“Diamond” Dallas Page relives “The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro”

During the ’90s, World Championship Wrestling rose to Monday night dominance over the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) with WCW Monday Nitro, which went head-to-head with WWF Monday Night Raw for more than five years. Though WCW eventually lost the Monday Night Wars in 2001, Nitro definitely provided some exciting times that wrestling fans still recall fondly to this day. With The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro, WWE honors its former foe with a three-disc set of Nitro highlights hosted by one of WCW’s biggest stars, “Diamond” Dallas Page. Page talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the Nitro DVD and the memories it brought up for him.

Former WCW stars Kevin Nash and Booker T recently returned to WWE, and there are still plenty of other people from WCW in the company. How did you end up hosting this DVD?

It was interesting because when they first asked me if I was interested in doing it, I was like, “Hell, yeah. I’m interested. I’m honored!” But I wanted to see the copy because it was very important to me what was said there. After I saw it, I said, “You don’t really want me to do this.” And they were like, “What do you mean? We want you to do it.” I said, “I just wouldn’t say some of these things about WCW. I want to talk about the best of and keep it really positive.” And they said, “Well, change it.” WWE really wanted to do something really cool and I actually talked to some friends of mine because I wanted to know what the fans wanted to see. So they gave me some great ideas and WWE was like, “Great!”

At the end of the video I say that it’s a crime to try to fit six years into one production. I hope people get to see some of your favorite stuff, but they sure missed a hell of a lot of mine. That’s why I say at the end that I’m ready for volume two. I liked what they did, but there’s so much that WWE could do with the footage they have. You could do a DVD set just on mine and [Randy] Savage‘s feud. Never mind Sting and [Hulk] Hogan. You could do three sets of DVDs on just the New World Order, maybe ten.

Have there been talks about doing a DDP DVD?

If this one sells well, a DDP DVD might be a good idea. I’d put my career up against anyone’s in terms of things that have never been done before. I would never compare myself to Ric Flair or Shawn Michaels or Dusty Rhodes. I don’t have the talent that those guys did, and I have monster respect for all of them. But I am the anomaly. No one did what “Diamond” Dallas Page did. I tried wrestling at 22, didn’t work out. When into the night club business, came back as a manager at 32 in the AWA [American Wrestling Association], worked one day a month, which got me on TV every week. Then I went to Championship Wrestling from Florida and worked under Dusty after he left the NWA [National Wrestling Alliance] and started his own territory. I didn’t know a wristlock from a wrist watch and the next thing you know I’m doing color commentary next to Gordon Solie. Then I tried out for the WWF, at the time, and WCW, and both of them passed. Then Dusty brings me in as a manager at WCW and they say I’m too over the top to be a manager. Magnum T.A. said, “We should have put you in a pair of tights and seen what you could do.” So I became a wrestler at 35 and the rest is history. No one ever did, or will ever do, what I did.

You’re also the one who brought Kevin Nash and Scott Hall into WCW originally as Vinnie Vegas and the Diamond Stud.

Exactly! I created Scott Hall’s character, which became Razor Ramon. Scott would be in the car with me doing impressions of Tony Montana from Scarface and that became “The Bad Guy.” The thing with the toothpick, we were walking out of a freaking Waffle House and I grabbed a toothpick and said, “Oh, I’ve got a great idea. When you do an interview, flick your toothpick into the camera.” Then I tagged with Kevin Nash and we were green, but we could work. That’s when I tore my rotator cuff, got fired, came back and they sat me on the bench. It took Hulk Hogan telling me over in Germany, “I don’t know what you’re doing to keep getting so much better, but whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. You and I have the ability to draw huge money together.” Then Hulk went to Eric [Bischoff] and said, “You need to do something with him.” That’s when I started getting the little pushes and we all know what happened from there. Then I became the oldest World Champion.

While watching one of your World Championship matches against Sting on this DVD, I was reminded of the signs people used to hold up at shows back then. There’s a great one that says, “DDP: The Hippies’ Champ.”

Yeah, that one would show up occasionally and I thought it was funny. You know, Sting was the only guy who could get away with never turning heel.

Yeah, even when he joined the New World Order he wasn’t a heel.

