The Dark Knight

There are tons of reviews for Batman: Arkham Asylum out there from people way better equipped than me with writing talent and video game insight. The only thing I could add as an almost fanatical devotee of The Dark Knight (not just that latest movie), is that this is the first Xbox 360 game I have completed to 100%. The truly amazing part is that getting to 100% wasn’t a chore. Almost all of the Riddler collectibles and other achievements could be completed with just some common sense and a little skill. I never felt like I didn’t have enough information to solve any puzzle put before me… but never felt like the game thought I was in idiot.

The challenge room achievements took a bit more work, but they’re called challenge rooms, right? And that’s the bottom line on the game: the challenging parts were challenging, but not impossible making for a deep, engaging, atmospherically spot on experience.

Many other people have voiced their disappointment with the ending, so I won’t bother adding to that pile. (It wasn’t very good.) One thing I didn’t hear complaints about was Harlee Quinn’s redesign. I, personally, wasn’t a fan. But these are small complaints against an overall fantastic game.

Anyway, I should remember that somewhere out there, there are people who love Batman as much as I do. Thanks!

Yes, that’s an oversimplification and the law isn’t quite so cut and dry unless the work is registered with the government (still not 100%), but that would have been all the information needed to cover the uses outlined in that post.

When I wrote that first post, there were plenty of funny examples of my works finding their way into company’s and people’s commercial uses. I wasn’t trying to be mean spirited about the whole thing, it was more of a humorous take on unauthorized appropriation for small commercial endeavors… but what happens when it’s not a small or humorous commercial endeavor?

That was just the case when I woke up this past Sunday morning and during my normal morning routine, watched a heart wrenching video about Tainted Meat on the New York Times website. At the very beginning of the piece was this photo:

I immediately recognized it. I’d taken that photo of a garden gnome in an old lady’s front yard while in California last year… but I honestly couldn’t believe that the Times could have overlooked getting authorization of this photo I’d made available for personal use on mybestdesktops.com.

I so couldn’t believe it, that I didn’t even double-check the photo until the following day when I overlaid the Times crop over my original.

There was no question. That was my photograph in a New York Times video piece! I immediately, checked with my photographer, photo editor, illustrator friends and a copyright lawyer on the best course of action. Some were more official or threatening than others… but I thought the best thing would be to call the producer of the piece… this must have been an unfortunate oversight.

To make a long story short, dealing with the folks at the Times was a pleasure and action was taken swiftly to correct the problem. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the work they do and can completely understand how this sort of error could occur.

In the end, I got credited just below Pulitzer prize winning photographer Damon Winter… and the story has really gotten a big response that could turn into positive change in the meat industry.

I should remember to keep shooting… this could be going somewhere.

Safe Haven Irish Music Session

Every Wednesday a group of talented traditional Irish musicians gather at a small bar in South Park Slope. I’ve always had some strange attachment to Ireland. It may just be due to my name and its ties to the country, but nevertheless Ireland has always interested me.

Anyway, when I was asked to photograph a session at Safe Haven, I jumped at the chance just for the fun of it. Thankfully the photos came out well in my opinion. It may be due to the Irish whiskey Noel kept pouring me throughout the night… or maybe just the fantastic vibe that evening.

I should remember to swing back by Safe Haven one of these Wednesdays.

PatrickBennettPhotography.com

Whipped up a new site just for travel photography. Visit PatrickBennettPhotography.com to view the just the best stuff.

Finished another photo… Hmm… Need to keep trying.

Walking in the Atlas

Back from a month in Morocco largely spent trekking across the High Atlas Mountains, there’s one question people keep asking: “Was it what you expected?” What I expected? I had no expectations since I’d never done anything like this before. I simply couldn’t imagine what it would be like.

Physically, it started out demanding. Quickly became extremely demanding. Then settled into a rhythm of continuous challenges that began to feel easier only due to their consistency. Somehow when a day was ending and you imagined there was no way you’d be able to go on, the following day you would do just that.

Walking

Visually, the mountains were truly stunning. Everyday we would find ourselves dwarfed by the most ruggedly gorgeous vistas. Interestingly enough, the 3 major climbs on the trip (Jebel Mgoun (13,356 ft), Jebel Anghomar (11,837ft), and Jebel Toubkal (13,671 ft)) revealed the least inspirational images. Not to say that seeing for miles over the High Atlas wasn’t inspiring, just that there were more varied, interesting things to see walking the valleys and high passes.

