The Peace of Wild Things

I'm heading out to go camping in Zion National Park for a few days, starting at the crack of dawn tomorrow. I'll be completely off the grid until late Sunday, and to tell you the truth, I'm looking forward to it. I don't do it enough.

I'll leave you with this poem, brought to my attention in quite a timely fashion by Heather:

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry
"The Peace of Wild Things"

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/16/2009

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Ceiling at the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, cross-processed and grainy as hell. I kinda like it.

We played a function there that night, and a bunch of cool people came out. It was lots of fun. After we left and unloaded at Black Box, Alex and I decided to be crazy kids and check out the remainder of Fever Sleeves' show at Bar Pink. Which put me right on track for averaging about 3.5 hours of sleep each night over Coachella.

Which, in turn, put me right on track to get sick immediately after Coachella. Whatever. It was totally worth it.

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/15/2009

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New shoelaces that I picked up in Chicago (same store that I got the wallet at). Kelly was awesome enough to point out the pair that have colors that EXACTLY match my shoes.

Fun fact: All the members of Swim Party have a pair of Onitsuka Tiger sneakers. We all also have blue eyes. It's possible that we're actually a cult and we just don't realize it yet. Shit.

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/14/2009

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Cute wallet I picked up in Chicago for only $6. Only problem is, it smells weird (like icky vinyl). Not really sure what to do about that - Febreeze it?

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/13/2009

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UCSD's Hillcrest hospital.

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/12/2009

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Sundays are usually laundry days. Which means they're also usually nap days, because who can resist crawling into a big pile of freshly laundered sheets (or clothes)?

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/11/2009

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The USG (Upas Street Gridiron) had a powderpuff game for their Team Moms this Saturday. I stopped by on a whim, and ended up staying for the entire game. I was pretty ridiculously awesome. More of my photos can be found here.

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/10/2009

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A cloudy day on campus. I love these kinds of days.

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/09/2009

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Picked this stuff up at Henry's because it was on super sale. And then realized it makes my hair smell like I just left a salon. Seriously. The first day I used it, I couldn't stop sniffing my hair. I'm weird, guys. You know this.

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/08/2009

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Nothing like coming back from snowy Chicago to this gorgeousness...

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/07/2009

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I'm a sucker for a nice sun flare.

Photos: Chicago, Day 7 - 04/06/2009

More photos: Chicago

This was my final day in Chicago, and therefore, most of it was spent at the airport or on a plane. I did manage to have one last breakfast at Dunkin Donuts on the way to the airport though.

I ended up with a first class seat on the plane, and the gentleman next to me was nice enough to let me have the window seat instead of the aisle. Which meant I entertained myself with taking some photos out of the window of the plane once we got close to home.

Once home, I did laundry. And slept. I did go see Marasol and Japanese Sunday at the Casbah that night, but purposefully left my camera at home.

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/06/2009

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Long exposure, taken on a moving walkway in O'Hare airport. I really just like the way the lines split everything up nicely.

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/05/2009

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This HAD to be the photo of the day for this day, mostly because I think Kelly and I were both a bit crazy to go out and get it. It was freezing outside, snowing, and windy (we were right on the lakefront!). But Kelly dutifully held the umbrella over the camera - instead of over either of us - while I snapped two photos of the Ferris Wheel. Immediately after, the wind blew the umbrella inside-out and we both just stood there cracking up and completely enjoying the moment. I mean really - who else is crazy enough to do something like that? And if you don't believe me, here's photographic proof that I, at least, wasn't so miserable:

Photos: Chicago, Day 6 - 04/05/2009

More photos: Chicago

This was our last real day in Chicago. And umm, of course it SNOWED. In April.

Chicago wouldn't let me leave without showing me its crazy weather. And I loved it.

After a mostly lazy day, we ended up at Kelly's mom's apartment for some dinner and some excellent views of downtown. It was raining most of the day, and on the trip into downtown, it slowly turned into sleet. Something I haven't seen in probably 5 years - not since Penn State.

We ducked into Macy's so I could pick up some tights I had seen through the window, and marveled at the escalators.

As we walked to Kelly's mom's apartment building, the sleet turned into snow.

Which was gorgeous to watch from 30-some stories up in the air, as the flakes danced and drifted in the updrafts.

(long exposure, with a little bit of flash added in to light up the snowflakes)


(same technique as above)

Of course, snow is great to watch from inside a cozy apartment. But after dinner, we decided to venture to Navy Pier, snow be damned - I wanted a photo of that Ferris Wheel lit up at night...

Trying something new here...

You may have noticed the "buy print" and "send as e-card" options appearing below the photos on this blog recently (and by recently, I mean today).

I just signed up for an account with Fotomoto. This will hopefully streamline the process of buying a print from me for anyone who is interested in doing so. Hopefully, it will also make my life easier as well.

To work within this system, I've started uploading full-sized, non-copyright-stamped versions of my photos to Flickr. Which means I changed my Flickr settings to not allow downloads of the photos. So, if you are a band wanting digital copies of photos for myspace, etc, please email me to get them.

And if you would like to buy a print of an older photo (one that shows up here with a copyright stamped on it), please contact me via email still. Thanks!

Show Photos: Eccentric Soul Revue @ Park West, Chicago, 04/04/2009

More photos: Eccentric Soul Revue @ Park West

Wow. Where, exactly, has the entire month of April gone? Because I'm kind of at a loss here. I'm going to try to scramble to get caught up, so please bear with me in the next few days (weeks?).

