Land of the free?
We are no longer allowed to live free in this country. Every day when I drive into work I pass through a line of trees on either side of the road. The trees have been changing color and starting to drop their leaves so I thought that I should head out and capture it before I missed the opportunity. This road is fairly wooded at the beginning and then it opens up and there are office buildings on either side of the road. I parked my car at a vacant lot at the top of the road and walked down taking pictures from the side of the road.
I had been out there all of 15 minutes when a sheriff’s deputy pulls up behind me. I thought he was waiting so that he wouldn’t get in my shot so I waved him through. That’s when he put his lights on and stopped his blocking one lane of the narrow two lane road. He gets out of his car and proceeds to interrogate me asking why I’m out walking around taking pictures. I told him that I was capturing this view that I see on my drive to work every day and he asked if I was sure that was all that I was doing. I tried to explain to him the concept of leaves changing color and how it’s a pretty good photo opportunity but he just couldn’t comprehend it. He then asks if he can run my driver’s license.
Here I am, an American citizen, out for a walk on a Saturday morning on a road that is frequented by joggers and I’m being treated as if I’m a terrorist plotting to blow up some oak trees. The area that I was photographing was at least a quarter of a mile from the nearest office complex (I didn’t want them in my shot). While he’s running my ID I finish up taking my shots and I’m ready to leave but I’m being forced to wait for the background check to come back. I also noticed that he’s got dash camera pointed at me so I walk a good distance from his car. After waiting for 10 minutes or so he gets out of his car and apologizes for holding me up. I should have never been halted in the first place.
George Carlin said it best:
“Rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges. Like staying up late to watch television on a school night. That’s all we have is privileges here. “
Why I hate retail sales weasels
For those that don’t know me, one of my pet peeves is retail sales. The whole “can I help you find something” may be well intentioned but if you don’t know anything then you can’t very well help someone. Today’s example took place at Wolf Camera, a retail photo/videography shop. Normally I would never be caught dead in a retail storefront like this but one of my co-workers told me that the prices were reasonable and the staff was quite knowledgeable so I figured I’d give it a shot.
I was in the market for a remote shutter release cable for my EOS 20D. The first thing that I noticed about this place is how EVERYTHING is locked behind glass. It reminded me of a jewelry store. I explained to the lady that I had a Canon EOS 20D and what I needed for it. She tried to sell me a wireless one but I insisted on a cable. So I get home and find out that what she sold me doesn’t fit the plug on the 20D. Oh I was livid. I really wanted to take some night shots tonight and I needed that cable to do it properly. I loaded up my camera and drove back to the store. Class was about to begin. Find out what happened next after the jump.
Know when to fold ‘em
Before moving to Atlanta, the entertainment scene seemed pretty interesting. For the last 12 years, a 3-day Voodoo-like music festival has taken place at Piedmont Park in Midtown. I attended this festival, dubbed Music Midtown, last year and, despite all of the rain, enjoyed the variety of artists that performed. On one stage you had The Black Eyed Peas while on other stages you had The White Stripes, Alan Jackson, and Tom Petty. It seemed like the old met the new and one genre met the other at Music Midtown. Well citing 3 years of inclement weather and poor ticket sales, promoter Peter Conlin has decided to pull the plug on this 12 year tradition. It’s a shame to see this thing go because I felt this thing was very well run. There were people as far as the eye could see on the first and third days of the festival. It seems odd to cancel the show without trying to find another venue. Another thing that’s been brought up is that the city of Atlanta is making things increasingly difficult for event promoters by making the permit process more and more difficult each year. 99x normally puts on a late summer concert series dubbed “Downtown Rocks” and according to their event manager, that may also bite the dust. I didn’t get to attend that series last year but they had record crowds turn out to see bands like Weezer, Garbage, and Cake. These concerts seemed great because they were free and centrally located at Underground Atlanta. Hopefully now that there’s an opening for summer music entertainment, a bigger, stronger promoter will move in and take over. I liked how Music Midtown catered to everyone so hopefully we could get someone like Rehage (Voodoo) or Goldenvoice (Coachella).
Source: AJC
Atlanta has a new anthem (revisited)
While digging around the comments section of my website, I found that someone actually left a comment! Woohoo! I don’t normally respond to comments on the main page but this one attacks my view from an angle that I never intended to pursue. I have a problem with the song sucking, not the song being Hip Hop/R&B. I have no problem with Hip Hop and R&B music but I do have a problem with this song. Have you heard the song? Am I wrong in criticizing its poor choice of lyrics or equally poor production? For $8 million dollars someone could have written a song that brought more to the table than the initials that the city is known for. The other songs that I mentioned (Cleveland Rocks, New York NY) all tell a story about their city. There is no mention of the diverse sports teams, museums/aquarium, transportation, people, corporate headquarters, etc, etc, etc in Austin’s song. All I’m hearing is that “there’s no other place I’d rather be.” I had a professor in college that would hand this back with a big red WHY printed on it.
If anyone would like to read the lyrics to this fine piece of work, click MORE.
You (dont) got mail!
Well it appears that my illustrious web host has nixed my email capabilities for now. It is all part of a server move gone horribly wrong. Apparently my account has been suspended (WTF?). If it were suspended, how could I be typing this post? So it appears that my email, ftp, and control panel capabilities have been suspended but the hosting has not? For what it’s worth, all emails sent to my main email address will bounce. In the meantime, please direct all of your love/hate mail to brendan (dot) spaar (at) gmail (dot) com. replace the dots and the at accordingly. I’ll provide an update when this all gets resolved.
UPDATE: Email is back up and running! I was finally able to get it in the webhost’s head that I cannot afford to go 2+ weeks without email. They said it was a “bad cron job that took over the server” that lead to my account being suspended. I don’t even run any cron jobs on my site! WTF?! Anyway they gave me an extra gigabyte of storage for my troubles and sent me on my way. I’m content...for now.
