philly

It's a bird, it's a plane! No, it's Nose on Broad St.

And it's Bob on the other side!

I spotted these characters sitting on Broad St last weekend and I had to cross over to the island and snap some shots dodging the oncoming traffic in either direction. I went back later in the day, but they were removed. I have no idea if they were reclaimed by the artists or taken away by the Streets Department of the city.

I had seen Nose throw up some pieces on other traffic signage round the area, mostly on Pine St I believe, but this was the first of these drum cone thingies I've seen with graff on them. I think both sides turned out nicely.

Further up Broad St (around Sansom or Chestnut) were these two Nose and Bob pieces on the triangle frame traffic barriers; I went back at night to take some shots. I think I've seen the Nose side before, but I may be thinking of another Nose piece on the same kind of traffic marker.

They turned out nicely. I hope they weren't taken from a vital construction site, but rather found discarded somewhere after they had been hit and moved by a car or something.

Well, it looks like my trusty D70 is reaching old age now at two years and change. I've been getting a few writing to CF card errors in the past months, but I thought it was just a problem with some 2 year old CF cards which were nearing their re-formatting cycle. But I bought a new 2 GB SanDisk Ultra II CF card and on the first night of taking it out, it had the same problems. Arg. It's the camera body.

I was planning on purchasing a 17-55mm f/2.8 DX Nikkor Zoom, but it looks like I'll have to invest in a new, more trusty, camera body before I invest in some new [much wanted] glass. The 17-55mm length would've been nice for general event shooting, much better than my wide angle 12-24mm f/4 Tokina which has too much distortion on the 12mm to 20mm end of it for people shots.

Oh well. I'll just have to wait it out some until I can get the glass I really want. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the Nikon D200 sometime soon after my birthday (February 3rd = 27) and use the D70 as a backup camera [and part time second body at events] which I will have to watch closely for CF writing errors.

Perhaps I should explain the card writing errors as well in case there is some Nikon tech reading this post… I go out shooting and then at some random time, the camera will not be able to write to the card. On the rear LCD a message will come up saying something like "Card can not be used" or something. I forget. It happens on both my older 1GB CF cards [SanDisk and Lexar] and my new 2GB CF card. I've reformatted the cards and it just happens again. There is no dust or crap in the CF card slot preventing proper connections with the line of pins. Ugh.

Photo of D200 by DP Review.

***Problem solved! I reformatted the CF cards via my laptop. I normally reformat every time I pop in a card into my camera, but that didn't work. For some reason, the cards read fine now after reformatting in the laptop. Thanks to Jeff Fusco for the advice.

Above is a Christmas tree left for the trash over on 23rd and Ranstead Sts [in the alleyway by the Armory]. I've always had this weird feeling in the weeks [and months for the lazies] after Christmas. Tens, hundreds of Christmas trees discarded on the streets.

Back in the 'burbs where I grew up, I recall that the garbage trucks would have wood chipper attachments in the month or so after Christmas. I grew up in a Jewish town, but who doesn't love the smell of pine/fir in the winter eh? I think there was a specified day during the week when people could put out their trees and they'd be chipped away. I forget if the chippings were used somewhere around town as mulch or something. Or perhaps re-sold to the rich folks in town; one man's garbage…

Click the image above to get to my photoblog for a bigger version and better retouched version of the photo.

Above is a shot of two pizzas me and Lady's friends made for us last weekend. One of those pizzas was made with mozzarella cheese, the other was made with vegan soy cheese. Obviously there's quite a difference, physically, between the two. Which is which?!

And here's Pat tossing some pizza pie dough in the air in their new house. I was quite impressed. I didn't know he could do such things. A fun hidden talent.

I've never had homemade pizza before. It was good. Now I wanna learn how to toss me some pizza dough.

And FYI, the cheeses used were: a block of Follow Your Heart (vegan) and a pack of pre-shredded Kraft Mozzarella.

