chase the light

Well it’s about time. Sometimes the wait for a trailer to come out seems like forever. Here they are! Both look really great. I was on Skeleton Crew starting about two years ago but then it was extremely affected by the Hollywood strikes. It was really rough seas as the show went on hiatus and the strikes lingered on for way too long. Devastation all around. I was incredibly fortunate there was one spot on Electric State that opened up just after I was told they couldn’t keep me on which then allowed me a safe harbour in the strike storm. When the strikes magically wrapped up late last year, Skeleton Crew ramped back up. An uncomfortable fearful year for sure and I survived it but most of my close friends in the industry did not. I’ve been on that side of the fence so many times and it sucks so hard. So it’s nice to see all the production trucks around Vancouver filming away providing the eventual work for the post crews and hopefully my friends can get back to work. If you’re even remotely connected to the entertainment world at the moment you are affected in some way. Fecking awful.

Skeleton Crew has been described as Goonies in Space (Disney’s own words) and there are tons of great things not shown in the trailer. For a Star Wars TV show I’m thinking we’ve got a hit on our hands. Fingers crossed. As for Electric State just look at that beautiful trailer and just in time for the Oasis reunion… But 5 months away? Ooof. Moving on, I’m currently… oh right I can’t say, but I’m currently working on a trailer shot for a huge summer film so watch this space! Don’t forget to like and subscribe!

Well then. Since we last spoke Lilo and Stitch has hit the World Wide Spider-Web with a teaser of sorts. Not much to see of the movie but look at that guy!? He looks amazing! For CG nerds he’s probably the best character I’ve ever worked with. Nothing breaks, fur is amazing, lights incredibly well, etc. He just works. Disney internals say once something hits this page I’m allowed to talk about it. Well, at least to say that I’m working on it. Beyond that, no details other than what’s offered up. So that’s now three freakin’ shows that are so far unreleased. Although Skeleton Crew as of this update starts tomorrow on Disney+!!! Sorry about The Acolyte, but I didn’t work on that. Stitch trivia: He’s the number one selling Disney character after Mickey. After hearing that, it’s not surprising. He is absolutely everywhere. Including blow up lawn Christmas decorations as seen at Home Depot.

Do you know Shannon and the Clams? I didn’t think so. First time seeing a show at The Rickshaw too! Divey and the worst part of the city with the skid row night crawlers all outside. I took a cab and met up with my Music Mates rather than walk it tonight. It’s a bit stabby in that area so better safe than stabbed. My concert bros. (we’ve added a new member) and I went to see Oakland’s Shannon and the Clams tonight. CB3 (Concert Bro 3) used to go see them when they played at small clubs in the Bay area. Now that they’ve gained a bit of traction they’re playing larger places. Earlier in the week at they played The Wiltern which is a pretty large space compared to The Rickshaw. Anyway good 60s vibes and they asked people to buy merchandise because it was a pain in the ass to get through customs at the border. Ha! I know your pain Clams. I had already bought the 2018 vinyl Onion album because it has The Boy (video below) and Backstreets on it. Also bought a sticker from the new album. Sometimes they seem like a John Waters soundtrack and not surprisingly he also happens to be fan. Well, no new concerts on the horizon so that ends the music detour for awhile. $400 for Springsteen in November? No thanks. I think I like The Rickshaw though, hand drawn schedule and neon light sign out front is a treasure. I also didn’t get stabbed so bonus!
I’m tired and earlier in the day my software crashed and took with it half a days work. Normally there’s a crash file. Guess what? No crash file. Oh dear. Lots on offer right now. A new Cirque du Soleil show Echo? CDS feels played out. Maybe movie with orchestra? Elf, Home Alone, Empire Strikes Back? I dunno, missing L.A. now for the sheer amount of things to do. L.A.s a bit stabby too. Bah humbug.

