Will you still need me......?

Switching to different blog publisher

2010-03-21T09:27:00.000-04:00

I am switching my blog to wordpress. I like the look of blogspot, but wordpress has more possibilities for multiple pages. I may switch back to blogspot but why not try other looks? Once I am really "retired" I will learn more about all this stuff, so I can have a site that has the look I like.

Two blogs for different threads.
One for random thoughts, the former blogspot blog: http://jbtwo.wordpress.com/
One for sifting through the past: www.judithblack.wordpress.com

Happy Spring!!!

From this morning's Globe...

2010-02-25T09:29:00.002-05:00

Can't resist passing on this wonderful bit of advice from the Globe's Handyman advice column. I've always been bothered by the sound of little feet on the roof. This should keep the birds off, too. A very medieval solution to pesky animals!

Q. How can I keep squirrels from jumping on my roof? Also, a glass of red wine was spilled on my new sand-colored carpet. I immediately poured white wine onto the spot, and the red disappeared, but it left a dark spot. How can I remove it?
HELEN , from Wakefield
A. 1. You can’t. Well, maybe, but it is expensive. Line the edges of the roof with a needle board (long sharp nails driven through a wood board with the points facing up). You may find that you would have to cover the whole roof, so if I were you, I would live with them. 2. Try soap or detergent and water and thorough rinsing. Or, one of the new carpet cleaners on the market: One new one is Scotchgard Oxy Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner with Stain Protector.

Thank you, Peter Horton, for a morning laugh.

While having lunch in Italy....

2010-02-16T19:52:00.000-05:00

Homer appeared on the TV screen. We realized that we had seen the episode before, but not in Italian. And we don't watch the Simpson's that often! Lunch was very good, though.

Upcoming exhibit in April

2010-02-13T17:49:00.000-05:00

At the Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson, NY, April 2010

Sweet Dreams

2010-02-13T17:28:00.000-05:00

Milo napping

Mr. July

2010-02-05T17:21:00.000-05:00

My sister Tina in New Zealand came across this pic on a calendar.
Would you believe there are two?

- Posted from iPod

This is way too cool!

2010-01-28T13:04:00.003-05:00

I'm "wasting" time learning how the Picasa program works. I've made a small album of photos from Italy. AND I can tag them with a location on Google maps!! Will add to the album as I have time to upload and tag. This is too much fun. Not sure what it is good for in the long run, but now you can see where the photo was taken on the map.

Italy

Baby Jesus by Otto Dix in the Vatican Museum

2010-01-27T17:24:00.001-05:00

A few photos from Italy

2010-01-27T07:25:00.000-05:00

Jet not-lag has me up early this morning. The trip was great and I took lots of pix instead of buying postcards. The joy of the digital camera! No need to be careful about how many photos one takes...unless you are running out of flash cards! We are probably the only travelers in the world who do not shop for things to bring home. The customs agent always is suprised that we have not a thing to declare.
Loriana was a splendid hostess. She put us up, fed us and guided us around. Here are a few shots of the dinner she fixed for us.

Guess who called

2010-01-26T22:15:00.001-05:00

Checking the voicemail when we got home....8 calls...you won't believe who called....
Barak Obama
Bill Clinton
Vickie Kennedy

And we voted before we left the country.

- Posted from iPod

From Trani, Italy

2010-01-22T08:55:00.000-05:00

Left Trani this morning and are now in Benevento eating pizza.
Will be back in Roma this eve.

By the time this is posted, we are back home. Wifi is hard to find and I didn't want to send too much time when there was so much walking to be done.

- Posted from iPod

On the Adriatic

2010-01-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

Our room tonight is on the ocean in Polignano a Mare, a summer resort area. Too "freddo" to open the window to hear the waves, only the sound of the heater...
Driving through from Matera, the countryside is full of farms, vineyards and "trulli", the stone structures built from the stoney soil. Very beautiful.

- Posted from iPod

View from the breakfast window

2010-01-20T04:08:00.000-05:00

Note the hoards of tourists!

Or is that Mel Gibson filming his movie here?

- Posted from iPod

In a cave in Matera, Italy

2010-01-19T12:45:00.000-05:00

Very strange to be logged on to the Internet and posting a message while cozied up in a B&B built into a tuffa cave! They are called sassi. The town is old, and many movies have been filmed here. Kinda looks like Petra. Will see more tomorrow. Tonite, food and sleep. Will figure out how to get photos attached. Will have to use Rob's iPhone.
Ciao ciao

- Posted from iPod

From Roma to Napoli

2010-01-18T16:35:00.000-05:00

Walking, seeing, eating. Tomorrow...driving.
I think we just had the only meal I have had in Italy that was not so good. Oh well.

