A View of a Bed I Don't Sleep On

Just recently we had changed this room to a retro gaming room where my wife and I would just play old video games. At this time of the day the light was incredible and I need to capture what I could before it decided to sleep for the day. I used the Retro filter on my X Half and it gave it this cool color that I enjoyed.

So far the pace I'm putting this camera through has me realize a couple of things:

1. ISO should be at 200 on a sunny day if you're on film simulation mode and using Aperture Priority.
2. Keep the Aperture at 5.6 as best you can. It's the sharpest point of the lens.
3. Fuji Chrome, Classic Neg & Retro filters are my go-to's for the sylistic approach to the images.
4. Make sure to give it a bit of "Weak Grain" because the images do tend to look like phone filters without some noise.
5. Don't let the YouTube influencers tell you this camera sucks. Most of the time their pictures suck and they can't make a good photograph if their life depended on it.

I can almost say that this camera has a lot of interesting limitations that make the challenge of photographing good for me. Considering that I'm a film shooter with cameras that have loads of limitations (you really have to know where you're at with the exposure because most of my cameras do not) this camera sits within that frame of limitations that allows me to figure out how to make a photograph a certain way. It's making me think about how I frame pictures again and that's what I've been missing lately. This and make music has been def exciting for sure.

I have a good amount of images in the tank to sort through and post in the coming weeks. I'll def be shooting more so stay tuned

- Artly

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Morning Commute

In the past week we've been getting these sporadic moments of rain and humid sun in the mornings and afternoons (vice versa on other days) and it's been interesting for photos for sure. And speaking of photos I've been liking the idea of just shooting since I've acquired this X Half. Sort of takes me back to becoming a beginner again and making things feel like I'm discovering new ways of going about old habits. I'm finding that taking pictures with these limitations are what make the process a bit more interesting and help make photography become a bit more of a challenge than having accessability to everything that other units have these days. Now I do carry a X100T and that camera is honestly one of the best cameras I have, but I've come to realize that is not one of my favorites. I struggled using that camera a bit, but over time I think I understood what it was good for the moment I started putting it through it's paces.

On the X100T I realize that I wanted to get the RAW form of the sensor and not put any filters on top of the images. I wanted to learn the camera and deal with the colors it offered with no simulations. I kinda realized that method was good enough up until I started getting tired of the colors that it was offering. Plus my workflow was straight up ass. I just couldn't do it anymore. It lead me to shooting film more and more and just shelving whatever I shot for a good amount of years. Now, I will say that the ergonomics and the size are what keeps me from selling this camera. It's a camera that's familiar and is limiting since it's a fixed lens unit. I only use one lens, but that's something that I'm able to take on and use around the subjects that I'm photographing. I hate thinking about specific focal lengths and let the limitations help me become more creative.

Back to the X Half I'm having a lot of enjoyment using the filter simulations and allowing simulated grain to make the images have this specified look I wish I could implement on my X100T. Honestly it's probably one of the best cameras I have and it's truly gotten me excited to go to places and just shoot stuff. This coming week I'll be heading to New York with my wife to celebrate our anniversary through a K-Pop show and hangs around the city. This will give me a chance to just shoot shoot shoot as much as I can and I hope I can come home with something. Hell, maybe I'll be able to collect a good amount of work and print them out and actually make a project again. Who knows! All in all I'm having fun and that's all it matters.


- Art Photo

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Rainy Season

I'm not gonna lie to you. This camera is really doing it for me. I'm hecka excited for this thing.

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Fuji X Half

Just recently my wife and I bought each other the Fuji X Half (wife got the chrome version) and have been learning how to use it over the course of the days. Much like my X100T the X-Half has quirkiness forcing me to figure out how to navigate the camera and the subjects differently than your standard cameras out in the market. This one is slowly bringin me back to taking photos more often than usual (I usually bring my camera out anyway, but seems like there's more incentive).





Perfect pairing for a shooter like me it's small and easy to just pick up and head out the door much like my other cameras that I currently have. The Leica (needs repair unfortunately), the Konica Hexar, the Olympus Pen F and even the QL17 all have that ability to not make any excuses and just grab and go considering how small and mobile they are. I continue to have this mindset because lugging a huge monolith isn't fun and almost looks kinda dumb.





