Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Some Thoughts on Tragedy, Gun Control, and Actionable Culture

I have not posted anything about recent events in Connecticut or the ensuing debates that have raged on in media outlets as they debate things everyone seems to have a firm grasp of, despite not agreeing.

Partly, because this is a humor publication and I didn't see anything funny for a couple days there. The other reason is that I felt rather conflicted as well. Do I believe horrible events like these can be prevented–at least in such quantity–by tighter restrictions on the availability and severity of firearms? Obviously. There would also be fewer cars if we limited the sale of gas. This is not an argument against doing so, just an obvious course of action to ameliorate the situation.

Do I believe the federal government should mandate who can own a gun? Not solely, because that legitimately could be abused if a legitimate dictatorship were established in some insane future dystopia–which I might add has in no cinematic portrayal ever used a young white guy as evil dictator, only old white men. However, as a society, we all seem to agree that the status quo of the legal and health care systems seem inadequate. So why not remove the slippery slope argument entirely?

Do it by referendum.

Hold a popular vote in every state, every county. Let the poeple of those counties, now, when their gut reactions favor the side of self-restraint and decency, decide how stringent regulations on purchasing weapons should be.

Don't make it an outright ban. Don't even let that be an option. Choose what kind of process must be gone through to acquire one. Make them pass written and safety tests. Make the innitial license conditional.

Make it harder to buy a firearm than get a driver's license.

Require a goddam psych screening for anyone looking to buy high-powered, semi-auto, or anything else used more to kill people than fauna. I really don't care. Crazed, gun-toting counties with secessionist leanings can still have all the AKs they want. I'm not worried about them blowing up their own shopping malls. The important thing is that people who want to change our society engage in that society. No one is forcing you to throw away your defenses. We're asking you to evaluate what you actually need and join the discussion.

Today I found this image on Facebook:


This is an example of being a worthless human being. "Support the troops" is a meaningless phrase invented by idiots who felt threatened in some noncorporeal way. It does nothing. Withdrawing troops supports them, but sending them to defend you is more important? Why not enlist yourself. That's certainly supporting the troop next to you. If you're not going to join their effort, act to help them.

This image? It's a "fuck you" to anyone who dissents from your opinion, yet it contributes nothing. It is less useful than spending the time it would take to read the text talking about how to help your local VFW barbecue.

And for the record, here's the original image associated with that story:



Yup, it's 100% bullshit stolen from an episode of M*A*S*H. There's your joke. So next time you 'Like' a photo on Facebook and feel like a patriot, slap yourself across the face and then donate $5 to whatever charity the nearest Vet wants.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

New York Comic Con: Saturday Photo!





Ask to pose with Scott Adsit, Scott Adsit asks to pose with you.

Life of the Doctor.

Location:11th Ave,New York,United States

Saturday, September 1, 2012

I Hope You All Know A Good Photography Major

Does anybody remember taking rolls of film to be developed at a photo hut in the mall? Or even your local Walmart or pharmacy?

Do you recall paying so much extra for double prints or trying to avoid the watchful stare of the developer, in your shared knowledge that he has already seen photos of your girlfriend naked? Even before you got to see how they came out?

I ask you this, because I realized I don't have photographs in my room. I've have art – pop art prints, a signed-and-framed movie poster, even a few original paintings. All my photos are in albums next to yearbooks and whatnot in my night stand. The last, maybe half of those are just printouts of facebook pics.

Pics. Not photos, but "pics." One or two might even have little neon hearts and dates on them, but a few are just cropped. All are on standard, bleached white printer paper.

I own photo paper, what the hell? I could make a real photograph out of any hi-res image on my drive. Why didn't I? Why don't I?

And I'm in a better predicament than most. Half of my friends don't own a printer. Several don't own a working computer. Several are without cell phones. In 2012.

