Cowboy Blob's Saloon and Shootin Gallery

I'm not a real Cowboy, but I play one in the movies.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A Little Bit of Everything

I think I've solved my scheduling quandary: attend the NRA Convention/Gunblogger events as a roaming videographer through Friday night, including rubbing elbows at Majerle's Sports Bar that night, skipping the Saturday Banquet (and saving $70 for a meal I'd probably be too busy or nervous to eat), heading back to Tucson and shooting the May ACTS Match Saturday morning, then attending both the Saturday and Sunday Night Screenings at the college.

Those of you folks with kids and jobs will probably laugh, but for an asocial hermit like me, that's a darned busy schedule!

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TGIW Shuffle - George Jones to Keith Carradine

Relaxin' with a Muriel Coronella and a rum and Diet Coke after an abbreviated class day and a nap. Screenwriting (actually Writing for Film and TV) was painless since we've already taken the final; we watched Eleanor Coppola's documentary on the making of Apocalypse Now to give us a sense of what can happen to a screenplay in the hands of an all-powerful director. My afternoon Cinematography class was technically a "lab day," but since the film for our music video hasn't come back yet, I'll be scrambling to edit that this weekend.

Last night in Video Editing, we did video capture from our own cameras. My Sony HVR-A1U was the Belle of the Ball, though there were some mighty fine workhorse cameras in evidence. A classmate who does a lot of hunting documentaries had the pride of place at the instructor's workstation... if wonder if Pam had known he was gonna show a Turkey Snuff Flick, whether she would have made that assignment. I was asked to do a show'n'tell on High-Def Video, but Final Cut Pro 6 still has no output to HD capability, so I don't know what that proved; the 1080i picture actually looked a bit messed up. The Sony's output looked pretty kick-ass; I didn't bring any footage, so I shot it all in the low light of the classroom beforehand. If I dwelled a little bit longer on the pretty girls in the class....

I was the first one out of our Video final Tuesday, which I take as a good sign. I can crush a multple-choice/true-false test if I don't go back and change my right answers into wrong ones.

Methinx since the Saloon BlogStation is struggling with memory issues, I gotta restrict my playlists to reasonable chunks o' files.

1. Grateful Dead "One More Saturday Night"
2. Huey Lewis & the News "I Wanna New Drug"
3. Hot Chocolate "You Sexy Thing"
4. Han Maum (a very sweet-sounding Korean duet) - Track 9
5. Journey "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'"
6. John Paul Young "Love is in the Air"
7. Joe Cocker "You are So Beautiful"
8. Huey Lewis & the News "Workin' for a Livin'"
9. J. Geils Band "Musta Got Lost"
10. Impelliteri "Leviathan"
11. Johnny Cash "Johnny Yuma"
12. Johnny Lang "There's Gotta Be a Change"
13. J. Geils Band "Give it to Me"
14. Jackson 5 "ABC"
15. Ian Thomas "Painted Ladies"
16. Heat Wave "Boogie Nights"
17. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts "Be Straight"
18. Johnny Cash & June Carter "Jackson"
19. Heart "Dreamboat Annie"
20. Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass "The Lonely Bull"

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I Could Have Saved Jughead a Lot of Trouble

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Denise Richards' Funbags!


SFW?

They're up for grabs!

h/t Jesse

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Monday, April 27, 2009

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky until Monday -- Scroll Down for New Stuff
Got a better caption or photoshop for this photo from the BinkerMom? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar! Leave a caption or photo link in comments, or Email a pic to me at the address in my profile. If you're sending a large animation, please provide a hot-linkable URL. You need not own a blog to win! I'll advertise your favorite charity, web site, or even your poultry rub recipes!

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday p.m.

Winner!

Gordon wins with overwhelming approval from BinkerMom and BinkerDad:
Long thought to be vegetarian, the wee folk are, in fact, as fond of leg of grasshopper as you and I. Here tiny Binkerbelle — no bigger than your thumb!— savors this tasty woodland treat
My own entry would have been:

Those dirty, rotten, atrocity-committin' faeries! They killed and ate Fritz!


Other Contests


Support your Local Gunfighter
Family Security Matters
Right Pundits
Outside the Beltway
RT's Ponderings

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Saturday, April 25, 2009

How to Make a Baby

SFW.

h/t Red Oregon

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Friday, April 24, 2009

Down to the Finals

This could be the last time I have to touch a 16-mm film camera and I'm just starting to get comfortable with it!