Looking Back: A few photos from a very long time ago. In remembrance.

2010-01-11T13:39:00.003-05:00

Happy New Decade

2009-12-31T11:57:00.002-05:00

Happy 10th Anniversary, Laura and Mark!
And hopes for a better year ahead for all.

El Vez Xmas!!

2009-12-23T11:05:00.001-05:00

I Wanna Wish You a Merry Xmas!

Holiday Cheer

2009-12-23T10:59:00.004-05:00

Best seen live with the backup singers and dancers. A link to his website.

Favorite rhyme/new illustration

2009-12-13T10:56:00.000-05:00

I Eat My Peas with Honey
by Anonymous

I eat my peas with honey;

I've done it all my life.

They do taste kinda funny,

But it keeps them on the knife.

Great apps

2009-11-29T19:14:00.005-05:00

Autodesk has a sketching app (SketchBook) that costs about 5 bucks, it has more controls than the free Brushes that I downloaded first. Both fun to use to make quick, easy to post, drawings, etc. Many ways to save and send the images.

Tried to use Quicktime 10 to make a movie from several video clips... Can't do that anymore. Must use iMovie or another video editing application. But you can easily make a movie of your computer desktop as you work! A great teaching tool for those of us teaching computer stuff! There is probably a way to add voice-over once the file is completer. Beats writing out directions! Will post an example soon.

- Posted from iPod

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T12:03:00.001-05:00

This is last year's bird. This year the pie crust got a little to crispy on one side. Guess I better get the stove repair guy to come over. Or learn how to cook.Or let others take over the kitchen. Hum....
Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Green Porno website, Season 1 to 3

2009-11-24T15:31:00.002-05:00

If you haven't seen the previous seasons, check out this website. Isabelle Rosellini is the star. Green Porno on the Sundance Channel.

New Foodie

2009-11-22T11:51:00.000-05:00

Oatmeal, good!!! Wait till I get the pumpkin pie, and wild rice, and squash puree and .....!

Happy Birthday, Erik!!!

2009-11-19T18:24:00.000-05:00

One of my favorites!

Things you find on the internet...remembering Dan Farber

2009-11-17T15:05:00.001-05:00

I think I probably printed this image a long time ago at Boris Color Labs (now The House of Blues) in Boston. Dan brought his work in to be processed and printed. Printing 8x10 negs was amazing! I was checking out the LUNA Insight digital asset management sight and came across the digitized collection of Dan's work photographing the tombstones in New England. I could spend lots of time in these collections! Just the ones from Cornell are fascinating. We have collectively just combed through tons of study images for art history and many of us have rescued architectural images because they are so beautiful. And here is a link to a digitzed collection of similar images, the A.D. White Architectural Photographs housed at Cornell.

Lucky Friday 13

2009-11-14T11:51:00.000-05:00

It was a good day! More later.

- Posted from iPod

Sports Update

2009-11-12T17:22:00.000-05:00

Just to follow up on the Yankees win and its importance to the Madrick family. Milt grew up in the Bronx. He loved the stadium and the team and Frank Sinatra. When Milt died several years ago, I helped Cora move. We kept important things, photos, the usual. Included was Milt's Yankee t-shirt. It has been with us since. We got it out for this series and hung it in the window.

As my dad remembered, some of Milt's ashes were given a final resting place in the old Yankee stadium in Monument Park. Dad wanted to know if the remains were moved to the new stadium. We guessed not. Cora asked me as the game began if, where ever Milt was, did I think he could see the game? I thought for just a second, as she was serious. Sure. And we proceeded to let Milt know that he better use his powers to get the job done. Cora does not take no for an answer.

Cora exhorted...well, actually, she screamed at the players. "You bastard, why didn't you catch that?!" Rob..."Mom, calm down. There was no way he was going to get that ball."

It was an evening with lots of phone calls and nail biting. The final out came and Cora raised her hand to Milt in thanks.

Sports are important.

More on Laughing Babies

2009-11-08T12:31:00.000-05:00

From the Globe today, an essay about the subject by James Parker. The reader's comments are dumb, but interesting. I would add dancing birds to the short list.

