FuzzyCo

Another 30 days, another 29 photos in my 367 Days project. (Oops.)

This month I've taken photos underwater, with a LightWedge, and noticed that I seem to be spying on myself.

I'm not saying that JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound won Metromix's Rock 'n' Vote band-of-the-bands thing last night solely because we had just done a great photo shoot on Sunday. I'm just saying that looking that good has got to give you some confidence.

Ze Frank's new Color Wars series of online competitions has a contest called Young Me, Now Me where you try and recreate a photo from your youth now. I was just visiting my family in Austin and dad showed me some old photos he had just scanned. So here's me in 1972, sitting in my Grandpa's old Model A on the farm in Iowa. And me in 2008 sitting in my parents' Toyota in their front driveway.

Update: I'm a winner, in the category of "Most Changed in Appearance".

My 367 Days self-portrait project has hit another milestone - Day 60 (or "Day 060" as my nerdiness would have it). It continues to be a mix of inspired days and what I call 'contractual obligation' days, where I just snap a dumb picture before I go to bed. (Did I say the same thing last month?) If nothing else, I haven't missed any more days.

When Erica did the Soiree DADA show last year, the city had Jim Newberry take some really great photos that were used to good effect to promote the show -- they were printed in quite a few listings and reviews. This week Noah was downtown and noticed that one of the photos was on several banners across from the Cultural Center. Erica and I went downtown this evening and it's really pretty incredible to see my wife's (scowling, white-faced) face on multiple banners.

V. busy weekend, with many pictures. Saturday, I went to my Saturday comedy writing workshop group, to refine some material for my upcoming standup gig at the Blewtenanny. That evening, I did a show out at the Chicago Comedy Company Theater, which is in the process of becoming the Laugh Out Loud Theater. Got some shots for Display Your Butt (the classiest site that a site with that name could be).

Today, for the Easter, Erica and I took pictures of the cats and then went over to the Knights for Easter Egg decorating and NCAA basketball. So close, Dawgs, so close. Then off to Sheffield's for a viewing party of Rock of Love 2. On this week's episode, the remaining girls were confronted with their exes. Except for Ambre, who was confronted with her good friend Adam. The party tonight was a surprise party for Adam. It was great fun, but it was so noisy (many people had already watched the episode that morning) that we had to watch the episode again when we got home (yes, had to).

The Doughty show on Thursday night was great from start to finish. The show opens early with an un-announced set from some mysterious gentlemen in beards who may or may not be called Piad are called Ron Blackmon. They did some adventurous improvisation--they weren't just jamming, they were exploring. The results, at least Thursday night, were musically interesting, but incredibly inspiring. It reminded me of the exhilaration I used to find in some of our improv theater experiments. I think I've been a little more focused lately on entertaining the audience -- which is, of course, not a bad thing at all. But I think it'd be good for me to try some more out-there stuff every now and then, again.

The Panderer's Scott Wynn possesses the ability to sound really, really enthusiastic and really mellow at the exact same time. I feel really dumb that I didn't pick up his album from the merch table. We're going to be in Austin the same time as the fellows next month, so hopefully I can pick one up then.

Photos from the show.

I'm approximately 0% Irish* so I usually don't bother wearing anything green on St. Patrick's Day. But this year I've got an Irishman I can get behind.

Pedants will point out that the feast day of St. Patrick was actually Saturday, March 15 this year (moved to avoid running into Holy Week). To which I'll respond that my local grocery store had decorations up proclaiming "Happy Shamrock Day" -- St. Patrick's Day is well on its way to the same fate that has befallen Mardi Gras in this country. Stripped of any cultural or religious significance, it'll be just another Excuse to Drink Day where you wear a seemly-arbitary color of beaded necklace.

Did I get off-track? Oops. Happy You're-Irish Day!

* I'm sure if you back far enough on my Norwegian side, there'd be some cross-North Sea genetic transfer. But if you go back far enough, we're all African cousins. Hmm... I think I'm all out of "point" today.

I've finished a whole month of my self-imposed 367 Days challenge -- taking a self portrait a day for a year. Most people do 365 days, but I thought I'd be fancy and do it from birthday to birthday and take the leap year into account. So, of course, February 29 was the first day I missed. Oops.

JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound were in the studio this last weekend and I stopped by to snap some shots.

It was a wonderfully clear night tonight, perfect for standing out on the lakefront watching the moon get swallowed by the great wolf Fenris eclipsed by the Earth. Perfect except for the fact that it was about -100°. I came in after an hour when I started to lose feeling in my fingers. So I only have photos of the first half of the eclipse (and a nice little hacking cough). Science!

