Matt Maxwell's Blog: Highway 62 on Goodreads, page 14

POTD 1/14/20

Because I told Richard Kadrey I'd post this one today, my favorite picture that I've taken in NYC. Went there back in 2014. Would like to go again, but life has not cooperated.This is, of course, the Chrysler building. I like the sort of O'Keefe on acid effect of the long shutter. This was taken with the Leica DLX, which actually got smacked against the ground during the trip and refused to work for a time. It eventually came back around.

Linkmix 200113

Let's pretend I'm trying to get back to a kind of regular blogging schedule, aside from the whole Photo of the Day feature I'm running in 2020. Even if it's mostly just linkblogging, which as a practice, was utterly decimated by Twitter and its seductive immediacy.How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart in Two DaysVia tim maughan and Cliff Burnsby Philip K. Dick, an essay on the construction of fiction and reality and the forest of mirrors and sacred brands. Written in 1978, but still absolutely relevant today, because this is PKD we're talking about.How to brand terror organizations, for fun and profit.Via Chris Barrus on Twitter. LA in 1978, working while others sleepLike it says. Local news crew taking at look at LA working even in the early hours of the morning, back in the wilderness of 1978.Conspiracy theory and evangelical faith in the 20th centuryYeah, it's all baked in.Horror browser game via Mendelpalace on Tumblr.Half the time these will be things I've read deeply and enjoyed, the other quarter of the time, they're for future reference but I don't trust my own bookmark files.Hoping to drop an actual, substantive piece onto the blog later this week. Who knows what it'll be about? Probably something irritating, no doubt.

POTD 1/13/20

This is an unusual, transformed photograph. The original was taken in 1994 or 1995, on film. Then it was scanned at the office where I used to work, but scanned small, for some reason. Not sure why. I know scanners could produce much, much larger files, even back then. And then it was tweaked in PS or the scan setting were such that the file was even more underexposed than the original, but there was something about it that worked.This is actually a .jpg version of the original, saved as a QuickDraw picture (probably .pict or .pcx I guess). Like I said. Transformed.

POTD 1/12/20

Taken in November, 2012. At the Pasadena City College swap meet. I was down in LA for the Long Beach Comic Con, think I was even at a small press table that I'd bought. Crummy show. Really, not good at all. I mean, it's a fine show, but for me personally, it was terrible. So I blew off Sunday morning and went up to the swap meet in Pasadena, after being recommended it by Chris Cooper, better known as Coop, who I'd met and hung out with (and experience I recommend) after knowing him informally on Twitter for a time.Taken with a Leica DLX-3, which is a camera I still love a lot. Perfect combination of size and power. The zoom isn't so great, but it's fast, and easy to hide, being about the size of a big package of cigarettes.I still love going to swap meets and catching the right light on beautiful junk.

POTD 1/11/20

Yes, it's late. I drove for five hours yesterday and didn't manage my time effectively so as to maintain the continuous stream of free content on my site. You may have your money back.This photo was taken in mid 1996, I think. Perhaps 1995. In South Lake Tahoe, NV. Maybe the California side. Film, obviously. Kodak 400 most likely since I lived on that stuff.The hotel no longer stands. Or maybe it does, but the marquee certainly doesn't. Tahoe didn't weather its transition into the modern day very well. Lots of the old charm was lost, all to chase kind of a second-rate regional gambling destination status. You could make the same argument for Reno, too. Hell, Vegas has lost a lot of what it was, but it's still horrifyingly interesting today.

POTD 1/10/20

Perturbator in Oakland, from last year. Standing at the back of the room, but I got a decent zoom on this camera. The only reason why I haul it around.

POTD 1/09/20

Taken early 2001, Kodak DC290, a camera I still love for its unique low-light responses. I see them on ebay from time to time and think about buying another one. I still might.Shot at the Stephen Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, near UCSD. I visited a lot, particularly when my kids were very young. It was a cheap annual membership and it gave them something to look at and do for an afternoon. I still love aquariums and visit whenever I get the chance. It's likely there'll be many more shots from the dry side of the glass this year.These, by the by, are shark egg cases. One might be a skate. The auger-shaped case on the right is from a horn shark. I remember that much.What a lovely gradient of green.

POTD 1/8/20

Abandoned Cocteau Twins cover art (one of many).Taken in Folsom CA in 2019. Leica VLX.

POTD 1/7/20

Taken in 2006, downtown LA. The Fuji Finepix camera (really should dig it out of storage and use it for glitch photos but maybe that's just not that exciting any more.) Most of the shots from this trip were taken in motion, behind the wheel of my trusty Honda Civic. As I recall, this trip to LA was one of the last I took before I moved up to NorCal (really CentCal, but that's a story for another time.)

POTD 1/6/20

First brand-new photo in this offering. Taken on Saturday night from the floor of Yosemite Valley. This one was tricky, 'cause the preview in-camera showed the exposure I wanted, but when I put it on the computer it was...not. Had to curves it back into existence. Since this is a new picture, it was taken with my Leica V-Lux, which is a much more flexible camera than my older DLX, but perhaps not my favorite camera. Bulkier, way more controls, but the zoom can't be beat.