here comes the herd

So I promised more cows, and now I deliver. As I mentioned we stayed with a friend-of- the-bands parent's this weekend outside of Harrisonburg VA, who live on a DAIRY FARM!!! Soooooo, as soon as I woke up Sat morning I was making friends with the locals. Cows are some of my favorite animals, (their unethical treatment is one reason that I choose not to eat them) I must say they somehow remind me of Cotton, and they are so dang curious! The babies were timid of me when I first introduced myself, but as soon as one trusted me, they were all wondering what I was up to, and ready to greet me. It seemed to follow suit for the big ones as well.

More baby cows to come!

This past weekend the band and I were in Harrisonburg VA to play at MACRocK!! and on Friday night after the festival we stayed at a dairy farm! Cows are some of my favorite animals, so I had a blast photographing the curious creatures on Sat morning... more to come, I promise!

2 ft of snow...

(or at least 10+ inches) is what Richmond got last weekend. I have never, ever, lived anywhere where anything close to this happens. It was so beautiful, and fell for about 12 hours solid!

I have many images to come... but here is a preview.



This is me and Meaghan, a friend from my graduate program. Check out her blog!

although beautiful... im ready for the snow to GO.

THE FOLKS & jana, came to see me!!!!

The first weekend in December my parents and my sister came to visit us here in Richmond! It was really great to see them, and super fun to take them to all of our favorite places. On the Friday night they arrived we (the Diamond Center) actually had a show, Soooo.... our original, and most awesome drummer, my sister, Jana rejoined us for the show! Our second drummer, Tim, had just moved to the city, and our drummer, Willis, who joins us when not on tour with his band, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, was in town as well... so you know what that means... 3 DRUMMERS!!! ...not only that but we have enlisted a local bass player, meet Will Godwin, graphic designer/illustrator/photographer/bass player extraordinaire. Fun stuff!

SO... back to the fam. We had lots of fun exploring the city, despite the snowy/rainy/cold, and kept warm with lots of good food in our bellies. On Sunday, the sun came out and we took a trip to Millie's for brunch. If ever in Richmond, eat a Millie's! Here are a couple of shots from our morning extravaganza.


I love this one of Kyle and my Dad.

Me and my most awesome sister, Jana. (Jana on the left)
Mom & Dad, a-waiting a table.
Jukebox at each table! (check it out: Thao and the Get Down Stay Down on the JUKE)... and yummy.

antiques in the VA

this place was AWESOME... I guess it's just obvious that there is a greater number of really old things here, than in others.

pow-wow

Last weekend K and I went to a pow-wow. What a cool thing, I can't believe that I have never searched this out before. I think we stood there for 4 hours with our mouths wide open. The costumes, and the dancing and the singing, and the drums OH the drums. I still have the beat in my head, and it's been a week. Here is a little video I made of some of the dancing and with a recording Kyle caught on my iphone.





I was a little camera shy... but I did manage to get a couple good ones.



Ok, see the little boy on the left side? This image was taken during the singing/drum competition, and this little guy was competing along side these men. He watched the caller like a hawk to be sure he was singing the right thing, I have never seen anyone put as much heart and soul into singing. When they finished the song he did a little fist bump with all the men.

wait. wait.

picasso with light

I ran across this today, and felt inspired... and inspired to share:

In 1949, LIFE photographer Gjon Mili visited Picasso in Vallauris, France. He showed Pablo some photographs of ice skaters with tiny lights affixed to their skates jumping in the dark. Picasso was immediately inspired, these photos were the result. You can see more of these in this LIFE gallery. Picasso’s light drawings—were made with a small flashlight in a dark room; the images vanished almost as soon as they were created.

shenandoah

A couple weeks ago K and I took a Sunday drive up to the Shenandoah National Park and a trip down Skyline Drive which runs the distance of the park. It was beautiful. Before entering the north gates we stopped at a roadside stand and picked up some local apples and honey... nothing better.

I have never...

experienced anything quite like this...

photos taken with this awesome app, outside my sudio and our apt., here in richmond va.

a warm spell

We have had a little warm spell here in Richmond the last couple of days, a little high 70s break from the cold and rainy 50s, and it's beautiful, AND reminded me that I wanted to post some images from our trip to VA beach from a couple weeks ago. We happened on the TITAN festival, which I guess is the communities last effort to attract for the beach season. Even though it was warm, there was a definite difference in the air and the position of the sun than when we had visited the beach in mid summer. Season changing has to be the most magical times of the year.

Here are some images from our day which included a sand sculpture competition, and a huge sea food feast... because when at the beach, eat seafood.

reading days

There were no classes Thurs. or Friday this week at VCU for a little mid-semester break called "reading days"... I love reading days. We went up to Baltimore on Thurs. evening to see some of our friends The Flying Eyes, open up for the Black Angels, and The Raveonettes, it was such a GREAT show, and fun to get out of Richmond for day. I must say that the Raveonettes show possibly was the loudest thing I have ever EVER heard. Even though we might have had some slight hearing damage, Im so glad I got to see them live.

We stayed in this great old Victorian Hotel downtown called the Biltmore. A perfect escape from your typical hotel experience. These was looking out our window at a Cathedral next door.

It was rainy, and freakin' cold so we didn't get to do much exploring BUT...
we did get to check out this awesome place. The very John Waters-esque Paper moon diner.