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If you’ve been following my posts about my McDonald’s Chicken McNugget found behind my TV back in May 09, you’ll know I’ve been perplexed by my petrified (petrofried) pabulum.*

You can see my original post here.

I took the now cut in half McNugget and examined it close to a year later. At first touch, it still is slightly oily and obviously hard. The original batter still seems crispy but more of a hard crunch rather than a crisp. A faint smell of oil emits from the middle and the so called chicken still seems flaky and processed. No obvious signs of rot or mold exist at all. I am storing the McNugget in a small zip lock bag on my desk. Its not completely air tight in the sense that its not being preserved perfectly. I am hoping it will develop mold so as to convince myself its real food.

I guess McDonald’s preservatives are fairly strong but I am not a nutritionist nor a lab scientist so I can’t comment on how or why mold won’t form nor whether the preservatives McDonald’s uses are that bad. Anyone have any ideas? I am perplexed by this.

More so, I am surprised the chicken isn’t rotten away. Since I did split the nugget in half, I think I will leave one piece out on the balcony (lanai) in a semi closed container and see if mold forms. Maybe the oil the McNuggets are fried in preserve it.

Hmmmm…..only time will tell and its told loads considering its been like ten months since I first found the McNugget behind the TV. You have to wonder, the food product was probably created in a factory at an unknown date, frozen, ocean shipped to Honolulu, sat in distribution until sent to the deep freeze at the McDonald’s on Beretania until it hit the deep fryer and sat all warm and crispy waiting for my purchase. I could only guess the McNugget birthday was late 2008?

Yet I do wonder, will our digestive systems digest this type of food if nature cannot. I know our digestive track is strong but how strong? Can man outwit our own body in the name of profit?

*1 : food; especially : a suspension or solution of nutrients in a state suitable for absorption
(I learned that word in college–its the first time I used it though!)

I shot a Chinatown story for the New York Times in Jan. and it just ran.

The story, written by Bonnie Tsui, noted how Honolulu’s Chinatown is becoming hipper by the moment. Funny thing about the girl above, Monet, is that she is from HNL but living in New York…I assume the City, so I hope she opens the Travel section and sees herself chomping on an expensive piece of pie. Otto’s cheesecake is not cheap.

Advice, check out the cheesecake at Eileen’s on Cleavland St. in lower Manha’n.

That’s some damn good cheesecake, son!

See the Times story here.

I was also lucky enough to shoot a wedding for the Times (look at me, the Times’, as if I am somebody!) Vows section (the society page for those in the know.) I never shoot weddings so this was kinda fun. It was on Kauai. Nice couple, good vibe, and great haka! The couple worked for the UN in Africa of all places. The bride is the grand daughter of all people, Audra Lindley!

Anyone know who she is?

ITS MRS. ROPER!

I had to keep it together with this one. The mother, or daughter of Mrs. Roper, was, of course, present, and her mannerisms, tone of voice, and speaking pattern were so familiar. It was insane! OH STANLEY!

See that here.

The vog was a bit of a damper but love is love and little girls love to jump into pictures.

Either way, what a great wedding. Thanks to all around! Congratulations!

The shot that made the cover…

If you recall my post from Jan. 18, 2010, I bragged about how I outshot the competition…

WELL…here is the fruit of my labor.

BAM!

I’m not a big on Spam. I mean I’ve eaten the spam musubi bit a few times and well, its ok. Its not my favorite but most cooked foods from 7/11 are not necessarily my favorite either…but its local food, whatada wanna do ’bout it. Eat and no complain.

Spam musubi…a slice of fried spam on a rectangle of rice wrapped in dried seaweed.

Today was where I drew the line. Like I said, Spam is one of those things we’ve had a few time but not much. Its processed and to me it taste faintly of dog food. I mean it actually smells like canned dog food to me. I don’t know if I have tried dog food and I probably have knowning how nutty I was back in college and whatnot…well…I actually remember eating cat food once with Laura Ehrisman. I don’t know why I did…I was at her house and one thing lead to another and we were eating, I should say, I was eating dried cat food. I don’t recall it being that bad but, like I said, it was college, no wait, that was high school. EITHER WAY…it reminds me of cat food, errr…DOG food.

Spam spread in the Pacific during WWII as fresh meats were hard to come by. The military fed their soldiers Spam and the local communities adapted into their diets. Hawaii consumes the most Spam in the world.

But like I said, I found something very unique at the grocery store. SPAM flavored Macadamia nuts. Bleach…cough cough arf…blaahh…I gots to try it.

Got a can, popped it open. I found large macadamia nuts with a reddish power on them. They smelled like mac nuts and barely of Spam. To be quiet honest, they were not that bad. They tasted mostly of mac nuts and thats that. Very little Spam flavoring until the very end. And thats where it got me.

As of this writing, I had to go and rinse my mouth out, twice! The after taste was pretty nasty but its a slow kick a few minutes later. I am fairly disgusted some knucklehead came up with this flavor but loads of locals love it. Not me, I’ll stick to the cat food.

After a hard day of community gardening at Foster Botanical, (oregano, basil, jalapenos, and whatnot…) I took off to the beach with the Leica and shot a few rolls just to keep the mind sharp and the eye fresh.

I parked near the Ilikai Hotel* and walked down the sandy way and it didn’t take but seconds to find something interesting to put down on film.

The surfer was looking out at the small break out in front of the Hilton as well as waiting for his buddies to come along. I was hoping he’d cross my path but nonetheless, I got a different view of what I initially had imagined.

Sadly, I found myself wishing for my pro body and high resolution…yet the limited resolution adds to the mystery of what I saw and what I didn’t or wasn’t able to record. The mistakes of film (resolution, silver, development) all equal character. This is what we forget in capturing imagining. I spent so many years in New York working with photographers and never realizing the reason so many looked the same is because there systems were the same…A Mamiya RZ with a 110mm or 140mm lens on Kodak 160 VS filmed pulled to 80 developed at Duggal at such and such temp…blah blah blah!

It all looked the same except for Steve McCurry…

Now, he looked different. His new book, The Unguarded Moment, is simply what I hope to achieve with my life. Alas, his life is photography. For the rest of us, its a bit different. Its not easy to sacrifice EVERYTHING for your work.

His book can be found here.

As I find, sometimes using a different tool will yet a different experience.

SO back to Hawaii…

Walking by the new lagoon at the Hilton, I stumbled upon a well dressed man with two dogs. I couldn’t help but to snap one off. He was so interested in having me get his shoes. I am not sure why he had the duds on but he was very happy to pose and the dogs cooperated as well.

I’m not sure why I like this image of this woman at the Halekulani but it struck me as something I wanted to scan.

Anyway, its been about two months since I’ve wandered the beach. Might go back today.

*The Ilikai Hotel is the spot where Hawaii 5-0 filmed their famous spot with McGarrett on the rooftop. See it here around 16 seconds into the clip. I just realized Jack Lord played the original Felix in James Bond. He was in Dr. No! Book ’em, Jimmy! McGarrett is the BEST! Chee ho!

I think my father has shades like that.