Byrne Pix, redux

I took another run through the 150 pix I posted the other day, narrowed down the selection and made a slideshow with bigger pix. If you still care, you can see it here.

David Byrne Rocks Seattle

Quickie photos from the David Byrne concert in Seattle a few hours ago.

As many of our eight readers know, I shot the Talking Heads almost 30 years ago in New Orleans for my college paper, The Driftwood. And also, for myself. Awesome to see him again, for the 3rd time, tonite. The show was great and excellent. How awesome to have a birthday boyfriend who loves the same things I do. Happy birthday, Mark Matassa! How does it feel to be 49?

(Check back later for some scanned B&W photos from back in the day.)




For bigger photos go here.

Nicolosi Kid Photos

My sister Renee got an awesome photo scanner for xmas, and scanned in these old negatives of a trip we took to Britain when we were kids, given to her a few years ago by my Great Uncle John.



To see the version with bigger pix, go here.

Here's some more Nicolosi kid pictures, from the Fabled Italy Days.



To see the version with bigger pix, go here.

A visit to the rainforest

For a slideshow with larger images go here.

There's audio with this one, so lissen to it!

Photos: Our visit with Kaye and Val

Val made us a delicious dinner, we took long walks on the beach, and much fun was had by all.



For a slideshow with larger images go here.

Old School Photo

That's me on the right. That's my mommy holding me. In the middle are my Welsh grandparents. Mia familia, yo. Like, 40 years ago.

Send us your old school photos. We'll post 'em!

Week in Review

Show captions for the editorial comments ...



For a slideshow with larger images go here.

Happy Blogaversary to us

Thanks to Kaye for the headline, which she used atop a nice note and the above blurry photo in response to yesterday's shout-out to M&M-ville on the occasion of this blog's first birthday.

Our second annual request for reader photos drew an infinitely better response -- three participants, against zero last year -- but we still got a lot of apologies in the forgot-my-camera, saw-the-post-too-late vein.

OK, my bad, we put out the call sorta late in the day. But come on, people. Be cool like Kaye and Val and Rita, who all are busy and/or technically challenged too and yet managed to send a pic.

You can do it! It's not too late!

Here are the entries so far.

From Kaye:
Hi -- here is what I am doing today:

First, I am pining because I sent Val off to Vegas today on his business trip -- training on a new platform for TIC -- that will last all week. Sigh. (Maybe he'll send you an iPhone pix of his day from there. I'll suggest it when he calls me later.)

I am keeping busy by adding new functionality to californiaauthors.com. Today, I am working on including a zip code search of independent bookstores, so users can buy books online from local indies. (If they're into that sort of thing.)

[Above] is a picture of me at the con, bristling with technology -- grabbed with my iSight webcam, hence the quality -- working on CaliforniaAuthors.com and feeling relived and happy that the thing looks so good on the iPhone. It is ready for the new new new world (Props to Val for the elegant css that makes that possible).

Happy blogaversary to us, my friends. I know it sounds sappy, but feeling connected to you two is actually one of the best things that happened to me this year. And the wider M&M world ... that's the cherry on top! Thank you for all the co-conspiracy, carping, stupid fun, inspiration and friendship.

From my mom:

As promised, here's a glimpse of how I spent my time on M&M's birthday:
I watered my beautiful hydrangeas and decided to pick a bouquet for my living room.
I spent a little time practicing a watercolor while listening to favorite music.
I browsed arouind Borders bookstore for a while before stopping at the market.
For dinner I fixed Michy's great pesto tortelloni dish, with my home-made pesto.

From M&M:

Michelle at the bakery:
From Val:
From the checkin line at Luxor...

(Val wins for coolest thing to be doing.)

An August Night

For a slideshow with larger images go here.

More checking out of the camera, low light with no flash, trying out wide screen, sepia and B&W. ...

West Seattle @ Nite

For a slideshow with larger images go here.

We walked up to the junction last night for dinner at our new favorite Mexican place, The Matador. I took my nifty new little Canon SD 1100 with me to test out the no flash/low light capabilities of the camera.

