Jordan

I went out today to make some pictures with Jordan, and it was great just to be out in the sunshine and NOT WEARING A COAT! Finally! And, as usual, it was wonderful to be shooting. Here's what we came up with...

Considering it was both his and my first attempt at anything fashion-ish, I'm pretty happy with the result.

There are a couple more shots here. And by "a couple", I mean two. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Body Language

More from Rome... these people just stood out to me for how they moved, how they were standing... something about their physical presence. I hope you enjoy them.

You can see the rest here.

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

I love that tune. Thankfully, it didn't hold true today.

I had a very special morning today - I did some engagement pictures for Dan and Catherine a while ago... I was looking for some practice, and they were looking for something to commemorate their engagement. It worked out pretty nicely for both of us. Well, today I got to do the pictures at their wedding.

In the sunshine.

Yesterday, it was pouring. Last night, it was pouring. Today, the forecast is that it would, in fact, continue to pour. But what looked like scattered sunshine this morning turned into barely a cloud in the sky by lunch time, so we had some pretty nice conditions for our pictures. I'm glad... not just because it made it a whole lot easier for me, but I'm really happy with the way the day went for Dan and Cat, and I'm glad I could share it with them.

Here are a few of the shots I took. I have some more of my favorites here, if you'd like to see them.

Fireworks

We went to see some fireworks, and I had my camera along, so I took a couple of pictures. I like these ones because they don't really look like fireworks to me... I kind of imagine them being stars and planets and solar systems.

I guess that Astronomy 101 in university is really paying off now.

You can see the rest here.

Summer

Well, it's summer and it's beautiful out. And it's been a long time since I've written.

Sorry.

I know this doesn't excuse it, but I wanted to post some new pictures. I hope you like them - you can see the others here. Oh and a word of warning... there aren't many others. But there are some good ones in the pipeline. Next up is a set of the little chick at her adorable-est.

The Dublin Pictures - Part II

More from the city that Bono's from. Unfortunately, he's not in any of these, but still...

You can see the rest here. Some fun colors here, I think.

Sammy Or David?

Yes, I'm a child of the 80's. But walking around in the sunshine listening to Panama followed up by Why Can't This Be Love is just a beautiful thing, no matter who you prefer.

Speaking of Cameras...

Mine wanted to get out and enjoy the sun after work today. Here's what it found.

You can see the rest here.

Montreux 2008

Looks not bad this year: I'll be seeing Paul Simon, Sheryl Crow, and Alicia Keys.

I'll say hi for you.

Blue Suede Shoes

Well, I got some new shoes in Prague. One pair are blue suede driving shoes. I like them, because I didn't have anything quite like that before. They're quite blue, so I didn't figure they would be every day kind of shoes, but they were inexpensive enough that I'm quite okay with that.

Spring has been resiting here, and so I've taken a bit of a new tack: I am dressing for it, in a (so far futile) attempt to force its hand. Today, that translates into a light striped shirt and the aforementioned blue shoes.

[EDIT] And pants. I'm also wearing pants. [/EDIT]

Now, I think it's interesting how you (and by "you", of course, I mean "I") get used to the shoes you usually wear. I have a pair of skate shoes (Vans) that, on occasion I pull out. They are the closest thing I have to white runners, with the exception of my actual running shoes, which only make an appearance when I'm running. They're not Seinfeld-white exactly - more like grey - but lighter and a bit more bulky than most of my shoes. I was wearing them when we were in Prague, actually (figured they would be quite weather-resistant), and I kept getting the feeling that I had these two foreign objects swinging around underneath me.

I'd be walking along and all of a sudden kind of catch myself:

"What the...? Oh yeah... those are my shoes."

Pause to collect thoughts.

"Okay."

Keep walking.


Now maybe this doesn't happen to you. Or maybe you're just not entirely comfortable admitting it on the interweb. Either way, I find that when I'm wearing unfamiliar shoes, they have a way of distracting me.

So today, as I've been walking in my BSS, I have noticed something I should have perhaps come up with before I purchased them.

They make me feel like I'm wearing slippers.


