Ditchwater Records Presents...Friday 05/29

Record Release show for:
DEAD ROSES
WRONG ONES
FRIDAY MAY 29
RUDYARD'S
$8 or free*

Ditchwater Records presents Dead Roses and The Wrong Ones at Rudyards this Friday, May 29th. Dead Roses will play a split set beginning at 10:30pm and again after The Wrong Ones finish their set. The cover will be $8 which will also get you both 7" singles. *If you'd like to attend the show but you're not interested in buying $8 shitty vinyl coasters, email me on our Myspace page, and we'll gladly put you on the guest list.

Also, Ditchwater Zine #3 will be for sale.

Eric Roy on the Dead Roses single: "Both sides are "A" sides..."
Eric Roy on The Wrong Ones: "Those songs aren't just weird, they're WEEEIIIRRD!"

Mama's Day

I originally wrote this in August of 2006. Thought I would re-print it here, as a way of saying Happy Mothers Day. The photo-essay's original title was "Just Add Water":

Given my avoidance of all things "geared towards kids" it's no wonder that my idea of a fun day with my kid is one that involves long periods of time where we can laze around and shoot the breeze, undistracted by long lines, entrance fees, whirlwind itineraries, closing times, and just generally people telling us what to do and how to do it. yeah. That kinda shit cramps our style.


My kid is amazingly similar in temperament to me (and I'll describe myself by how my dad describes me): romantic and macho. now "romantic" in spanish (that would be - you got it - romantico) has another meaning other than the Hallmark Greeting Card meaning that we all know. 'Romantico' can also mean someone who is is very, very sensitive but also given to tempestuous behavior. My kid to a tee. I'm trying hard to not let him be macho but i got a little hint of it from him tonight. Again, my dad isn't referring to my machismo in the conventional chauvinist sense. Rather he calls me "macha" because when I'm in physical or emotional pain I have a tendency to grin and bear it. The mexican equivalent of stoicism, i guess.

In any case, last Saturday and Sunday and today Orion and I spent hours outside on the side driveway, under the pecan trees, barefoot and playing with the water hose. Well, playing with the hose was mostly Orion. I was mostly reading and snapping an occasional picture.
























Orion was a trooper and "mowed the lawn" with his lawnmower. His lawn mower emits a little cloud of bubbles when he goes just the right speed. I devoured a Cometbus and when we were good and ready, we took off our shoes and turned on the hose.




Sounds ridiculous but it was so nice out. As long as we stayed in the shade and kept our feet wet, it was downright tolerable. Of course it helped that both days last weekend we were visited by our friend the raspa cart vendor.

Real conversation, in Spanish of course:
vendor: Does he speak Spanish?
me: A little. But he understands it very well.
vendor: Is he your grandchild?
me: no. He's my son.
vendor: Oh!
vendor, recovering: Do you have other children?
me, choosing the easy answer: No, just one.
vendor: Oh!


Ha! I could tell by his accent that my vendor is a relatively recent immigrant. His accent still had that pa-rum-pum-pum that native speakers lose after absorb the huge mixture of accents here in the states. Mexico's social norms specify that a woman of my stature (a homeowner) and social status (married) and of course age should have grandchildren (do the math. it is absolutely biologically possible.) It only follows that this traditional Mexican dude would think i would either be babysitting my grandson OR that Orion is the youngest of 10 children. He was just trying to let me save face with his follow up question. No dice, mano.

For three dollars and fifty cents we got a lime flavored raspa (for the life of me i can't remember the name of raspas in english), a quart size bag of chilled jicama, cantaloupe, and cucumber slices, and a big bag of wagon-wheel shaped potato flour fritters.


Man, there is just something about the smell of wet pavement. And saw dust. And corn masa dough that sends me hurling backwards in time to that bewildering/exhilarating place that is early childhood in Texas and Mexico.

Orion, I hope that the time we spend together going absolutely nowhere and doing absolutely nothing in particular, without any particular reason at all leaves its stamp in your memory.



