Sometimes life happens... (warning! LONG!!)

After all that hype surrounding Friday's concert, you must be wondering why I have not posted on it since then. Well, it was certainly a crazy ride for me and my comrade. We got a late start, as I was teaching her to cross-stitch, and we got lots of attention at the restaurant for our outfits. I wore my beautiful modern floral jumper circa 1975 (handmade by yours truly) and Naomi wore her pleated vintage ribbon minidress (probably also 70s era). I tried to get photos of us in our outfits but the lighting was very poor in the venue.

Moving on to the show, supposedly 5 bands were there but I remember only 4... The first two were excruciating, made worse by a terrible headache (caused by yelling over the music, so I suppose it was my fault really). But I was happy to get to know Suzo a little and to hear from Toby that he liked not only my idea for a new song but also the Merry CD I made for him!

I underestimated my extreme focus once Marquis went on. When I focus my attention on something, it's really hard to see/hear/acknowledge anything else. I was excited going to the show to hear this special set but also to take pictures. You see, one of my first passions in life was photography. I've always been a bit odd, I'd say, and I was the only person in my first HS photography class to take to and care about the B/W film portion of the curriculum. I'd work every minute of every class period in the darkroom or processing film even when I didn't have an assignment due--sometimes I even went after school. I abhorred digital and finished those assignments as quickly as possible so I could go back to the darkroom. From my first roll of film there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to live off my photography. In my own way. Going through some tough times in college, before I went to UNT, I would go to the darkroom for hours at a time to ease my mind and get lost in something. But UNT showed me that this dream is unrealistic. Film is dying and it's cruel that I will probably see the death of my much loved art form in my lifetime. Sure, there will always be those hobbyist who will want to use film, but already it's getting harder to procure the supplies and it will only get harder. Soon to get any of it, you will have to special order it. Buying chemicals this weekend, the cleark was so happy that I wanted selenium toner he GAVE it to me--said he hadn't sold any for over a year. How sad. And I lost myself in a tangent, where was I? Oh yeah.

I happily shot almost three rolls of 3200 ISO film until the show ended after 2am Saturday morning. I don't usually stay up this late though and I got so tired that at times my vision blurred so much I couldn't tell if the picture was in focus or not and I had to, for the first time ever, use my left eye to focus instead of my right. By the end of the set, even this didn't help and because of my own exhaustion I did the single stupidest thing you can do to screw up your film (besides leave your lens cap on--though I can't believe that anyone would seriously be dumb enough to do this on an SLR), I opened it. I thought something was wrong and that the film hadn't been advancing--turns out the dial read "20" not "0." After that everything went wrong and I hated myself for not only ruining a ten dollar roll of film, but for missing the concert I'd looked forward to for two weeks with the prospect of spending upwards to a hundred dollars to send my film out for processing when I was already certain that one roll was ruined. Why "missed?" I was so focused on taking the pictures that I didn't hear the show, not really, and at that point I wasn't sure that it had been worth it. I had a little break-down on the way home.

But the next day, I convinced my parents it would be more cost effective to just go out and buy the chemicals and process the film myself. So we did. And I decided to take this as an opportunity to try something I've always wanted to try--Sabatier effect on film. Long story short (too late!) I partially developed that roll, exposed it to the light, then finished developing it. It's very unpredictable and can either result in amazing shots or completely ruined film--this is why I decided to use the roll to try this out for the first time. I may have gotten one good shot (which is a godsend!) and I'll let you know how it goes after I get to the rent-able darkroom in Dallas, hopefully sometime this week (preferably Wednesday). Good Evening All!