overtones in the book. The book was NOT banned as I erroneously posted to Instagram but taken out of circulation. I am not sure how I feel about this. How are people in the future gonna know that this type of publishing was acceptable into the 21st century?
This was my entry into CPAC ( Colorado Photographic Arts Center) members show. I was selected so I felt like I had won even though I didn’t. Only one photo sold so I shouldn’t feel bad about not selling my photo. To be truthful I spent too much on the framing and therefore if I sold it I would be a -$50. Not selling means I get to keep it.
I just scanned this one in again today ( roll 377) and it was shot on a high end point and shoot - Hexar with 35/2 lens. Just shows what you can do with a good point and shoot.
Awhile back I wrote about the Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant specifically THEINFINITYROOM. The Infinity Room ( room 141 within Building 771) was so contaminated with Plutonium that the Geiger counter needles all pegged at infinity. I have since learned that Building 771 that contained Rom 141 ( Infinity Room) was decommissioned and NOT left in place. I was under the impression that Room 141 was left behind so I am glad to get the facts. At one point Building 771 was considered the most dangerous enclosure in the world. Now I would think the Chernobyl Sarcophagus wins that title. All this being said I still consider Rocky Flats to be dangerous if this and future generation forget what lies in the dirt below the surface.
This is a great book about Ralph Carr who was the Governor of Colorado when WWII broke out. Prior to that he was the Attorney General of Colorado, Water Rights Lawyer. He was plain speaking, genuine person as has ever been a politician. He was fluent in Spanish as many of his rural clients could only speak Spanish. He gained noteriety as Governor for resisting the internment of Japanese descendants from the West Coast. From Wikipedia:
Following Roosevelt’s issuance of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, the War Relocation Authority decided to resettle Japanese Americans from the West Coast into internment camps in the interior of the continent. One camp was Amache near Granada, Colorado. Carr took a unique position among Western governors, who largely adopted the popular anti-Japanese sentiment of the period.
The governors supported internment of all Japanese, whatever their citizenship, and also objected to locating internment camps in their states. Carr, on the other hand, opposed interning American citizens, depriving them of their basic rights as citizens based only on their racial background or the citizenship of their ancestors. Unlike his peers, Carr endorsed the federal government’s incarceration program for non-citizens and agreed that Colorado should accept its share of the evacuees and treat them respectfully. He also underscored the broader context of war against several enemy countries in order to downplay the struggle with Japan that could easily be seen as a racial conflict. When he volunteered Colorado for housing Italian, German, and Japanese relocated from the West Coast, he said:
They are as loyal to American institutions as you and I. Many of them have been born here–are American citizens, with no connection or feeling of loyalty toward the customs and philosophies of Italy, Germany and Japan. … I am not talking on behalf of Japanese, of Italians, or of Germans as such when I say this. I am talking to … all American people whether their status be white, brown or black and regardless of the birthplaces of their grandfathers when I say that if a majority may deprive a minority of its freedom, contrary to the terms of the Constitution today, then you as a minority may be subjected to the same ill-will of the majority tomorrow.
In one speech to a large and hostile audience, made up primarily of worried Colorado farmers, Carr said of the evacuees:
They are not going to take over the vegetable business of this state, and they are not going to take over the Arkansas Valley. But the Japanese are protected by the same Constitution that protects us. An American citizen of Japanese descent has the same rights as any other citizen. … If you harm them, you must first harm me. I was brought up in small towns where I knew the shame and dishonor of race hatred. I grew to despise it because it threatened [pointing to various audience members] the happiness of you and you and you.
He lost his bid for Senator in 1942 to Democrat Ed Johnson otherwise known as ‘Big Ed’. While researching this article I came across this little tidbit about Johnson:
Bergman incident
He was perhaps best known for presenting a speech on March 14, 1950, on the Senate floor, criticizing the extramarital affair of actress Ingrid Bergman, who was, at the time, married to Petter Lindström. Bergman’s affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini became a cause célèbre as a result of Johnson’s speech, forcing her to relocate to Europe for several years. Johnson then proposed a bill where movies would be licensed based on the perceived morality of the actors/actresses and stated that Bergman “had perpetrated an assault upon the institution of marriage,” and called her “a powerful influence for evil.”
