Orphans Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving 2008 was an enjoyable celebration of friends and family here in Washington, DC. The day kicked off with Dan Kelly and I running in the
7th Annual Thanksgiving Day Trot for Hunger along the Potomac River here in DC. It was a very chilly morning but I was able to post my best 5K time of
26:55 with a pace of 8:40 per mile. I know, it's nothing close to our mayor who ran a staggering 5:53 pace, but it was also my first race in over two years.
We followed our morning run with a day of food, drinks and festivities at the Mt. Vernon Square condo for our first annual "Orphans Thanksgiving." I know, I wasn't an orphan because my parents drove over from Delaware, but we rented a few for the afternoon who remained in town. Those in attendance were Mama and Papa Van Sant, Dan Kelly, Courtney Ruff, Ben Rich, Michelle Gao, Manuel Ferdinandus, Jose Galdamez, Dan Ye and Caroline Seipp. We ate lots and lots of food, drank lots of wine and coffee and even found a way to bust out some lindy hop. Thank you all for coming out and making Thanksgiving 2008 a special day!
A Chilly Night in Pittsburgh
The picture above comes from a very chilly night in Pittsburgh, PA. I took a trip up to the steel city with Manuel Ferdinandus to attend the
PittStop Lindy Hop exchange from November 21st-23rd. As exchanges go, PittStop was a very well run and enjoyable event. But my weekend was soured a bit by other circumstances.
The first sour grapes incident was when Manny arrived to my apartment and I noticed my bike had been stolen from the basement. Mind you, this is a secure building with a "secure" garage. My bike was locked to the wall and yet that was no match for the thief and a lock cutter.
My second sour grapes incident happened just after I took the above shot. You all know I love to shoot cities. It was so damn cold in Pittsburgh all weekend that I hadn't had a chance to actually go out and shoot. So I pulled myself away from the dancing early Saturday evening to get my "traditional" city skyline shot. I had already scoped out a great location to shoot from the north side looking across the Allegheny River at the downtown cityscape. I got one shot, tried to move my tripod and then snap! I looked down and one of the legs had completely snapped in half. Are you f*%king kidding me!
FUDGE!!!Anyhow, the one shot I got turned out half-way decent so here it is. Enjoy. I'm off to buy a new tripod. Preferably one that doesn't break in cold weather.
Random Photo of the Day: Nov. 24th
The photo above was found on the
Michael Romeo Group web site. It was shot on Friday, Nov. 14th at Tattoo Bar in downtown DC.
There's not a whole lot to say except it was yet another
crazy night with Dan Kelly.
Washingtonian Photo Contest Submissions
Recently
Washingtonian Magazine launched a new feature on their web site for photographers. It's a monthly contest where a topic is announced and photographers enter photos based on that topic. The editors then convene and select 5 finalists. They also select a handful of others they really liked. The public then votes and the winner's photo is printed in the print version of Washingtonian Magazine. It's a pretty cool little feature and great for local photographers to get some exposure. The basic rule is the photo has to be shot in the DC metro area. If the topic is skyscraper, you can't break out photos from NYC or Chicago...you have to go with what's available in this region.
Anyhow, I submitted a few images this month and wanted to share. The topic was architecture.
Labels: Architecture, DC, Urban, Washington
Beyonce With New Backup Dancers
I used to be the biggest fan of
Saturday Night Live going through high school. My buddy Adam and I would act out various skits and rarely missed a show. For awhile there I just assumed Adam would be writing for the show before we both hit 30. But then SNL took a turn for the worse and I lost interest in the content. The big names started making their own movies and the newbies seemed boring and tired.
Well SNL pulled off one of the funniest skits I've seen in years recently and I have to share it with you here. I'll post the video for now, but there is a chance NBC will pull it and render the link broken. If that happens I'll pull it as well. Enjoy...
Update — Ah yes, NBC Universal pulled the video due to due to a copyright claim. Oh well...the pic still works and gives you a rough idea of what went down.
James Zabiela at Club Ibiza
This past Saturday I had the privilege of getting back into the DJ booth at Club Ibiza to
shoot photos for London DJ James Zabiela and Club Glow. Zabiela is a resident DJ at the famous Club Space in Ibiza, Spain and has been burning up the turn tables around the world with his creative and frenetic style of beat bending and blending. He's on the cutting edge of DJ technology employing the use of his Mac and various other techno-gadgets that can do everything but make you coffee.
His set was definitely one of the more creative trance music roadtrips I've ever gone on. You could tell right from the moment he stepped to the tables that this night would be different than a basic mixologist matching beats. My good friend Michelle S came along and even she noticed the difference between Zabiela and the opening DJ. Her eyes grew wide when he started scratching and tweaking sounds on beat, almost as if the original artist meant for it to be that way.
I don't expect everyone to share my appreciation of the club life or this style of music. But when you see a DJ go to work on sound like Zabiela did, you realize this guy isn't just pushing play on a CD player and turning knobs to look cool. He's working his tail off to bring those in attendance on a journey of aural ecstasy.
Click here to see the full gallery.
Labels: Clubs, DJs, House, Music, Nightlife, Trance
Those Guys Are Brilliant!
I'm a few weeks behind in my posting on here, so forgive me for adding several posts back to back. I've been so busy over the past few weeks trying to finalize my web site redesign, dancing and shooting more nightlife. I'm just now making time to add a few things on here to get everyone up to speed.
As most of you know from my last posting, Dan and I planned to go out Halloween as the two Guinness Brewmasters. While I wasn't able to find a mustache to go with the costume, I'd say we pulled it off quite well. A lot of people thought we were doctors at first, but the moment we opened a bottle of Guinness and said "brilliant," people figured it out. Here are some pictures from the evening.
Dan and I at dinner showing off our brew...
Tracy and I at her house party...
Dan and I made friends with a construction worker and a flapper girl...