And that may be the problem. It's 2012. I've seen this movie. We don't grab our digital photo frames. The kids grab their GameBoy 6GS-X's and John Cusack grabs the kids and throws them in his plane. Everything is connected, and everything is in the cloud. Hoarding physical media collections is considered an eccentricity, and I can see why. We have fewer things in physical space, just as we expand our presence out into cyberspace. There's an infinite world a half-dimension away from us, and we're just expanding laterally.

Except none of us have any faces of friends and family on our shelves.

So for everyone with adorable children on the horizon and fantastic adventures in your spyglasses, I encourage you to invest in a stack of high-gloss Kodak paper.

Either that, or make nice with your friends from high school who ended up buying $3000 Canon Rebels, because they're going to be the only ones who'll be able to hook you up with eight-by-tens or know what stop bath is.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Rejected Transsexual Transformer Photos

Being the nerd I am, I had a 20th Anniversary collector's edition Optimus Prime just lying around, so I set out to post some kind of "Does this mysteriously appearing trailor make my ass look big?" or at least a "All this energon is going to go straight to my servomotors!" joke. You know, something base and stereotypically gayish to juxtapose the seriousness of the discussion.

Well, it all just ended up one horrifyingly offensive photoshoot. Honestly, I'm a little surprised it didn't end with me smoking a cigarette on the casting couch and Optimus sobbing quietly into his unmarked bills and a rumpled sports bra in the lobby as I called him a cab.

Anyway, there were some pretty insensitive images of Optimus Prime even I thought were in bad taste. So here they are!

"Oh, you!"The coquettish legs were hard at first, but then I just couldn't get his wrist to bend without looking
just terribly limp. Sultry Jessica Rabbit poses were also impossible.

"Strike a pose!"
Jazz hands and spirit fingers were both unachievable, but worse yet one of his wrists was
loose and a limited range of motion nullified Prime's ability to properly 'Vogue.'

"Whatever. You know I look good."
Actually, this one was too heteronormative. Just looks like a very diesel Ambercrombie ad.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

On Having Daughters

I have to be honest, I'm not to psyched for the idea of having sons.

At some point, fairly quickly, they would surpass me in physicality. I'm not exactly going to be the supportive, sport-ive dad. Yeah, I could show you how to throw a football or swing a bat, but–and I have to be honest–I have no interest in doing this.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not aching to watch My Little Pony or have to buy make-up on my weekly grocery trips either. But what it comes down to is eventually, Freudianly, my sons would come to compete with me. And they would win.

Daughters don't do that. They get to be princesses or at least not usually call out their dads for being too Beta.

Yeah, about like that.
Dorarararararara.
Conversely, it's fun to screw with boys. I really, really am looking forward to messing with my daughter's dates. Firsts, proms, the idle Tuesdays. It's just fun to be imposing, even when you wouldn't normally be. It's amazing.  But I can't do that with girls. Frankly, I've seen my dad tease my brother's girlfriends and girl friends. It's just … unsettling. At best he comes off like a cliched "lecherous old man" character who may or may not just be doing it for a laugh.

So here are my ground rules for being a dad of a daughter:
  • Cell phones are not allowed into bathrooms. Likewise, nowhere in the house will there be any full-length mirrors, or mirrors which can otherwise display a person below their collarbone.
  • After age twelve, everyone empties their own personal garbage, no exceptions.
  • Dad gets to embarrass you, and he will. You will not laugh at this, but I assure you, it will always be funny.
Addendum rule: never point out if that last stipulation falls through.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Advice from NY Comic Con

