EFIT: 17 November

Julie and I hadn't done an EFIT in two years, so she pinged me about a weekend one. Needless to say, I was looking forward to it. Here are mine:

10:01 - I woke up to my alarm (a custom Lullatone ringtone), and found Kazu hanging out with me.

11:37 - I was very flustered at this point, because an MTA worker led me astray and I ended up waiting 20 minutes for a train that never came. I zoomed out of the station and, panting, hailed a cab to take me to my (now late) meetup with Laura.

12:20 - Coffee and lots of talking with Laura to start the day.

13:16 - Member previews at the MoMA for the new avant garde Tokyo exhibit. My favorite pieces were by Nakanishai Natauyuki, and Akasegawa Genpei. I may write about them later. We were both terrified by an alien egg larvae type thing in a baby carriage installation. Complete with flickering lights.

14:11 - A postcard in the MoMA store that showed a horse galloping as you moved it from side to side. Boy did I want that thing.

15:42 - Laura had a violent and inexplicable tomato craving, so we took a train downtown to have bloody Marys and split a burger with ketchup. Delicious.

16:42 - We wandered around a little afterward, and came upon a window display at the New Museum - a popup tattoo studio.

17:42 - I spent the next few hours putting together a care package for a friend; this hour involved pretending I knew how to sew.

18:18 - More work on the package, this time moving onto envelopes and washi tape.

19:18 - I stitched together a bunch of songs into a single-track playlist falling under a theme that I can only describe as iceland-pony.

20:30 - I never drink water; I can't stand the stuff. I keep making myself drink glasses of it, though. This was while getting ready to go out.

21:51 - My good friend Jack had a small gathering at one of my favorite bars in Brooklyn for his birthday. This filter came out pretty amazing, which is a good thing because this photo (and the next) were originally pitch black.

22:39 - Birthday shots, I think they were Jameson. Oh boy. At least it wasn't as cold outside (at least, to me) by the time I left.

One thing I screwed up on was: I was so frazzled during the 11AM and 12PM slots that I completely forgot to take photos. I was horrified, and went back to the scene of each hour, and staged exactly what I was doing at those times. So I drank two lattes that day, and chased two taxis.

It was interesting to do this along with Project 366, and to think about whether there were going to be photo overlaps. Answer: no. Here is my Project 366 picture from the day:

There was a huge numbered wall with little descriptions on it, and an adjacent wall with numbered photos to match them, outside of the TOKYO exhibit. That one was my favorite.

I did an EFIT a few days later for Laura, so expect a post on that soon!

EFIT in Montana

A few weeks ago, I went to a completely foreign place: Montana. I had never seen snow or mountains like that up close before; it was a completely surreal and dreamlike weekend for me. The inverted-V rooftops of the ski lodges and pine trees strung with silver lights and caked with snow made everything feel like a gingerbread neighborhood.

One of the days I was there, I did an EFIT for Julie. Those of you who have been around for a while know I do these every now and then. A combination of no-Internet (none) and a shoddy memory made my email to her about doing a joint EFIT float into the ether rather than getting to her. So here are my photos. I was worried about them all being only of snow, but I managed to get a little variety in there.

10.30am - I was convinced me to go snowmobiling. The moment we got out of the car at the rental place, 3 dogs walked over to us, curious. This one had the most piercing blue eyes I had ever seen. Like water in the Blue Grotto.


11.33am - On my snowmobile. I tried to pretend I was Beatrix Kiddo the entire time so I wouldn't be paralyzed by terror. The narrow trail up the mountain through forests had a probably 60° drop on one side.



12.23pm - In a meadow thing on a mountain - our first destination. Completely silencing.


1.09pm - In a rented snowsuit and helmet. Those guys know how to dress for the weather, yeesh. I wasn't cold the entire afternoon, and it was about 6°F that day (colder than I've ever exprienced).


2.04pm - Taking a break.