Oddly enough, prior to the discovery of her affair, Ingrid Bergman had been Johnson’s favorite actress. He felt that he had been deceived, and wished to ban her from any future Hollywood productions.
I would like to think of the Senator as ‘BigAss’ Johnson!
These are the predictions for this weekend. I’m writing this on Friday morning so there’s a little time to get things prepared. Because I’m a Type A person I’ve charged up whatever can be charged in the house. Made Vicki go to the store and get human AND dog food. Both vehicles are fueled should we need to go somewhere. Most importantly for my blog readers is that I’ve charged my camera batteries so that I can take pictures
Harman owns Ilford the legendary film manufacturer. They brought out their own point and shoot plastic camera. It’s reusable so you can refill it will any film you want - best to be ISO 400 or higher. They provide two rolls of Kentmere 400 which is similar I think to HP5+. So the camera and two rolls for $25 is not a bad deal. The images below clearly have their faults but the images have an endearing appeal.
This photo covers that dark shadow that was the Rocky Mountain Arsenal:
Weapons manufactured at RMA included both conventional and chemical munitions, including white phosphorus (M34 grenade), napalm, mustard gas, lewisite, and chlorine gas.[6][7] RMA is also one of the few sites that had a stockpile of Sarin gas (aka nerve agent GB), an organophosphorus compound. The manufacture of these weapons continued until 1969. Rocket fuel to support Air Force operations was also manufactured and stored at RMA. Subsequently, through the 1970s until 1985, RMA was used as a demilitarization site to destroy munitions and chemically related items. Coinciding with these activities, from 1946 to 1982, the Army leased RMA facilities to private industries for the production of pesticides. One of the major lessees, Shell Oil Company, along with Julius Hyman and Company and Colorado Fuel and Iron, had manufacturing and processing capabilities on RMA between 1952 and 1982. The military reserved the right to oust these companies and restart chemical weapon production in the event of a national emergency.
They were also the source of man made earthquakes in the 1970’s when they were injecting waste liquid down a deep hole causing slippage underground! As toxic dumps go this one is not at all bothersome as compared to the Rocky Flats Wildlife Preserve - a place that I’ve been once and won’t go back again. They did a crap job of remediation AND buried 40 ft below the surface in the middle of the preserve is a room so toxic with Plutonium that when the plant was in operation NOONE was allowed to go in that room after a certain point in it’s operation history - Takes 240,000 years to decay once - that’s some seriously frightening shit.
That being said I went to the Preserve today and found it amazing. From where I live you have to go thru Commerce City which is one of the armpits of Colorado. Refineries and other shit. But once you’re there at the preserve all that melts away and it is absolutely glorious. I am a Bison Fanboy and love seeing these great beasts.
This is a graph of who is refusing to get vaccinated. Pretty much what you would expect - White Republicans not wanting to protect themselves and others - selfish to the core. In a Darwinian sense I’d like to think that this would be a point of their extinction. Unfortunately their stupidity extends to others around them that are likely to be innocent collateral damage.
We’re always being told Do Not Leave In the Sun! Well I found something that you can and must leave in the sun - this pocket sized USB charger that recharges with a small solar panel.
I recently posted a Black and White photo of the Denver Art Museum ( DAM) to my instagram account. I then got this reply from them:
I never heard from them, not that I really expected them to. I then proceeded to skewer them on Instagram:
I posted a picture of the Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum (DAM) the other day. I got this response from DAM. No they haven’t asked to see my release document. So apparently if you are an artist DAM feels that they can get artist to do work for free. Not even an offer of a gratis pass or year’s membership. They do ask permission which is good but that’s the least they could do. Artist should not have to work for free. And no you can’t use ‘exposure’ to pay for gas or groceries.
In the past I’ve tried to go on their web page to engage DAM in a discussion about their photography department. No place to really contact their leadership or board of directors. So I guess I will use this forum to say your photography department sucks.
I don’t expect to hear anything from them but it’s worth reminding these people about what they are asking for
A suggestion from one of my followers in jest was to start a Prairie Madness Museum. This was in response to getting the trademark by the same name. I did think that if I did have this fictional museum the first traveling exhibit that I would seek it the world’s largest hairball currently residing in Garden City at the Finney County Museum