1. Walking
  • Like Sand People, always ride single-file, both to hide your numbers and so people in a hurry can get around you.
    • Fat people, especially take note.
  • Hold hands to stay together, but trust that feeling the warm touch of another human is assurance enough they are still back there. Stopping and turning every six seconds is annoying to others.
    • Walking hand-in-hand, side-by-side is especially frowned upon.
      • Fat couples, really take note here.
  • As with guns, don't aim for where the open space is, aim for where it is going to be.
    • Experience playing "Frogger" helps.
  • You are going to see many interesting things. If you can help it, never stop in the path of foot traffic. Aim for a nearby corner, wall, or divider, and stay out of the way.
  • Unless they are going your way, never get stuck behind large or bulky costumes, or people in wheelchairs [or baby strollers].
    • If they are going your way, ride in their wake.
      • "Follow the Wookie" was something I never thought I'd joyously live to hear.
2. Personal Space
  • You don't have any.
  • Wear deodorant.
    • In fact, bring an extra stick. Even travel size. Maybe breath mints too.
  • Don't be the awkward old Asian man on the subway and start getting handsy with the cute girls. Most of them will take a photo with you in ridiculous poses as long as you ask. You can even touch them if you're not a creep about it. Just keep it to G-rated behavior, dude.
  • Be mindful of protruding parts of your costume.
3. Further Photo Etiquette
  • Always ask before taking a photo of someone unless they are already in the process of posing for someone else, in which case a simple head nod and smile is usually sufficient to beg a few seconds more of their time.
  • Offer your business card or email address in case they would like copies.
    • If you post photos online, credit the models where possible.
  • Compliment the costumer's performance
  • Do not take photos of a group and leave out certain members. Pull one aside and at least explain that you'd just like a special pose of said character in addition to the group shots.
  • Always thank the people when you're done.
4. Miscellaneous
  • Hitting on Booth Babes is like hitting on bartenders: don't do it while they're working or still in uniform.
    • Chat them up nicely, don't take too much of their time, offer to socialize if they have free time after they finish up and feel up for it. Do not be pushy or overeager.
  • Bring a big, empty bag. You will need it.
  • Hydrate.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Adventures in Television, Pt 2

So I got roped into working a second day for this production company in Long Island, so full details will be tomorrow. For now: more ridiculous photos!



"ICHEWAWA" This mam must have watched a lot of "Ren & Stimpy," and is a driver after my own heart.



Sleepies Sheep. Life sized too, not little. Like it was sheep sized. I don't know what number. Creepy.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Further Pictures of Big Apple Comic Con

Here's some more proof I deserve to write off my con ticket as "blog research."

"Remember me in Harold Square." I sang that in grade school chorus.
I also worked at Old Navy. Total coincidence.

"Angel" and "Drucilla." One not as good as the other, but a respectable effort.

"Anakin" and "Padme." Actually amazing costumes.
She was actually really cute, and he completely looked like a tool.

Some Dr. Who comic pages I shot for a could Who friends.

And a big ol' Doc to top that off.

Not pictured: sushi, getting lost between some weird apartment building on Madison and Grand Central because we tried to find an Auntie Ann's Pretzels, and about 1500 living personifications of The Simpsons' Comic Book Guy.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Friday Comic Con Snapshot

This joke is only really funny if you read "Civil War," but then it's hilarious.

I also have a shot of me drop-kicking his shield.

Worst fact about this picture: I bulked up for my costume, this guy wasn't even wearing pads. (But he was on "The Real World," so point me. [But he models Calvin Klein underwear, so point and set to Cap.])   

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Nineteen Profile Pictures That Need To Be Retired

The Four-Square - Have an uninteresting photo? So did Andy Worhol! Until he resized it and made prints side-by-side with different colors! Now you've got a brand new kind of crappy art all your friends will be clamoring over. Bonus points for including another person in the picture, more if it becomes impossible to tell who is who. Final bonus for having 20+ similar shots all in a row.


Anything Sepia - Half of us are barely old enough to remember how to load a roll of film into a non-digital camera, let alone have decades-aged photos lying around. For that matter, those photos weren't designed to be that color, the faded from a better version. To put this on your wall says, "I have neither smarts nor class, but I'm pretty sure this fakes both pretty well." Congratulations, you've cemented yuppie photography as an enduring art form.

The "Up, Up and Away!" (Sideways) - This image can be said to do nothing more than confuse the eye. It's a bird's eye, at an angle, rotated such that gravity is pointing to one of the image's corners. This allows for increasing visual cleavage, decreasing belly rolls, thinning the hips, hiding the jowls, augmenting height and can even be combined with any other digital effect on this list for the most intelligence-insulting images imaginable.