Hey, did you hear? September 17th is Sarah McLachlan Day in Vancouver! Did you get your stamps? I certainly did! Look at that! I had no idea really, pure luck. I just mailed a ton of Halloween cards off at the post office and saw them. Am I now a philatelist? No, but it’s Sarah, so suck it. Anyway, as a fellow Vancouverite I’d like to support her home grown local talent. Bryan Adams lives in London and Elvis Costello recently moved to New York so we’re losing our big names! Bublé’s still around. My son got to play with Michael Bublé once. He was at the local mall midweek with his son who previously had been diagnosed with cancer. They were at one of those climbing castle places and “Mike”, as he introduced himself, played the role of Doc Ock and his son and my son (same age) battled him as Spider-men. Doc Ock lost as my son wailed upon him. LOL Sorry Mike. Bublé’s son has recovered and all is good but I thought very highly of him for having a little play with a total stranger’s kid.

Surrounded by fames… Every year at school they have a school uniform return and you can exchange sizes as your children grow up. Elvis Costello’s (right?) twins grew out of their clothes and donated them and we now have Dexter’s shirts in the daily rotation. Ooo also Jennifer Beals can be seen at school events. Shhhh… I Bette she’s a maniac, what a feeling seeing her. Also, she’s in the Mandalorian, so yeah we’ve also worked on the same show! We’re sorta bff’s and stuff. Alright, that’s enough name dropping for the day (or ever). What a funny little world to flit about in. So yeah, neighbor Sarah, still love her.

This is it. Last chance to see EL… Jeff Lynne’s ELO. So many great songs tonight but Turn to Stone was the best. Massive analog synths driving the song along. Ohhh maaan. I bet you wish you were there now! Listen to that! He’s never been the best stage performer as he really just stands there, but what he lacks as a performer he makes up for it with a great light show. So cool. A few other highlights were Mr. Blue Sky of course, Telephone Line, and Don’t Bring Me Down all at the end of the set. Oh and waaay too much time between songs Jeff! Come on pick up the pace! So I got to see two of the Traveling Wilbury’s live. Dylan and Jeff Lynne are now the only ones left. If Dylan sang Christmas Carols outside my door I’d probably watch but in his current mumbly nature I’d pass on anything else. I keep forgetting that I got to see Petty at The Gorge. So ding ding ding that turned out to be a worthwhile trip. Electric Light Orchestra. That’s a hefty name, but now they will fade into obscurity over the next few decades. The cutoff right now is the 1940s. No one actively listens to music from the 1940s. Within 20 years the 1950s will get left behind and then the 1960s music will fade. It will just be left to the music scholars who archive or teach history. Side notes to and era of music. I’d like to get to one of the final shows in L.A. but I think I get off the bus here. Oh and sign outside only ever said Jeff Lynne’s…

The Struts are my Taylor Swift. I just love them. Last time at the Commodore Ballroom they blew the roof off a 1000 seat theatre and tonight, just 10 months later, they’re now in a sold out 3000 seat theatre! My concert bro couldn’t join me tonight but we’re both at ELO coming up. I had about a 20th row seat and at one point Luke came down the aisle doing his Freddie hey oh, hey yey oh thing with the audience and it was hella loud. They spent so much time interacting with the crowd I think they lost track of time and they cut two songs from the encore. Pretty Vicious and One Night Only. Oh well. Good to see them again in such a short turnaround time.

What the hell John Fogerty? You’re acting like you’re in your twenties and it’s working for you! This was a shocking show at how amazing he was. The stories he told, the excitement and pure happiness he exuded were brilliant. Having his sons on stage playing guitars made it all look a little like a time machine of CCR from ’69. What the f is happening down there on the stage?! I’ve gone back and watched the Woodstock footage of CCR and it was amazing to think that those in audience at Woodstock were listening to a lot of these same songs I was listening to tonight. That guy right there played Woodstock… That is crazy. After all these years he got his guitar back AND his publishing rights so he owns his songs again and he was having such a good time. Opening with Bad Moon Rising and hearing Up Around the Bend, Who’ll Stop the Rain and Fortunate Son in the set was magic. I saw a six song set from Fogerty with a lot of other bands at the Forum in the early ’00s but this, this was a special night. Tom Fogerty, his brother, had back surgery in the 80s and was given an unscreened blood transfusion and died of AIDS complications in 1990. Damn AIDS, how feckin’ cruel. Amazing how far we’ve come.

