Color

Fall Red 03, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

I recently reviewed all the photos I have up on Flicker looking for photos that included or highlighted the color Red. Doing so was great fun, and shortly after that activity I remembered having recently taken some photos in the neighborhood of fall leaves, including the one above.

There's something I find irresistible about light caught in bright fall leaves... and this jumble of bright red, light in the sky and dark branches is a great example of what I hope to grab when out on a leaf shooting expedition.

Random... I know... but that what this here blog is all about.

Duck Butt

Ducks in the creek 01, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

After posting a long wordy rant about my new favorite sitcom (wow... not a statement I can make often) I needed to put up a picture as counterbalance. I'm glad I found this one to toss up.

Just some ducks in a Tookany Creek near my mom's house in Philly. Take a couple weekends ago while on a walk one unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon.

On Being a Convert

I was home for Thanksgiving, and among various conversations I had in the course of this Tuesday-through-Sunday visit to Philadelphia many stand out in my memory. One involved how my mother almost was confirmed into the Catholic Church over 3 decades ago. She ended up not only joining the Episcopal Church, but eventually being ordained as a priest in the Episcopal church and is active in ministry to this day. Today, as I return home with many major projects on my plate, one brought me back to thoughts of conversion.

The project I have in mind is one I've been dreaming up for awhile and involves a combination of uploading new music to my almost year-old ipod and creating playlists that I hope will soon feed into a flurry of holiday musical gift giving. Along the way I was also hoping to get myself into the habit of reviewing some disks here and there and posting them to a certain blog... eh hem... this one. What? Who said that!?!!?!?!

Oh wait.

Yeah, I've been posting that thought for how long now? Crapsticks. Anyway, I was working my way through some music today, and I was thinking about when somebody tells you about a band that you've heard about but has never been of interest to you. One example for me is Martin Sexton, who a friend told me about years ago. He's got a very gospel-tinged singer songwriter sound, and one that I really just couldn't get into when I first heard about him. This was back in college, and I was very steeped in a number of types of music very distant from gospelfolk. In September I saw Martin Sexton perform live in New Haven at Toad's. Talk about a conversion. Wow... what a show.

Martin Sexton was not, however, the conversion I sat down to write about. Nor did I intend to write about my mom's religious life. I wanted to write quickly about a new joy in my life, 30 Rock. Until the last month and a half, I entertained a curious dilemma. On one hand, I had my love for Tina Fey, something true and heartfelt... but it was tempered by an ill-conceived notion that 30 Rock simply wasn't that strong as a show. I now am unsure how I came up with such a bizarre idea, but I am glad to say, such craziness is no longer part of my life.

In late October I started watching episodes of the first season via NetFlix, and was hooked right away. I'm now all caught up and seriously frustrated with waiting a week between new episodes. I also dread the prospect of the writer's strike taking away new episodes for a long period. Isn't it bad enough that we're without new Daily Show and Colbert Report?


Supposedly there's a chance the strike could be ending this week... at least the blog over at unitedhollywood.com talks about such rumors today. I say... the end can't come soon enough, and I hope all the writers make a reasonably nice haul out of this whole strange thing being resolved. Imagine... the people who are responsible for all the laughs, all the cleverness wanting a cut of the online $$! Incredible that more major media companies aren't being overthrown by the power and possibility of new avenues.

Along those lines, check out:
www.pandora.com where you can type in songs or bands you like and have a radio station created that will try to match your interests with other similar bands or songs (and you can always veto their choices if you don't like 'em)
www.funnyordie.com which is more-or-less just a comedy focused skin of youtube but they've got some great original content from Will Ferrell and his buddy who started the site.

...and my new discovery of the day:
www.etsy.com where you can see, learn about and purchase all sorts of hand-made goods. It's like a ginormous craft fair that's searchable.

In the Hood

In the Hood, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Who are the people in your neighborhood? Well, on Saturday, the majority of the people in my neighborhood were in some way associated with one or the other of two top Ivy League institutions, as blocks from my house Yale and Harvard's football teams met at the Yale Bowl.

Until Saturday morning I had no idea such an event would be taking place so close to me, and in response I took a little journey around the area. I snapped no great pictures of football action, but many random photos of fall foliage, etc. As I wandered home, I cam across this hood, lost by someone, and left atop a pole near the entrance to Edgewood Park.

I thought the hood was kinda fun, and so here it is, atop my weekend wrap-up posting. I'm hoping to soon follow up with a post about two new albums I've been listening to a bunch. They're two pretty new releases from pretty reliable bands, Wilco and Radiohead.

So stay tuned for that, and in the meantime I hope you had a wonderful weekend yourself. Nate, thanks for coming to visit and helping me discover Rudy's and a bit more familiarity with the ins and outs of New Haven. See you later this week.

