Cab UpLOLstery Be Hideous
One early morning, I hailed this random cab for work. Story of my weekday life. I opened the door, told the driver my drop off point, got in, said “Thank you” like clockwork (I always thank cab drivers as a habit, no matter what city I’m in. This gesture, I realized, almost always promotes a good vibe between me and my temporary chauffeur), and got myself comfortable on the back seat. No biggie, right? It gets better.
It took 2.5 seconds after my butt found its center of gravity on the cushion for me to notice the upholstery. No, more like upLOLstery. They reminded me of one blog post by Alexei a few months back where he showed another cab’s seat cover sporting animal prints.
OK, I may have been a bit harsh with my judgment so, here, see for yourself and prove me wrong. Be ready to say HOOOOOLY MOTHER OF FRRRRRR!
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. My initial reaction was to get my ass off of the material because it looked as though it belonged to some hapless and now-extinct animal from the wild. An animal with ticks, also multi-colored but blood sucking and hungry, ready to find another host to feed on.
Oh lookie here, it’s got a bronze plate tag, awwww. They don’t make it like this anymore, do they? Huh-YEAH, because we’re in the year 2009 and not the 60s, THAT’S WHY!
I told myself that this is may be the very fabric that nightmares are made off but, hey, I’m getting off this cab in under 10 minutes so there’s seriously nothing to worry about. Only then did my pulse rate start slowing down to almost-normal.
Do note that all the while, I was on my feet inside the cab, my ass pinned to a closed window, my back glued to the ceiling, and both my hands were holding on a sturdy fixture for balance (my left palm was spread flat on the back window and my right had apparently grabbed the driver’s then tousled hair, God bless him).
Good thing this is an isolated case of bad taste. I’ve only seen one, so far, in my regular weekday cab ride of 8 years. That’s a 1 out of a 2,088 reandom chance if you allow me to get geeky with it (na na na na na-na-na, get geeky with it!).
Gorillaz CMYK Vinyl Figures in Concert! LOL
Instead of just shooting the new toys the “usual, boring way,” (i.e. with them in the box, out of the box, and propped on a shelf or on the table) I picked my brain for a comp to make this photo set more dramatic and edgy. I wanted to make do a concert scene but all I have is my caving light and I won’t be arsed to create a makeshift concert stage from scratch. And then, after a glass of ice cold Coke, a brilliant idea it hit me!
Since the caving lights (a 21 LED contraption running on 3 AAA batteries) can already serve as a spot light, all I had to do was find backdrops. I searched my photo archives for concert shots (some of the stuff I used I got from the net, tee hee), had the images brightened/saturated then blurred to achieve a depth of field vibe, ran the images on a slide show using MS PowerPoint, had the Gorillaz statuettes stand in front of my LCD monitor, experimented with the LED by lighting up the toys from different angles, and VOILA, I can haz a concert scene in the comfort of my own home!
Try this technique out yourself! Experiment with an outdoorsy background or the beach, the bedroom, a dungeon, anything to serve your purpose if you need to take photos of small objects like toys but you want your shots to look extraordinary. The possibilities are endless!
The shitty thing, however, is I had no choice but to do post processing since the quality of the photos (read, digital noise all over) took a toll from the low and selectively focused lighting.
Here they are, the Gorillaz during a “concert” here at home. Snooty, huh?! LOL Click on the images for a larger view and hover your mouse on them for the caption.
More photos after the jump. Read more…
Losing to Retail Therapy: A Tale of Awesome. In 2D.
“Depression” can be your bestest, most dependable, and at-hand’s-reach convenient reason to splurge. Use it and suddenly, like magic, everybody empathizes and tells you to “go on ahead and heal” with an assuring smile on their faces. It’s THAT fail safe. As a certified genius, I’m entitled to it more often than the average joe (because I say so)!
This month alone, I got shirts and ties, a video card, and just a while ago, something that I’ve been putting off buying for the longest time and by “the longest time,” I mean 48 hours. In Fritz parlance, 48 hours may translate to a decade or two, give or take a year, of mental anguish.
In hard times like this, thinking about a purchase is a must moreso when the “want” you are about to buy is quite costly. We must think all purchases through. No joke! Thankfully, I’ve developed something to curb impulse buying. The secret is perfecting a discipline whose core component is “great hatred for credit cards.” It took me years, I tell you, to ace it. In fact, I now live and breathe this mantra.
Plastics: they kill the environment.
I haven’t posted anything I’ve fritzparazzied in a while because, well, there’s nothing to shoot. Now, that’s changed. Please click on the photos for a larger image.
As sort of a sneak peek of my spanking new Gorillaz CMYK Vinyl set made by kidrobot, I present to you photos I took of one of the four members of Gorillaz. On lead vocals, here’s Stuart Pot aka 2D. All right reserved LOL and taken using *gasps* a Nokia N82 just like old times.
Let’s Celebrate the Death of TV on July 2!
Flippish.com will officially launch on July 2, 2009 with a party and the very bold battle cry, “Television is Dead.” I’m sure friends from networks ABS-CBN, GMA, and TV5 will have a field day bashing the claim but with a batting average of one original feature short published daily in flippish.com, this online video channel is fast growing to be the formidable source of entertainment in the Internet scene for lokal cyber junkies. I personally go to flippish.com to satisfy my LOL cravings, slapstick or otherwise.
I’m not giving the site a two thumbs up with this pimpage just because I’ve been in two of their shows (for like five seconds each time for Mensa Day and the other for the iBlog5 Summit held on April this year) or that I’m good friends with Kring Elenzano. You may try and experience the videos yourself and I’m sure you’ll agree that the stuff they feature (my ultimate favorite among them is a video short where the actors did their thing inside an elevator) are all of truly top notch quality (in the direction, production, and post-prod arena). That and they only either use royalty-free or original music in their productions.
If you want to be part of this momentous event in Pinoy online video channel history, sign up on this page or visit Flippish.com for more details.
My congratulations go to Chris Tan, Managing Director of Ideal Minds (the production outfit behind flippish.com), and his talented team for making the brilliant concept that is flippish.com happen.
Limited Edition Independence Day T-Shirt from Team Manila
Team Manila, just today, started selling limited edition (read: there are only 50 pieces of these available worldwide!) Independence Day shirts in thier Rockwell and Mall of Asia Lifestyle store branches. I swore to get myself one when I read about it in their June 9 twit (damn them, I swear):
I got giddy despite their use-of-the-a-article-instead-of-an error so right after work that day, I beelined to the TM Store along Jupiter Street to coerce the sales person into accepting my advance payment for a size-Small reservation. Unfortunately, she wasn’t even aware of this development (um, TeamManila, please force your storekeeper to create a Twitter account of her own, kthnxbai). Later on, from the Team Manila website, I found out that the shirt will only be sold in two of their branches from June 11, as I already mentioned.
Fast forward to this morning, June 12th, I called their Rockwell branch up and, sure enough, they already have the goods. I got two, one for a friend in the US and the other for me /gloats.
The Independence Day shirt has a nice feel to it. Great material. IMHO and owing to my high standards (shut up), the front and back prints are sort of not that “thick” or “multi-coated” or “opaque” enough to my liking. Observe:
