hannah wells

new website in progress, or intentions to begin again, or greetings from Brooklyn

2009-08-01T21:30:00.002-05:00

as the title says, new website up an' comin. in the process of working out and uploading a site for a new Northwestern student film, Judecca (www.JudeccaFilm.com), mine got all fritzed up. i took it as a good sign that i should update it. stay tuned. right now, just a little flash splash page (take a look! www.hannah-wells.com), but soon a full blown grown site.

in addition i'm beginning to work a tad bit again. with this i intend to start using this again to post new things and items of interest.

for now, newest music obsession: Gogol Bordello. "multi-ethnic gypsy punk," for once i think wikipedia pretty much got it covered. listen to "Through the Roof and Underground."
'lead' of the group (a good mustache / beard says it all):

2009-04-09T14:29:00.002-05:00

Love Lockdown + Be My Husband from Hannah Wells on Vimeo.

Mapping a Photo from Hannah Wells on Vimeo.

stencils, or how i have come to retrace my steps back

2009-02-28T12:31:00.005-06:00

i'll post again soon. these are the first stencils i've done in a while. i'm excited that they might not be the last ones also. there is not much that calms me down more than this.

in addition i have a short video that i need to add, if anything, so my friend David Marx can see it. stay tuned.

Series - Ameyn

2009-02-09T14:10:00.002-06:00

this series, ameyn, focuses on Biblical figures and their main life failing points. Saul (jealousy), Jezebel (corruption), David (murder and adultery), Absalom (greed of power), and Aaron (doubt in G-D). Ameyn in Hebrew is defined as "so be it," as in the finishing of something, the end, nothing more to be said. i suppose that using this as the series title is a little ironic, because the underlying point in this for me is that these character's failing points are not the last thing to be said. for example in Saul, Jezebel, and Absalom, their failures were their literal last word. however, david and aaron are to be remembered as some of the greatest figures within the entire old testament, and yet their failing points were not any "worse" or "better" than the others.
concluding point? failures do not define your life. you define your life. you decide, whether you realize it or not, when you say "ameyn."

Saul (jealousy)

Jezebel (corruption)

David (murder and adultery)

Absalom (greed of power)

Aaron (doubt)

final project series from last quarter

2009-02-04T12:15:00.006-06:00

series on my family. i took pictures of each member of my family (father, momma, and three sisters) and split each into four smaller pictures. on each of those i either double exposed their picture with one of an object on the actual photo print, or projected their picture onto another and then printed the resulting image. technical things aside, this project consists of the women in my family (i didn't end up using my father's picture) and each of the doubled images are things or pictures that i associate them with, whether it be a picture from their wedding a couple years ago or after arts and crafts hour many many years ago. the objects are similar, just things i associate with each of them, tea packets, a certain magazine, running shoes, etc. this series is not saying that the things or images i associate them with are the only things that make them up, it is to say that they are more complex, that we cannot form the image of another person completely. all we have is fragments of anyone, enabling for either surprise or disappointment. that being said, i don't believe i have ever been disappointed by anyone of the following four people.

Karen:

Beth:

Kat:

Laura:

i AM going to be updating this more. see y'all in a few days.

2008-10-22T00:34:00.002-05:00

prints made this past week:

print making and footprints

2008-10-02T19:36:00.004-05:00

apologies for the absence, but i have been running around frantically tried not to be absent from anything. classes this quarter lead to different challenges, ones from which i can see a path toward resolve and results.

two prints made today (first time making prints in the lab!) and more more to come. i have plans beginning their swirl of formation for the next few weeks. hopefully i will soon have some of those results that i mentioned before.

another 'result':

i said in the last entry to stay tuned for that one picture. i don't know how i feel about this, but eventually if i convince myself that it's okay, there will be a green-red and purple-yellow canvas to join it. this one was painted entirely with orange, blue, black, and white as a look into isolated complementary portraits of certain people. dev was a given for blue, and therefore, orange. once during one of our many coffee conversations he said that blue seemed the most natural color out of any. for him i think he is most definitely right.

quote sent to me from a friend:

2008-09-30T02:48:00.002-05:00

"Forget Inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice."

