karl.tsakos.us/blog

Yes, I did it. Something for which I know some will look down upon me and for which I make no apologies. I went to the 2009 New York Comicon at the Jacob Javits convention center in Manhattan. An event which in four short years has grown to become the second largest comic convention after San Diego. And, a large convention it was. I have been to Jacob Javits before to attend other conventions including Mac World (while they were still held in New York). This convention was as large as I recall Mac World being. For comparison, at the same time as Comicon, the New York Times Travel Show was being held in a hall almost half the size as the Comicon’s.

The Comicon is a place first and for most for comic book collectors and fans. It is an opportunity to meet some of their favorite authors and writers from the genre. From the elderly statesmen who helped mold comics into the widely appreciated art form it has become to the independent writers and publishers of today. There is a giant section of the hall dedicated to the artists where the loyal can try to commission drawings of their favorite characters from their favorite artists. I would have said, “where they can commission,” but due to the sheer number of attendees, the artists were backlogged by the second day. That didn’t stop them from chatting with their fans or autographing a drawing or book.

Among my favorite autographs was one my friend Jim received. Jim brought the cover from the DVD for the movie Mystery Men based on the comic by Bob Burden. Even though the movie was live action, Bob signed the front cover. He then proceeded to flip the paper over and, while balancing the paper on the edge of a box, drew the head of Casanova Frankenstein, the villain from the books and movie. He then handed it back to Jim saying, “secret drawing,” because of course you’ll never see it unless you take the cover out of the DVD’s case.

Other attractions included acre upon acre of comic book sellers where you could buy everything from one dollar back issues of your favorite series to tens of thousands of dollar collectables. They also sold paraphernalia including figurines, games, and costumes.

There were other attractions such as the video game companies which occupied almost half the floor. I didn’t really spend much time in that area. There were also celebrities from the television and film industries. Although I didn’t see him, Joss Whedon was there. I did see Lou Ferrigno and Marina Sirtis who were there to sign autographs.

Other then meeting your comic and occasional film idols, the draw was the community. As with any gathering of fans, you had a great sense of fellowship despite the thousands of people on hand. You could stop anyone and strike up a conversation and have a common background from which to proceed.

That wasn’t the case for me. To be honest, I’ve never been a very big comic book fan. I’ve read a few in my time and enjoyed them. My friends often will recommend something I should read and I do and I enjoy it. But, I never seem to go and seek out new material on my own. I could name maybe four or five comic artists or authors and that’s it. More exposure than many, much less than the real fans.

So why did I go? Three reasons really. First, Jim invited me. Second, Having never been to such a convention I thought it would be fun. And third, and most importantly, for the fans. And what I mean by that is the fans who like to go dressed in costume.

It’s not like you think. These people aren’t crazy. These people are showing their devotion to their favorite pastime. They are sharing their favorite fantasies with the other attendees. There is a knowledge of what they are doing and that it’s silly and funny at times. Ultimately, they are doing it because it’s fun.

I thought it would be a great photographic opportunity to go and get some shots of people in costume and I wasn’t mistaken. There was everything from the serious, to the ridiculous, to the sexy. You can see the photos I took at the convention and see what I mean. Enjoy.

Just a few last minute items to wrap up 2008. An overall good year. As with all years, it has had its ups and downs. I won’t dwell on the downs, at least I won’t air them publicly. But there have been some pretty good ups as well. I purchased my first house in 2008. And the good news, no buyer’s remorse. It needed work when I got it and I knew that going in. Actually, it’s better then I had expected.

I haven’t forgotten about my goal from my last entry, to run in a 5 K race around the time of my birthday. I looked around a little on the interweb and can’t find anything that month in the area. Still, I’m looking and will be consulting with some runner’s I know to see if they can help me find something. In the mean time, I continue to run to reach my goal of being able to run a 5 K by early February. Today I ran in the snow, the only one out there, which is unusual. I quite enjoyed parts of running in the snow. There were parts I didn’t like, such as the icy snow blowing in my eyes. Still, it was an overall enjoyable experience. Also, I changed up my running as I said I would. Five minutes walking, twelve minutes running, three minutes walking, twelve minutes running, then walk home from wherever I am (approximately five minutes).

I also continued with my goal of taking advantage of the proximity of Manhattan and went in last Monday to see some exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I went in with Jim and Danielle who then took me to a restaurant they like followed by a visit to the NBA Store. Not only is Manhattan busy and crowded at this time of year, but the mid-town stores are doubly so. After that, we walked to Rockefeller Center to see the christmas decorations.

I was amazed by the sheer number of people who were there. I figured a few days after Christmas and the crowds would have diminished. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Before even entering the walkway to the skating rink the sidewalk was too crowded to move. I took two minutes to cross from one side of the sidewalk to the other if you were going against the flow of people. It was astounding. Of course, while the decorations were smaller then they appeared when I was a child, they were still impressive and really shouted out, “Christmas!”

