With the rain melting the paper mache, the mechanism for making my jaw hinge up and down lasted until 14th Street. But the costume still gathered a lot of appreciation.
The rain thinned out the numbers of participants and audience, but the parade was still well attended.

Filed under: Art, Manhattan, Photos, West Village- , Halloween, Halloween Parade, Make, Street Performance - by gamma
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Quick Spicy Tofu and Greens from GammaBlog on Vimeo.
This is the first episode of Vegan Bachelor Grub, depending on the reaction, it might be the last.
1/2 pound of Mustard Greens
1/2 cake of Tofu, 7.5 oz.
1 1/2 T. Soy Sauce
3 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 – 1/2 t. Red Pepper Flakes
1/8 – 1/4 t. Garlic Powder
1/8 – 1/4 t. Ginger Powder
1/8 – 1/4 t. Ground Black Pepper
I had been thinking of doing this, but I was inspired to actually do it by Marc Maron’s Angry Chef segment on Maron v. Seder.

Filed under: Uncategorized- , Cooking, GammaBlog Videos, Make - by gamma
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1/8/09: I can’t figure out why this post is getting so many hits. Leave a comment if you know.

This is the Santa pole that so many Elves and Santas admired. It is obviously less exciting up close.

I took a bit more care giving my lightweight monopod the ability to tilt. But this quickly made version was just as functional. Use 1/4-20 bolts with machine threading (a very common size in the US). The wood is 5/8" thick, which let me bend the plumber’s strap and align the holes just right. The washer under the wingnut helps with smoother operation. The two nuts on the same bolt will lock against each other, and keep the bolt from spinning. the washers on the bolt space the depth the screw goes into the camera. You may have to play around with it a bit to get your camera pointed straight forward.

I was surprised at how steady an image a pocket camera on the end of a pole can provide. I suspect the length of the pole somehow dampens the handheld jitters. I did have to guess at what the camera was seeing, so this is less than ideal. But for crowd events having the ability to go smoothly from eye level to ten feet up is pretty cool.

gammablog.com/2008/12/14/santacon-nyc-2008/

I’m not sure why a tilt mechanism is not standard on all monopods. It increases the functionality tremendously. You can buy heads for your monopod, but they increase the minimum length by a couple of inches. This mod kept it the same length it was. Without being able to tilt the camera, I couldn’t have looked down on the Santas without holding the pole awkwardly.

Filed under: Photos- , Make, santacon - by gamma
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