- Octavia Butler

hurricane hannah meets hurricane ike and survives through the streets with boxes and bruises to show for it.

2008-09-22T01:33:00.002-05:00

a week ago my mother and i drove up from memphis through the exciting lands of arkansas, southern missouri, and illinois. at the same time though, i don't mean too much sarcasm by the 'exciting.' as far as road trips go, mecca-ing to chicago has been a frequently trodden path for my mother and i for many many years, starting before i even knew to visit my mother's parents and continuing through sisters going to college in wheaton (suburb of the chi) and now myself going to school in the windy city. there seems to always be something drawing me back to this city (sign of something perhaps?). regardless, we packed up, strapped up, buckled up and set out for the isolated trip through crop fields, barren fields, cities with populations hardly large enough for their own city governments, and passing by (or being passed) other such travelers or those belonging to the 'cities' surrounding. the road up goes through no large cities, no metropolitan anything. the largest pit stop is only the cities where university of illinois, etc are located. i took the wheel for about five hours of the nine, playing music and singing and my mother watching on with a smile and a look of "whose child are you again?"

"those memphis blues again..."

2008-09-13T20:20:00.004-05:00

this past week was a complete blessing from the L-RD. people, places, and those old comfortable feelings of 'belonging' and 'rest' can never be replaced or cheated. i will scratch out the paragraph commentary and just leave y'all with the remnants also known as pictures and phrases.

lunch with the sister and father and mother:

shopping and errands with mother and sister:

i had to take my sister's picture for her medical residency applications. needless to say, it was more fun that it should have been (and these are just some of the pictures...):

hopefully y'all will be seeing this next picture again in forms of paints and colors and canvas:

metal museum and the old bridge with dan:

jerry's snow cones beat all:

the late night coffee coterie minus david morelli:

i am leaving this entry leaving out most of my one week of summer at home, but all in all, memphis je t'aime. listen to bob dylan, replace 'mobile' with 'chicago,' and you will find my state next week: stuck inside of chicago with the memphis blues again...

musical playlist #1, a life in transit, and other stories

2008-09-05T12:44:00.005-05:00

this past week has been filled (literally and figuratively) with clutter and stress and the bare-boned materialism of just general 'stuff.' i am now sitting in the airport in transit, awaiting the arrival of a plane, just another place to sit in transit. only on the other side of that metal box, i will be home, not merely transferred to another metal box, buildings to planes to everything else. apart also from the literal 'metal boxes of transit,' between all the packing and boxes and combining and opening and pulling out and putting in and taping and closing, i have felt very much in a state of transit. not in school yet, although not truly in summer holiday. not independently by myself yet, although living very much alone. not 'in my element' school and life-wise yet, although not completely lost off the periodic table. so to all my other brothers and sisters out there waiting both in a transit of space or a transit of mind, i feel you, and here's me holla at you. i also am feeling this morning with anyone that's ever been 'randomly pre-selected' for additional screening. their connotations of language are almost as if you have won a car or the lottery, despite what it really is: standing insecurely freezing in a little cotton dress without shoes (because apparently sandals can be dangerous footwear, watch out y'all) holding arms wide with fists clenched as some homely and overworked looking woman pats you down while they search through every item you struggle to carry. now i know i really look like the dangerous, spur-of-the-moment, intensely strong and muscular, angry looking terrorist, but seriously? there is not enough coffee in the world to make that seem better like a better situation in the morning.

speaking of coffee, that is another sense of transit. i packed up my coffee maker first thing, and then stupidly later realized the stupidity of that action. taped up mr. coffee maker box = inability to make coffee = every bad and evil and cruel that exists in the world. you know that you need coffee when even playlists labeled 'can't tell me nothing kanye,' 'abba,' 'getting ready punk 90s style,' 'no, worse than ever,' and 'crunk,' don't seem to aid the packing process.