Well, that happened. First show of my Summer Night Concerts at the PNE Fair this year and 7th row! Daryl Hall, then John Fogerty and then Barenaked Ladies. He got through 3 songs and called it night. Maneater, Dreamtime and Foolish Pride. Ugh, the next song on the set list was supposed to be Rich Girl. So close, ha. Anyway the refund is forthcoming but yeah the time it took get there and the $25 parking is a little irksome. I saw Hall and Oates at the Hollywood Bowl in 2011 so no big loss. He’s looking terribly old now and I’m trying to get any classic rockers in while they’re still kickin’ the can down the road. Unfortunately the Pacific Coliseum only looked about 1/3 full so it seems Daryl on his own is not the concert draw that he might think he is. Not that Garfunk… Oates does much but back up vocals. A brand name will still draw in more than an ingredient. So, sorry Daryl the musical bell has tolled for thee. Gotta be rough and looks like he starts crying while walking off.

Here we are back in San Francisco! It’s good to be back I haven’t been here in like 15 years or so, and uh yeah it’s amazing! I love this city, but um I don’t know things have changed a bit, things have changed quite a bit you know so when you’re just chilling out a driverless car! It’s all good look at that we’re stopping for a bus, Move away bus! Oh a yellow light is it going to figure out what to do? Yes we’re safe, thank you Johnny Cab!

All right here we go! Hello hello. Check that out. Where’s he going? He’s going without me. Okay that’s what we do. Okay I’ve got to shut it off.

“…finally relax and thank you for riding with us.” Alright ain’t nobody driving this car. Right. So weird. Okay off we go. Arrival in 33 minutes okay it’s about a dollar a minute.

Okay well it let that, uh, ambulance go by. Pulled over and everything. It’s pretty trippy. It recognized, um, this feels like a rather normal experience, have to say. Doesn’t feel odd at all and it’s it’s overly cautious. So that’s good but I don’t feel like it’s a jerky ride like tapping the brakes.

Watch the wheel. Look, oh, it’s waiting for cars to go by so that we have room. Oh, I think we’re in the wrong oh no quick quick right yeah good. And now I should be turning left? You’re not going to get me copper! You can’t ticket me for speeding!

Oh there’s another one! I see you! I see you! Look at that they’re all over the place! It’s pretty cool! All right let’s go! Oh acceleration! Alright, one right in front of us! Do electric, uh, do driverless cars wave at each other? I don’t know and where do they go when they need to recharge? What do you do driverless cars?

Going through a nice area now. Oh here we go. Alright are you going to figure out we’re at a stop sign. It read that another stop sign. Where’s this car going? Maybe the same place. Oh yeah look Presidio. Oh yeah. Beautiful. All right curvy roads. Watch out cyclist there’s no one driving this car! Oh yeah. Ooh it noticed the speed bump, no way! Look down there there it’s the Palace of Fine Arts. Ah okay here comes the speed bump, is it going to do it? Look at that slows down, speed bump, nice. Look at that we’re following one. Speed bump. It’s rough that. Okay no car crash no car crash.

Okay here we go, let’s see. “Almost there get your phone keys or bag.” Right, see how it gets us parked. Got to roll up the window. “For your safety the doors will remain locked when we arrive. pull the handle twice to exit the first pole unlocks the second opens the door.” All right, okay. There we go, got the cyclists looking at us…. and where is the mystery destination? Where is it? Where is it going to drop me off? Okay here we go. Okay, it says we’re going to stop up here very quickly. What’s it going to do? Finding a spot to pull over. Guess this is it. It’s, you’re good. He’s worried about it… Okay. “You’re here, please make sure it’s clear before exiting.” Okay, pull the handle once, oh it did, okay bye Johnny Cab! Thank You!

