Wow, it’s been a really long time since I’ve posted… No real excuse other than the craziness of life. Funny part is I start blogging again at probably the busiest time of my life in recent history. I guess it’s a good way to stay grounded. Anyway it’s fall, my favorite time of year and there are always a ton of good events worth posting about.

Saturday, my very good friend Heather got married. Her wedding was wonderful it took place at a small church in Leechburg, PA., which I had an interesting time finding even with directions. But I got there eventually and in time. The ceremony was very nice and I couldn’t help but smile ear to ear as she said her vows with an amazing look of love in her eyes. She was such a beautiful bride. Her reception was at a converted barn that was just amazing. I was day dreaming about having a house with a similar setup, one great room and a loft. Anyway, It had a huge deck that overlooked a beautiful farm pond and the weather provided a gorgeous evening. I was really happy to see so many friends that I hadn’t seen in 6+ years. We got to catch up, have a good meal and celebrate Heather and Shawn’s nuptials. It was kind of amazing to see how so many lives that were so close, spread as life is lived. There were friends that have lived through hardships and come through them stronger, Friends that are expecting children and those that had a few. (note: kids will break dance to ANYTHING!) It was a nice reminder that I have friends near AND far and some that are closer than I thought and need to get together with more often. It was the highlight of my weekend.

I’ll be posting some of the photos shortly on my flickr account which can be found by clicking the pictures in the sidebar or visiting http://www.flickr.com/photos/courtoon

For those that were there, keep in touch. I’d hate for it to be another 10 years before I see you again!

Last Saturday Night was the University of Pittsburgh 36th Annual Jazz Concert. Every year Pitt has some of the world best Jazz performers come in for the week and put on seminars for the students. At the end of the week they hold a concert where all of these performers most of which never perform with each other do just that, and usually with wonderful results. Now while the performances are usually very good, I have developed mixed feelings about this concert because the conditions are usually terrible for a big man like me. The event normally runs 3+ hours the hall is normally terribly hot and the seats are generally uncomfortable and lack anywhere near reasonable leg room. However this year was completely different! We had amazing seats in the front row of the first balcony (thanks Ro!). There was leg room to spare and a good air flow so it never got unbearably hot. So thankfully the venue wasn’t a negative factor at all this year at all.

The show this year had to have been one of the best that I had seen in years. Every song was wonderfully balanced and all the musicians got great solos. There wasn’t too much of any one kind of tune and the audience was very involved this year. While all the performers were wonderful I think my favorites were Abraham Laboriel on Bass and Nestor Torres on Flute. Abraham was kind of a given. He was at the first show I ever went to and just amazed me with his energy, passion and skills. The man is a real character and when he does his solos he steps out from his little area and really starts to move. Dancing bouncing and just generally getting funky! He got so into it this year he lost his glasses. In past years he’s actually yanked his amp cable out while clowning it up. But no matter what he’s doing as soon as he starts the crowd goes crazy. All the others get reactions and a huge amount of respect, but Abraham gets participation! I had a moment of embarrassment just before the second set. When they were announcing the set list the MC William Robinson said they would finish with Full Nelson, I literally shouted YES! Then realized I did it out loud (blush) I could feel the red running up the back of my neck, then realized I was excited enough not to care! Full Nelson has to be my favorite tune from all the shows I’ve seen. Mostly because Abraham has a HUGE part in it and it’s just phenomenal. However the show ran late so they didn’t play it. I was not very happy about that but I understood as we walked out at 11:30. I was also extremely happy that Abraham was awarded the University Of Pittsburgh International Academy Of Jazz Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award. It’s a huge honor from a one of a kind program. Congratulations Abraham!

The other performer that I took extra notice but didn’t expect to was Nestor Torres. I’ve never had an overwhelming love or even interest in the flute, but after seeing him perform I have to admit that I’m going to check out more flutists and probably pick up some albums. During their performance of Calypso Girl. Nestor on flute and Guitarist Ron Affif along with Patrice Rushen on Piano and Abraham on Bass, had an amazing section where flute and guitar danced a tune that had me sitting up and taking extra notice. I’d go so far to say that I was mesmerized. It was truly beautiful. In the second set Nestor had a piece of a medley that again had me in awe. At times he played so softly that it was barely audible but you could almost feel it, at other times the notes were as solid and sharp as to cut through anything. I truly enjoyed his performance.

Another performer that was a treat was Dave Pike on Vibraphone. The Vibraphone is quite often overlooked in jazz, but when I was first getting into jazz one of the first albums I was given was Lionel Hampton. I loved that album and to hear the Vibraphone in action live was a huge treat. Dave also really seamed to drink in the attention the crowd gave him it was great to see him play. I know I didn’t mention the other artists, but that isn’t to say that their performance weren’t stellar as well. Without a doubt they were all amazing. But these were the ones that stuck out the most in my mind.

One thing that we were not happy to see was that there were a much larger number of empty seats this year than in years past! We even had two open seats because people canceled. This was a terrible shame because the show was terrific and with every year being different performers this may have been the only time EVER that this combination of performers will play together. So next year I hope you keep your calendar free for the first weekend in November and you get to this show. It is truly an amazing experience.

Sunday morning was a little rough. I had gone to bed around 1am after trying to see the northern lights and getting some cool night shots over the lodge. Our bus tour of Denali left the lodge at 6:30am, which meant we were up and moving by 4:30 finished packing things up, cleaned the cameras, cleared the memory cards and went for a very cold walk well before the sun came up to get breakfast

Around 6:30 we loaded into the school bus for our tour. It had been years since I had been in a school bus and I was glad to find that they had cruiser type seats and not the old school bus benches. This gave me much more leg room! Our tour guide Brian introduced himself and apologized ahead of time. See it was the last cruise of the year which meant he had 2 days of work left then he was out of there. So he was a little punchy. Of course it was 6:30 so we were all a little punchy. Our first stop was at the visitor’s center where we saw an interesting short film about Denali, how it became a national park and how the road we would be traveling was built.

We loaded into the bus again and drove on looking for Wildlife constantly. We stopped along a long straight away and got out to stretch our legs and had an amazing view of Denali off in the distance with the moon high in the sky above. A short ways down the road we stopped behind another bus that has spotted a bull moose in the forest. A few people got to see the rack (or so they said) All I saw was Moose ass, as it moved behind the trees and disappeared. The moose and caribou were a bit scarce that day as there had been reports of a large pack of wolves in the area. Laws of nature, when predators are around in mass, make yourself scarce. Before getting off the bus at the next stop Brian gave us some pointers about dealing with bears and moose. If there’s a bear we’re all to stand in front of him and raise our arms high in the air and yell at the bear firmly. Even if the bear charges you don’t run. Most of the time the bear is bluffing, and as a group you are bigger and louder so it will most likely leave (“most likely”). If you run you’re screwed. Bears=Predators, Running=Prey, if you run, you = Lunch. If you run into a moose, well… let your instincts serve you well and run away as fast as you can. They have no interest in eating you they just want you away from them. Don’t hide behind a tree! You don’t want to get in a game of ring around the rosy with a 1500lb pissed off animal. After this wonderfully reassuring talk it was time to get off the bus again

Our next waypoint was the savage cabin set a little ways back in the woods. This was one of the small road crew cabins that were adopted by the park rangers when the road was completed. These wilderness cabins can mean the difference between life and death to a traveler in the winter. They are open and free to anyone that needs them. All that is asked is that you re-supply what you use, so the next person will have dry wood and supplies should they be in dire need and happen upon the cabin. All along the trip there are people that stay in frontier character. Sometimes it’s a bit cheesy and annoying. Until I imagine the same guy in a windbreaker rattling off facts, then I’m happy they jazz it up a bit. On our way back to the buses we spotted a big snow-show hare just enjoying his morning under a spruce tree. He really didn’t care that we were there. Just 10 feet from the path and not scared at all. I guess when you deal with real predators all the time a bunch of elderly tourists don’t spook you. We also saw some pretty fresh moose tracks right across the path, which let us know they were still in the area, but out of sight.

After another 20min we reached our turn around point 17miles into the park. We were at an altitude that the trees became very sparse and had a phenomenal view of Denali off in the distance with a perfectly clear sky. The moon was still up and it made for some great panoramic views. I took multiple bracketed exposures and I hope to get some nice HDR shots out of it. While we were there an Athabascan woman gave a great talk and sang a song she had wrote. It was nice but my attention was split a bit with all my photography. Time there wasn’t nearly long enough and we were soon back on the bus to the lodge. The ride back was pretty uneventful as far as wildlife goes but the views were just great.

After a short stop at the lodge we headed off to the train station. I had an odd reaction to the train station. It’s all outdoors and they had several covered areas that looked like cattle bins with people jammed in and all I could think of was WWII and do I really want to get on the train? Stupid I know but it was just weird. The train soon arrived and man was I impressed. All the train cars are 2 stories with a domed dining car style top with booths tables and a bar. The Lower level is an actual dining area and an outdoor observation deck. The seating was a bit odd as my mother and sister were at one table and I was placed at a different table with some folks from Michigan. It all worked out well though as we got to meet new people and have some interesting conversations. After trying to take photos through the domed glass I decided to go outside to the observation deck…That was all she wrote. I would stand for most of rest of the 4.5 hour train ride. Moving from side to side looking for the best shot of the constantly changing environment. The train actually travels around Denali so there were several really great angles available for photos.

When the train arrived in Talketnit everyone was groaning when we realized we needed to be on another bus for another hour and change. We had the option to stay and explore lovely downtown Talketnit but when we realized it was literally two streets we opted to just stay on the bus and head to Mt. McKinley Lodge. Our bus driver on this leg of the tour had me ready to scream. It was very clear that he was a political history major, as he told us the story of how Denali came to also be known as Mt. McKinley. But he didn’t just tell us that, he went into a full biography of every single person involved in the matter, where they were born, everything they ever did in their life how it affected the geopolitical climate and what they liked to eat as a midnight snack. It was the most boring thing I’ve ever heard in my life. A one hour dive seamed to last longer than the 4.5 hour train ride. It was painful.

Arriving at McKinley Lodge we were greeted by a majestic view of Denali and the whole range of mountains that surround it. All these mountains are amazing in their own right but they get shadowed by the fame of Denali (the high one). After grabbing some dinner (crab again! ) then grabbed my camera and my postcards and headed for the lodge. It was a lot more crowed then the last deck but it was great to watch the sun set shift the light across the mountains. While there I met a couple from Pittsburgh and joined in some conversation with them and a couple that live in Alaska. They were each carrying a 44 magnum and talking about anyone that goes hiking without one is crazy. They said they have a friend that just sings while she’s hiking and things that will keep her safe. I told them “her singing just counts as dinner theater for the bears.” That got a good chuckle. So after snapping a ton of images, writing some more postcards and putting in a wake-up call request if the northern lights were out, I retired for a good nights sleep.

End Day 3

After the long travel of day one I was really looking forward to the actual enjoyment part of the vacations starting. We got up nice an early and had a big breakfast of delicious blueberry pancakes while we watched the space shuttle finally take off. It was very odd being 4 hours behind where we normally were. There was some time before our busses headed out so I grabbed my camera and went for a walk around the lodge. It was a bit chilly outside but it was a perfect start to the day. The sun was just coming up and the sunlight was shining through the tops of the trees that had all just turned the vivid orange and gold of autumn. I got some very nice shots in the limited time I had and had my first run in with Dave from Michigan. One thing I found is that when you are on a trip like this you will run into the same people over and over. Some of them are really nice people, like Dave, but there are others that are not so nice.

Our first stop was about 15 minutes up the road from the lodge, where we boarded the Discovery III for a riverboat trip up the Chena River. It was a gorgeous day and the slight breeze nipped by as we started down river. It was interesting to see all of the Multimillion dollar houses along the waterfront. What was more interesting is how small most of them were. Because of the remoteness construction rates are about $150.000-$200,000 per 1000sq.ft. Some of the homes we saw had more than a mile of logs used and others were hand built by the residence and still have sod roofs. The trip down river was very eventful. There were demonstrations of both float plane and bush plane take-off and landings. The bush plane only needs 150ft. to take off and land, making it possible for many people to have plans in their back yards. There are more planes than there are cars in Alaska.

The next stop was at the kennel of 4 time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher who sadly had passed away from cancer a few weeks prior to our visit. Her wishes were that her kennel stay open so we got to see her dogs, including some adorable pups. The dogs all have their own house and tether for them to run. But they also had a large merry go round, kind of like a horse carrousel. At the end of each spoke there was a dog house and a platform. They have the dogs hooked up and they can get some serious running done. If they get tired they can hop up on the platform or even lay down inside their house. The excitement started when the musher said who wants to go for a run and started to hook the dogs up. Not only did the dogs he was hooking up go nuts but the other 40 or so that weren’t going for a run started going crazy too. These dogs LOVE to run there is no other way to put it. They are fine until the chance to work presents itself. Then craziness ensues. Not having any snow they have an old 4-wheeler with the engine removed hooked up. The musher took them on a run around the lake they have and they were just crazy fast. When they can through the gate the musher said that he actually had the breaks on the whole time to keep them slowed a but and to make it harder. It was just awesome. When he unhooked the dogs they charged the river and all jumped in for a swim and a drink.

When we reached the mouth of the Chena we had to stop as sand bars from all the shifting glacial sediment had built up and made it too shallow to exit. The typography of the rivers change yearly. After turning the boat around we docked next to a mock Athabascan Indian village where we happened to spot three beaver planting their winter stores along the river bank. Most beaver will build up a damn and build their homes in the center for protection. However these beaver had burrowed a den along the bank and once the river freezes over they will have the same security and still have access to the whole river. Smart little buggers. The Village was quite informative and quickly dispelled the idea that Alaska only has Eskimos. While there are tribes of Eskimos, the Athabascan Indians of which the Sioux and Navaho are cousins, cover most of the land. Our host at the village was a full blooded Athabascan and explained and demonstrated a few of the details of an Athabascan “fish camp.” The Athabascan people rely a great deal on salmon, and a great number of them at that for survival. To this extent they use Fish wheels to harvest the salmon from the river. The fish wheel looks like a four bladed water wheel with two of the blades swapped for baskets. The current of the river turns the wheel which scoops up the salmon and dumps them into a bin on the side. It’s such a simple yet effective design. A normal pull for one of these wheels is around 500 fish a day. No wonder the use of them is strictly regulated. She showed us the process for cleaning, drying and smoking a salmon. The woman was amazing with a knife she had the fish prepared in seconds. But when you are cleaning hundreds of fish a day I guess you get pretty fast. The rest of the village was very informative. They had four talks at different stations. One covered then native peoples and examples of pelts they would use. The second was on wildlife, caribou, moose and the like. The third was on the use of dogsleds and mushing. The final station was about Skin and bead art with Dixie Alexander. Who is just an amazing artisan and is renowned for her skills.

After returning to the dock we loaded into the buses and headed into downtown Fairbanks for lunch. Fairbanks is pretty small. We had lunch at a neat little place called the Fudge Pot and before heading out I picked up some Cranberry and Blueberry Fudge. Tasty ) Then off we went to Denali princess Lodge. The total drive was about 3 hours but we stopped in a little town called Neenana. Neenana is a very tiny town that is famous for one thing “Break-up.” One of the biggest events that shape the region every year is the breaking of the ice in spring. Taking advantage of such an event entertainment, Neenana places a Tripod structure out in the middle of the river on the ice and attached the tripod via cable to a tower that has a clock and bell system. People all over Alaska then place bets $2 a piece as to the date and time that the tripod will break through the ice. Half the proceeds go to charity and the other half is split between the winners. This event easily gets into the six figures every year. Another neat fact is that almost all the businesses in Neenana are owned by one woman. Including “the Two Choice Cafe” The choices are take it, or leave it!

The rest of the ride to Denali supplied us with some amazing views, and quite a bit of entertainment. Each tour guide usually gives you a good tour along the way to earn tips. The bus driver had some amazing stories and told us quite a bit about his own mushing experience and also had recorded some Alaska centric poetry readings that were quite good. It was really cool see amazing vistas out the window while hearing well read poetry about the wild. We his a couple pot holes and he asked if anyone lived somewhere with worse roads than this…I laughed and shouted “Yeah Pittsburgh!” Upon arriving at Denali Princess lodge I had another jaw dropping experience. Our room faced out over a phenomenal view. Overlooking a river you saw miles of Birch trees that had turned bright gold mixing in with the dark spruce. After getting some dinner (crab again ), checking out some gift shops (Yes I’m a consumer whore), Mom and Mel headed to bed and I bundled up and went to the deck to write some postcards. I wrote until I couldn’t see anymore then got my camera out and set up for some night shots. Having a very clear night I was really hoping to see the northern lights. However the moon was REALLY bright which lent it self to some other shots but there was little chance for the Aurora. I started to crash around 12:30 so I hit the sack, having to get up at 4:30am for the next day of activities.

End Day 2

Rising at the crack of dawn isn’t anything new for me but today it was almost like Christmas! We are going to ALASKA! This is the first real traveling I’ve ever done. I have been to about 7 states (all around PA) and I’ve only ever flown once in my life and that was to Chicago. I’ll probably repeat this sentiment over and over again in the coming posts, but I unbelievably excited about this trip. Alaska has always been on the top of my “Places to go” list, and there we were, on our way.

We got up and fought our way through the normal Friday rush and got out to the Airport with plenty of time to spare. Which was good because our flight was canceled! We were supposed to fly to Detroit have a 3 hour layover and fly straight into Fairbanks. However we ended up having to go through Minneapolis and Anchorage instead. The time of departure and arrival were the same, it just meant that we were in the air more and had no time to get food between flights. But it was all straightened out in the end, so were happy. After zipping through security we grabbed a quick breakfast and proceeded to join in the great airport sport of people watching. For our entertainment a father had brought his son who looked like he had just discovered the joys of running! So you would see the tike run by on his tip toes barely staying upright, followed moments later by his father who in the beginning looked to enjoy the game. After about 10 trips back and forth that look went away!

After a decent wait our flight arrived. I was lucky and pulled the window seat for all our flights that day. I love flying! The trip into Minneapolis was great, but upon landing we had about 45 min to make the next flight which was on the other side of the airport. We didn’t have to rush but we got to the gate just as it was loading. The Minneapolis to Anchorage flight was a bit grueling. However, flying over the snow capped peaks of the Canadian Rockies was very cool and when we were over Alaska you could look straight down into the deep crevices of the glaciers. It was pretty amazing. But sitting still for 6 hours is really fatiguing. So I ended up standing for a while towards the end. Upon arriving in Anchorage we had hit the “out of it” stage both mentally and physically and the airport was all but empty so finding our next gate was interesting, especially when we only had 30min till departure. After some scrambling we got to the gate and wouldn’t you know it the flight was delayed so we didn’t need to rush anyway. Our last flight was the first real taste of the beauty of Alaska. The clouds that had covered the sky for most of the previous flight started to clear just in time for take-off. Looking out the window as we taxied the sun was beaming through the clouds onto the forest with the Chugach Mountain range in the background. As we climbed over forest and marsh land surrounding the airport I couldn’t take my eyes off the grandeur below.

Upon arriving in Fairbanks, the Princess agent hand holding began. This was odd at first. They collect all your luggage for you, and take it to the hotel; you never have to touch it. Which being exhausted I really appreciated. After a short bus ride we arrived at hotel and went straight to the restaurant, without even going to our room. Not having had anything but a small sandwich on the plane all day we were all very hungry. I started my Alaskan dining with Salmon strips and chips (they don’t have chicken strips, so they use salmon instead) and Mom & Mel went with the crab cakes. While eating dinner we got to listening to a guy doing very good covers of Johnny Cash songs, unfortunately there were some ladies in the restaurant trying to help him our with accompaniment…they weren’t helping. After filling our bellies, we made it to our room and were finally reunited with our luggage. Do to the 4 hour time difference It was just only dusk but we were all wiped out from the traveling so I fought the urge to go out and take pictures and we just crashed and prepared for getting up at 6am the next day.

Here ends day one…welcome to Alaska!

Well, I’m back from Alaska and the long and short of it is that the trip was unbelievably amazing!  Before I even start posting photos I have to state the obvious. No matter how beautiful the photos are, they pale in comparison to the grandeur of actually being there.  Almost everyday I was there I saw something that made me giddy and excited like spotting real wildlife! I was also awestruck daily by the pristine beauty that surrounded us.  I only took 5 rolls of black and white photos with my film camera, but I compensated with my digital and took somewhere around 6000 photos.

Even though I took that many photos I did get out from behind the lens to just enjoy the trip a too.  My plan is to post photos from the trip on a day by day basis, accompanied by a bog posting transcribed from my daily journaling and map of the area and the routes we took.  Please be patient, there were some days that I took more than 800 photos so it’s going to take me bit to convert things from RAW and get them ready for print and web.

I will be only be posting lower resolution watermarked images on flickr.  If you would like to have higher resolution screen shots for screensaver or wallpaper use please contact me.  If you would like high resolution files or prints sometime in the near future they will be available at a reasonable price.

Saturday Ric and I went to the Wings Over Pittsburgh Air Show. First a word of warning… If you ever plan to go to this event either find the back way through moon or go extremely early! Traffic is HELL on Rt. 60. It took us about 2.5 hours to get there, which gave us 3 hours until closing and we missed half the air performances. But the ones we did catch were outstanding. There were a good number of fighters there that I was very surprised everyone was able to walk up to, camp under and crawl on top of. It was kind of crazy! I do wish they would have more classic WW2 aircraft but I know those cost a good bit of money to have show up. The highlight of the show was the Navy’s Blue Angels! They are amazing! The maneuvers these guys pull are jaw dropping when you think of the speeds they are going and the precision it takes to pull them off. There’s something almost intoxicating about the power, speed and aesthetics of aircraft. You hear the roar of the engines and see a huge piece of metal cutting the sky in half by the shear power of engineering and aerodynamics. I highly recommend that everyone check the show out next year. Just remember my warning and go early.

Here are the photos!

I had my midterm portfolio review last night.  I had to go first in presenting in front of class, which isn’t my favorite thing in the world but it’s less intimidating when it’s work that I’m confident with.  A few people were irritated (I’m hoping jokingly) because I went first. Apparently they had been talking in the darkroom and decided that I should go last as not to make everyone else look bad.  Which I have to say is flattering.  I was pleased to find that Jim didn’t really have anything really nasty to say about my work.  I actually have two prints that are great and have stopping power.  My Rose photo got technical merit marks and a stamp of approval!  The other 12 photos I had up, while some had interesting technical aspects, just ranked as good.  There are a few photos that I really like but I like them because they are personal stories.  They don’t matter to the average passer by, but they’ll make great gifts!  But for a first critique he said getting two pieces of that quality was impressive.  I’d love to share the final pieces unfortunately I can’t post them for two weeks as he collected them at the end and we don’t have class next week.

I was impressed by some of the other photographer’s work.  I don’t know what they were worried about.  Most everyone had a few pieces that stood out and the rest fulfilled the requirements but like mine, weren’t stellar.  I was really taken with one artists found still-life photos.  Another had shots with great scene composition and manipulation of perceived scale.  It really got my brain bubbling and I really need to take more time with shots like that.  I realized that rather than objects or specific subjects, I’ve just been shooting scenes and environments which, while interesting lacks emotional connection.  The other thing I realized is that I love photos of people. Yet I have almost no people in my photos.

The show opened with a singer/songwriter named Amy Corriea. I think what won me over with her was her little tales between songs. She gave small back-stories to the songs that were personal, quirky and endearing, which made everyone laugh and really pay attention to the lyrics. I realized after her set that I had zoned out on the first few songs. It was the ones she made me care about with her stories that I really listened to intently. I’d love it if artists released albums that had twice the tracks with little tidbits like that between them.

The roadies did their thing and around 8:30 Aimee took the stage. Our seats really were outstanding; just four rows back and I have to admit that I had a few moments of star crush. She played the first couple of songs completely solo, and then Jamie (keyboard, piano) and Paul (Bass, Vocals) joined her half way through a song. It was a cool dynamic to have the first half of the song just be her with no back up, then roll in the bass, keyboard and backup vocals on the fly; it was very smooth. She did play two songs from previous albums that I wasn’t familiar with so I’ll have to track those down. I was ecstatic that she played several tunes from the Magnolia soundtrack, including “One.” I know she didn’t write it, and it’s generally a depressing song. But I love it, I always have. Seeing her rendition performed live floored me, it was just outstanding. One of the lighter moments was when she played a new song based on a poem written by her half sister. It was piano based, which was the premise for much comedic improvising before and during the song, as Aimee is really just starting to play piano. It kind of started out like “Let it be” but wasn’t. The second line to the song was about having a son on amphetamines or something to that effect and she just stops and looks over at the crowd and says, “Paul McCartney would never write that one!” Again big laughs! After a few more outstanding songs she wrapped up the set by pulling four people out of the audience to do a percussion ensemble, which wasn’t actually that bad other than the guy that was using the guiro as a woodblock. They came out for a two song encore; the first song was a request which Jamie didn’t know but improvised on really well. Most of her songs are really lean and tight which is great and one of the things I love most about them, but it leaves little room to mess with things live, so it was kind of refreshing to hear his take on the keyboards from scratch. The final song of the night was “Deathly” which is one of my favorites and just a perfect song to end the night on.

As the crowd shuffled out I went over and grabbed the bar manager who I had spoken with earlier in the evening about getting the illustrations (see right) signed. She grabbed the portfolio and headed upstairs to see about getting them signed and getting us in to meet her. A while later she brought the portfolio back with all three Illustrations signed and said that Aimee was very excited about them and let me know just which one she like the best (Third one down – Evan’s) She said she was really busy with the business end of the gig and might see us in a bit so we hung out by the back bar reveling in the newly signed artwork. While there, two beautiful young women I had spoken to several times throughout the evening came over to see the pieces and chat a bit about getting autographs, meeting musicians and the artwork. A while later I realized there was something going on outside and that Aimee had left by an alternate exit. So we walked out to the bus to catch the tail end of her autograph signing. Since my illustrations were already signed I was content to shake her hand, thank her for her music and for signing the pieces and to be on my way. I was glad that everyone else got to meet here too. It’s awkward sometimes to get backstage by yourself when you have a big group of friends with you. It’s always better when you all get to meet the artist. All in all the evening was a complete success! I’m batting a 1000 with getting the illustrations signed (total of 11 so far). We saw an amazing concert performed by a phenomenal artist.

This is the face of my nemesis! I’ve been crazy busy lately and have very little food in the house so dinner tonight was a sandwich and some chips. Ric showed up to pick up his camera filters I had borrowed, just as I was sitting down to eat. I foolishly left my sandwich on the coffee table and went to get his stuff, and we got to talking. Somewhere in there I forgot to keep track of Brinkley…about 10 minutes later I start to hear crunching… As I realize what it is I run into the living room to find half the chips gone and no sandwich to be found, and her sitting there with the innocent golden retriever face on…she ate the whole thing, 8 inches of sandwich!!! My own damn fault I know. I can’t really be mad at her either especially when she’s all happy and bouncy for the nice meal I made her