I hope you meant it last Sunday when you said "Mama, this is the best day ever."








cameras used: b/w = film nikon fa silvertop, polaroid onestep, polaroid spectra, and a garage sale "panoramic" film camera that i ripped the film guard out of.

I think Adam speaks for all of us

(click on image for full effect}

Radio Interview with Weegee

I was poking around looking for information on Speed Graphic cameras, the camera synonymous with one of my fave photographers Weegee. Anyways, I stumbled upon this really great site dedicated to preserving sound interviews with notable Americans, among them a 1945 radio interview with Weegee just after Naked City came out (and unearthed in 2000). The site, called Sound Portrait, is pretty neat in it's scope - I like it's emphasis on the everyperson's document - Weegee is one of the few 'famous' people on there. Most, I like to hear the voices, the accents, the lingo and slang of the era. Seems like no one's got an accent anymore...

Joey's photos

My pal Joey is such a natural as a photographer. Such great stuff. I recently asked him to compose me a photograph and he came up with a few. Here are two of my favorites:





Joey O'Mahoney is originally from Houston, Texas, is based in New Orleans and travels constantly on his trusty skateboard. He is self-taught.

Films Photographers Would Love Part 2: LOVERS AND LOLLIPOPS

I'm so happy I ran across this film tonight on TCM. I was hooked by the ambiance of this film immediately. "Lovers and Lollipops" is a black and white American film made in 1955, which is remarkable in and of itself if you're familiar with New Wave film chronology. I like the film's documentary style and use of natural actors. The plot is, in a nutshell, the adventures of a 7 year old child who doesn't like her mother's new boyfriend. That's basically it ~ 90 minutes of a bratty kid and a courting couple. Beyond the "look" of the film, I love that no less than three different cameras are featured in the film, one of which is the little girl's Brownie camera that she totes around with her snapping pictures without missing a beat.
















BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE TO THIS STORY!! Little wonder that this film is made by a married photographer couple: Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin. You'll recognize a few of Orkin's photographs I can assure you. In any case here's a litte bit about them I nabbed from the TCM website.

The filmography of Morris Engel is short – three films in half a dozen years – and that of Ruth Orkin is shorter still, since she collaborated with Engel on only the first two of those movies. Yet the husband-and-wife team made a lasting impact on international cinema with their brief excursion into feature filmmaking during the 1950s. At a time when the major Hollywood studios still dominated most aspects of American production, Engel and Orkin were pioneers of independent filmmaking who made up in energy and creativity what they lacked in substantial budgets and fancy techniques. Lovers and Lollipops (1956) is an excellent example of their distinctive style....

As the eye-catching images of their films testify, Engel and Orkin started out as photographers. Engel studied at the left-wing Photo League cooperative in the 1920s, covered the start of the Normandy invasion in 1944 as a combat photographer, and then became a photojournalist, working for such major magazines as McCall’s and Collier’s. Orkin went to work for MGM in 1942, hoping to become a director, but quit when she realized the obstacles facing a woman in the male-controlled film industry. Turning to photojournalism, she contributed to Life, Look, and other top-flight publications; when cancer cut back her mobility in the late 1950s she stayed active but changed her strategy, taking some of the most highly regarded photos of her career from her apartment windows. She and Engel married while working on their first film, Little Fugitive (1953), and remained so until her death in 1985. Engel went back to commercial photography when Orkin’s illness struck, but continued to dabble in film and video until his death in 2005.

I'm a bad man - I shook up the world!

I keep meaning to write about films that photographers would love - either because they focus on photographers, they feature footage of cameras, or otherwise celebrate film. So let's make this Exhibit A:



In this case, I'm spotlighting "AKA Cassius Clay" which bathes most of its stock footage in an amber filter, giving the film as a whole a uniform glow. Lovers of boxing and film should definitely add this to their Netflix list. I'm both, and lucky for me it was featured this month on "On Demand For Free" on the old cable box...