I've pretty much decided that the 8 mp camera takes pictures in normal conditions as well as my behemoth Canon 20d, and have stopped carrying the monster around. It doesn't, however, take low light photos anywhere near as well as my 1.4 50 mm lens, but the light show is fun anyways ...

Pie in the Sky, Weeks 5 & 6

For a slideshow with larger images go here.

See earlier slideshows of weeks 3 & 4 and weeks 1 & 2.

The Dreaded Error 99

Imagine my dismay, when I pushed the shutter on my relatively new, relatively expensive Canon D20 the other day, only to have it refuse to take a picture and flash at me instead "Error 99."

For days, this is all the camera has done, Error 99, Error 99. It has completely refused to take photos.

I went online to research the error, only to find that it apparently plagues this very tony line of Canon cameras. The ins and outs of Error 99 are posted on all the top discussion boards, discussions going back for years.

Unfortunately, the fix usually comes down to "send the camera in for repairs." How annoying. This was supposed to be a "rugged" camera, and it turns out lots of people have it for just months before it starts Error 99ing them.

Some of the posts on Error 99 said that the problem was a broken shutter mechanism, and I had gotten to the point of researching how to replace that, which looked pretty intense.


After trying all the recommended fixes and failing to fix it, I finally broke down yesterday afternoon and bought a portable camera, the new Canon SD1100IS.
Wouldn't you know it. I tried the recommended fixes one last time last night, and they worked.

Whew.

For anyone researching the error 99 problem, I repeated these recommended steps three times before it worked: I removed and completely recharged the battery, removed the data card and removed the lens. Then insert JUST the battery, try to take a picture. If that works (it didn't for me) try inserting the CF card. If it doesn't work at this point, it's probably the card. Then put the lens back on. If it doesn't work at this point, it could be dirty contact points.

The time it finally worked I was holding the camera upside down and slowing down the shutter to try and see if there was something obvioulsy wrong with the shutter mechanism. That's when it started working. WHY it worked is a complete mystery.

Why Canon hasn't issued some kind of recall on something that seems so common in their cameras is an even bigger mystery. Doesn't seem like Canon DSLR buyers should have to expect to shell out $200 on a repair just two years after buying such a pricey item. Or is it just me?

Pie Tour, Weeks 1 & 2

For a slideshow with larger images go here.

Pie in the Sky, Parts I and II

Several mentions here recently about the big Pie in the Sky II road trip, and since the Excellent Element hits the highway a week from today I figure it's time to tell how the voyage got that name, and when and where we're going.

It all started seven years ago, actually, when Miriam rescued me from unemployment and potential bankruptcy by offering me a job at the Los Angeles Times. That story here. I was scheduled to start work in mid-October that year, 2001, so Michelle and I decided to leave a month early and take the long route from Seattle to LA ... via Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington, Louisville, Denver, the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.

We both always had wanted to take a cross-country road trip and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. When I called Mom to tell her about the plan, though, she thought it sounded over-ambitious.

"That sounds a little pie-in-the-sky to me, Mark," she said.

Well that cracked me up, so we immediately dubbed our trip the Pie in the Sky Tour, and made concert-style t-shirts, complete with projected tour stops on the back, to commemorate the adventure. I still wear mine.










Amazingly, the day of our scheduled departure -- with the moving van showing up early that morning -- was Sept. 11. Yes, that Sept. 11: 9/11. The moving dudes knocked on our door at about 7:30 and asked if we were watching TV. No, we said, and we turned it on to see the footage of planes flying into the World Trade Center. And then the moving guys unplugged our TV to load it onto the truck and Michelle and I climbed into my old Honda Civic wagon and we started driving east.

Weird. No planes in the sky and by the time we got past Spokane, a couple hundred miles east of Seattle, no solid radio signal either. We went for hours at a time without any news about what was going on.