Berber Girl

In the end, however, it was the people of Morocco that really made the trip an extraordinary experience. Passing through the nomadic and semi-nomadic berber villages that hadn’t really changed in thousands of years, being accosted by inquisitive village children, spending time hanging out with our berber muleteers smoking Marquis, eating lunch at Young Mohammed’s house, taking time out from doing my laundry to challenging some village kids to a game of “king of the rock” in a cold river, celebrating my birthday at a gite with an improvised chocolate/mint cake… these all made the trip the truly amazing experience it turned out to be.

On a side note, my new gear performed flawlessly! The boots alone were lifesavers that earned me the distinction of the only member of our group without hideously blistered feet. Additionally, I used every single piece of equipment I brought. Even my Adventure Medical Kit.

I should do my absolute best to remember as much of this time as possible… hopefully some of the thousands of photos I took and placed in a Morocco Photoset on Flickr will help.

Muddy with some nice new dings

Grabbed some pants from Patagonia yesterday, hopped on the motorcycle and rode up a bit past Bear Mountain to Mount Beacon Park. After a roughly 10 mile hike and some gorgeous views, the verdict was that the boots and socks worked great. (Only 1 small blister.) The synthetic shirt dried quickly after getting completely drenched in a downpour and the pack kept mostly dry. Only loser was the new pants that stayed wet for the remainder of the hike. Still, nice to be completely alone up here:

Mount Beacon Top

Oh well… I should remember to get out again today…

My biggest fear (today anyway) is that I’ll be ill-equipped for the trek and get something painfully gross like black toe where I start bleeding out of my feet and losing toe nails… or something worse. With that in the back of my mind, I began the process of researching gear and equipping myself as quickly as possible in order to have time to test everything out before I find myself cold and broken in some desolate landscape with Arabs speaking French.

The first thing I noticed when I began to outfit myself is that there’s no getting around looking like a stereotypical hiker. It was hard to do, but after enough looks from store employees after I asked for an item that “looked cooler” or had “less straps”, I resigned myself to the idea of function over form.

Anyway, here are the spoils of an afternoon spent visiting Patagonia, EMS, and Paragon:

Round 1 Trek Equipment

1. SCARPA Men’s SL M3 Backpacking Boots: I am not messing around with my feet. These seem to be top of the line.
2. Marmot Precip Jacket: I don’t expect much rain next to the Sahara, so I didn’t go wild on a hardshell waterproof layer.
3. Marmot PreCip Pant: I really hope it doesn’t rain…
4. Marmot Afterburner Jacket: Yes, this is my first fleece article of clothing ever, BUT it’s name is “Afterburner”, so that makes it automatically cool.
5. Pearl Izumi Grip-Lite Glove: I’m a little worried these won’t be warm enough when we start getting to altitude…
6. Patagonia Men’s Active Brief: If I have to walk 8 hours a day wearing the same underwear over and over, these things better be made with magic and rainbows.
7. Eagle Creek Undercover Leg Stash: How cool is this thing? Top secret document storage. (I wanted it in black, but oh well…)
8. NALGENE 32-Oz. Wide Mouth Tritan Bottle: Yeah… I needed a water bottle… I still need another one, but “testing” out the Nalgene first.
9. SMARTWOOL PhD Outdoor Light Crew Socks: They were out of medium thickness, so I’m testing out light. Still need to buy 3 or 4 more pairs if they work out.
10. NIKWAX Footwear Conditioner: To help break in the boots with the added benefit of waterproofing.
11. Casio Men’s Solar Atomic Pathfinder Multi-Band Watch: I can’t go to the wilderness without a cool gadget or two. This thing does temperature, barometer, altitude, digital compass and more.
12. CAMELBAK Omega 70 Reservoir: A bit of an impulse purchase based on a recommendation from the guy helping me at EMS. The idea of riding a camel with a Camelback does appeal to me, though…
13. OSPREY Talon 33 Pack: This was one of the most difficult purchases and the one where I truly resigned myself to function over form. It does have a pretty evil looking, skeleton bird logo, so that’s cool.
14. OUTDOOR RESEARCH Helios Sun Hat: “SolarShield™ fabric provides UPF 50+ sun protection”… so I assume that’s good.
15. Adventure Medical Trail Easy Care Kit: Only rated 1-3 days… no problem!
16. Black Diamond Contour Elliptic Shock Trekking Pole: I always thought walking sticks were for old people, but everyone I talked to assured me I would be happy I had these.
17. Men’s Merino 1 Crew: This thing is amazing. Super thin wool feels soft and delicious on your skin. Plus the cut is actually slim instead of boxy. Very nice.
18. Men’s Capilene® 2 T-Shirt: Yes, the wool Merino is nice, but its price is very high, so I thought I would test out the synthetic alternative and see if I could make do.
19. Men’s Capilene® 2 Bottoms: I hope this stuff works…
20. Eagle Creek Travel Towel X-Large: “Extra large size allows for full body coverage.” That’s what I’m talking about… but seriously, this thing better dry in a hurry.

