Tag: music

by jad

Rituals & Liturgies, Fathers & Sons

The last time I was in this venue seeing this band was also the first time I started imagining myself taking photos in spaces like these. That’s the night I met Dom and Ellie and asked about their cameras; I even spoke to veterans like John whom I’ve seen at nearly every gig I’ve been to since, arm raised, Canon blazing. Michael and I reminisced about that last night; it hasn’t even been a whole year, but it feels a lot longer. In that time, I’ve enjoyed figuring out something like a style and bits and pieces of a technique … Continue reading “Rituals & Liturgies, Fathers & Sons” →

by jad

World Photography Day 2023

Today is #WorldPhotographyDay and it trips me right out to look back on how far I’ve come with whatever this is since last year, when I wasn’t sure why people kept giving me cameras or what the hell I was supposed to do with them. I took photos, of course, but I wasn’t sure if it was “photography” — and I knew I wasn’t a photographer, that’s for damn sure. But I’m not as sure anymore. x Someone who gave me the best compliment I could have ever received* about this silly little hobby of mine posted something the other day about … Continue reading “World Photography Day 2023” →

by jad

TTArtisan Concert Photography

I’ve been testing out a new and ultra-affordable (relatively speaking) pancake lens from TTArtisans that I’m really falling in love with. You may have noticed how much brighter things looked at this concert in comparison to those at Substation from a couple weeks ago, where I used a vintage Nikkor lens; it’s wild what a difference a stop and a half can make. This lens is fully manual, so it’s a little fiddly to get used to, but it makes for great off the hip and on-the-go captures. It’s also a very weird focal length, which forces me to go … Continue reading “TTArtisan Concert Photography” →

by jad

Seattle: “It’s a City”

The other day was the second time in a row that I’ve heard a dig made at Seattle by a band on tour, and the first time was pretty direct: “if you’re born and raised in Seattle, that sucks for you.” That time, I laughed and waved my middle fingers in the air as the crowd cheered. This second time, the frontwoman was actually starting to say something nice, recalling how they’d recorded two albums and lived here for a month each time: “Seattle’s nice,” she offered, but voices in the back started to jeer and say “it’s alright…” Everyone … Continue reading “Seattle: “It’s a City”” →

by jad

Mother’s Day

“Je ne te quitte pasJe ne reviendrai jamaisJe ne te quitte pasJe ne reviendrai jamaisJe ne te quitte pasJe ne reviendrai jamaisJe ne te quitte pas.” We’ve all seen the posts about words that can’t be translated into English that inevitably include “saudade” in the list – saudade, that Portuguese feeling of “profound nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone.” This longing is “often associated with a repressed understanding that one might never encounter the recipient of longing ever again.” But what’s a word for the melancholy that comes with irrepressible presence? Does anyone else ever feel … Continue reading “Mother’s Day” →

by jad

Green Lent, Red Pisces

It’s funny “haha” and funny “hmm” to me how often I’ve swung between dogged determination and complete surrender. I am the original member of @baumwerkj’s Order of the Dung Beetle before it had a name, back when @heure_bleue__ initiated me as such. I am also constantly broken open and made a vessel of things I did not choose but became available for. Pisces season seems to come around every year to mark some new striving after a vision; sometimes it turns out to be a mirage, other times it is transfigured into a brighter image of the truth. I used to be embarrassed … Continue reading “Green Lent, Red Pisces” →

by jad

Sound Concepts

“Silence is such a great concept. There is no silence, unless in a vacuum; it’s that great mystic world which cannot exist in our world. Also, in music, the time between the musical events is as important as the event itself.” (Robert Henke) x FOR ANY INSTRUMENT OR COMBINATION OF INSTRUMENTS I TACET II TACET III TACET x “A good drone is highly complex under the surface. It is like a view over a city, which can be perceived as just a grey mass of buildings or as a very complex set of small parts where each part is complex … Continue reading “Sound Concepts” →

by jad

#Route101: San Francisco / Jenin

The air feels heavy with many things today, so I thought I’d share this, from Clarion Alley, as a reminder of sorts, or maybe just a laugh, if you’re in that mood, instead. x San Francisco himself at the Mission Dolores Basilica, right next to the original Misión San Francisco de Asís. The Basilica and a nearby park get their name from the “Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores,” or Our Lady of Sorrows Creek. x x x x I haven’t posted anything political in a very long time, and the awful thing is that I’m moved to post … Continue reading “#Route101: San Francisco / Jenin” →

by jad

Old New Year

Today is #OldNewYear‘s Eve & #FridayThe13th, so it makes *perfect sense* to get my scans back from the lab this afternoon and post my NYE photos right now, right? Καλη Χρονια Να Εχουμε! x I had a weird day today in a first it was spooky, then it was cute kinda way. Spooky and cute and random like these shots from our NYE in Portland. x A couple more from our unorthodox New Year’s Eve on this Orthodox New Year’s Eve, featuring @xibling and a few random scanner misfires. Щасливого Нового року! x

by jad

#Route101: Another New Year

As we recover from the motion blur of our epic #Route101 road trip, much of the past year is coming into focus for me in the rearview mirror. I spent much of 2022 and a good chunk of 2021 thinking and writing about meaning—discerning it, making it, communicating it. I tried every personality test and even got into tarot. I turned inward, coiling up tighter and tighter until I got sick of that spiritual exhibitionism and the leering that comes with it. I wanted out and I found an unexpected exit in photography, an ecstatic eye to thread new lines through. But … Continue reading “#Route101: Another New Year” →