Purely this is an Instagram Camera lol, but then again it's also a camera where you can just have fun with it without having to think about HUGE production. And I think that most photographers in this era think about that too much. They don't really know how to have fun with this thing and are pixel peeping and poo pooing the aspects of it not having RAW and wanting it to be like the camera they already have and not try to experience something new and actually run the paces of the camera for a long while and all this other shit that doesn't really matter. For the most part these images are only going to be digital copies and they'll never in their life ever try to print these images. I can almost guarantee that's going to be the case.

As for me I think I want to try my hand on printing these images in some way or another. There's an Instax printer ability for this camera (with much of their other cameras also able to provide the same concept), but also I think it's good enough to print a 5 x 7 or even an 8 x 10. This might be one of those cameras I use to make a small project on just to get on the feeling of shooting like that again. I'm not sure how I want to go about it, but it might be something good for like portraits and stuff??? I don't know. I don't know anymore lol, but I'm excited about it.


Until then I'm going to be putting it through its paces. We'll see what I can gather up


- ArToGraphEr

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What a Surprise. I'm Also Not Surprised

A bit ago I was met with a letter from the Rhode Island Diocese Church requesting anullment from my ex-wife. I was surprised, but not surprised considering this person would go through these channels to avoid any contact with me directly. And honestly I'm glad that this person didn't reach out like that because the last thing I want to hear is this person's voice in my ear. Brings so much trauma lol. Gawd... how did I even get out of this. It still trips me up.

I actually called the Diocese to ask what was going on with this letter and basically boils down to the fact these requests are annulment participations for the other party to possibly be eligible to re-marry again through the church. I asked the individual on the other line "what would happen if I just don't answer this request?" and the lady's reply was "well... you'll keep receiving these requests until you send back a response." Devil horns start growing and could've meant potentially pend for the other party to marry again (lol). This was the comment on the letter that gave me that evil:

"Please know, too, that declining to participate does not help your former spouse's case; in fact, it often hurts it by, for instance, possibly depriving the Court of needed corroboratory testimony or crucial information that only you can provide.

I gave it a couple of weeks and decided to fill it out and send it back. I wanted to be petty so bad lol, but I gave in (yuck)

What's strange is that I was still married through the church (derogatory). Feels gross lol and I'm actually glad, in a sense, that this was done. What's weird is that this letter came a week after celebrating with my family and friends through a weekend (Friday and Sunday) of receptions (we decided to celebrate a year after). What's also weird is that the letter found me in my current address. Unfortunately you could look my name up and find where I live and I think I want to rid of that lol.

But I'm happily married and am able to celebrate it everyday by rotting on the couch with my wife not giving a fuck. The last portion of that life is dead for good. I could come here and say a lot of things about my ex that most of her friends don't know about, but I'll save my breath for things that actually mean something. Lol its so weird seeing this and thinking about how this was manifested.

I wrote a letter attached to the request basically saying to not ask for any more favors as any mail coming through this congregation would simply be thrown in the garbage. They get one and one only with the line at the bottom of the page Leave me alone forever. I'm dead serious about this.

I know it's kind of weird to post something like this considering the momentum, but you know.. side quest lol. It happens.

Pro tip: Marry somebody that doesn't treat you like garbage

- Art (non derogatory)

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Low-in-Key

So...

Projects upon projects upon projects. I keep myself busy as much as I can. And being at the middle point of 40 I'm realizing that not a lot of my peers have the same drive as I do. I'm constantly working on something. If I'm not working on something I'm oberserving to get inspired to work on something. This had become a habit of mine to make sure my mind doesn't go to waste. I kinda fear losing these skillsets that could potential be something of use or inspiration something or someone. These ideas were born because of my late father giving me the opportunity to understand music at such an early age.

As futures become bleak I'm becoming more adamant about making sure my presence is a positive one. Lately I've been trying to connect with some old haunts that I've lost touch with years ago and am glad to say that most of them have been making a lot of positive moves. I'm not sure if its folks from the valley that have this specified mindset, but I know that majority of them have been making their own ways in life and I'm deeply proud of them. In many ways it's gotten me inspired to make these types of moves myself.