Bye! Huh.

The next day I slept in a bit and instead of trying to do too much I pared down my day. I had tickets for the Giants baseball game at 1pm so I decided to just hang about the area and go to that first. It was Star Wars day and they were giving out baseball caps with Yoda ears. Courtesy of Stub Hub of course but nonetheless it was amazing seeing a stadium full of Yodas. What an awesome stadium. Great views, great food, good vibes. I left at the 7th inning because I wanted get over to The Presidio.

So yes, I called in my friend Johnny. Separate post above. Anyway I got to the Walt Disney Family museum before they closed at 5pm and saw many amazing things. The very first drawing of Mickey Mouse I think was my favorite thing. I bought a couple of pins to add to my little collection. They also had some old 8mm footage of the Disney family on vacation in Vancouver. Familiar sights how weird. After that I needed to head back to Pier 39 because there’s a rubber duck shop called KWAK there and my son has a small collection after playing Placid Plastic Duck Simulator for ages. I found a wizard duck for him and a super hi-quality robot duck. Now, I’ve got three hours before my flight. I’m going back to La Cumbre! Grabbed a Deluxe Steak Burrito to go and then headed to the airport via BART. I put it in my bag so I could eat it in the terminal but forgot about it and the security scanner dude asked, “Is that a burrito?” LOL oh no I forgot! Yeah yeah it is! He just laughed and knew what was up. Anyway I got through security and ate my delicious Mission burrito while I waited for my plane. Easy flight back and in bed at about 1am. The two days seemed more like four as I was constantly on the go. San Francisco felt good. Really good. I could live there. Again.

Well hello San Francisco! Nice to see you. A few months ago, late a night, an email pinged loudly into my inbox. Actually it kind of startled me. It was a birthday invite from school chum Shelli for school chum Keith’s birthday. They’re married for clarity. The invite was complete with a picture of Keith from the 80s that I shot while we were in University! Nice. I didn’t even really read the email or the dates and time. I just clicked Yes because I’ve got nothing going on this summer and it’s a good excuse to fly down to San Francisco. Kind of my second home after L.A. and filled with so many memories. So, how can I do this sort of on the cheap? I can’t do it in one day because the party is on a Saturday night. Okay one night of hotel. Which leaves flying up Saturday morning and flying home Sunday evening. Rental car? No. So I have to stay nearby transportation. I want to stay in the city. You know what? Staying at the Hyatt Regency at the Embarcadero has always been a wish list thing so why not? It’s the largest hotel lobby in the world by the way. Or was, or still is west of the Atlantic. Who knows. Oof though, $500 a night. Wait, let me check if Disney has hotel rates with partner companies. Buddy boy! Sho’nuff! $299, okay done! Flights? Magically easy, I found some good rates flying in the morning and out later on Sunday. More oof, I’ll have to head to the airport at 4:30 am though. Now, what can I cram in to two days!?

Saturday I flew into SFO. Caught BART in the wrong direction of course so lost half an hour. I got to Embarcadero and took in the scenery as I couldn’t check into the hotel yet. I only had a backpack. I tool a streetcar down to the wharf area and just did sightseeing. Sea lions, check, Pier 39, check, Ghirardelli, check. Cable Cars, check. Just the usual suspects. Headed to Boudin for some clam chowda’ of course. Some of the old school restaurants are closed now for not paying rent. Covid lockdown victims. Fisherman’s Grotto was kind of sad to see as I always went there with my family and grandparents. After a little walk around I headed back to the hotel to check in. Great room that looked out over the bay. After a short rest I headed to the greatest burrito place on the planet. My beloved La Cumbre. It was just as good as ever. Long live the Mission Burrito! After the early dinner it was time to head to Oakland for the birthday. Hopped on BART and got off in Oakland. Not going to lie I was a tiny bit hesitant to be walking though Oakland at night in an unknown area for about 5 blocks. All was good though! Had a fun party and a crazy cake as seen below. I was freaking tired though after leaving the house (in another country!) at 4:30am! I headed out from the party and thankfully got a lift to the station for the ride back to SF. Caught the second to last train though so that was close.