And yet, we managed to have a great trip. We camped in Yellowstone, played cards in Deadwood, ate dinner with a bunch of flag-waving patriots in a small red-state diner someplace and then, later that same day, cruised into the liberal college town of Mankato, Minn., to find a peacenik coffee shop still open at midnight. Trippy.

Our plan had been to see ballgames in some classic parks like Wrigley Field, but the terrorist attacks suspended the baseball season. Some guy in a poker game in Shakopee, Minn., was raving about the beauty of the northern shores of the Great Lakes around that time of year, so we decided to blow off Chicago and head north instead, through Duluth and into Canada. That leg of the trip truly was as beautiful as advertised, but strange too. That's where we ran into Canadians, including the proprietor of a B&B where we stayed, who told us Americans had the attacks coming and almost seemed to hold us responsible.

Eventually we made our way through Niagara Falls and Boston and into New York, where we visited the less-than-two-week-old Ground Zero -- eerie, upsetting and unforgettable -- before moving onto happier destinations.

Some of the coolest parts of Pie in the Sky I were hooking up with friends and family, including M&M regulars Ronelle and her crew in New Jersey and Janice (below) and hers in Louisville, as well as Michelle's sister Renee and her family in Colorado. We also loved the Grand Canyon and the area around Moab, Utah (top picture). All those stops will be part of Pie in the Sky II as well.

Although we had tour dates on our t-shirts, we didn't really have a set agenda for that first trip, and that was a lot of its charm. The Canada detour was just one example of our spontaneity. We had a big Rand McNally atlas with us, and we traced our path in pen as we went -- it still hangs on our wall.

For this trip, with three times as much time on the road, our plans are even less set -- really, really, pie-in-the-sky, Mom -- except for the first two weeks, which are planned. We're leaving next Saturday, heading for Mom's place in Eugene; then to San Francisco, where Michelle has a speaking gig at the San Francisco Chronicle; to Santa Barbara, where she booked us an awesome camping spot on the beach; to Los Angeles, where she's speaking at a Cal State Fullerton writer's conference; to Las Vegas for a night; and then to New Orleans for JazzFest.

After that, wide open. We know we want to see some friends and hit some card rooms. We both kind of want to see the Florida Keys and Maine, where we've never been, and we hope to stay off the interstates and travel the smaller highways and back roads. The beauty of a long break. We'll camp and sleep in the tricked-out car when we can, grab a motel room if we absolutely need a shower.

Overly ambitious? Pie in the sky? Maybe, but something tells me we'll pull it off. With stories to tell.

Hot naked chicks ...

... inside and out.


Not the most politically correct headline* for a post about Rosanne Olson's awesome new book, "This Is Who I Am," and probably not in fully keeping with the spirit of the enterprise either. But with the help of "... inside and out" maybe it's not so far off.

The actual subtitle of the book is "Our beauty in all shapes and sizes," and the point, as the title suggests, is that women (and the rest of us) can and should appreciate their beauty even if they're not glammed-up Hollywood cover girls. To prove the point, Rosanne interviewed women of all ages and body shapes and also photographed them nude.

The feelings the women share about their bodies, combined with the images, are enlightening and moving -- and, as John Marshall notes in a Seattle P-I piece on the book yesterday, they don't always seem to go together. One roundish woman is actually a triathlete; one attractive young woman is pickily dissatisfied with "flaws" that many people wouldn't notice; a 95-year-old woman seems at peace with who she is and how she looks.

"This Is Who I Am" caught my eye because Rosanne has been a friend since we worked together at the Eugene Register-Guard 25 years ago. She was a terrific newspaper photographer and it doesn't surprise me at all that she's having such success now as a commercial photographer and artist in Seattle.

It's been a long time since we've seen each other -- the last time might have been when Rosanne photographed Greta for the cover of her first CD in 1991 -- and it's been nice catching up with her via email over the past couple of days.

You can see more images and interview excerpts from "This Is Who I Am" at the official site, and also in a P-I photo gallery. Rosanne's appearing on "Good Morning America" on Sunday and has book signings in Portland and Eugene next weekend. I wish her all the best. She deserves it. She too is beautiful inside and out.

