people of zee world... relax!

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I started my spring break with a weekend trip to Austin TX. I had an awesome time soaking in the Texas sun, and catching up on some reading during my flights that has been of late, pushed to the side for the more academic flavor. I also had a chance to try out my iphone app, the HIPSTAMATIC. I, being the sucker for any type of camera especially the HOLGA-esque, LOVE this application that brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras. The hipstamatic lets you switch between lens, film, and even flashes to get that perfect instant image.

To see more images visit my flickr site.
Post title comes from, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, the Tom Robbins book that I am currently reading… it seemed appropriate.
ps. its a good one!

found

I am enjoying my first spring break in many, many years. I spent the first weekend in Austin TX celebrating my sisters bachelorette weekend with 15 other beautiful women, and we had a blast! I will post some images from the extravaganza as soon as I get them downloaded, but I thought I would share this in the meantime. Yesterday, Kyle picked me up from the airport and took me to a wonderful seafood dinner in Virginia Beach ... Yes, once in a blue moon, or when at the ocean, I eat seafood, and love it. He gave me this old picture that he found while cleaning up an old cash register at the antique store where he works. He knew I would love it, and I do. What a great image.

click on the image to see it larger

back... finally

Over the last 4 weeks, I have been home 5 days. All the travelin' seeing family and touring was great but I am happy to be home again... showering in my shower, sleeping in my bed... ahhhh the life.

Just saw this on RVA the other day, we are the dang soundtrack! too cool! This just happens to be from the show where Jana was in town too!

Last Friday - December from RVA TV on Vimeo.

thanksgiving in GA

I have been crazy busy trying to finish up the end of the semester. I can't believe I almost have one fourth of my MFA completed... wow, how time flies. My final review is this upcoming Thursday, which I know will be here in no time, this week is gonna be intense to say the least! My mom, dad, and sister came to the RVA to visit me this weekend, and it was awesome to see them! Now, it's back to work!
Kyle, Cotton and I traveled to Georgia for Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with K's family. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Kyles grandfathers house on the main street of the small town of Dallas Georgia where K grew up. I am totally in love with this turn-of-the-century home where Bub (Kyle's grandfather) and Mick (K's uncle) live. Here are a couple of shots from the inside, and a small view of Mick's collection. I guess you could say he's a bit of a movie buff, and an avid collector.

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.

yesterday... we went to the beach

bittersweet

Exactly a week from today we will be pulling out of our driveway, all worldly-things packed carefully into a U-haul, starting the next part of our journey. For so long it seemed so far away, now.. it's right around the corner. Although I am usually the first to bitch about West Texas... I'll miss it.

I'll miss the sky, and the cool summer nights, and the way you can see a storm coming from miles away.

I'll miss the awesome mexican food and julio's salsa, and even driving out to the "strip".

I'll miss the closeness to the desert and canyons, and New Mexico in general.

I'll miss our friends...

...but probably most of all I will miss my brother and sister, and living within miles from both of them.

thank you baby Jesus... for fried banannas

This post is purely dedicated to THIS plate of food.

The wonderfulness above is fried egg on a bed of black beans with chipotle sauce, mexican potatoes and rice... and if that was not enough... yes, those are fried bananas on the top. Heavens help me. Wrap that all up in a fresh tortilla, and I call it "divine" (and yes that is a margarita and a mimosa in front of my plate). I came to love fried bananas while living in Athens Ga. at one of the many Cuban inspired dining establishments. Two thing that I learned to love while living in the south: Collards and Fried Plantains. Now, I know that Fried Plantains are not exactly what you call "southern cusine" BUT there was a much stronger Cuban influence there than out here in West Texas, where I had never had such things.

The plate above is also what I also refered to this past weekend as "Saturday Brunch," and it was followed by an entire day of THIS:

Since stealing my boy K away from his native Georgia 2 years ago, one of the things he misses most is water. This sweet swimmin' hole in Wimberly TX, provided a temporary fix, and a nice break from the waterless environment we call home (but not for long!)

... and to top all that, we spent the weekend with THESE most wonderful people down in, what K and I refer to as, our favorite place in Texas... Austin. Tim, Angela, and I go "way back" so I was super excited when I found out (via ichat) that these two were engaged! We had to make a lighting trip down to our favorite place to visit some of our favorite people so I could shoot their engagement pics before we are very far away. cheers.

WE CAMP!

Last weekend we went camping at Palo Duro Canyon with our friends Nate D & April, and their friends Stephen & Sara. woohoo, we love camping

Kyle made dinner, and then we went to see TEXAS, I thought this was very important for K.

The last time I saw TEXAS has to be like 15 years ago BUT I remember seeing this map then, and I thought it was SO cool. You can see K and Nate in the background, thinking not so cool.
TEXAS
We told ghost stories....ahhh tiny hands
we walked with flashlights
we used creepy, but infested bathrooms. (Q: is it really camping if there are restrooms?)

2 tents... me and K in the little one
We saw lots of tarantulas & a one horny toad... 2 animals K has only seen in the zoo!

we hike.

good times.

