chase the light

Friday I got myself double booked with a show at the John Anson Ford Theatre and Imageworks’ wrap party for Spider-man 3 and Surf’s Up. First up was Charles Phoenix. He’s this guy that… well, it’s kinda hard explain, but it’s very Southern California kitsch. He collects slides from the 40’s 50’s 60’s and basically has a slide show. He had an old organist on stage, a pink poodle, a hula hoopist (?), a ballerina and made Ambrosia for dessert. Yeah, it does sound odd typing that out. Anyway, I’ve had a few of his books which are compilations of his collected Kodachrome slides and they’re really interesting to look at. They mostly deal with peoples lives in California during that time. He grew up here and has researched many of the places and people in the photographs. So that was a great time and a bit of an offbeat curiousity. It also provided me with the opportunity to go to the Ford Theater for the very first time. Where I got to find out that the parking is really lame. The kind where they stack you up row after row so if you hate what you’re seeing you can’t leave until everyone else does. Did I mention that is lame? It’s lame. And had you also been stuck sitting in the car next to me you would have looked over and said, *Isn’t this lame?* I would have said *Yes, it is really lame.*

And if you care, Cybil Shepherd sat behind us. I didn’t, but she sure let everyone know she was there.

Then I ran across town to the House of Blues for Imageworks’ wrap party for Spider-man 3 and Surf’s Up. All the food was eaten by that time and nothing but dry cup cakes were left. Humpft. Right then, I hope that $15 dollar valet parking is free, because I’m about to leave after 30 minutes. 50 cents a minute + tip. Oh no, haha. It was free in the end and I did stay longer and saw seven people I know. Seven. Where is everyone??

Then on Saturday there was this car show. I’m not really all that into cars but it’s once a year so it’s fine to go look at shiny obects on some random Saturday in May. And there’s free parking at work. It was kinda boring. So to bore you I’ve put together a boring slideshow with the most boring song of the day the band played. I was even bored putting it together, and it shows. But check out that Batman! Isn’t he the biggest cornball Batman you’ve ever seen? Love it.

So, to recap, Charles Phoenix, awesome! House of Blues wrap party, no food, dry cupcakes, free parking, too loud, t’was ok. George Barris Custom Car Show, boring. And no you can’t click on the photos above right, you just have to press play to see them. Lame isn’t it? It’s because I don’t know how to do that. I somewhat kinda sorta have thumbnails now. Sorta. Kinda.

“The dance in the fire reminds me of how Mick Jagger dances on stage. It has gone all over.” ~Tom Labonge ladies and gentlemen.

Dear Ms. Elephant,
I’m sorry we like to ride you. I know you’re really smart and all, and if you had opposable thumbs and your little tusks back you’d probably beat our silly asses to a pulp. Alas you’re paraded around with hippie flowers even though you’re also the symbol of the republican party. Which really rubs you the wrong way because you really don’t feel represented by their policies being a matriarchal society and all. Also sorry about making you poop in that trash can so we don’t have to pick up after you. It’s just we like to point and laugh and take pictures of you doing that. It must be terribly embarrassing. I know I wouldn’t like it. After a day walking on that hot concrete carrying people around I bet a nice swim in a river would be perfect to take the load off. I hope they provide you a river or deep lake for you to do that. Oh and sorry about that lousy blues band you had to listen to all day. Your poor large ears having to strain through every bad note when you’re better suited for listening to the cracking of twigs from possible predators. Well, I thought I’d say I enjoyed looking at you but think it would be extremely cool if you could get back to your asian home and eat your grass and berries in the wild. I’d love to come visit you there when you get settled into your new forest.

Your friend,
Chris

P.S. You have pretty eyes Ms. Elephant, and I like your little pointy finger at the end of your trunk if you click on your photo.

What’s a party without the four food groups? Strawberries, Beer, Asparagus, and Meat. S.B.A.M.

