09/27/09

My sweet baby,

The nights are getting colder, and you are almost here. Winter will be here soon, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

The chilly mornings, cold noses and hot chocolate, warm blankets and the first snowfall of the year. You will be too little to remember winter this year, but I will be happy to have you with me.

But winter isn’t the only thing I want to share with you. 

I am excited for your discovery of many things: I can’t wait for us to dance in the living room to our favorite music, to do finger paints and hang your artwork on the wall, to watch clouds and guess their shapes, to watch bugs in the garden (I hope you’re not scared of spiders like I am!), to dance in the rain together, to sing our favorite songs at the top of our lungs, to curl up with a story after bath time all warm and clean and cozy in bed, to eat freshly-baked cookies with a glass of milk. 

There are so many “firsts” ahead of us.

Love,

Mom.

Voici deux affiches pour l’association West Airsoft…une réalisée ce soir en deux heures de temps à partir de la photo du dessous, et l’autre plus ancienne, sortie du placard…

Pour celle ci-dessous j’ai encore quelques difficultés à trouver une bonne typo pour le titre principal ainsi que son insertion dans l’affiche…

The first two minutes of the film Chocolat (2000) are highly revealing as to the concept of what film academic S. Brent Plate describes in his book Religion and Film (2008) as two ‘contrasting spaces’ which essentially represent two ‘contrasting worlds.’ During this introductory segment the viewer is able to become accustomed to (through a number of cinematic lingual elements) a central strand in the film’s narrative; the way in which regimented religious structure and pleasure driven business can become two conflicting sectors in society.

The first thing heard in the film is piano playing musical notes on a higher register; Rachel Portman’s score suggests a tranquillity and the viewer may feel enticed; yet the fact that it is played in a minor key suggests that something is foreboding, perhaps this calmness and peace will soon disappear. This is relevant as the order of the town is destroyed when the new chocolate shop appears.

The first titles that appear are basic in their format; this simplicity matches the feel of the town we will later visit. The town is a place which on the surface of things seems devoid of modern complications that perhaps the church feels it is able to keep in order. Beyond this simplicity, the white and black colours suggest that their actions may be viewed as one of two things; right or wrong, which contrasts the complexities of the confectionery seller with her questionable morality.

Beyond the titles, the first things filmed are what look like clouds, which the camera glides through. The viewer may assume that we are now descending through the clouds from somewhere high up in the sky; are we being told that God is watching?  This could be true when seen in relation to the church and it’s aims. However, when the camera moves beyond these apparent clouds, we see that we are not descending from the sky, rather moving horizontally through what looks like mist. This illusion could well imply that the supposed divine intentions of the town’s religious leaders are in no way inflicted by a higher power, rather by human will.

The long shot of the entire town reveals a number of things; firstly the size of the town; it is a small place where presumably not many people live, which suggests that any changes to daily life will be noticed by all of the town’s inhabitants and that any sort of control; be it political, criminal, commercial or religious, won’t take much to create a stir.

Secondly this long shot establishes the position of the town; it is high up on a hill and in the middle of the countryside. This could well mean that the town is difficult to reach and maybe is a place that is untainted by the proverbial ‘big dark world’ around it. This sets the film up as the shop owner moves into the town and is a modern and fresh addition to a town which is steeped in traditional values.

Thirdly this long shot reveals the church as the tallest and most central landmark of the town. The viewers eyes are immediately drawn to it, which serves the purpose of it being the institution that’s existence is threatened. It is at the centre of the town and the centre of the lives of the town’s citizens.

Two sound effects are heard when the music stops; birds singing and church bells ringing. The birds once again allude to the town’s apparent tranquillity but also could be read to symbolically represent new life and new beginnings; something which the town is about to experience. Things are about to change and become transformed.

The church bells are a familiar sound to even the most pagan of viewers; most people know that they are rung in order to call people to church, or at least to draw attention to it. These bells however are not tuneful, but are somewhat monotonous and off-key; which could well refer to the fact that the weekly routine of going to church is not a joy to these people, these bells are not joyous or inviting, rather they are boring and dreary. The viewer when hearing this will perhaps view see that this place does not achieve the things that a good church should; contrastly it is a place of boredom and weekly duty.

We are now shown a straight on shot of Comte Reynaud (Alfred Molina), this shot suggests that he is someone who is not necessarily of any threat; but the straightness insures that he is definitely in control. As people pass him and enter the church, this notion is confirmed when he signals to a man to remove his hat, almost like a school teacher. This is not a man who lets anything go unnoticed, especially rebellion; something that Vianne (Juliette Binoche) has plenty of.