Let's see...what's new this week

2009-11-07T14:07:00.000-05:00

A long week of meetings at Wellesley has ended. A few more long meetings to come, but this search process should be finished in a week or so. Then I can feel like I am on leave again. But it is good work. Only 2 more searches to work on this year.

I am back to figuring out a good backup system for my computer. Time Machine works well for the computer backup, but since I don't keep my photo or music files on the laptop, I need to have a system that will backup the external drives to another external drive. A few tests and I should be able to make a decision about the best way to go. I should also figure out an archiving method, too.

Time to start working on an exhibit idea for the fall of 2010 faculty exhibit at the Davis Museum at work. Hope I can pull together a multi-media presentation. Now there is a new thing to learn! Also, still poking around with Picasa to see if I can use it instead of Expression Meda by microsoft which I doubt will be updated in the future.

Another post by A.D. Coleman about the Polaroid collection.

Message to Milt

2009-11-04T20:27:00.003-05:00

Better give those Yankees a push this game, Milt! Where ever you are, they need your cheering. Cora is giving the orders! Better listen! And the Yankees win! Everyone in the Madrick family is happy!

"Mr Lee" video

2009-10-29T11:44:00.001-04:00

Great video of Lee Friedlander on the road! He laughs out loud!! At himself!!

I have many memories of meetings with Lee. Laughing was not part of the equation. This video goes a long way to changing my understanding of a complicated (in a good way) personality.

Not much new this week

2009-10-28T22:16:00.001-04:00

A busy couple of weeks at Wellesley...a couple more to come. Then I hope I can get back to feeling like I have time to work on my stuff. Don't know how colleagues do everything!

I got a copy of the book, The Art of Caring, an exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art this year. They used one of my photos which was very nicely reproduced.

However, the essayist wrote very incorrectly that I was a single mother of four boys! I'm not sure if she looked very carefully at the photo or bothered to check her source of information. Did not talk to me!

I did see lots of former students this week, always a pleasure. Yuna, Myna, May, Elaine, Tuyet...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I can't believe....

2009-10-20T16:53:00.001-04:00

A faculty meeting devoted to stuffing envelopes with exams for self- scheduled exams....really substantive discussion about honor code and faculty involvement.... Took 25 minutes.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Snow!

2009-10-18T19:36:00.000-04:00

In October!!???
White, heavy rain!
Cadie and I went to museums today. Good place on a cold, wet day.
Am using an app called BlogPress to write
from the iPod. Seems to work well. I wonder how I would post photos?
Yes, it can! Dylan and Emiliano leaving the hospital 5 months ago.

Nice app!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Today with Milo

2009-10-16T21:21:00.001-04:00

Milo makes his "happy and excited" noise!

More Milo

2009-10-16T21:11:00.004-04:00

Milo is learning how to entertain himself and everyone else. Rolling over, picking up toys, vocalizing...and smiling, of course!

In this video, Milo makes his "happy and excited" noise!
I'm learning about video very slowly. And youTube. I have an account, but need a tutorial on how to use the site! I'm pretty slow at remembering how to make the blog and the youTube site work together. Oh, well.

Fantastic Film Festival coming next week

2009-10-15T12:33:00.002-04:00

A week-long showcase of formal and conceptual reorientations in recent American documentary filmmaking

October 19-25, 2009

WELLESLEY COLLEGE
Wellesley, MA
All events are free and open to the public. All events are in Collins Cinema, located in the Davis Art Museum and Cultural Center, unless otherwise noted.

From the Globe news today

2009-10-14T09:14:00.000-04:00

Polaroid film is coming back

By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | October 14, 2009

Eighteen months after Polaroid Corp. said it was halting sales of its instant film, one of Massachusetts’ most famous products may be coming back to life.
PLR IP Holdings LLC, the investment group that owns the Polaroid brand, has struck a deal that could put Polaroid film back on retailers’ shelves.
PLR, owned in part by Gordon Brothers Group, of Boston, licensed Utah-based Summit Global Group to sell digital cameras under the Polaroid name in June. Now Summit is cleared to resume sales of Polaroid film.
At a news conference held yesterday in Hong Kong, Summit’s managing director, Giovanni Tomaselli, said the film will be manufactured by the Impossible Project, an Austrian company which has acquired the former Polaroid factory in the Netherlands.
According to The Impossible Project’s website, the company will begin with black-and-white film in early 2010 and will offer a color version later in the year.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.

