Category Archives: the mindlab

This ??? REVEALED

the mindlab,

I know everybody has been waiting for the big reveal, well here it is, straight from the horse’s mouth.

—–

From: Thom
Subject: picture
Date: February 16, 2009 3:51:13 PM EST
To: Mike

OK - wait, ...before you read this go get something to eat.  Go! Now...  take a break and grab
something.  The story has a much better affect if you are in the middle of eating your favorite food!

About 10 years ago I was working at a agency serving adults with developmental disabilities and I 
was dating a nurse.  I had brought this picture into work and after showing it to my nurse girlfriend I 
placed it up on my cork board where the picture hung for over a year.  My office was well traveled 
and received a lot of traffic from other employees passing by to ask for my guidance.  Many of them 
would comment on the photo and say "what is that a picture of?" Some would even guess --- "it's a 
star or plant".  So I would just smile and say "close guess...  but I can't say".  No one ever guessed 
correctly, mind you it did present itself a little differently when you print it out on a sheet of paper 
and originally it was only the bottom photo that was posted for everyone to see.  So you ask, what is 
this wonderful photo?  Well, this is the infamous "Jeep Butt"  (Pilonidal Cyct) that I was diagnosed 
with in 1998.  I was having problems and when it first started I didn't want to go see the doctor as I 
was embarrassed and hopeful it would heal.  My newly acquired nurse girlfriend wanted me to drop 
trou so she could see and tell me the outlook on my bum.  I refused but told her I'd take a picture of 
my ass and bring it to work.  These two pictures are the result - furthermore she made an accurate 
diagnosis on the spot by just looking at the pictures.  I have no idea how she guessed correctly 
because the picture is so out of focus and the bump looks like a pimple to me.  Anyhow, only her and 
I knew the true identity of the printed picture.



----


Yum.  Hope you were eating steak tartar like me.  Read more about the [pilonidal cyst here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilonidal_cyst).


* Editors Note:  Thom and I were slightly confused as to whether or not the phrase for yanking one's pants down was "drop trou" or "drop trout."  I think it's fish.

tricolor

the mindlab

tricolor 5

I bought three color filters for my camera. A red one, a green one, and a blue one. I then took three black and white photos, one with each filter, scanned the negatives, and combined them in photoshop. After aligning them, I colored them the appropriate color and ended up with the above picture.

Kind of nerdy, completely inefficient, but kind of fun.

Christmas Shoot

the mindlab, videos, ,

mike

Mike brought a 16 mm Bolex camera home from school over Christmas break, and we shot a short entitled Turkey Breasts. Like many other shorts, we’ve shot over Christmas break1, it was shot on The Dirt Road2. Unlike other ones we’ve shot, this is the first Christmas break film actually shot on film. I think Mike sent the film off for development and it should be back soon…

Pictures from the shoot are here. (Not all pictures are uploaded yet…)

  1. The Search for the Chupacabra, Spontaneous Combustion, Ant Farm, and Risks were all shot over the holidays. The first two used The Dirt Road extensively as a location. ↩
  2. The Bridge was also shot on the dirt road (on 8mm). ↩

Lady Sovereign in X-ED

the mindlab,

Breaking one of my tenants that I never post Youtube junk on Protozoic — *whatever*. I’m really intrigued by the following movie, *X-ED*, directed by Theirry Lawson. The film features Lady Sovereign, who is perhaps best known as the British female musician who signed to Def Jam (she is now off that label and on her own) and as the TRL sensation behind “Love Me Or Hate Me.” *X-ED* was made before Sovereign, credited as Louize Harman (actually Louise Amanda Harman), was a pop sensation. For a film not too far off the production values of a *Protozoic* straight to WEB-backyard-film, the piece is surprisingly coherent and even well acted. I can only assume Ms. Harman has no acting training so to speak, but she’s pretty much a natural.