fun. – At Least I’m Not As Sad As I Used To Be
Music for reading comes from the new band simply called fun. off their album Aim and Ignite.

I headed south on the one-oh-one freeway towards downtown Los Angeles to seek out Walter. See, my trusty Canonet had failed to fire a few times when I was out this week — there are exciting photos to come when I get around to developing. This is the Canonet that came to me through the grace of a unique soul in Australia who gave me his when my last one was stolen. It has deep emotional value to me, as it represents the beginnings of my true photographic self.

The misfires were intermittent, the camera works. In fact, I couldn’t duplicate the problem when I got back from the field. Still, I didn’t like the nagging possibility that I’d miss something someday at a crucial moment. I thought I’d try to poke around inside on my own. Following the guidance of eminently reliable sources, I still managed to tear the leatherette covering badly in the process of removing it. This wasn’t a crisis; in fact it gave me an excuse to order a fancy new leather for the camera, something I’d always wanted to try. But when the camera was open, I could make no sense of it, and saw nothing I could tighten on my own. So while it was in it’s wounded state, I figured I’d take it to a pro. I should never open cameras. Ever.

Walter.

I’d never gone to Walter before, but he’d come recommended by anonymous internet sources. His Web site is pure kitsch, suggesting exactly the sort of man needed to overhaul a wounded camera from the early nineteen-seventies.

The scene in realtime: I park and try to find the shop. A hippie on a bike with a skateboard slung over his shoulder says a bright hello. We agree how beautiful the day is. It’s a beautiful pure moment in Los Angeles.

And there it is: The shop, open Saturdays, small and is on Cesar Chavez near downtown. One needs to be buzzed in. And, there he is. He is short and substantial, grizzled, dark and unkempt, in other words, Walter is a camera wizard level nine. I give him the Canonet and as I am describing what happened, he interrupts me to say “What happened to the leather?” I tell him that too. He is unconvinced. We both try to replicate the conditions by which the shutter does not cock. We cannot. I ask about the ever-so-slight wobble to the lens. Is that normal? “That is normal,” he says. He even takes out a roll of spent film, we load it and try again. With every successful shutter click, he seems more resigned. This was almost a replay of the first time I met Fleenor. Except this time, it ended with Walter saying, “Well that is no good. Now, I can’t take your money.”

“How much did you pay for this?” he wants to know. I think I know where he is going; get a new one rather than pay sixty bucks to fix it.

“What kind of work do you do?” And so it begins. We spend the next half hour talking about the economy, politics, algae-powered cars, what he Kurds are really up to. Walter is from Egypt. He’s been in Los Angeles for thirty years. He loves America and will spend the rest of his days in Los Angeles. He’s not happy with what is happening in this country, but he is adamant on how it will be fixed: Vote! No revolution! We must vote. On this we can agree. He implores me to see the movie Food, Inc. I say that I will.

Every ten minutes or so, someone comes into the shop with a claim check. Picking up their camera. Walter says the same thing to each of them about their camera: “Don’t leave it in the car. No water, no sand! And, don’t let anyone borrow it!” He takes a call looking for an estimate. He can’t give estimates over the phone because every problem is different. If Walter is sure my camera doesn’t need service, I will have faith for now. Perhaps the simple laying of of his hands shall keep it safe. I shake his hand and bid him farewell. He thanks me for the conversation. I wish I had more for him.

On my way home, I stopped at Freestyle. I needed chemicals, and maybe some film. The Nice Girl I see every other time is there hanging out at the front. She smiles and says hello. She must be a student somewhere. I head back to the film counter where they’re a little more gruff. I’ve asked about Aristacolor film there before. (See why I want some) They’ve already told me it’s gone. Gone for good. Not being made anymore. I know it, but I’m stubborn, and about to ask again. Out of nowhere, Nice Girl has followed me back there and she offers to help me.

There’s no Aristacolor left? I ask innocently. Nice girl looks quizzically at one of the other film counter grunts. “No way, loong gone,” says a gruff and harried voice. “Do you carry any other color films in one hundred foot cans?” She isn’t sure but she’ll check. After a few seconds she comes back. “I think we have one can left of the Arista,” she smiles. She goes back and finds it. Nice Girl is the best.

I leave Freestyle a little giddy, singing for the day. Only later do I make the connection. If I didn’t seek out Walter, if his shot had been closed, if I put it off until next week then the Last Can of Aristacolor On Earth would not have been there, Nice Girl would have been off that day. The two episodes were connected.

Listen while you read: “The Compromise” – The Format

Remember when The Force let Anakin Skywalker down? He was totally all into learning The Force and being a good guy, and then Natalie Portman died anyway? He trusted in The Force and believed it would help him out, but it didn’t so … well you know what happened. Vader happened!

Well, I just found out that The Format broke up! Never mind that they broke up in February (oops). So yeah, I only went to their Myspace like once every six months. Did Stereogum even cover this? Trust me they were one of my favorite jangle pop bands ever! Really, they were! The melodies on the 2006 album Dog Problems were some of my all time favorite. Now they’re gone. Sam and Nate have gone their separate ways.
And, I blame The Force!

In this story, The Force is Web 2.0 or New Media or whatever you want to call it. Myspace and iTunes and muxtape and imeem and Pandora and the Long Tail were supposed to guarantee that hardworking indie bands with limited audiences would be taken care of! Hundreds of thousands of fans were supposed to hear them and say “Oh I’m totally going to spend money on this instead of Call of Duty 4 or Sin City on blu-ray.” They were supposed to make a million dollars! Because they’re totally way better than Fall Out Boy and stupid rappers and if only everybody had a chance to hear them, then tons of people would totally pay lots of money for their music! The Format even gave away an album for free! How 2.0 of them! And, The New Long Social Force 2.0 let me down, and now The Format is dead.

Yeah right.

Truth is, bands like The Format are (were) exactly as popular as they’re supposed to be and no amount of technical ingenuity is going to help them. At one point, I believed in building these cool tools that made technology irrelevant to the distribution of music to the people who consumed and paid for it. It’s where I guided my career. But, I think those problems are pretty much solved now. A band like The Format can produce a single, they can get it on iTunes and distribute their music to a worldwide audience and they can build connections with fans around the globe on Myspace. Then, they go out and play live and build a base. That’s really the end of the story. No amount of recommending it to someone who likes Linkin Park is going to change the bottom line. People like what they like. A lot of people like “popular crap” for a variety of completely valid reasons that have nothing to do with injecting marketing into the social graph.

But, there are acres of pixels devoted to that contentious issue. I’ll never convince the True Believers that people don’t actually want more music choices. So no, I’m not going all Darth Vader on anyone – that’s Andrew Keen’s gig now. I really just wanted to write a blog post about demise of The Format.

Oh, but also the new band Fun (http://www.myspace.com/fun) featuring Nate from The Format – a guy whose talent and writing I really connect with. They just posted a demo on their Myspace page, one that really makes me happy. I’ll add them as a friend and keep an eye out for when they’ll release more. I’ll probably really love it, but I won’t expect technology –- despite the billions of dollars changing hands on social media startups — to make the band any real money.

Addendum – more of my favorite tracks:

“Time Bomb”

“I’m Ready, I Am”

“I’m Actual”