funcrunch updated gallery 'Blue Bear Band Showcase'

funcrunch updated gallery 'Blue Bear Presents'

funcrunch updated gallery 'Blue Bear Live III'

funcrunch updated gallery 'Blue Bear Band Showcase'

funcrunch updated gallery 'Blue Bear Live IV with Los Lobos'

OK, I've been hermitting but have managed to get some stuff done over the last couple of days:



- Returned rental camera and picked up some office supplies



- Negotiated sales of photos with several performers from recent Blue Bear events



- Banished gray roots



- Authorized repair on Canon 40D (~$200 - note to self, investigate extended warranty/insurance for new model)



- Solicited opinions on photo.net on which lens to get for new camera



- Ordered new Canon 5D MkII + 24-70mm f/2.8 lens (thanks Mom!!)



- Reorganized some files on my hard disks to make more room for ginormous files from above camera



- Entered a bunch of receipts into Quicken



- Did stretches and crunches for the first time in weeks



- Practiced bass a little bit (Bach invention and Steve's solo etude)

I'm now making public the full set of videos from my March 31 mainstage set with the band Two Fifths at Café du Nord. I'm proud that I was able to pull off a solid performance considering I'd only been playing the bass for ten months at the time of the show.



Videos from the set here. I played bass on every song and sang backup on several. boyziggy played keyboard.

(Link to photos for the impatient)



Friday night I shot five bands at the Red Devil Lounge for Blue Bear Presents. As my Canon 40D had broken the night before, I brought along a rental 5D from Calumet. Though I had used this model before, it took a little time to get used to again, as the design is not as nice as the (newer) 40D. But the full-frame sensor allowed for some excellent shots, with lower noise at 1600 ISO than I'm used to from my own camera.



Blue Bear really packed the house for this benefit, which was great for them, even though that made it more challenging me to find places to stand. I got some pretty good shots of the bar and audience in addition to the performers. All of the bands were fun to watch and listen to: Kami Nixon, Boxcar Betties (formerly known as Shotgun Wedding), Rebecca Cross and the Saints, Crowsong, and Super Adventure Club. I was sad that I had to leave halfway through the final set, but I was so tired that I was afraid I would drop my camera off the balcony...

For all I bitch about being lonely and depressed, I do get invited to a fair number of social events. Unfortunately a lot of them end up being at the same time. My immature response to this phenomenon is often to stay home and not go to any of them. But when faced with competing interests, I value one-on-one time with friends above all else.



So this coming Saturday I have at least four competing things available: a visit/photo shoot with a friend, a karaoke party at The Mint, a Parson Red Heads concert in my neighborhood, and a Flickr meetup I just found out about. I got invited to another concert by a friend's band also, but it got canceled, which was actually somewhat of a relief given the other stuff going on and the fact that my camera is in the shop. The personal visit is the only thing I'm definitely doing unless one of us has to cancel. I haven't even put the other events on my calendar yet.



Tangentially related, yesterday I started using TweetDeck to keep up with Twitter and Facebook statuses in real time. I had virtually stopped using Twitter altogether, and was finding it very hard to keep up with FB posts as I have 226 friends on there now. (My criteria for FB friends is the same as for LJ: I have to have met them in real life at least once.) My reason for starting to follow Twitter again is partly mercenary: I can get free stuff! Adagio often gives out gift certificates and discount codes, and I won a free pass to Google I/O. Not sure how frequently I'll update my own Twitter and FB statuses, however.



I'm also re-organizing my feed reader, Protopage, to try to stay on top of blogs and news better. I've experimented with Google and other readers, but I always find myself coming back to Protopage.

Link to Hi-Nobles photos for the impatient.



A few days ago I found out via MySpace that a band I love, The Hi-Nobles, was performing at Thee Parkside Thursday night. (Having never been to that venue, I thought "Thee" was a typo, but no, that's correct.) I had shot the band previously at my co-worker/friend Rich Trott's birthday bash, but decided to contact the band to see if they'd be willing to get me and boyziggy on the door list in exchange for some pix. Rich's friend Jeff, the band's keyboard player, responded in the affirmative, and so we headed to Potrero Hill last night.



The bar was small and dark, but had veggie burgers and was much more pleasant after the stagehand stopped using his flashlight as a poor man's laser pointer toy for the resident dog, and closed the door to keep out the cold air. We got there at 8:45 as I was thinking the bands started at 9, but they didn't go on till 10. I was generous and texted mike20 from the bar as I knew he loved this band also, and he actually managed to show up before they started.



I had no problem getting a good position in front of the stage, though I knew getting good shots would be a challenge with the low light and the lead singer and keyboard player's high-energy antics. (Scotty, the singer, actually knocked out one of the guitar player's pedals when leaping around the stage, grinding the show to a halt 30 seconds into the first song.) I still managed to get some OK shots, and then my camera started displaying Error 99. I'd seen this message before, and managed to get rid of it with some combination of reseating the lens, swapping the battery or memory card, but this time nothing worked. By the end of the set I had given up and decided to go home rather than sticking around for the other two bands. Good thing the band I came primarily to see and shoot went on first! As boyziggy pointed out, after he helpfully Googled the error from his Treo, if a camera disaster was going to happen during a shoot, this was a good time for it to occur.



However, I had another shoot lined up for Friday night. So I got online to continue reading about the dreaded Error 99, and to check to see if I could rent a 5D from Calumet for the weekend. After following much suggested advice for fixing the problem (including cleaning the lens contacts in addition to the things I'd already tried) and getting only more Error 99s, I decided I'd have no choice but to send the (out of warranty) camera in for servicing. By 1:30 p.m. today boyziggy had very helpfully packaged and Fedexed my 40D off to the Irvine repair center, while I was on the bus back from Calumet Photo (where gerardp and I bought camera cases together for our first dSLRs) testing out my 5D rental. They only had a first-gen available, sadly, but at least I've used this model before and I know it will work with my 50/1.4 and 85/1.8 primes. (I would have rented a 24-70mm f/2.8 also if they'd had one in stock.)



Looks like I might be upgrading to a 5D MkII sooner than I'd planned, though I'll wait for the repair estimate from Canon before planning my next move...