Alberto Santos-Dumont (20 July 1873 – 23 July 1932)

While most young people of the U.S. are taught that the Wright brothers were the inventors of modern flight and aeronautics, most of the world outside of the U.S. credit Alberto Santos-Dumont of Brazil for the amazing achievement of being the first to master aeroplane flight. While there is some argument about who was actually first, the Wright brothers or Santos-Dumont, clearly Santos-Dumont was far more influential in the future of aeronautics and aircraft design. After watching the NOVA PBS special "Wings of Madness", I too have become a Santos-Dumontian and acknowledge Santos-Dumont as the father of modern aviation.

Hell hath no fury...(Update)

Well, I must say that we must have been duped for a short period of time. It appears that our friend Emily and her juvenile attempt at getting even with her cheating husband was all a hoax; a part of a viral marketing campaign by Court TV.

New York Times Article
New York Post Article

No Juice

After 7 days, over 9000 people in Astoria Queens still have no power. One Astoria shop owner expresses their disatisfaction with the Con Edison power company by displaying a sign in a window.

Hell hath no fury...

So i'm taking a little break from my downtown office to run a couple of errands. I'm heading out of the Wall St. train station and see a young woman holding a flier that reads "Lost Dog". Seems rather normal, I figure that this young woman must live in Batter Park and her dog must have gotten away and is lost. After looking a little closer, I see that the "Lost Dog" that she is looking for is not of the K9 variety but of the homosapien kind. Yes, she is passing out lost dog fliers with a picture of her husband; her cheating husband. Did I mention that the flier reads that her husband is cheating on her with her best friend?

Yes, this woman is wandering around the Financial District handing out fliers with a picture of her cheating husband. To top the situation off, the flier has a URL where you can find video of the cheating in progress, as captured by the private investigator that was hired to validate the indescretion. The husband in the picture is dressed in the typical Wall St. manner so I'm assuming he's a banker or trader or something along those lines and must work in the financial district. I'm sure that she's done a very good job of handing these fliers out to his friends and colleagues on the street. When I got back to the office and tried the website, it was a bit slow which suggests that there was MAD traffic hitting the site. I can imagine now, all of this guys blue blood friends and colleagues on the trading floor giving him the business right about now.

Here is the flier that was handed out (pdf)
Here is her blog (http://www.stevenisacheatingdog.com)

Rack 'em

The photo shoot went well. I was happy with most of the work. Slate was fairly accomodating with my intentions and turned out to be a really good place to shoot. There are a few things that I've learned during the course of this shoot that I can take forward with me to the next shoot.

1) Keep the guests at the shoot to a limited number.
I think that we had the perfect number of guests to entertain each other while I grabbed willing participants for shots.

2) Have a core group of models/participants througout the shoot.
Having a core group that is dedicated to appearing in shots is important. Helps keep the flow going througout the shoot. You can shoot candids or use guests for spontaneous shots from time to time but having the core subjects is important.

3) Don't be in such a hurry to get a shot. Stop. Focus. Be Patient. Pay attention to the light. This should help my overall efficiency with respect to quality shots.

I'd like to thank Richie for some excellent tips during the shoot. It always helps to have a more experienced photographer to bounce things around with. A big thanks goes to my lovely assistant "Mary Mar" aka Alex aka Mary. This would not have happened without her effort and patience. I'd like to thank everyone else for coming out and I'll see you at the next shoot - On The Roof at 4F.

Photos from The Slate Pool Room (2/24/2006)
Slate NYC

Show Me The Patacas!

Noun: pataca (pu'taaku)

The basic unit of money in Macao

Derived forms: patacas

Type of: Macao monetary unit

Encyclopedia: Pataca

iGroupie

While engaged with an iFriend of mine-someone that I have never met in person but we have mutual friends and we communicate via a network communications medium such as the Internet, cellular, or PSTN, using applications like instant messenger, e-mail, and the telephone; I realized what the Internet geek was missing in life that would validate him/her as a cool and iconic figure...THE GROUPIE.

Lets face it. There was nothing really cool about those 80's hair bands even during the 80's. They were just little nerds, dorks, or little pussys that were in the marching band or music class in their highschool years. Somewhere along the way they figured, "The only way to be cool as a musician is to form a band and get chics!"...And they were right. You can be an ugly, untalented teased hair, drug addicted, alcoholic and be a superstar idol, as long as you have groupies. No groupies, no love. From anyone.

For the bloggers, and technology gurus and geeks, it's got to be all about the groupies from here on out. Here's to the iGroupie.