I really haven’t been that lazy folks, just lacking on the photo front. I’ve been here, then there, then over there, and then up there. A week or so ago Keith IM’d to tell me it was Shelli’s birthday the following weekend and that it was late notice but if I could make it up it would great. Um yeah, I don’t have any plans, so with that I booked a ticket in less than 5 mintues and I’m on way way to San Francisco! Nothing wrong with that! Flew up Friday, hung out with Jill on Friday and then had lunch with Sarah and Donny and the two kids at my beloved *La Cumbre*. Of course Donny chose not to listen to me and got something besides the *Deluxe Steak burrito with refried beans and no salsa but adding the hot sauce at the table*. And was he disappointed he didn’t get the *Deluxe Steak burrito with refried beans and no salsa but adding the hot sauce at the table*? You bet he was. Because the *Deluxe Steak burrito with refried beans and no salsa but adding the hot sauce at the table* is the best burrito in the world. We were both full but I offered to split another *Deluxe Steak burrito with refried beans and no salsa but adding the hot sauce at the table* so he could try it. So, in actuality I had one and a half *Deluxe Steak burritos with refried beans and no salsa but adding the hot sauce at the table*. And life was good. Listen to me, I know burritos, you don’t.

Sunday was Shelli’s birthday and she is ___ years old. I asked her how she felt and she said she could care less because she’s pregnant! Ok then! Saw the usual suspects, and Chef Jen cooked ribs and is off to Italy at the end of the month, Form was heading down to Coachella Music Fest and asked if I could possibly make it. The idea of three days out in the blistering desert for $400 and sleeping in a van wasn’t really convincing me. Party started at 3pm and had to be at Oakland sirport at 7pm. So at 5:30 I took off, walked 8 blocks, rode the train to the east bay, then the airporter shuttle, then walked, then got on the plane, tookoff, sat, landed, walked off the plane, took the shuttle to the parking, got in my car, walked to the house and then fell asleep. Then you read this.

This weekend I headed up to Santa Barbara for a couple little road trips. Saint Barbara? Who knew? [LINK] First on Saturday to see a friend of the family’s daughter’s class project from Brooks Institute of Photography [LINK] and see a little bit of Santa Barbara. Then to Ojai on Sunday for a little birthday celebration. I haven’t actually stopped in Santa Barbara for years as I usually just think of it as a place to get gas on my way to San Francisco. I went over to the Santa Barbara Mission and had a look around. It’s in pretty good condition and has some nice grounds around it. Inside the church was a big basin of holy water (as seen in the photo) that I thought could serve up a very nice basin of holy macaroni and cheese because I was pretty hungry right then. Spent about an hour at the Mission and then went to the pier down by the beach and ate some taffy. The fudgy ones good, watermelon ones bad. Also saw a boat flip over in the wind. Then I got bored and kinda cold because the weather turned and went over to the book store and shopped a bit while I waited for my parents and aunt and uncle to show up. We went and ate some mexican food at Playa Azul. Good stuff. Which just continued my all mexican day from my lunch at Rubio’s. After dinner we headed over to the Lobero Theater for the Brooks Photography show.

The same time I was in China, Melissa’s class was also in China for 6 weeks doing documentary projects. Saturday was the multimedia show, dvd & book release, gallery opening and website rollout. A lot of great stuff to look at and really just made me want to go travel some more. I don’t think the presentation of the photos at the gallery did them justice. The foam core type mounting doesn’t really compliment anyone’s work. A small quibble to say the very least. The multimedia show was excellent and the dvd and book is put together well. Although the *C* and the *A* in CHINA need to be kerned in. Just sayin’. Actually that’s a bigger annowyance to me than the mounting at the show because many more people will be looking at the book, dvd & website! It reads *C HIN A* to me. They could probably use a typography class at the college. So, it was great to see the students work. Just fix the C & A please. [China: A Will to Rise]

So there ya go, my suggestions… no foam core type mounting and kern the C & A. Those are easy presentation fixes.

Then I drove home because I didn’t like Santa Barbara want to stay the night which just meant I had to drive up to Ojai the next day to be entertained by little Ryan and his 4th birthday. He likes caterpillars and Scooby Doo apparantly. Ate two pieces of cake. Drove home the coast through Malibu because the freeway route is real bore. Crashing waves along the shore is way better than crashing cars along the median.

ALL THE REST OF THE MOVIE RATINGS ?Ǭª

Hi, hello. Things are good. How are you? I’ve seen some movies in the last month and a half that you might want to know about. I’m not sure when I’ll get back to the regularly scheduled program but you’ll know when it happens. I might actually take a photo again at some point.

