Well, my run of visitors to New York has come to an end. Last month, a few weeks after my returning home from Europe, my mother came to New York to visit me for several days. Then my friend Dave Levingston came to New York for several days and stayed with me. Then, as I wrote last time, my friend Terrell Neasley visited New York for a few days, and though he didn’t stay with me, I did spend a good part of two weekend days with him.
Now, I’m hoping that I’ll have a good run of time for myself so I can catch up on some stuff here. I’ve already gone through most of the junk and non-critical mail that piled up while I was away, but more needs to be done.
Of course, I’ll try to catch up on some photo related stuff, too. That includes scanning negatives, which I haven’t done for a little while. Tonight I’m continuing to post my Holga series of nudes made at Joshua Tree National Park in California last year. The model is Stephanie Anne, a young woman I first met last spring when she was living right here in Brooklyn. (She has since moved back to her native New Mexico.) The negatives were scanned sometim
e last month.
Stephanie was good enough to come out here to me on the south end of Brooklyn - something other people claim is too difficult to do (in other words, that they’re too lazy to do) – and we met for lunch, even though we had no photo session set up. It was a Saturday, and when I picked her up with my car, I had the radio set to the weekly Metropolitan Opera broadcast. It was then that Stephanie told me that she’s a music lover from a family of musicians.
Later in the year, when I was driving her out to the park for our photo session, I decided to bring some opera CD’s to play in the car. Upon hearing the music, Stephanie cranked up the volume so high that even I was taken aback by it – so it was nice to find someone who likes listening to that kind of music rather than complain about it.
The photo at the top, to explain a bit, is the result my asking her to do her “blowfish” face for me. I had seen that in another photo she had done, but she said she’d already done it with somebody
else and did not want to repeat it. I asked her to come up with something else unusual, and the result is what you see at the top.
As with the other models I photographed at Joshua Tree, I’ll be posting some (more serious) non-Holga photos as well once I can scan and develop some more.
*********************************************************************************
On the subject of opera, I wrote last time how I get a ticket to La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera starring the popular Russian soprano, Anna Netrebko. Well, one of my Facebook friends sent me a message telling me that Ms. Netrebko has opted out of appearing in La Traviata at the Met in the 2010/2011 season. Apparently, she wants to do other things and doesn’t want the Met production, based on the 2005 Salzburg staging she was in, to compete with the DVD of that Salzburg production. (I have the DVD but haven’t watched it yet.)
I wrote back saying that I’m more concerned with La Traviata this coming season, as I have a ticket to see it with my favorite singer, Angela Gheorghiu, and I don’t want her to cancel on me in this opera as she did a few years ago. (She also failed to show up for the Tosca I had a ticket for in Berlin a couple of months ago.)
Well, as the saying goes, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. She’s still in the Traviata as far as I know, but I read today that she’s backing out of the other opera she’s supposed to be in and that I have a ticket for: Carmen. She’s opting out of six of the eight she was scheduled for, claiming “personal reasons.” As all six shows (and neither of the other two) feature her husband, the tenor Roberto Alagna, as the leading man, the reasons may be personal, indeed.
I could exchange my ticket, but I probably won’t. Her replacement is the beautiful and talented young mezzo-soprano, Elina Garanca, who I have not seen yet, and the rest of the cast is good, too. Of course, if I want to risk disappointment again, I can always get a ticket for one of the two that Angela is still supposed to be in and cross my fingers. I’ll see.
Now, I’m hoping that I’ll have a good run of time for myself so I can catch up on some stuff here. I’ve already gone through most of the junk and non-critical mail that piled up while I was away, but more needs to be done.
Of course, I’ll try to catch up on some photo related stuff, too. That includes scanning negatives, which I haven’t done for a little while. Tonight I’m continuing to post my Holga series of nudes made at Joshua Tree National Park in California last year. The model is Stephanie Anne, a young woman I first met last spring when she was living right here in Brooklyn. (She has since moved back to her native New Mexico.) The negatives were scanned sometim
e last month.Stephanie was good enough to come out here to me on the south end of Brooklyn - something other people claim is too difficult to do (in other words, that they’re too lazy to do) – and we met for lunch, even though we had no photo session set up. It was a Saturday, and when I picked her up with my car, I had the radio set to the weekly Metropolitan Opera broadcast. It was then that Stephanie told me that she’s a music lover from a family of musicians.
Later in the year, when I was driving her out to the park for our photo session, I decided to bring some opera CD’s to play in the car. Upon hearing the music, Stephanie cranked up the volume so high that even I was taken aback by it – so it was nice to find someone who likes listening to that kind of music rather than complain about it.
The photo at the top, to explain a bit, is the result my asking her to do her “blowfish” face for me. I had seen that in another photo she had done, but she said she’d already done it with somebody
else and did not want to repeat it. I asked her to come up with something else unusual, and the result is what you see at the top.As with the other models I photographed at Joshua Tree, I’ll be posting some (more serious) non-Holga photos as well once I can scan and develop some more.
*********************************************************************************
On the subject of opera, I wrote last time how I get a ticket to La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera starring the popular Russian soprano, Anna Netrebko. Well, one of my Facebook friends sent me a message telling me that Ms. Netrebko has opted out of appearing in La Traviata at the Met in the 2010/2011 season. Apparently, she wants to do other things and doesn’t want the Met production, based on the 2005 Salzburg staging she was in, to compete with the DVD of that Salzburg production. (I have the DVD but haven’t watched it yet.)
I wrote back saying that I’m more concerned with La Traviata this coming season, as I have a ticket to see it with my favorite singer, Angela Gheorghiu, and I don’t want her to cancel on me in this opera as she did a few years ago. (She also failed to show up for the Tosca I had a ticket for in Berlin a couple of months ago.)
Well, as the saying goes, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. She’s still in the Traviata as far as I know, but I read today that she’s backing out of the other opera she’s supposed to be in and that I have a ticket for: Carmen. She’s opting out of six of the eight she was scheduled for, claiming “personal reasons.” As all six shows (and neither of the other two) feature her husband, the tenor Roberto Alagna, as the leading man, the reasons may be personal, indeed.
I could exchange my ticket, but I probably won’t. Her replacement is the beautiful and talented young mezzo-soprano, Elina Garanca, who I have not seen yet, and the rest of the cast is good, too. Of course, if I want to risk disappointment again, I can always get a ticket for one of the two that Angela is still supposed to be in and cross my fingers. I’ll see.
