2.28.2006
skee baller (kathy mcglone, 1993)
(#0005) my father coached my brother's soccer team for a number of years in the canton soccer club. this picture is at a post-season team party in 1993 at 'kid kingdom,' now closed down. in the lower corner is one of his more animated players, todd, who is reacting to a sweet shot his coach just made playing skee ball.
i remember this team party quite well. i was there even though i was not young enough to be a 'true' member, but for a few seasons i was an assistant coach which actually just meant demonstrating drills that my father couldn't do at all. my father, being coach, would--as this picture demonstrates--go around helping each of his players maximize their ticket output, increasing their chances at prize acquisition when the party ended.
i have been a fan of this picture for quite sometime: for its early 90s nostalgia, todd's facial expression of excitement and awe next to my father's superb concentration, the prize tickets in his left hand, kids in socks in the background. my mother typically wasn't the one to take photos of events, but in this case she did a superb job filling in as 'event photographer.' the human face can transmit all sorts of signals that can affect a viewer, but thats for a different post so i won't get into it here. what i truly wonder is if this picture was taken after my father had made a succession of high point scores, or if todd was just thinking about how many tickets he was going to get at the end of the game. was originally a glossy photograph digitally scanned for the archives project.
i remember this team party quite well. i was there even though i was not young enough to be a 'true' member, but for a few seasons i was an assistant coach which actually just meant demonstrating drills that my father couldn't do at all. my father, being coach, would--as this picture demonstrates--go around helping each of his players maximize their ticket output, increasing their chances at prize acquisition when the party ended.
i have been a fan of this picture for quite sometime: for its early 90s nostalgia, todd's facial expression of excitement and awe next to my father's superb concentration, the prize tickets in his left hand, kids in socks in the background. my mother typically wasn't the one to take photos of events, but in this case she did a superb job filling in as 'event photographer.' the human face can transmit all sorts of signals that can affect a viewer, but thats for a different post so i won't get into it here. what i truly wonder is if this picture was taken after my father had made a succession of high point scores, or if todd was just thinking about how many tickets he was going to get at the end of the game. was originally a glossy photograph digitally scanned for the archives project.
2.27.2006
rockmaninov: only a concept (christopher sauchak, jonathan mcglone, 2000)
(#0004) remember popular music of the year 2000? boy/girl bands, three doors down, sisqo and the happy end of limp bizkit but continuation of rap/rock had reached all new heights, and christopher and i could no longer let it just sit there--we had to poke fun at it as obscurely as possible. so it was one of those nights during christmas break, and christopher and i were feeling a bit 'funny' because MTV was on and everything was excessively bad.
rockmaninov was the idea for a movie, or script--neither were ever created--about a band travelling from the year 8004 to the year 2000 to change the face of pop music. the premise was that by improving pop music by directly contributing to pop music, rockmaninov hoped that all pop music which followed the year 2000 would be good or at least better, thus making themselves even better in the year 8004. follow? that's why this was never written by neither christopher (as far as i know) or myself. eventually, none of this works out, rockmaninov realizes that nothing can change the flow of popular culture, so they leave the year 2000 to rot.
this particular scan is a portrait i drew that dreadful night of rockmaninov playing on dec. 12 8004; as you can see the instruments of rock music have remained unchanged for 6000 years, and people still go to rock concerts. left to right were characters that chris and i created: eric watts (keys/vox), colin stravinov (bass), ryan marks (drums), and frank o'delhi (guitar/vox). see the subsequent pages that i scanned on the flickr account that give a youthful picture of our creative minds by clicking here and navigating your way thru the flickr photoset. there you'll find character backstories, more sketches and brainstorming activity. all pages were written on december 28, 2000, making christopher and i both 18 years of age and senior's in high school. sketches were originally found in my 8" x 10" journal and scanned for the archive records.
rockmaninov was the idea for a movie, or script--neither were ever created--about a band travelling from the year 8004 to the year 2000 to change the face of pop music. the premise was that by improving pop music by directly contributing to pop music, rockmaninov hoped that all pop music which followed the year 2000 would be good or at least better, thus making themselves even better in the year 8004. follow? that's why this was never written by neither christopher (as far as i know) or myself. eventually, none of this works out, rockmaninov realizes that nothing can change the flow of popular culture, so they leave the year 2000 to rot.
this particular scan is a portrait i drew that dreadful night of rockmaninov playing on dec. 12 8004; as you can see the instruments of rock music have remained unchanged for 6000 years, and people still go to rock concerts. left to right were characters that chris and i created: eric watts (keys/vox), colin stravinov (bass), ryan marks (drums), and frank o'delhi (guitar/vox). see the subsequent pages that i scanned on the flickr account that give a youthful picture of our creative minds by clicking here and navigating your way thru the flickr photoset. there you'll find character backstories, more sketches and brainstorming activity. all pages were written on december 28, 2000, making christopher and i both 18 years of age and senior's in high school. sketches were originally found in my 8" x 10" journal and scanned for the archive records.