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to partake in the Day of Service projects on Martin Luther King Jr Day. A few Wiki-found factiods about MLK Day:
*Rep. John Conyers introduced a bill in Congress to commemorate MLK's efforts in 1968
*MLK Day was signed into law November 2, 1983 by Ronald Reagan
*Opposition to the bill was lead by Sen. Jesse Helms and was also opposed by Reagan himself
*MLK Day was first observed January 20, 1986
*January 17, 2000 was the first time MLK Day was observed in all 50 states

I've never been able to use my day off as a "day on" because I've never had it as a day off. When I was in school, I was also working so if I did get the day off, I had to work instead. And when I was working full-time, I always had to work. But I had the day off for the first time and I gladly did a few hours of service in helping delivering meals with MANNA. All it takes is a few hours to make a difference.

And speaking of volunteering, I've been volunteering at a shelter one night a week. This Wednesday will be week three. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't know Aaron who is a big part of Philly IMC, Young Involved Philadelphia and Project Home to name a few great projects. [And how did I forget to mention Karl?!] After going to the homeless crisis meeting a few months ago, I was determined to help out some way and I have. The job is easy enough: help set up, prepare some soup, coffee and snacks and then serve for a few hours and I'm home a little after Midnight. If anyone's interested in helping out (the hours are 9p – Midnight any night of the week), lemme know and I'll put you in touch with some good peoples.

I've heard lots of things about this beer. First off that it's pronounced "Smittik's" or something. I'm not British from the UK so I couldn't tell you for sure. I hadn't seen it in the store before, but while I was perusing the fridges in The Foodery (Center City) looking for bottles/cans to fill up by 6er, I spotted it and added it to the other dark ones already in my holder.

I should also add that the new American pint glass of choice is a White Dog Cafe glass courtesy of our buddies Pat and Jodi! They got Lady a cool mug to add to her ever-growing collection of mugs (they're gonna spill right out of the top cabinet soon). So, goodbye to the Pac Man glass (last seen here) and Mark, you must be so happy. Anyways, back to the Smithwick's.

As you can see in the photo, it carries a good deal of foamy head which hangs around for 2/3 of the pint. If one can take a single thing away from one of those stupid beer commercials (I can't remember if it was Miller Lite or Bud Light or something) it is to 'pour down the center' and not tip that glass over for a headless beer. The color is a reddish-brown. Not as dark as a Newcastle, not as red as a Killian's; somewhere in between. The beer seems a little on the light side taste-wise for all the talk I've heard about this beer and the deep inviting color.

There is a nice aftertaste. It's crisp with a little bitter-y nutty taste which matches up nicely with the rest of the experience.

Also bought in my six: Guinness nitro can, Boddington's nitro can, Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout, Smuttynose Old Brown Dog, Murphy's Irish Stout nitro can.

I'm oh so excited! In about 13 hours I'll see my friend Glenna for the first time in over 15 months. She's been traveling around SE Asia and has settled down in Cambodia where she'll be the new director of a new orphanage. She's back stateside for 20 days and this may be the only time I get to see her for the next 18 months – she's made a commitment of a minimum of 18 months to the orphanage.

We barely knew each other freshman year of college, but a mutual friend introduced us because her family was moving from central Massachusetts to 20 minutes from where my parents lived. We started hanging out and haven't looked back since. She's been doing such great work over the years and saving and saving to take this life-long dream trip to Australia/SE Asia. She did it and is now taking root there for a little while at least.

It would be great to be able to visit her since she'll be in one place for the next year and a half, but who knows if I'll have the discipline to save up for that kind of plane fare. Who knows, stranger things have happened.

I'm taking a half day at work so I'll be able to spend as much time as possible with her before she heads back up to NY to see her fam as her sister is flying back to NY from Utah to see her li'l sis for a week. It's weird preparing, mentally, for the short visit I'll have with her, knowing that I may not see her for another 18 months. Having her here for so short a time makes me miss her already.

I've been sick since Sunday. Hopefully I'll feel 100% by tomorrow afternoon.