Last night we shot a 100-ft. roll of Plus-X Black and White in Tucson, so today we  journeyed up to scenic and remote Oracle AZ to film the color sequences.    We couldn't have asked for better weather!  The overcast provided just the right flat lighting we would have custom ordered if we had an "in" with the weather gods.

This show was all Nick's (as a music video, it would be wrong for me to Direct a production of a song I've never heard before.  Plus, I'm seriously in personal need of an Editing credit (not for school, just to round out my experience).  As it was, I contributed some adult experience to the project, though often with three heads between us, we're a total of 0.999 awesome director, 1.002 competent cinematographer, and the jury's still out on our editing prowess.


Hey that wagon looks familiar!   That sure came in handy.  Also too (as our film prof would say) I brought a spare shovel (which we needed), sunscreen, extra water, a USAF poncho for when cast or crew had to lie down in the spiky prickly stuff, and my trusty Canon PowerShot to bring back some immediate memories of today's film shoot.

Special thanks to Curtis (left) who saved our bacon on more than one occasion.  Notice he's still grooving on my Beretta AirSoft gun?  Well, I wore the faux Glock throughout the production, though I'd've rather had the SiG that was in my glove compartment with me if any vicious critters had shown up. 

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Thursday, April 23, 2009

Trigger Time

Looks like I'm going to be a shootin' fool this week. Today, I'm shooting a black-and-white dream sequence for our final film, a music video. Tomorrow, it's desert locations in color. This weekend, it's the Cactus 3-Gun Fun Match, plus I'm shooting our video final, a feature story I'm doing on Jon, "Fastest Gun in the PPD?"

Interestingly, at the April ACTS Match I learned that our own A.B., a Tucson crime lab guy, won the Gold in his division! Good on ya!

Oh, the Glock and Beretta are AirSoft guns from CB's Prop Department (I'm the Drug Dealer, this time) and the Can o' Air is for blowing the dust out of the Bolex camera.

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

TGIW Shuffle -- A to Genesis Version

After a a grueling Cinematography test (lots of essay questions), a nap, and a plateful of Catfish and Chips, I'm ready for a stiff drink and some tunes. Must be I drove the Stang to school today -- I usually don't carry CDs in the ragtop and the wind noise drowns out the radio at speeds at or near a breakneck 55 miles per hour wink-wink. I get the full MP3 concert in the truck, so I don't get a hankering for tunage later in the day. Hmmm, somehow my playlist today only runs from "A" to "Genesis."

1. Candlebox "Far Behind"
2. Eagles "Hotel California"
3. Duran Duran "Thank You" (Led Zep cover)
4. Aerosmith "Living on the Edge"
5. Alan Parson's Project "Damned if I Do"
6. Bush "Swim"
7. Beatles "Good Night"
8. Chris Rhea "The Road to Hell"
9. Blind Melon "Out on the Tiles" (Led Zep cover)
10. Cranberries "Will You Remember?"
11. Foghat "Night Shift"
12. Elvis Presley "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"
13. Bowling for Soup "Girl All the Bad Guys Want"
14. Chemical Brothers "Galvanize"
15. Def Lepard "Excitable"
16. Bryan Adams "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?"
17. Alanis Morrisette "Uninvited"
18. Canned Heat "Going Up the Country"
19. Bush "A Tendency to Start Fires"
20. Deep Purple "Smoke on the Water"

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No Honor



We're not Actors!

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Monday, April 20, 2009

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky until Monday -- Scroll Down for New Stuff
Got a better caption or photoshop for this photo that's just bristling with subtext? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar! Leave a caption or photo link in comments, or Email a pic to me at the address in my profile. If you're sending a large animation, please provide a hot-linkable URL. You need not own a blog to win! I'll advertise your favorite charity, web site, or even your Skivvy Nine memorabilia!

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday p.m.

Winner!