Weekend camping

woah... this weekend we went camping with some good friends. Here is a little hint to where we went and with whom! more pics to come

... also I uploaded a good chunk of the images from the Diamond Center tour to Flickr, check 'em out here!

The Diamond Center's 5th and final Tour Blog....

written by yours truly and Mr. K is up over at The Llano Idea... go check it out HERE Again, I am sorry that I am too lazy to post it here too.

Ok, so over the tour, between Kelly and I, we shot over 20 GB of images... which is pretty close to a billion images... I think. I documented many of the bathrooms at the places we visited, especially the bars we played. There is just something that I find incredibly interesting about them, it just tells a lot about the place... what do you think?

New Orleans, Hi-Ho Lounge (Private bathroom for performers.... nice)

home again...

After 17 days, 15 shows, 19 states crossed, 5400 miles driven and countless pizza slices consumed we are finally home! The tour was a success and we had a BLAST. K and I were so fortunate to be traveling and playing with such an awesome group of people who all play in numerous other projects but took  2 weeks to join us in the Diamond Center. Thank you so so so so so very much to Daniel Markham of One Wolf, Alan Brown of My Milliner and founder of 90% death sex, and Sound man/drummer extraordinaire, Tim Falen of Ghost Owl, and of course the lovely Kelly Garcia who was in charge of slingin' the merchandise, and helping me keep up the female presence... we couldn't have made it without each and every one of you. Our 3rd blog post is up over at The Lllano Idea, check it out! Sorry I am too lazy to do one here too! 

This series of images was taken by my man K outside of "Little Italy" in Athens ( which is one of our FAVORITE places) with Tim, Daniel, and two of my very best friends Kelli P and Ryan. It was such a treasure to have some time with their sweet baby hearts.

Tour blog

Alrighty, I have been horrible about posting my images and stories from the road, partially due to lack of internet time, but mostly because we are having too much of a good time at all times ok, that was a tad redundant). I just posted a blog over at the llano idea and Kyle started it out with two before that so, go here and check it out!

lubbock to new orleans

I always attempt to be more diligent with posting when on the road... and I always fail. So here we are almost a week in and this is my first post.... please forgive. 

I have something to make up for it, I have been taking a TON of images so there will be MUCH posting, it might just be a couple days delayed. Here goes Austin to New Orleans (basically day 1 and 2)

We played our first show at the Creekside Lounge in Austin TX. It was a great show and we had LOTS of support from our local friends.  The headline band, Smoke and Feathers, had a "projectionist" which was AWESOME and something that I have seen footage of but never seen in person. Basically it was an analog video/image show straight out of the late 60s.... righteous. Here is Aaron, the projectionist on the left, the outside of the bar on right.

the projectionist

more projectionist and Creekside Live from the outside. We played with 2 other great bands, Alex Dupree and the Trap Door Band, and American Sharks.

I just have to mention here that I love, LOVE shooting in low light situations, especially with my most righteous camera. It captures images and color in such an amazing way.
This, on the left, is what it feels like in the end of the night when the van must be packed. More Creekside on the right.
On Saturday morning we woke up and left Austin by 9am... yea thats right we got out of town by 9am which is a feat to say the least, and headed to New Orleans to make a radio show by 4. Here Jana and Kyle are in the WTUL (Tulane) studio. 
Then... after the radio show in New Orleans, we headed to Frankie & Johnny's, a sweet restaurant a local pointed us to. This is the civilized side of the table... (Alan, Kelly & Jana)
... and the other side. (me, Kyle, Tim & Daniel)
the food was greasy and delicious. On the left here is Kyle's alligator soup, which the waitress referred to as "cup-A-gatar" (like cup-of-gator)... and on the right, Tim, Daniel and Alan grubbin'. (this will be a constant theme, I enjoy taking images of people as they are eating)
On the way from the eatery to the club we were playing we were directed thru a New Orleas neighborhood, and it was incredibly sobering. It has been almost 3 years since Katrina and still the evidence of her wrath is ever-present. 

Here are Tim and Daniel outside of the Hi-Ho Lounge as the sun was setting.

We played with 2 of the MOST amazing bands in New Orleans. One Man Machine opened the show, and I was emotionally moved by their performance... I STRONGLY suggest checking them out. After we played a local band called Silent Cinema played, and even though I have no images of them... they were AMAZING also. I MUST see both of these bands again.

Here is Bernard from One Man Machine, I, again, was moved to tears from his performance.
and the guys backstage before the the show from left to right... Alan, Tim, Daniel, Kyle.
...and Jana. I love, LOVE getting her making funny faces.
this is me. Jana took this one.
This is Kyle talking to our new friend Robin, who has to be one of the sweetest most genuine people that I have EVER met. He played with Bernard and One Man Machine, and he put us up for the night.
backstage at the Hi Ho Lounge.
Sunday was our last day with Jana. She had to return back home to work and away from us. We missed her INSTANTLY. Here she is on the right outside of Robin's house on Sunday morning, before we took her to the jet plane. Jana... next time you MUST be here with us for the whole time, it's not the same without you.