Lots of cool shit I did in San Diego.
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Lots of cool shit I did in Seattle.
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Lots of cool shit I did in Laguna Beach.
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Lots of cool shit I did in Los Angeles.
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It seems it’s been ages… We flew into Santa Ana since we are staying at Disneyland the whole week. I would have liked to have stayed up in L.A. more but truth be told 50% off Disneyland Hotels is hard to beat. Whenever I looked at hotels at the same price in L.A. they were kinda dumpy (Fairfax I’m looking at you) or stupidly more expensive (Santa Monica I’m looking at you). So the first part of the week we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, never actually stayed there before, and then the rest of the week at The Grand Californian which is probably my favorite hotel… ever? Dunno, maybe. My dad picked us up so we could borrow a car for the week but that meant I had to drive him home to San Diego (founded by the Germans) and then drive all the way back to Anaheim. On the way way back I meandered through my old neighborhoods and even called my best friend from the top of this hill that we’d skateboard down and nearly kill ourselves on. Which was also amazing because he was all the way over in Palawan helping restore coral reefs from the world wide bleaching event that is going on. We’ve known each other since yay big. Went by my old high school and and then finally got back to Anaheim. Kind of a long day of travel even though the flight was only a few hours. I’m tired, but OMG look at the view!! DisNeYlAnD! Insert Jonah Hill gif of him being excited.

Well hello Black Crowes, we meet again! The first time I saw them was with Jimmy Page in 1999. Most of the set was Zeppelin with a sprinkle of Black Crowes songs. Then I was supposed to see them on September 11th, 2001 at The Greek. That whole day didn’t happen. So my buddies and I flew to New Orleans to the Voodoo Music Festival in October. Earlier in the day, Snoop Dogg went on late, and then stayed on waaaaay too long. The Black Crowes being the headliner, and last band of the day, had their 1.5 hour set cut to 40 minutes because of the 11pm curfew. Thanks a %$@#&^ lot Snoop. Then I flew up to The Gorge to see Tom Petty with The Black Crowes opening. So yet another abbreviated set. What the? Now finally a full concert! Well, they stopped playing really long shows but it was a tight 90 minutes. And the opener Billy Tibbals was great. Bowie, Marc Bolan, and The Jam all sorta rolled up into one. Cool front man.

So, with a lack of friends to go to concerts with (sad haha), I befriended the new head of my son’s school. He used to go to tons of shows in London, and wrote for some magazines. So we hit it off pretty well at a mutual parents party and agreed we’d take in some shows around town. First up The Black Crowes! Couple more planned are The Struts again this summer. Gawd I love them. Also Jeff Lynne/ELO. Gawd I love him too. Last tour and in fine vocal form. I’ll be in L.A. when Sarah McLachlan is playing home town Vancouver. Booo.

What else? Oh yes new phone. Had to break down and replace my iPhone. So yes the above very nice clean concert photos are courtesy of the iPhone 15 Pro Max ABC7’s Live Mega Doppler 7000 HD or something like that. Next up in May, Los Angeles. Hitting all the usual spots. Paco’s, Tito’s, Rickey’s (oh no tragedy, he’s moved to Bakersfield)… just every Mexican place I love. Getty, Coffee Bean, Disney Studio Lot, Universal Studios, Gladstones, and of course Disneyland! Who’s excited?! You, me?