(Originally published on the Chicago Metblog)

The 365 Days project challenges you to take a self-portrait a day for a year. I've been thinking about attempting it for a while, but I've sorta been looking for a good start-and-end date. I missed New Year's Day (not, perhaps, a good sign for the project) so I've decided to do birthday-to-birthday, inclusive. Add in the fact that this is a leap year, and I'll be doing my own personal 367 Days project.

I've got some ideas for fun kinds of self-portraits to take, but to keep it realistic, I've also set myself some rules:

The day isn't over until I go to sleep. I anticipate plenty of post-midnight "brushing my teeth and... ooops haven't taken a self portrait today, yet." Which leads to...

It's OK to suck. This whole thing is going to go down the tubes real fast if every picture has to be great. I'm going to start off with (as above) some crappy camera-held-at-arms-length photos just to get myself in the habit of taking one a day.

Failure is an option. If I miss a day, eh, it's a self-imposed goal. No one is going to cry over missed photos. If the whole thing does go down the tubes, oh well.

For Christmas, Kate gave us a Kitty Wig (the "Pink Passion" model) with the condition that she get photos with the cats. The wig comes in a very nice wigbox and with careful instructions about not just shoving the wig on your cat's head. We had been following the instructions and trying to get Parker used to the wig over several days. But then last night Kate was over for my birthday and we just, you know, shoved the Kitty Wig on our cats' heads. Sorry, guys.

This little guy really brightened up our New Years' Eve.

Note to all Blewt employees: the Blewt uniform dress code will be strictly enforced at all meetings going forward.

This is the second year in a row that I've just happened to catch the CTA's Holiday Train by accident. Last year, I was able to call up Erica and she met me and the train at Bryn Mawr and we rode all the way up to Howard. Remembering that made me miss my wife (24 hours until I'm back in Mississippi!), but it's hard to stay sad on the Holiday Train. Woo-oo!

I don't mean to minimize my father-in-law's death with pictures of cats and berries -- these are the things my eye sees and it does happen that on the same day you bury a great man, you also see impossibly cute children bouncing on a trampoline. That is, to cliche, life.

Above, possum in the dog house. Also, possum in the house (by Steve Delahoyde).

I'm back in Chicago. Erica is still in Mississippi. Things are not good. I added a few "David and" duo shots to the set of photos from the last week.

When I was uploading those cat pictures this afternoon, Tricia asked if I had been taking pictures of David. Frankly, I hadn't been sure if everyone would want photos from these trying times, and so I had been holding back. "You'd better get on that," she told me. So tonight we took some all-pajama'd family portraits before we settled in to watch some TV. (More on Flickr)

I'm in Vicksburg until Tuesday. Notable non-David-related events so far include that tree losing two big limbs into the Reids' backyard (Jeremy, Katie, Don, and I all took turns with the chainsaw to turn this into this. And look what we found!) and Teddy, the handicapable kitten, getting shaved by the vet (this --> this). We love her, but she does now look like one of the Henson Creature Shop's creepier creations.

There's been a steady stream of visitors for David, which is great, but also tiring. I guess tomorrow is our last all-family day for a while, as Katie is leaving for Columbia. Erica's uncle Carl brought over tamales tonight (they were out of Boudin!). I don't think any of these sentences have anything to do with each other, but I am tired and it's just 7:30. Did I mention things were tiring? Erica and I "got out" today by taking a trip to Wal-mart. Sigh. It's going to be hard on both of us when I head back to Chicago, but I'm glad we have the flexibility in our lives that she can be here for so long.

Mike Doughty's on his The Question Jar Show tour right now -- small venues, set list assembled on the fly from audience shouting, questions answered from a jar -- and he and Andrew were in Chicago last Thursday night. Pictures were taken.

There were many fun moments in the show (you know, that Mike's funny) and gosh darn if Andrew doesn't play a pretty cello, but a personal favorite was we finally got to hear Andrew play Guardame Las Vacas (aka Keeping Watch Over Some Cow aka The Cow Song) in front of an audience:

The last-last time Erica was in Mississippi, Tricia gave her a "Ghost Hunter" camera to bring back -- a disposable camera that automagically* inserts "ghosts" into your photos. We took it on two major photo expeditions -- we had it along when we were on the Rosehill Cemetery walking tour a few weeks ago and we went out last night and took a walk to look at the Halloween decorations in our neighborhood. On the latter trip, Erica and I would ask each other, "Do you know the legend of [the place we're standing in front of]? It's hauuuunttttedddd!" and then snap a photo.

I got the roll developed today and the ghosts aren't quite as cheesy as I thought they'd be. Many of them are actually old photos and they are rather eerie. I've posted the whole roll for your day-late-spooky pleasure.