OH. exciting story. and to make it from long story to short quick exciting story, many of you know i am very much 'in-tune' (to semi-quote wilco's "sunken treasure") with ryan adams and his wonderful music, and saw him at a small show last july in memphis where i was able to meet him and receive his autograph and a little doodle drawing in a little sketchbook type book i made for stencils. via my friend katy witmer, i found out that he wrote in his old blog about a fan he met and drew a little drawing for in her sketchbook type thing filled with stencil-type art. needless to say and as i wrote at the beginning, exciting story (at least to me). unfortunately his old blog is no longer in existence. fortunately this story is true anyways. additional fortunately katy and i are planning on going to the next possible ryan adams show and meet him and show him the picture. yep, that's about as far as i've gotten. regardless, finding this whole thing out from katy last week most definitely made these days of nothing but packing and no coffee and stressing out and no sleep much much much better. most likely the closest thing to anything famous that will ever happen to me, but i will take it with two open arms! just not arms opened to be patted down by the additional screeners at the airport. anything but that.

CHI:

in-between:

MEM:

peace out.

and here's the music complete with playlist, descriptions, and zip file. enjoy!

DOWNLOAD THE ZIP FILE: CLICK HERE

1 the twist frightened rabbit
just listen to this man's accent. slightly different vocals with slightly different instrumentation,
but it all fits together well. but again, his accent. i think it truly makes this song.

2 i've got your number passion pit
not much into the 'techno, instrumental, track loop, etc' scene, but this song from east coast
based band, passion pit, is real real catchy. "did you see me cry, tears like diamonds?" who
knew that would make such an amazing hook? they did, obviously.

3 buildings and mountains the republic tigers
a little bit of a combination of tracks 1 and 2, with a catchy simplistic hook, but real interesting
instrumentation and vocal tones.

4 why do you let me stay here? she & him
see previous blog ranting about she & him (music #2).

5 wrapped up in books belle & sebastian
belle & sebastian can do no wrong with their light high male vocals, simple melodies, smooth
and easy styles, lyrical kicks and pinches, slightly tragically happy, and wonderfully mellow.
they are the epitome of my iTunes genre entitle 'ellowie.'

6 shot to the stars whitley
young man based out of new zealand. up and coming i say. a little of a combination of
damien rice, ben harper, sufjan stevens, with that easy-flowing slightly-accented male voice
and head-shaking rhythmic guitar sections. definitely want to find more of this fellow, who is
actually touring with ben kweller currently. good for him!

7 rumors josh ritter
josh ritter is the incredible (accent on the last 'e'). in college he planned to become a scientist
and then found his passion for writing gorgeously poetic lyrics and moving them into music.
this little history lesson makes very much sense when listening to his absolutely amazing song
"the temptation of adam." not many songwriters can make references to nuclear fission and
the principles of radioactive half-life so eloquently.

8 brandy alexander feist
former singer (or one of the singers) of broken social scene gone solo. beautiful girl, beautiful
voice. slight reminders of regina spektor / ani difranco / the weepies, in the best senses of all
three.

9 mimosa shosha capps
young school-going girl from california (actually, not quite sure...) who sings and writes on the
side of her schoolwork. her name is pronounced like 'sasha' apparently, but i doubt you will
be seeing much of her name any time soon. it seems that she doesn't do many shows other
than summer and then only nearby where she is living, most likely due to school. hopefully
upon her graduation, we can all celebrate.

10 3 rounds and a sound blind pilot
again, with she & him, see the previous ranting on them (music #1).

11 sunken treasure wilco
do i need to comment on wilco? chicago, illinois. jeff tweedy. incredible music talent.
incredible lyrical writing. incredible production. incredible career lifespan. again, do i really
need to comment on wilco?

12 drop and anchor mates of state
as the the best fashion with over the rhine and the weepies and she & him, mates of state
contains the cutest male-female duo ever. between the keys, the drums, and the vocals, there
is no denying full out anthology listening sessions for hours while doing work in a quiet
library. or really while doing anything. i dare you to listen to them and not break out in a full
genuine smile at least once.

13 after hours the velvet underground
classic. not with re-noun velvet underground marksman (or marks-woman?) nico, but never
the less their full out spirit while their female drummer takes on vocals. no going wrong when
listening to the underground on a bright sunny summer morning.

