Pentax K-7, Adorama Readers' Choice Camera 2009

The readers of the Adorama Learning Center have chosen the Pentax K-7 as the camera of 2009. Not bad as result, taking into account this comes from people who understands photography, and that the K-7 had almost triple number of votes than the number 2 camera in that list (1,524 votes for K-7 vs 447 for Leica M9). The huge amount of features, backwards compatibility with all K-mount lenses, small size and low price proved an unbeatable combination, leading to this prize.

Congratulations to Pentax for a job well done. I hope this model will also appear high in the forthcoming The Online Photographer list of TOP cameras of 2009, which will be published in a few days.

For those with an eye on the finer details: Great photographers of the internet

Mike Johnston, author of The Online Photographer, just posted a truly priceless entry entitled Great photographers of the internet part II. If you like fine sense of humour and nice writings, do not miss it at any price. And then look after part I of the same series, which was another Classic among Classic comments in this blog, one of the most respected in the world of photography. And someone with the finest and funnest sense of humour.

The end of CD and the rise of the iPod as high-end audio source

Yesterday I found a most interesting article, entitled "Is this the end of CD?", written by Ed Selley and published in the December 2009 issue of the very respected, British journal Hi-Fi Choice. In that article, Selley outlines a process where CD seems on the way of dying, while the iPod is being used by more and more audiophiles to feed their hi-fi systems, since lossless audio files (in either Apple Lossless, or aiff formats) can be played with iPods.

According to Selley, late models of iPods (since 2006) have the possibility to feed USB digital audio, enabling their use as digital source, selecting then a D/A converter (provided with adequate connectors) in order to produce the final analogue signal which is fed to the amplifier. In coherence with this new feature, ultra high-end audio manufacturers like Wadia are producing devices designed specifically to work with iPods, such as the Wadia 170i transport with good reviews. Other audiophile manufacturers, like Jadis, produce tube amplifiers enabled to be fed by iPods as well.

I'm pretty convinced that optical disc-based formats, be it audio or video, are on the way to die, whether we like it or not. I'm pretty sure they will be used for minorities, but that is not remaining alive. I mean, if 98% of releases are not done in vinyl, then vinyl is not a format you can rely on for your future purchases. Same for CD/DVD when they become the outlet for only high end, audiophile/videophile releases (and I'm pretty sure that's what will happen).

I'm convinced also that the format which will become standard for commercial, online audio releases is some flavour of lossless, with Apple Lossless being at the top position. The efficiency in coding and the high speed internet allow to make it possible, no problem.

Some people argues that the future of music will be based on music on the cloud, selecting the song you want to listen from the net. I'm not sure if the cloud model will work for music. Just have a look at the recent stories of Palm Pre users losing their profiles data due to a problem in the cloud. Maybe it's just me, but I want to OWN the music I like, and I don't want to rely on the net in order to listen to it, even if internet becomes permanently available everywhere in five years.

Regarding the hardware used in the long term, all depends on the new features etc. At this time it is fairly obvious that the iPod has become, de facto, a standard. The very fact that extremely high-end audio manufacturers like Wadia or Jadis, are making hardware designed to interact spectifically with iPods, that means something. It seems that Apple is well aware of this new standard, and consequently they have stuck to the same connector, which means you can upgrade your iPod and remain compatible with your audio system. For instance, I got a dock for an iPod Photo a few years ago, and recently I got an iPod Touch, and both can be plugged to the same dock, which has line output to plug to the hi-fi system.

Furthermore, the point that current iPods have digital signal output (as described in Selley's article) means that, to all purposes, you can use them as top-notch audio source, using later a D/A converter of as high quality/price as you want, provided you use models capable of receiving that signal through adequate connectors. The only model which is currently exploiting this possibility is the Wadia 170i transport, but I suspect more are in the works.

