Greetings and welcome to the ET Photo Blog #44. Today, in addition to our technical section Ask the Experts we'll have just one general section which I like to call Anything Goes. Catch the great photos which accompany this Frank Sinatra rendition of Anything Goes.

             

                             Happy posting!

Weekend photoblog brought across by afew

Greetings and welcome to the ET Photo Blog #42. Todays special subject is Portraits, self and otherwise.

Here's a portrait of my Uncle Sam. It's his birthday today you know.

Lots of inspiration in this week's photoblog! Next week will be still life - In Wales

Greetings and welcome to the 40th ET Photoblog. In addition to our   technical section Ask the Experts todays other section will be:

                                   ANYTHING GOES      

                       

Weekend bump for the photoblog. Next week the theme will be movement - In Wales

Text moved below the fold. Weekend bump for the blog.

Next Friday's theme will be reflections - In Wales

I'll start.

This twelve year old kid is sitting on a bench in a public park. He's got about six or seven candy bars on his lap and he's eating away. First one, second one, third; then this man about sixty five sits down next to him and strikes up a conversation. "You know, eating all those candy bars is not good for your health, they're loaded with sugar, will give you pimples and could cause diabetes"
The kid looks at him for a minute and says: "you know, my grandpa lived to a hundred and three." The man says, "oh yeah, did he eat candy bars?"

The kid replies: "No, he minded his own freakin' business."

Nice things to look at, intro text moved below the fold - In Wales
Next week's theme is context

Text moved below the fold - Weekend bump for your viewing pleasure! - In Wales

I'll label the photos tonight- I have to get ready for the luncheon meet up today.

The last photo in not an ET'er. I couldn't resist taking a photo of this juiced-up guy on the ride home on the metro.

Geezer!

Clockwiswe:Geezer, 2 daughters of Geezer, son of Migeru, Myrta and Paul Spencer,Migeru Cyrille, Yvonne (wife of Geezer) and Redstar.

LEP replaces Redstar.

Linca and wife Damia; Cyrille and wife Mouna,

Myrta and Paul talk to Geezer

ET can get boring at times!

Monsieur, do you think interest ates are going down? Update [2008-5-4 14:40:50 by LEP]: New photos of Sunday's meet up.

Greetings all. LEP has returned from Washington to France, via Jet Plane.
A lot happened while I was there. On the way to my office on Pennsylvania Ave. and 21st St.  I encountered at different times 1) Pennsylvania Ave. closed off for the Dali Llama, and 2) Pennsylvania Ave. closed off for Pope Benedetto. I saw picketing on K St.; Yes people still picket in the U.S. And I saw the last Obama-Clinton debate which passed several minutes discussing whether Obama should wear an American flag lapel pin. I didn't see them discussing whether Hillary Clinton should wear such a pin, so I thought the discussion unfair. Me I gave up my pin more than a year ago when Sarkozy announced he was forming a Department of Patriotism or something like that. I then traded my American flag lapel pin for a French tricolor lapel pin which I proudly sport even today. Well, it is displayed on the inside of my undershirt because I do want to be discreet. This is France you know. I don't want to have a 65% disapproval rating like Sarko has, primarilly because he's been indiscreet.

Well let's get down to business. Today we have three sections: as usual, Photos as Usual, 2)Ask the Experts and as inspired by Metatone, 3)Cultures in my Neighborhood. I do hope we'll see some photos from Metatone and that big beautiful camera he carries around.

The lead photo is a photo I took on the plane arriving in Paris. I took it with my new Canon Elph. I love this camera. No, it's not a Nikon D80. But it always in my pocket ready to go to work. It's like the condom I always carried in my wallet when I was 18; always on the ready. But I'm sure I'll use my Canon Elph more than I used that condom. Hmm, I have to take a look; I wonder if it's still there?

Welcome to the 27th edition of the ET Photography blog.
We're going to be busy today. Today's special feature is:

[edit] Planes, Trains and Automobiles, see below the fold for the rest.

Weekend bump for the photography blog - In Wales

I'll start.

It's sometime in the 1990's in New York. This very handsome 30 year old man, a banker of course, is arriving on his first date at the apartment house of a very attractive 28 year old woman whom he had met at a party in the Village two weeks before. They're going out to dinner. He goes to the lobby, rings her bell on the interphone and she answers "Hi, c'mon up, it's Apt. 2802." He takes the elevator up to the 28th floor, finds her apartment, and rings the bell. She yells, it's open c'mon in and make yourself comfortable in the living room. I'll be ready in 5 minutes."

He sits down in the glass walled living room with a spectacular view of Manhattan with a large balcony outside. Suddenly this little dog runs up to him with a ball in his mouth. The man realizes that the dog wants to play so he takes the ball and tosses it a few feet and the dog quickly retrieves it and returns. He does this two or three more times and is starting to get bored with the game.

So this time he tosses it a lot further and the ball goes through the slightly opened (unbeknown to the man) door to the balcony. In a split second the dog follows the ball through the door and unfortunately its momentum carries him over the railing on the balcony. I don't have to further describe what fate befell the dog.