And yes Funko Pop! you finally got me. You hit the right buttons. The girl in the blue dress from Rush’s Permanent Waves, and Exit… Stage Left albums and Luke Spiller from The Struts?!?! What the? That is amazing and in a bit of a Freddie Mercury suit. Before a go karting birthday party this weekend I took X and his friend to Toy Traders and had a peep around. Such a cool store, you should really go there next time you’re in Langley.

After spending the latter part of last year playing in the sandbox of the Russo Brothers latest film Stormwind, err… I mean The Electric State, it’s been great to have had some time off during the holidays. Of course nothing says awesome Christmas gift from Santa like a dystopian apocalyptic war graphic novel along with an upgrade to the Quest 3. But you know it’s a great science fiction art book at the very least and the Quest is a stop gap for the arrival of the Apple Vision Pro juggernaut. Everybody loves robots until they maim you. With the strikes taking down Grammar Rodeo, err… I mean Star Wars: Skeleton Crew last summer, it’s nice to be rolling back onto it this month. Also had a few months on a prequel to the Quiet Place films. Then I’m rolling back onto Electric State to help finish it this summer. So it’s been Star Wars, monsters, and robots, and even more monsters since last summer. Been fun.

No, I didn’t. 6° Celsius water temperature, I’ll watch. The 104th year of freezing your whatever you have off. I usually walk down to English Bay and on the way think, “you know, next year I’m really going to do this.” Then I get down there and look at the horror on people’s faces and say yeeeeah, no, they are not having a good time.

My favorite camera ever by far and I currently own about 100 cameras. How did that happen? In 1999 I was working in beautiful downtown Palo Alto. Should of bought a house there, ugh. Anyway, Hasselblad came out with a special new camera called the XPan. I rented it and thought it was amazing. Then I rented it again and thought it was amazing again. So I bought one and it was really amazing once again but now I could use it all the time! It was $1999, like the year, which was an extraordinary amount of money for me at the time, but I was so happy.

One of the reasons I wanted to purchase it is because I was going to Bora Bora and I wanted some special photos. I think every photo I took there was a keeper. Just amazing. Then it broke. Not sure how or exactly when but I was under the Golden Gate Bridge and while looking through the viewfinder it wouldn’t focus. I was standing there wondering what was wrong and I pointed it to a group of people all lined up and silhouetted which I thought was more interesting than the bridge. As I’m looking through the camera being puzzled by what was wrong, I sense this person approaching and come up to my left side. I bring the camera down and look and him and he says with a deep growl, “don’t you fucking take pictures of me you mother fucker”. Uhhhh, what? Who the hell are you? Anyway I just said I don’t know what you’re talking about but I think my camera’s actually broken dude. He just glared at me and walked away. Well then… roid rage anyone? You’re not suspicious at all but I don’t want to die so yeah I’m heading out. So that’s what I think about when I see the Golden Gate Bridge. My broken XPan and someone who is probably locked up now for killing someone at this point in time.

After I moved back to Los Angeles I took it to Steve’s Camera in Culver City and they fixed the viewfinder and all was well. Just a mechanical problem. I also then took it to China but I have never properly scanned those images. I’m anxious to see those so many years later now that I have a scanning setup that is really awesome. Then life happened and the camera went into storage in beautiful downtown Burbank. Ya know, digital was everything now. It sat there for years and it was really the only thing I would want if the whole storage facility burned down. Finally after I went and rescued the storage unit a few years ago I had my XPan back and all was good. Or was it? It didn’t turn on! Noooooo! XPan’s are notorious for being difficult to fix and Hasselblad had to stop making them because they used mercury in the soldering. The European Union banned them and so they’re a rare commodity now and only about 16,000 were made. If the electronics are shot I’ve got a bricked camera and it’s just going on the shelf.

From Vancouver my friend Kevin said when he gets back to LA he’d take it into Steve’s again to see if they can fix it. 1 month, nothing. 2 months, nothing… 5 months later still radio silence. WTF Steve? Where’s my camera? Kevin called the shop and they said they got it to power on for a second then when they put it back together it didn’t come back on. They said they’re done with it and can’t fix it. Come pick it up. Ugh. The only glimmer of hope I had was that they did get power to it so the electronics must not be fried! Now what do I do? Nobody really fixes these things anymore. I resigned myself that it was now a shelf queen.