What's inspiring the most is that my old friends are just doing "the thing" and making sure they get the thing done in the best way possible. I'm not against the quietness of people and I think I'm more apt to knowing that if there's no news than it's good news. This may be totally incorrect, but not a lot of us need to tell everyone what's going on with them all the time.

I don't think I have much else to say other than that life has been pretty cool and continues to stay cool. I have no complaints and everyone around me has been seeing that. Oh! Noted that I've been going to Martial Arts classes 2 hours Mondays & Tuesdays and by the end of this month I'm considering going for Wednesdays just so I can sweat a bit more and let my limbs be a bit stronger than usual. I hear all the ailments and just don't want to be in that position ever.

Take care of yourselves everyone. I hope this post shows that I'm working on new work all the time and I barely sleep


- LST LVS Bueno

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How Have You Been?

Photo by Eldon Bueno 2025

It's already the end of March and I haven't written anything in a bit. Been quite busy with this reception thing and other creative stuff that's been going on.





This has been a longtime coming considering I've always looked up to Jonathan as a musician and as a person in my adolescent years. Though that we had grown apart for some time I recently had the chance to ask him if he had any recordings I could lay some baritone parts on and release. Thankfully he agreed and what you hear are two tracks from this record. All recorded to tape.




This was suprise release even for me considering that this is my first foray of sampling using a pretty archaic sampler. Sometimes the basics can bring out some creative projects and this was certainly one of them. It's not perfect and has lots of blemishes, but the idea is certainly there. This project is actually a preview of how I want to write music in the next few projects I'm manifesting.

<======>

So that's what's been happening lately. Now I know that I don't update as much as I usually would, but keeping my mouth shut has been quite the theme for me. Just doing the thing and not having to talk about it has been very freeing. No matter what I'm still plugged in for some of the projects that other people have been releasing which the exercise of listening has been my approach as of late.

I don't really want to talk about things that I don't really want out there anymore. I may hint at some things, but your personal thoughts and feelings should be kept to yourself and to the ones you trust the most. I've finally made a commitment that being open isn't always a good thing. You can be welcoming and warm, but you can still be private and keep to yourself if you want to be. I see that most people are so online that it gets them in trouble and they tend to not check themselves. And most times people say the stupidest shit online to get reactions or are really that fucking dumb. I'm not perfect, but I know my place when it comes to being outspoken about how I feel about certain things. I can't be the only one thinking about this kind of shit.

Being private is not so bad. I know that to some it's a call for help to a degree, but for me I'm not really interested in opening up doors like that to people that don't even matter. Choose your peace and try to stick with it. You may end up realizing that life is better that way and makes you a bit more mysterious lol.


- The Bueno

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2026

Welp.. Happy New Year!! 2025 was definitely one for the books considering how much work I was able to release. This year I'll be continuing to focus on a lot of my musical endeavors. Here's what I got going on:

1. The Yamaha MT8X
I've finally found an 8 Track Cassette Recorder that was in great condition at a reasonbable price. Did a short test with it the other day and it seems like it's ready to go. This unit will be the offical recording unit for LST LVS personal projects from here on out. I have some ideas that I'm going to be drawing out in the next few weeks that will hopefully see some light for 2026. Stay tuned for that

2. Yamaha CP
I finally got a keyboard that could keep me away from using some free VST software for my DAW. Now that I have this keyboard I'm able to connect it to my guitar hero guitar to do some midi connection and write the riffs I wanted to write with no restrictions. This has been such a great addition for the setup that I'm now off the market for a keyboard. This is all I need

3. SP-303 & SP-404 MKII
Last year I started dipping my toes into sample based recording. When I inititally bought the SP-303 I wanted to see how the workflow felt using something archaic than the new samplers we have today. I exclusively want to sample from cassettes and have been bringing this unit to work to sample from cassettes I bought from SAVERS. Intially this was just to get the exercise of capturing samples a certain way, but at this point I'm realizing that this workflow helps keep my mind fresh on how I work on sampling and to figure out new ways to record.

