Spend the morning at the Citrus Balloon Festival in Santa Paula, CA today. I was hoping to get some sick time-lapse of the 20 some balloons launching into flight. That didn't happen. Weather was a bit to foggy and when it cleared it was too late to launch the balloons. This dampened my mood which was already dampened by the SPPD that scolded me for riding my bike on the wrong side of the road even thought it was the right side. He pointed out that I should be on the other side of the road behind the pedestrian barricades that where specially set up for the event. How the hell I am supposed to know to ride my bike on the incorrect side of the road with the people who are walking?!. Anyway I would have totally let it go except he was talking to me like I was an 8 year old for the first time on a bike. Where is it in the law that states that just because you are a policeman, you have to be an angry jerk too (especially at an event that people are going to have fun at?). Any who, the photo ops where basically a bust. I got a few shots for documentary purposes, but nothing that I am total psyched on.  Better luck next year Norlander.

Ok, ok, I have one little gripe. What is it? Well...let me tell you a little story first. I love to go thrift store shopping. Love it. I love looking around at the junk, the discarded wares, the treasure that I might find, but most importantly I love the deals that I can get on the aforementioned trash-to-treasure.  Not too long ago, I was meandering around a rather large thrift store in the San Fernando Valley. They had a great variety of items from an old traveling trunk that would make a great prop or coffee table to some funky lounge chairs that I wanted to take home. So between the crocheted pot holders and the excess picture frames with out glass, you can find some gems. My favorite items to pick up at the thrift stores is old cameras. Yep, old cameras. You know the kind - the kind that you can't buy film for in the brick and mortar stores anymore. 110, 160, 8mm, super 8, color slide...well you get the picture. Heck, I'll even look at some old 35mm SLR's just for fun. So...you are saying...what in the world is your little gripe? I am glad that you brought it up again because I nearly forgot. Here is my gripe: thrift store trash that is priced like treasure. Yep...those friends of the needy, mecca to the spend thrift, those non-profits who get their inventory from people cleaning out their cellars, attics and storage spaces are crankin' up the prices. Arrgh!!! Me no likey! Now that mustard yellow stripped, sack clothed, sunflower patterned easy chair is no longer $15, but a whopping $45! That is some serious inflation if you did the math (sorry, I am not going to do it). Translate that into 'vintage' camera gear and you a formula for 'sit-on-the-shelf-eyetis".  So this one particular "thrift" store had a price on a 15 year old 35mm film Nikon camera of $900. I just about lost it. Sure, it may have cost 10K when it was new, but seriously, tell me who is going to buy a camera at a thrift store for 900 bones? No say I. I am the wise of head and thin of wallet. So there you have it....in black and white...my little gripe out in the open for all to see. Are you with me on this one?  (BTW, below is a picture of some cameras that I WAS able to get a good deal on!)

Went down to Camarillo today to check out the Scary Dairy. Rumor has it that this place was a dairy farm that supplied the Camarillo State Mental Hospital from the 1930's to the 1960's. Its abandoned now, but more rumors state that patients where taken out there and tortured and possibly killed. More unsubstantiated rumors are that there where experiments on cattle and possibly humans. Of course if you go there at night you'll see ghosts or maybe you'll just run into a gang member or a tagger. When I was there today, I swear I heard a cow mooing. There are no cows within miles of the area now. Ghost cows, now that is a scary movie! If you want to check out my pictures from the place, you can see them on my flickr photostream. 

On Wednesday of this week I spent a little time in the afternoon with my friend Tommy Hollenstein. Tommy and I are working on a documentary together about his life and artwork. For those who don't know, Tommy had a biking accident in 1985 and had a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Tommy asked me to join him for a doctors visit to film for the documentary. The visit was for treatments to his muscles to help ease the pain of a recent car accident (Tommy doesn't drive and it was the other drivers fault by the way).  I wasn't sure what I was in for.  Well, I prepared my cameras and off I went to meet Tommy at the doctors office. Basically the doctors plan was to inject dextrose into the muscle to help relax the muscle and realign it to the bone, this takes injections, lots and lots of injections. Injections with large scary needles that can be as longer or maybe longer than 2 inches. We waited for the doctor for a while and Tommy was getting antsy because he is not too excited about getting these injections and wanted to get it over with. Soon, the doctor came in and started poking Tommy in the neck with these big needles (after asking him where it hurts of course). "Get me the 2" needle" he said. He needed to get deep into the tissueThe doctor was pretty gentle, but when it was all over, we counted about 80 needle sticks in all....for that day, Tommy was a human pin cushion.  The footage is great and will fit nicely into the documentary. Stay tuned!!