Monday, January 07, 2008

I am endlessly fascinated in media’s use of photoshop to define beauty, and remake celebrities’ images. So for your viewing pleasure ... a professional and a relatively subtle tour de force in the subject.

What you’ll see above are two images, both used without permisssion, of a Redbook cover showing Faith Hill ... and the original photo of her, ready to be manipululated to create the publication ready version. Now you may ponder what’s wrong with the original. According to jesbel.com (remixed by me to clean up the language) ... here are the sins that need Photoshop expiation:
1. SCALP: You know what we need here? Some more hair.
2. CROWS FEET: What’s this under those eyes?
3. THOSE CHEEKS: What exactly do you think she’s hoarding in there?
4. THAT EARLOBE: Please do some work on that earlobe of hers.
5. NECK: Well, it needs work.
6. LIPS: More lines!
7. CLAVICLE: I know they’re hot in New York, but … Also, get rid of that welt from the strap of her dress digging into her flesh.
8. BACK FAT: What is this, the new muffin top?
9. THAT HAND: What’s it DOING there? And please make it look like she’s sucking in her tummy like a good celebrity.
10. ASS: Chop!
11. ARM: Absolutely FINE, with about 50% less girth and 80% less Mystic Tan!

See the image below, to relate the photo to the sins of both commision and ommision ...

All right, see what you can do, and don’t stop till she looks at least as young as … well, I have faith in you.

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Out and About
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Friday, December 21, 2007

I am simply not sufficiently unbalanced to devote every waking moment, every firing synapse, every calorie burned to be the best in the world at anything. My only real chance would be to invent a sport, say, set the world record before it became popular enough to have competitions, and hope it catches on.

I tried this in 1986 in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (France) where I invented the sport of Glacier Bowling. And in fact, I set an unrecorded world’s record there in its first (and only) international competition beating out a competitor from the US and another from Singapore. However, Glacier Bowling never caught on so my accomplishment sank swiftly to the depths of sports obscurity. Fewer than a dozen people even know of the sport, let alone my accomplishment.

Illustration: Andrew Zbihyj

With all this as backdrop, imagine my excitement learning of the invention of a truly obscure sport … Text Messaging (or Texting for short). This year’s championship was won by 13 year old Morgan Pozgar who flawlessly tapped into his LG mobile phone the first lines of the Mary Poppins crowd-pleaser, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Neil Janowitz competed and authored an article in Wired Magazine’s issue 15.12. He knew to be wary of the 15-year-olds in the competition, but he never saw the 13-year-old coming.

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Out and About
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Saturday, December 08, 2007

Click any image to enlarge ...

At the Seattle International Motorcycle Show a week ago, I was confused by Harley-Davidson’s new math. On their logo, it says 105 years, an enviable record for any modern company, but the 1908 - 2008 dates don’t work for me. Am I missing something ... or is Harley just math challenged?

Below a couple of bikes I liked.

One of the fun things for me at the show was to see the cut-away engines. I liked the photo above, but loved the one below, which I call “Cyninder Head.”

Cylinder Head

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Motorcycles
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Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Technology
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Sunday, November 25, 2007

Over the last several days, the sinking of the Explorer in Antarctic waters has captured my imagination. It was just two years ago that Nancy and I were on another ship, the Endeavor, in the Antarctic. The two ships are similar in size, weight, ice hardening, passengers aboard ... and both were exploring the antarctic peninsula. In spite of 20 - 30 foot swells crossing the Drake passage, our sailing was textbook. The Explorer’s was not.

Hitting submerged ice, the Explorer began taking on water through a fist sized hole in the hull. After all the passengers and crew had successfully abandoned ship to life boats, the Explorer sank. All aboard were successfully rescued and taken aboard a large cruise ship nearby.

A coincidence, our ship, the Endeavor, was about 50 miles away at the time of the accident and steamed to the site to participate in the rescue. The passengers were taken aboard a Norwegian ship to the Chilean research base nearby where they were airlifted home ... another coincidence since the Endeavor put in to the same base when one of our fellow passengers became ill and was med-evac’ed out.

I am glad all passengers and crew were saved without injury. I feel connected to them somehow. But it reminds me that there are still wild places on the planet. Our trip to the Antarctic was fantastic. I wouldn’t change it for anything. I’m glad there are still wild places left and I’d like to keep exploring them. But it gives me pause ... and reminds me to be careful out there.

The airfiled is just beyond the hills in the background. The base has a year-round population of 42 but might be home to a couple of hundred folks this time of year. You can check out all my Antarctic photos at Digital Quixote. Click on Travel A-M and select Antarctica.

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Out and About
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