I was looking through some photos I had taken a few weeks ago and I reacquainted myself with this one. It might not be the best composed or sharpest or best lit picture; and to quite honest it might not even be that compelling or dramatic. BUT, I just had to take a picture of this dude. WHY, . .you ask? C’mon dog, he’s out there at the Caribbean day festival shooting with a damn old school TLR camera! YOU KNOW!! He’s got the ground glass waist level view finder. . .C’MON! He’s even got the old school leather pouch and neck strap, and the old school spotmeter.
SO, while I was shooting with my dinosaur first generation digital Rebel, he’s shooting with a darn fossil of a camera. It made me feel good about my camera set up. Not because mine was so much better than his, but because it reminded me that a picture is the product of the photographers mind. Of course it can be ‘influenced’ by your equipment, but at the end of the day, . . if you’re a good photographer you can take dope photos on a camera phone, a Polaroid, lomo, . . WHATEVER. Read more…
Originally uploaded by Craig BattleI love Ben’s Chili Bowl. The chili half smoke is DC’s indigenous street food and Ben’s does it right. I messed up the first time I went to Ben’s I ordered a bowl of chili. You CANNOT do this, I REPEAT, DO NOT order a bowl of chili at ben’s Chili bowl. The Chili must be on something, . . like a chili half smoke or a burger or even fries or soemthing.
I’ll tell you what I partly have to thank my future wife and her family for my appreciation of Ben’s. You see they have this unique way of making hot dogs. They put them in the oven and kind of like broil them till they’re black and charred. You don’t realize it, but boiling dogs over stove top flame is really wack. You crave that crunchy, slightly-burnt (read: very charred) outer shell and that pliable, slightly, chewy gelatinous inside; that you get at a barbecue. (and Ben’s does it like that all day!)
So, next time you’re in DC and you’re on U street at like 2 am after bar hopping, stop by Ben’s; it’s always crowded but well worth the late night drunken shove match that you’ll endure before you order. (believe it or not, I shot the above photo at about 3am, and it was packed)
The artist’s of the week, are Kim Hill and Big Shug! I know thats an odd pairing, but so WHAT!
Anyway, you don’t need me to tell you, but mainstream radio is WACK, straight up. I mean, I know alot of ya’ll like 50 Cent; I mean they guy writes catchy songs and there’s a market for that. But its just that there’s a media machine pushing his tunes down your throat, but hey I’m not gonna take anything away from him, he’s the artist. But mainstream radio, . or better yet corporate radio, . . they bear a fair share of the responsibility. It’s Corporate Radio that buys into the media machine that proliferates payola and all the rest of that marketing nonsense, you know?
Anyway, Big Shug just put out an album with DJ Premier and the lead single is called ‘Play it’. I don’t normally agree with bouncers turned rappers, but Shug has a point. He urges DJ’s to play ‘all of the record’ and talks about diversity in the music. SO, . . if you like the single, do like I did and go to emusic and cop, and turn off corporate radio!
Speaking of diversity, how come Kim Hill isn’t on the Radio? I just discovered her music, but I’m totally enamored by her whole situation; she has a fantastic voice. Ms. Hill was one of the original Black Eyed Peas but as a result of creative differences she was replaced by Fergie. Kim Hill Didn’t compromise her artistry and that’s rare to find these days. Everybody trying to sound like everybody else and WE the public lose; ‘casue we get no damn diversity at all, that’s wack, son! Do yourself a favor, go to itunes and download her song ‘Disney’, it explains the whole current music situation AND whats more, it’s just 99 cents, dog, trust me you’ll thank yourself later.
At any rate, I know record sales have been declining over the past few years as a result of bootlegging etc etc; but I don’t know if that’s the whole problem. Part of it I think, IS the lack of diversity in the marketplace. Also, I think the record industries are killing themselves with these lavish marketing schemes, videos and production costs. I mean for real, my cousin has a firewire interface a Mac and Logic and he can put out pretty much industry ready music from his bedroom; isn’t all this technology supposed to make it cheaper to make a record? Aren’t CD’s cheaper to press then records where? Where the hell is all this money going to?
Think about it, did EPMD spend $500,000 on production costs for their album? NO, . but they sold Gold and it was a success, you know? Nowadays you got producers wanted $100g’s per track!?? get outta here!!! Video’s costs upwards of a million! Its no wonder you guys can’t recoup. The record industry needs to return to grassroots. Start developing artists along the way. Make EP’s and lower budgeting projects and let the artists develop a strong fan base naturally. Give away mp3’s as a part of the marketing budget, . you know, factor that loss into the cost of the project before you hire Timberland and the Neptunes and Little X. I think that’s what Prince was doing over in the UK a few weeks ago, just giving mp3’s away, but the record stores were stupid, they refused to sell the music; they’re fools.
I might not buy physical CD’s anymore but I’ve been a member of emusic for years now. I spend money on music! The record industry just has to be more creative and stop relying on their old tried and true marketing schemes; ’cause them joint don’t work no more in a digital era.
Oh yeah buy the way, . . You can hear Kim’s stuff here:
I’ve been working on a tribute to Jay Dilla for a while now. I can’t seem to get the wording right though so I keep putting it aside. My main focus is Dilla’s motivation for what he did. Dilla was prolific at making music not because of money or any external gratification; but an inner satisfaction.
It’s my honest opinion that if no one ever listened, Dilla would’ve still been in the basement making beats. He might not have had the same equipment or he may not have been surrounded by the same people, but it just seems like making music was this man’s purpose in life, regardless of the external rewards.
With that said, I try to do the things that I feel compelled to do as a result of my purpose here on earth, i.e. expressing myself through whichever media is handy, whether it’s photography, writing; whatever it may be. I do these things for my own inner satisfaction. I totally appreciate when someone likes one of my pics or one of poems or whatever, but to me that’s just bonus, I’ve already enjoyed creating it, and if someone else can enjoy it as well, that’s great too.
I think that’s why I don’t charge people to take pictures, you know? I feel like I’m cheating or something. Its like, wrong or something. I think I’ll have to get over this feeling at some point but until then, let me know if you want some free headshots, but thats a whole ‘nother story.
Anyway, while I was in photoshop today I was just messing around with some images I had taken I decided to listen to some Dilla and I found mysef inspired by this remix he did for the group called Coruscation for their song Purple. I’ve heard the song about 50 times now and its definitely one of my favorite Dilla remixes. So, in honor of dilla I decided to make a composite of some purpleish photos I took and post his remix to Purple. Please enjoy, but know that if no one reads this, know that I had fun posting it.
I was on Engadget.com today reading about the apparent iPhone nano that’s been making its way through the rumor mill and I came across some awesome images in a Gawker.com advertisement. While Gawker features “Manhattan media news and gossip” they’ve been advertising the Gawker Artists section on their website lately (and boy am I happy they did). One of the featured Gawker artists is Anthony Hare, a self taught digital illustrator from Canada or as I like to call it; Canadia (I don’t know why, it just sounds better to me).
At any rate, Hare’s images were dope and I soon found myself at his website www.siteway.com. Let me tell you, this guy Anthony Hare has SKILLS! He’s done caricatures of Rocky, Tracey Morgan, James Brown, Kurt Vonnegut, Christina Ricci etc etc. And the images all have the same awesome line art style. AND, he’s got them for sale on his website too. DOPE! Basically, if you just moved into your new condo and you need some cool art to hang over the couch, please check out my man Anthony Hare’s website; www.siteway.com, I know I will. Now all I need is the new house and a couch.