In the mid/long term, when very high capacity memory cards become very cheap (and it will happen very soon), you will have a huge music collection, in lossless, in a tiny iPod (or whatever similar device) that fits in your pocket. Which means that you can listen to the same music while walking, while driving your car, at work, or at home. And you can do it using a full range of qualities: from crappy computer speakers, to good earphones, to high-end, large loudspeakers at home, by using a D/A converter of superb quality. In my book, that is audio heaven for music lovers, as it gives you full flexibility to adapt to your needs/possibilities at every place, without restrictions.

New Michelin stars in Spain

Well, the wait is over and the much awaited news on the 2010 Miguelin Guide for Spain, regarding restaurants ratings, were released yesterday night.

The good news is that the Celler de Can Roca restaurant, one which has received unanymous acclaim for a longtime, finally achieved the third star in the guide; this was a huge clamour and it seems justice has been done. This way, Can Roca joins six other Spanish restaurants with three stars: Arzak (Juan María Arzak), Can Fabes (Santi Santamaría), El Bulli (Ferrán Adriá), Martín Berasategui (Martín Berasategui), Sant Pau (Carme Ruscalleda) and Akelarre (Pedro Subijana).

Living in Andalucía, I was happy to know that restaurant Alejandro in Roquetas de Mar was also awarded one star, so I look forward to visit that place in the near future. In the mean time, I hope that a personal, local favourite in my city, Córdoba, will soon achieve the same status: I am speaking about Restaurant El Choco, whose creative kitchen only needs a bit of additional effort and a better hall in order to get full shine. And let me add another favourite of mine, restaurant El Alma, a place for enjoying red tuna and good company, good wines, and excellent food. Finally, traditional food from Córdoba is perfectly shown in restaurant Taberna Pepe de la Judería.

150 anniversary of Darwin's "On the origin of species"

Yesterday, Tuesday 24th of November, 2009, marked the 150 anniversary of the publication of a truly landmark book in the world of science and also in the world of philosophy: it was "On the origin of species", where the theory of Evolution was first described.

The huge implications of this book for science, for our understanding of the world, and even for a better understanding of religions and their effects, are possibly, even today, underrated. Darwin was able to put upside down longstanding beliefs which considered the man as the center of the universe.

The fact that, in 2009, there are still people supporting the Creationism, is the best evidence of the tremendous impact of "On the origin of species" and the mighty reasonings of Darwin. What is sad is that some administrations & governments (namely, some of them in the USA) are confused enough to claim a similar treatment in educational institutions for both science (Evolution) and personal beliefs (Creationism). But that will be matter for another day.

For now let's celebrate one of the peaks in the history of the human accomplishments, and its creator, Darwin, whose illumination will never be appreciated enough.

Good publicity

To show an example of excellent publicity, here you have the ad for the Spanish Christmas lottery of this year:

Magnificent pictures: poll from National Geographic International Photographic Contest

No words needed, just go there and have a look at the pictures.

Magnificent is no word enough for some of them:

National Geographic International Photographic Contest

If you want to see all contenders, you can do it here.

After this, all stupid discussion on pixel peeping, and neverending controversies about brands, models... all that just lack any sense.

Paraphrasing someone, it's time to say:

"It's about the picture, stupid!"

Bad publicity

I am a lover of good TV ads (good publicity in general is to me a form of art). And this Spanish TV ad is one of the worst examples I have seen in a long time.

Ugly stories among researchers supporting the global warming hypothesis

A friend sent me recently information about some recent leaks of information from researchers heavily involved in work on global warming. This has been reported in major media, such as The Washington Post or The New York Times.

In very short, it seems that private communications between some of the main heads at the Climate Research Unit, from the British University of East Anglia, have been published, evidencing ugly strategies to support their views (which consider global warming a fact), in contraposition with those of global warming naysayers. Apparently, these files are flying around the net in an archive entitled "FOI2009.zip".

I don't really know what to think about it; there are loads of noise around this story in conservative media, which are obviously using it to deny global warming. And it is obvious there are industrial interests to deny global warming, so that many big companies can continue making processes which involve the release of CO2 to the atmosphere.