Lil Bro wins with:
To cut down on bathroom visits at keggers, the Ronco company has introduced the "Frat-Cath" multi-person catheter system.
Other Contests:

Support your Local Gunfighter
Family Security Matters
Right Pundits
Outside the Beltway
RT's Ponderings

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Put it on Shuffle

I'm almost sure my MP3 collection is now free from redundancies. Here's what's playing tonight:

1. 10,000 Maniacs "Don't Talk"
2. Paul Simon "Slip Slidin' Away"
3. Linda Ronstadt "Love is a Rose"
4. KISS "I Want You"
5. Van Halen "Eruption"
6. Scorpions "Winds of Change"
7. Journey "Girl Can't Help It"
8. Def Leppard "Love and Affection"
9. Eddie Money "We Should Be Sleeping"
10. Billy Joel "You May Be Right"
11. Chris Rhea "Shamrock Diaries"
12. Rob Zombie "Scum of the Earth"
13. Cheap Trick "I Want You to Want Me"
14. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band "You'll Accomp'ny Me"
15. Blues Brothers "Shotgun Blues"
16. Garbage "Dumb"
17. Anne Murray "Broken Hearted Me"
18. Elton John "Crocodile Rock"
19. Cyndi Lauper "All Through the Night"
20. Bad Company "Evil Wind"

Kinda surprised there's not a foreign language tune in the bunch.

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Sunday, April 19, 2009

Too True

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Saturday, April 18, 2009

ACTS Tactical Cowboy

The AZ ACTS Evil Design Team came up with another fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon. This time, it was 19th Century Gunfights, and some of us even dressed for the occasion. With the exception of eschewing comfortable footwear, of course.

Matchwinner Karl (right) had been fighting food poisoning all day, but still kicked ass with a .45 Winchester and two blackpowder cartridge-conversion revolvers. Karl and Kevin (center) are the only regular cowboys to play the CAS game.






A good time was had by all, but we can tell some of the regulars are itching for a Tactical Tommy hosefest next month. I think the inspiration for that will be Best Gunfights Documented by Mall Ninjas.

Here's some Video for ya!

Oh, yeah, I placed 7th out of 20 shooters!

And here's some more Video, based on Custer's Last Stand!

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Friday, April 17, 2009

"Fingers of Fire"

Nick and I premiered our 2nd Film "Fingers of Fire" at school Wednesday. Yeah, we took a big technical hit for special effects. (We decided to stop playing with fire when the Fire Engines kept cruising up and down my block. Really!) Even so, I think we had the funniest film in class. We're looking for someone competent with After Effects so we can get this one ready for the College Viewing.

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Thursday, April 16, 2009

Made a New One

Another Happy Birthday to You Both!

Nuts!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Happy BAG Day! Whatcha Get?









Technically, I think I can count my Election Day Box o' Gun purchase as my BAG Day goodie, since this month I bought a DPMS lower receiver pins-and-springs kit, 9-mm hammer (ADCO), and a magazine block that accepts Uzi magazines (from Brownell's). Got almost everything I need for the build, except the engraving to make it SBR-legal, spring and buffer, and the ring-thingee that holds the selector pin and spring in place.

Oh, yeah, and the upper that probably won't be available for years, if ever. Since I've got a spare BUIS for front and rear, plus the extra EOTech, I want a flattop with the railed gas block.

So, what did YOU get?

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Decisions, Decisions

Sh*t. The NRA Convention in Phoenix falls on the same weekend as the Pima College Film Screening. So, do I miss the 2nd Amendment BlogBash, where I'll be a small fish in a large pond, or do I skip out on the Film Festival where I'll likely be the only gunny videographer and have a chance to network with area media types? I can do both if I skip out of Phoenix on Sunday morning and arrange to have my film and video screened on Sunday night (but there's no gaurantee of that happening). It never rains, but it pours.

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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Cruelty to the Aged


Blog Buddy B. sent me this -- then I realized I had the same graphic sitting on my desktop for over a month but had very little time to blog.

Bad Blob!

The cycle begins anew. Our *second* film looms late this week... but my video team is ahead of the game, though the editor is probably cursing my sloppy camerawork and direction.

It'll take a while to YouTube our first film, since I saved it as an autostart DVD to turn in, but neglected to save the .MOV file (gotta recreate it in Final Cut Pro) to share it with the few blog readers interested in such things.

Do you even care?

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Coming this Saturday!

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Monday, April 13, 2009

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky until Monday -- Scroll Down for New Stuff
Got a better caption or photoshop for this unsourced photo? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar! Leave a caption or photo link in comments, or Email a pic to me at the address in my profile. If you're sending a large animation, please provide a hot-linkable URL. You need not own a blog to win! I'll advertise your favorite charity, web site, or even your Mickey Mouse Club memorabilia!