The young man is in shock. 30 second pass and the lovely lovely young woman enters and says "ok, I'm ready, let's go."

They leave the apartment and get on the elevator. As they're descending the woman asks him "did you meet my dog?" "Yes" he mutters. She continues "I love that dog so much, almost more than anything in this world. What did you think of him?" "Well I thought he was very nice." She insists, "come on, what did you really think of him?" The young man being forced to reply blusters out "Well to tell you the truth I thought he was a little depressed."

"We gather in this great Blog, Eurotrib, to mourn and to give thanks. It is a fitting place to do so, a place where the story of our Blog and the story of our Film Discussion Group which we now commend to Blog Heaven are intertwined.
It was here that the idea of a Film Blog was created; it was here that many vowed to participate; it was here that its first and second editions took birth. It is fitting, then, that a place that stood at the centre of its brief life should now be the place where we honour its passing.
How should we explain the numbers so pitiful?  Who knows? People are busy? It was ahead of its time is the usual explanation.
There was about the Film Blog, in George Eliot's lovely phrase, "the sweet presence of a good diffused". But its life was to be very brief.
Finally, we come here not only to mourn but also to give thanks, to celebrate its brief existence and to hope that someday there may be a rebirth of a new and better  Film Blog.

 
Welcome to the 25th Friday Photograhy Blog.

You say you don't know the difference between an f stop and a bus stop, between film speed and shutter speed, between bokah and hallivah.
Well, you've come to the right place. Today, in addition to our regular Photos as Usual we have Photography Clinic-Ask the Experts. You can put your Missed Photos in that section..

Yes, we have a slew of experts including our information leader, Colman, my multi-talented co-host of the photo blog, In Wales, our resident flmmaker, Sven, and many other experts who, Im sure will drift in and out during the day to answer your photography questions. (without being all inclusve I'm thinking of Margouillat, tzt, gringo, and That Brit Guy.) In other words, we've got a bunch of dudes here who know how to take a picture.

Me, I've got lots of questions. I was given a Nikon D-80 fourteen months ago for my 70th birthday after having shot "point and shoot" for about six months. What a shock. I'm still learning the very basics. So I'm going to learn a lot today.

So let's get started. By the way, the photo at the top is of my daughter, estHer, preparing to assist Sven on a photo shoot.

Bumped up for the weekend - In Wales

Welcome to the 22nd edition of the Friday photo blog. It seems that we've been doing this for a long while but we're not yet even 6 months old. Today, our featured subject will be "My favorite genre" which includes inter alia,abstract, arty, landscape, night shots, portraits or erotica. Just to be clear, the erotica category was proposed by LEP, not In Wales.
My favorite genre is the "big sky," especially sunsets, and especially sunsets over water. I've been to Brittany the past two summers and when I'm there I cant stop clicking my camera. I like sunrises too but I'm rarely up early enough to catch one. I do have a few, however, taken from my studio in Paris which is on the seventh floor and faces south.
I probably like to photograph big spaces because I grew up in Brooklyn, New York and always wanted more space. Of course, now that I live in the country I can't wait to get to the city for my two days per week. Sometimes it's just hard to be satisfied, isn't it?
I'll start with a sunset I took in Brittany last July.

So, what's your favorite genre

Promoted by In Wales - a little saturday morning viewing pleasure

Welcome to the first edition of the ET Film Discussion Blog.The two films I have chosen  to discuss represent two bookends to Weimar Germany.
(1) The SERPENT'S EGG, by Ingmar Bergman, takes place during one week  in November 1923. It's ten months after the French have invaded the Ruhr (in January, 1923) ostensibly because Germany had stopped paying the onerous reparations dictated by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. The Germans then turned to passive resistance and strikes in the Ruhr which led to the total collapse of the German economy turning the severe inflation that had started in 1921 into hyperinflation.
The film opens in black and white with a procession of humans walking about five abreast with blank depressed expressions on their faces. The opening credits play along with some nightclub music from the 1920's. The narrator speaks: " The scene is Berlin, the evening of Saturday, November 3, 1923; a pack of cigarettes costs 4 billion marks  and most everyone has lost faith in both  the future and the present."
I'm going to lift a few paragraphs from a reviewer at amazon.com,  who describes the film as well as I've seen  anywhere.

"The newspapers are black with fear, threats and rumours. The government seems powerless. A bloody confrontation between the extremist parties appears unavoidable. Despite all this, people go to work, the rain never stops and fear rises like vapour from the cobblestones". These phrases, said by an unknown narrator, are a clear description of the dark mood that permeates this film.

The main character is Abel Rosenberg (David Carradine), an American circus artist who is stranded in Berlin along with his brother Max and Max's former wife Manuela (Liv Ullman), due to an injury that rendered Max unable to perform their trapeze act. Things deteriorate as they run out of money, as the general situation for all those living in Germany worsens too. It is the 1920's, and the whole country suffered from inflation, unemployment, and periodic outbursts of Anti-Jewish sentiment. Berlin wasn't a good place to live for anybody at that time, but the situation for the Rosenbergs was even worse, because they were poor, unemployed, Jewish and foreigners.

