New York, New York

April 22, 2008

Last night I got back from Northampton. The trip to New York was amazing.

 

 

Early Saturday morning we got up and packed into a cab to Springfield. Being neurotically early (my fault) left us wandering a little, and I took the above shot near the bus station. Not bad.

 

 

Eventually we made our way up to the train platform and took a seat. I look demented because I typically try to remember to do something to prevent the fat chin in these kinds of pictures. Ah well, not as bad as it could have been.

 

 

I had not taken the train down through Connecticut since before I can remember, so it was interesting to see the path it took. Some familiar, some not so familiar. Above we got to wander around on the platform for a little bit as they swapped out the diesel locomotive for an electric one in New Haven.

 

 

There are some fairly large gaps in here between the images and what we were actually up to, so you’ll have to forgive that. Above is of course the Metropolitan Opera House. The performance of Philip Glass’ Satyagraha was completely amazing. I was in awe the entire time. The tough thing about Glass’ music is that it requires such precision - although they did a tremendous job, it is tough to stay on top of the music as written.

The visuals that went with the performance were remarkable as well. Glass leaves this end more or less up to the director based on the thrust of the scene in question and the libretto, so each new production is a thoroughly new interpretation. This is the only performance I’ve ever been aware of (besides one in Tehran a few years back - wha?), though, so this will likely be the only interpretation I ever see. If that’s the case, then I’m awfully happy it was this performance - it was stunning.

After that we swung by the hotel to get our room and drop our stuff. Sensing that we were going to run into timing issues if we tried to go for a big meal we stopped by the hotel bar and pounded down a few beers and quesadillas. The food was decent, the service not so much so. What can you do.

Then it was off to the Cherry Lane Theater for a double bill of Edward Albee’s The American Dream and The Sandbox. Both were wonderfully executed, directed by Mr. Albee himself. Rachel and I had a few minor quibbles, but overall it was a very handsomely mounted production.

 

 

Sunday morning we got up and tried to figure out what the Pope was up to. Our hotel was right next to ground zero, and we walked through all the preparations the night before on our way back from Greenwich Village.

Of course, there wasn’t much to see out the window. Only a tiny crowd of people on one street corner was at all visible, the rest obscured by our neighbor. I went down to get coffee and received very firm direction from the Secret Service about where I could go, when, how, etc. I am of the belief that Secret Service personnel should be posted at all points where lines are a problem. They were very effective at making sure everyone got through Starbucks promptly.

After a quick text message to Ethan to find an ideal lunch/beer spot, we ended up just blocks from MoMA for a quick bite. Rachel was very good and had a Caesar Salad, I was rather naughty and had the meat loaf paired with first an IPA, then the beer sampler.

 

 

After a stop at MoMA (too many people, though the exhibit was great), it was time to head out to the train. We loaded on and both plugged in to our music immediately. Neither of us had enough rest to chat too much.

Things were progressing nicely until we hit Windsor Locks, CT and were informed that there was a medical emergency on the southbound train that was preventing us from getting past to Springfield. Gee, eliminating the second track on these lines was a real good idea, wasn’t it?

Mercifully Mike was able to rescue us in no time flat.

A great trip and a wonderful time.

Posted in: photo, the world, wonderful things 1 Comment »

Easter Weekend

April 22, 2008

I took a quiet trip back home to Ellington for Easter weekend.

 

 

Here is my Dad solving the great problems of the universe, or at the very least trying to establish why his transition in Premiere isn’t working they way he anticipated. We solved a number of problems over the weekend, not the least of which was isolating a faulty optical cable as the reason for his temperamental 5.1 Surround Sound issues.

It was a quiet Easter - the Hayes were collectively ill so the backed out of the event. My cousin Christine was working, so that eliminated her as well. It was great to see Robin and Ray, though, so it was a splendid time.

 

 

The rest of the images from Easter are kind of mediocre, so I leave you with pie. Delicious.

Posted in: photo 1 Comment »

Long Overdue Holiday Roundup

March 4, 2008

At long last here is the holiday roundup.

It all started with Thanksgiving. I was not in the mood to deal with lots of camera store hours this year and modified my schedule accordingly, but somehow it was still a whirlwind holiday season.

Beer, of course, made this all a little bit better. After the annual hoiday run to the liquor store in West Springfield we arrived home and cracked a few open immediately. My father and I vaguely discussed a potential beer review to contribute to Ethan’s Beer-O-Vision, but we didn’t get all that far. Just not something I feel I can accurately articulate - I can rattle on about my snooty audiophile recordings ’til my ears bleed, can launch into flowery dissertations about this or that body of photo work - but describing beer?

“Mmm-MMM! That’s good beer!”

Yeah. Uh, that’s about as far as I get.

Anyway, Thanksgiving morning we headed down to my old high school so that Nancy could water the plants. It seems that the school just has no idea what to do with a greenhouse. Even typing that sentence felt like I should be checking it for a hidden grammar error: it sounds so dumb. a school has no idea what to do with a greenhouse? Can’t they grow trees or something? How ’bout, oh, say, teaching botany?

My high school was not a bad one. I look back fondly on my time there. But even after Nancy had agreed to do something with the greenhouse, they put her through endless hysteria about keys and doors and all kinds of foolishness.

It’s just not like it was back in my day - you could pretty much rest assured that there was a way into the building if the sun was up.

 

It was a very low-key Thanksgiving at my sister’s. Robin and Ray were there, as of course were Eliza, Karen, and Bill. Here Ray and my father chat it up whilst ignoring the television, and below I waited patiently to sneak a shot of Eliza when she turned around. Eliza likes to play the I’m-so-shy-and-won’t-look game with me a lot.

Christmas was also pleasantly quiet. I’m sure someone could dredge up evidence of a year I missed, but as far as I’m concerned I’ve been down to the beach at Misquamicut every year since I was born. To make sure I made it this year we drove down the day after Christmas to “look at the water”. I think Karen had told me, but I had forgotten that the old Book and Tackle Shop in Watch Hill had been torn down. I wonder who got the door jam that had been worn down to an amazing hourglass shape over the years.

Besides the smell of the old books, my favorite thing about the Book and Tackle Shop was that if you hung around long enough eventually you would hear the inevitable conversation:

“Do you have nightcrawlers?”

“No, it’s a book shop.”

“But it says book and tackle!”

“Right, it’s a joke.”

silence.

“Get it, hook and tackle? Book and tackle?”

silence.

“&*#$%!”

This picture came out much more dramatic than it really happened to be, but it is great evidence of that old truth - cameras are terrific liars. The other is a bit more accurate in terms of color/light.

 

Finally, New Years was of course spent in Northampton with Rachel, Mike, and Daisy. We sat on our butts, ate too much, cackled hysterically at complete inane comments, and drank casually throughout the day.

It was amazing.

It wasn’t too terribly cold, but you know how sometimes you go out and you’re ready for a winter storm, whereas other times you step out and feel like you have hypothermia when it’s 34 degrees? Unfortunately I was feeling the latter when Daisy and Rachel stepped out to play in the snow. I did get one picture before scurrying back inside to the comfort and safety of my spiked hot cocoa.

Mmmmmm. Spiked hot cocoa.

Posted in: photo No Comments »

kitty kitty kitty

October 18, 2007

 

I was looking through my Polaroids for one in particular that somebody asked me for a print of. Still haven’t found the damn thing (and I remember seeing it once and thinking “how did that get there?”; did nothing about it), but I did come across this picture of Girlfriend - Rachel’s spectacular kitty.

 

Unfortunately, Girlfriend is no longer with us. But when she was, she was quite easily the most accommodating model on the planet. She would just sit and stare with her great big eyes, pleased that you were paying any kind of attention to her. I always felt incredibly guilty, as the flash made her squint and give me an exasperated look, but it never made her run away - as every other cat I’ve ever taken a picture of has done. Girlfriend was pretty hip.

 

Anyway, I hoped the Girlfriend image would help ease the pain and suffering that my lack of interesting posts must have caused. I have been so damn busy lately, and consequently no new images, no new announcements. I have been tweaking, refining, and making final prints of the images that people have asked me for, so if I haven’t been in touch about that, know that all your prints are about to emerge and be distributed.

 

In the meantime, no Chain Camera Store tonight, so a few prints and then I’m climbing into bed early.

Posted in: filler, photo, wonderful things 1 Comment »

Vancouver, Day Five: All Done

October 9, 2007

When I got up Sunday morning it was all over. There were no tasks, nowhere to be, nothing to do. After some contemplation I decided on the cluster of museums over the bridge that included the Vancouver Museum, The H.R. MacMillan Space Center, and the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

The Vancouver Museum was fairly interesting but panders a bit to the MTV generation. I would have liked a bit more solid information, history, etc. There was, however, an interesting temporary display about a Japanese Canadian baseball team that was broken up by WWII. Also interesting to see that Canada was a little bit more unforgiving once the war ended and forced their Japanese immigrants to scatter across the country instead of going back to Vancouver.

The Space Centre was disappointing. There were some cool artifacts of the space programs, but it was mostly about America - no mention of Canada’s big arm on the shuttle, although there was a replica in this little theater where they did a presentation about bodily functions in space. Snore. They also appear to have spent too much money on a ridiculous motion simulator that had a sad storyline about delivering a power actuator to Mars. Shouldn’t have bothered. Even the Museum attendant seemed kind of embarrassed by it.

The planetarium was nice, they had a beautiful Zeiss star projector like the one at Boston’s Museum of Science. The show was about light pollution - they did these cool 360 panoramic shots to simulate different cities and their effect on stargazing.

The highlight of the Maritime Museum was easily the report they kept of all the big shipping vessels out on the water. I didn’t take the time to try to match them up, but it was intersting to look over the ports of call and the likely cargo contained within. The exhibits were interesting - lots of ship models, and even a workshop where you could unnerve the ship model artist-on-duty by staring at him while he was working (needless to say I steered clear). Also went on a “rare” tour of the St. Roch’s engine room in addition to the regular tour.

Oddly enough I ran into Andy and Joanne at the Maritime Museum - they had rented bikes and by chance had stopped in at the museum to use the bathroom! We tried to get them onto a water taxi but no bikes allowed. So I waved goodbye and they went on their way. After a light dinner I walked back across the city and down to the water facing Victoria. Took some photographs down by the water. The one below is actually part of the big swoop-y convention center on the water. Take the plants away and it looks like the set for a Cronenberg movie ca. 1981. Pretty cool. The other is a fairly generic sunset - had I been in Stanley Park it would have been spectacular. Live and learn.

After all that I headed back to the hostel. Settled into my bunk for my only quiet evening in Vancouver.

That’s where the story ends. I got up the next morning, tidied up my things, and jumped on the airport shuttle. Rummaged around the shops for some candy bars to empty my pockets of change with and climbed on the plane. Flights uneventful, especially from Montreal to Boston - as soon as the plane stops climbing, it starts to descend! Odd.

When I got home I opened my bag to find that my sunscreen had blown some of its contents all over the inside of my new suitcase.

How nice.

Posted in: photo, vancouver 1 Comment »

Vancouver Day Four, Pt. 2: Reception

October 9, 2007

I’ve been slowly making my way through the disposable camera images. They all have basically the same problems: too much contrast, over-saturated, underexposed. Tedious to fix, but then again also conducive to getting into a rhythm and slamming through a stack of them. I must admit that my “run” only lasts so long, though, before my interest wanders to more arty topics.

I’ll get there, I promise.

As the evening progressed I started running around gathering up the forgotten cameras. Not wanting to waste any film I snapped off pictures almost at random, which every now and then would result in an expression like the above. Hey, I had fun, and it did result in some good memorabilia.

Note to self: desserts, Andy, and Joanne are a bad mix (see Vancouver Day Three for more antics)

One of the polls conducted was “bird” or “fish” (didn’t I already decide my entrée?). It was only revealed later that you were voting on what you wanted to be. Hmm.

This one came out totally bizarre - almost completely useless, true - but there’s something interesting about it. When pressed for a file name all I could come up with was “PostmodernMikols.PSD”.