14 (do you wanna) come walk with me mark lanegan & isobel campbell
all i have to say is that i can't believe they used this in a levi's commercial. good for levi's and
their provocative-ness. disappointing for everyone else. if you haven't seen the ad, don't. just
listen to the song without it being tainted.

15 cold water damien rice
this song is full on damien rice: long melodic guitar-scapes, haunting beautiful semi-accented
vocals, piercingly tragic lyrics, and overall complete-ness in everything.

16 dear john ryan adams (norah jones)
"two rings on my fingers, but the other one's gone." i will never forget andrew webster (former
co-worker of mine at ugly mug coffee and winner of the lifetime amazing award) running into
the factory room holding up two fingers on his right hand at me while singing this with the
most intense facial expression. norah jones, too. dang. what i wouldn't give to see this
performed live by the two of them.

Music #2: She & Him

2008-08-26T10:04:00.002-05:00

i removed 'suggestion' from the title, because y'all probably already know them all and they're not going to be particularly 'new' all the time. so, it's just music, probably what it should be anyways.

so this week highlighted is duo She & Him made of actress / musician Zooey Deschanel and musician / producer M. Ward. the main instrumentation pouring from the honey-dripping speakers mainly consists of piano, guitar, banjo, drums, and other various guest strings (also whistling at times, and a pseudo-trumpet solo that reminds one of Keller Williams' mouth-trumpet, in the best sense of course).
Deschanel fills most of the main vocals, with Ward backing or alternating lyrics. The best thing about this album is it's simplicity. nothing is particularly complex or convoluted. instrumentals follow their own rhythms and note patterns without too much surprise. lyrics complete all those 1950's dreams of the 'baby i'm waiting for you only' type of surface skimming love, that in it's own way tells of all the depths of love in just a few easy going phrases.

click here for their website.

click here for their myspace page.

both sites above include much of the songs from their single album "Volume One," which came out in March of this year. all i hope is that a "Volume Two" will be released in the not-too-distant future.

an addition to the family and other stories

2008-08-22T10:29:00.000-05:00

friday mornings at work. 8 am. sun newly risen (kind of...). the only reason i know though of course is getting to work, because at work there is only one window. and it looks out into a common area of the building, so it's just an indoor window to more indoors (great idea there y'all!). despite the lack of sunlight and the initial crawl to get out of bed, however, friday mornings continue to be incredible. usually i arrive at work around 8, open the doors, turn on the lights, and work for a little until most people arrive at 8:30ish. fridays though, the office strolls into it's normal routine around 9, leaving me usually a full hour to work and drink coffee from a little thermos in the silence that only the whir of air conditioners and buzz of fluorescent lights can provide. i think it's probably the most peaceful thing besides sleep. and also, if it lasted anymore than an hour, i probably have my head resting beside my computer asleep.

i have come to realize (again thanks office work) how admirable male socks are, specifically the business-ankle-but-a-little-higher-but-not-high-enough-to-be-knee-socks socks. ankle socks just look lazy (in terms of trying to look a little sophistocated (side comment (cause i never go on tangents!): i can only say this word if i slowly speak each syllable, but i have never been able to pronounce it normally), but if it's just a normal day, nothing in this paragraph applies). knee socks only bring to mind thoughts of postal workers, world war II veterans, and kilt wearing scotsmen. with a nice pair of charcoal colored dockers and some real good shoes, business socks are, to quote flight of the conchords, "business socks."

back to the reason for the title, i didn't mention in the previous entry regarding daniel's visit and the times around the town, but when he came he brought a 'birthday / visiting / whatever-whenever-for-who-knows-what' present better known to the world as a banjo. now i know what you are probably thinking:
"oh. my. goodness. what. the?" or
"um?" or
"wow, let's get out the corn and grits and have ourselves a git down for them barn raising ov'r thurr!"
BUT despite all of these very very very potential comments, it is the most wonderful thing ever. open g tuning on a banjo doesn't leave anything to be desired. he isn't named yet (don't even ask. many many items i own have 'names' for no reason what-so-ever (none however can compete with Jasmin's computer dubbed (i'm almost positive this is it's name) "Oswald")), but that will most likely come soon enough. the bike (see some previous entries for the explanation of how it was bought and some pictures), i have decided, is Zooey, after the second to youngest child in J.D. Salinger's literary Glass family (due to my love for Franny and Zooey and in the novella the character keeps black mollies in a tank at his parent's house. so namely (oh the puns...) the color of the fish and my love of the literature are the bases of the name.). banjo photos will more than likely follow in the future.