* I'm assuming they pre-expose the film with the images. That makes the most sense, right?

We spent the weekend in Mississippi, visiting Erica's folks, eating plenty of food (of course), and attending the Smith/Reid family reunion. As an extra treat, Sara and Erik and Faelyn came along for the ride. For a three-day trip with the stated goal of having as few goals as possible, we sure packed a lot in. And it was delightful to get to spend so much time with Faelyn, who is one of my favorite small people.

Of note in the food dept., the Reid family staple Goldie's Trail Bar-B-Que has moved. (2430 South Frontage Road, Vicksburg, MS is the new address -- the old one is still on a bunch of websites.) The old place had a quaint log cabin-y exterior and no decor to speak of inside. The new place has even less decor inside and a very bland outside. However, it's three times the size of the old place and the food is the same. Oh, except for the addition of an incredible sandwich -- the Becca's Special. Goldie's has always had great garlic bread and this sandwich lets you put barbequed beef, pork, or sausage on garlic bread. It's an excellent idea and I can't believe I never thought of it before.

There's a story behind this photo and I don't think I want to share it in public. Maybe I will at Sickest Stories. Yeah, it's that kind of story.

Did I take some other pictures while we were there? Uh, yeah.

So I took pictures on the opening night of Soiree DADA with a disposable camera, with interesting, if not excellent, results. Mid-way through the run I saw the show again and took some shots with my normally dependable little U30 which totally freaked out. Well, where there's two, I have to make it three and make it a series. So for closing weekend I stopped in at Walgreen's and bought the cheapest digital camera they had -- a $10 Vivitar "Mini Digital Camera". My goodness, what a terrible camera. I've used plenty of these little cameras over the years (I have a weakness for them) and this one is by far the worst. Oh, it's so bad. (And Vivitar doesn't even want to acknowledge this little turd -- hold onto that driver CD, because you can't download the driver from the Vivitar website.)

(I also took some pictures with my now-non-freaking U30.)

I just posted a bunch of photos from the Marathon -- some that I took with a lil' camera while running and some Erica took while spectating and cheering.

Last night I presented Erica with a framed version of this triptych. Best viewed large. I'm not sure any explanation would do the piece justice, so I'll just let it speak for itself.

The last time I shot the Soiree DADA show something just felt right about doing so with a disposable film camera. This last weekend I saw the show again and I thought I'd just get a few shots with my lil' Sony U30 and darned if it didn't start to freak out. So I got a few shots I actually like and quite a few that have been 'enhanced' with lovely purple lines. I went ahead and posted them anyway, because, heck, DADA!

As an experiment, I shot the opening night of Soiree DADA from my seat with a disposable camera. With Don's permission, I sometimes used flash (I probably could have used it more, but I'm shy). I'm not really sure it's what I'd call a successful experiment, but I got a few interesting shots.

This morning I wandered around downtown Chicago taking pictures of the cast of WNEP's Soiree DADA as they... DADAed.

Erica found my little camera this morning, so I was able to retrieve the photos from my run in Salt Lake City. I've added them in to my set of photos from the SLC trip, starting here.

But we weren't just in Utah to go running (nor just to eat) -- Greg and I, and Jose from Phoenix, were there to teach two groups of Utah improvisors how to do the Neutrino Project and then help them perform a show each. We also did a performance of The Sickest F***in' Stories I Ever Heard.

I was really impressed with the two casts. We had blocked out 8 hours of rehearsal for each cast (and they had previously rehearsed with Joe and Jesse from Jokyr and Jesster, working on general concepts like working in pairs, in the real world, and thinking about where the camera was) but we were able to let both casts go early. And both shows were really good. Friday night we had one SLC shooter, Logan Rogan, who's a film student and really took to the format, pulling out some great shots under the time constraint. Saturday night the whole show was really tight. I'm digitizing both shows and I'll share them as soon as I get them tidied up.

I was a little worried about Sickest Stories -- part of what makes the show a show instead of just people reciting their stories to the audience is the sense of intimacy that comes from the veneer that these are friends playing poker in someone's house. The 'theater' space at the University was awesome for the Neutrino Project, but I thought it might be a bit sterile for SFSIEH. As well, we couldn't drink (other than pop) or smoke. The show, I'm happy to report, turned out fine. Jesse asked the small audience to move to the first few rows, the lights came down, and we really talked like friends. I don't think anyone got out a real lengthly story, but we bickered and shared much like we really liked each other :-)

Friday we had the whole day off and Greg and I walked down from the Guest House, where we were staying, to downtown, taking pictures along the way. I think it's the first time I've been out for a walk with another photographer. Usually I feel bad for my walking companions, because I'm always stopping to take a picture of some dumb little thing. Greg, not so much, because he was taking pictures of the same dumb things.