On the other hand, if these reports are accurate, I can't accept the manipulation of cientific information, on whatever grounds. So even if I am honeslty convinced that global warming is a real issue, tricks and lies to support the global warming are completely unacceptable, no matter how idealist would be the goal.

I will try to follow this story in order to get further information; but at this time I admit I am heavily disappointed with the behaviour of the researchers mentioned above.

Update: even the scientific journal Nature (the most important among multidisciplinary journals) is reporting about this story in tomorrow's issue, although their explanations don't quite fit with the "tricking" tone reported in conservative media. Clearly it is necessary to digg into the dirt in order to disclose what is actually happening there.

The Digital Garden, a reference website on Prince unofficial recordings

I guess most people with an eye on live & unofficial Prince recordings are aware of this new site; but in case someone is interested, The Digital Garden is an attempt to catalogue and review the unofficial Prince recordings, both audio and video, which are being continuously released.

Their labour is basically a continuation of the one started in 2004 by The Databank, a website which has been closed, unfortunately. So I'm happy to wish the best to the team behind The Digital Garden, and I would like also to say thanks to the person responsible of Databank: it was a much appreciated website, and hardcore Prince fans have many reasons to remain grateful to it.

200 and counting

Once upon a time, and due to very specific issues, I decided to start this blog, without much consideration. I justs needed to express a few things, back at the time.

Since then, I asked myself a few times if there was any point in writing here; if I am writing for someone beyond myself. And I admit that, still today, I don't know.

But hey, for good or bad, I surpassed the 200 entries, where I have written about very diverse topics. Thus far I enjoyed the ride, even if it feels rather weird to realize that the most visited article is one on the (supposed) possibility to play flv files with QuickTime Pro in Snow Leopard... which turned out to be a mistake from me.

Anyway, I guess this will keep running, for those of you who might be interested in the rumblings of a Spanish countryside bumpkin, and for those who just search in google "Prince vs Michael Jackson" and find a small article from yours truly.

Oh, I forgot:

Thanks for paying attention. :D

Anatomía de un instante, must-read book by Javier Cercas

This week I finished reading the book "Anatomía de un instante", by Javier Cercas. It's focused on the events that happened on February 23th, 1981, when Alfonso Armada, Milans del Bosch and Antonio Tejero attempted to make a punch to stop the democracy. For a number of reasons, this topic has always been very interesting to me, and I have read many books which attempted to explain it, from many different journalists, and even from Pardo Zancada, one of the people involved in the making of the punch.

While I had a fairly good idea on (what seems to me) the real story, I have to say that this book is the best I have read around the 23-F. It is extremely well written (unsurprisingly, given that Cercas is a well known and talented writer), but in addition, it truly provides meat for reflection, giving a detailed (and very opinionated) overview on the months before, during and after the punch attempt. Another positive aspect is that the author belongs to the generation coming after the one whose members were the main actors of the 23-F punch, so he shows a distant perspective which helps a lot to analyze the situations without the heat of the times. Furtheremore, he often describes a few possible alternative explanations, although he takes position and usually discloses which one seems more reasonable for him.

All in all, I strongly advice this book to anybody with interest on the History of Spain, as the approach, and the meaning of these events in the early years of the Spanish democracy, have a profound impact to understand our origins, politically speaking.

In the light of books like this, it is truly a huge pity that Adolfo Suárez, the first president of the democracy, is in a sad state of dementia. His memories on this period would be an invaluable resource for current and future generations, but according to reports, it seems pretty much impossible that any historical text signed by him will ever appear.

Purple Sevilla

Due to work, I spent last Friday, November 13, in Sevilla, a city which does not need introduction: a real wonder in the South of Spain. After I finished my job, I decided to walk around the center of the city, while listening to some funky stuff from Prince.

The combination proved astonishing.

