LP-to-mp3 Conversion FTW!

One of my all-time favorite records is "Nona" by Nona Hendryx, who was a member of Labelle before striking out on a solo career. This soul/R&B/dance album was released in 1983 and features an absolute classic, "Keep It Confidential," among other songs. I bought the cassette version and listened to it so much on my Walkman (or whatever brand I had, might not have been Sony's) I wore out the tape. I then bought it on old-fashioned vinyl, recorded it to a 90-minute cassette (so I had the full album on both sides) and pretty much wore it out as well.

For some reason it slipped out of my consciousness. I don't know if it was ever released on compact disc back in the day, once CDs became popular. But it got back into my mind a few months ago and I went searching for it online, and found that there was a limited-edition CD release in March of this year. Unfortunately, every time I looked at Amazon and other sites it was either out of stock or I'd place an order, only to be told it was on back order (and I could wait for it to eventually be filled, or cancel -- why they let me order to begin with if it wasn't actually in stock, I'll never know).

But I suffer no more. Last week I bought a kit to convert LPs and cassettes to mp3 format, and the album is now on my iPod. I won't call it perfect quality -- you hear a bit of LP crackle now and then, but it's good enough for me. The software is fairly easy to work with, but there are tools for cleaning up the tracks and other enhancements and the quick-start guide doesn't address how to use them, so I didn't even bother.

This is a problem with everything now: you get a quick-start guide with things like this, new TVs, new phones, cameras, etc. but the devices have so many features and tricks and you have no idea how to use them. If you really care you have to go online and download a PDF of the full user guide, or perhaps you get it on a DVD-ROM. Either way it's not convenient, and I bet most people can't be bothered, so they don't get the full benefit of all the features they're paying for.

Anyway, if you can find this album in any format I recommend you buy it right away.

Not Tumblr-ing

Quick note: decided to drop Tumblr. It isn't posting automatically to Facebook like it's supposed to and when I wrote for support saying that I've followed their instructions and it's not working, I got a reply giving me those same instructions. So, buh-bye Tumblr. I've set up a new site for my pictures on Blogger and recreated my posts. The link is below.

Joe in Philly's Photos (catchy, eh?)

I'll Tumblr 4 Ya

I've been thinking recently, with my growing interest in taking pictures, that I wanted to have a site where I could pick out my favorites and hopefully have people see them. I'm not sure the albums I've set up for my various travels and my wandering around the city are the best way to do that. I considered Instagram but, putting aside the recent controversy, I decided I wanted to not only post current pics but older ones as well. Instagram, from what I've read, limits the size of pic you can post if it's uploaded from a computer as compared to your phone. And I'm not sure I want to fool around with all those filters just yet.

So I've set up a new site on Tumblr, where I'll post both recent pics from my camera or my phone, as well as some from past trips, and even scans from old photos I pluck from my dusty old albums in the basement. I'm still trying to figure some things out with it, though, so I'm not sure I'll end up keeping it there. (For example, I can't figure out how to share links to the individual posts.) I may create a new Blogger page instead. But for now, Tumblr it is.

I hope you enjoy them, and I'd love feedback -- particularly from photographers.

(The pic on this page is of me taking a picture of my friend Kurt as he was taking a picture of me. We were at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center looking at my Philly Photo Day submission. More on that later.)

Quick Review: Rise Of The Guardians

I saw this animated film a couple of weeks ago, and it's still around. I suppose that's because one of the characters is Santa Claus, so it qualifies as a "Christmas" movie and they can keep it in the theaters until we get into 2013. But it isn't entirely focused on the Christmas holiday.  When I first heard about this movie being made I was very much excited -- a group consisting of Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, etc. are action heroes teaming up to stop a threat to the world's children, but they need the help of Jack Frost, who in this story is a teen prankster and far from interested in helping. Then I saw the trailers and it was...actually discouraging. The end result was somewhere in between. The plot was kind of dull at times and the villain doesn't particularly seem like a terrible threat, and Santa's elves in this movie are a very poor imitation of the "Despicable Me" minions. And, for some reason, Santa (as voiced by Alec Baldwin) is Russian. It had a few bits that were okay, though. Very much a mixed bag. My grade: C-plus.

Pics With New Phone

It still amazes me that I actually have a smartphone that's among the newest on the market (Samsung Galaxy SIII). Without going into the whole story, we'll just say that circumstances arose and I ended up getting enough of a deal to make it feasible. Plus, unlike the last time I got a new phone, I actually got my number ported over to the new phone. Anyway, it takes decent pictures (although the originals were extremely large because I didn't check the settings, so I resized them to post them here). And although it doesn't have a flash,   the ones I took at night look really nice.

First two are of Jewelers Row on Sansom St. decked out for the holidays. Taken on Tuesday.

These two are of the historic Christ Church, taken Wednesday evening not long before sunset...

On Friday I found one of those ubiquitous sticker art displays, but this one actually hasn't been tainted. So many newspaper boxes have multiple stickers, some of which are peeling or have been written on, as well as graffiti on the boxes, and they look a mess. Not this one.

The Comcast Center standing tall in the background. Taken Friday evening on Market St. just east of 18th.

On Saturday at Frankford Terminal, I noticed this exit sign looking like it was growing hair.

