It has been a super crazy couple of weeks filled with good times and much music!

Monday the 9th
After an early morning meeting with some clients I decided that I should spend some quality time with Andy (my snowboard) & Cypress Mountain.  So I took to the hills! The snow was swell and there weren’t many people about.  Most of the Eagle chair runs were still groomed for the world cup and thus not available to be ridden, but the raven chair runs were awesome as per usual.  I wish that chair wasn’t so long :)

Tuesday the 10th
we started the day with an awesome headshot session followed by working Mexican lunches with Trevor Jansen

Wednesday the 11th
Did some photo wandering and out and about errands

Thursday the 12th
Thursday was this jerk’s birthday, so with the exception of a mid day meeting I didn’t do much of anything work related. I played my guitar for the better part of the day and collected my Mac from the Mac doctor.  While I was at the Apple store I also grabbed a little 25 key midi controller that I have been eying up for a long time. I called it a birthday gift for me!

It is quite swell it recognizes how hard I am pressing the keys and they are weighted much like a real piano, so it and garage band are the awesome!! I will be learning to play the piano via YouTube.  Don’t laugh, seriously there are some decent lessons on the You Tubes.

My Friend Lisa also had a Jam session at Rockspace that evening which was a little sketchy at first until we found our way around the PA system and what not. Shan & I both sang on what will be an awesome version of the Communist Daughter which needs some works so you don’t get to hear it yet. Typical Frog beer after and then an evening of playing guitar/piano/garage band.  All in all an awesome birthday.

Friday the 13th
Friday was regular work and such, no scary unexplainable phenomenon that I was aware of but that’s not to say that it didn’t happen. :) There was a chunk of awesome on Friday though Tracey that awesome gal that she is came by and gave me the perfect b-day gift ever….

The Crate Acoustic-60 Amp!!!!

It has two channels so I can plug in a Mic or a Guitar or both at the same time!! It is the only amp that we would really need for an acoustic show! It has lowZ outs to tie it into house sound and the like. :) Tracey You really really really really rock!!!! Thank You!

Saturday the 14th Valentines Day
We had a party at the studio where we met some new people and somehow managed at our tame party to scandalize a number of other people.  Kimli tells it best.

Sunday the 15th
Sunday was a take it easy day. We had a photo shoot in the middle of the day but outside of that it was a hang at home day. We watched Revolutionary Road. Not a great movie really… It was well made and well acted but nothing really remarkable about it other than its predictable build up to a un-climactic ending.

Monday the 16th
As Mondays often are we had kind of a busy day with work and what not. That evening we were invited to speak for the PPABC. For those not in the know PPABC is the original photographers association in BC. It is the true definition of old school. We were invited to discuss what we do and marketing and such. Being that most of our marketing has an online component we discussed things like Facebook and twitter and I got the impression that most of what we said was complete gibberish to the vast majority of people. It was good though I enjoy talking to groups of people like I am an authority in subjects, and they are talking about bringing us back for a full day session. Good times!

Tuesday the 17th
Tuesday was another busy day but somehow in the middle I found time to hit Long & McQuade for a bit of awesome shopping. I was there to get some better guitar pics and possibly a mic stand but I ended up finding a used/returned bass for very cheap!! It is not going to win any awards for spectacular sound or anything but it serves my functions. I have been playing with the four track a little playing guitar and then laying down some simple bass tracks its really fun. It is a short scale Bass so it is smaller and easier to handle. It is perfect to try out different bass line ideas and junk and as I said before it was super cheap :)

Later there was some Third Tuesday action, but other than that, this has been a busy week and a bit with The Jerk. I will try and keep up with the actual posting of things when they happen so I don’t have a crazy week in review thing going on :)

I am so behind that I am finally getting around to looking at some 2700 (that number is a little high because there is a bunch of coaxial in Stop motion in there) photos that I took on our scooter camping trek to Salt Spring Island way back in July 2007 (and yes I am aware that it is 2009)

These two stuck out so I will blog them.This is a long exposure of our beer fridge

This field ruined all our shoes and socks

In other news Snowboarding was the Suck today as there was all sorts of crazy rain coming down on Cypress and it was so foggy out that while riding the chair lift i couldn’t see the chair in front of me.  It took me forever to come down a green run because you just couldn’t see anything so I bailed and came home instead. I tired to get all the people that i was meeting on the hill to come and eat Enchiladas and watch snowboarding videos but the rain kept the snowboarding portion of the North Shore Crew at home.  Your guys loss really the Enchiladas were the awesome! :)

This month is going to be an unbelievably crazy month for me I think.  It is historically a crazy month but this year is going to be even more so.  November is when we wrap up the year’s weddings and album orders etc. and we are often left scrambling to meet random x-mas deadlines.
We are also getting our stuff together for a wedding show next week.  Which seems like it should be easy but never really is.

It is the month that we have our end of season photographer bash, which takes up a surprisingly large amount of time in prep and planning. We are desperately trying to finish all the renovations on the new studio, which is taking about 9 times as long as originally planned.  I spent the weekend tearing large portions of the office apart to paint, mount, and clean, only to have to try and reassemble it at 4:30am in some sort of ‘quiet’ fashion as to not annoy my neighbors too much. The office portion of our reno is nearly finished. The studio area is also nearly completed with a fresh coat of white paint and a whole wall of dark black chalkboard paint. However, the home section of our place is in shambles right now, and will take a crazy long time to sort out.

