Friday, January 23, 2009

Old School

My friend Nils emailed the other day to see if I had a photograph that he could potentially use for the cover of his friend John Foti's soon to be released album. He was especially interested in some old pictures that I made the year before moving to Chicago for grad school. These photographs are from 2000 and were made at the local community college in White Plains, NY (I rented darkroom space to try and learn color printing before starting my MFA). I hadn't looked at these pictures in years, a fun walk down memory lane (click to enlarge):

Friday, January 16, 2009

Check Please

Here in Chicago, we have a show on PBS called "Check Please" which is a favorite here in the Gitelson household. Each week, three people share their favorite restaurant in Chicago and a round table discussion ensues. This is footage of Barack Obama on the program in 2001. To see a longer clip, click here. One more reason to love our next President.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

It's the Art Market, Stupid!

Despite the slumbering economy and post-holiday decompression, I will have a bunch of my work at Photo LA next weekend (January 9-11). If you find yourself at the fair, swing by booth #B3 (DNJ Gallery) and check out my work. Here is the info:

FAIR LOCATION
Barker Hangar
3021 Airport Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90405

Friday, January 02, 2009

The De-Evolution of the Guitar


I started playing the guitar when I was twelve years old and took lessons until I was 18. Despite this six years of education, I never learned how to read sheet music. Instead, I learned how to read tablature which is the lazy man's version of notation. Each week I would meet with my teacher Steve and he would write out a new Zeppelin song for me to practice (some weeks it was ACDC, some weeks it was YES). Steve wanted me to learn how to read but I was lazy and stubborn and he eventually gave up (after all, Hendrix didn't know how to read music, right?)


On New Year's Eve, Robin and Archie and I headed out to our friends Mike and Lindsey's apartment for a Guitar Hero party. On the drive over, I got to thinking about the realationship between sheet music, tab and guitar hero dots. There has to be a graduate thesis in there somewhere, don't you think?