Back to my trip to Chicago earlier this month. Our second to last day there, we ended the night at the gorgeous Park West venue - a classy establishment that was beautiful to behold, but made me shiver at the drink prices. Fortunately, for a show of this caliber, one didn't need any liquor to loosen up the dance muscles. Any and all necessary encouragement came from the music itself.

The Numero Group, a small label based out of a basement in Chicago, was responsible for putting on this show. They are also responsible for unearthing and reissuing many seldom-heard lost musical gems. And I, along with the mixed crowd of older folks and young hipster kids in attendence that night, are incredibly thankful to them.

Heather has a much better write-up of the show over on her site, so I'll just leave you with the images I managed to capture that night.

The Final Solution

The Final Solution


Renaldo Domino


Nate Evans




The Notations


Syl Johnson




setlist

Stay Classy Elemental Experience, May 2nd

Somehow this press release got buried in all the email I got while I was away in Chicago for a week, but if you don't have plans next Saturday, you should plan on coming out. It's a chance to listen to some great music, all while helping raise money to build a shelter to house the 2500 homeless youth in San Diego.

Coachella photos up on Pitchfork

Pitchfork's posted my photos from Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Coachella, which you can check out here. There are also some fantastic photos by fellow photographer Chris Tuite.

I have to say, I had an amazing time this year. Splitting up the bands between two photographers took off a lot of the pressure I had last year, and I actually managed to shoot even more bands this year. And enjoy the music as well.

Unfortunately, my throat is trashed and I'm dead tired (I think I got an average of 3.5 hours of sleep per night since Thursday night), so I'll probably lay low for a few days. Eventually, I'll be posting more photos from Coachella, as I get the time to go through them, so keep a lookout for them here.

Update: The feature article, including some of our photos, is now up here.

Coachella-bound

Well, I'm off to the desert for the weekend. I was hoping to get a little more caught up on photos before leaving, but other circumstances required my attention. Specifically, 4 nights filled with band practice, a patent law class, more band practice, and a show.

I hope I remembered to pack everything.

If not, I've at least got my cameras, earplugs, and sunscreen.

Follow me on twitter for updates from the festival; otherwise, I will catch up with you all on Monday.

Photos: Chicago, Day 5 - 04/04/2009

More photos: Chicago

We spent most of this day walking around the Gold Coast and the lakefront, where Kelly was pointing out things she knew from her childhood. She grew up in this building.

I was still very much on my "wow, look at the tall buildings" kick, and in processing them, realized I'm also on a cross-processing kick. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, though?

You can see the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier in this one.

After grabbing dinner, we headed to the Park West for the Eccentric Soul Revue. More on that later...

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/04/2009

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I have no idea what the source of the weird light on the side of this building was. I really really like it though. It's almost like you feel like if you squint in just the right way, you could discern some sort of meaning from it. Kind of like how I feel when I try to read German...

Anybody out there got a large box I can use?

This is pretty random, but I figured it's worth a shot.

I need a large box for a photo shoot I'm planning. Preferably a wardrobe box, like this one from U-Haul, but, you know, free. A refrigerator or washer/dryer box would work as well. I've been looking on Craigslist, and even put a wanted ad up, but if any of you readers happen to have or know of a box lying around somewhere, please email me and let me know. Thanks!

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/03/2009

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Strangely enough, I didn't take any photos other than the ones at the Friendly Fires/Soft Pack show this day. But I'm pretty happy with this one.

Show Photos: Friendly Fires, The Soft Pack @ Double Door, Chicago, 04/03/2009

More photos: Friendly Fires, The Soft Pack @ Double Door

My fourth day in Chicago, we didn't really do much during the day. I ventured out to Wicker Park to grab lunch with Tyler from Pitchfork, mainly just to put a face to the name that I've been emailing for the past year and a half. We squared away some details about Coachella, and then I headed back to Bridgeport to hang around with Kelly for a few hours. We were both pretty sore from all the walking we had done the day before, so it was a pretty chill day.

When I realized a few days earlier that The Soft Pack were playing in Chicago while I was there, I got in touch with Matty, who put us on the list and told us to be there fairly early. So we wandered back to Wicker Park around 7:30PM, grabbed dinner with a college acquaintance of mine at Jimmy Johns (again) and then made our way to the venue around 8:30.

The show was sold out, and a decent number of people were in the crowd by the time The Soft Pack took the stage at 9PM. They rocked it as always, and their time on the road speaks for itself - I think this was the tightest set I've heard them play. It was nice to see some local boys in a non-local setting, and I'm beyond happy about all the good press they've been getting lately. And it sure was nice to finally get to take photos of them at a venue with great lighting.

After their set, which warmed up the crowd nicely, Friendly Fires took the stage. I didn't really know what to expect. I'd heard the band's name, along with good things about their live show, but I honestly didn't have a clue what they sounded like.

The answer: electro-rock danceypants music. I mean, really. It takes a lot to get me dancing, and even more to get Kelly to join in, and we were both shaking our asses that night. It helped that every member of the band was highly energetic, and the singer in particular was bouncing around the stage and pouring every ounce of energy in his soul into that performance.

Wow. Even thinking back to it now, I get happily exhausted. I can't wait to see them again at Coachella this weekend - I'm sure they'll be a great pick-me-up when I'm footsore and my shouldars are aching.

Although afterwards, I felt completely wiped out - like I had just run a marathon. I couldn't put together a coherent sentence. We couldn't even handle sticking around for White Lies' set, so we headed out into the blissful-for-5-minutes cold air.

365 Days, 365 Photos: 04/02/2009

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After all the photos I took this day, especially all the ones of the Bean, this is the photo I actually like the most. I just love the change in the water texture, as well as how nicely it worked with the cross-processing I did in post.