samurai photographer's required reading

Have you checked out ACT-I-VATE yet? Well, have ya? If the answer is no, I feel it's my duty to point you to the work of one of the strangest artists ever. His name is Chip Zdarsky. I met this stylish young Canadian (bleah, Canadian) for the first time at MoCCA last week and I'm hooked. His strip, Zdarskyverse is a foray into his very convoluted and, dare I say, vaguely sick mind. I'm in love, and when I say I'm in love, you'd best believe I'm in love L-U-V.

samurai photographer remembers Jaxon

Holy shit, Jaxon died.

I just found out today, and oddly enough, had spoken about him maybe four times at MoCCA this past weekend.

Some more info here. Obit from the Statesman here.

Los Tejanos and God Nose are two of my favorite books ever. I am glad I have them - an unheard of score in Mercer Street Books (both of them are signed by him) for dirt cheap. I think I floated home that night.

Rest in peace, Jaxon.

samurai photographer has seen the first horseman of the apocalypse

And it's David Lee Roth doing "Jump" as a bluegrass tune.

As much as something like this should not exist, it must be seen to be believed. Hork.

Update: as if to counteract the aforementioned travesty, someone pointed me to this. Hope springs anew! Go Borat!

samurai photog: MOCCA voyeur

our secret,
originally uploaded by samuraiphotog.

So yesterday was my very first MOCCA, and I'm still recovering (more coffee, STAT!) I'm having a blast, and enjoying my job as the "official" photographer of Act-I-Vate, an online comix collective whose members are mostly based here in NYC.

As such, I have been spending time getting to know the cartoonists I had not yet met personally, eating Vietnamese food, and watching them drink. A lot.

I promised I would post some of the incredibly strange photos from our "session" though, so here's one from a private moment between three of the more, um, colorful personalities behind the art.

samurai photog's museum of oddities.

Creepiest Mascot Ever.,
originally uploaded by samuraiphotog.

So I found this whilst cleaning up today, and I am unsure as to how, exactly, I came to acquire this small piece of creepiness. It made me think about some things that I would rather not admit to right now.

And then there's this.

samurai photographer and the approaching storm

I set up a minidisc recorder in my kitchen window earlier today to capture the truly annoying sounds of my super sawing through sheet metal, but as the day progressed and my toes and knees started to swell up, I knew that what I really wanted to make a recording of was the thunderstorms that were approaching the New York area.

They aren't the first of the season, but the humidity and heat of the past few days guaranteed that they would be some pretty violent ones.

Shortly after dinner, I flipped on the weather channel and saw they were right on top of the city, so I hit REC and waited.

I didn't have to wait long, about three minutes later I started hearing some low rumbling off in the distance. Since I live near both an airport and a power plant, I always believe that the electrical disturbances here are just a tad more violent. I'm not sure if that is fact, but I do know I have seen lightning forks hit stuff at ConEd.

When I first moved here, almost 10 years ago now, I went up to the roof once to watch a storm roll in. In hindsight, it was pretty dumb, but it was exhilarating to watch the darkness encroach on my neighborhood, the sky flickering like someone was turning on a fluorescent light 5 miles in the air.

My kitchen window is in the seemingly perfect spot to capture the harmonic overtones of both the pealing thunder and the falling rain, and, occasionally, the screaming of the little girl downstairs when lighting strikes close by.

I always find it easier to fall asleep when there's a storm. I don't know if it is the white and pink noise the rain makes, or if it is the slow decline of the humidity in the air afterwards. Perhaps that will be a future use of this recording - to help me sleep when stress and worry have made it difficult to relax.