Way back on December 6th, 2006 Christian Cunningham wrote: “So my prediction? Happy Feet will be taking home the Oscar for best animated picture this year. You heard it here first. Ben made it a beautifully lit film, and if it doesn’t? I’m going over to the Academy building and throw eggs at it. You heard that here first too.”

What did I tell you? You were all, “No way ‘Cars’ is going to win!”, and I was all “What do you know? Fool!” and stopped being your friend. I was so confident I didn’t even go buy the eggs.

Ok, so wow, been awhile for a post. Where do I begin? I’ve almost forgotten some of the things that have gone on and how to do this. That’s why I hate letting things get behind. I’ll explain the above photo in a minute. So let’s see. At the end of the day last Tuesday I got an email from friend Diane about going to see the show “Wicked” at the Pantages. Ya see she works at a little magazine called “Variety” and gets all sorts of perks like, oh I don’t know, red carpet premieres, opening night at big Broadway musicals along with catered after parties, etc. The way I benefit is her husband, and also former work friend Greg, doesn’t always want to go or it’s just too far. I live across the street and can be there in minutes so I occasionally benefit just by proximity!

Wicked was quite good. It is a big cheeseball Broadway musical but it’s hard not to like it. The music was weak, but the stages, costumes, and story were phenomenal. Reason alone to go see it. Very tricky the way they did the story. The back story of the witches from The Wizard of Oz. Well done. Of course, not that we needed to know the back story of the witches from The Wizard of Oz. But still… very well done. And the monkeys!! Why is the idea of flying monkeys so freaky? Since it was opening night a lot of stars were there. So, let’s go down the list (google it yourself, I’m lazy), sitting next to me was Eve Ensler, and then Rosario Dawson. In front of me was Tony Shaloub, he from the shows Wings and Monk, next to him was his wife Brooke Adams, and next to them was Patricia Heaton (boo, she and her nutty political commercials can go away), across the theater was Sean Astin, and then there were a couple of others called Halle Berry and Salma Hayak. Not sure who they are but not everybody can be a-list stars. How’s that for some name droppin’?

After the show ended we drove over to Hollywood & Highland for the after party. Had a few things to eat and more than a few desserts. Not good to eat that at 1 in the morning but, ya know. Since you usually don’t know anyone so you just stand around with a plate of food and your drink and act like you’re supposed to be there. Pulled it off, I think. The Fruit Loop treats were particularly good. Like Rice Krispy Treats but made with Fruit Loops.

Then on Friday work handed out bottles of Champagne for the Oscars. Imageworks has two chances this year, Superman for best visual effects and Monster House for best animated film. Neither will win. Ha! Just the way it is folks. Friday for lunch Bau and I rode down to the beach and I once again got a flat tire on my stupid #$%&@! bike! That’s it, it’s new bike time. I think there’s too much glass or something on the path we take, need bigger badder wheels and knobbier tires. Got the tube swapped out and then ate at Rubios with some fish tacos and burritos. The order taker was a liitle clueless as my name became Crist and amazingly Bau’s somehow became “Bowl”. Yes they were actually saying that over the microphone… “Bowl?” “Bowl? Your order is ready?” “Bowl?” Ha ha. Sure enough our strange new names were on the receipts.

Ok, and then what? I guess that’s it. The family slides have finally arrived and today I showed my dad how to use my scanner and now the monumental task of scanning in the 400 or so slides has begun. Fortunately I don’t have to do it. He went home with the scanner and I fully expect a call tonight wondering why it doesn’t work now that he has it home. So anyway with a few test runs I scanned in these two images. The above photo from 1968 with me on the end and my sister in the green shirt being stupid. My first reaction was that apparantly I wasn’t invited to join the little lineup and hold hands for the photo. Just standing back there in my button down shirt and diapers on the sidewalk. That’s a look that’ll always be timeless. What a loser. The photo to the side is me rockin’ a red cowboy hat and riding some feral horse that a random guy brought through the neighborhood to exploit. I doubt you can even do that anymore. How great is that VW van in the background? It’s like we’re munchkin Dead Heads on our way up to see Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead and Canned Heat at The Winterland in San Francisco.