There are about 45 total images that made it out of the disposal cameras with any kind of quality or interest level. Here’s ten. I want to clean up the rest of them and then go through the rolls again to make sure there’s nothing I missed.

Posted in: photo, vancouver No Comments »

Vancouver, Day Four: Married!

October 3, 2007

As it was a rather low-key evening the night before I found myself climbing out of bed at six on Saturday morning. It may also have had something to do with the 8am breakfast, or the fact that my body was still thinking that I was 3 hours forward, or a combination.

I walked back out to the water to look at the sky. A wise move:

This one is facing downtown.

Facing west. I love the clouds in this one.

After I got myself together I jumped on the bus for the ride into town. Fairly uneventful, and this time I got my bearings together and got off the bus on the right (north!) side of town. That had screwed me up for the first few days: what’s the ocean doing in the west? I went past the Vancouver train station on my way to the Westin, and grabbed the above shot.

Early again - it was only me, Diana, and Warren who arrived at the breakfast at 8am sharp. The rest filtered in over time. I took the opportunity to take some hotel pictures, one of the two worthy ones appearing above. Amusingly, this recalled a much, much earlier hotel shooting expedition that Brian and I did in Florida - but that, I think, is a story for another time.

There was something strange about the scrambled eggs. They were delicious, but about one half- egg’s worth was plenty - they were heavy. Are scrambled eggs ever made with heavy cream instead of milk? Because if they are, these most certainly were.

After breakfast I was on my own again. I decided that I would check out the Vancouver Art Gallery. Unfortunately, two floors were closed, but I did get to see work by Emily Carr and Andrea Zittel. Both intriguing, although for vastly different reasons. Conveniently the Gallery was right next door to Sears - I had forgotten my tie and needed to do some quick shopping. Rummaged around a few of the record stores (deliberately did not look at what was in those huge stacks of LaserDiscs) and then headed back towards the hostel.

A quick bite, a thorough scrubbing, all dressed up: ready for a wedding.

The pictures I’m posting here are going to seem a little thin. I’m not posting everything and prefer to reserve some of them to send out to Brian and Teresa. However, above is Brian and his best man Andy Glode. Andy and I would have been roommates our junior year at NMH, but alas things worked out a bit differently.

The setting was absolutely beautiful. There was some panic about a cherry picker that had been left on the grounds, but it could have been a lot worse I suppose. Somehow the musicians decided that I was their go-to person. What on Earth did I know about what was about to happen? Some running-around and data gathering later and they seemed to have it together enough to play and leave me alone.

Everyone in the wedding party looked wonderful.

Brian’s sister Stacie - whom I also hadn’t seen since my high school graduation - doing one of two readings.

The signing. The light was so great, and from what I’ve seen so far the official photographer got some very nice images.

The officially married couple make their exit.

I was milling around after the ceremony and pictures were taken care of. This couple looked tremendous in the light and I absentmindedly shot a picture while someone else had their attention. It then came to the surface that there was no more room on their memory card, so I offered to take one and send them the files.

As for the reception, I admit I didn’t really take any pictures then. Lots of people (myself included) took pictures with the disposable cameras, though, and those will go up soon. Just have to clean them up a bit more.

A beautiful sky on the night of Teresa and Brian’s wedding… the city of Vancouver is lurking there behind the trees.

Posted in: photo, vancouver 3 Comments »

Prints a-Poppin’

October 2, 2007

The suggestion was made that I bring back PayPal buttons to make this whole process a little easier. The only problem is that I would have to make one for each and every image if I wanted it to directly communicate to me the image that you want. So please either put a comment in with your order or let me know directly which you’re after.

Print production has begun, and the choices thus far have been intriguing. Thanks to all who have shown an interest in my photography thus far. Looking forward to getting more of my work out there!

More on the Vancouver trip soon - I had to spend my lunch hour doing a little PayPal implementation today.

Posted in: photo No Comments »

Vancouver, Day Three: Sleep and Rehearsal Dinner

October 1, 2007

After Thursday evening’s festivities I spent some long quality time sleeping. I felt guilty about being in such a beautiful place and snoozing away quality daylight hours, but so be it. I was tired!

