papa's got a brand new bag

papa's got a brand new bag , originally uploaded by ( kurtz ).

(or at least new to me)

my 3 year-old backpack's finally on it's last seams. 12 seasons of biking, hiking, falling, grocery runs, rain, submersion, dragging, and dog-chewing are at an end.

finally, it was time to grab one of those waterproof backpacks I so covet. as always, budget was a big concern, so I searched the Russian Roulette marathon that is Craigslist. friday afternoon, I sent a USPS money order to Portland, OR, and by yesterday, Wed nite, I got my bag back via UPS. a 4 month old, perfect-condition bag, purchased at 50% of Retail. no small feat for a product from a bag company who, based upon my research, never has sales.

i celebrated by new acquisition with a little grocery shopping. afterwards, i tooled around Naro Video looking for an old Cronenberg flick for about half an hour.

by the time i got home i noticed i had been adjusting my posture repeatedly to compensate for the load. obviously, i'm not an Army Ranger hucking 80lbs of gear around 40 hours a week.

so, i checked the difference weight on the bathroom scale: 47 lbs

- bike chain (usually around my waist)
- 3 packets of Kung Pao powder
- can of peanuts
- stick of Pepper Jack cheese
- 2 cans of Campbell's Chunky
- 2lb bag of plain Grits (insert redneck joke here)
- floor mop replacement sponge
- bag o' oranges
- 2.5lbs of chicken breast
- 12 pack of Miller Lite, to replace what i've stolen from Michelle
- 3 dvd's - Hiroku the Goblin, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, The Brood
- 5lb bag of Kokohu Rose Sushi Rice (so much better tasting that long grain, imho)

hopefully i'll get stronger and faster riding loaded down. the bag is freaking huge, though, and i found myself tucking the Wings for the morning commute, to accommodate for the occasional shoulder-check.

i think i'm satisfied, but i do feel that this may be a bit much on the summer morning commute, considering the sweat-in-business-clothes factor. we'll see...

and I get to pose as a bicycle courier, telling tall tales of death-and-traffic-defying mortgage document deliveries. for joy!

back on the horse?

back on the horse?, originally uploaded by ( kurtz ).

It looks like my roommate wants to shoot some Divine-days John Waters-style filthy trash. That means costumes, locations, and bodies. Fantastic.

Also, I just bought a discount calendar of old Pulp novel covers. Hopefully I can do some awesome recreations, maybe with women fighting robots and ninjas to save dudes in peril.

Top pic is a still from Bob Tomecular's documentation of my shoot for ALIVE. Bottom is the resulting frame I shot.

planning

planning, originally uploaded by ( kurtz ).

finally got close to the crane structures on the Portsmouth side of the Elizabeth river, thanks to David, a bike commuter. hopefully i'll be able to re-shoot this at night, with something like a naked savage sneaking up to catch a glimpse of a sleeping god. and not get arrested.

Russians !!!

Russians !!!, originally uploaded by ( kurtz ).

About a month ago, a Moscow woman emailed me asking to print 2 of my photos poster-sized for her home.

I agreed to send the high-res files, in exchange for a pic of the blowups with some sort of Russian publication in frame to show off my new Eastern block fanbase (yeah, i know, anyone can buy a Russian book online - don't poop on my beachtowel, okay?!?).

Here's Sasha, with her copy of Matt, Punching and her husband Joe with a blowup of Roxanne and Matt. I'll be sure to send Matt his Ego Cookie.

Oh, and take a look at this shot in large. This is the biggest print I've seen of a Canon 8.2mp file, and it looks freaking awesome (about 24" x 36" ? ). I can't wait to start printing my own poster-sized prints.

Thanks so much, Sasha and Joe; you made my day!