Sgt. Pepper’s

David Blassingame and Steve Candelari put together some 40 Houston musicians to pay tribute to the Beatles with a live performance of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at the recently opened downtown park Discovery Green on Saturday night.

A horn section, a group of Indian tabla and sitar players, violons and wind instruments all there to play each and every note originally recorded on the original album.

I had missed the first performance of this show when it debuted at The Continental Club last October as I was otherwise occupied. I had heard it was a pretty amazing show and regretted missing it. When I heard that this show was coming I was determined to attend. And since I had not yet been to Discovery Green I had additional incentive.

Arriving at Discovery Green I was amazed at the turn out. The place was packed with people and the mood was very festive. And the fantastic weather didn’t hurt, I’m sure.

The show was quite good. The ensemble of musicians did an awesome job and seemed to be enjoying themselves thoroughly. I did hear that there were sound problems and those in the general audience were treated to some very inconsistent sound management. Fortunately I experienced no such problems from my various vantage points both in front of and behind the stage.

Many, many photogs out and about. Quite a few sporting Nikon D200’s and D300’s along with Canon fans and a whole slew of point and shoot still and video cameras.

Most of my photos are in my personal gallery here. Samples from that gallery are here in my Flickr account.

Researching Camera Gear + Camera Geek Humor

The Sony Alpha 100 has been a good camera for me and I have gotten some very good results. Overall, I simply cannot complain. Still, I find myself jonesing for something new in my camera world and the desire runs the gamut from just just buying a new lens or upgrading my current camera to the Alpha 700 all the way to changing platforms completely to the Nikon D300 or the Canon 40D.


Side by side feature comparison of the A700, 40D and the D300

These cameras stack up VERY well next to each other in terms of features and capabilities. But try to make a decision based on unbiased opinion? Forget it! Discussion forums are littered with evangelists for each of the brands. Nikon and Canon devotees seem to be the worst. They bash Sony for simply being Sony and project a brand loyalty comparable to religious zealotry. Ask a Nikon user what to get, he’ll tell you Nikon and that’s that. Same for Canon users. And there’s a growing number of Sony-heads joining the fray.

So I’m left doing a ton of research on my own, educating myself and looking at samples and reading reviews and so forth which is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, at a moment when I was feeling rather overwhelmed and somewhat frustrated I did have a camera nerd/geek moment when I found a discussion thread announcing the upcoming release of the Nikon D90. In reading the specs I started to get a little excited thinking this is what I’ve been waiting for! As I kept reading my enthusiasm turned to confusion and then I just burst out laughing! Read for yourself.

I needed a good laugh at that point and that article delivered in spades.

There are many things to consider in staying with Sony, not the least of which is the financial commitment I have made in purchasing my lenses. Obviously to stick with Sony means less money out of pocket. The Sony A700 has dropped to around $1,300 whereas the Nikon D300 hovers up in the $1,800 range. The Canon 40D comes in the least expensive of all at around $1,200. But when you factor getting some good image stabilization and/or prime lenses for either Canon or Nikon and the cost of upgrade via platform hopping is moves close to, if not well into, the 4 digit range.

And really, would spending a ton of money changing brands yield better photographic results? Would I see such a difference in my output? Would someone really look at a picture and think “wow, great shot! If only that picture had the enhanced highlights and color depth of a Canon! Or the ever so slightly sharper detail of a Nikon with the uber-expensive lens?”

I am thinking “no”

Also, Sony has indicated their top of the line or “flagship” dSLR will be released later this year. The “Alpha 900” was announced by Sony for release later this year so there is hope that they are in this for the long-haul.

Keep in mind that I am by no means ready to drop $3,500 to $5,000 on a pro camera yet…Canon, Nikon OR Sony. But knowing that there’s an upgrade path remains a strong consideration. And who knows what will be on the market when AND IF I decide to take my camera gear to the budget disintegrating professional level?

There’s some pretty cool stuff happening with digital video that could completely change the landscape of professional photography. As Tom Petty says; “The future is wide open” (unintentional photo pun there).

I was thinking maybe I could the put aside the idea of any large purchase by just keeping what I have now and that’s when I started looking for lenses for the A100 as a possible pacifier for my desire to get something new.