"The serpent's egg" (1977) begins with Max committing suicide, as an act of utmost desperation. After that, Abel is left with Manuela as his only ally in a place that steadily becomes full of omens presaging misfortune. To endure the mere fact of being alive when his brother is not, Abel gets drunk every day. The irreality that alcohol offers offers him is the only way of fighting fear, fear of what is happening in Berlin, and of what he sees looming in the horizon. In Abel's words, "I wake up from a nightmare, and find that real life is worse than the dream".
Evidently, Abel Rosenberg is an unlikely main protagonist, because he doesn't do much, merely existing in an unfriendly environment, taking in all that is happening without doing anything to change it. But maybe that is the task that the director, Ingmar Bergman, gave to him: to act as an eyewitness of times to come.

By M. Alcat "bel_78" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) -link

Greetings. It's Friday again; it's Photo Blog #19. Today, in addition to Photos As Usual we'll dig out our old photos of history, historical objects or people. If you'd like to use photos you've already posted please do so; as the new photo season approaches a lot of us are getting short of new photos to post.
I have several photos yet to post from the exhibition "100 Years of Paris in Color" which remains at the Hotel de Ville until March 31. If you can get there it's worth it.
This one was taken around 1920. It's some art academy students, maybe doing the "rite of spring." This group didn't need hallucinogens, that's for sure. So, show us what you've got. Update [2008-1-26 14:18:31 by LEP]: Thanks everyone for posting your photos and your comments. To me, this was the most interesting photo blog yet!

Greetings to all. This is the first photo blog of 2008 so again I again wish everyone a happy new year.
Since it's the time of year when only the young and hearty among us (I refer specifically to In Wales) are outdoors taking photos, and most of us are shooting indoors I thought we could do photos of people, without naming names of course for legal reasons. <snark>
I'll start with a photo of my son Raphael (rafi77630) and his godson, Hector who both also would like to wish you a happy new year:

They both apologize for being in a rather wasted condition. This was shot early Christmas morning and they were both out late drinking on Christmas eve. By the way, Hector asked me about him registering to become a member of  ET. He has a few comments he would like to make about interest rates!

So everyone, le's get back in practice and post away!

In the comments to "A Chrismas Tale" Jerome stated:

Jerome a Paris:

So this is Pascal's wager again? (none / 1) It does not work though - if the spiritual thing exists only in your head then you'll have spent your all life (and wasted everything you have) in the pursuit of something that does not exist. Maybe some will find that pursuit enough. I don't.

I said that reminded me of an old Yiddish story that was long, but that if I had some requests I would write it up. Well, I've had one request. That's enough, no? So here it is.

We are in New York, the year 1973.

Existentialist light relief for a quiet Saturday afternoon - Diary rescue by Migeru

In early November, while I was in the U.S. on vacation, in my sleep, I saw an apparition. "You will be granted one request", the apparition said. "Take me to my people" I replied. "Israel?" the apparition asked. "No, Miami Beach" I implored..........et VOILA:

Please excuse my corny old jokes.You can take the boy out of New York, but you can't take New York out of the boy, or something like that. Anyway, the apparition missed by 100 miles and I wound up in West Palm Beach, but that's another story.
And since I'm back in Paris it seems like I'm living in the Arctic Circle. Daybreak at 8:30, sunset at 4:30 and just barely enough rays of sun to give me some hope so that I don't consider  jumping off my first floor balcony.
So I thought that this being the last photo blog of the year we could dig out our old spring and summer photos and have a "Spring and Summer Blue Sky" section, to give us all hope for the coming spring. All this in addition to our "Photos as Usual" section.
So there it is. But wait! It's not the last photo blog of the year. A Guest Blogger has stepped up and has volunteered to do a Special Solstice Edition next Friday which happens to fall on December 21. It's Loefing, one of my fellow American expatriates in Paris. Jeez, Friday Photography Blog has a Guest Blogger. It feels like it's daily kos. (I must not let this go to my head!) Anyway, be nice to Loefing, it's his first time.
And Happy Holidays to all!

I have received my copy of "Cabaret" that I purchased on ebay. I already owned "The Serpents Egg." It seems a bit early to get into this since the first film blog is due for Feb.8th. But we're going to lose at least two weeks to the holidays, at least I will because I'll have all my family with me. I would also like to get on top of any logistical problems with respect to  availability of the films. For example, melo might be interested in us mailing him the dvd's, since he lives in the boonies and it's hard for him to get the films. I don't know if Fran has looked into getting the films but she can be put on the mailing list as well. If anyone else sees any problems let us know now so we have plenty of time to solve them.
I would also request of Sven to give us the films we will be discussing in the March diary by the middle of January as well as having Ted's titles for April by mid February.
I was looking over "The Serpent's Egg" and "Cabaret" and realized that since these two films act as almost bookends to Weimar Germany, it's necessary to have a basic historical understanding of the Weimar period to discuss these films. Wikipedia plus a couple of other sites which I'll list in a comment below, seem to provide this. I am not an historian, however, so if anyone with more knowledge than I would like to comment, please do so.
Please comment away.