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday p.m.

Winner!

Wyatt Earp with: "M-I-C . . . See my tight ass?"

Other Contests:

Support Your Local Gunfighter (I won 1st Place there last week!)
Family Security Matters
Outside the Beltway
RT's Ponderings (I got 2nd Place there last week!)

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MIAX Match


The Mittenstaters shot their ACTS Match this weekend.

Photo and videos by Tom.

The videos are way cool:

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 4

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Sunday, April 12, 2009

Teh Funny


At DoubleTapper's Blog.

Go there for the pretty IDF girls... and more pretty IDF girls.

And find jewels like this.

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Where's a Cop when you need one?

This week, my friend Jon came down to Tucson to play in the 30th Anniversary Arizona Police and Fire Games, a mini-Olympics for Fire/Police employees and their families, including a three-day shooting competition. Jon acquitted himself well, despite his pistol going Tango Uniform near the end of Day One. The gunsmith at Second Amendment Sports did a great job replacing his broken safety in just a few hours!

Jon was surprised that only one officer from Phoenix showed up to shoot (Jon's a crime lab scientist). Jon won the Bronze Medal in 3-Gun (Tactical), sharing the podium with Kelly Neal (Gold) and a SWAT officer from L.A.! Heh, a handful of LA SWAT guys went home empty-handed, beaten by a lawyer and a scientist!

In the team competition, Mr. Neal, Esquire, joined a father-son team, aptly named "Not a Cop in Sight." Two lawyers and a Junior took home the Gold Medal in their Division! The father also brought home a twin to Jon's medal in the "Patrol Division!" I don't mean to disparage those who Protect and Serve; I'm just darned happy my shootin' buddies did so well and maybe those high-speed, low-drag SWAT operators will take the hint and practice their skills more.

Jon described the Course of Fire as being much more challenging than the Superstition 3-Gun, and that's saying a lot! Fortunately, Jon's in good shape and well-drilled from all the matches he shot earlier this year. That played into his decision to keep shooting his single-stack .45 instead of switching to his high-capacity Glock.

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Friday, April 10, 2009

Hit Points at -10

D&D Co-Creator dies.

(If case the graphic doesn't show, try this.)

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Thursday, April 09, 2009

Connected!

Should have paid better attention to the back of the Big Mac! Our school Macs have sockets for both FireWire 400 and FireWire 800, but the Big Mac has only the 800 Mbps connection... and the cord I just bought for the camcorder is 400! Grr!

Before making another visit to the store or Amazon.com, I tried a little experiment: I connected the camcorder to my LaCie external drive with the FW400 cable and ran FW800 from the LaCie to the Big Mac. It worked! I was able to download my SMM 3-Gun footage and burn a DVD for Jon. Premiere warned that some frames were dropped in the process; we learned the consequences of that when towards the end, the audio began to lose synch with the video (must have lost video frames, but not audio frames). I don't know if that's a consequence of the wierd cable setup, so this is only a temporary fix.

JAG and I are taping our second video tonight; it's his baby, so I'm only Director of Photography and Editor for this project.

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Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Meet Big Mac

My tax refund went towards my new Sony prosumer-grade camcorder; another final chunk o' cash went towards a new iMac and a student copy of Adobe Premiere Pro (not quite the editing suite of Apple's Final Cut Pro 6, but within my limited student/semi-pro budget). "Final chunk" meaning "I'm broke again."

I'll use the school's machines with Final Cut for my remaining school projects, but I'll eventually learn Premiere for my freelance work and the Fall Semester's continuation of my film school work.

That junk on the screen is just Apple's iMovie containing our ill-fated movie "Sweet Deal." We used it as a prop for our second film, poking a little fun at our misfortune.

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It All Depends on the Sherpa

My Video Editing Class professor told us that whenever a Director asks her for the Moon, she signs her return correspondence "Tenzing Norgay," after the Sherpa guide that perhaps set foot on the peak of Mt. Everest before Sir Edmund Hilary did, a little dig to the bossman that he's not going to reach the summit without a lot of help from his friendly neighborhood editor.