Right. The red-and-black were babyfaces. So it was just easier to work as a heel against him. I knew how to do that and he’s one of the few guys I could do that with. Goldberg, too. I flipped myself, and Bischoff was mad as hell at me for doing it. What happened was I came back and was in an angle with Scotty Steiner. I had never been to Toronto and I came out and the place went nuts. When I started talking about Steiner, they cheered and I thought they were cheering Scotty. They were really cheering the angle, but I turned on the people and cut a vicious promo. I remember going back and Bischoff saying, “What are you doing turning yourself heel?” I said, “The people were cheering for Steiner and I got pissed!” And that was all reality based, so I went with it. But he was like, “You’re one of our top babyfaces! You can’t just flip like that.”

Another moment that was missing from the DVD was when the nWo was really trying to get you to join and it looked like you were about to, but then someone jumped you from behind.

It was Dennis Rodman and Hulk Hogan.

I was surprised that wasn’t on the DVD, especially after the part where you say something to the effect of, “Who was the only superstar to never join the nWo? We’ll get to that later.”

I really wanted them to put the La Parka match in there. That was one of the greatest Nitro moments ever, and they said they liked it, but they didn’t put it in there. I can’t remember why they didn’t.

The whole thing with the nWo was the bookers at the time didn’t want me to drop the nWo. It was my idea and they drew that out for so long. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. There’s something positive that comes out of everything, you’ve just got to keep looking for it. I was a heel and I never fucking changed my promos. Just like Steve Austin in ’97, I just turned my disdain and disgust for the fans to the nWo. That’s all I did. And at some point I became a pure babyface, but that took years.

The same thing happened with the Four Horsemen and several others. It was WCW vs. nWo, so it didn’t matter if you were a face or heel.

One thing that was huge to me was Sting going into the rafters. The only babyfaces we really had were the Big Show [then known as the Giant] and Lex Luger. And Lex was 6’4″, 290 pounds of pure chiseled steel, so they had to beat Lex down. I had a legitimate angle with these guys because I was really tight, best friends, especially with Kevin.

Now that you’ve done this DVD with WWE, are you working on any other projects there?

I’m open. I went in to promote the DVD on Raw and it was great having fun with Booker in the back. There are four guys I really wish I could have worked with. One being the Rock, of course, so it would be the People’s Champion vs. the People’s Champion. Shawn Michaels would absolutely have been another. Triple H and Stone Cold are the other guys I really wish I had been able to work with. But interacting with Shawn on Raw was cool.

I’m really glad I did the DVD set and it would be a natural fit for them to keep me as a host. When people think of Nitro, they think of “Diamond” Dallas Page because I was there from the get-go to the ending. Goldberg was made over that time period, but I was there when we were nothing and we were way down the ladder. And I can remember Eric Bischoff saying, “We’re going to kick Vince McMahon‘s ass.” And I’d be thinking, “What are you smoking, man? How can you even say that?” But first you’ve got to say it and believe it, or else you’re never going to achieve it. And he did. I was there with him for that whole ride.

That Raw segment with Booker T and Shawn Michaels was great, when Michaels said he missed Nitro because he always had to work that night.

Yeah, that was great! It’s total bullshit because we all watched everything we all did. But he was working that thing when he said, “I’ll check that out.”

Sting was obviously a big part of WCW, and a lot of people think he deserves to be in the WWE Hall of Fame. Do you think he’ll ever go to WWE before he retires?

No, I don’t think so. Now that it’s PG, there might be a chance. But I think if Sting comes in it will be under his terms. He’s 52 now and he’s still out there doing his thing. I know how hard it is because I did house shows until I was 53. I don’t want to do it anymore. For Stinger to come back, what does he have to prove? The reason why he could do it is the face paint. He’s kind of ageless. I think he’ll be in the WWE Hall of Fame regardless. Sting is a guy they really want and I think they would do something really good with him.

For more information, go to www.wwe.com and www.diamonddallaspage.com.

Mary Magdalan puts a “N3RV” hold on the electro scene

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By Jonathan Williams

With a look that’s as vivid as her sound, Mary Magdalan mixes grime, glam, hip-hop and electro to create a musical experience that could be described as divine. With DJ/producer Gzus providing the beats, Magdalan lays down raunchy rhymes and hardcore screams that have caught the attention of such badass figures as current Absolute Intense Wrestling Women’s Champion and Dropkick Divas founder Jessicka Havok, who uses the song “Dirty Trash” as her entrance theme. “The chorus is ‘We don’t give a fuck’ and that’s simply the presence of my persona in the ring. The song’s beat is the way I move, and I am someone who will do whatever it takes in the ring to win – even if that means fighting dirty.”

Currently on tour promoting her third CD DIGI.N3RV (released this week), Magdalan takes a moment to discuss her name, sound and ability to impress someone like Havok.

Despite the variation in the spelling, the name Mary Magdalan definitely brings to mind a somewhat controversial historical female figure. Why did you decide to use that name for this musical project?

I picked Mary Magdalan because she was a woman who never got to speak her side.

Your music is kind of a weird amalgamation of hip-hop, electro and metal. Where would you say you were drawing your inspiration when started creating this music, the look and overall concept?

Gzus is the producer on this project and both Gzus and I really enjoy all types of music. For us, we wanted to just make music that didn’t really have any boundaries. So when we sit down to make music, that’s what we do. We don’t try to fit it into any one genre. We just try to do what we feel on each track.

From what I’ve heard and seen from you, I would guess you’ve also been inspired by creative sources outside of music. What would you say has inspired your in-your-face look and aesthetic?

I’d say my biggest inspiration in making music has been things that I’ve experienced, gone through and seen in my life. Definitely fashion plays a big part in it. For us, it’s just anything that we see that people create that inspires us to go write a song. I personally like to write from experience – things that I might have done, things that I might have seen, feelings I might have gone through – that’s always been my vessel for writing.

Jessicka Havok, one of indie wrestling’s most promising female talents, uses your song “Dirty Trash” as her entrance theme. How did that come about?

We were on tour and she came to the show in Cleveland. I met her after the show and she was super sweet and awesome. She really loves the music and she asked me if she could use “Dirty Trash” as her song. I was like, “Of course!” She just happened to come to a show and the rest is history. She decided to use it and I was really excited about that because she’s a really sweet girl.

Have you had a chance to see any of her matches?

I know that she’s badass. I’ve seen some of her stuff and she’s awesome, I can definitely say. We totally support her.

Has your music been used for marketing purposes like that elsewhere?

One of our songs is in a horror movie that’s coming out soon. I know there have been other people who have used our stuff in the past and whenever anybody wants to use our stuff, it’s awesome. It’s a total blessing and we think it’s pretty cool.

On your current tour you’re hitting some cities that you’ve never played before. For those who have not yet seen you perform, how would you say the live performance compares to your recorded music?

Oh, I think our live shows definitely bring it to life. They’re definitely higher energy. We have an awesome light show and I definitely think there’s a lot more energy when we do it live.

For more information, go to www.facebook.com/marymagdalan.

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” delivers more than just bot battles

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When I first heard that Michael Bay would be directing the film adaptation of one of my all-time favorite toy lines, my anticipation was high and my expectations were low. To my surprise and slight delight, 2007’s Transformers was not a total disappointment. In fact, it stayed true enough to the various continuities from the original comics and cartoons to please longtime fans, had a plot that was engaging enough to not be insulting and offered enough of Bay’s mindless action and T&A to work on a few levels.

While the first film was a bit more than met the eye, its 2009 followup Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was, unfortunately, everything I expected the first one to be (a big, dumb assortment of Michael Bay explosions and inanity). With the bar once again lowered, I went into Transformers: Dark of the Moon with much the same mindset that I had with the first film. And just as the first one was surprisingly good, Dark of the Moon is truly the best of the trilogy (and, though it isn’t really saying much, probably Bay’s best effort to date).

With few mentions of the events of the second film (including the omission of the bumbling duo of Skids and Mudflap), Dark of the Moon revolves around the idea that the Space Race of the 1960s was prompted by a Transformers spacecraft that crash landed on the dark side of the moon. The film rewrites history by attributing the 1986 Chernobyl disaster to a fuel cell from the ship and by having a cameo by the real Buzz Aldrin, who gives his moral support to the Autobots before they head to the moon to investigate.

As the Autobots find and revive Optimus Prime’s predecessor Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy, who voiced Galvatron in the 1986 animated The Transformers: The Movie), a down-on-his-luck Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is living with his new girlfriend Carly (Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) in D.C. while struggling to find work in a world he has helped save on two occasions. Once again, Sam unwittingly uncovers a Decepticon plot, this time to build a teleportation device that will allow them to not only take over our planet, but revive their own using human slave labor. And with multiple Star Trek references, the irony of having a character voiced by the most famous Vulcan who is also key to the building the teleportation device can only be intentional.

As has been the case with the previous two films, the human element is just as important in Dark of the Moon as the big fighting robots (with parallels drawn between the bigger bot plot and the personal lives of the main human characters). In addition to the returning John Turturro, the ensemble cast includes Frances McDormand as the United States Secretary of Defense, Ken Jeong as Sam’s conspiracy theorist coworker, Patrick Dempsey as Carly’s wealthy and sleazy boss and John Malkovich as the neurotic businessman who finally gives Sam a job. While these respected actors definitely enrich the overall story, Dark of the Moon also borrows from various other films ranging from Mission: Impossible to Independence Day to Mad Max, giving it a depth that the previous two films didn’t quite achieve. And this Transformers definitely lives up to the Dark part of its moniker with multiple betrayals and gruesome fatalities for bots and humans alike.

Sure, it’s a big budget Michael Bay alien invasion movie. But there’s more to it than that for those paying attention. And it’s clearly Bay’s attempt to meld a summer action flick with something a little more respectable in much the same way The Dark Knight did a few years ago.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Directed by Michael Bay. Starring Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Rated PG-13. www.transformersmovie.com.

Review by Jonathan Williams

Celldweller kicks off the Wish Upon a Blackstar Tour in Atlanta

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By Jonathan Williams

Whether you’ve ever heard of Celldweller or not, you’ve likely heard the band’s music in movie trailers, TV shows and WWE pay-per-views. The brainchild of former Circle of Dust front man Klayton, Celldweller’s cyber rock incorporates techno, trance, drum & bass and industrial rock for a sound that is futuristically aggressive. With the first leg of his Wish Upon a Blackstar Tour 2011 kicking off at the Masquerade in Atlanta this Friday, Klayton takes a moment to talk about Celldweller’s place in pop culture today.

Photo by Vladimir Ponomarev

You’re starting your tour in Atlanta. How will this show and tour compare to your last Atlanta show at Dragon*Con?

For starters, we had a very abbreviated set at Dragon*Con. I think we only had a 30 or 40 minutes set, so this going to be a full 65-70 minute set with more content, new songs and a much more intimate setting considering that Dragon*Con was 3,500 people. I think it will definitely be a different experience all around the board.

The second member of Celldweller’s live incarnation is Bret Autrey, whose solo project is Blue Stahli. Since you produced Blue Stahli’s album, do you guys work any of those songs into your set?

Not at the moment. His debut album came out about a month and a half ago on my label, FiXT. Part of the whole premise here is getting him onstage with me to kind of introduce my fanbase to him and the fact that he and his music exist. As it turns out, a lot of the people showing up to the shows already know Blue Stahli, so that’s a good sign.

Photo by Chuck Wheeler

One of my first club concerts was another one of your bands, Circle of Dust, back in ’94 or ’95.

Yeah, I can’t even remember how far back that would have gone. But as it turns out, Atlanta was always an anomaly for me because Circle of Dust was on a really small label with really no support from anyone. For some reason a show down there had been playing some of my songs and one of my tracks ended up becoming one of the most requested songs on 88.5, the college station there. All I knew was the first time we ever played Atlanta we played a place called the Cotton Club and it was sold out. There were 350 people there and I couldn’t believe it because the rest of the time we were touring, we were playing for 30 kids or 50 kids, depending on the market. The next time we came through Atlanta, we played the Masquerade, which is an 1,100-capacity room and we sold that out. We loved playing Atlanta because that was the closest we were ever going to be to rock stars at that point in our lives.

Like Celldweller, Circle of Dust was a solo project with a touring band. And while they are somewhat similar, there was a slight change in direction from industrial rock to more techno and trance-influenced rock with Celldweller. Why did you decide to go in a slightly different musical direction?

That’s just part of being human. As a human you change naturally and I wasn’t going to fight that. What really propelled the whole thing was that the label I was signed to at the time went into bankruptcy and there were all kinds of legal battles between the label and all of the artists, including me. That basically tied me up for a year and a half where I couldn’t release a new album or anything, and I couldn’t really continue forward as Circle of Dust. It was around then that Criss Angel had approached me to work with him on some music. At that point I decided I was going to end Circle of Dust, work with Criss and we had our own project together, Angeldust, for the next six years. From there Celldweller was the most obvious next step for me because I had changed musically over time and I wanted something completely fresh.

Did Angeldust do much touring or was it more of a studio project?

