Thursday, October 6, 2011

Favorite Pic of the Day for October 7th


Another incredible shot by Manuscript Photography.
-Check back tomorrow for more-

Happy Birthday today October 7th


Shawn & Aaron Ashmore turn 32 today.

Just Because: Rain



Like many kids Rain once meant jumping in puddles, using toy shoves to manipulate mud and the curiosity about why all the worms were on the sidewalk when the rain ended. Playing in the rain, spinning, getting soaked was just fun. Rain rarely ruined plans, you did whatever anyway, it was actually sort of magical.

Today, as the rain poured down for the 5th day in a row and I hydroplaned numerous times on the highway home, narrowly missing a guard rail at one point, I thought 'Fuck Rain!' Kind of like finding out there wasn't a Santa Clause...the magic...is gone.

All good things......................................

Glee: American A-

Asian F

Asian F is getting a lot of positive buzz today and for good reason. Arguably one of the shows best episodes in a long time, the show finally delivered this season on Ryan Murphy's promise to focus on character development, especially on some the shows tragically underused talent. Although Mercedes did not get the part of Maria in West Side Story, Amber Riley finally took on the role of female lead for an episode. Riley was incredible but the writers somehow felt the need to trash her character in order to spotlight it. I could be wrong but I don't remember even a hint of anything in the past to indicate Mercedes was not a hard worker or lazy. Making the 'big' girl fat and lazy was a little lazy on behalf of the writers. I will move quickly past it though as it pushed the story to a place Amber could shine. I moan in almost every Glee post the loss of Chord Overstreet, but every scene with Mercedes new boyfriend makes his absence that much sadder.



Jayma Mays and Emma have always been a favorite of mine and for two years besides a couple of moments in season one the character has almost not existed on the Glee Canvas. I hope this week marks the end of this. Ginger Supremacists, brilliant, Mays painful reaction to them, priceless! The only downfall to Emma's storyline is that lately Will has been written as such an ass their finally coming together has lost some of the payoff it might have had.

Boy Boy Crazy Boy!


Obviously the MVP of Asian F is Harry Shum Jr. I have LOVED Harry since I first saw him in Preggars and featured a profile of Harry shortly after. We all knew he could dance and finally the show allowed him to shine. It is a testament to good writing (Ian Brennan) and directing (Alfonso Gomez-Rejón) that a long term character can surprise. Harry's venerability was not out of character, yet, a complete surprise. Kudos for finally giving someone other than Kurt and Finn, conflict with a parent. It is as much apart of high school as cheer leading and Glee club.



Now... Glee just has that same pesky problem that it often encounters, following up brilliance with crap. There is a reason people (like moi) who love this show are so critical. The show is off the schedule for three weeks so we will see if the November return brings more Asian F's or more countless scenes of Rachel and Kurt belting Barbara...

Below: Harry Shum Jr. photographed for DAMAN magazine by Mitchell Nguyen McCormack.

P.S: If Darren Criss is off making a movie, write Blaine off visiting a relative, even though I love and would have missed him, his obvious pre-shot scenes were too obvious and for me kept halting the flow.

Urban Decay by Mike Ross Pix


One of the many perks of working on FH is learning about and getting to know people and places in the world through art. Whether I intend to or not, when I profile an artist I usually end up, through their images getting to know about not just their technique and intent but as well a bit about their culture and of course location.


Artist Mike Ross lives and works in Amsterdam. Amsterdam is located in Noord-Holland, Netherlands. Noord (North) Holland is located on the North Sea in the North West part of the country. For many reasons Mike's work has similarities to many of the artists whose work I admire from the North West part of America. I think some of it may be location and weather but there are color tones and almost a damp feel I associate with the North West.


Now I know that the North West of the US, like Holland, have beautiful warm sunny days, beautiful beaches and spectacular architecture. Somehow however, it often seems the photographers in these area, especially ones who focus on exterior location work are drawn to area's with more character. Beaches are incredible, but really if there was ever an overused location for the male form it would be the beach.


When you think of character you think of experienced, worn and usually old. There is something beautiful about setting something young, alive and vibrant somewhere old and dying. There is a mutual exchange of energy giving the a bit of character to the young and a bit of life to the decaying location.


In my recent profile of Gregory Lindeblom's work body and architecture are one and the same. With Mike Ross' pix, the architecture acts as a womb for the body, surrounding it providing it warm, energy and in some ways, protection from the elements slowly destroying it.


'All these images have and tell their own story. Some just because it was a first off for the Model (or me) and some because of the location and fun and sometimes stress we had to get the picture. Not all locations are private and accommodated a relaxed atmosphere where we peacefully and quietly could do the work. We sometimes we had to hit and run to get it done and get ourselves out of there.'
Mike Ross


Check out much more of the work of Mike Ross:
His Official Website HERE: