“The Passport Sling gives you freedom for your every move, protection for your DSLR and lots of space for your personal items.”

“Designed for the photojournalist. Adopted by the enthusiast. Enhanced for all. Lowepro updates the best-selling and award-winning SlingShot AW series.”

These two gnarly bros left Berkley Music School and moved to LA to start a production company. In the process they came up with a concept band called Mankind Liberation Front (LaLa). MLF quickly signed a contract with one of those archaic companies (ie: a record label) and were soon making music videos and appearances.

I was working in a design firm at the time, but I spent the majority of my spare time hanging out in the studio with them, working on their website (1999), smoking weed, then smoking Ran’s weed, and helping out. When the guys started practicing a live show they recruited me to be the backup keyboardist. Mostly because I was free, eager, did not require the limelight, and followed directions well.

The rest of the details are pretty hazy.

MLF’s sound combined rock music with electronic beats. At the time the record label didn’t really know what to do with them. I wonder how they would have fared now in the age of online marketing and self-promotion. I imagine they could have gained a pretty large following of young fans.

Soon thereafter Ran’s younger brother, Tal (creator of Dopetracks.com), came on board and added another layer of vocals to the mix.

You probably never heard of MLF, but if you heard them today what would you think?

I love this part of an airport. The airplane… docked.. being prepped for its journey. I have a child-like obsession with this kind of big mysterious technology. Why?

The physics of flight is simple; in theory. Wing surface area + Air pressure. But… this is just a big metal thing!! How can it float like that?

There’s something about airplanes. I can’t quite put my finger on it; it is a combination of mysterious technology coupled with their size and strength.

The hotspot on the top left which then grows downward is probably the Gmail logo and my gmail folder/labels. The hotspot on the bottom is my fireworks tools. The hotspot along the right side is my os x dock.

Geeky art at its best!

Well, not really together. Back-to-back. Same surgeon. Same hospital. Same room. The hospital staff got a kick out of it. Our mom’s thought we were nuts. Our friends were really sweet – thanks LexPau for coming over to babysit us.

You may think we’re crazy too, but imagine… We got to spend a whole day together in a cool hi tech place. We had very friendly staff look after us. We got to wear pretty yellow socks. Then we went home and took pain killers all weekend. Doesn’t sound so bad now does it?

The videos below are not leaked scenes from James Cameron’s latest underwater films. These are our very own inner worlds shot during our surgeries by the steady hands of Dr. Kenneth Akizuki. (warning: not for the fait of heart)

Video watching bonus: see if you can spot the part where the camera leaves our bodies and films the operating room.

Ron’s Labrum Lasso

Anthroscopic Shoulder Surgery – Repairing a torn labrum from Ron Kurti on Vimeo.

Zoe’s knee cap cleanup

Anthroscopic Knee Surgery – Removing tissue from underneath the knee cap from Ron Kurti on Vimeo.

When I look at this image I feel incredibly relaxed and sexy – two emotions that go very well together.

spoiler alert:
The original image is below. If you are completely wrapped up in the crispness and stark tranquility of the above image do not read any further.

It wasn’t always like this. This image is posed and it didn’t really come out that great.

Zoe and I worked together for about twenty minutes to try to get all the elements lined up. I liked the way she was lying on the couch and I pulled the camera out with the intent of capturing a nice symmetrical perspective. We tried very hard to line everything up. I usually don’t direct a shot… I just shoot what I see, but Zoe was trying to teach me how to inspect the set and try to adjust the model and elements around her to make the shot better. It wasn’t until one of the last frames that I asked her to put her hand down beside the couch.

I inspected the images on the computer and was not feeling good about them. The colors were dark. My perspective wasn’t really there. I was very close to throwing out the whole set when I decided to start experimenting.

Sometimes an image just doesn’t work, and other times there is a hidden treasure inside. When the colors are just not working for me I always go to black and white. I try to make the light area the whitest and the dark area the blackest. Then I lighten up the darks to bring out details. After that I start experimenting with cropping.

Both cropping and color can dramatically re-tell a story. And in this case the results are very dramatic.