the photography:
for a few years in the late 90′s and early 00′s, besides shooting b/w and color film for school, i spent much of my time toting around a polaroid instant film camera that i bought for $19.95 at an upstate new york CVS. the height of my polaroid fetish can be pinpointed some time around 2002 when the house that lived in was perfectly suited for a polaroid wall. one such wall was created in the kitchen. every photo i (we, as guests often snagged the camera) took went up on that wall and some word or phrase was written on the photo in Sharpie about what was happening, who was there, wtf, etc… in hindsight, we should never have written on those polaroids. said wall can be seen in some of these images. someday i’ll scan those in as well… but for now, here are the clean ones. at least the first part of them.

as teddy marches forward into life, i am struck by how his new experiences drum up my old ones. nostalgia creeps up in many forms and sometimes it’s fun to go back and see where you’ve been so that you can make some choices in where you will be going.

each of these images is a documented memory linked to something in my life. and looking through them makes me happy to know that teddy will be given the opportunity to make his own set of memories. i am floored and humbled by that idea.

i just hope that when teddy is old enough to document his life, he doesn’t waste as much money as i did on cigarettes and polaroid film… holy crap. what i would buy today…EDIT: ok ok ok… the photos were well worth the cash. i should have stopped smoking 5 years before i did. Teddy, if you’re reading this, spend money on film and beer, not on cigarettes and 3 card monte.

the images above are full of people i know, people i knew, people who are not alive anymore, old girlfriends, old co-workers, old friends, random strangers, binge drinking, music playing, too many self portraits, too much shaky picture taking, poor focus, scratches, road trips, parties, random people who my wife was friends with before i knew my wife, musicians, a couple of airplanes, a cat, a dog, halloween (in general), thanksgiving, a couple of kegs, poker night, roommates, roommates friends, neighbors, fire, one boob grab, an infamous red wall, friends ex-girlfriends, raleigh north carolina, boston massachusetts, saratoga springs new york, bartenders, bar owners, bad haircuts, bad outfits, and three nipples of the male variety.

the music:
ok ok ok… i know… Aloha is the same band i talked about last post… but they are that good. for real. this record is unstoppable.

this is the last song on the record. the chorus is:

waiting for the get-away car that never came.

the photography:
it’s been a number of weeks since my last post and i’ve got a pretty good reason for that. for two weeks, i took a paternity leave. on march 22nd, at 4:49 pm, my wife gave birth to a baby boy who we named Theodore. wow. and what i really mean is “holy shit woooow… (smiling)”.

my wife has been amazing since the beginning of this whole process as she carried almost all (99%) of the physical burden of bringing a child into the world. her mental and physical strength through the entire 9 months deepened my feelings for her and our relationship with each other. she’s a rock and i am in awe. and that’s not some “lovey dovey date movie” affections, i truly mean it, she’s amazing. sigh…

and this little dude who makes noises and squirms when you hold him, and who can’t quite focus his eyes, who can’t quite lift his head, but who can poop, eat, and sleep at the drop of a hat; this little dude is such a peanut, he’s such a gift, and he’s such a handsome devil. i can’t wait to watch him go through life’s trials and tribulations and to help him when he needs a hand or to give him tough love when he needs to learn to do it himself. it’s going to be an amazing journey from here on out. i just hope the dog forgives him for stealing his thunder…

my favorite image from this set is the photograph that captures the moment when the nurse hands Theodore to Catherine so she could see and hold him for the first time. this is the same face that Cath made when she saw me standing at the end of the isle next to the minister at the wedding. it was a simply amazing moment among many simply amazing moments this week. other notables in this set include the family photo, Teddy’s first toweling off after Teddy’s first bath, and of course, who can forget, the holding of Grandma’s first grandchild.

looking back at the last 2 weeks, i can barely even wrap my head around it all. after 13 hours of contractions and labor, 2 days of sitting in the hospital without seeing the sky, and after a week with my parents at my house, and after almost a full week by ourselves, i’m still beside myself with happiness, joy, and utter bewildering curiosity as to who this little man is.

he is, of course, Teddy, son of Ian and Catherine. and i couldn’t be any prouder of him.

you’ll have to excuse the lack of camera information on the photos, i pulled them from my Flickr account and the meta data was lost in the transaction. they were all taken with my 5D and with the exception of the first photo which was taken with my EF 24-105mm f/4.0L USM, they were snapped with the trusty EF 28mm f1.8.

oh, and how nice is Prentice Women’s Hospital? my lord…

the music:
aloha is one of those bands that sounds so familiar that you know you’ve heard it before but you just can’t place the signers voice, the instrumentation, and the songwriting. BUT YOU SWEAR you’ve heard it before.