4. Recording Projects
I think I'm going to be going full steam ahead writing and recording this year. Not sure how many releases will be in the chamber, but I have a couple planned. There's a collaboration that I can't really speak on just yet, a couple of tapes and maybe tracks that I can one off for you all to enjoy. I want to keep the practice of writing and releasing stuff just so I can see it out in the world.

5. Photo Editing
This year will be the year I'll finally take the editing of scanned photos serious. I'm going to be doing my best not to shoot as much and focus primarily on the editing side of photography. I've shot enough work and I think that it needs to be displayed somewhere. I don't know where, but somewhere and somehow.

... and that's where I'm realizing the artistic direction is chaning. I've shot so much, but edited so little that I forgot that the meaning of photography (at least in my end of it) is to shoot and edit your work and not just SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT all the fucking time. I'm beginning to realize that the camera is fading away in interest and I'm slowly wanting to just dive in on the other side of editing the work and cleaning up what I got. I have to be good and I have to let that side of me be in full focus. Photography has not been that attractive for awhile and I think there's that shift that I'm beginning to understand with others who had faded from it all these years.

I have a lot going on this year that will require a lot of time at home rather than go out and I'm okay with that. With the time I have to record these days I'm going to be doing my best to write as much as I can this year. Pretty excited man.


- Arthur (B)

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What a Year

As a creative I've been on my bag on the music stuff. Not so much on the photography game, but I'm finding myself letting photography sort of rest a bit. I have some New Years Resolutions that will involve me doing something different with photography that I'm actually excited about. It will make more sense once I get the ball rolling.

This release was a fun one as I continued my high as an observer of Japan. It felt new, but it also felt like home and I cannot even tell you how happy I was to experience that, let alone, be able to write about it in the musical sense. It was cool writing those drum scripts in JP and be able to bring that experience home. I'm forever grateful to my wife and best friend that we got a chance to experience that together. I'm definitely wanting to go back and this time I'll learn the language a bit lol. This was recorded on a Tascam 424.





Quite Life Vol II was released a few months after Japan Scripts and this release was just one of those "I feel like writing and release something" type of thing. And Quite Life series is kind of that concept. Of course its a reaction practice of Olympus Pen F images that I've taken over the years and deciding how I want the direction of the work go with the image that I decide to choose as a front cover. This was also recorded on a Tascam 424.





Probably my messiest recording yet. "Age 40 - 1985" is a coming of age record lol, but it defined a lot of what I was dealing with for the last few years being able to have stability and realizing that my life is loud in my head, but quiet outside. A lot has changed over the years and with the realization that my writing has gotten tighter after this record gave me a better perspective as to how I'm going to continue to make music. I'm happy about a lot of things and to be able to melodically express this musically was cathartic, but frustrating at the same time. I realized that making a full length record is tough and you have to take time to make sure the songs you write fit in the mold. Being that this was a recording diary for the last few years a lot of takes needed to be scrapped, some saved, angles of songs needed to be reviewed and order of songs needed to be placed carefully. I don't know if I'll be going through this approach again writing, but it did give me some idea of how I want to approach the next recordings. I love this record despite it being so flawed and it being my first full length release. This was recorded on REAPER DAW (godlike DAW for indie musicians like myself)





This is the final release of the year for me and it was a collaboration with my brother Daniel Dominguez. This was set to release late last year, but due to the fires in the Palisades along with contract market negotiations that LIKHA was trying to sort out the record did not release until late this year. To be honest I hated the fact that this was a thing with a record that Daniel and I had created, but to try out a different avenue for release I had to stay patient and let it rock when it was ready to go. This is the original cover for the record. When you search for this record on streaming platforms you'll see totally different font.
We had to comply to the LIKHA version of it if we were going to see some type of "in" towards the commercial industry. Even on some of the posts regarding the record release LIKHA had done this weird AI attachment that I did not like at all. I understand they're doing a lot for us, but at this point I think I'm going to continue to release music independently with Daniel for the forseeable future. I need control of the work we complete. I don't want to compromise and I want to stick to the direction for this next record collab we will do soon. This was recorded on REAPER DAW and passed back and forth with Daniel via Email.