There will be a rather large gallery of these goodies at some point. So beware of a large dose of the blond haired cowboy kid making an appearance sometime soon. Insert a whip crack and the song Rawhide wherever you see fit.

Setlist: Things That Scare Me, Favorite, Dirty Knife, Soulful Shade of Blue, Set Out Running, Buckets of Rain, Star Witness, Margaret vs. Pauline, Maybe Sparrow, The Tigers Have Spoken, I Wish I Was the Moon, If You Knew, Hex, Hold On, Hold On, Teenage Feeling, Deep Red Bells.

Encores: Lady Pilot, John Saw That Number.

Oh Neko. Ok, first thing was as I was on my way over and Michael texted me wondering if I was there yet but I was on the road, so I was able to tell him I was on my way. JD was there already too. As I got in the area all of the parking lots were full and it was just nuts around there. The musical Wicked was going on across the street so it was a busy night in Hollywood. After parking a few blocks away there was a line going around the building. Still! It was 9:45 and doors opened at 8. Yikes.

It went fast and I was able to get in just in time to find Michael and JD and for Neko to come out on stage to introduce Porter Wagoner and Marty Stuart. Two legendary artists bringing the Opry to Los Angeles for a set. Porter came out in a purple suit with all sorts of sparkles all over it. With his grey hair and tall stature he looked rather regal. They did a half an hour set and were joined on stage by Billy Bob Thorton and Dwight Yoakam as their backing band. Billy Bob was hilarious and in the most sparkling vest this side of the Rio Grande. Here’s a [full review] over at [LAist] with the photo of the kiddies having fun.

Oh, and then… guess what happened? Yeah! Good guess! Neko came out!! Ha! Amazing, and she didn’t open with Favorite! Thank God! Although she put it in the second slot. I love the song but what a lousy song to open a concert. The band was the usual suspects, Rauhouse, Rigby, Tom V. Ray, the dude on drums whose name I always forget, and Rachel Flotard on backing vocals instead of Kelly Hogan. Which is a big mistake. Because I like Kelly. Where’s Kelly? Boo.

Short of that, excellent show! 18 song set focused primarily on Fox Confessor and the Tigers album, but she dusted off “Set Out Running” from Furnace Room Lullaby which was great to hear. Nothing from the first album, 1 from Furnace, 4 from Blacklisted, 1 from Canadian Amp, 4 from Tigers, 7 from Fox Confessor and Dylan’s Buckets of Rain that she had been doing for years. My only complaints are Neko was really quiet throughout the show. Normally she’s very animated and cracking jokes left and right and I think that had to do with Kelly not being there.

The other very cool thing about Neko shows is she very supportive of artists and always has interesting old school tour posters. I particularly liked this one so I picked it up. Unlike the show in San Francisco a couple years ago when I waited until after the show and they were sold out. Just checked out the [site of the artist] and she has a lot of nice scratchboard work. Something else to get framed. Running out of room really quickly. Ya know the ceiling is a bit of an unexplored space…

All that really matters is she sang “I Wish I Was the Moon”.

In an effort to push down the boring movie reviews and rather disturbing styrofaom heads I figured I should go out and actually use my camera tonight. Over at Hollywood & Highland they have the Oscars on display and I knew Ennio Morricone’s Oscar was there so I thought I’d go have a look. It’s about time they just gave him one. I mean, The Mission, come on. Right there was one the most deserving efforts ever. Loved the movie, but that score made it an epic. Ever see Star Wars without the score? Exactly. So, Ennio Morricone’s Oscar, I saw it before he did, it’s about time, and why doesn’t he ever come to Los Angeles and strike up the band? I’m beggin’ here. Come on, the Hollywood Bowl, under the stars, wine and cheese, we’ll hang out, it’ll be fun Ennio. Then you can crash at my place and tell me Clint Eastwood stories til the sun comes up then we’ll go have brekkie at the IHOP.

*KERCHUNK…..* ???

Oh great… now I’m sitting here in total darkness as the power just took a death wheeze. L.A., modern day city with third world power. Looks like it’s the whole neighborhood as I can see little candles lighting up in all the windows. So total darkness except for my trusty laptop. Probably should go light some of my candles. The street lights seem to be working so maybe I’ll do some of the dishes that are near that window. Hmmm… can’t get online either. Everyone’s wireless networks are down. Somewhere in the dark two smoke alarms are beeping. When the power goes out they go to battery power and if your battery’s low it beeps really high and shrill. Oh dear, what do I do? Welcome to pre-electricity. Maybe I’ll go churn the soil with my ox. No moon, can’t see. I don’t really have an ox. Wow, dark is pretty dark now that I can’t see anything.

Maybe I should get up? Hello… ow, my head. Where are the matches? I don’t think this is getting fixed anytime soon. Maybe I’ll walk over to the cafe and post this. 10:51pm. Goodnight.

ALL THE REST OF THE MOVIE RATINGS ?Ǭª ?Ǭ†

Rather mellow trip this time out. We left on time Friday nght and stopped once for a short break but got to Mammoth about midnight. Got unpacked and then just sat around chatting until about 2am. Slept about 6 hours and then got up and hit the slopes about 10. Met up with Michelle, Dean, Cody, John, Kevin and a few others for a few runs but then headed off by myself. I needed a little more, eh hem, challenging runs. Ha! So off I went to the top of the mountain. Good day of skiing though. After skiing all day met up with Sean and Jill at the Austria House and had a few drinks. Some mullled cider and such and then headed over to one of the rooms and had dinner where I had more wine and we all sat around talking about… hmmm… pretty much everything but work. Skiing all day + a warm shower + a large plate of pesto pasta + 5 glasses of wine + a fireplace = me asleep at 8:30.

Sunday, Duff and I decided to go shooting but didn’t really get much accomplished so we found a deli and grabbed some breakfast while it snowed away outside. Headed back up the gondola and I took off and did a little hiking around the area just to wait for the bus. We’re leaving at 3:30pm. Good times. Cold and snowy all day. It’s nice out though as it has that muffled sound whenever snow is falling. Clickin’ the pic will get ya snowflakes. Video snippets of the whole weekend. Back home tonight to regularly scheduled programming.

Now that I feel up to it… Headed down to Santa Monica this afternoon and went to a big sorta photo gallery trade show something or other. I’m not sure what it was but there were a ton of galleries on hand showing the work of the artists they represent. So that was quite good and there was a lot of work that I actually liked. The costs of some of these photographs I thought was pretty high. Not that they can’t command it, but you can buy paintings for some of the same prices and they’re originals not a series of prints. The most expensive print there… an Imogen Cunningham for $36,0000. Wow. Please be a long lost great great aunt or something. I think the print was from the 40’s.

Ran into Blaine from work, who said, “I was going to call you..!” But, ya see, he didn’t. So I gave him the sarcastic face, with an “uh huh, yeah.” Next weekend is Art L.A. which I’m going to try and hit on lunch Friday.

Afterwards I walked down to the beach to check out the “Arlington West” display. It’s a set of crosses and caskets that have been set up each weekend by the pier. One for each soldier who has died in Iraq. Needless to say it’s getting quite big. Then walked down to the water and wandered around the pilings for a bit. Got tired, along with having a lingering cough, so came home for the rest of the night.

And now for something completely boring…

This week every year the Visual Effects Bake-Offs are held to determine who gets into the final three for the larger Academy to vote on for the Oscars. All week the sound editors, visual effects artists and makeup and hair stylists all get together and choose who’s best. Or, the least sucky on bad years.

It’s a Hollywood tradition since the 40’s but they didn’t get their name “Bake-Offs” until Kay Rose, the first woman Oscar winner for sound editing, coined the term. It’s titled that because of the blue-ribbon like atmosphere in which the best work of the year is shown to a group of peers in 15 minute reels and then judged. There are no pies or killer brownies involved.