Got up and went into the city from my outlying hostel to the downtown hostel. Confirmed that I had a bed for Saturday and Sunday night and then got cleaned up and dressed for the rehearsal dinner. Arrived to find the proceedings winding down and everyone almost ready to head over to Sequoia. Like a chump I forgot to bring the disposable cameras that I was putting on all the tables, but in hindsight it made more sense to bring them directly to the Stanley Park Pavilion the day of the wedding. One less thing to keep track of overnight.

The little room they gave us in the Sequoia was beautiful. We had the strangest waitress who would mumble and mutter as she passed by to fill your water glass. Never did quite piece together what she was going on about, but it didn’t impact the meal - the food was absolutely amazing. A wonderful stuffed chicken breast with vegetables.

It was fun meeting even more people. Weddings are great like that. This is Marley doing some performance art for the crowd - she never sat still. Ever.

I carefully tucked myself at the end of a very long table, back in the corner. Sometimes I feel like a fifth wheel at these kinds of things, but I probably do that to myself. In between the meeting and the greeting I sneaked in one of my typical arty corner shots:

After dinner the groom’s cake(s) appeared. The themes did not surprise me in the slightest (though as I’ve mentioned on Brian’s blog I would probably have guessed BMW from back in the day), but what did surprise me is how they got them so accurate. The proportions, curves, everything: perfect logos. I always worry that these things will turn out like those bad Snoopy cakes you sometimes see with the nose too big or things like that.

Andy’s wife Joanne took off with my camera at one point and came back with some cool images :

Warren and Diana Mikol. I had to fight the urge to call them Mr. and Mrs. Mikol the entire time. Hey, I met them when I was twelve. Incidentally, they have not changed a bit in all that time. How can some people never age?

These two were amazing. Marley on the left there would run around with these drawings that she made that were actually very intriguing - there was one of a giant mouth and teeth with the caption “Teresa will you marry me - Brian Mikol”. It was hilarious. She had the most amazing pen name (!) that she had come up with for herself and I couldn’t help but remark that she already was on a Postmodern road that would easily have impressed the faculty at my art Grad school. I have already forgotten the pen name; with any luck Brian or Teresa can post a reminder in the comments - I do remember that it was spectacular.

Simone, on the right, was a little more subdued (you’d never pick it up from this picture). They made a good tag team, though, as they worked the crowd with drawings and odd proclamations. One of their big projects was to get everyone to sign these cute “FlowerGirl” t-shirts that they had. Marley wanted everyone to sign on the front, Simone all on the back. Unreal.

Dessert had some kind of odd berries on top. I’m not exactly sure what they were, but they were orange and somewhat reminiscent of cherries. More earthy, though. Gave me that same feeling I get when I bite into an under-ripe banana. Anyway, despite not having particularly much to drink (no, really!) we began to entertain ourselves a bit at our far end of the table.

I forgot that wedding guests often arrive in waves. After dinner it was announced that everyone was getting together for a drink at the Westin. I groaned a bit to myself: more drinking? Well, nobody was forcing me to come along but I did pause to reflect on the amount of meet-n-greet that a bride and groom have to do at their wedding. Lots of Teresa’s extended family had only just arrived Friday, though, so it was a good time for them to be social before the big day. Of course I came along. Why not?

On the table there is Teresa’s big binder chock full of all the pertinent wedding info. The only picture I regret not getting from this whole trip was the look on her face when Brian grabbed it to look something up.

Why exactly are you touching the binder?

The hostel was but a cab ride away and I went back to sleep - big day tomorrow!

Posted in: photo, vancouver 4 Comments »

Drat!

September 28, 2007

Busy lunch hour. No time for more bloggy business. So, to tide Brian and Teresa through the weekend, how about a big sloppy kiss?

I’ll have much more for all on Monday. I’ve even been working on the disposable camera stuff the last few days - there’s some good ones (but damn those things take forever to correct, and they still look iffy.)

Thank you to my early bird print buyers! I’ll think of all of you when I’m obsessing over my new camera!

Posted in: bloggy business, photo, vancouver 1 Comment »

« Previous Entries