sincerely,
_______

Musical Suggestion #1: Blind Pilot

2008-08-20T18:02:00.000-05:00

recently, the musical grapevine came my way and from it i found out about this portland based band, Blind Pilot. wonderful album, not just another small one hit single group. honestly, i have been listening for almost two weeks straight (...ok, slight exaggeration, but only slight). acoustic guitars, gorgeous vocals, drums, strings, the occasional xylophones, and lyrics that fit right between the lands of 'simplicity' and 'brilliance.' the main members, israel and ryan, are currently on a tour down the west coast via bicycles, which if anything, only makes Blind Pilot that much more impressive.

click here for their blog page.

click here for their myspace page.

2008-08-18T09:40:00.000-05:00

as a homage to you, the reader, i will for your sake and my own, now pour out a summary, if you will, consisting of the contents of this the letter you are reading. all these little entries and excerpts of life are merely letters in transit, a virtually handwritten document addressed to no one and only read by those members (privileged or not) of the human race who know where in transit to find, read, and leave for the next in-transit traveler to do the same as they.
repercussions of nagging ideas for change (web page edition)
additions to my own private gallery of my own mostly-not-so-private work
visitations by the type of person viewed as most elder brotherly and least younger brotherly with absolutely no blood relations between
awaiting ever evasive trains

and before the contents of this the summary, i beg the reader to indulge my whims and thoughts (mainly during the above activity of 'awaiting ever evasive trains') with a piece on sunglasses:
the simple thought of a sunglass is the opposite the simple thought of a magnifying glass. the later item brings things to a better view to be seen in a more favorable light. the former simply to put everything in a darker light and pull the curtain on the world to make night of what is day and dim what is bright. walking however through these gorgeous chicago summer days, i have come to realize the differences between sunglasses and the normal accessory. after aquatinting oneself with another on days such as these, the person ceases to resemble their own face, but that of their sunglasses. round, square, curved, black, calico shaded, and in a similar fashion to the unrecognizablity factor when someone with previously rectangular glasses exchanges them in for some small coke-bottle frames. the person is the same, but at the same time, is entirely different. even as i myself pull out a pair from my purse while walking around the city, the faint smell of coffee always seeming to linger as they most likely rested in the bag near something related to that caffeine heavenly drink, i can't help but wonder if i have the same motivation. not to shield my eyes from the sun, but shield myself from the world the sun lights, even by a few more millimeters.

and now onto the scheduled items listed above the previous paragraph. due to some qualms with my website that have been dragging in the back of my mind (most likely since it has been up), i am now in the process of a re-layout scenario with myself as the not-so frantic main player poking around behind the curtain every once and a while. all this is merely to say, "soon."

not completely wanting to work on any photo within the realm of my own picture-taking, this picture, as obvious, is not mine as it is one of the musician Sufjan Stevens. cardboard had to do since my 'sketch' book (a refurbished textbook-ish material on fossils) mysteriously is not here but at home in Memphis, although i could have sworn seeing it randomly throughout the past several weeks, and i also have no more spare canvas fabric to use up.

the next (and probably remaining) pictures in this letter are of my friend Daniel's visit to the city. we encountered at least five separate weddings on saturday, two of the celebrations which interrupted our visit to the field museum and our almost-visit to the adler planetarium, the rest of which were happening intermittently outside along the lakeshore. we both found it peculiar to have a party saying, "come celebrate the new found happiness of my marriage in front of a replication of the bone structure of a t-rex or the exact dimensions of a martian volcano." the rest of the city remained in it's normal ebb and flow and the weather was the epitome of the 'gorgeous chicago summer day' as mentioned in the sunglasses paragraph.

pseudo mini recording sessions.

millennium park.

the field museum has no lack of items what-so-ever. especially pottery. there were about five extra rooms that only consisted of pottery of all varieties. we thought it must be so disappointing to be an archaeologist and upon finally discovering some object buried in the sand, only to discover that it's just another pot.

