A few pics

Uploaded a few more pictures to Flickr. That's everything through Dingle. I'm saving the Dublin photos (you know, the ones with actual people) 'till last. If you go to the photos you'll see photographic evidence of that damn dog that nestled itself by my feet during that rainy day inside the pub.

Here's a couple from Dingle to whet your appetite:



Report cards were this weekend, so I couldn't do too much writing. Parent-Teacher conferences are later this week, but don't fret, readers: there are many, many stories yet to tell.

I'm your Other blogger

I'm having a lot of fun freaking people out on Facebook with this photo:
You can get yourself all Other-ized at the Coraline website.

Coraline, of course, is written by my man Neil Gaiman, and this could finally be the film that shows people what he's capable of. Really freaky shit.

My students are asking me to read The Graveyard Book next as a read-aloud, but I'm not sure about that one. For the most part, the book is pretty tame. Except for the beginning, when The Man Jack enters the house and kills everyone in it, except for Bod, who escapes to a nearby graveyard and makes it his home.

Here's one more photo that's been adorned with black button eyes:

A Quick Wrap-Up of Summer, Now in Photoform!

Right. Time to get back to work. Summer's done.

I Like Black and White

That's the extremely short version of my Labor Day weekend. More pictures on Flickr.

I would love to write more, but there' s no time right now. Head's in the game of teaching right now, even though there's so much more to do.

Later.

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

Regular writing should resume shortly. For now, a few more pictures from the performance:


Lots more pictures here.

Such a kick-ass show. Charmed from the start. Great cast, great ideas, great assistance from everyone. I shall speak more of it later. We still have two more different shows to get through before we're done.

And Ireland awaits!

Live! Tonight!

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

Opens Tonight!

Variations on a Sunset, Central Illinois Back Roads

Spent a Sunday driving from the north side of rapid Chicago down to the quiet pace of central Illinois. Listened to music, stopped every once in a while to scribble down ideas in a notebook, and wished my cousin Jake a Happy Graduation.

Ate beef sandwiches hunched over the kitchen table, which is where my family always feels most at home. It's where we celebrate birthdays, mourn deaths, and hunker down during times of crisis or calamity. A bag of Fritos and a couple of beer bottles and the creak of old wooden chairs passed down through families.

Sat for a long while with my cousin Ben in his dark bedroom, cracking jokes and talking of Japan and life and books, and before I knew it the time had slipped away along with the rest of the northern Illinois contingent of my family.

Said my goodbyes to everyone, including a couple of distant middle-aged cousins that I had never met before but could have talked to for hours. They just had that easy familiarity that apparently comes with being of the same ancestry. Scots-German-Pennsylvania Dutch farmers spending the early part of the 21st century trying to hold on to that sense of land and family and tending to something.

Spent the car ride home listening to the same song over and over again, sculpting Caesar's assassination in my head as the sun set on my left. By the time the sky grew black I was back in the suburbs and the stoplights, and you couldn't see a goddamn star in the sky.

A few photos...

T's Birthday Celebrated

A few quick pics from T's Birthday gathering Friday night:





More on Flickr. Back to cleaning the house. Soon I will write about the MegaMitzvah.

Local Man Declared Douchebag

I don't have a post that goes with that title; It's just something funny I said the other night.

Here are a few pictures to tide you over until I figure out what my second book would be. Lightroom's free beta trial finally ran out, so here's the last of the pot. I'm not enough of a real photographer to spring for the real version, so perhaps I'll snag a copy of Photoshop again. For some reason I lost a version I had on my old computer.

Moving Day

When I first started writing this thing, back in 2003, Buzznet was ok. You could upload as many pictures as you wanted and there was a strong community feel to it, things I didn't get from Flickr in the beginning.

Even after Buzznet started to suck I tried to hang on, at least for the people I had come to know on the site. Bernardo always has excellent pictures of Chicago, it's nice to see what anti's up to, and every now and then someone interesting stops by and says hello.

Overall, though, using Buzznet these days feels like partying with a bunch of college kids: you enjoy your time with them, but deep down you know you can't do it all the time, and there's somewhere else you should probably be.

Which is Flickr, which I've used almost as long as Buzznet, but never fully committed to it until Bella gifted me my pro account last Christmas. (Have I professed my undying love for Bella lately? Well, there it is again.)

Today I really started organizing my Flickr page properly, loading up pictures of various Limelight productions and getting everything nice and ordered. Lots of this stuff has been seen before on Buzznet, but I gave some pics a much-needed once-through on my soon-to-be-expiring beta Lightroom program.

So Buzznet, I don't think we'll be hanging around too much any more. You can keep your overly busy, candy-colored interface and your constant My Chemical Romance promotions. I want to like you, I really do. We had some great times together, but I need something a little classier and smarter these days.

These and other pictures can be found on my Flickr page...

Lightroom

About six months ago someone stole my camera at a Limelight performance, but I didn't really miss it all that much, since the damn thing didn't take very good pictures anyway. New one's a bit better, but what really helps is Lightroom, which is my most favoritest thing ever right now. They're out of beta the end of next month, so I'm a little worried I'll have to cough up some dough to keep it.

Went back and took a fresh look at some old photos and cleaned them up a bit. I've got Ireland and travel on my mind these days so I give you a few from the past few years of traveling:*

The Moirae, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin

Out of Dublin, on my way to Cork

Galway Surfers, late March

A Tree.

(This is where Lightroom really comes in handy. The original was just okay, but once you change it to black and white and adjust the contrast a bit it really stands out.)

More can be found on my Ireland Revisited Flickr page. Which is now a pro account. And once again, Bella is awesome.

*I've never been much of a photographer; most of mine are usually clumsy shots where I just try and get the basics captured. Lately I've come up with a few good ones, though, and I can't get enough of black and white. Still, mine are nothing compared to what's out there.

Christmastime, Interrupted

About a week ago I wound up watching a bunch of people salsa dancing in a bar where not so long ago a bunch of people were swing dancing.

I tried that whole swing dancing thing when it got trendy, but I could never make it work. Love the music, but I just can't make my feet go the right way. I'm doomed to have horrible coordination, which is why I never participate in most public dancing or the occasional basement ping-pong tournament.

Spent my time buying T a couple of beers and chatting with some coworkers crammed into a corner booth. Eventually got out of there, headed to the car, but I felt like a pint so we walked to one of the only proper pubs in America's #2 Best City to Live.

Had a quick one, talked about plans for the Christmas break, listened to the middle-aged band playing your typical mix of Boring Adult Rock Hits of the 60s-90s. After I drained the last from my glass, we left, making sure to hold our breath as we walked past the man with incredibly noticeable b.o.

The night was warm, for December at least, and a thick fog had settled in. Street lights reflected off the wet streets and the trees glowed with strings of white Christmas lights. Got a few decent photos as well:





Might tinker with this one a bit more and make it a new banner:



Lots of birthdays this time of year, so I should take a minute and wish a Happy Birthday to both honestbush and MC, who, along with myself, have been stuck with having late-December birthdays. Never time to do a proper celebration when you're shoved in-between Christmas and New Years. Two more days and I join a new demographic. Ouch.