(==========)


I'm thinking next year I'll be doing much of the same, but on a much higher altitude. There are some things I'm wanting to do differently. I have some projects I'll be doing next year that I won't discuss quite yet. In the meantime I'm going to be living off the high that I've been able to accomplish much of the work I've dedicated this whole year. Being prolific is to be imaginative and being imaginative is to be open. I love being an artist and I think I'll keep that going until I can't no more.

- Arthur (LST LVS)

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Gear

"So... I'm gonna kinda geek out a bit and talk about gear I bought."

Just recently I acquired two pedals to update my current setup. They are the Boss IR-2 and the JHS 424.

For a few years I've been using the VOX Stomplab IG as an amp modeler for all the recordings that have been released. The idea of using this piece of gear is to eliminate having to use any microphone setups which would take up recording time. When I realized that this recording setup was effective I started to play around with other ideas on how I optimize it looking through amp modeler type of units. I've given up using plugins and software to get specific sounds. When I watched an interview with Mac Demarco for Ernie Ball I realized that his approach to recording was simple and straight to the point inspiring me to have that same approach. I wanted to control more of the onboard gear than the software (and anyway my laptop is pretty damn old so I'm not gonna even try to add a bunch of plugins and software that may cause it to die).

I want to train my hearing rather than looking at a computer for specific frequencies. I want to turn knobs and get color that way. Honestly I let the mastering producers take care of the bigger sound these days.I'm hoping soon I could acquire a Tascam 488 or a Tascam 688 and record records with that setup alone and use on board gear for most of the recording processes. Obviously I want to have the DAW on the tuck for certain things, but I want to be able to explore recording on tape more than ever. I think I love having the analog process be more triumphant than the digital.


So the Boss IR-2 is going to be used in the newest productions here on out until I find another unit that will suit my needs as a player. I bought this specific unit for the crunchy emulation alone as I'm more keen to having dirty sound on my recordings. On top of that I want to be able to put other pedals behind it to sort of enhance the experience. I may need to get a compressor pedal to sort of accenuate certain frequencies.

During some tests using the Baritone guitar the output of sound was definitely worth spending the money on the unit. With the slightly dirty settings of the Tweed and even the Diamond selection the sound really came out man. I'm already figuring out how I want to make specific riffs for this sound and am excited to see what else I can mix with the guitar.



The JHS 424 pedal just recently came out and being the Mk.gee fan I am I’ve realized that most of the sounds he was making from raw 424 preamps blended well for the recordings I was making for the “Age 40 - 1985” record. With Mk.gee he was able to craft the specific sound that I’ve been wanting to capture to incorporate with the slightly dirty sounds when played soft and this distorted break up when played hard.

Honestly he's the reason why I look at the Baritone a different way. In fact I gravitate towards that instrument more along with my Squire Bass VI. In the beginning the Baritone guitar was a bit of a struggle to work with, but putting in flatwounds that were both from the Bass VI sets and regular flatwounds I'm able to play it the way I envisioned it: finger style most times, but with thumbpick strum on some heavy chords for dynamics.

Right now I'm starting to write some riffs with Nicole from One Hundred Year Ocean and have been compiling riffs that could potentially be melodic and heavy at the same time. I'm going to be using these new pieces of gear to see if the sound I'm going after would create the vision I'm chasing after. Maybe if this project works out (and hopefully it does) that I can officially be in a band with some who has been a big influence in my work as well.

Using the Stomplab IG def helped provide a foundation of how I wanted to make certain sounds on my recordings, but I realized that there is a bit of a limitation being that the patches don’t necessarily have space to tweak certain frequencies. It was kinda difficult to dial in sometimes since it is patched based. The latitude to make any changes was a bit of a challenge. I’m hoping that this unit will allow me to dial in specific tones for specific guitar sounds I want to make and journal that as reference.

That's all for now! Thank you all for checking out the record. I really appreciate it!