It’s one night where the vfx people get to come out of their dark gopher hole offices and display their lousy social skills. So the way it works is the Visual Effects Supervisor gets up and introduces the 15 minute clip. He talks about; what they had to do, some of the challenges, what’s on the reel and who was involved. There’s a little red light on the stage next to them that lights up when their time is up. Some get a little long winded. Then they show the 15 minute clip. After the clip all of the FX Supervisors come up and say a few more things and answer any questions. Then the little red light comes on again and they have to get off the stage. This goes on for 7 fims so it makes for a long night. The great thing is that all of the really awesome effects are shown in one 15 minute blow out reel. It’s just a night of eye candy. Screw the plot, it’s all about explosions! All those films where you go *ugh* that was terrible but the effects were great? *cough*poseidon*cough* What, what? Someone say something? Well, this is the perfect way of seeing those films.

I think it’s pretty cut and dry this year as to which will be the three finalists and which will win. So my guess as to the final three will be X-Men, Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean. There’s just no way Pirates isn’t going to go on to win the Oscar. The Davey Jones cg characters are so perfectly done it’s frightening. Great great great. Should probably see the movie now as I’ve fallen asleep everytime I’ve started it. Starting a movie at 1am is futile. The first hour is good.

And in other exciting news my friend Keith is back at the South Pole doing rocket science type stuff. Working on the IceCube project and searching for things called Neutrinos. [South Poler]

It’s about time this thing came out. I kept hearing about people seeing the billboard around town but had yet to see it until tonight. A great fun group of people worked on it. How’s the movie? Dunno. Taking a wait and see approach on this one. (edit: Yeah, the wait to see has taken 10 months.)

From the trailer, “Any man who sells his soul for love has the power to change the world.”
Oh dear. Not another victim of a bad deal with the wiley Devil. OK, so maybe it won’t be a snappy dialogue movie, but it does have flames, skulls, wraiths, motorcycles and Peter Fonda as the Devil.

Hit the desert for a few days and I can honestly say it’s rather strange being off of the grid. As in no computer and no phone at all. No access if I even wanted it. Strangest is no cell phone. No signal whatsoever. You kind of look down at your phone, “…that can’t be?” There’s nobody here.

The tree above was huge, for a joshua, and had a really full canopy. Which is unusual as they usually just have a few arms coming off and occasionally topple because they get out of balance. Hiked around a lot and shot a photo of this Scottish gentleman who said “Can you shoot a photo of me, they’ll never believe this back home!” He was all jazzed about the dam. A small reservoir built in the 1900’s. Not sure why he was all excited but he’s got the picture now. Hung out a bit at Cap Rock and remembered the truly bizarre happening of Gram Parker’s body being stolen from LAX airport, driven out here and set alight at the base of the rocks. Classic weirdness. Full story here [LINK].

Stayed at a little motel in 29 Palms and as I was leaving, I checked under the bed to make sure I didn’t kick anything under it, what did I find? A DVD of Pam Anderson’s movie “Barb Wire”. There are some things in life you don’t want even if they’re free.

[Watts Towers, Los Angeles – Info]

L.A.’s own Antoni Gaudi. A skeletal Sagrada Familia in the heart of South Central. Called up [ Adnan ] this morning and we headed over to the Watts Towers. This is one of those places I’ve been meaning to go to my entire life. Lot’s of elementary school trips went but for some reason ours didn’t. Somehow I’ve managed to fail at getting there until now. A couple weeks ago I tried and it was closed. Finally! I was hardly disappointed, in fact it was really amazing how intricate all of Simon’s work was.

We had a tour time of 12:30 and you only get a half an hour inside but I think it was plenty actually. $7.00 for entry and a rather rehearsed dialogue by the tour guide. Not too bad really. I saw a horrible documentary on the towers last year but at least I learned some of the history. I was more interested in just looking around and seeing it close up. It’s a very small area so half an hour is more than enough time. The towers are a very Los Angeles centric curiousity. I grew up knowing all about them and little 4’10” Simon Rodia but I’m not sure how much is known about them outside the city. I know it’s in guide books and such but Watts is probably more known for its troubles than its towers.

After the tour we went and sat in the adjacent mini amphitheater and Adnan broke out his watercolors and did a quick sketch of the towers. I watched a sky writer in a plane start to write “WHO W..” then the wind blew it away. A little community theater group was setting up for some performance. It looked liked something straight out of “Waiting for Guffman”. We sat out there for over an hour as it was soooo nice out just laying in the sun and not a cloud in the sky. Let’s see, we talked about Godzilla, Pakastani music, online daters, animation and what we’re doing after Beowulf is over next October. And that was that.