The Baby Picture - We get it, not only were you cute once, but you've just had the stunning realization that you have to grow up and be an adult now, fully culpable for all her own screw-ups. Also, you seem to think your childhood was so much better than your life now, but you know what? You can drive now. You can feed yourself and get up to poop all on your own. You can open a credit card and rent seasons of Firefly off the Netflix. Unless someone close to you in the photo has died and it is the anniversary week of his happening, I don't want to see your dad's skinny man-legs in '80s cutoff shorts.

The Tagger - It's one image, posted 837,000 times by 837,000 people. Half the time it is unsolicited and reposted simply because people who weren't included in the image felt let down and did it all over themselves, slighting the people who slighted them with tags like, "the little slut," or, "the ditzy one."






The Eyeball - "My Best Feature" might be more accurate, but 'The Eyeball' has broader recognition for everyone. A single shot of somebody's sense organ, eye, nose, mouth, ear, even random body parts like a shin bone. Someone snapped a picture they thought would look "artsy," hit soft focus and called it a night. We're tired of looking not at a picture of you, but rather some weird selection of part of you from which we're supposed to infer meaning other than,"I'm apparently friends with an artistic plebeian."

The Beach-Bound Attention Whore - Seriously, this exact posed is utilized in a rather well known internet meme simply titled "ATTENTION WHORE." The very fact that searching for a real-life counterpart to this image through actual Facebook profiles yielded three different women and a dozen or so attempts at a handstand is nothing short of horrifying. This particular image is a particularly striking doppelganger to the original, the only difference being I believe the attention whore in the original was wearing a red bikini. Also, it read, "LOOK AT ME I'M AN ATTENTION WHORE!" But you're all whores.


The Overly Hopeful Celebrity Look-Alike - I don't want anyone to think I'm leaving the men off this list. Frankly, if every redhead on the net wasn't tagging herself in pictures of Scarlett Johansson, men would be the primary perpetrators of this face-crime. I'm light skinned with dark hair and a goatee. Do you see me tagging myself in pictured of Johnny Depp? No. Why? Because I don't fucking look like Johnny Depp. My jaw isn't sharp enough, my hair is too wavy and I refuse to wear black-rimmed glasses and a tiny fedora. (Rimless glasses and a full size, sure.) The point is you do not look like any of the celebrities who are often only famous for being good-looking. Stop it. This is hurting your chances with the ladies by making them think of all the differences between you and more sexified celebs. If you wanna score, through up a picture of Seth Rogan pre-weight loss. Make the ladies realize you are more attractive than someone famous!

Lemon Face Mmmn!! - Lion Face Arrrr! Also called the "superpucker," this does about as much to turn guys off of super-fine ladies as the overachieving celebrity profiles hinder decent looking men. Ladies, you have lovely lips. I can guarantee you that some time this week a guy will want to make kisses with. It's just nature. However, every time you make that ridiculous kissy face in photos we respect you a little less, and not in a good way. We just want you to look nice for us. It's simple of us, but it shows that you take pride in your appearance and that you take pride when we perceive you positively. Moreover, it gives us something to look at in our "alone time."

The "Photoshopped Beyond All Recognition" - Jebus Christy, what the hell were you thinking!? Was this one not even worth trying the Four Square on? Did you just say, "Oh, it's completely out of focus, but I can't bring myself to hit the DELETE key?" You had to save it anyway and play with it so much in Photoshop that it lost all semblance of an image of a human being? Picasso, for Pete's sake, would see one of these and tell you that it resembles only the mad watercolorings of a deranged impressionist grappling with his own hang-ups about breaking classical rules of shape and contour. Also, he'd tell you they weren't very good watercolors.

