The Vehicle of My Dreams (but I'll need a bigger garage)
 

I once saw a Hyundai with Sprewells.

TM

In lieu of my screwed-up PB post, I bring you this important death-pool news:

Seminal School-Portrait Photographer Dies At 92

http://www.theonion.com/images/400/article2946.jpg

PHOENIX—Henry Anszczak, the photographer whose influential work revolutionized modern school portraiture, died Sunday at his family home in Eloy. He was 92.

According to longtime assistant Dave Olsen, Anszczak died of natural causes.

"On Sunday, Mr. Anszczak passed away peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by his family and scores of yearbooks," Olsen said. "We will never forget his wonderful artistic achievements. He blazed the trail for thousands of school photographers nationwide. The lion of 20th-century public-educational culture roars no more."

Anszczak's innovations became so much a part of the language of school portraiture that their brilliance is often overlooked.

"Anszczak was the first to present his subjects as individuals, rather than as one tiny, grainy part of the class as a whole," said Geraldine Menzies, director of the National Academy of Classroom Arts in Philadelphia, where many of Anszczak's works are exhibited. "He lifted the school-portrait camera from its rigid confines and moved it several feet closer."

Fresh out of the Army in 1946, armed with a Graflex Speed Graphic camera and a tripod, Anszczak began his school-photography career relatively late in life. The 34-year-old entered a stagnant field, where the standard practice of shooting black-and-white snapshots of entire classes from a distance had gone unquestioned for decades. While it saved on film and developing costs, the process resulted in a final portrait in which many subjects were out of focus, too small to see, or obscured altogether. When Anszczak retired in 1986, he left a field that had fully embraced his color close-ups and woodland backdrops.

This sea change eliminated the process, considered tedious by photographers and teachers alike, of assembling a class as a whole. Anszczak's innovation also eliminated the problem of group photos ruined by absenteeism and individual students' antics, such as goofy expressions or inappropriate hand gestures.

Anszczak is credited with having invented the classroom composite, in which many small, rectangular portraits are arranged in rows for display.

"Anszczak single-handedly standardized the wallet-size," Menzies said. "It was his discovery that, in addition to a 5"x7" portrait suitable for framing, a student might like a number of smaller photos to offer to those peers with whom he or she plans to remain best friends forever."

Anszczak was the first school photographer to offer matte finish. He was the first to seat subjects on a stool, to direct them in proper placement of their hands, and to offer them the use of a black plastic comb before the photo was taken. He pioneered use of soft-focus, previously seen only in Hollywood glamour portraits, in senior-year photos. And he introduced the now-famous "fence post, wagon wheel, and bale of hay" tableau, which became an industry standard.

"Scholars debate whether it was Anszczak or his assistant who invented the double-exposure, in which a profile of the student's face appears over the shoulder of the forward-facing subject," Menzies said. "But there is no question that they were the first to use the technique in the portable studio."

Anszczak's innovations, now universally accepted, were initially criticized. Parents thought that the individual close-ups bore an uncomfortable similarity to police mug shots. Additionally, many argued that the process of focusing so closely on the subject placed students under undue stress.

Following the Vietnam war, a new batch of critics argued that Anszczak's work had reactionary, antisocial tendencies. In a famous essay for Mrs. Larsen's tenth-grade English class at Sherman High School in Little Rock, AR, sophomore Wayne Kleiff derided the photographer's individual portraits as "a physical manifestation of the isolation produced from postwar suburbanization."

"Before Anszczak, the individual was represented as part of a whole," wrote Kleiff, '78. "What's missing from Anszczak's work is a sense of community, of people mutually sharing a social and educational experience. Is it any coincidence that he and suburbia mushroomed together? Like the white picket fence around a single-story frame home, the white borders in Anszczak's composite photos serve to separate, to isolate, to detach. At their worst, they promote narcissism and insularity."

Kleiff's composition received an A.

Anszczak's fans, however, laud the spontaneity of his work. In spite of the controlled conditions in a school's cafeteria or gymnasium on photo day, imperfections would occur. Anszczak resolutely refused to do retakes.

"Look at these superb Anszczaks here," said Dorian Childsworth, a photography historian at George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, as she gestured at an open portfolio of portraits. "Observe the immediacy of his work. We see closed eyes, drifting gazes, unattractively agape mouths, tucked-in collars, and hair sticking up all funny. But Anszczak did not weed such imperfections out. He embraced them. In so doing, he captured the awkward hearts and souls of these individuals. These photos show an intuitive sympathy at work—the mark of a true artist."

"Rest in peace, Mr. Anszczak," Childsworth added. "Or, in your words, 'Say cheeseburger.'"

After an incredible 40-year career, Anszczak rejected photography in 1986 to pursue "purer artistic pursuits that more actively engage the mind's eye." In this late period, he designed yearbook covers and lunchroom murals.

