Happy 4th!, originally uploaded by Graham Hancock.

]]> http://grahamhancock.net/2008/07/05/happy-4th/feed/ http://grahamhancock.net/2008/07/01/good-night-los-angeles/ http://grahamhancock.net/2008/07/01/good-night-los-angeles/#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:43:42 +0000 Graham http://grahamhancock.net/2008/07/01/good-night-los-angeles/

View from Griffith Observatory, originally uploaded by Graham Hancock.

Went to the Griffith Observatory this evening to catch the sunset and see the city lights at night. Amazing views. You can view the rest of the photos I took by clicking on the one above.

I can hardly believe that it’s already July 1st. Effectively, I only have about 3 more weeks out here before I have to start gathering my things and make the three-day drive back home.

Wow. I honestly do not know how I’m going to top this one. While at a Barenaked Ladies Concert being held near our apartment, a surprise guest walked up on stage to help them out with a more Polka-y version of “If I Had a Million Dollars.”

They first announced him as “Awkward Al,” jokingly, and I didn’t get it at first, but when I saw a lanky guy jump on stage with an accordion I made a b-line for the stage, it was Wierd Al!

After the concert was over Mr. Yankovic was very nice and patient with everyone, he took pictures, signed autographs and met with the throng of fans off the side of the stage who were excited to see him there.

Anyways, I always hate bugging celebrities for pictures because it’s usually an empty gesture — “Hey, can I have a picture with you, because my friends will be SO jealous!” Most celebrites know exactly where these pics are going: Facebook, MySpace, etc.

I figured I’d make an exception for Weird Al, though. I’ve been a fan for ages. He was very nice and patient with everyone. What a great guy!

I’m well aware that my travel blog stopped short after we arrived at Flagstaff. Things got pretty busy after that. So I’ll try to pick up where I left off.

We left Flagstaff around noon. We had to stop for more fuel before getting completely out of town, so I stopped and filled up my X-terra with some $3.99-a-gallon gas, which as you will read later was just the beginning of my fuel-price woes for this leg of the trip.

This travel day was easily the most uneventful of the three. It was basically the same drive as the day before except this time we were really, truly, in the middle of nowhere, and my cell phone reception confirmed this.

We drove through Albuquerque, which is a city that has always been sort of a childhood dream of mine to visit — partly due to that awesome ‘Wierd Al’ song. But interestingly enough, as ‘Al,’ has so eloquently put forward in his music: There isn’t much to see or do in Albuquerque, so we moved on.

Now this is where it gets almost disturbingly boring. It was another 300 miles or so through nothing but desert. Eventually we crossed over into California, which was justifiably awesome, but only for a moment–we were still about 200 miles away from L.A.

We eventually stopped in Barstow, CA to fill up once again and say goodbye to our old friend, Interstate 40 West. I was running on fumes so I stopped at the nearest gas station I could find and was greeted with an apocalyptic sight: $4.47 gal. No, I’m not naive enough to think that gas wasn’t going to be grossly overpriced in California. I was anticipating to pay quite a bit, but that didn’t soften the blow.

It was only after getting back on the road that I realized I’d been had. The gas stations at the next exit were touting their “$3.98″ gas. Now, how in the name of all that is holy and just, is it that two reputable gas stations separated by the meager distance of less than one mile could have almost a $0.50 difference in their price for gas? I have your proof of price gouging right here, America!

I gathered what was left of my self-confidence and moved forward with the trip. We were less than an hour from Los Angeles! This is when the driving began to finally get interesting. About an hour outside of LA, Interstate 15 South turns into a six-lane super highway that winds its way through a series of mountains all the way into the hills of Los Angeles. It was basically a crash course in getting used to the way folks drive out here.

We made it to our final hotel and checked in, and it was only about 5:00pm. We were staying in Pasadena which is a small suburb about 28 miles northeast of Los Angeles. My sister, Carrie and I both drove into town to find something to do during our first night in Los Angeles, and — you guessed it — we both found movies to go see.

Welcome to Los Angeles, eh?

That was today’s trip.

The longest leg of our trip is finally behind us. We’re currently in Flagstaff, Arizona, ready to get some much needed sleep after today’s marathon driving session. We drove through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona today. That is hands-down the longest distance I’ve ever driven in a single session.

Driving through Arizona

I saw lots of stuff on the road that I’ve never seen in person before: A huge wind farm in Oklahoma, the ‘Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere’ in Texas, and an RV fully engulfed in flames in New Mexico. (Everyone was okay.)

Turning up the heat in New Mexico.
Everyone looked alright, and the NMFD was already on the scene.

All of those things were a welcome reprieve from what was basically a mind-numbing drag across America’s heartland and into the desert. There were a few touristy things like the Arizona ‘Meteor Crater’ that I wish we would have had time to stop and look at, but I’ll jot those down and remember to check them out on the way back.