I did the occasional search over the last couple years. Reddit, Flickr, Discord, photo.net, Facebook XPan groups. One name did keep coming up. Wilco. Wilco Jannsen. “Wilco fixed mine!” “Yeah Wilco is great!” “Wilco brought mine back to life!” Oh wow, maybe there is an XPan whisperer out there! So I wrote Wilco in The Netherlands and told him what was wrong and that someone else had tried to repair it. His first question was what did they do and hoped they hadn’t messed it up even more. He said he sees that a lot. Well because children take up all your extra cash (worth it) I never really got around to sending it to Wilco. Then one day I just did. Sorry kid, no new ipad for school. All the way to The Netherlands it went, or almost. About 5 days later the package I sent off came back to me. Yadda yadda yadda you can’t ship batteries inside a camera. But it didn’t have a battery!!!!! I even showed the guy working behind the counter at Canadian Post, look no battery! I packaged it up in front of him and then he only wrote “camera” on it. That was all it took for someone in customs to say “camera, must have battery” so back it goes! OMG So off I went to FedEx a few days later and sucked up the $90 to ship it and whoosh it went on it’s way this time.

About a day after it arrived Wilco wrote me… I thought oh damn he’s got bad news already, but no! He said that’ll be $690 for the repair plus the shipping back. Here’s what is wrong, here are the parts, and yes the last place that worked on it looks like they just stuffed everything back inside like the monsters that they are. Do I approve the price for him fixing it? Oh hellz yes! OMG my camera is going to work! About two weeks later it showed up and there were even fresh batteries in it! When I turned it on all the lcds lit up and the shutter fired. What a beautiful sound. XPan is back baby! One of the things I read on a Reddit thread was from a technician who said “the best way to keep an XPan working is to use it”. Alrighty then, no more storage units for you oh mighty XPan. Also the last two actual sales on eBay for this camera were for $6,500. So I think I made the right initial purchase AND the right decision to get it fixed, but I’ll never sell it.

So here we are, we stopped by the fish hatchery along the Capilano river this week for a short hike to Cleveland Dam. Unfortunately the roll shot by the dam was a bad roll or something. Ah the perils of analog film.

Do you like Queen? Bowie? Slade? T. Rex? Sweet? Well I know I certainly do. I finally got to see The Struts at the Commodore Ballroom and they were sooo freaking great! The setlist was amazing and it included guitar and drum solos, band introductions, and they even joined hands at the end of the show and did bows! There was a lot of “come on baby! that’s right baby!” too. They’ve got that Big Arena Rock Energy! In the Houston clip below you can see Luke keeps a Freddie Pop! figurine on his piano. It’s like having a mini Beethoven bust. Strange Days into Could Have Been Me was such an excellent encore. As I write this a few days later I’ve kept thinking about the show and it’s the best I’ve seen in years and years.

Fun fact about the Commodore Ballroom is that when it was originally built for dancing, the floor was designed with tires stuffed with horsehair overlaid with 2×3 boards and then covered with shiplap. It gave the floor this bouncy feel so when everyone was dancing the whole floor would feel a bit like a trampoline. They have since updated the floor with layers of plywood, drywall, cork and foam rubber. It is a little disconcerting feeling a 1000 people jumping up and down shaking the building. You can’t spell disconcerting without concert. See what I did there? I might add that this venue is on the second floor so some day when the ballroom comes crashing through the ceiling it’s got a hard landing onto a bowling alley.

Oh also, I just got my Hasselblad XPan back from the Netherlands were it was finally getting fixed by someone who isn’t a flounder. More on that fascinating (depending on who you are) journey to get it working again. I’ve taken it all over the world so it’s good to have it back. Look at all that film pano goodness!