It was the early evening, so I played a few slow classics: Power Fantastic, Sometimes it snows in April, Somewhere here on Earth, the live version of Anna Stesia included in the ONA Live set... I was around the Cathedral, where there was some kind of celebration, with plenty of people going in and out. Maybe it was the warm wheather, or maybe it was the neverending beauty of an old city, or maybe it was the wonderful Prince music, but it was one of those occasions where your feelings are fully open and you enjoy even the smallest, weirdest details: a couple kissing in the front door of an old palace; horse carriages moving around you with tourists shooting countless pictures; a group of drunk teenagers laughing like crazy at everything; a couple of US tourists having a coffe at Starbucks (which prompted me to write at Tweeter: "Is there anything more ridiculous than visiting Seville and having a coffee at Starbucks?"); the smell of horse shit invading the streets after the carriages; a press conference (or something similar) into the Alcázar, when the patio was the actual spectacle there; crowds along the main street in front of the Cathedral, with the police watching and the access restricted to some parts of it; an old taxi driver explaining (without any question from me!) the miseries of looking at beautiful young ladies but lacking the sexual power to fulfill them (sic); legions of young people at dating places, finishing their burgers in the city with best food in the world; silent old houses with tiny details, at every corner, in a muted display of magnificence; the Guadalquivir river reflecting impossible lights; tapas bars filled with young people in preparation for a long, long night...

At some point, I stopped and had a quiet look at the whole Cathedral, whose architecture is nothing short of amazing; the huge size of the building, the towers, the spikes everywhere, the incountable amount of small and big statues, its profile contrasting to the dark blue sky... the tremendous work required to build such an impressing set, the detailed craft of every minor detail... I was thinking along those lines when an obvious comparison came to my head:

The reason, or the excuse if you prefer, to make such stunning work of art as the Cathedral, was religion: the beliefs of people, and the money raisond upong such beliefs, made possible the construction of something with a beauty which far exceeds its "reason d'être". And therefore, I can't avoid to be moved when confronted with such beauty, even if I don't believe in any god and even if religion seems a wasting of time. Something similar happens to me every time I visit the Mezquita in Córdoba: it was built after a different faith, but its effect is pretty much the same: I feel blown away by the size, the decorated arcs, the silence, the repetition in motifs...

Prince music -the good Prince music- is perfectly comparable: it's made by someone whose beliefs have nothing to do with me; it's made by someone who lets such beliefs dictate his life in many ways; it's made by someone whose personality has nothing to do with me (and the more times goes by, the less it has to do with me); but still, the sheer beauty of some songs has the power to deeply shake my guts, to put me upside down; you listen to Somewhere here on Earth, or Joy in repetition, or Take this beat, or Love changes, or Power fantastic... and you say: I don't care about the rest, this is the only thing that matters. I would love to find someone whom I trust and sympathize to, making those songs, and it's not the case; but the music, the music, the music... it just blows me away everytime, don't care about the rest: just the guitar, the feeling, the soul, the power: everything is there. Like the Cathedral: no matter who/why/when/how was it done, its beauty is overwhelming and you can't make anything about it.

Do music artists fare better in a world with illegal file-sharing?

Fascinating read in The Times, and very awakening (I post a modified chart, using the same original data, but with clearer color lines, as linked by daringfireball.net). We longtime fans of Prince music knew this was indeed the case regarding the approach of Prince to music biz, but after reading this article, it seems the situation is more widespread than anticipated. And maybe this is good news for music per se, contrary to the noise made by the music industry:

Do music artists fare better in a world with illegal file-sharing?

This is the graph the record industry doesn’t want you to see.

It shows the fate of the three main pillars of music industry revenue - recorded music, live music, and PRS revenues (royalties collected on behalf of artists when their music is played in public) over the last 5 years.

We’ve broken each category into two sub-categories so that, for any chunk of revenue - recorded music sales, for instance - you can see the percentage that goes to the artist, and the percentage that goes elsewhere. (In the case of recorded music, the lion’s share of revenue goes to the record label; in the case of live, the promoter takes a cut etc.)

Hopefully, this analysis - and there’s more on the nuts and bolts of our method below - sheds some factual light on the claims and counter-claims that are paranoically sweeping across the music industry establishment, not least that put forward by the singer Lily Allen in this paper recently - and the BPI - that artists are losing out as a result of the fall in sales of recorded of music.

