Got a bit nostalgic…

I recently saw ‘The in Between‘, which is a nice movie by the way. And Joey King, the main actress is using an Olympus OM-1N camera and develops her own black & white images in a darkroom which was nice to see as well (tho with a few quirks, the image “seen” though the camera’s viewfinder for instance was *not* the one from an OM-1). Anyway, since at the moment I don’t have film in my OM-2N camera I went and replaced the Micro Zuiko 17mm/1.8 lens:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wjlonien/52001270062/
Olympus 17mm 1.8 lens, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2022

with an old and manual Olympus Zuiko 50mm/1.8 one which I still have. Here’s how the camera looks with that, as “seen” from my phone (Google Pixel 4a):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wjlonien/52002814515/
My camera with an old OM Zuiko lens, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2022

And here’s an image taken with that combination, from about a two meter distance, and with the lens wide open at f=1/1.8:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wjlonien/52001270542/
Upright bass with pickup and a tuner, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2022

Very cool to have this 100mm equivalent look in a 3:2 format, and in black & white. And although this is still ‘instant’ imaging with using the digital sensor in my camera instead of film, the camera was set to ‘M’ (manual) mode, so you still have to work a bit for each image, and of course also set the focus yourself. Slow photography, so to say, and it can be as tasty as slow food 😉 I should probably try that combination for portraits instead of taking the very fast 45mm/1.8 or the very sharp 50mm/2 macro lenses. Working on and thinking about an image *before* you even take it can’t be bad… 😉

As always, thanks for reading, and for viewing.

Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts

These are cool cats from Japan, playing the music from “Cowboy Bebop”:

TANK! Virtual Session 2020 by SEATBELTS Produced by Yoko Kanno

And here’s kind of an about from the late 2021 Netflix series:

Yoko Kanno + The Music of Cowboy Bebop | Netflix

A must see in my opinion. Pure beauty through and through. And nothing beats some cool, or rather hot hard bop. Enjoy.

More? Here you go… and here are some more… love the girl and the dog 😉 And these two were particularly amazing:

What a band. And what a composer. Chapeau!

For the original motion picture soundtrack, look and listen here.

A lesson in how to accompany a singer

Few people ever realised how great a singer Chet Baker was. And listen how perfectly bass player Jon Burr is on that record, as are Ben Riley on drums, and Harold Danko on piano. Plus of course, Chet on his trumpet.

One of those albums which is a must have in my opinion… enjoy, or listen to it on Youtube where you’ll also have a track list.

Conversations

Played a few harmonics and a bit of bass onto a lovely ballad from Carlo, Shi, and Peter:

This track is embedded with the friendly permission by the creatives on wikiloops.com.

As always, thanks to my friends over at Wikiloops for all the fun, and thanks to you for listening.

Another Bossa

I joined Peter and Frankie on this nice Bossa Nova track:

This track is embedded with the friendly permission by the creatives on wikiloops.com.

As always, thanks to my friends over at Wikiloops, and thanks to you for listening.

New MIDI keyboard

My old MIDI master keyboard with 49 keys was pretty finished, and I had that since 25 or 30 years – so time for a new one. I would have bought another simple and cheap one, but then saw a good deal with lots of additional full versions of libraries, like a Rhodes e-piano and a Mini Moog synth, so I could hardly say “no” to that. And I think Zuleikha likes it as well…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wjlonien/51969635751/
MIDI Masterkeyboard, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2022

So that was a right decision… and like always, thanks for reading.

They call me wjl on wikiloops.com

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wjlonien/51967040820/
They call me wjl on wikiloops.com, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2022
photographer: Hamidah Suadi-Lonien
see also on Wikiloops

Thanks to Mitchie for taking the photo, and thanks to all friends on Wikiloops for making this possible. And without Wikiloops I would never have dreamt about learning to play the upright… 🙂

When the lights go out (remix 2022)

Did a second remix of an old Wikiloops classic, and an all time favourite song of mine:

This track is embedded with the friendly permission by the creatives on wikiloops.com.

I went for a bit more transparency and clarity, with newer tools and a bit more knowledge. Thanks again to Hurzel and to Shi, I hope they like what I did. And thanks to you for listening – and if you play or sing yourself, then come and join us!