- Arthur

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Social Media Experiment Part 2 - Results are in

@lst_lvs “Age 40 - 1985” OUT NOW!! #mathrock #midwestemo #emo #indie #lstlvs ♬ original sound - LST LVS

I had attempted to post everyday for the rollout of the record to see if any new movement would become found for current users on the app. As of October 1st 2026 these were my findings from my TikTok Social Media Experiment:

October 1st, 2025 TikTok analytics

Date	Views	Likes
Sep 01	177	10
Sep 02	136	06
Sep 03	162	05
Sep 04	148	02
Sep 05	140	03
Sep 06	134	03
Sep 07	138	05
Sep 08	544	34
Sep 09	1134	63
Sep 10	1001	41
Sep 11	1406	85
Sep 12	536	24
Sep 13	436	22
Sep 14	970	47
Sep 15	345	12
Sep 16	262	8
Sep 17	756	29
Sep 18	312	10
Sep 19	208	08
Sep 20	317	09
Sep 21	351	12
Sep 22	281	08
Sep 23	243	08
Sep 24	641	42
Sep 25	186	02
Sep 26	956	45
Sep 27	800	41
Sep 28	812	36
Sep 29	8576	153
Sep 30	271	14

Soo... was the experiment successful? Aboslutely not lol. This app is strange and fill with opportunists. I do see the appeal of why people come to this platform to blowup. Dude I even bought a promo for the day of my bday and it did absolutely nothing hahahhahaa.

Now there could be some factors that come into play as to why I got the results I got:

1. My music is very Niche:
Mathrock instrumental, indie, midwest emo emo band with no lyrics? Yeah.. not alot of people are gonna be into that

2. Originality:
This is an original project and original projects really take a long time to get off the ground. I'm here for the ride though

3. It needs more... something something. Like a gimmick:
Unfortunately I don't have that lol

Aside from that this PR rollout was kinda fun to do. It exercised specific skills I don't usually stretch and made me realize how much grinding an artist has to do to make it happen. And even then they still don't get the stability financially and mentally they deserve. The music industry has been very fucked and it's real. I'm glad that I'm a 9 - 5 worker doing this as a serious hobby without any attachments. It's definitely a blessing and I hope to make more of these projects in the near future.

thank you all for tuning in for the month. It was freakin fun honestly!!!


- Arthur (LST LVS)

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Age 40 - 1985

Age: 40 - 1985 is a project that's been in development for 2-3 years. On my teleworking days I'd head to my makeshift studio to write parts of songs. Drums are scripted when I'm on site working when I have an hour or only 15 minutes to kill in between assignements. And during these recordings I found myself completely lost as to what I wanted from the project, however, I knew there was something in these songs leading me to believe that it was special. I had to keep going and see it all the way through. This was the hardest project to complete in my years of writing and composing music.

The title "Age 40 - 1985" is an explanation of itself; I turn 40 years old on the release of this record. It signifies how long I've been working on this project and how much I've grown from all the releases that I've created. It also notes that this is the first time I attempt to write a full length record and release it with the intention of celebrating an important time in my life. From the years I've been through a lot I focused on writing through this record to keep this spirit of practice alive and not neglect what I have that is considered a gift. I get to make art without anyone telling me if its wrong or right. I get to celebrate this record the way I want. This project is me at 40yo, free and happy to be alive all the time. Happy because finally things are where they should be for me and where I want them to be.

I must admit that this record is pretty out of control lol. So many blemishes can be found on this album and I decided that I wanted to keep those in there. With Ai being a huge killer in the music industry as of right now I am realizing that humanizing these mistakes and making them be realized are essential to how I'll be continuing this feat in recording. Already the drums are digitally programmed and having to figure out how to make them a bit more natural can be tough. I wish I could play drums the way I program them or have an actual drummer perform these songs, but since this is an at home project I can only use the tools that I have available to make happen.

I hope you all enjoy this record. One day I'll be able to perform this project. For now lets celebrate.


- LST LVS (Art)

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Actually Went to a Concert The Other Day

My former Supervisor / turned music nerd friend invited me to watch LCD Soundsystem play in New Haven last Friday. This was planned a bit ago, but had anticipated it during the week of. I listed to a couple of records of theirs and was sort of digging what was on recorcing, but I think the full experience was realized during the show (which should be the thing). The lead singers' vocals was just incredible and the instrumentation of the band was by far solid and catchy. I don't find myself listenting to much work like this, but with opportunities like these they tend to be a curiousity for me to expand. Sometimes you gotta jump in the pool not knowing how deep the water is.