Tomorrow’s trip is only about 5-6 hours. We’re taking the opportunity tomorrow morning to sleep in a bit. We’re staying one more night in a hotel in Pasadena, CA (Which is basically Los Angeles), but I’m keeping in mind that if we wait too long, we’ll arrive in Pasadena around rush hour and that’s no good. So we’ll probably leave at around 10:30-11:00 a.m. in the morning and try to be in Pasadena before 5:00.

Thanks again for following our travels! Keep checking out my twitter for updates as we finish our trip tomorrow. California here we come!

I’ll be seeing this particular message quite a bit over the next two days.

Our route, again, was simple. We drove up Highway 78 to Memphis to jump onto I-40 West. And that’s it! I-40 is going to be our friend for the next two days. It leads all the way out to Los Angeles.

Conditions were perfect and traffic wasn’t bad. I’m told I-40 is notorious for being heavily travelled by the big-rigs heading out west to pick up/deliver goods. There were only two times when traffic slowed to a halt and both were traffic accidents that occurred in the oncoming set of lanes. I found it interesting that voyeurism was to blame for our lane’s congestion on both occasions — folks slowing down to see what had happened.  I think that says something profound about human nature, but I’ll spare you all the lengthy philosophic debate.

We’re off to Flagstaff, Arizona tomorrow morning! A much longer drive than today– about twelve hours! Thanks for the comments and e-mails everyone. I’ll be twittering our status throughout the day over at Twitter.com/GrahamHancock

Not this time.

My twin sister hinted a few weeks ago that she wanted out of here, and that she wanted a job for the summer in Los Angeles, California. I’ve been out to L.A. multiple times so she asked me if I knew where to start.

I knew a hasty decision to move out west wouldn’t fly with my parents at all, but to my surprise they weren’t against it. They weren’t against it if and only if I went with her.

So comes down to this: We’re probably leaving on Friday to drive to Los Angeles. A three day long drive. We’ll probably get there Sunday night, and on Monday morning we’re going apartment hunting. This amounts to spending the two remaining months of my summer in a city that I can see myself living in once I’m out of college. I see it as a head start, and quite possibly a sobering real world experience to boot.

I’ve worked out that I’ll have to fly home on two occasions: A wedding that I’m an ushering in June and a week-long camp in late July that I’ve been hired out for as Technical Director.

I’m anxiously and cautiously looking forward to this. Though it is one of the crazier and more uncertain things I’ve ever done.

I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Onyx, originally uploaded by Graham Hancock.

Just bought a Canon Rebel XTi.

I’ve been eyeing several Digital SLR camera’s for a very long time as I’ve always had a knack for photography. I decided to make the purchase today because it’s going to be an eventful summer for me with Comic Con in July, various trips to the beach, etc. Not to mention I’ve got a Photographic Communication class coming up in the Fall that requires me to have an SLR camera.

I will post more shots here from time to time.

Quite the opposite really, ever since the advent of the compact fluorescent bulbs, (You know, the funny looking ones that save you $50 in energy bills over 6 years!) certain types of fluorescent light are actually perfect for video, and here’s the kicker for young filmmakers and freelance video enthusiasts everywhere: It’s cheap!

Head out to your local Wal-Mart or home improvement store and pick up some of those compact fluorescent bulbs. But wait! There’s one thing you need to be careful about when buying: Look for the ones that are daylight-calibrated. Not the soft white ones. This is where color temperature comes into play.

It’s not bad. It’s just misunderstood.

Fluorescents (especially in the past) have had a bad rep with video because their inconsistent color temperatures and erratic pulsing lighting curves wreaked havoc on the white balance algorithms in most cameras. This is because most fluorescent lights are of the cool white/soft white variety. The cool white fluorescents are missing parts of the color spectrum, so you’ll tend to see the colors fluctuate in your video even after you’ve white balanced your shot.

But with daylight-calibrated fluorescent lights, you’re working with light that has been calibrated to the same color temperature of outdoor lighting conditions. Cameras like the Panasonic DVX-100 have a white balance preset called 5.6K which is approximately the color temperature of light from the Sun. So when you use the daylight-calibrated fluorescents, the camera adjusts itself to the color temperature and reproduces the colors of your subject with great results. For all other cameras, a manual white balance underneath the daylight-calibrated fluorescent lights will work just fine.

Looking for a great setup?

For those who are seriously considering getting some video lighting equipment, but don’t want to break the bank can check out Lowel’s very generous collection of fluorescent lighting systems. (http://www.lowel.com/systemsFluorescent.html) I’ve already ordered a kit and I expect it to be in on time for a shoot this weekend. I’ll report back on how the lights perform