Catching up on recent visits home

2009-10-05T14:56:00.001-04:00

Erik was here in September to visit and meet Emiliano. Cadie and Malcolm sat still for the Grannie. Sadly, Johanna, Dylan and Mark were at work when the light and majority of people aligned in the backyard.

Happy Birthday, Dad!! 91 is the new xx??!!!

2009-10-05T13:41:00.002-04:00

1986, 1998 (80th birthday), 2008 (90th birthday), July 2009

Our Lives, Our Space

2009-10-05T10:44:00.002-04:00

Our Lives, Our Space: Views of Women in a Red-Light District

Sculpture Court, Jewett Arts Center

Opening Reception: Thurs., Oct. 22, 3:30pm
Exhibit Dates: Oct. 1-23, 2009
Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:15am-7pm, Weekends 12-5pm

Exhibition Tours:
Led by one of the photographers and a project researcher
Wed., Oct. 21, 5–6 pm
Thurs., Oct. 22, 4:15-5 pm
Fri., Oct. 23, 12:30-1:30 pm

This photography exhibition is a collection of 40 photographs taken by women in the Yongsan red-light district, Seoul, South Korea, who have worked and lived in the area for as long as 40 years. As part of the urban renewal project, the area is targeted for demolition. These photographs show us how personal histories are written onto the space and architecture of the red light district, and how it is home to these women who have lived on the margins of South Korean society.

Women in prostitution have largely been an invisible part of history and society in South Korea, reduced to mere statistics and stereotypes.Their voices are never heard in the decision-making process of national and local policies that have a direct impact on their lives – such as the 2004 Act for the Prevention of Prostitution and related Acts, and the demolition of red-light districts. This photography project is a way for these women to write their own history.

This exhibition is a part of Envisioning “Global Korea” from the Margins: Gender, Sexuality, and Social Transformation program organized by Wellesley College Womens’ Studies professor Sealing Cheng.
___________________________________

Opening at the DeCordova last week

2009-10-04T22:38:00.002-04:00

DeCordova Museum Andy Mowbray's show is fantastic! As is Lalla Essaydi's! Enjoyed seeing friends and art. A full moon, too.

Guess who can roll over?

2009-09-30T23:15:00.003-04:00

He can do it! But he doesn't really like being on his tummy, yet.

Thought I had figured out the right file format for uploading videos to blogger, but I've forgotten. Will figure it out again! Just like rolling over, trial and error.

Here is a link to the video on my new youTube page. Or maybe the video will show up right here!

Upcoming projects/ "Our Lives, Our Space"

2009-09-27T15:46:00.003-04:00

Professor Sealing Cheng's work with women in Seoul, Korea, will be on display soon in the Jewett Art Center, Sculpture Court area. A photo-voice project where the women photographed their home life, work and local culture, the images are colorful and compelling. We printed 40 and will be installing the exhibit this week. The images are titled, "In front of my house," and "A lady's room."

My "cute cat" pic

2009-09-19T19:32:00.000-04:00

Momma kitty, Laura and rob
Sometime in the 80s.

Neville Brothers play Boris Color Lab (aka House of Blues)

2009-09-09T20:34:00.001-04:00

Last week, the Neville Brothers and Dr. John played at the House of Blues in Boston. Located on Landsdowne Street across from the Green Monster, I felt a bit nostalgic and rather old. Same location as my first photo job in Boston. The bathrooms are probably where the black and white darkroom was! We saw the Neville's play in Sander's Theatre in the early '80s. We were all a lot younger then!

Finally feel like I am on leave!

2009-09-09T19:32:00.004-04:00

Walking with Emiliano to Central Square for lunch today was so lovely. Got several errands done, saw lots of people of all stripes, the weather was great...so nice!! Not being behind the desk and cooped up at Wellesley made me very happy. Classes have started and I'm not thinking about transfer credit too much. It is a luxury to get paid to learn some new tricks and to think about making new work.

New things I'm learning...the latest version of Image Print, a RIP for the printer. I can add some text, but of course, it won't do the thing I want it to do easily. Oh, well. I'll figure it out. At least I think I can make a template for positioning the image and text so I won't have to do that 40 times as I print an exhibit.

BACKYARD: 2002 - 2009
I printed a number of images for a faculty exhibit at Wellesley in the Jewett Art Gallery. Still prefer the gelatin prints for b/w, but was able to get decent prints fairly quickly. And I can reprint very easily!

Got some good hints about scanning 4x5 negs from Steve Milanowski. We visited Steve and Peg and kids at Lake George.

Long time, no posting!