I got the phone as high as I could and got a look at a portion of the top of the sign. What is this supposed to be? Anyone?

The other side of this building faces Rittenhouse Square, if I'm not mistaken. I think I was on Chestnut St. near 20th. I just liked the zigzag look of it.

Newtown: Same Old Same Old

Many of you aren't going to like what I have to say, but it's how I feel. Right now the only thing that truly angers me about the latest massacre via gun, in Newtown, Connecticut, is that the Fox network has decided to televise the prayer service going on right now, instead of showing the new episode of "The Simpsons" that my DVR is supposed to be recording. (And the prayer service -- don't get me started. It seems like they're trying to include every possible religion, so every speaker is trying not to say something that might offend someone else. A Lutheran chaplain just said that we all call God by different names but "however we address you, you are still father and mother to us all...") Since I started writing this, I switched to the NFL game on NBC, and now they've also switched to the prayer service because President Obama has begun his remarks. So now I have no "Simpsons" and no football.

I'm not investing another ounce of emotion into these things unless something, heaven forbid, happens to someone I actually know and care about personally. Every time this happens, the same old responses happen: people say it's senseless and a tragedy and they're shocked and outraged and sad and their prayers and thoughts are going to the victims and post pictures and article links and quotes and memes on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and ask why we don't have more gun control laws/complain that gun control laws wouldn't make a difference and blah blah blah blah blah. Then a few days go by and it all fades into the background and people start obsessing over the Kardashians again.

Why does it take multiple deaths to even get this response, as short-lived and futile as it is? People of all ages are gunned down every day, over and over, all over this country. Why is one child's murder in, say, North Philadelphia less important than 20 children in Connecticut? Add up all the gun deaths that occur one at a time and they'll add up to a hell of a lot more than 26.

And why does anyone think this time is going to be any different? All this talk about making sure this never happens again has been heard after the Columbine massacre, and after the Virginia Tech massacre, and after the Dark Knight movie massacre, and on and on and on. Nothing changes because the only real way to bring about change (not just on guns but on lots of issues) is if everyone rises up and makes their voices heard by voting. But most people don't vote except in presidential election years, and even then nowhere near 100 percent of eligible voters actually bother. And those who do vote don't put enough thought into it. People say they're in favor of this or that but vote for politicians who completely disregard those wishes. Everyone says they hate Congress but they keep voting for the same clowns in their own district. The politicians who are in bed with the National Rifle Association keep getting reelected by somebody.

And what passes for TV news reporting falls into two general categories: insensitively interviewing children who may have just seen their playmates killed, or asking politicians important questions like whether they're too fat to be elected President. Here's a couple of ideas: try to interview a child during a traumatic event and you lose your job. And if a politician refuses to answer important questions about why they don't stand up to the NRA, then they don't get airtime for puff pieces like when mayors or governors make a bet on the Super Bowl or World Series.

So, sorry, but I'm just bored with this whole thing. Hurry up and get over it so we can all go back to the business of making sure that evil criminal mastermind Lindsay Lohan finally gets locked up.

Quick Reviews: Silver Twilight Pi

Now that I've returned from DC and joined the 21st century of cell phones (with a new Samsung Galaxy SIII), I suppose I should get back to blogging. So here are two movies I saw before I left for DC and one that I saw while I was down there.

I mainly saw "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" because I saw the previous films and I felt it important enough to see how the whole thing ends. (If they announced that "Paranormal Activity 4" was the last movie of that franchise I might have bothered to see it as well.) It kind of went off the rails in the last film, plot-wise, and the first two-thirds of this one was basically filler while waiting for the final showdown between the Volturi and the Cullens and their supporters (over Edward and Bella's daughter) to play out, including introducing a bunch of other vampire clans. When that final conflict occurs it's somewhat interesting, until one of the worst plot twists ever is revealed. It's a twist that probably works for the Twihards, but not for anyone else. My grade: D-plus.

"Silver Linings Playbook" is being hyped as Oscar-worthy. I didn't find it quite that great. In fact, after seeing the trailers play up the humor and romance angles a little more than the mental health issues of Bradley Cooper's character, the first portion of the film is rather jarring in its intensity. Then it settles into a nice groove, and then finally turns into a more predictable film thanks to a large wager on the final Eagles game of the 2008 season and the results of the dance contest in which our hero and Jennifer Lawrence's character are participating. Lawrence is terrific and Cooper is fine (although never shirtless). And it was rather cool to have the Eagles figure so much in the story, despite their current travails. By the way, I'm very proud to have spotted a blooper in the film: at one point we see fans arriving at the Linc for a game, and one of them is wearing a Nnamdi Asomugha jersey. The film is set in 2008, but Asomugha didn't join the Eagles until 2011. D'oh! My grade: B.

While in DC I took advantage of proximity to a multiplex to see "Life of Pi." There's been a lot of talk that it's the best-looking 3D movie since "Avatar," but I only saw it in 2D. Looked fine just the same. It spends a surprising amount of time setting up the story, that of a teenage boy somehow surviving being lost at sea for 227 days (after a storm sinks the freighter he and his family are traveling on) and sharing a lifeboat with a tiger. Then, after we see his rescue, we're given an alternate version of events and are asked to choose which one we believe. So the whole thing is something of a metaphor about the existence of God. Not really my cup of tea, but not bad. My grade: B.