The costume choice of black, his removed hat and the facial hair on his upper lip (moustache) all suggest that Comte is a man of conservative persuasion. This prepares the viewer to see him in juxtaposition to Vianne who is presented as progressive and daring.

The church is framed from a lower view-point suggesting its domineering nature. This church is not a place that is open to sinners who can find solace in it’s forgiving nature; rather it is a place which gives it’s members no freedom or joy; something which the chocolate shop can happily offer (especially in the month of lent).

A French church, similar to the one used in Chocolat.

A good point on the fact that this is a wide-angle shot is made by Plate;

A significant early shot is taken from the opening of what will become the chocolate shop, and the wide-angle camera is forced to point high to take in the height of the church towering above it.

The fact that this shot is taken from where the chocolate shop is established implies that these two places are in head to head conflict which is definitely seen throughout the film in the fact that both places stand for such different values.

This opening sequence of filmic images all combine to portray the film’s core narrative line; two very different worlds colliding. Those who manage to watch the film all the way to the end see that the two world’s eventually settle their differences and that Vianne undergoes an earth shattering change of her very own. This film does not necessarily serve to highlight a negativity towards the Christian church as a whole; rather it’s message discourages regimented and freedom infringment in religion and in politics. In the same way, the film is not necessarily encouraging chocolate binges or revolutionary retail, rather it would be better to read it as an acknowledgement of the beauty of freedom and enjoyment (namely the enjoyment of Chocolate).

Day 11:  Finding it hard today, grey clouds hanging around my head, making it hard to see the good in things.  I am alive and breathing, healthy and surrounded by good people, for this I am grateful.

Day 11: Be still my grey thoughts

From last night, I managed to get the files converted, loaded up and feed through the freeware program called startrails. It took a couple attempts to get something decent, a larger image my PC choked on a bit so I scaled it back since this was an experiment. Well, on my PC the smaller file looked pretty good, so I uploaded it up to youtube and got this:

Don’t look like youtube’s processing was kind to this experiment. I will have to see if I can remake the timelapse, or find a place where I can host better quality images.

by now, most of you know how crazily passionate i am with the sky: day, night, sunny, cloudy, all of the above. it is matter of appreciating the little temporary details in life that will fade and never be the same again. the beautiful aspect of this is that everytime it’s a whole new experience, and in every different experience you just keep looking for more little details and momentary forms that just take your breath away.

happy birthday kathy, thank you for your support and for helping me keep this site running.

© 2009 Massimo Pelagagge
Luci della sera in Toscana 5, inserito originariamente da Massimo Pelagagge.

© 2009 Massimo Pelagagge
Luci della sera in Toscana 4, inserito originariamente da Massimo Pelagagge.

Available in 4×6 and ???

Two weeks ago when I had a heavy heart, I was surprised to get a call from new e-guestbook signer and friend, Dave. He asked if I wanted to go flying over the gulf beaches and afterwards maybe go up in the tower to meet the guys who work there. How cool is that? I really like Dave and I welcomed the opportunity to hang out with him ~ flying was an added bonus!

done

On the day of our flight the weather was beautiful, Dave was awesome, and my heart suddenly felt lighter. I cannot tell you how much fun I had that day! I’ve always dreamed I’d get my pilot’s license some day but never really saw it as a possibility. This was the day I changed my mind about that. I’m convinced now that flying a plane is something I just have to make happen as soon as possible.  Dave, you have inspired me  and lifted my spirit. What a great friend!  Thank you.

p.s.

Dave, I’m not particularly happy with the video I shot. I’m certain that I could do much better on the second trip! (smile) Oh, and thanks for the study material.

Flight

I recently decided to go through my archives to see if I could find any images I had missed that might be worth printing. I don’t know why I passed this one up in the initial edit, but I’m glad I went back for another look; this is not the first time I have found a gem amongst the chaff of forgotten (digital) negatives. This photo was made two years ago; there are close to four hundred images in that folder, so maybe I was slightly delirious the first time I saw it.

I made eight exposures of these two cranes silhouetted against the evening sky, and this is the one where it all came together. Except for the lead bird’s beak, open in a raucous cry celebrating…the joy of flight?, or maybe just a full belly after feeding all day in the farm fields at the north end of the refuge; they are frozen, almost perfectly synchronous, in their return to their watery roost. Peter Matthiessen was right when he referred to cranes as the “Birds of Heaven”.