In my research I found the Tamron SP AF 10-24MM F/3.5-4.5 DI II LD Aspherical (IF) and thought OOOOH! Super wide angle zoom! That would be cool. But then I saw it was just announced and is not available yet.

So here I am, musing the whole thing over and browsing the web and I keep learning more while spending nothing. And maybe that’s the best upgrade of all.

Stats

Back in September of 2005, about one month into my then new gig blogging for the Houston Chronicle, I published my answer to what I thought was a fairly unique problem with limited relevance to the general computing community.

Someone had contacted me with a problem. It seems that their computer display had turned sideways and wanted to know how to fix it. I figured out the problem and fixed it for them and decided to use it in the Helpline Blog under the title My screen is sideways.

Back in May of 2006 I marvelled at how many comments the post had received from people seeking an answer to the very same problem and thought to myself that 28 was a fairly staggering number.

Over the last few years the comments kept coming in and looking at it now there are 393 thank you comments on that post. 393 people who have managed to shift their display 90 degrees to the vertical, some not knowing how or why it happened while others readily blame the errant child or the curious climbing feline.

This has been the most response I have seen to anything I have blogged, ever. And I would have thought that was that and chalked it up to a happy anomaly or serendipity until I posted an answer to a flash.ocx problem simply called Flash.ocx error in February 2007. In just a little over one year that post has garnered 334 responses, all thank you notes from people who were seeking a solution to the same problem.

That’s 49 shy of my personal record and it won’t be long before Flash.ocx error surpasses My screen is sideways unless there’s a disproportionate shift in the number of babies and cats using keyboards relative the those who like to install second-rate, problematic screen savers.

It’s just mind boggling to think of all those sideways screen using, flash erroring people finding their solution in my tiny little database.

Of course, as Dwight points out, there’s computer support and then there’s this:

Good Times In San Antonio

I must say, I enjoyed my (work) trip to San Antonio much more than I had anticipated. The River Walk didn’t smell like I remember from my last visit many years ago, so that was a plus. Must have had something to to with the spectacular weather last week.

And even though it was a work related event and there was plenty to do, I did manage to get out and shoot some interesting pictures and make some surprising discoveries.

We wrapped up the event at a ranch on the outskirts of San Antonio for the awards banquet. That’s where I encountered this odd fellow…

That’s one tame bull, I tell you what. I kinda felt sorry for the poor thing. But I suppose being a trained bull is one way to steer clear of the slaughter house. *rimshot*

And much like last year, I spent some time with The Irish Contingent which netted me a few more pictures of the gang from Galway who are more fun than a bar full of Irishmen. Speaking of which, here are pictures of a bar full of those same Irishmen plus one Irish woman (and Patrick, who’s Dutch but lives in Ireland).


Jesse Trevino

While in San Antonio I went with a group of co-workers one evening to eat at Mi Tierra. After a great meal and maybe one too many margaritas we decided to walk back the hotel rather than catch the bus or a cab. The weather was quite nice and it was only a mile or so and it ended up being a great decision. It was on the walk back that I noticed the multi-story mural I posted a picture of previously.

In my research to find out more about that piece I learned it was done completely in mosaic tile by a man named Jesse Trevino, a local San Antonio artist who lost his painting hand in the Vietnam war and had to rehabilitate and re-learn to paint using his left hand.

That lead me to read about the two-story mosaic candle depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe on the side of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center on Guadalupe street. This was something I decided I had to see and I made the decision to go find it before driving back to Houston.

It is proclaimed to be the largest depiction of the Virgin of Guadalupe outside the Cathedral in Mexico City. It is, in fact, a replica of the Virgin of Guadalupe votive candle.

The detail is impressive!

I’ve taken the time to add a collection of detail shots which you can see by clicking on any of the thumbnail images below.

Give Me Coffee

One good thing about these high end hotels where we hold our sales conference is the the hotel’s commitment to providing an abundance of coffee in the morning.

Speaking of coffee, I had the oddest dream the other night. In my dream there was an online service where you could upload your unused coffee to a web site to make it available to others to download free of charge.

It was for those times when you brew a pot of coffee, but don’t finish it. It wasn’t for uploading a half drunk cup of used coffee though I could see that as a potential abuse of the service.

Cynthia tells me it strikes her as a very “Jay-like” dream. I have to agree.