Josh Ambrose

So, I’m increasingly noticing that flickr lightens my pictures considerably when I post them…anyone else observe this phenomena in their own use of the service? I’m starting to darken the levels in my images before I post them to compensate. Odd.

Note: Props if you recognize the old-school reference. (cough. nate).

Strategy and mathematics here.

Now, if only we can find a similar site for Clue. I’m convinced there has to be an optimal logical way to simultaneously efficiently navigate the physical board and ask questions. If I was a bigger dweeb, I’d figure it out myself.

In other gaming news, I’ve discovered the Scrabulous facebook ap. It’s the first one I’ve added, and I have to say, it’s rather fun. If you engage in facebook, hit me up before Hasbro gets the game taken down (who are we kidding, they’re going somehow license it and make a ton of money…if they have any brains at all, that is).

I apologize to all of those to whom this is old news, but for all my friends who have wondered about the phrase “jumping the shark,” here are its television origins (only recently rivaled by “jumping the couch.”)

And just because the Fonz is pretty slick, here he is in all his Weezer glory.

Live @ Messiah College, Jan ‘08.

They were great, btw. I was surprised that so few people were initially there for a live show, but by the end, the student union center was pretty much filled. Kudos to Messiah for the free show–PSU thanks you.

I first saw Anathallo at Purple Door a few years ago. I had thought they were going to be an instrumental band (getting them confused with Saxon Shore, I think), but they blew my socks off, regardless. Think Arcade Fire with less swaggering and more pop sensibilities, or Polyphonic Spree with less pop sensibilities and more meaning or Sufjan with less pretension and more energy.

Then, as this time, I was perhaps most impressed with their onstage demeanor. They gave off a cheerfully exuberant attitude throughout most of the show, even when dealing with an extremely laid-back crowd.

Indeed, my chief complaint was that the crowd was sitting down…and the show was a tragic mere hour long.

For years, one of my favorite bands has been Nickelcreek, especially after their last album. I loved the bombast and sheer anger, most of which was attributed to Thile’s divorce and self-acknowledged selfishness.

This is the first interview that I’ve found with him that acknowledges him losing his faith, as well. It’s chiefly sad to me, and reinforces my opinion that the public spotlight is a crap place for family and faith.

Trite as it sounds, I wish him the best. And hope he finds what he’s looking for…

And that his other bandmates make that record with Switchfoot they keep talking about.

Speaking of which, Jon Foreman’s solo records sound refreshingly good. Really good. ‘Cause let’s face it, Oh Gravity was alarmingly disposable. And their live bootlegs are disappointingly rough. But listen to his eps and his exceedingly welcome escape from his song-writing rut of the last three album. It’s really good.

old news re. this rapidly selling album…but they recorded a blue-grass-y album together. Well, the Robert Plant part of LZ, at least. It’s produced by the heralded T-Bone Burnett, and it rocks.

Well, it would have been better if Robert had let it loose a little bit more, but hey. It’s worth listening to.

And so Led Zeppelin becomes tame. Er. Or something.

Weird.

In addition to increasingly putting their collections online, the Library of Congress has uploaded a trial set of images onto Flickr. Which I find fascinating, because they are a). historical, b). available for common use, c). full of rare, Pre-WWII color images, and d). numerous in number and broad in scope.

I guess it’s the last one that fascinates and horrifies me the most. If there were so many images a hundred years ago that have completely flown under the public radar, what hope is there of our own having any longevity, in an era where taking pictures is even more common than picking your nose?

On a purely personal note, for those that are wondering, yes, I’m between jobs at the moment. One of the things this allowed me to work into my busy schedule was spending time with some good friends…

Besides photography, I’m also writing a few articles and interviews for RPS, painting the bathroom, applying for jobs, and running a host of errands.

As for full-time work, at this point it looks like I’ll be returning to it next week.