Notice there are no pants on this list. Every pair I saw looked horrible and I just couldn’t bring myself to purchase a pair, but after doing a little more research, it would appear that I have no choice but to look like a dork if I want to be comfortable.

Oh well… once I get the pants, I need to remember to put all this stuff to the test and quickly finish gearing up.

Oh Noes!

Back in 2000, Production IG created a 48 minute animated masterpiece about a morally ambiguous vampire slayer named Saya infiltrating a US military base during the Vietnam war on the hunt for hideous shape-shifting vampires. Beyond the main plot of the original Blood: The Last Vampire, there’s plenty of depth to the short film as it touched on Japan/U.S. relations as they pertained to war in a post-World War Japan (arguably like most post-war Japanese movies), race wars, a look back at Japanese history and more. Then wrapped this all up in a glorious presentation that blended cutting edge technology and masterful traditional animation in a way the world had never before seen.

So fantastic was this 48 minute film, it’s managed to spawn a manga one-off, a popular animated series called Blood+, and from that a new manga series based on Blood+… All of which I’ve consumed in hopes for more glimpses of the original brilliance.

Unfortunately, that was never the case… yet none of the extensions that came before have so completely shit the bed as the newly released live action adaptation of the original film.

One of the best things about the original was it’s insistence on making the world feel real, almost mundane. As though everything was just as you’d expect it to be in 1966, except lurking in the shadows were evil forces that would pull you up a tree and eat your head if you went walking after dark. This new version eschews reality based fear in favor of over-the-top, cliche vampires brandishing pipes as weapons (WTF?) that at times was quite reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Saya acquires a pathetically uninspired backstory of her father being killed by the “oldest, vilest demon” who (not really a spoiler since it’s so telegraphed) is actually her mother! Cue dramatic music!

Then there’s the transformed vampires. In the original, they were scary, bone-creaking abominations… In this version, it seems like they borrowed an old model from a 1970’s Sinbad film, popped some wings on it, then used the same model for two very different characters!

And don’t get me started on the CG blood splurts.

Oh, and the addition of some random white girl who does nothing but scream, get in the way and spout the most laughable dialogue literally had my fellow theater goers openly mocking her. The audience making fun of the film was actually the highlight of my experience.

Anyway, I should remember to re-watch the original so at least something good comes from this terrible, creaky and most certainly vile abomination.

A quarter of a mile to death...

After seeing coverage on a number of blogs I follow and The New York Times, I was excited to get a chance to check out Chicago’s newest attraction while there for a wedding last weekend. We landed in the windy city Thursday night. The next morning, we were standing in line at 9am in the basement of the Willis Sears Tower anticipating the 103 story elevator ride to the observation level.

Once up, you have to walk all the way around to finally get to The Ledge. Luckily, it was early so there wasn’t too much of a crowd. After making our way to the edge of The Ledge, you do instinctively find yourself questioning whether you should really step out onto the glass 1,353 feet above the pavement.

Of course, you do step out. It’s what you came here for. It’s certainly an interesting moment, however the exhilaration slowly moves from the focus to the periphery replaced by 2 parts awe and 1 part annoyance that the people sharing the glass enclosure with you get in the way of all your good photographs.

I should remember to indulge my tourist tendencies more often.