2009-09-01T22:40:00.004-04:00

Wish there was a way to post from my iPod when I am online. I'll figure it out some day. Busy learning my way around VueScan and ImagePrint...imageprint was working just fine until today when I really needed it to work well. Trying to get prints done for a faculty show by Friday morning. Color is not coming out correctly or predictably. Nor is the b/w printing well...too contrasty compared to the file before it is imported into imageprint. But I did get good advice about the Epson printer from the area rep so that I know how to adjust the printing gap for different papers. Erik was here for a brief visit to see all of us. Dylan had a birthday. And the Neville Brothers came to the House of Blues. We are all 30 years older than the last time I saw them! And the HoB is in the old Boris Color Lab building...where Cathy and I worked in the basement darkroom!

More Emiliano

2009-08-18T08:52:00.003-04:00

A quick post...a busy day...knee exercises, Milo visit, pick-up Cadie and Malcolm, decide on work for exhibit. The darkroom is working nicely with only a few more fixes to make it just right again. The small backlog of film is developed. Next project will be to organize the digital office so that I can find things. Two projects for Wellesley also need to be done before the beginning of the year...an exhibit of photos organized by Sealing Cheng and the mural for the sports center that my students produced last year. Better late than never!

Big Progress!!

2009-08-09T20:44:00.003-04:00

Took some pix of Dylan, Jimena and Milo at 12 weeks!

The darkroom is back in shape and I have developed 3 rolls of film from who knows how far back. At least I remember how! Only need to fix the timer and a few other minor things. Next will be some Fujifilm 4x5!

On a different project, the digital files arrived via FTP and the images taken by residents and workers in the red light area of Seoul will be a very interesting exhibit this October. I'll start doing some test prints this week to see how big the prints will go. I am working on this with a colleague, Sealing Chen, at Wellesley.

Not entirely a new thing...Cleaned the darkroom!

2009-08-07T20:50:00.002-04:00

Just found this photo from last summer!

2009-07-27T16:43:00.007-04:00

Cadie in the same dress as the photo in June this year!

Favorite comedy? Need suggestions

2009-07-27T12:56:00.002-04:00

New Things for Thursday

2009-07-16T10:40:00.002-04:00

List of web places where I am posting photos and other interesting tidbits of info for future reference. You may not want to look at them, but they might come in handy for me to use someday. Next web tech to investigate...RSS feeds so that the world knows when I have uploaded a brilliant thought or another photo!

http://gallery.mac.com/judithblack (just photos using Aperture)
http://www.judithblack.com/ (main website using iWeb, has link to this blog)
http://www.facebook.com/judith.black2 (Don't use this as much)
http://www.diigo.com/user/wellesleyphoto (Bookmark collection for classes)

Lots of Emiliano

2009-07-15T22:16:00.003-04:00

Now playing in the outfield!

2009-07-14T18:32:00.005-04:00

On the New front....Wilco Concert that introduced me to the wall of sound and to sheets of rain! Shades of Woodstock....not really. But it did rain at the end of the concert.

A few photos from California Trip

2009-07-13T22:32:00.003-04:00

We took a few day trips, one to see Mt. Lassen and another to the Renaissance Winery. For more photos see the "MyGallery" link.

Found the Sun!!!

2009-07-02T14:33:00.002-04:00

Like Mark Twain said about San Francisco......opps....I just found out that he did NOT author the quote... but whoever did write it, it was true until the June we just had in MA. Not very warm, in fact, cold and wet. Anyway, we are here in SF with lovely weather that includes sun!!!

Cadie Malcolm and Emiliano

2009-06-28T09:45:00.004-04:00

Today I want to figure out how to get 3 photos in a row...like in a table in regular html. Also, how to rotate an image. Not sure the blog will do it, although you can add more than one photo as you create the post.

another try at the file format for iPod touch

2009-06-21T13:46:00.003-04:00

Cadie in Heels

2009-06-18T23:22:00.002-04:00

More new things

2009-06-16T09:54:00.000-04:00

Ordered new computer, new "studio" for the year. Started cleaning my office at home and found missing items. Will the sun ever come out to warm things up? Although this is perfect light! Also bought "judithblack.me" for 5 years. Now I can learn how to separate the personal and the public personas. Watched the lettuce grow slowly, maybe.

Fijiroid instant photos

2009-06-16T09:28:00.004-04:00

Starting my next year with new things to learn

2009-06-11T18:48:00.000-04:00

An new post for a new year, wishing for new work and good times for all of us!