What a difference a week makes! I'm attending concurrently a Beginning Video Production class (8-mm digital video tape) and a Cinematography class (16-mm spring-driven Bolex film cameras, film transfered to digital media for editing). In each of my classes, a teammate has stepped forward and said "I have Adobe Premiere on my home computer; I'll do the editing!"

The week before last, my Film class editor claimed (after ignoring texts and phone calls for a week) that he'd gotten the video back late and would try to have it ready by the end of the class period where all the other teams were premiering their handiwork. I asserted that he must get documentation from the transfer company that it was their fault for the tardy return (there was evidence that the company had problems moving to a new location), but as the end of class rolled around, no video, no editor -- stressed-out team members! When I finally got home from class, I got a call from you-know-whom, stating he'd finally put together the rough cut and that he was ready for me to help him with the sound editing and dialog! Oh, well, we could patch this thing together in a week and, with documentation from the transfer company, save our grade from the tardiness penalty! Fortunately, I cajoled a copy of the AVI file from him so I could show it off to Jon while I was up in Phoenix for the Big Match.

T'was a good thing, because at the time of next week's class, our editor was nowhere to be seen in class; turns out he was up in the library on his laptop struggling with burning a self-executing DVD! After his "be down in 5 minutes" turned into an hour, I went up to light a fire under his ass. Before class was dismissed, I got the DVD, but for some reason, the editor never came into class. On top of that, he'd claimed he couldn't get any documentation from the transfer company to explain their tardiness (I began to wonder if he hadn't just developed the film in his basement.) As the class viewed the premiere of our first film, I no longer wondered why. It was hardly changed from the rough cut, there was almost no audio, and he left in the nasty-looking flash-frames as we'd run out of film at the end. What an embarrassing viewing! Even the Professor looked uncomfortable!

The Professor was nice enough to let the remaining team members (Nick, the director and I, the writer) salvage the project, but since our editor disappeared with the film, transfer tape, and shot log, all I had to work with were the audio files on my laptop (where they were recorded), the rough-cut AVI, and my meager knowledge of Final Cut Pro. That gets handed in tomorrow -- we'll be lucky to squeak out a C, IMHO. Beats a D, I guess.

Contrast that experience with my Video Production partner and esteemed editor Jesus, who kept in constant contact with me throughout post-production (we were a two-man team) and posted rough cuts to YouTube so I could offer direction and help find mistakes. At our premiere today, we were the undisputed top Sports Action video aired in class! This was out of a college baseball game, two softball games, one high school volleyball game, a high school girls tennis match, two guys playing a bad game of pool, one roller derby event, and an Afro-Brazilian martial arts class. Oh, yeah, our video? The March ACTS Match based on the 1986 Miami FBI Shootout!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh4OIKxJHTY

I'm the Director Guy with the shortage of vowels in his name. I ran into the Professor (same one) between classes and he restated how impressed he was with our video. Jesus (Latino pronunciation) is my Co-pilot and my Sherpa.

It looks even better on the big screen. I'll meet you in the balcony... bring the popcorn and Milk Duds.

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Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Giving Tactical Cowboy Another Go!


Click for bigger.

Third Saturday (18 Apr 09) at the Pima Pistol Club!

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Monday, April 06, 2009

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky until Monday -- Scroll Down for New Stuff
Got a better caption or photoshop for this photo of my buddy Jon? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar! Leave a caption or photo link in comments, or Email a pic to me at the address in my profile. If you're sending a large animation, please provide a hot-linkable URL. You need not own a blog to win! I'll advertise your favorite charity, web site, or even the old Remington 870 that you don't use any more now that you've got a fancy-pants Benelli!

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday p.m.

Winner!

Serr8d's Photoshop!

Other Contests:

Support your Local Gunfighter
Family Security Matters
Rodney Dill
Gone Rick Motel
Right Pundits
RT's Ponderings

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Sunday, April 05, 2009

.50 BMG vs. 18 Hard drives

At Geeks are Easy.

h/t Red Oregon

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So glad the TPD is full of awesome!


Click.

h/t Red Oregon

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Lawyers, Guns, and Money

The Scottsdale Gun Club borrows their unofficial motto (seen embroidered on the shirts of competitors) from Warren Zevon's hit of the same name. I have absolutely no problem with that, since I've squadded over the years with their members at the SMM3G and the Cactus League and met some really great folks who just happened to be lawyers who eschewed the golf clubs for a rather (I think, but I'm prejudiced) more interesting and fun sport: 3-Gun Practical Shooting.

