Goodbye Austin, We’ll miss you

The most we’ve stayed anywhere so far is 2 weeks but Austin is just great enough to stay longer. It’s probably the only city so far I can imagine myself living in for at least a year. There is a pretty decent number of vegetarian restaurants, theater pubs and parks – plus the weather is generally awesome. I’m sure the summers are a living hell and the one day it did get humid here, it was horrible, but no place on earth is going to be awesome and have great weather all the time – that I know of yet.

We went out a few times a week and on the weekend with our friend Olivia who moved to Austin from Portland about 2 years ago. We were lucky to know someone there who knew the kind of food we wanted and places we would like to see.

Brite Wash, Austin Texas - Urban Cowboys

Beer Land Show, Austin Texas

Dont do coke in the bathroom

Zombie Attack!

Swad - cheap indian food, Austin

star wars loteria cards by Chepo Pena

• Listening to:: Captain Scarlet theme song while Ross works with his new music program
• Watching:: Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew
• Weather:: Raining and about 50 degrees
• Working on:: Kayak Website for a client
• has_been_twittered: yes

Shoot Em Up Austin

This last week we went out quite a bit and I even got to drop off some rolls of film at a lab that actually cross processes slide film, Precision Camera on North Lamar. Of course they messed up and forgot to cross process one roll – but I’ll forgive them since they’re not going to charge me!

Finally having some film to upload will be nice, and I bought several more rolls of slide 35mm, 120 and even a pack of fuji instant. I haven’t tried it yet but I’m sure its just fine. I don’t really see a need to bring Polaroid back – Fuji bought the formulas from them and presumably makes the exact same thing. The name Polaroid is classic but necessary? No. Seems our cultural hangup on brand identity knows no limits. If Coke sold their formula to Shasta Cola (cheap soda), people would still call Shasta cheap crappy soda, even if its the exact same thing as Coke.

Last week I developed some film in the RV. It was the first time I made the attempt on the road and oddly it went without a single hangup. The film even dried correctly with no water spots or particles all over it. I thought for sure my chemicals would have been bad after all the temperature changes they’ve gone through. I keep them up above in the storage area where the heat and cold aren’t really controlled directly but I tested the fixer, it was fine – and the developer didn’t smell funny so I went on with it. To prepare I only had to turn on the water heater and wait a while for the water tank to heat up. Each roll takes about 20-30 mins altogether to load, develop and rinse, then they were hung in the bathroom on the shower pole with shower curtain hooks and weighed down so they wouldn’t curl with paper clips. I only did 2 rolls and still have 3 more to do but I’m making progress on my backlog of film from the trip.

Here’s a few from those rolls, all taken with my big Pentax 67:

Spokane, WA – Benny & Joon House

Spokane, WA – Railroad Collecting

Spokane, WA – Hillyard Ghost Town

Pecos Texas, Crooked house

West Texas – Gas Station fire

New photos should include ones from Salton Sea, Monahans, Llano River, Catalina State Park and more!

• Listening to:: Legion of Green Men - Spatial Specific
• Watching:: Alien Quadrilogy (Alien/ Aliens /Alien 3 /Alien Resurrection) - All in one week, Love Sigourney Weaver!
• has_been_twittered: yes