Photo: February 2004 Archives

Ok, so it's PoMo in a very basic and uninspired way, but still...I enjoy photographing photographers.

It also helps that I'm not a big fan of photographing people. But photographers...let me tell you...it's like they're not people at all. Zing!

Fine. I'm lame. You want to make something of it?

Look, I know I'm not alone in thinking that Indian hip-hop is an idea whose time has come. Like...for example...ummm...Phil, you know Phil, he said that, too once, I swear.

In the spirit of the thing, I present to you, .

To answer the obvious questions, yes, I bought it. And yes, it's really, really good.

It's here! It's here! I've wet myself!

Project "Pornography By Engineers" is a go.

Documentary critique tonight. We'll see how my naked-appearing-people-with-computers prints go over and see if I even need to find more models.

I'd vote for Hunter S. Thompson...but not for Jello Biafra. I wonder if there is such a thing as a discerning consumer of insanity.

Sure, sure. They're koi. But who doesn't know that they're really just fancy carp?

And to answer any lingering questions about my photo idea I mentioned all the way back here, the idea largely revolves around mostly-nude women posing with various pieces of equipment. Since the joking thrust of Pornography for Engineers was playing with the idea of industry and technology being erotic, it seems like actually taking the concept more seriously would be fun. I've got a load of ideas to shoot with models, but I am lacking in models for it. Sure, everyone in my house has agreed to it, but that's it. And frankly, posing scrawny, pasty men with an acoustic coupler loses some of the panache of the nude female form using a C64 hand-grip joystick to obscure her naughty bits. So that takes out 2 of the 3 models I have. If I'm going to actually shoot some and pitch the idea as an appropriate direction for me to take my project in, I'll have to learn how to say "Can I take scandalous pictures of you while my fiance assists with the lights?" with a straight face...and soon.

Anyone around Iowa City feel up for it? I should probably note that I pay in prints, not money.

Down to one last roll left to develop. 120 taken at the botanical center. But that can wait until I've shot the next 5-pack. I have this idea that I think the professor won't particularly like. It involves nudity (or at least apperant nudity.) And every single person I tell it to says "Oh wow, do it!" The ones who've had plenty of classes from the professor before then add "Don't ask him, just do it."

Which leads me to believe that these people are all scheming little pricks who want to see titties and me get chewed out for trying to pass something off in my project.

I'm 5 rolls behind in the dark room. I love 120 film but it's not nearly as quick to develop. Shot at the chilled water facility in Hospital Ramp 6 today. Developed about half of what I shot. I'm still not over the novelty of large negatives, so I'm giddy as a school girl everytime I pull another pair of rolls out of the wash. That's about all I've got.

Oh, right. This shot, the one below it and one to follow are all from the botanical center in Des Moines, IA.

I really like this shot.

I'm sure in no small part because of the sly self portrait.

I'm developing a morbid fascination with bad blogs. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm not hot shit on wheels over here. Where I'm going with this is that when I'm at work, I have an inordinant ammount of time to dig through mounds and mounds of horrible shit. From this, I've distilled an immutable truth:

Like every other situation when interacting with other humans on the internet, people who claim to be "hot chicks" get a disproportionate amount of attention.

Don't get me wrong, as a hot chick, I'm not bitter or anything. But why shouldn't I reap the benefits of my position simply because I don't make a huge issue out of the fact that I'm a totally hot chick with large breasts who can be easily convinced to post naked pictures of myself?

Yeah, so I'm loopy right now. What, you want to fight about it? Is that it?

This is one of those things where one suddenly finds out that your boss reads your blog. Sure, sure, we already had a close call, what with my mother and my potty mouth and all that shit, sure. But I've yet to let this whole endeavor really get wierd.

So, the company I work for merged with another company to become The Company I Now Work For. Now, TCINWF finally got around to getting me all of the paperwork required to get paid and all of those silly things. Tax forms, employee handbook, what-not and hoo-ha. Sitting amidst all of these forms is a little something called "Employee Invention Assignment and Confidentiality Agreement."

Now, this thing is a doozy. Keep in mind here that I'm a part time employee and the pitch for this position was made up largely of things like "You'll have plenty of time to do other things while at work," "Bring stuff to do or you'll be bored" and "You can work on whatever you want for the most part, as long as you're in the building and watching the pager." One of the things this little form says is that I have to let them know about every single thing I do, write or make during the tenure of my employment. This is so they can determine if other bits of the agreement give them the right to legally demand that I renounce all ownership and authorship. These other bits are pretty general. Were I to have signed this monstrousity, this blog entry would be (legally) written and copyrighted by TCINWF. Other bits of the agreement would restrict me from making public things owned by TCINWF. Which would make it nigh-on criminal to push the "publish" button down there. There's a whole bunch else in there.

Frankly, most of it really wasn't terribly suprising. I've signed non-disclosures and non-competes before. Were I a full time employee who is compensated to put up with this sort of bullshit, I doubt I'd be that shocked.

The bit that really made me double-take like a bad cartoon was the bit about likeness rights. Apperantly, they want the unlimited use of my name, likeness rights, biographical information , voice, etc. Oh, and they'd like the right to grant anyone else in the world the same rights.

Is that some boiler-plate bit I just haven't run in to before? Or is that some seriously messed up shit to ask a part-time college student NOC-monkey pager-bitch for?

By the by, for those keeping score, I've upgraded this fellow from "amusing, if spastic" to " consistantly amusing if
terminally spastic"...you know, so it's not all about my bitching, here.