We played Madison Square Garden in New York for two weeks, we were on the Howard Stern Show, the Ricky Lake show back in the day and things like that. But it wasn’t a touring thing, per se.

Your first CD came out in 2003, but your newer music is only being released online.

Right now it’s being release digitally only. Instead of making people wait two years while I work on an album, then release the whole thing at once, I’m releasing two songs at a time. The next step after that is actually releasing the full disc. As of now there are eight songs towards the new album that have already been released over the last few years. Then, in a few months, the actual full-length CD will be pressed and it will include another four or five songs people haven’t heard yet. We’ve had a lot of success with that and that’s what my fanbase wants. We came up with the idea of instead of making people wait, let’s give them music right now. For the people who care, they’ll buy it. For the people who don’t, they can wait for the CD. What I ended up doing was not only releasing two songs at a time, but with those two songs I’ve also released generally a half hour to 45 minutes’ worth of demos for the two songs being released. So people can hear from the earliest inception of where the idea started all the way up through the finished product by listening to 15 or 20 demos per song. I also take it another step further by doing an audio commentary over the demos so I can kind of explain where this idea came from or whatever. That’s sort of a deluxe release that’s only, like, a buck or two more than the standard release. My fanbase has really responded to that and actually come to expect it. We’re just creating our own model for the current day and it’s working for us.

Another way that you’ve gotten your music out to broader audiences has been through licensing it to movies and video games, and having the song “Fadeaway” used as the official theme song for WWE’s Night of Champions pay-per-view last year.

Yeah, I’ve had music in a lot of movies, a lot of television, a lot of video games. Some of it is licensed and some of it is actually custom work. For instance, the game Dead Rising 2, I wrote the theme for the game. Then there are other times where people say, “We love this song you’ve already created. We want to license it for our movie, this video game or that TV show.” That absolutely helps float the ship, for sure.

Aside from having “Fadeaway” licensed for that pay-per-view, have you ever done anything collaboratively with WWE?

I’ve been approached to do that, but the timing wasn’t right so I didn’t actually do anything. That’s not to say that maybe in the future something won’t happen, but as it stands right now I haven’t done anything directly [with WWE].

I don’t know if you’re a wrestling fan, but are there any particular people you’d like to do entrance music for or anything like that?

I actually haven’t owned a television feed in two years, so I don’t even know what’s going on in the real world. I live in the digital age and I get the content I want to watch and stream it from the web. I don’t even have time to watch much TV, so it’s very difficult for me to stay up on all the TV shows, all the wrestlers and other stuff.

Celldweller with Inviolate. $12-$17. 7 p.m. July 1. The Masquerade, 695 North Ave., Atlanta, Ga. 404-577-8178. www.celldweller.com, www.masqueradeatlanta.com.

“Robot Monster” invades the Silver Scream Spookshow

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The Silver Scream Spookshow has gone through quite a shakeup over the past few months, with longtime cast members disappearing without a trace and new characters emerging to fill the voids. But this Saturday’s show sees the return of some Spookshow favorites such as the monstrously mystical Corndoglioso as the Spookshow crew prepares to take on the otherworldly Robot Monster, a 1953 B-movie featuring an antagonist wearing a gorilla suit and a diving helmet. Dancing girls, impossible scenarios and zany fun are never far away, especially when Spookshow host Professor Morte is involved.

Silver Scream Spookshow. $7 (free for children ages 12 and younger). 1 p.m. $12. 10 p.m. June 25. Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave., Atlanta, Ga. 404-873-1939, www.silverscreamspookshow.com, www.plazaatlanta.com.

Minette Magnifique gets a little uninhibited with “Prohibition Exhibition”

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By Jonathan Williams

As classy as they are sassy, the lovely ladies of Minette Magnifique make their Warren City Club debut tonight with Prohibition Exhibition: Making the Illicit Explicit. As if Minette wasn’t already tantalizing enough, this show explores titillating taboos and vexing vices that only these vixens dare uncover. And if previous performances are any indication, things are bound to get more than a little bit silly as Baroness VONSchmalhausen provides humorous introductions to each riveting routine. And with a couple of fresh faces in the troupe, even those who have seen Minette’s past shows will have new reasons to come to this one-night engagement.

Prohibition Exhibition: Making the Illicit Explicit. $15 for general admission (includes a drink ticket), $150 for VIP seating (a table of four includes four drink tickets, hors d’ouvres, a bottle of champagne and a surprise gift from PinUpGirl! Cosmetics). 9 p.m. June 23. The Warren City Club, 818 N. Highland Ave., Atlanta, Ga. 404-688-7468, www.iheartminette.com.

