Hello! Finally, I gots some new photos for everyone. Well not quite new exactly - these are from middle to late last year. Not a lot of stuff taken at that time, but these are a few little trinkets to enjoy anyway. More photos to come!

You'll find 35 pretty things here.

So I’ve been working on a few ideas for posts. They’ll be coming real soon now. They are in the cooker and I’m letting out a bit of steam on them first.

But right now, I’d like to let everyone know that Maryjo and I attended the Swell Season concert in Raleigh this evening and it was amazing. One of the best shows I have seen in a long time. The music was so very beautiful, uplifting, sometimes sad, and powerful. Their voices were like angels. And the band was tight. And Glen Hansard is a funny and charming irish fellow who can belt out a tune like his life depended on it. And the sound, in the Meymandi Concert Hall, is so clear and perfect. Those who know me know that I can be cynical and sarcastic nearly 100% of the time. But I am seldom so with music. Hear me now and believe me later, it was a damn good show. And they gave the spotlight to Marketa Irglova for several songs. They let the violinist do an instrumental number from his new CD. The bass player got the spotlight and sang a song (score!). Jeez, even the tour manager came out and sang a Steve Earle cover. It was a bit like being in their living room watching them sing a few numbers, I should think.

Yeah, it was a good time. I should have been a musician…I mean a real, gigging musician. I think I would do much better now touring around a countryside than when I was in my twenties. I’m laid back enough, and can tolerate the constant presence of others, enough that I think I could truly enjoy it now. Ahh, if only there were no bills to pay.

Two other things. The first - they did a Pixies cover, just the two of them plus an acoustic guitar, and rocked it. I cannot tell you which song because I am not a huge pixies fan. But, uh, maybe it’s about freaking time I listened to every single track from every single Pixies album before I once again say I don’t care for the Pixies. Because I seem to be the only one who ever says that.

Second. Is it not the most depressing thing to come right out of a concert that has inspired and spiritually uplifited you, only to be thrown into a maelstrom of concert-goers all trying to be the first to reach their cars? And then braving intense traffic, near collisions, and rude-ass people while trying to get out of the parking lot. It’s just such a jarring transition. It always ruins the magic for me a little bit. I hate driving. That will be a subject of a future post, currently in the cooker.

Out.

Okay, I’m trying this thing again. AGAIN, I said! Let’s see if we can’t keep it up this time. My GAWD, there is so much that goes on in my life that you people need to know about. I’m sure of it…Umm yeah anyway so I’m checking out the internets a while back like I like to do, when I read that Wordpress 2.5 has just been released. And with fancy new gallery features no less. So I decide that if I can import my photos into wordpress itself using the new gallery feature, then I won’t have to keep an install of wordpress and gallery2 up to date. Nor will I have to fiddle with making themes for both of them work together every time I update them both.

And that’s exactly what I did. I installed wordpress 2.5, found me a new theme, and spent a week or so tweaking it to my liking and making it work nice with the gallery feature. Strangely, this ‘exciting new feature’ does not actually have too many options just yet and the ones it does have are not well documented. So it took a few days to get the galleries looking like I wanted them to in my new theme.

But now the work is done. Wordpress updated, theme galleryized, and photos imported from the old gallery2 database. Now all of my content is in one handy dandy place. Enjoy!

Oh, and I may even post some new content/photos soon. See above paragraph re: trying this again. Thanks to my one surviving faithful reader. I couldn’t have had the strength to go on without you…(psst, it’s me).

Maryjo and I take our first trip to the Eno Festival in Durham saturday, july 7th 2007. Jon Shain performs, sweat is in abundance, ice cream comes to the rescue, and so on…

You'll find 40 pretty things here.

Fenario has a fourth of july party 2007 style. Come relive the American dream, as our fathers and forefathers have before us. Show us your hot, sparkly birthday suit!

You'll find 67 pretty things here.

Photos from the Hillsborough Hog Day Festival Saturday, June 16th 2007. They mostly had lots and lots of Bar-B-Que sandwiches, but also rides, crafts, live music, and junk food.

You'll find 22 pretty things here.

Umm, stuff from may and june 2007. Good stuff, naturally.

You'll find 15 pretty things here.

Hello.

Oops, I accidentally spent the last three months organzing my back catalog of digital photos going back to 1999 or so, importing them into iView Media, tagging, and uploading to the website the ones I felt web worthy. In the meantime, I forgot to tell my dozens of faithful readers about all the great things going on in my life. No doubt they’ve become bored and moved on - leaving my readership in the single digits I’m sure.

I know you will hate me for it, but honestly shouldn’t you work on your own life insteading of worrying about mine? Let’s just say we have an official website for the studio now, Jon Shain’s album was released to rave reviews, Jackson and I are well into crafting a new live band for ourselves, and I’ve designed a crapload of show horse ads with more on the way. The defining word for that last bit was CRAP by the way. More on all of this later…

For now, check out ‘Pretty Things’ on the right. I have lots of great stuff to see. No, really I do. It will change your life. I swear.

Oh also, apparently in the 3+ months since I put all of this up, like seven new versions of Wordpress and Gallery have been released. Like I don’t have enough computer stuff to keep up with as it is? Sheesh.

Jackson and I take a Sunday afternoon trip to University Lake in Carrboro, May 2007. You can rent a boat for only $10! This was my first time on a lake in many years. I also needed much sunscreen.

You'll find 16 pretty things here.

I visit Mom in Cherokee, NC for Mother’s Day 2007. Exclusive photos of mom’s new RV, and lots of shots from the tallest point in the Smokey Mountains! (it’s Clingman’s Dome by the way)

You'll find 47 pretty things here.