And of course I enjoyed it. I danced all night like a white girl lol. I haven't moved like that in years, but it was also kinda interesting that my body didn't necessarily feel sore. I have to thank Muay Thai for all the stretching and cardio I intensly do during the 45 to an hour I'm there. I also blame all the biking I try to do when I'm tellaworking.

Check this band out if you haven't yet. I gave it a chance and had a great time!


- Concert Goer Bueno

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Social Media Experiment

@lst_lvs This is Day 2 promoting my full length album “Age 40 - 1985”. Follow me on this journey!! #mathrock #midwestemo #emo #lstlvs ♬ original sound - LST LVS

For the roll out of this project I'm conducting an experiment for this record. Recently I had downloaded the Tik Tok app and made a good amount of videos to start the roll out from September 1st to 29th. As of late the landscape as an artist is pretty cruel and everyone wants to be on top of the game. I for one don't give a shit, but curious to know how one could get engagement for a record.

The plan was to use my old school digital video camera to shoot some stuff and have a template ready so that videos are easy to render on Adobe Premier. These can be simple videos made merely of me doing a video self portrait or a video of me doing simple things. The roll out had already begun and it's been interesting to say the least.

I'm doing this because I want to celebrate two things:

1. Turning 40
2. Releasing my *first* official full length record

After that I'm not sure what the hell I'm going to do lol. If anything I'll just keep it there for the archive. Doing this promo stuff is exhausting and I'm not really good at PR, but I need to learn how to exercise those muscles. Probably on the next promo I'll be doing the same thing where I'm just promoting other work and stuff with the templates in mind.

What's been fun is using my FlipCamera to shoot some of these types of vids and I'm kinda glad that I got this thing. It's so crappy hahahahaha. But when you're doing home movies that's what you should expect. It's giving me some ideas on how I can make other videos in the next few months just based on how I process certain things. Other than that I think that I'll keep at it with the posting and see what happens from there. I'm not very optimistic about the roll out, but we'll see what happens towards the end of the series. After that who knows?

- Arthur (the Artist)

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Husband Part Deux

If you told me that I could be remarried again after a divorce I'd probably tell you you were right lol. Of course I would. I like to try things twice just to see what happens sometimes. And being the way I am I'm good at seeing positive things ahead. I could be negative about some stuff, but I think that I've been through a lot of negative that most things don't really surprise me anymore. It's not all daises, but practicing to stay positive is a lot of work and does help your mood.

I know I'm a bit late on a post like this, but knowing that I live life more than I live on the computer is something to be proud of. Things are really good and I wanna keep it like that.

And kinda on the topic of marriage I've been scanning old film as of recent and found my ex-wife on a couple of images. Of course I'm not gonna scan those lol, but it definitely led me to believe that I was in love with something like that back then. I reflect back and realize that I'm good at trying to see the good in someone regardless of the abuse I was enduring. Things were really bad and I mean really really bad. My confidence level had always stayed low and I had to do things that I didn't wanna do. A lot of my friendships had to end because of her and sometimes I feel like I wanna go back and get some of those back. It may be too late now, but I think about them quite a bit.

Though that I had to go through a lot to get here I'm glad I'm here and I don't want to leave. I'm good and nothing can change that. I just wish the ones that mattered to me that I had to leave behind could see me now and realize what incredible things we can celebrate and do together. Alas I'll keep that hope when it happens.

- The Married Guy

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To Me For Me You'll See

Finally am posting a new track off the new record "Age 40 - 1985". I'll get in more depths later about the record once it starts to get to release time. For now enjoy this track. I hope you all like it.

- Arthur (LST LVS)

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From Earlier This Year

Earlier this year I was doing a running routine during lunches and brought my camera with me to see if I can get some snaps. Using this Minolta DiMage XT is not easy sometimes considering how old the tech is, but I do happen to force myself to take pictures a certain way. It's actually pretty fun and does really require anything else other than patience.