The Over-Captioned - This is a minor infraction spun out of control. Like lax enforcement of jaywalking or litter laws. First there's the main image, then someone plays with the brightness because it was shot at night at a party. Then it gets forgotten about for months and posted only on a fairly arbitrary month-iversary, tagged with a date, the original time stamp, a title card in curly-cue font and a message of love. Sometimes, the guy will have died of cancer or a car crash and "R.I.P." will be added next to a diminutive of his name, like Rickie of Robby or Johnny. Maybe there'll be glitter.

The Somebody Else's Baby - This profile says, "I have replaced my own desire for having children at a young age with babysitting for the same families for twelve years." Either that or, "My friends and family are all incredibly fertile sluts, but at least I get to play with one of these without spitting it out of my own happy-hole."
Odds are it'll also scare away any guys you are or will potentially be dating. Why? Because our biological clocks tick down to 'power usurped by younger, stronger males.' Not 'baby o'clock.'


The "Money Shot" - It's like Lemon Face gone awry. Why would you do this to yourself, girls? Why are you teasing us with this image and, more importantly, why are you putting twelve of them up at a time for everyone and your grandma to see? I could maybe understand it if you were doing the angry face tongue, or throwing up metal hands at the same time, but no. No, you're always smiling away and rolling out the red carpet to your esophagus like you love it and goddamit you know damned well you never act like you like it when we suggest it so why? Just why?

The Open Invitation/The Open For Business - What did I just get finished explaining to you?!







The Negative - This is either a mediocre picture made increasingly disturbing or a moderately whorey picture made fappable through inversion of color and reduction of the mind's ability to discern all the gross parts of you.





The Digital Polaroid - What? (Often combined with Sepia, Captioning and Beach Whoring.)










High Contrast Harlotry - Turn up that contrast, turn up that tan! Make your bleach-job look blonder, those intimately stained tank tops brighter! Hide your face under some insect-eye Prada sunglasses and a ventilated trucker hat and no one will know that's you showing off her underwear through the bottoms of her cut-off jorts! Sunny day? Even better! Now every item in your room that wasn't already black or white fades demurely into the background to allow for near-total anonymity, perfect for when all those pictures you're posing for and sending to your boyfriend up at school get passed around the internet like a bad case of gonorrheal Windows Vista.

Feet In the Sand - I'm tired of seeing your feet in the sand. I know I've said this a hundred times, yes, women are disproportionately angry at their feet the more attractive they are. It's something she can fixate on because feet really are just plain weird looking things. However, feet do look weird and I don't want to look at them either. There's nothing artsy about feet in the sand. Even the Christians have a poem and associated photograph about footprints in the sand. I think it's called "Footprints in the Sand." This is not a great accomplishment for anyone. More annoyingly, the types of girls who are fine with how their feet look generally have far greater issues with themselves to pick at. I don't need to be seeing your false bravado. I need to be seeing either good beach art or bad art of you at the beach in a bathing suit. Either way, everybody wins.

Your Farmville Photos - The worst offender of all. I really need to see what your farm looks like. Or what you look like on your farm. Or what a frigging pig looks like on your farm. It's not even restricted to Farmville, anymore. Tons of games are adding inane photo albums, which pisses me off. And you know what? This shouldn't even need an explanation. I don't look at pictures of farms in my spare time, and I don't play very many video games. The times I do play video games it's for entertainment and escapism. I don't need to be spending all my free time down at a fake farm growing nothing and earning nothing for all my efforts. If I really wanted to milk a cow, you know what I would do? I'd go out and find a real fucking cow and milk the fucking shit out of it. That cow would be like, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT YEAH, THAT'S A MILKING, ALRIGHT!!!" and then I'd pasteurize the milk myself and drink it with fucking cookies because I earned a real, tangible fucking reward after all that work.

*All images have been utterly stolen without permission (the fun kind of stealing) from people on Facebook and then altered to protect those guilty of these Facebook Infractions. In order to browse photos I had to keep it within a few degrees of separation from my own friends and have already been informed I circuitously snagged one person's photo, but her big sister said she shouldn't mind because it was funny. If I have used your picture and you do not think it was funny, please contact me directly a dzucker1@gmail.com and I shall remove your photo and replace it with something much more offensive.