I was there for two reasons, on was just to see the display and enjoy the season. The other was to take some photos. You can see the results in the photo section of this website. It was a bit challenging to get a good shot for several reasons. First, it was night and everything was lit by flood lights. Second, the large numbers of people meant you were often getting jostled. That combined with reason three, there was no way to position yourself to take any of the iconic shots of the center. I found myself taking advantage of my stabilizing lens (purchased this year) and ability to review the shots I just took thanks to my camera being a digital SLR. Many of the shots I took were taken blind with me holding the camera at full arms length above my head and snapping away. Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite pleased with the results and you will be too.

That’s it for now. Here’s wishing you a very happy and healthy New Year.

I have added two new photo galleries to my website. They include a trip to grand central station and a trip to Lake Minewaska State Park. View and enjoy.

2008 Photos.

Where to begin? Well, let me start at the origins of this tale…

I finally decided to sign up for a Twitter account. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/ktsakos. I signed up because I wanted to follow a few of the pundits I hear talking about it on some of my favorite podcasts. Twitter in itself is kind of amazing. It allows you to post what are basically micro blogs. Anything you post must be 140 characters or less. There are numerous applications which allow you to access it directly and also track the people whose twits you are watching. It’s a fascinating way to see what is going on around the world with the people who interest you (and who twitter).

Oddly, Twitter is not the subject of this entry. It is in fact a site called Flickrvision. Now we all have heard of Flickr (no, it’s not a typo, it’s the cool web 2.0 way of dropping the ‘e’ in site names) which is a social networking site oriented around photography. I myself have always been a person who wanted to post my images myself on my own site. This feeling is changing after finding Flickrvision.

Filckrvision combines two web sites for an amazing experience. It basically watches the recent post feed from Flickr and then looks at the location of the poster. It then uses an API (programing interface) for Google Maps to pinpoint those poster’s locations. Then it shows you the picture as in reference to the location.

Wow Karl, that’s really neat. Well yes, it actually is. It is updated every couple of seconds. So you are quickly transported across the globe from the southern US where there is a picture of a large dog following a smaller dog to China where you see a young girl walking down a dirt road in a small village. Then to France where two ladies are talking in a cafe (what else would you expect in France). And then it’s up the former Eastern Block states where there are several twenty somethings reading a bulletin board in a boring blue hallway.

The point is it is in incredibly captivating. We’ve all seen those books that chronicle a city or country photographically for a 24 hour period. This is the entire world in real time. Just staggeringly amazing. If you want to see how important you are and give yourself a sense of proportion, then watch Flickrvision for 5 minutes. It has a similar effect to the Total Perspective Vortex except on a global scale, not universal. And yet, it doesn’t have the effect of turning your mind to mush.

For me, it is a moving experience to see a quick, voyeuristic glimpse into all these people’s lives. A glimpse, I might add, that they invited us to take. Since Flickr uses open source licensing, everything posted there is free for use as long as it isn’t for commercial gain.

I highly recommend you take a look. I think you will stay for a while.

Oh, you may be wondering why I started with the whole conversation about Twitter at the beginning there. Quite simple really. David Troy, the same guy who created Flickrvision also created Twittervision which does the same thing with tweets.

Welcome to the the wonderful world of blogging. No, I’m not talking to you… No, not you… Yes, you, the friend who just started their first blog (The Telepathic Unicycle). Their identity is to remain a mystery, allowing for anonymous posting of anything they desire to talk about. I think I would find that difficult on a blog named after me. Or perhaps it’s just a pseudonym! Really, who ever heard of a half German, half Greek name? It makes no sense! Only a deranged mind would put those two names together and call themselves by it. Madness.

In other news, I haven’t been too active on the photography scene lately. I will say that I am getting inspired again by reading Ken Rockwell’s blog. More technical than most photo sites, he reviews lots of equipment I lust after and may even purchase some of. He takes a lot of dusk and evening photos. I am becoming inspired to try some myself.

I’m also getting the urge to start taking portraits. I took some of my friend Christian last summer for his website and had a great deal of fun. More recently I took some head-shots for another friend for acting. Again a whole lot of fun and the end result of photographing people has a great satisfaction. It’s different and in no way superior to photographing landscapes. It is however something I would like to continue exploring.

Perhaps I will buy that lens Ken Rockwell recommends and see what happens.

So, If you were thinking you would find a big change here visually (if you somehow stumbled upon this site) then you will be disappointed. I haven’t had the time to research themes for designing my own.

So it appears I lied about the rapid change of the look of this site. I guess it is safe to say it will change as it changes.I have however been experimenting with the gallery plugin I added.

In doing so I have added a gallery of the trip I took to Acadia National Park last June. It is the first addition of many galleries I will be adding.