Chip Simone’s images resonate at the High in “Resonant Images”

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By Jonathan Williams

After studying under renowned photographer Harry Callahan at the Rhode Island School of Design in the ’60s, Chip Simone developed his own unique style of black-and-white street photography over the course of the next few decades. A longtime Atlanta resident, Simone made the switch to color images in 2000, after also embracing digital photography technology. Over the next decade, Simone explored the streets of Atlanta (as well as his home state of Massachusetts and elsewhere), capturing people (ranging from ordinary to eccentric) and moments (ranging from mundane to surreal) that might otherwise have been overlooked. This Saturday, The Resonant Image: Photographs by Chip Simone opens at the High Museum of Art with a gallery talk by Simone at 2 p.m. At a recent preview (attended by the late Callahan’s wife and muse Eleanor), Simone took a moment to talk about some of the more pop culture-inspired images in the show.

"Hummingbird Corset, Atlanta, 2010" by Chip Simone

Most of your images look like they are random glimpses at things most of us might not normally stop to look at, while others are clearly at pop culture events such as Dragon*Con. Do you seek out these moments to capture or do you take your camera everywhere you go and just happen upon things?

"Silver Man, Atlanta, 2010" by Chip Simone

Both. I don’t usually gravitate to events because most people at places like that go to be looked at. But I had never gone to Dragon*Con before and I found a delightful humor and spirit. When I looked at these people, they sort of look past a certain ordinariness and into something that transformed them. The guy in the “Silver Man,” he was totally that.

"Girl with Camera, Atlanta, 2009" by Chip Simone

And the “Girl with Camera,” that was eccentric. It was cobbled together from different ideas; she was sexy and cute and spanned a couple of different eras. This isn’t stuff that I think about at the time. Most of these pictures are done in a matter of seconds and I move on. But I can pick up things very quickly. That’s one of my good fortunes is that I can see things in people because I’ve studied drawing and taught drawing for years. I think the the best training to work with spontaneity is to have a skill set that allows you to see the essentials of any scene. And drawing forces you to do that because you have a blank slate.

What concert were you attending at the Tabernacle when you took “Red Post, Tabernacle, 2001”?

It was a bar mitzvah for my friend’s son. His son is currently hiking the Appalachian Trail. He’s several hundred miles into it and just a few days ago proposed to his girlfriend. They’re hiking all the way up to Mount Katahdin in Maine.

"Red Post Tabernacle, Atlanta, 2001" by Chip Simone

You were a black-and-white street photographer up until 2000, which is where this show begins. Why did you switch from black-and-white to color photography? Did that coincide with your switching from film to digital cameras?

I had worked with color film for a while. Then I got a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980 or something like that. I had been shooting 8 x 10 negatives for ten years up to that point. Then I got this money from the government, which encouraged me to try something new. So I got a shitload of Kodachrome because working with a big camera, you have so much control and there are so many variables, but with Kodachrome there’s no control. It’s either right or wrong. So I thought I would work under a different set of restrictions and I liked it. Kodachrome has a very narrow dynamic range, but I couldn’t print it. I couldn’t make good prints and just had problems. In the back of my mind, I remembered having had a good experience with color. But it wasn’t until the advent of digital camera technology that all the research was pointed toward increased dynamic range and stability. So I started making pictures with digital cameras, but a lot of them I didn’t print for eight years because the paper and the printers weren’t ready yet. So I was patient.

What was the most valuable thing you learned from studying under Callahan?

I studied with him in the ’60s, then I got to know him again becausae he moved to Atlanta and died here in ’99. So I had another bunch of years with him. But when I first met him I was 19 and one of Callahan’s rites of passage was that he would invite you to his house on a Friday night, where he would have people over and they’d all get shitfaced. So he told me he was having some people over and that he’d like me to come. When I got there, I wasn’t exactly comfortable in that setting because I didn’t know the protocols of all that stuff. Eleanor could sense that, so she was sitting next to me on the sofa and was telling me what I was seeing – who they were, what they were known for – and we’ve remained very good friends ever since then.

The Resonant Image: Photographs by Chip Simone. $11-$18. June 18-Nov. 6. High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, Ga. 404-733-4400, www.high.org.