Ted::Blogs(): Music Talk

April 2006

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Death Valley 2006

During the Easter weekend, I took a long-deserved photo trip to my favorite place in the world, Death Valley. For the past couple of months, we've been having too much rain and it was great to get out in the sun again. I've been to Death Valley a couple of times before, and this time I tried to visit new places. This time I visited: Rhyolite, Stonepipe Wells, The Dunes (I can't remember the name right now), Golden Canyon, Artist's Pallette, Devil's Golf Course, Badwater, and Zabrieskie's Point. I took two bodies - Hasselblad 503CW (with 3 lenses) and Hasselblad SWC/M. I used Kodak TMX for 503CW with a tripod and Kodak TMY for the SWC/M handheld.

I have always been fascinated by selective focusing and shallow depth of field. To me, it is an explicit way to express the most important part of the image. For the same reason, I enjoy using vignetting as a visual effect. The series of pictures here are taken from various places including italy and california. Obviously, they are grouped as a series as they share the same type of visual effects, not because they share the same subject or geographic location.

I was born in the year of the horse. Maybe that's why I am fascinated with horses. When I started photography, I was very inspired by Keith Carter (another reason why I am so obsessed with selective focusing). After buying his book, "Ezekiel's Horse", I always wanted to have a chance to take pictures of this beautiful creature. Last year, I went to Vegas with my friends, and instead of playing golf, I drove out to Death Valley. I had the slightest idea that I would have an encounter these beautiful horses.

Several weeks ago, I asked my dear friend Andy for some recommendations. Andy is a lazy blogger, who is "a Korean, US Permanant Resident, living in Japan and working at a French company." He's a great guy, but more importantly, he is a music buff with a trustworthy taste.

This is what I got from him:

A few suggestions of different kind… let me know if you like any then I recommend some more. Some of them aren’t exactly new

Something hard:

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (yes that is the band name. Obscure but great) – best CD: “Source Code and Tags”

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Foo Fighters (led by David Groehl from Nirvana)

Black Keys (for something bluesy)

Mars Volta – try De-Loused In The Comatorium (punky)

Cursive – The Ugly Organ

Also try:

Arcade Fire – Funeral (only one CD but it is the most critically acclaimed CD of recent years. Imagine Bowie or Talking Heads)

Modest Fire – “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” is a big hit (ask your son) but I prefer “Moon & Antarctica”

Fiery Furnace – “Blueberry Boat” (weirdness)

Anything from Flaming Lips

PJ Harvey “Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea”

For something folky (imagine Neil Young):

Bright Eyes

Clem Snide

Elliott Smith (not exactly new since he’s dead now)

So-called low-fi or emo:

Deathcab for Cutie “Plans”

Anything from Yo La Tengo

Shins

So-called dance rock that is popular these days (your son might have some):

Killers

Franz Ferdinand

Arctic Monkeys

-ak

I've been too busy to try them out, but I did try "... And they will know us by the trail of the dead" and I really liked them. I'm planning to listen to some of the other recommendations, but if you have any good rock music to share, please let me know!

Led Zeppelin is, by far, my all-time favorite band. I have to confess that I stayed away from music since the 90's (related to my new passion in movies and getting sick of the rap/hip-hop trend). But since I bought my iPod G5 and discovering Allofmp3.com, I started listening to music regularly again.

I am trying to listen to new bands, but I have yet failed to find any band that's good enough to buy an album. I guess this is a new thing - bands are focusing on selling songs than albums because of the new download services? Anyhow, I tried Pandora.com to find new songs that I would like, using their recommendation service. I entered some Led Zeppelin's songs but I didn't really like most of their recommendations. I was very disappointed since I heard so many good stories about Pandora, but then I realized a simple fact:

"There are NO new songs that are as good as those of Led Zeppelin's anymore. Period."

So after I bought several Led Zeppelin albums, I decided to try some 'Tribute' albums. The first one I bought was "Great Zeppelin: Tribute to Led Zeppelin" by Great White. I've never heard of Great White, but I was amazed at how good they are. I love the selections, and I especially enjoyed "In the light", "Tangerine" and "Thank you". If you are a Zeppelin fan, you will be amazed at how good the band is, and how good the singer is (Jack Russel sounds just like Robert Plant. I bet you won't be able to tell the difference unless you hear carefully).

I was so encouraged by this, so I bought another tribute album called, "Encomium: Tribute to Led Zeppelin" by various artists. This one is very different from the Great White's. It includes 12 different Zeppelin songs by 12 different artists. I liked some and I hated some. I really liked the ones that were totally different from Zep's version, but were yet pleasing. For example, I loved "Thank you" by Duran Duran the most, because it is absolutely Duran Duran sound but still very good. In the meantime, I hated "D'yer Maker" by Sheryl Crow and "Custard Pie" by Helmet With David Yow (What's wrong with these guys?). It seems like "Misty Mountain Hop" and "Good Time, Bad Times" cannot be ruined no matter who plays them.