(Top photo copyright Rosanne Olson, used by permission)

* But good for SEO

Jazz Fest 2008

One of our big early stops on the Pie in the Sky Tour of America (II) will be to attend the second weekend of the Jazz Fest in New Orleans. Here's a slide show of our last trip to New Orleans and to the Jazz Fest:



For a slideshow with larger images go here.

In case you're wondering just how jealous you should be of our Jazz Fest pitstop, here's the lineup:

Friday, May 2

Art Neville, Stevie Wonder, John Prine, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Richard Thompson, John Butler Trio, John Hammond, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Ave., Marva Wright & the BMWs, Terence Blanchard & the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Papa Grows Funk, Sunpie’s Tribute to Clifton Chenier, Zigaboo Modeliste, The Jackson Southernaires, The Lee Boys, Bonerama, The Bad Plus, John Boutté, Soul Rebels, Ingrid Lucia, Coco Robicheaux & Spiritland, Theryl “Houseman” DeClouet, Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, Bluerunners, Wanda Rouzan, Driskill Mountain Boys, Ann Savoy’s Sleepless Knights, New Orleans Jazz Vipers feat. Sophie Lee, Stoney B & Grampa Elliot, Gina Forsyth & the Malvinas, Clive Wilson & the New Orleans Serenaders feat. Butch Thompson, New Wave Brass Band, Tuba Woodshed feat. Matt Perrine and Kirk Joseph, Belton Richard & the Musical Aces, Eve’s Lucky Planet, Larry Garner with Henry Gray, Ritmo Caribeño, New Orleans Jazz Ramblers, Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble, Betty Winn & One A-Chord, Lyle Henderson & Emmanuel, Kid Simmons’ Local International Allstars, Pinettes Brass Band, D.L. Menard & the Louisiana Aces, Legacy – the students of Alvin Batiste, Greater Antioch Gospel Choir, New Orleans Mardi Gras Rhythm Indian Section, Ebenezer BC Radio Choir, Loyola University Jazz Ensemble, Casa Samba, The Smooth Family, Eulenspeigel Puppets of Iowa, Original Big Seven and Original Four SAPCs, McMain High School Gospel Choir, Fi Yi Yi & the Mandingo Warriors, New Orleans School of Circus Arts and ISL, Gospel Inspirations of Boutte, Rosedean Choir of South Africa, Scene Boosters and Old N Nu Fellas SAPCs…


Saturday, May

Marcia Ball, Jimmy Buffett, Diana Krall, Steel Pulse, The Roots, Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Bishop Paul S. Morton Sr. & the Greater St. Stephens Mass Choir, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Henry Butler, Aaron Neville’s Gospel Soul, John Mooney & Bluesiana, the subdudes, New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra, Ruthie Foster, Irvin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Savoy Center of Eunice Saturday Cajun Jam, Charmaine Neville, The Dixie Cups, Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-Chas, James Andrews, Dr. Michael White & the Original Liberty Jazz Band feat. Thais Clark, Lillian Boutté, Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie, Stephanie Jordan, War Chief Juan & Young Fire, Pine Leaf Boys, Bionik Brown, Treme Brass Band, New Orleans Blues Serenaders, Spencer Bohren, Don Vappie & the Creole Jazz Serenaders, Roddie Romero & the Hub City Allstars, Lil’ Buck Sinegal feat. Rudy Richard, Feufollet, Pinstripe Brass Band, Storyville Stompers Brass Band, Tribute to Max Roach feat. Herlin Riley, Jason Marsalis, and Shannon Powell, Tondrae, Chappy, Danza feat. Evan Christopher and Tom McDermott, Beyond Measure, Lil Nathan & the Zydeco Big Timers, Rumba Buena, Rocks of Harmony, Guitar Lightnin’ Lee, St. Joseph the Worker Mass Choir, Big Chief Ke Ke & Comanche Hunters and White Cloud Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, Leviticus Gospel Singers, Tulane University Jazz Ensemble, Secondline Jammers, New Generation and Undefeated Divas SAPCs, Trouble Nation and Mohawk Hunters Mardi Gras Hunters, Archdiocese of New Orleans Mass Choir, Bester Singers, Donald Lewis, Young Guardians of the Flame, Stephen Foster’s Mid City Workshop Alumni Ensemble, Westbank Steppers, Valley of the Silent Men and Pigeon Town Steppers SAPCs, Golden Blade and Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indians…


Sunday, May 4

The Neville Brothers, Santana, Maze feat. Frankie Beverly, The Raconteurs, Dianne Reeves, Galactic, The Radiators, The Derek Trucks Band, Keb’ Mo’, Rebirth Brass Band, Sonny Landreth, Snooks Eaglin, John P. Kee & the New Life Community Choir, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Tribute to Mahalia Jackson feat. Irma Thomas, Marva Wright and Rachelle Richard, Vernel Bagneris: Jelly Roll & Me, Amanda Shaw & the Cute Guys, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, DJ Captain Charles, Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet feat. Bela Fleck, Kenny Neal, Sherman Washington & the Zion Harmonizers, Bob French & the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, Elysian Fieldz, The New Orleans Bingo Show!, Benny Grunch & the Bunch, Goldman Thibodeaux & the Lawtell Playboys, Jonathan Batiste, Rotary Downs, George French, Chris Ardoin & Nu Step, Guitar Slim Jr., Grupo Fantasma, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Ovi-G & the Froggies, The Revealers, Pfister Sisters, Salvador Santana Band, William Smith’s Tribute to Kid Sheik, Eddie Boh Paris aka Chops, SUBR Jazz Ensemble, Chris Clifton, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Ensemble, New Orleans Spiritualettes, Zulu Male Ensemble, The Jazz Jam, Tribute to Tuba Fats, Highsteppers Brass Band, Black Eagles, Hardhead Hunters and Apache Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, Lady Rollers and CTC Steppers SAPCs, Guyland Leday with Family & Friends Zydeco Band, Young Traditional New Orleans Brass Band, Watson Memorial Teaching Ministries, Wild Apaches, Young Magnolias and Black Feathers Mardi Gras Indians, Original Prince of Wales and the Original New Orleans Lady Buckjumpers SAPCs, Tornado Brass Band, Judy Stock, Minister Jai Reed…

If we get there early enough on Thursday, we might be able to stop in for Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, and Tower of Power.

Wackiest Self Portrait Ever

You may recall my Dogs of Greenlake slide show from a few weeks ago ...


Well, we're launching a new Pets section at Seattlepi.com, and my designer said she'd like to use one of the pix from that gallery for the business card. Here it is:



As I was checking out the gigantic file on this dog, I noticed something wild: I'm perfectly reflected in this pup's shiny little eye.



Click the photo to see the larger version. Makes for a pretty funny self portrait.

The Dogs of Greenlake

For a slideshow with larger images go here.

I can't find the battery charger

... for my camera. That bums me out on several fronts:

-- I like having the little digital camera in my back pocket in case I see something I want to photograph for the blog. It's out of juice.

-- I get anxious when I can't find stuff. Probably a half-repressed childhood fear of getting in trouble for losing things.

-- Connectedly, since I usually know where everything is, if I can't find something that's a pretty good indication that this place is a mess. It means there's stuff to put away, things to clean.

And so, I guess I'll do whatever I do when there's housework to be done: go play cards.

I'll find the charger later.

In the sunshine

We've been back from Europe for a little more than a week now and still haven't told the story of what was probably our vacation's most memorable day -- and for me, weirdly, one of my favorites.

Let me say first that Michelle and I never fight, about anything. In the eight years-plus that we've been together I can remember maybe two or three minor dust-ups. So seldom and for such low stakes do we tussle that the stupid fight we had on the day we visited the Eiffel Tower -- two weeks ago today, I believe -- counts among our biggies.

The day began promisingly enough. We took the Metro to the Eiffel's nearest stop, about half a mile away, then stopped and took a couple pictures and strolled the pleasant stroll along the Seine to the monument. It was a cold but beautiful day. So far so good.



Despite being the off-season for tourists, there were a lot of people lined up under the base of the tower, where there were two options being offered: You could take an elevator up to one of the three viewing platforms, at prices ranging from about 6 to 11 euros, or you could pay 4 euros to walk up what looked to be about a billion steps to the first, lowest, platform.

Oddly, that sounded fun to me. Maybe I was remembering how much I enjoyed, windedly, climbing the steps of Giotto's Bell Tower in Florence on my first trip there nearly 20 years ago. Michelle had no interest in the Eiffel stairs; maybe she'd done it before, I can't remember. But that was OK; this wasn't the fight part. As we often do, we agreed to go our separate ways and hook back up afterward.

"I'll meet you over there in the sunshine," I said, pointing to some benches in what would be the foreground of the top picture above. We went to stand in our lines.

At one point during the longish wait a rope descended from somewhere above, and several men took turns rappelling down to the tourist staging area and then climbing back up the rope. This was to discourage whining about the stairs, I suppose. Amazing.


I finally got to the front of the line, paid my 4 euros and began my ascent.


I liked walking. You could appreciate the tower's height, one step at a time, and also the marvel of the engineering. On some of the landings there were posters with fun facts about the Eiffel Tower, when it was built, how many steps to the top (1,600 and something), stuff like that. One poster told the story of a Paris newspaper that, a couple years after the tower opened, sponsored a race to the top. Somebody won in like seven minutes, I think, some ridiculous time.

It didn't go so fast for me. Classic eyes-stomach disconnect. For the entire trip we did a lot of walking and I held up pretty well, but I did get tired and had to stop for frequent rests. On the Eiffel stairclimb I trudged up with little painted signs marking my progress -- 90 steps, now 160, now 200, until finally at 300 and something I made it. Whew.

I'll admit, I was tired. But it was beautiful and I enjoyed sitting on a bench looking at the view. I walked around the perimeter of the platform, shooting a couple of pics, including this, my favorite:

I went into the gift shop and bought a couple of trinkets, then sat down with my bottle of water and wrote a couple of postcards. I wasn't dawdling, but I wasn't in a giant rush either. Eventually I caught my breath, felt a little spring back in my legs and began the long walk back down.

At the base of the tower I looked for Michelle in the sunshine -- no luck -- used the restroom, took a quick lap around the benched area of the park where she might be -- still no luck -- then sat down on a bench closest to the Tower.

I'd barely opened my paperback when Michelle stormed up. "Where have you been," she said, no hint of fun in her voice. I began to stammer something about what I'd been up to, but she said I'd kept her waiting for 45 minutes in the cold and hadn't been where I was supposed to be in the sunshine.

She turned around and walked away and I shlumped after her.

Even now, I suspect, she'll read this and get mad all over again. Somehow the fact that she was in an elevator and I was on the stairs wasn't figuring into her calculations. In fairness, it was cold, and "over there in the sunshine" amounted to a fairly vague meeting place. I was probably wrong in a half dozen other ways I can't even conceive. No matter. We somehow had managed to erect a fun-blocking barrier of monumental engineering, and it remained in place, all 7,300 tons of puddled iron of it, for the rest of the day, with a long shadow into the next.

In silence we schlepped to a bus stop, boarded the first one that stopped, then got out at Luxembourg Gardens, near our hotel -- she must have known where we were going -- and ate what was otherwise one of my favorite Paris meals at the Brasserie de Luxembourg.

As fights go it wasn't exactly Ali-Foreman, and in the end it couldn't really spoil what was a touristy highlight of the trip.

We've tried, with typical M&M style, to laugh ourselves out of it, but I think we both know the humor's only about half-working.

At the Amsterdam airport, waiting for our connection between Rome and San Francisco, Michelle got up to go use the restroom.

"I'll meet you over there," I said, "in the sunshine."

"Heh."