Equipment: Nikon D200, Nikon 300 mm f 4 lens.

Settings: ISO 320, f 9 @ 1/400 sec.

Processing: Contrast, clarity, and vibrance adjustments in Lightroom, curves and saturation adjustments in Photoshop.

Well, I started a project, its more like an experiment right now, and it is something I tried a while back. It involves taking a ton of photos, a huge amount of time, mostly just sitting around, that is until I run into a snag moving the multi-gig folder with HUNDREDS of raw photos.

It has been so long since I have used my laptop, I forgot it only had a CD burner in it, so that failed. I did manage to do a rough process of the files but it took nearly two and a half hours!  Then I found a problem. I processed the files wrong and needed to re do them, but the bright side is, the processing did shrink the file sizes down and I was able to get them off my laptop, which is having some issues.

It took me around 4 hours to aquire the images, then nearly that long getting them where I wanted them. I did have fun aquiring the images, I had some major headaches. Time to find a thumb drive, or better yet, some 30′ of USB repeaters and hope I can control the camera from inside the house. Oh, a new 8 or 16gig compact flash card. I opted to just dump the images to the laptop since I knew the amount of images I was going to shoot would eat up the card, I ended up with almost 5gig of raw files during the 4 hour time frame I was shooting.

I used a program called startrails to give me a quick and dirty movie, but ran into another problem… the program choked on the 700+ jpg files I was feeding it, so I had to break things up in two. What A work out. One file is on youtube waiting to be processed. Hope it looks better then the last time I saw it. Windows movie maker did a horrid job mixing the two files files together. Looks like if I am going to be doing this time lapse stuff, I will need something better then the freeware I have been using. Hope the the videos (parts 1 and 2) don’t look too bad.

Two nights ago at five o’clock at night, I was standing outside looking up into the nearly dark sky. A faint line of light trailed along the horizon. Hazy lavender touched the earth and a line of pink topped it off. That mix of colors and mist slipped upward into the dark night sky.

As I faced the west, the waxing crescent moon was to my right with planet Jupiter sitting brightly on its left.

The air was cooler, close to freezing cold. My hands and nose were cold. I could see my breath as I stood in the deepening darkness. I looked up into the trees; the branches took on a silvery cast.

I called to Uriah. His hackles were raised and he was barking towards the path. I called him back, time to head into the house.

 Two hours later, I was back outside. I had to keep telling the dog to stay close. I could hear the coyotes they sounded like they were to the east and south of us. They were coming closer.

Why is it, when you want a dog to do his business instead he decides to sniff around and waste time.  I was getting nervous.   Different sounds were coming out of the darkness. Sticks snapping, a faint growl, the dried grass was rustling as if something were walking through.

I did not want an altercation between a younger animal and Uriah. He is eleven and a half, just because he thinks he’s big stuff, doesn’t make it true.  

Uriah watched me, and then turned to the trees. I had him walk with me towards the front of the house. I kept talking, he continued to growl, and mutter. He sounded a lot like my grandfather; complaining about noise, kids, and pigeons.

It was dark, and a foggy haze settled in around the trees. The air felt electrically charged. I’ve lived out here long enough to pay attention to my inner warning system. We headed to the house.  Uriah came inside,… reluctantly.

I had just enough time to wash my hands and sit down at the computer. When my old cat PJ, sat up from a sound sleep and hid in the hall closet.

When I first moved out here, fourteen years ago, PJ was chased by a coyote.  PJ outran the coyote. My closest neighbor at that time said, “They never saw a cat run so fast.”  I hadn’t realized that a coyote can reach speeds up to 43 mph. That had happened in the middle of a day with bright sunshine.

I cracked open the window and shut it right away. There was a pack of coyotes in my yard. No more than twenty feet from the window I opened. The high pitch ‘yapping’ and ‘yipping’ flowed into the room. One of the animals howled, his was a deeper sound. Not the high pitch ‘yip’ I normally heard.

I wasn’t afraid of them. I respect them enough to say out of their way. But I did open a window upstairs and tell them to leave. Of course they didn’t listen. My voice is too shrill, I had to deepen it, and then tell them to leave. Finally they stopped making noise and left.  That silence lasted until ten o’clock, after that they returned every hour – all- night- long.

Last night was quiet. The rain and fog moved in blocking the moon, Jupiter should be on the right side of the first quarter moon tonight.

So far nothing is moving out there tonight.

That not true!  I can hear that irritating rat, shuffling around the dog kennel…

Picture from Hubble site.org

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire/pr2006019c/