To all those who strutted…

For all those who couldn't make it…

The 2007 Mummers Parade, delayed 6 days or not, was a good show.

It was a freakish 72° or so on January 6 in Philadelphia. The Mummers were extra sweaty and extra tired in the hot hot heat, but they put on their makeup, donned their parasols, spraypainted their shoes and strutted up Broad St like the champs they are. I stood my ground in front of the Merriam Theater on the west side of Broad St in between Spruce/Locust and clicked away a buttload of shots. I cut it down to 106 photos in this flickr set. I'll cut it down to 5 or so and post them on the photoblog properly color corrected in the future.

Anybody else brave the heat?

So my bestest friend Abbey is getting married in April. First off, I can't believe that girl is getting married. Who'da ever thunk it. She asked me a couple weeks ago to be an usher at her wedding. I, of course, agreed. While I was home over the break, I was thinking about it and it occurred to me that I may have to wear a tux for the occasion.

I remembered that my tux from 1998 (prom & brother's marriage that year) was in my closet in my parent's house back in NY. I had seen it hanging there over Thanksgiving break. But would it be possible that I'd still fit into my tux from my high school days?

Here's a shot of me back in May/June of 1998 with my prom date, Gigi. We were headed to Windows on the World on top of the World Trade Center later that evening. It was a whole different world back then. Crazy. It was the only time I ever went to the WTC. I remember being on the 114th floor or whatever it was and looking down on the world. We stood with our heads pressed against the window straining to see all the way down to street level. The pic is kinda crummy (crappy camera + crappy old scan), but you get the picture.

On New Year's Day, I arrived back in NY to do family stuff after a fun and eventful New Year's Eve in Philly with Lady and two of my best friends from college who came to down to celebrate. I climbed up the stairs and opened my closet. I took out the pants and jacket and undid the plastic wrap. I put on the jacket. I heard a jingling from the inside breast pocket and I reached in and grabbed the buttons for my tuxedo shirt. The jacket fit nicely. I didn't expect that to be much of a problem. But then were the pants. I know I've gained and lost and gained and lost a good amount of weight since 1998. I had no idea if I was anywhere near the weight I was back then.

Stepping into the pants, I had thoughts of the pants ripping apart at the eight-year-old seams and me only getting two wears out of the pants. To my surprise, the pants still fit! Holy shit I thought to myself. Zipping and buttoning them up, I saw that they were a teensy bit tight, but chroist, they fit. Once I shed my winter layer of lard (which I really don't need this winter), I shouldn't have any problems. Cool.

I can't believe I still fit into this tux. Amazing.

Now I gotta buy me and Lady some tickets out to Hotlanta for the wedding.

Above is one of twenty-nine shots I took while on the train from Trenton to Market East Station. I was downsampling them to 72dpi to upload to flickr and I was thinking of which shots to remove from the set. Then I noticed that there were about thirty shots and I thought why not put them all up, like a digital contact sheet?

I loved making those first contact sheets in the darkroom after out shooting for a few days. The surprise of if I got the shot or not (you know, back in the day when I actually didn't get the shot, heh).

So here they are in all their un-Photoshopped glory. Twenty-nine shots from NJT. I was taking photos and writing down the approximate train station I took them by. I'm sure some of the labels are incorrect, but whatever.

And speaking of photography… This week's PW is a must read. An edit of some of Jeff Fusco's best photos of 2006 in a nice photo essay. Fusco is the reason I still pick up the print version of PW – for the larger sized images on the printed page at 180dpi. The shot of Barack Obama takes on a whole new mood as it emerges from the halftones of the newsprint. Fusco, I know you're reading this: You're the fucking best man.

And speaking of 'Faces of 2006' (heh) peep Brad Maule's photo essay of portraits from 2006. Dig deep enough and spot a nice grainy late night shot of me rocking my Nikon camera strap with the Arts Bank building on South/Broad St in the background. Chroist do I need to grab a brew with Brad again [and a shitload of other people].