Evolving notes, images and sounds by Luis Apiolaza

Category: quotidian (Page 1 of 2)

Tabla de salvación

Mi post Tuesday evening mid-life crisis tuvo buena acogida. Como acá en Nueva Zelanda ya es viernes en la tarde, decidí empezar el fin de semana escuchando “Tabla de Salvación”, en que Leo Maslíah explica en vivo por qué Harrison Ford es un modelo para nuestras vidas. Genial.

Live recording from YouTube.

I used to read

I used to read. A lot. All sorts of books, popular ones and some obscure ones; they were mostly novels, some poetry (in Spanish) were my usual fare. I read voraciously but with no target; I mean there was no “I have to read X books this year” just read and read. Years later I reduced my reading a lot, part of changing cities, countries, language, lifestyle.

Later came the idea of giving away books. It was too much hassle to keep so many books sitting on a shelf. Then I decided to buy much fewer books; some years I didn’t buy even one. Later there was much dog walking, which consumed a lot of my reading time and then I discovered audiobooks.

Initially, audiobooks felt very different, as usually my problem was “How do you pronounce this name? and now it was “How do you spell this name given the pronunciation?” It was harder to keep all the pieces in place, there was no going back to remind myself what was happening before. My solution, perhaps no ideal but practical, was to simplify stories. Lots of “who dunnit” but audiobooks were quite handy, with 8 to 15 hours for an unabbreviated story*.

Characters sound different from what they sound in my mind if I’m doing the reading. At the same time, it is going back to oral stories, which were the first stories for humanity. One big problem: the audiobook market is a dumpsterfire of a near monopoly, with a DRM heavy offer (Audible, an Amazon company). And I do not want to buy books or audiobooks so my solution is very simple: borrow audiobooks from my public library, which has a fairly large catalogue.

After a while one develops a taste for voice actors. My favourite, by far, is Seán Barrett who does an excellent Harry Hole in Joe Nesbø’s crime novels (here a Barrett interview about his voice acting work).

These “readings” are far from what I used to read, but they are very fun. How many of them? Quite a few, depending on time and books available. I often do not respect the order of book series, as I rarely have the patience to reserve the books and wait that they are in the right order.

Bookcase in my office. Mostly technical books.
Bookcase in my office. Mostly technical books, some of which I’ve given away.

*There are some exceptions, like Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon which is 43 (!) hours.

Jetsam 35: hospitals

Some years are simple accumulations of 365 days, one after the other, without many memorable challenges. Twenty twenty-three is the family year of medical challenges, treatments, lab tests, surgeries and long conversations. What are the pros and cons of this option? In balance, is this option better than the alternative? It’s only mid-March, but it feels closer to November; it’s already tiring.

Exterior of Christchurch Hospital
Self-portrait in hospital corridor.

Why not film?

“Why don’t you try film?”, he asked.

“I can’t afford the time and expense required to work with film”, I muttered. Perhaps a truer statement would be that, right now, is not a high-enough prioritary to allocate the time and resources to go for film.

My connection with film started in 1980. I got shooting using a Pentax MX, with a fantastic 50mm f1.4 which I still use, and I learnt to process and print in my high school’s darkroom. A group of us and an enthusiastic teacher put together that insanely hot, bare bones room.

Changing film was like getting a new sensor for a digital camera. Light sensitivity, contrast, grain (sensor noise), etc could be drastically different when using black and white. Response to colour could completely change the mood of a shot. However, one was stuck with this alternate sensor for the length of the roll (often 24 or 36 shots).

But let’s face it, modern cameras are technological marvels, produce crazy sharp images, just a bit… aseptic. And here comes the film nostalgy, which is channelled via film emulation: putting the sensor I had in mind behind that aseptic image.

I do not use film emulation while taking pictures, but I imagine a type of film while shooting. In my head, the picture that I see/feel is black and white low/medium/high contrast, or a gritty underexposed portrait, or a cool colour negative, or even a vivid slide film. Some time later I will take the cold digital phone picture and use RNI Films (one of the multiple companies that make reasonable film emulations) and obtain a photo which looks like what I had in mind. Most of my photos these days use film emulation. PS 2023-04-17 16:50 NZST: I’m now using Rawtherapee to process many of my photos, relying on its emulation filters.

This process is not perfect, but it works and I can express myself in a meaningful way. Hard to ask much more from a piece of software.

Note: Image The crane, iPhone + RNI Films (2017-12-10)

I have seen 8 alien shape-shifting reptiles…

Some months ago I supported a PledgeMe campaign to get Matthew Dentith, who has a PhD in conspiracy theories, to a conference in Miami. Today I received a postcard that made my day; it started as “I have seen 8 alien shape-shifting reptiles…”

I have seen 8 alien shape-shifting reptiles upon arriving in Miami (scan of postcard).
I have seen 8 alien shape-shifting reptiles upon arriving in Miami (scan of postcard).

Nice to see that Matthew is enjoying the US’s conspiratorial environment.

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