3.30pm - Back at square one, 50 miles later. A note about snowmobiling - I had no idea what a snowmobile even was until I looked it up on Wikipedia (most of my life was spent in tropical places). If you've never been before and you want to try it, there is a section of the article called "Accidents and Safety" - don't read it. I made that mistake and was petrified for the first half of the trip. But then by the end I was having a blast. So much so that I almost flew off the thing from going too fast over a hill on the way back. Another note: You will not be able to move the next day. From my triceps all the way to my sides and quads, this thing used just about every muscle to steer.


4.07pm - Another tip for anyone who may go snowmobiling for the first time: Eat beforehand. We were all so starving by this point that we had dinner at 4 o'clock on the afternoon. This was at one of the half dozen restaurants in the area - a motorcycle-themed place called Choppers. I had a burger, onion rings and Guinness. Perfect.


5.24pm - This huge thing was on our way out.


6.03pm - Just before the hottest shower ever. Mister Toky's midi keyboard, Nooka, and loose change.


7.40pm - Writing a letter to Julie about Montana.


9.00pm - Here is where I was one minute too late to get an 8pm photo. Rats. This is Mister Toky's computer; he was playing this amazing computer game that was like Doom but took place in an underwater city with zombie-like guys walking everywhere.


9.32pm - On our way to have a snack (still hungry) and drink. Most of the little trees in the resort were lit up and covered with snow like this.


10.50pm - If anybody has any idea what this is, let me know. I looked up at my table and was met with this dude; pretty disarming.


The first half of those pictures were taken with my phone, since taking a camera on a snowmobile is pretty useless. The second half were with the Nikon. Quite a different EFIT than the ones I'm used to doing. This was a pretty amazing trip; I'd go back. And maybe do the same thing again ^^

EFIT for April 2nd

I was overjoyed to get a message from my friend Julie on Thursday afternoon with the subject "Last minute EFIT?" We did our 5th long-distance one the next day (Friday, April 2nd).

For those who don't know – and there's surprisingly little on the Internet about it – EFIT stands for Ett foto i timmen, which is Swedish for (loosely) one photo an hour. I think typically it's a one-person project, but we like to do them together and share how we each see the world on an average day. I've never done one during a work day because I always feared the pictures would end up boring, but it was actually really fun.

10.23


11.53


12.45p


1.10p


2.42p


3.22p


4.35p


5.25p


6.32p


7.38p


8.09p


9.56p


10.26p


In the past, I've posted some of Julie's photos as well, but I always feel weird about uploading pictures other people have taken onto any web space of my own. Like I'm not supposed to or something. Trust me: they were great.

Quebec / New York EFIT

Two days ago, my friend Julie and I did an EFIT (stands for ett foto i timmen, which is Swedish for a photo per hour) with our D40s. We settled on 10am-10pm on a Sunday (to ensure that every picture wouldn't be of a computer screen). It was incredibly fun, especially since I knew that someone else was being as mindful of the time as I was for the day (and approximately at the same moments). Here are three of Julie's:


1.21pm

2.02pm

3.30pm
And three of mine:


11.42am

6.20pm

10.06pm
Another thing I liked about this project was that it made me more productive. I don't remember who told me once that going to (or doing) something – even if one just feels like being lazy – always ends up being worth it. Well, they were right. I was feeling extremely lethargic on Sunday, but rather than risk every picture being of the same thing in my apartment (and just taken from a different angle), I made myself go out and do stuff. And it was worth it. I got my bike tuned up, took a walk, made a few pots of tea and went to a music performance.

I just went back and looked at all of our pictures to see if we were ever in photograph unison (I even made sure that we were in the same time zone (I idiotically didn't know)). And we were in unison, once! 10.00am.



And a close 2nd – Julie at 7.29pm and me at 7.27pm:



We both intend to do another one of these soon. Try it out! (It's not required to be with two people, we just made it that way) See how /if it changes your behavior and how you see things.