The most immediate revelation, of course, is that at some point next year revenues from gigs payable to artists will for the first time overtake revenues accrued by labels from sales of recorded music.

Why live revenues have grown so stridently is beyond the scope of this article, but our data - compiled from a PRS for Music report and the BPI - make two things clear: one, that the growth in live revenue shows no signs of slowing and two, that live is by far and away the most lucrative section of industry revenue for artists themselves, because they retain such a big percentage of the money from ticket sales.

(It’s often claimed that live revenues are only/mostly benefitting so-called ‘heritage acts’. Unfortunately, the data doesn’t shed any light on this because live revenues are not broken down by type of act, gig size or ticket price.)

An even more striking thing, perhaps, emerges in this second graph, namely that revenues accrued by artists themselves have in fact risen over the past 5 years, despite the fall in record sales. (All the blue bars in the chart above represent revenues that go directly to artists. As you can see, the ‘blue total’ has risen noticeably.) This is mostly because of live revenues, but also because of the growing amount collected by the PRS on behalf of artists, which accounts for a much bigger chunk of industry revenues than most people realise.

(PRS revenues in fact break down into 4 categories - Broadcast and Online, Public Performance, Mechanical, International. You can explore this in more detail in this spreadsheet, which contains all our data.)

It’s interesting too that, overall, industry revenues have grown in the period - though admittedly not by much - which arguably adds strength to the notion that, when the BPI releases its annual report claiming how much ‘the music industry’ has suffered from the growth in illegal file-sharing, what it perhaps should be saying is how much the record labels have suffered.

For other people in the industry, not least artists, the future arguably holds more promise.

A couple of notes about our methods: the data, as pointed out, comes from the PRS and the BPI. We are grateful to the PRS in particular for helping us with a model to work out what percentage of a particular chunk of industry revenue was likely to be returned to artists. In the case of recorded music, we used an average 90/10 per cent split between labels/artists. In the case of live we used a 90/10 split between artists/promoters.

We hit one major snag. The PRS report gives a figure for annual live music revenues but it does not indicate what percentage of that goes to venues. (Before doing the split for live music revenues between artist and promoter, you first need to take out the percentage that goes to the venue.) We asked several big concert promoters and venue managers - AEG Europe, Carling Academy, and the PRS itself - what percentage of gig revenue one could reasonably assume, on average, went to the venue, and none would make an estimate. The closest we came to an answer was a remark from a senior industry source said ‘only a small percentage of live goes to venues’. That’s the best we had to work with.

We’ve therefore done the above calculations on the assumption that 10 per cent of live revenues go to the venue, but in these two graphs, we show how the situation would change if that figure rose to 20 per cent.

We would welcome any feedback on a more accurate figure to use for the venue’s share of live revenues, and any more general feedback on our methods.

Huge success of Spanish singer Luz Casal at Théàtre Chàtelet (Paris)

Luz Casal, one of the best Spanish singers (if not the best), performed on November 11 in Paris, at Théàtre de Chàtelet, and got a huge success according to reports, with the public making a final, standing ovation of 10 minutes. She performed her last album (including versions of classic boleros) and some of her past catalogue. She will receive tomorrow one of the highest distinctions in France, L'Ordre de Cavalier des Arts et des Lettres.

For some weird reasons, she (together with Almodóvar) is one of the Spanish artists receiving the biggest respect in France, and not so much in their own country. Anyway, here you have an article in Le Monde on Luz Casal's performance.

And for those who don't know who is Luz Casal, here you have probably her most known song (or rather, performance, as the song is not hers):

Flowers in November

This year is being particularly warm in Córdoba, and although in the last days we had a clear decrease in temperatures, even in the first days of November we could enjoy the beach, and we have quite unusual flowers at our backyard. I am posting here a few shots, taken with my Fuji Finepix F30, on November 2nd 2009. As you see, you would not expect such a display of beauty from plants in (supposedly) almost the begining of winter. Who knows... maybe this is just the effect of global warming, or simply the effect of a few, all innocents, weeks of sunny wheather. In any case, I enjoyed the flowers very much.

