Pyramid Lake, Jasper, AB, May 2024. Two months before the wildfires.

From the author's personal collection.

I mentioned a few months ago how magical it was to return to Jasper for the first time in 35 years, despite it being relatively close.  Little did we know that a firestorm during the last week of July in 2024 would change the town and area forever.  My heart is with all those affected by the fires, and I hope they can recover.

Table of contents

• Jasper
• Analog (part 1) - Capture
• Turn it up, B!
• Analog (part 2) - Process
• Blog Updates
• Multi-melting
• Looking Forward

When I visited Seattle in June, I grabbed the Lomography Simple Use Black and White camera on a whim at a camera store, and I'm glad I did.  It's changed my relation to photography in a way I didn't anticipate, but have come to enjoy.  It made photography easy again.

At it's heart the simple use camera is the same plastic shell of the disposable film cameras that started to see wider adoption during the 1990s, before digital became widespread (and affordable).  It's a thin wrapper with a basic lens (and in this case a flash) around the roll of film, which given current prices is the more valuable component.

This particular camera came pre-loaded with some of lomography's Lady Grey brand of B&W film. There are very few moving parts.  It is ultimately a return to ANALOG film-making.

And it feels effortless.

It easily slips into my jeans pocket, and I'm not worried in the least about damaging it.  I can take it out and shoot in moments. And the images aren't too bad (more on this in part 2 below).  All in all, it is liberating.  And the simple use camera can be reloaded (though I did struggle with this from time to time).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSTX2xVpfPw&t=1s

"With the real-life Durst sitting in a set designed to look like a low-rent room, wearing a (fake) mullet and his trademark red cap, Limp Bizkit provides a scathing critique of how the current Generative AI tools simply mirror back a non-stop firehouse of thinly remixed nostalgia, much like the beats in the song. There's nothing "new" here, in a tune that LB could have dropped at any point in the last 20 years, and that's precisely the point. Echoing the accelerationist refrain of "more! faster!" in the refrain of "Turn it up", LB's sarcastic take divulges their GenX origins, but sadly as Poe's Law notes, the sarcasm will likely be lost on those who most need to take note. 5/5"

Anyhoo, this ended up cracking me up when it was released during the month of July, and I watched it probably far more than I should. Totally worth sharing, and having a look at at least once.

And here are the results.  Honestly, I wasn't quite sure what to expect with the black and white film, and yet somehow this exceeded my expectations.  The image of T-Mobile stadium was taken in June of 2024, yet looks right out of a history book from a century earlier.

For these two shots, the film was a roll of Ilford HP5 400, taken on an older Olympus point-and-shoot that I last used 20 years ago.  But the results are oddly timeless.

Compare the shot above with the full color shot that was our header image for last issue. Both shots were taken at the same time, from almost the same angle, and yet the difference is striking.  I like them both, and I feel connected to both of them in different ways.

The return to analog has opened my eyes (quite literally), and I'm looking forward to including it in my repetoire going forward.

What Tech Calls Thinking (Daub, 2020)

I pulled this one off the shelf due to recent events in the United States, as the "Silicon Valley Ideology" is getting some scrutiny due to political events.  I may have mentioned this earlier, either here or on the podcast, but it's a good read, and well worth examining.  Daub brings a critical eye to the main thinkers that have shaped the current ethos of SV, devoting a chapter to figures like Marshall McLuhan, Ayn Rand, Schumpeter, and others. 

Taken together, the actions of SV entrepreneurs and those who ascribe to be like them and laid bare.  It's a relatively quick read.  Highly recommended.

Fully Automated Luxury Communism (Bastani, 2019)

One of my favorite science fiction series is Iain M Banks' Culture novels, and I recently heard those described as "FALC in Space", so I thought this was worth checking out. Bastani's manifesto stands in stark contrast to Daub's book above.  Where Daub details how we got to now, Bastani shows us the potential of where it could go, if it were not for the perverse incentives of venture capital driving the business models of Silicon Valley.

Just cracked the first couple pages on this. Will report more later.

Alas, not summer means not much in the way of (indoor) media consumption.

Witnessing Booker T and the Stax All-star revue at the Calgary Folk Fest was the highlight, as was an AEW Dynamite taping during the Stampede.

But I've been getting back into Star Wars media, watching both the Acolyte (not bad) and starting on Andor (fantastic!), and I hope to discuss both in more detail once I've finished watching the latter.

The dog days of August are coming, and I have little expectations about what that may bring.  Hopefully new photos, some new episodes, and perhaps, just perhaps, the completion of my full Andor review.  See you soon!