March 25, 2011

One thing that amazed me last year while doing my 365 bar trek was how people reacted when I approached them and asked to take their picture for the blog. Before I started, I thought maybe fifty percent would say yes. I was pleasantly surprised that it was usually closer to ninety percent saying yes. At first I dreaded walking up to strangers and asking to take their picture, but after a while, I got used to it and I enjoyed it.

This led me to think of an idea for MAD to do occasionally, instead of approaching several people for a photo, I’m just going to approach one person and ask to take twelve photos of that person’s face. If they agree, I’m going to call out different emotions and words for the person to react to. I’m going to call this, “Extreme Close-Up.” Let’s go see if I can pull this off.

Goddamn, it's cold out here again tonight, where are you spring?

It's kind of deserted out tonight, I guess people are pissed that spring has refused to be sprung on this city and they're staying inside.

Oh no. I guess I should thank them for the warning.

I think I'll cut over here and go to Union Square Park, there's always people there.

Okay, here's Union Square Park, let's go to the other side where the steps are, kids are always hanging out over there.

Jesus creeping Christ, it's empty over here and it's not even 10:30! Come on people, work with me!

I was going to ask this guitar guy, but I went over and he seemed to be stoned out of his gourd really into his music, so I didn't want to bother him.

Okay, here we go! This competitive chess player's name is C and he wasn't camera shy at all. He agreed to be the first person to play, "Extreme Close-Up" on MAD. The idea here is to get C to look directly in the camera and then I'm going to throw words out and have him mirror them with his expressions. Here we go!

Happy. (I wanted C to look directly in the camera, but after repeated requests, I gave up I thought maybe this was a better angle anyway.

Sad. (Not too much different than happy, but hey, what are you going to do?)

Confused. (He's still not looking at the camera, but he's getting into it a little more.)

Mad.

Charlie Sheen.

Emilio Estevez. (This prompted C to look away even further from the camera and say, "Man, I don't even know who she is!" I figured this was a good time to end this first edition of, "Extreme Close-Up." Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark!)

Extreme Close-Up—Epilogue
Okay, I admit, this exercise could’ve gone a little better. Part of it was me, maybe I should’ve given C a little more direction, but after asking him to look directly in the camera 37 times, I got a little tired of asking. I thought about trying someone else, but there was no one around and quite frankly, I was kind of out of the mood to do this. I’m not a beaten man though, I will try this again...maybe in a bar next time.

Further reading and watching: Epic Fail, Close-Up Toothpaste, Close Up The Honky Tonks and Repo Man.

Things that come in threes.
Stooges
Iggy’s Stooges
Blind Mice
Amigos
Jacks (and a Jill)
Sons
Little pigs
Musketeers
Wishes
And of course...

You’ll live without her,
Just don’t you think about her when you’re trying to drive.

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