New Ricoh GRX

I saw this posted at Pentaxforums, and if it is true, then it seems Ricoh has a smash in the making:

http://photorumors.com/2009/11/09/ricoh-gxr/

I copy the specs from that link:

"The smallest interchangeable lenses camera on the market today – smaller than m4/3 from Oly and Panny.
You can change the sensor! The lens and the sensor form a package! I told you this one would be something special.
Available in December.
Two lenses introduced: 24-72mm f/2.5-4.4 with 10MP CCD built-in sensor and VGA video. Price: £300.
50mm f/2.5 macro lens with a 12.3MP CMOS sensor and HD video. Price: £600.
Ricoh GXR body price: £420."

This might be a real hit; we will see.

5 years of Firefox

Time goes quickly, and I just found out that Firefox is celebrating 5 years today. Although my primary browser is Safari, let me join the celebration, as Firefox is my second browser and, everytime I find compatibility issues with Safari, Firefox is there to rescue me (for instance, when using electronic certificates and so on). I hope Firefox will continue growing up in market share and I wish the best luck to the team of developpers, since they are truly doing a very good work.

The new Olympus E-P2, announced

While reading The Online Photographer, I just found that the new Olympus EP-2 has been announced, addressing most of the shortcomings of its ancestor, the E-P1. This highly anticipated model has been premiered in the British Journal of Photography and also, in Spanish, by DSLR Magazine, which also reported a first contact with the new E-P2; the main author of DSLR Magazine, Valentín Sama, is giving further opinion (and comparative analysis of E-P1 vs E-P2) at his blog.

I'm glad to see this stunning idea (large sensor, compact body, interchangeable lenses) is flourishing, and hopefully forthcoming models from Samsung, Ricoh and Sony will strengthen this segment of the camera market. And I would like to guess whether Pentax has a similar system in the works, or else if Ricoh will focus on the K mount (or a compatible mount) for their model.

Panasonic GF1 vs. Olympus E-P1 analysis in The Online Photographer

The micro 4/3 system has caused a huge noise in the community of photography lovers during the last months. And the two companies pushing this format, Olympus and Panasonic, have released their two compact models, which seem the paramount example of what you can get with this new format: first there was the Olympus E-P1, and more recently, the Panasonic GF1.

I have read quite a few reviews and comparisons at different sites, but the one of the two I was waiting with more expectation was published today at The Online Photographer. Its author, Mike Johnston, posted the first part of his analysis, and I think it is well worth to read.

Jose Luis López Vázquez, one of the greatest Spanish actors, died yesterday

I have little to add to the plethora of articles and comments published today in Spanish newspapers to praise the figure of Jose Luis López Vázquez. He was a real legend among Spanish actors, responsible of some absolute highlights in the story of our cinema. While for serious critics, possibly roles such as that of "Mi querida Señorita" will be at the top, I personally will forever remember his interpretation as godfather in "La gran familia". He was the perfect actor to play the role of quintaessential "español", enabled to show all of our cliches & features at the utmost perfection.

May he rest in peace. The spanish scene is losing one of its very big names, one of those appearing very, very seldom.

November 1st on the beach

Global warming or not, the truth is that we are having a very long summer in 2009; and in spite of not having the longest period of maximum temperatures, we are enjoying (although some people would surely say "suffering") rather hot temperatures for this time of the year. For instance, the last days we are having maximum temperatures over 30 ºC. In fact, it seems a kind of second spring in 2009, if you look at the flowers; although according to forecasts, it seems this second spring is ending tomorrow.

So we decided to spend yesterday at the beach in Torremolinos (Málaga); I show a picture as evidence. The beach was far from crowded, as expected, but still there were many people walking around, and some of them (including me) were brave enough to go swimming for a (little) while, as the sunny days didn't prevent the water from being quite cold. This does not include kids, of course, as they were right into the water upon arriving to the beach, and they don't seem to have any problem with the cold waters of November.