A Leslie Wong Blog

Film critic Joel Siegel died today. He was significant in my life because he interviewed me in 1976. Years later, as a photographer for ABC, I ended up working with Joel when he did his ABC 20/20 interviews. I photographed him with such luminaries as Eddie Murphy and Andrew Lloyd Weber.

In the fall of 1975, I had been living in New York for only a few months. My mom called to tell me that she had obtained visas for us to go to China, as “Overseas Chinese“. She hadn’t been back to China since she left in the 40’s. President Ford and Henry Kissinger were going to China in December. So were my mom and I.

In 1976, Alex Haley had just published Roots: The Saga of an American Family and Smithsonian Magazine published my roots story in April. I got a call from Joel. He had read the piece and he wanted to do a “roots” story for WABC.

All I can remember was that I was living in a studio in 4th floor walk-up at 21 W. 76th St. The cameraman came huffing up the stairs into my apartment, looked around and said, “This is a great place, where’s the rest of it?” Joel looked at my photographs and asked me about my family. I made an audio recording of the interview when it aired – this was before VCRs – and Roger Grimsby did the intro. Years later when I was working with Joel, I never reminded him that he had once interviewed me.

Or you could just get one for retail at the Apple Store. And wouldn’t a nerd start taking it apart as soon as possible?

dzhugashvili over at digg.com says, “Processors are typically compared by their performance alone, but the folks at The Tech Report have put together an extensive comparative article that ranks 16 AMD and Intel chips based on how much bang they offer for your buck. The results may surprise you.”

read more | digg story

Things must be slow in Columbus, OH, for Charles Starrett to be reporting on the iPhone box over at iLounge .

robszol over at digg.com says, “This is a picture is really a monumental achievement of humankind.”

read more | digg story

cirelo over at Digg wrote, “Without any sort of fanfare, AT&T Inc. has started offering a broadband Internet service for $10 a month, half the price of its cheapest advertised plan” (in some states).

read more | digg story

I’m not often amazed by technology, but every once in a while, I see something that truly amazes me.

More than thirty years ago, as a photography student, I attended at lecture called “Critics Criteria.” A.D. Coleman was on the panel, as was one of my teachers at the University of California Extension, Joan Murray.

One of criterion that they discussed was how a photograph “extended my own vision.” Those photographs made you see in a different way. I remember Greg Heisler’s photographs did that for me. The Photosynth Technology Preview also does that.

If you think that Microsoft is evil and just a gigantic, slow moving entity (and even if you don’t), you should take a look at Microsoft Live Labs’ Photosynth Technology Preview. Unfortunately, you need Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista and a hefty video card to try it on your own computer, but if you meet the system requirements, it’s worth looking at.

If you’re using a Macintrash or you just want to watch a video of this technology, this is a YouTube video of the demo at the TED (“TED – Technology, Entertainment, Design, an invitation-only event where the world’s leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration ” – a hoity-toity* moniker if I ever heard one) by Microsoft Live Labs Architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas.)

*my friend James Drake

I haven’t been a user of Flickr, but since I see it referenced so frequently (Scoble talks about Flickr and Zooomr all the time, and he’s a professional), I thought I’d see how Flickr manages images.

Since I started using Wordpress v2.2 and got all widgetized (Geez, look at my sidebar), I found Joe Tan’s (of Silas Partners) Flickr Photo Album for WordPress.

Mr. Tan generously released the plugin under the GPL, so all I had to do was get an API from Flickr.

I uploaded a bunch of photographs that the shop took of the surface prep of our BMW Bavaria.

When we bought our BMW, we thought it was a relatively “rust-free” example. But living on a peninsula that is hanging out in the Pacific Ocean has a negative effect on steel.

I had trouble keeping the exterior paint shiny. I bought a Makita 9227C 7″ Variable Speed Hook and Loop Polisher/Sander and numerous compounds, Meguiars Medium and Fine Cut cleaners, and various waxes. It took a lot of effort to make the car look good, but it would last about a week – the paint was shot.

As the shop, J & J Auto Body and Paint Refinishing in Monterey, started surface preparation for the painting the car, the car’s paint history started appearing.

When they started sanding, they found several layers of paint. They recommended bare metal sanding ($$$$). The sanding revealed previous repairs all along the left side of the car (body filler).

J & J also did some metal fabrication to repair a rust hole in the rear window frame and the corners of the doors.

(2008) I switched to SimpleFlickr:

After about 7 years of not living in New York, I started eating supermarket bagels – I get Sara Lee or Thomas’ depending on what’s on sale.

Chris went to New York this week and brought me back a half a dozen H&H Bagels. It’s the place Kramer was supposed to be working in Seinfield (sorry, that what I call it).

It was just an Upper West Side ritual, going to Zabar’s on Saturday night to get some smoked salmon and then to H & H for some bagels for Sunday breakfast with the Times.

I haven’t eaten any of them yet but I’m so f#$%ed, it probably doesn’t make any difference to me now.

For the price H & H charges for bagels when you order from the Internets, I thought my friend, Pam Sztybel, who has her painting studio a block away, could go over there and Fedex them around and we’d have a business.