with their new record, Aloha takes their brand of indie pop (think 1 part Rogue Wave, 1 part Trans Am, and 1 part Minus the Bear and mix with some emo underpinnings) to new heights. poppy and beautiful and full of melodies, sing alongs, keyboards, harmonies, and dripping with 16 beat drums and guitars… i flipping love it. it’s been a long time since indie rock came out from the underground and it’s been even longer since pop indie bands haven’t forced themselves to have an angle (angelic indie pop, twee, twee-gaze-pop, indie folk pop, etc) to delineate that this band is not a pop band but an indie pop band. Aloha is above all that. did i mention that i love it so? glistening grooves and sugary strolls in the park, take me away…

you’ve been down so long
can’t let the light in…
you’ve been down so long
can’t let the light in…
you’ve been down so long
come let the light in…

indeed good sirs, indeed.

the photography:
i spend about 1/3 of my professional life in/around/driving cars. it’s the life i’ve picked by accepting a job as a staff photographer for an online automotive editorial team. what all this boils down to is the fact that i spend a lot of time driving. a lot.

in my intro to photography art class in college, one of the first assignments we were given was to take photos from a moving vehicle. nothing more, nothing less. take photos from a moving vehicle. wow… my teacher had a lot of faith in our driving abilities especially since i went to a college in the middle of upstate new york that catered to many a youth from the isle of manhattan, many of which had never driven a car until they were 19. scary stuff. add in the extra curricular activities commonly found at college and i can’t believe that no one got hurt.

photos are exactly that… from a moving car. but alas, i was not driving. which was great. i just aimed the camera any which way i could though and i did not pay attention to what i was capturing, i was most interested in capturing it. when processing these, i didn’t crop or rotate the images as i felt that holding the camera away from my eye and aiming it all willy-nilly was much more productive than trying to slow down and spend the time clicking at what my eye would want to capture. i was in the was in the zone of photographing what zooms by before it has a chance to be gone. angles are skewed, things are out of focus, and i like it.

i’m also a sucker for an 1980′s MG raodster…

photos are with the 5DMKII and the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM aimed out the window with the auto-focus turned to on.

the music:
with the passing of two revered song writers in the last couple of weeks (the profound and misunderstood Mark Linkous and the indie-hero Alex Chilton) i have found myself going back to my favorite records over and over. i feel like i have to sop them up before they too will be gone. it’s like hoarding your favorite toy in the sandbox because, subconsciously, you have the insight to know that you will never play with that toy again in another year. this also could be chalked up to my severe ‘american-consumerism’ gut reaction of MUST HAVE NOW… sigh.

this is again (i think i’ve talked about Bob Nanna and Braid a lot via this blog, sorry…) just a fantastic song. i’m constantly on the lookout for post punk reunions but as my new baby gets ever closer to a reality, my show going days might just be numbered. at least for a little while. until then… i will listen to my favorite records at a galloping pace. press play, ingest record, burp, repeat.

the photography:
when i say st. patrick’s day, what’s the first food that comes to your head? 95% of americans will answer corned beef and cabbage. and when i say corned beef, 95% of chicagoans will immediately start salivating and thinking of Manny’s deli.

one of the oldest deli’s in the midwest, Manny’s Deli is a staple for most of the chicago food community. family owned and operated since just after World War II, Manny’s has been a foodie must-have for anyone looking for the best corned beef and pastrami sandwiches West of the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel (and i, among others, would argue that they are just as good if not better than the sandwiches East of those landmarks).

but i’m not here to bore you with historical facts and mouthwatering tidbits. this place is just plain famous for being itself. everyone from US President Barrack Obama, to Chicago Mayor Daley make a point of stopping by and eating at Manny’s when they are in the neighborhood. you just can’t walk by and smell the food without heading in the door. when i was asked to take some products shots of their mouthwatering food, how could i pass up the chance?

so, in honor of st. patrick, and in honor of chicago’s most legendary eatery, i bring to you, deli sandwich photography pornography.

before you ask any questions, the sandwich in the fourth photo is in fact, a breakfast rueben. you read that correctly… a breakfast rueben. oh dear lord it’s as good as it sounds. photos are with the 5DMKII and the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM. everything was shot on location with natural light.

the music:
Chin Up Chin Up were one of those bands that succeeded in the face of adversity. even with something as profound and hard hitting as the death of their founding bass player overshadowing the recording of their first record, this band trudged on and made a career out of jangling some indie-rock guitars together and producing some great tunes. i had a chance to see them live a handful of times and with each performance, they crafted indie pop perfection with a groove all their own.

in 2009 and with only two full length records and re-released self titled EP as their mark on the industry, Chin Up Chin Up called it a day and broke up. their presence in the chicago independent music scene will sorely be missed. reunion show? too soon…