2.23.2006
M.A.C./michigan agricultural college (elliott wagenvoord, 1904)
(#0003) my father's mother, ann wagenvoord mcglone, passed this glass negative (along with fifty others) down, much like those generations did her prior. they now rest in our house, collecting dust, deteriorating, remaining sorely neglected. i'm under firm belief that each photograph's meaning has changed numerous times since first captured, or at least is welcoming to re-interpretation with each generation.
this particular photograph, titled by its creator as M.A.C., was captured by my great grandfather elliott wagenvoord on september 17, 1904 in east lansing, mi. it appears that the men in the photograph are part of a team that is constructing part of the sewage system for the michigan agricultural college (MAC) in east lansing. at that particular frozen moment, rather than working, they were posing for my great grandfather's camera. eventually, the MAC would go on to become the largest university in michigan--michigan state university--which still boasts one of the top agricultural schools in the nation.
i contacted the MSU archives and historical collections this afternoon, and it seems as if they are willing to digitally scan and help long-term preserve all the photographs, as well as provide as much historical knowledge they have of each photograph's contents.
one bone chilling (to me at least) thought that continues to run through my mind and body is that my family has always had roots in photographic representations, and my own fascination with visual media begins to appear biological. we are a family obsessed with mummification. to note, many people didn't have personal cameras around 1904, so aside from the biological theory, we can also assume that elliott wagenvoord was a "real" photographer as opposed to hobbiest, with a significant amount of money to spend on equipment and development. these are the kinds of things i'm hoping to discuss with the people at MSU, as well as the history of the contents of this and other glass negatives i have. photograph was originally a 8.25" x 6.25" negative developed on glass, digitally scanned, and turned into a positive for the digital archive.
this particular photograph, titled by its creator as M.A.C., was captured by my great grandfather elliott wagenvoord on september 17, 1904 in east lansing, mi. it appears that the men in the photograph are part of a team that is constructing part of the sewage system for the michigan agricultural college (MAC) in east lansing. at that particular frozen moment, rather than working, they were posing for my great grandfather's camera. eventually, the MAC would go on to become the largest university in michigan--michigan state university--which still boasts one of the top agricultural schools in the nation.
i contacted the MSU archives and historical collections this afternoon, and it seems as if they are willing to digitally scan and help long-term preserve all the photographs, as well as provide as much historical knowledge they have of each photograph's contents.
one bone chilling (to me at least) thought that continues to run through my mind and body is that my family has always had roots in photographic representations, and my own fascination with visual media begins to appear biological. we are a family obsessed with mummification. to note, many people didn't have personal cameras around 1904, so aside from the biological theory, we can also assume that elliott wagenvoord was a "real" photographer as opposed to hobbiest, with a significant amount of money to spend on equipment and development. these are the kinds of things i'm hoping to discuss with the people at MSU, as well as the history of the contents of this and other glass negatives i have. photograph was originally a 8.25" x 6.25" negative developed on glass, digitally scanned, and turned into a positive for the digital archive.
2.22.2006
fred and billy boy (fred or ann mcglone, 1957?)
(#0002) another slide (as i am rapidly sifting thru hundreds of them) this time one that dates back to bill (william) and fred's childhood. i was very unsure of the date, am awaiting verification, but of now i am going to say that this particular photograph was taken on easter around 1957 making bill 7 and fred 10 or 11.
years and years later, my grandparents (nana and papa) would take photos of their grandchildren--me, my sister and brother--in the same fashion on easters. these surburban memories, built by my grandfather in east lansing and okemos shortly after world war II, would trickle down into my generation and basically erupt. now we must foot the bill as the middle class dwindles, easter still happens, and as long as the dream is still progressing, more photographs like these will be taken each year of subsequent generations. photograph was originally a slide, then scanned for the digital archive.
years and years later, my grandparents (nana and papa) would take photos of their grandchildren--me, my sister and brother--in the same fashion on easters. these surburban memories, built by my grandfather in east lansing and okemos shortly after world war II, would trickle down into my generation and basically erupt. now we must foot the bill as the middle class dwindles, easter still happens, and as long as the dream is still progressing, more photographs like these will be taken each year of subsequent generations. photograph was originally a slide, then scanned for the digital archive.
2.21.2006
view of hong kong, no. 1 (william mcglone, 1972)
(#0001) when we think of the state of u.s. politics and affairs in 1972, or the previous years, we often draw upon images of vietnam, political defiance and bloodshed. my father, who was in the navy during vietnam offers a different--modern pastoral landscape--picture of the post-60s with his camera. he never engaged in battle, rather he toured the seas in the u.s.s. kitty hawk for four years, repairing the electronics on fighter planes on an air craft carrier that launched these same planes into attacks on vietnam, but also monitored and protected the surrounding waters of vietnam and hong kong.
on stop in hong kong, he captured this breathtaking view of a booming urban landscape, waters filled with naval fleets, as if making sure all runs smoothly on-shore. there are several photographs he took of similar framing as well as super 8mm footage somewhere in the many reels he shot while on tour. i can only imagine him lugging all that technology around his neck, up to this particular birds-eye-view of hong kong, to capture the still and the moving yet out of breath after the hike. whereas today this could all be done with one, small, digital camera. this photograph was originally developed as a slide, then scanned for record in the digital archive.
on stop in hong kong, he captured this breathtaking view of a booming urban landscape, waters filled with naval fleets, as if making sure all runs smoothly on-shore. there are several photographs he took of similar framing as well as super 8mm footage somewhere in the many reels he shot while on tour. i can only imagine him lugging all that technology around his neck, up to this particular birds-eye-view of hong kong, to capture the still and the moving yet out of breath after the hike. whereas today this could all be done with one, small, digital camera. this photograph was originally developed as a slide, then scanned for record in the digital archive.