the aztecs.

the camera switched hands.

walking along lake michigan.

as with the summary item 'awaiting ever evasive trains,' it merely consists of waiting this morning for the better part of a couple hours for the next train, after i dropped Daniel off at his bus. luckily i had thought to bring a book, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. i first read this book a few years ago, but it has been one of those few rare but familiar faces on the bookshelf to offer a helping hand of encouragement, not with 'inspirational creativity' or any bullocks like that but merely with the passing of time. i finished Franny, the first section of the book, which is the superiorly shorter section, and nearly got through Zooey, the longer but as it holds the power of a 'conclusion' of sorts, is the superiorly quality section. it made me almost wish i had to stay in transit waiting for more trains on a regular basis, merely for the fact that it would generously improve my vocabulary and the books sitting patiently on my shelf.

bench reading

2008-08-10T01:08:00.001-05:00

new stencil finished much earlier today. size is only 8ish x 11ish but i'm thinking i might redo the stencils to make it on one of the 16 x 20 canvases i have waiting in my room. we'll see. for now it'll stay on this little piece of loose canvas.

the picture, in case i didn't do a very good job, is of a man sitting on a bench midday reading the local paper to catch up on news or to entertain or to distract or to do whatever he might look for the tiny typed words to do. the original photo was taken on the olympus a little over a year ago (2007 in the spring), and is up on my website (www.hannah-wells.com and under 'media,' 'photos,' 'olympus,' then '2007') if you are curious. the above picture is also on the site (under 'media,' 'stencils,' then 'canvas'). hopefully you enjoy.

lollapalooza (sans photographs due to sans camera)

2008-08-04T21:17:00.000-05:00

lollapalooza offered no disappointments, subtracting quickly tiring legs and 'lord of the flies' mentality crowds (thousands of people with one goal and no (seeming) sense of morals to prevent them from attempting anything). unfortunately, "no cameras with interchangeable lenses" could be brought to the festival, which rules out primarily every camera i own. i took a couple with the holga, but judging that my last 120 roll from all of this past school year still has not reached my computer hard drive, i wouldn't bring any type of expectations to the table for seeing those any time soon, but you never know. surprises happen every day. i took a couple on my phone with that terrible quality of one point whatever megapixels supposedly contained in that tiny glass dot. the tiny pictures just showed the massive crowd and literal indistinguishable stabs in the dark.

many good photos at http://www.lollapalooza.com/2008_files/photos/day1/default.asp, http://www.villagevoice.com/slideshow/view/111418, http://chicago.metromix.com/music/photogallery/lolla-2008-photos/533597/content?photo=1, and primarily any place on the internet found when searching for 'lollapalooza 2008 photos.'

i only attended the chaos the last day, day three, and witnessed john butler trio, iron & wine, gnarls barkley, and kanye's shows. we chose quality of view over quantity of shows in order to get fairly close crowd placements for iron & wine and kanye, which we did. kanye definitely put on a show, what with his drama and flair for the extreme. he does, however, turn me off a little solely from his ego. at one point he spoke words of how he is destined to be the greatest and how he will be the greatest and everything else that goes along with that kind of talk. the man can entertain though, i will most definitely give him that. iron & wine and john butler trio musically were quite good. john butler performed a few songs with slide guitar, a few with banjo, and the rest with regular acoustic guitar, of which he played a solo instrumental slap guitar style piece (quite better than what i expected of him honestly). sam beam performed with his band as well, which offered a good change from the previous solo show i saw of him (there is a post somewhere below about it...). mostly songs off of their newer album 'the shepard's dog,' but included new arrangements of 'history of lovers' and 'upward over the mountain,' as well as a quite good rendition of 'boy with a coin.' during their show, we were positioned against the side of the fence in the center (not in the front row, however. it followed parallel to the stage and then jutted out for about ten or fifteen feet in the center for the photo press, security, etc). there was this boy across the gap against the other side of the fence wearing blue sunglasses and hoping for every kind of attention and dancing all through the show. i couldn't resist getting his picture (double exposed with one of the beach balls flying up in the sky), so hopefully that can be developed sooner rather than later, along with a double of iron & wine and the chicago skyline and one of kanye.