[Grand Central Market – Info]

I’d write the whole story about how I was kicked out of here for *taking pictures of people* (oh please) but that’s all that really needs to be said. It was the standard “private property” excuse and so on. So don’t go to Grand Central Market to shoot photos or security will hassle you. In fact, just don’t go, screw them. Go to the much more friendly Olvera Street for lunch. Super secret, but if you rollover the photo you’ll see those people I was allegedly taking pictures of. Shhh… I’m a spy.

And all the old pages on the site are totally wonky. Links broken (script just fixed), image sizes whacked, general html mayhem going on. User descretion advised. That’s a whole night of fixin’ that I could really do without. Someone want to do it? I’ll give you something cool.

[The Bradbury Building, Downtown Los Angeles – Info]

So, yeah. I know. It’s really big. But when I first started this website 6 years ago it was a place for my stuff. Photography in general, but whatever came along would be welcomed. Then I got all chatty for some reason and since it’s harder to read light type on dark backgrounds, I switched it. Then I was never quite happy with the the look of the photos against the light background. Also that all of the photos are really too small. That reallly bugged me. So, I’m compromising the text legibility side of it to have the darker background with larger photos. That just means wider paragraphs and light type. Most people are now on systems that have at least 1280 screens so why should I neuter the page width for those still in 1995?

Many times I’ve also contemplated changing the domain name because it’s so incredibly pretentious sounding, but it’s not if you actually know the source of the name. OK, maybe it’s still pretentious, but fine. It came from a little band out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania called The Innocence Mission. They wrote a song called “You Chase the Light” about a painter husband and a working wife. It’s a conversation back and forth about her having to work the day while he’d spend his days down at the beach chasing the light with his canvas. Girls on the beach with their crinolines and parasols. It’s all rather Renoir sounding and one of my favorite songs, but I’m fairly comfortable with the name now so it shall stay. I have a good feeling about 2007, and here we are.

Got up this morning and walked over to the cafe Savor in Noe Valley and met up with Willo again for breakfast. We were all pretty beat from the night before. Good to see her again after having known her through our websites for about 4 years and first meeting her when she came down to L.A. about a year and half ago.

After breakfast we picked up Shine and headed out to the Sutro Baths for a little hike around the rocks and paths. Kinda touristed it up again. Made up some things to shoot, which Shine being the wallflower wanted no part of. Jill, the ham, is pretty much up for anything so she shows up in most everybody’s photos. Later we got some clam chowder in a sourdough bowl and also went out to Yerba Buena island to shoot some more photos.

After getting back to Jill’s they headed out to a party and I headed over to the kayaking place. I needed to be tere at 10pm to get suited up for the midnight kayak trip out to see the fireworks on the bay. It wasn’t nearly as cold as I thought it might be. With all the layers I was perfectly warm. but… slipping the kayaking into the black waters was a whole other thing. I’m fairly confident in a kayak but I had a single so I was all on my own with nothing but a little blue light. There were about 20 kayaks out and it was fun to come up underneath the Bay Bridge and just see how massive it is. Spent most of the time out by the second tower waiting for the fireworks. Pretty weird to be paddling along in the dark and hear something break the surface and blow out a bunch of air like a whale. Just a sea lion going by but when they’re right next to your little kayak they just seem huge. Great to see though.

I was paddling around in circles when the fireworks started. I had my back to them and the concussion you feel in your body is just amazing. You don’t realize how powerful they are until you can feel them and smell them. Anyway it was great and beautiful to be out on the water with the bridge the cityscape and the fireworks. Because I was out playing around in the kayak I’m not in any of the official photos… [CITY KAYAKS’ FLICKR SET]

Got back to Jill’s and they were still at the party. Crashed in a matter of minutes.

New Years Day on my way back to the airport I got to hit the Reclination Party at Keith and Shelli’s. Basically a come eat some carbs to cure your hang over party and greet the first day of the year. I’ve adopted a lot of their friends as my own now and they even applauded as I entered! Thank you, thank you, thank you… =) Funny. Keith took me me over to the train station and I headed to the airport. Much easier flight home.

Have a great year!