Thanks to the Slapstick Association for bringing us out, Joe for organizing everything, Jose for driving all the way from Phoenix by himself (and bringing the Phoenix MagicBox(tm), Heather for feeding us a home-cooked meal, and all the actors and runners for giving their all to the shows.

Dan has some theory that the bakery employees at Dominick's have nothing to do and so they pour their heart and soul into the cakes. I think they might just have a half-decent cake recipe. In any case, it's no Ace of Cakes, but this Hamburger Cake we took to JK's studio warming was both cute and tasty.

Some photos from Tuesday's Chicago Underground Comedy. No photos of Dan, because I was busy filming his set. You can check out Dan's bits and hear how much the crowd loved him. It's worth noting that Hans Holsen also knocked it out of the park -- pretty good for two guys who just started doing stand up a few months ago.

Kristen's friends found a kitten in an airshaft in a house they're renovating and no shelter would take him, so Kristen is taking care of him. The kitten's working title is "Fish" (so that Shaun can say, "I didn't know my girlfriend was getting another cat -- she said it was a fish.") but I think Shaft might be more appropriate. Since he was found in, you know... Shut your mouth!

I've got a Flickr set up of photos from our trip to Vicksburg a few weeks ago. It's mostly pictures of cats. (It just happened that way.) There's also a nice couple of before and after shots of Woofer's trip to the groomer.

"Well, if you're going to clean the tub, let's give the cats a bath, first."

"Even Latte?"

"We are not insane."

Me, sans glasses.

BT has a new band and he asked me to come to a rehearsal and get some PR shots of them. They sound good (which makes it easy to get behind making them look good) and are nice guys (ditto). As usual, I made a little set of some of the ones I like. The band will make their own choices for their MySpace page and such. I'm happy to note that I've been getting some good use out of the super fisheye lens my dad got me a couple years ago for my birthday (thanks, dad!), especially in tight band rehearsal spaces. My favorite thing about band photos is that I don't need to worry (or at least, I don't worry) about accurate color, subtle lighting, or distortion. That's rock and roll, man!

Lastlast weekend the Chicago Neutrino Project bundled into three cars (plus Dan down from Michigan and Alison flew up from Texas) and drove over to Oberlin, Ohio for the Oberlin Improv Conference. The show was plagued by some technical difficulties, but a fun time was had by all -- and I was happy to see my sister Jeanne and her still-newly-wed husband Jeff who drove all the way from Cleveland to see the show and then hang out with us at Brewster's at the Oberlin Inn (one of two bars in town).

Most of the folks left Saturday morning, but Sean Cusick and I stayed to teach workshops (and Erica stayed because she likes me) and panel discuss and then watch improv long into the night (with, I'll freely admit, a quick trip to the bowling alley next door -- with as long as I've been doing improv, if I watch too much in a row I get twitchy).

We're big fans, now, of The Feve (Oberlin's other bar), and the albino squirrel, and hanging out on Tappan Square, and everyone at Oberlin. Yay!

Oh, and pictures.

Possibly the only thing better than a picture of a picture being taken is the picture of the picture presented with the picture that was being taken.

After our last disconnect, I finally saw Foresman in person for the first time in, what, like 8 years? Wacky. Anyway, good food, good times.

MC Frontalot was as great as I had hoped. MC Lars had one fun song (If I Had a Time Machine, That Would Be Fresh) but otherwise was as much of a tool as I expected. We were late and missed Optimus Rhyme because of a birthday dinner, and were told they were awesome. (Bought their CD -- awesomeness confirmed.) Ran into Nate Sands, K-Rock, Roger* and Greg, so comforted that we are not the only nerds in Chicago. Took pictures.

* Who disagrees on the toolness of MC Lars. So, hey, maybe I'm wrong. (I'm not.)

I think I lost him in the lights...

Parker used to love this cat bed, but then it got buried behind a bunch of junk in the office. We recently moved it out to the living room and now she's rarely out of it. And check out that delicate paw action!

Chic-a-go-go is an awesome Chicago cable access show -- a crazy fusion of Soul Train and a puppet show, with plenty of corny jokes and punk DIY sensibility. A few weeks ago I got their periodic newsletter and Jake mentioned that they were taping the 500th episode and needed a photographer. I had to miss out on auditing the latest Don't Spit the Water auditions, but it was totally not to be missed. How great was it? DJ Casper was there and taught us the Cha-Cha Slide. Andre Williams ("Shake a Tail Feather") was there just being snazzy. People danced. We did the El Line and the Fantasy Dance. I took over 600 pictures. (Here's a smallish selection.) Yay!