I'm pretty sure it's the color. The shape is not that different from many of my other shoes, and they are regular, old-fashioned lace-ups, so there is no hush-puppy/slip-on kind of ambiguity going on there. They're just a rather vibrant blue.

One not usually found in footwear. Or, at least, adult footwear.

Oh well.

Spring... where are you?

Sunshine

The sun was shining yesterday, so I grabbed my camera and took a walk. Didn't get a lot, but I took a few that I'm happy with. You can see the others here.

You're Under Arrest

It's always kind of a sad point when I've seen the last big show of the year. Sometimes I get surprised and someone else comes along, but it looks like The Police was the last big one this year.

It was good. Not bad, not great... but good. It was cool to hear them play some tunes that I have never heard live before, and some others that I had heard Sting do with his band. Since I'm still a little sleepy, I'm just going to list some observations:

Sting had a lot of room for his bass, relative to when he's with his band, and it was pretty cool to see a different side to his playing... a lot of chording in addition to playing the bass line.

Vocally... well, I thought he was great for the first half. There were some iffy bits in the second part, and one tune where he was really, really flat for quite a bit of it. And, according to a couple guitar-playing friends in the audience, they had transposed quite a few songs down...

Stewart Copeland can still play, but his style is really, really different from mine in almost every way. First off, he plays way more notes (but it wouldn't sound like The Police without that). He feels time ahead of the beat, and I feel it behind, so it always feels to me like he's trying to rush the tunes, but Sting usually plays even further in front. And he's kind of a showman, I guess. Throwing his sticks, making big gestures, getting happy with his gong. Yeah, I know, he's in The Police. But it just seems a little over the top. And the white sweats? I mean, yes, it's a "recapture the 80's" thing, but aren't there some things that we should just leave as memories?

Andy Summer seems to be the one who has really taken advantage of the last 20 years to not touch his instrument. His time was bad, his soloing was atrocious, and his tone... well, it was great on some tunes, but that thin, clean strat just sounds weak and hollow now on a lot of the songs.

The light show was fantastic. I was as close as I could get in the general admission area on the floor, and there was no pushing and shoving, which was a treat. I wasn't close enough to see there faces well, but I could certainly watch them play without the delay of waiting for the image on the screen, and could take in the full light show at the same time. Very cool - somebody has spent a lot of time getting that ready.

The security person in front of me was named Vinda. I know, because the guy next to me started flirting with her as soon as he arrived, and I got to watch as the night went on. At first she was really enjoying it... he was playful and really, really, really attentive. He got her number. Or, at least, a number. But as the evening progressed, I have a crazy little feeling she regretted her decision. He was right in the front - where it is probably at least 5 degrees cooler than it would be 2 metres back, and a lot easier to stand since he had the security rail to hold on to. Vinda had some water there to pass out to people who were dehydrating, but buddy would get her attention every five minutes, look injured and give her some serious puppy-dog eyes, and make drinking motions. She kept getting more for him, but I bet by the end of the night she was dreading getting that phone call. I mean, I was even getting tired of it, and there's no round 2 in sight for me. Sorry, Vinda.

What's the deal with Roxanne? I mean, it's an okay song, but not really one of their best. I seem to be the only one who thinks that, though. It was the same when Sting has played solo... everyone just LOVES to sing along with that one. I really don't get it.

Why are all the best designs on black t-shirts? If I never bought another black t-shirt for the rest of my life I'd have enough to do me. They're killing me with that. Still... what are you going to do?

I learned today that Sting's son was fronting the opening band. Caro remarked (via sms... she was in the golden circle, and area roughly the size of Delaware in front of me, which is why I was in prime shape to see the light show but not-so-good for the faces) that they sounded a bit like the love child of the police and U2, which was about right. I couldn't figure out why they would have a band so similar in sound opening for them, but it kind of makes sense now. That's pretty cool.

Anyways, I have some days off with my little chick this week, and I can't wait. I'm going to teach her "Roxanne" and see what she thinks of it.

It Turns Our That I'm Allergic

I've known for a while that I wasn't a big fan of hip-hop, but the Beastie Boys are different. I really dig some of their stuff ("Hey Ladies", "Sabotage", and "Fight For Your Right", only one of which they played) and was looking forward to the show at Montreux this week. Upon arriving home after, though, I was up the whole night, throwing up copiously and, I must admit, with a fair amount of relief. I don't know if it was food poisoning, a flu, or just an adverse reaction to the opening band, but something certainly did not agree with me. So, sorry for not updating sooner, but I was pretty busy.