My entries for the scenes form a movie is coming together in concept although I am most likely going to be rather late on the actual completion.  I hope to some how rock that next week between things, but I am skeptical that will work with this crazy assed time line.

It is Movember, that which despite my inabilities to grow a Mo I am giving it a whirl.

We are trying to launch the other half of the business this fall which means new website and branding etc.

We are co-planning an Indie Wedding Show in the new year so that needs a website.

As mentioned before I am participating in NaBloPoMo, although I blog nearly everyday in the winter so that isn’t a huge stretch.

What will be a stretch for me is NaSoAlMo (National Solo Album Month) that I am going to do my very best to complete.  Coming up with the song portion will be reasonably simple, the lyrics and the singing part?  Not so easy. But like most things I will do my best to persevere and be happier for it.

We are headed to Tofino for the long weekend, because we have time or money for such adventures. :)

It is also the time of year that I end up inevitably starting new projects and dream about working on “The Big Surprise”. I am also trying to plan a few shoots to update my fashion/headshot book as well.

Not to mention that there are a couple of curtains at IKEA that are just begging to made into an awesome hot dress.

All that is over and above my regular work stuff and almost all of it is before the 15th

Awesome!!

We went to see a couple of films at VIFF this week. First we went to see Cuba. Great doc that was filled with interviews and the like with some of the people that were involved in the revolution. There was some footage from Castro and other things like that but the bulk of the footage was interviews with the everyday run of the mill people, people like the court stenographer during Castro’s trial and other people that had a small part that turned out to be history changing. The thing that I took from this film was that one person can change the course of history. One small seemingly insignificant decision is all it takes to change the destiny of a nation, and the entire world for that matter. An example was when Castro was caught after the failed attack on the military armory. He was being escorted to jail by a man (I don’t remember the man’s name) and they were stopped by a corrupt policeman that wanted to “escort” Castro to jail, meaning he wanted to kill him. While it was the norm for this to happen and most of the corrupt police would have gladly done so this man insisted that Castro was to stand trial and refused the corrupt man’s request. The single decision of one man changed the course of history. The film was filled with other examples of single acts that looking back changed the course of history but seemed small and insignificant at the time.

The second was a film (well three shorts actually) called Tokyo. Crazy and absurd movies of complete brilliance. I can not and will not even attempt to describe them. You must see it. If it isn’t playing at the fest again to try and rent it/watch it online/download it. Pure awesome.

I have been going out of my way the last 4 or 5 years to avoid all thing to do with indie film and the like. Mostly because I will get the itch and drop everything and make crazy films again. All good except crazy films don’t pay rent, and I just doubled my rent I hope that I can do something about that this year or next. It is all about the time and I have little of it.

Miranda on her new Jazz!

Look at what Miranda got today!

Yup this is something that you can order to eat at Vera’s Burgers! It took a team of people to prepare this monstrosity for Josh to eat!

But here is a pretty scooter!

You get just a photo more later

on Salt Spring Island we are!!

So it has been a busy 24 hours for me. Last night after our wedding was done Josh & I went for a midnight scoot. Took a few photos in the dark of night.

Rode a few trails and avoided getting caught up in a crazy ‘bush party’ in Stanley park.

This was Miranda when I told her how many photos we shot at our wedding! :)

Breakfast at the tomahawk this morning, followed by more aimless scooting.

This is so foreign to me

The White stripes rocked

Yup the blog to be nothing but photos of Sally for at least a Week!!!

So after years of craving and yearning for the joy and freedom that only a scooter can give, I have finally given in to the temptation and jumped head first and taken the scooter plunge! Although some of you already know her, I would like everyone to meet Sally (named from the previous owner Kimli, not that Sally is a bad name or anything I think that I would have named her Sally my self given the chance I am just giving this information in cause you are wondering where the name Sally came from. I have been thinking about getting a WWI fighter plane style Sally Sticker for the front or something but that may be a bit cheese.) Sally meet my cat!

Sally is a 50cc Honda Jazz that is prepared to take me anywhere for the price of a cup of coffee! I have already drove it all over the damn place and the gage hasn’t moved.

I have said it before and I can now say it with authority Scooters make the best photo wander machines. You can cover all sorts of territory in no time and you can pull them over anywhere, although Sally was the subject of the photos today. Oodles of room under the seat for jackets and cameras as well I can stick my camera in the front basket, well sorta.

I was nervous about traffic at first but after a few stop lights and a left turn or two I was feeling comfortable with the whole thing and there is comradely between scooter riders including full nods & smiles get exchanged between complete strangers. (sorta like VW’s) I am no longer traffic that is separated from pedestrians! Yesterday while waiting in traffic, I was approached by a girl as to where I procured my T-Shirt (I am a rocker I rock out) this wouldn’t have happened if I was behind the car barrier there was nothing to prevent her from chatting. People in cars like to talk to; it is a completely social experience riding a scooter.

Sally truly is the best thing that I have ever driven!