Still, Anszczak will be remembered best for his widely emulated school portraiture. Fittingly, school districts across the country lowered their flags to half-staff in honor of Anszczak on the day following his death. In addition, the International League of Hot Lunch Workers Monday announced plans to rename fruit-cocktail cups "Henrys."

Monday morning griping
 

This is your best post in like 4 years. And since it so thoroughly outdoes "whiff," it should take its place and "whiff" should be permanently retired.

I would probably shorten it up to "your ass just got Picassoed," for convenience sake, though.

TM

The Vehicle of My Dreams (but I'll need a bigger garage)
 

:confused:

NOLA
 

With predictions of floods of 12-18 feet of water in New Orleans, I would like to wish all NOLA and other Gulf Coast GA's good luck and God Speed.

AdL

ETA: What the hell are you doing on the FB? Didn't you hear the mayor? Evacuate!

JESUS!!
 

She played Mary Magdalene?

Monica Bellucci
http://www.perfume2000.com/Common_Im...bellucci22.jpg

There is nothing sexier than an Italian woman. Or a Spanish woman. Or Brazilian. Or Argentinian...

Monday morning griping
 

I'd start with www.phillyescorts.com. Look for "full service."

NOLA
 

Hmm. Maybe we should all drink Hurricanes tonight, in a show of support.

JESUS!!
 

mmmmm, Persephone

http://www.neoandtrinity.net/imgs/persephone_front.jpg


http://romanticmovies.about.com/libr...posterpubg.jpg

I like your shorts
 

Jessica Simpson to play Daisy Duke
Singer fills out cast of 'Dukes of Hazzard' movie

Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville already had been cast as Bo and Luke Duke, respectively, in the Warner Bros. project. Jay Chandrasekhar is directing. A start date has not yet been set.

http://www.tamor.org/rotm/daisyduke.jpg

http://www.hissandpop.com/celebritie...photos/004.jpg

To be true to the character, Jessica should keep the shorts (updating them by making them cut down to the pelvic bone up top). The old ones are just a little bit more than the law will allow.*

http://www.lasvegasmercury.com/2003/...est-daisys.jpg

http://skills.brinkster.net/bike/ima...isy/daisy3.jpg

I'm thinking it could work.

http://www.celebmania.dk/board/image...a_simpson2.jpg

TM

* YEEEEEEEEEE HAW!

Monday morning griping
 

Is Spike Lee right?

Monday morning griping
 

The local supermarket sells both sushi-grade tuna and non-sushi-grade. The non-sushi grade is the same stuff that has always been available in supermarkets. Sometimes it is quite good. Sometimes it does not look so good. I do not purchase sushi-grade tuna if I am going to grill it, melt some cheese on it, and make it into a tuna steak sandwich. That would be a waste of sushi-grade tuna, in my opinion. In fact, it seems like a waste of sushi-grade tuna to do anything more than sear it. I can also get sushi-grade fish of other types at a local sea food distributor (Coastal Seafoods, for Bilmore and Fugee, although I am sure they already know about it), which is the place that flies in fish for local sushi restaurants. It appears that I do not need to go there to make ceviche. I just need to have a candid chat about freshness with my local supermarket fish counter guy.

And Sebby, don't be such a sissy. I have had sushi made at homes on many occasions and it has been excellent and there have been no health problems, and I live thousands of miles from a coast. Ceviche seems like an even safer bet. But when you visit, I promise we'll go out for dinner. And not for sushi. Although I think the sushi places around here are fine, I generally assume people do not travel to the upper Midwest to check out the raw seafood.

Anyhoo, this has been a nice chat about seafood. Having a good discussion is like having riches.

I like your shorts
 

I have an unaccountable attraction to Seann William Scott, and I loved Bo Duke when I was a kid. I even had a pink nightshirt that said "my heart belongs to Bo" on it and a picture of John Schneider.

We used to fuck around with my dad's CB trying to get in touch with the Dukes of Hazzard. There were probably a lot of amused /annoyed truckers that went through central Texas in the late 70s/early 80s who heard us.

Monday morning griping
 

Peasant.

Monday morning griping
 

Yes, pheasant is good (not to be a Timmy, but there's an "h" in there!).

Gourmet Pheasant

INGREDIENTS:

3 small pheasants
1/2 cup milk
salt & pepper to taste
2 apples peeled, cored and sliced
2 onions thinly sliced
2 tablespoons butter
3 cups sour cream


DIRECTIONS:
Brush pheasant inside and out with milk.
Season with salt and pepper.
Stuff cavities with apple slices.
Cook onions in butter in deep, flame-proof casserole.
Brown pheasant in onion-flavored butter.
Pour sour cream over pheasant and season lightly
with salt and pepper.
Bake, covered at 375 degrees for 1 hour, basting
every 15 minutes. Garnish with watercress.