overheard in evanston

2008-07-24T18:53:00.001-05:00

definitely on the top ten overheard conversations in my life:

son: does she even love him?
mother: of course she loves him! she married him.
son: ...but he's evil!
mother: well, carrie likes to have nice things in life...
son: ...but he kills animals!

east tenn and bicycles

2008-07-18T09:14:00.001-05:00

these first couple are from july fourth weekend, a sort of wells family reunion in eastern tennessee. closest town: pigeon forge. closest accent: hick. closest amusement park: dollywood. closest mountain: about a foot away. despite the "closest's," it was a good trip. the first (and possibly only) vacation for summer holiday, family not seen for much too long, stories told in much too great detail, nature much too beautiful for words, and so forth.

father hiking.

wasp nest.

this week (for the second time), i took three trains to the west side in order to ease my tired feet and buy a bicycle. i said that if i couldn't find one this time, it was a sign that i wasn't meant to have one. fortunately i did find one. unfortunately i cannot ride it because the front tire has the slightest leak, just enough to die but not enough to notice right away. for now, he lives in the living room, but soon, hopefully, he will actually be a bicycle.

the best part is this light, and another small red one near the back tire. near the front wheel there is the smallest little generator to power it, so it can only go on when the bicycle wheels are turning. this is also probably why the front tire is so worn out. for a real cheap bicycle though, it's completely worth it.

website

2008-06-29T02:37:00.000-05:00

http://www.zackmoy.com/hw

for now until i get my own domain name (www.hannah-wells.com or something similar).

two stencils - philip allen and ironing

2008-05-27T00:27:00.000-05:00

philip allen (http://www.myspace.com/musicofphilipallen)
ironing

hospitals and roof tops

2008-05-19T20:42:00.000-05:00

a few weeks back now, i bussed to the downtown hospital for an assignment. the course is more or less a project course and a piece of our project is aiding a graduate student with his final dissertation (well, the procedures leading up to it). we went to the hospital to carry out an x-ray flouroscopy of a metal alloy he developed. anyway, point being, i was at a hospital.

zack has been mentioning for weeks about sneaking onto the roof of the student center. rumors reached us that you could see the baha'i temple from there, which is a few miles away from university. in the end, you could see the temple (in one of the pictures) but not the entire building as we hoped. it was still beautiful from up so high. actually 'high' is only four stories.

random day returning from the lakefill

dorothy.

2008-04-23T15:45:00.001-05:00

saturday morning, dorothy and i walked up to sun and fog and a lakefill surrounding. how i miss the memphis sun! chicago leaves predictability in a place not quite out of reach but too far to try. despite everything, i have never completely done photographing simply with the nikon and it was strange. the index finger learns to hold its impulses but with free storage rather than a physical frame, what is self-control? whatever it is, it is a different experience than the olympus, which i find the faster.

willow trees

fog and trees

this picture, i think, sums up the trip as a whole. through the hour or so we shot, the wind got colder and the sun kept its lazy head only occasionally peeking out, but besides the weather, dorothy primarily kept a composure of insecurity. not of herself, but of herself within the frame that i saw, something she couldn't (obviously). there were many moments of release but for the majority, without complete direction of what to do, she seemed completely dorothy when the camera hung at my side and so childishly (not as in seniority but in composure in face in innocence) unsure once my finger reached the 'trigger,' so to say.

more willow trees

the fog created such a mystery and glory in our little bay

a moment of sun

"absolute truth"

branches

another "absolute truth"

2008-04-04T22:57:00.001-05:00

this is very long overdue. both in entry and film. the majority of these are from a saturday trip into chicago i took way back in the beginning of february, cold, freezing, and dead february. point blank, i just got back the developed film rolls (2 - one color and one black and white). the color had been in my camera from around october until the february trip and the black and white mysteriously appeared in my fridge (who knows how old). after all of that even, they both sat around until being developed about a week ago or so. point double blank: this is very long overdue. the color pictures are first in reverse chronological and then the black and white the same way.