It's gotten to be that the last person I'd expect to see at a practical match is a fer-real police officer, since they don't seem to mind competing amonst themselves, but unless they're in the ranks of the truly awesome, they'll just keep to themselves. I'd noticed in the Air Force that some non-beret-wearin' airmen and flight-suit-wearin' hobbyists would routinely clean the clocks of the gun-toting Security Forces types at the USAF Excellence-in-Competition matches. My buddy Jon even has the medals to prove it (sadly, I never earned any before I retired... though I tried, dammit!).

This hobby is definitely not for those pinching pennies, but I think that some police officers, though rather well-paid, are just indifferent towards perfecting weapons skills and would rather spend time with their families. No problem with that until said weapons skills come rapidly into the public need. Ya know what I'm sayin'?

Anyway, one of the local 3-Gun luminaries (a lawyer) who passed up the SMM3G I attended last week just happened to kick ass in their Tactical-Heavy Division at the LaRue Tactical 3-Gun match in Texas (held on the same weekend)!!

Heck, I even know the guy! Let's hear it for lawyers with guns! Who know what gun rights are all about!

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Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarty!

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Saturday, April 04, 2009

So Thoughtful....

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Some Yard Work I Can Get Into


Click!

h/t Scott

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Friday, April 03, 2009

Lights, Camera, Ignition!

Last night, my Cinematography partner and I were up past midnight shooting our second film (on the school's 16-mm hand-wound Bolex) at the Cowboy Blob Hacienda.  It was a special effects extravaganza!  We tacked on an effect since I just happened to have a flask of Pyrodex handy!

Nick sacrificed some arm hair to his art before deciding to stick with the fake hand prop throughout the production.  Smart man.



We were allowed the use of the school's lighting kits for this one, so we shot night-for-night, using a blue gel sheet to simulate moonlight/streetlights (since Tucson 'burbs typically don't have streetlights, it was practically the only light we had to work with.

It's always a reel (heh) challenge to work with film because you don't get the immediate feedback that video gives you.  We won't know how it turns out until it comes back from the developer and the professional transfer to digital video tape.

  
Thankfully, we didn't catch my car, house, or yard on fire.  We took all prudent safety precautions, but we were curious as to why all the fire trucks kept passing by on my quiet little side street during the night.









Nick brought his friend Curtis to help with the lights and man the camera when Nick and I had to be in the same shots.  It was a lot of fun, but I much prefer video to film.

We're finishing up tonight, so I think I'll get some beer for the wrap party afterwards.

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Thursday, April 02, 2009

Beer o'Clock

Jon never fails to offer me yummy beer when I visit, but on this past long weekend, I played the good guest and brought some tasty brewskis, albeit ones that Jon provided via a Christmas Microbrewed Beer of the Month trial subscription (do I have great friends, or what?).  There were four varieties, three of each, so Jon, the Missus, and I got to sample each of these fine beers.  Later visitors would just have to muddle through with Jon and Kirsten's Pilsner Urquell and Longhammer IPA.

I can't pick a favorite, but this was the best batch IMHO!  Nothing too heavy, just good stuff!

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Product Review: Advanced Tactical Camera


The ATC by Pacific Concepts/Ravenwood Tactical is touted as "the next step in firearms training and tactical accountability."

Here's the site.

A Review by Borelli Consulting.

Thanks to a Christmas Technology Subsidy by my best buddy Chief, I picked up one as a Gun Blog accessory. It shoots up to 640X480 VGA resolution, so it translates to YouTube rather well; to a high-quality video production, not so much.


On my second outing with it, it conked out right about where the first shot would have been and refused to work afterwards. I think it killed the 32 MB onboard memory chip -- when I finally inserted the 2 GB SD card (not supplied), it worked just fine.

The ATC downloads to a computer via a supplied USB cable. It's a good thing I have a MacTop, because my Dell PC running XP refused to recognize the AVI files. YMMV.

Here are some stages from the Superstition 3-Gun where I'd mounted the ATC on my Cooley-braked POF-USA upper/Bushmaster lower (the POF-Meister).

Stage 2
All that rattling around was me clearing a stuck casing.

Stage 3

Stage 6
Peace Through Superior Firepower and First-Round Hits! Yay 5X optics!

Stage 8

Overall, I give it a fair-good rating.

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