Author: Don

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My well-used 4×5 Crown Graphic. I think I paid $125 for the body and $75 for the lens. Cheap though the outfit is, it is capable of superb results. For sheer quality, nothing beats large format:

An old $200 Crown Graphic will completely eclipse any Nikon, Hasselblad or Leica camera for technical quality because of the huge film size and movements.

For some kinds of photography, this is absolutely true, and if I were primarily a landscape photographer, my principal tool would be the Graphic or perhaps a 4×5 field camera with more movements. The large negative also makes contact-printing processes such as cyanotypes possible. The downside is that large format photography is slow in every way. If you want to catch dancers in mid-air during rehearsal, you need fast film in a quick-focusing camera with a fast lens (or a digital SLR that performs well at high ISOs), and you need to take a lot of pictures quickly. Even so, I have taken good studio shots of dancers with the Crown Graphic.

Soul (the cartridge)

The Ghost Hound website includes a “Word Shelf,” i.e., a glossary. As translated by Google, it is largely impenetrable. Here is one of the more lucid entries:

Existential Ghosts

The departed spirit in existence principle.

Rumor of the departed spirit that it appears in the pachinko store where the prefectural road paralleling is closed. Don’t you think? with what, the shadow man who does not have the face from the building being present, in the track/truck which runs road surface the plectrum and others you call the [re] [ru].
The ? happiness which designates such rumor as the ear, Taro, inviting trust, embarks on the elucidation of rumor.

Nevertheless, it is possible to glean some information about the back story from the page. Taro, presumably the protagonist, lives in water heaven town. Eleven years ago, when Taro was eight, there was a kidnapping involving his older sister and younger brother. The sister apparently was killed. Their father committed suicide shortly afterward. Or something like that. Chiaki J. Konaka wrote the script, so there is a fair chance that it will all ultimately make some sense.

Advisory

I’ve just redirected the tancos2.net domain name to point to the same nameservers as tancos.net. The change will take a few days to propagate, but soon all the links to my old sites will either be redirected here or return 404s. You will still be able to visit the old sites for a few weeks more by substituting “tancos2.pmachinehosting.com” for “tancos2.net” in the URLs. However, I am cancelling my old host before the next service renewal in October, and after that the old sites will be gone. If you’ve been coming here by way one of my old pages and you want to keep track of my obsessions, this is your cue to update your links.

Advisory

I’ve just redirected the tancos2.net domain name to point to the same nameservers as tancos.net. The change will take a few days to propagate, but soon all the links to my old sites will either be redirected here or return 404s. You will still be able to visit the old sites for a few weeks more by substituting “tancos2.pmachinehosting.com” for “tancos2.net” in the URLs. However, I am cancelling my old host before the next service renewal in October, and after that the old sites will be gone. If you’ve been coming here by way one of my old pages and you want to keep track of my obsessions, this is your cue to update your links.

He doesn’t look Jewish

So Pikachu is an agent of International Zionism:

Who: Saudi Arabia’s Higher Committee for Scientific Research and Islamic Law

What: Denouncing the lovable Japanese cartoon characters as having “possessed the minds” of Saudi youngsters, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority banned Pokémon video games and cards in the spring of 2001. Not only do Saudi scholars believe that Pokémon encourages gambling, which is forbidden in Islam, but it is apparently a front for Israel as well. The fatwa’s authors claimed that Pokémon games include, “the Star of David, which everyone knows is connected to international Zionism and is Israel’s national emblem.” Religious authorities in the United Arab Emirates joined in, condemning the games for promoting evolution, “a Jewish-Darwinist theory that conflicts with the truth about humans and with Islamic principles,” but didn’t ban them outright. Even the Catholic Church in Mexico got into the act, calling Pokémon video games “demonic.” ((These Mexican Catholic officials obviously weren’t paying attention to the Vatican.))

(Via Jonah Goldberg.)