Home

tomatoes, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Weekend before last I was in Philly visiting my mom, and one of our activities the Saturday I was there involved disassembling pieces of her garden, in anticipation of winter. We took apart the trellis that held up her tomato plants, among other things. Before that project was done I snapped this photo of a bunch of green and red tomatoes that would soon become compost. I love the veins running through them, and I've got a bunch more pictures like this one that I hope to photoshop soon.

windows with numbers

windows with numbers, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

This is one of an insane number of photos I recently took while wandering around in NYC on the Sunday before Halloween. Life has been a bit of a blur lately, but looking back through that sun-soaked Sunday afternoon of pictures has been a fun pastime for me this evening.

As I wandered that day I spent a good amount of time in Washington Square Park, surrounded by musicians of various kinds:
- A guy who played an upbeat if somewhat repetitive rhythm on a series of buckets, drums, weights, pans, pots, etc.
- There was a group of men with various kinds and sizes of brass instruments anchored by a dude with a drum kit, and occasionally they would seem to go head-to-head with the pots and pans man.
- Across the central fountain was a group headed up by a guy who bore some resemblance to Jimi Hendrix. This somewhat spaced out area was drenched in guitar licks and little else
- Further away from the heart of the park, off closer to the busy streets was a jazz quartet headed up by a trumpet-player who would occasionally play two horns simultaneously, quite the remarkable feat to witness.

Still, for me, there was a lot about that Sunday that had to do with quiet. When I lived in New York for 8 months I felt like I could never find quiet, perhaps because of the constant bustle, perhaps because I couldn't find it within myself. At the time I was actually living in Brooklyn, an area decidedly less frenetic than the section on Midtown where I was wandering this October. Still, there's something about all the human activity that can be like water when you're alone wandering through it. If you're observing, it can all start to feel like a meditation, where you settle yourself to a state of consistency, quiet, stability, and witness what is passing around you without letting it tear you away from your focus point.

I could be way out on a limb here.

Regardless, the mishmash ramshackle front of this building caught my eye, and I love the result for so many reasons. Whether it's the huge block letters of the sign printed one-letter-per-page along the top of the frame, or the taped up window panes below. I love the school buss that's reflected in lower right window of the brilliant blue door. I like the panes of stained glass, such a ceremonial feature that appears here so unceremoniously.

I'm very happy with this picture.

I hope you like it too.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Keene Jackolantern Favorite Pumpkin 2, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

My last post made me realize I should say something about today being Halloween, so I'll say this: I don't know what it's like where you are, but it's a beautiful day here in CT, and it's supposed to get a little warmer in the middle of the day too. Hence, it's perfect weather for all things spooky. Well, maybe it would be better if a thick fog hung over the Long Island Sound, and wind was whipping through the trees, animals howling in the distance, a faint strange electricity of some sort in the air. But you know what? I'll take a sunshiny day. Happy Halloween, above is a pic from last year's Keane NH Pumpkin Festival. That is an event to behold, my friends. I hope to make it back up there soon!

Holidays Closing In

Goeffrey the Giraffe, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Does it count to say that it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas when you see Geoffrey strolling the street outside Toys'R'Us in his red polo? Perhaps not exactly the most direct sign of Christmas, and possibly not even related... maybe he just wanders outside this New York toystore every Sunday afternoon. But he definitely caught my eye, and then I began to notice how most of the people reacting to him were adults, not kids, which is fine. The guy in this photo had just taken a few pictures of the Giraffe himself, and a different toystore employee offered to take his picture with Geoffrey. He had just refused and started to walk away when I snapped this photo.

Snow White and the Witch

Snow White and the Witch, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Spent the day in NYC yesterday and most of the afternoon I wandered through Union Square, Washington Square, and other parts of Manhattan snapping random photos of interesting events. It was a beautiful autumn day, and the sunshine brought out folks, as did events connected to Halloween. This picture is one of a bunch I snapped by the dog walk in Washington Square. Someone had organized a doggie Halloween costume contest there, and this pair were one of the more interesting entries. I didn't really follow all of what was going on with the contest, but snow white and the witch were pretty great. I'll updoad a photo of the guy who dressed his dog as Jackie Onassis soon. There was also a pug that was either some sort of 80's party girl or a ballerina with tons of makeup, either way there were many dogs who appeared to be thinking, "Come on, what the hell did I do to deserve this?"

More soon!

Hope you had a great weekend.

No Swimming

No Swimming, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

I love this sign, posted near one of the pieces of rapids where people are least likely to swim. What is there, 3 or 4 inches of water here? I snapped this photo at Kent Falls State Park in NW Connecticut. The sign is posted not too far from places where water does pool in such a way that you could imagine people swimming, hence I wondered if they could have found a better spot to nail up their warning.

All in all, I think the rocks at the bottom left of the image are my favorite part of this photo!

Lazy Bloggers

leaves changing 01, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Just take pictures of colorful leaves

Post them

And call it a day

Good thing I'm not one of those.

I write very brief bits of text to go along.

Headed to bed

light in the woods 01, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Wow... amazing how time can slip away when you're editing photos! I took a slew of pictures like this one in the woods this past weekend, and this is the first I've dropped into photoshop. Honestly I took too many because I see them all and cant decide on any to edit. I'll get around to it. This one came out very nicely, I think.

Friday, here we come!