Ah, the opening band - Spank Rock. I use the word "band" loosely, of course. It was one guy who played records, one guy who came out at the beginning to shout at us to get more excited or Spank Rock himself (themselves? it was not really clear) would never come out. I couldn't quite make out if it was a threat or a promise. There were two more guys who rapped okay (I guess? I'm not really well-qualified to judge that) and danced... well, marginally less okay. One of their girlfriends came out occasionally to shake her moneymaker, and there was another guy in a sailor shirt who just wandered around on stage taking pictures and video with a little camcorder.

There was precious little rocking, except when they played some RunDMC completely unadulterated. Nice, but hardly the making of a great show to play a record somebody else made 20 years ago. Is that all it takes to play Montreux, now? I need to get one of those application forms. Thankfully, there was also no spanking, which, I'm guessing from their lyrical content, was certainly not a foregone conclusion.

In case Spank Rock happens (it does turn out that he is one of the two featured rappers) upon my blog (and let's face it - if he's always this good, I'm guessing there aren't going to be a lot of pages coming up when he googles himself), I'm going to be charitable and give him a few hints for next time.

1. If you have to tell people they're having a good time, they may not actually be having a good time. You can substitute "party" for "good time" if it makes it easier for you to relate to.
   
2. Get rid of your warm-up guy. It's time to deal with the fact that, as an opening act, you don't get an opening act. It's cruel, but that's show business. And, frankly, he's setting the expectations just a little high.
   
3. When people stop clapping before you leave the stage, it probably means that you shouldn't come out again and do an encore. And sending out the guy in the sailor shirt to put his arms in the air to get them to clap probably didn't help. Between you and I, it came off as a little desperate, and no one likes that.
4. The yellow pants worked. I'd try to do more with the yellow pants.
   

It reminded me a bit of the time that Carlos Santana's son opened for him... Claude made it quite clear that it was at "special request" of Santana. I'm wondering if the BB have some kind of interest in Spank Rock? May be time to sell the stock, boys.

That's all for now... I need to leave something for the Annual Concert Review....

The Sun Always Shines

... in Lugano. Okay, not always, but a lot of the time. It makes for some nice pictures....

Visitors And The MNB Plans Ahead

I have a lot of friends coming to visit in the next couple of months... most only for a couple of days, but, still - I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not going to make any kind of top-ten list for maintaining my long-distance friendships, I'm afraid, but there are a lot of people who are not in my day-to-day life but who I really care about. And it will be wonderful to see some of them this summer.

Also, it looks like the MNB (likely under a stage name) will be performing in September. I was kind of hoping it would be sooner for the people who will be gone as of summer, but a little more time to polish some of the tunes won't hurt. I can't wait! Best onesthat we practiced tonight were by Maroon5, I think. Really well-written, and man.... they just groove. She will be loved has a certain, shall we say, chordal similarity to "With Or Without You" (along with about a billion other songs) in the chorus, but the melody line is distinctive enough that I don't think it hurts it at all. I'm going to be singing all night...

I *heart* Nature

Well, I didn't see this one coming. But it seems that I really like taking pictures of flowers. And with the weather being what it has been the last while, I have been taking a ton....

For more, check out my gallery at www.yellowcouch.zenfolio.com in the "Nature" section. Oh, and I'm not sure I'm going to keep that address (it's a trial account) so if you want to look, it would be best to do it in the next few days...

Portraits

Man, after seeing the full-frame face shots of the monks in the movie on Saturday, I am absolutely itching to get a hold of a good camera and take some portraits. Not in the Sears, "3000 pictures for $11.99" special sense of the word, but really capturing a moment and a feeling. It's a little strange, I think... I've spent a lot of time taking pictures of people I don't know and of Allison (though it's a pretty... shall we say, "dynamic" process with her), but never done much with taking pictures of people I do know. Can't wait for summer, and full, warm, beautiful light again.... I want to create!