I think that image making is starting to make sense again. Mainly because I'm not necessarily trying to do anything crazy outlandish and am just trying to just keep a diary of things that I do and see. I'm becoming more aware that taking photos even the littlest of creatures can really help expand your mind when you limit yourself with specific tools. Having everything all at once kinda makes things worse lol.

Maybe one day I'll exhibit some of these works somewhere, but right now I'm having too much fun working with this angle of photography. I hope it doesn't stop and hope that I can make something out of it. A bit ago a co-worker had gifted me an enlarger to have and am wondering what kind of experiments I wanna try to partake in. Hopefully this will help me sort of work on the cyanotype of printing I've been wanting to try over the last few years. We'll see.


- Art(icle)

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Finally a Picture of Me

Just recently Mike Adame sold a small run of these shirts. Being the Mike Adame fan that I am I found myself grabbing one with the intention to advertise it. The other day I went on a grocery run with my fiance and sought the opportunity for her to take a picture of me in front of some items using my Minolta DigiCam. And yeah this is the result. It was fun lol.

Kinda made me think how fun it is to just post images these days and I think (if i'm not burnt out doing it) I could just start posting stuff again just to make the habit of exercising that muscle. I do miss editing and finding ways of take pictures and editing them on my computer and letting them rock out in the world and go onto the next picture and do the same thing again. Especially since I have this digicam I want to just start figuring out how to make pictures look as good as it can be without having to deal with the nonsense of all this AI shit that's been happening for the last few years. Just freakin' have fun and let the images just rock ya know?

I'm sure there a lot of images out there that I took awhile back that I haven't edited yet. Most of the images during the editing process that I'm completed have been the film stuff and that's going to take a looong time to edit. It's good exercise and I'm happy to keep this process pending.

Enjoy your day everyone! Lots of stuff coming up for these next few weeks soo stay tuned

- Arthat

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Japan 2024

I finally got around to casually edit some stuff from the Japan trip from last year. A lot of my excursions with the camera were mainly done on film (which I'll get to soon), but for now here are the images that I took using the Minolta DiMage XT.













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To sum it up my experience in international waters had me realize many things about myself. From my experience the Japanese culture is very humble and quiet and really to themselves, but in some cases their longing to connect even to strangers can reach boundaries that they've been wanting to reach for a long time. The respect and attitude from these folks have me realize that my same approach to things have been already embedded here stateside. I'm going to continue that respect and pass that along with people that take me kindly while this lifetime exists. Thank you to the community that made myself and my party comfortable throughout the time. I'm hoping to come back with the same love I received.


- Art(icle)

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Currently

Right now I've been doing nothing, but just taking small pictures and letting the record mastering cycle take its course until I find a perfect middle ground with my go to mastering producer. It's been crazy seeing how much of this work is starting to unfold and letting my ears be comfortable hearing what it likes and what it dislikes. I've had nothing, but good vibes over the last few weeks of things and I'm certain that most of what I'm going to be doing for the next few weeks (or even few months) is going to be the same if not better.

I've been playing a lot of video games. Yes, ALOT of video games. And for now I'm finding myself enjoying just playing the games without any kind of worry. I guess I'm sort of detached from the world this way and letting things pass me by without having that FOMO feeling. Lots of people are enjoying themselves in those high octane spaces and its cool! At my level of comfort I'm easily happy being with my fiance and just cooking and playing guitar and cleaning the house and playing video games and napping and working out and whatever. This is the life and lots of people don't have what I have these days. I'm pretty damn lucky.

Haven't posted much of anything in the last month or so on my socials as well. I'm not sure if its the fatigue that's been happening or whatever, but I'm just not interested in sharing things that I used to. Private and quiet has been such a thing and I don't think there have been any better combinations of things about my life that I enjoy the most. I'm not sure if I was this reserved about myself as I was back then being open like this and allowing people to come to my life without any sort of consciousness of them being crooked. I'm fairly lucky to know that the majority of these people have been kind and well to me and I'll take that luck any way I can.

I hope everyone is alright these days. I know that a lot of uncertainty is going to really throw off the mindset society has right now. Just be careful out there guys. And support one another. That's all we have. Where I am at now I'm hoping that we have some resolve to a degree and be alright for awhile.

- Artsicle

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