chicago:
window reflections: car and worker

street shot: library

memphis (over winter holiday):
martha. i took this picture in the middle of a photographing project i was doing with martha and ryan which i will just title "this too shall pass." i didn't put any of the specific pictures for the project on here. i don't know if i'll ever finish it, but if so, there will be some of the others from that day.

evanston:
zack. how i see him mostly everyday, and how he is.

memphis:
daniel.

chicago (traveling to delaware, ohio):
ryan on the el. we were on our early way to cross states to ohio, to martha.

evanston:
david. from cutting his hair in october-ish.

evanston:
ryan's dance performance (with nayo).

same as above.

chicago:
howard el stop.

on the el.

troubadour in the subway stop.

a passerby.
unlike most of the others, this, i believe, deserves explanation. perhaps i explain too much or not enough, so this will either exacerbate or make up for it. as i do occasionally with street trips, the people-watching is essential as the journey progresses, and i will stop a person i see that just catches. not necessarily catches an eye or an idea or a thought or anything, but just a moment. i don't know if this is warranted, but i'll pull a "i am taking pictures for a (fill in the blank) photo project with (fill in the blank made up company). would i be able to....." and so on, and depending upon the person, try to talk to them for a little, my eye behind the lens the whole time. everyone can make conversation for face to face, but face to lens receives tension and fear for the most part. after a couple of crosses and questions, most people loosen up. anyways, he was from the south side of chicago and if i remember he had some family and siblings there also. when asked if he liked it in chicago, he said he wouldn't live anywhere else. this picture was one of the biggest anticipations of both film rolls for me, strictly for the personal side.

subway stairs.

buildings and a sky-patch in the shape of a rifle.

millennium park.

millennium park.

trees and benches and fences.

'x' cranes.

engraved 'chicago.'

the end.

Meow Flight of The Conchords Dan and Jaz

2008-03-11T21:51:00.000-05:00

Meow, the ever-famous, ever-wonderful, ever-gloriously-funny comedy group at NU, with the best ever James Daniel (bound to be even more famous, wonderful, and gloriously funny than he already is):

the whole group:

As a first set, Kristen Schaal (Mel on the television show) came to do some stand up. Consequently, she was in Meow when she attended NU:

Included in her act was a sketch named "Anne Boleyn on Fire":

And then the main event, with Jermaine:

and Bret:

And both of them together, as well:

Lexy was COMPLETELY not excited before the show:

In other uneventful photos, Jaz hanging in my room on the computer:

And Dan came to visit for the weekend. Note: he came for the weekend, not the pictures. Extra Note: he hated the pictures:

Extra Extra Note: he also did not come for straight hair:

iron & wine show

2008-02-16T16:11:00.000-06:00

we took the metra train out

slept some

got to the chapel (after a very cold icy walk through the suburbs)

amazing intro set by philip allen (i believe that's what his name was)

then onto sam beam (iron & wine)

waiting for our train back

finally going home at the last train possible (12:35am) and ending this most wonderful adventure.

rose petal world

2008-02-16T16:03:00.001-06:00

for a performance in a class

isaiah 55:12

2008-02-11T11:23:00.001-06:00

and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

isaiah 59:11

2008-01-10T11:22:00.000-06:00

bears and doves

the kill

2007-11-12T22:25:00.000-06:00

murdering pictures.

scan:

full crime scene:

besides this bloodshed, i am getting semi excited for a new concept series for pictures, i'm thinking 7 or 9 sets in all. i'm still working out some of the detailing, etc, but i should (hopefully) get one or two in at thanksgiving, most in between, and finish up during christmas break. hopefully.

daniel the hound

2007-11-08T01:48:00.000-06:00

hangar no. 5

2007-10-30T02:26:00.001-05:00

this weekend was filled with film sets and shoots. it's a student film with the vision of hollywood and even larger egotistical actors. (don't get me wrong the film is AMAZING and it was so great to work on and visual effects are going to be incredible to do). the actor and actress, two starlets among rotten lemons: talan torriero and charity shea.

i think that says everything.

overall though a good experience despite the 14 hour day on saturday and waking up late sunday to work until 3. some pictures from sunday: