Flak Photo Celebrates the Pre-Digital Magic of Polaroid

Flak Photo is sponsoring a Polaroid photo contest with FILE and JPG Magazine:

Flak Photo teams up with FILE and JPG Magazine to present the Polaroid Portrait Challenge. Polaroid pictures are like magic, so we want to see your best shot of a person taken with a Polaroid camera. The days of Polaroid film may be numbered, but we plan to send it off in style. The theme will be open until June 7th and will run as a feature in JPG issue 17. Submit your photo today!

This reminded me of a great Polaroid portrait of my friend, Brenda, taken years ago when we were in college. I think she had a neighbor who did Polaroid manipulations. It's on a matte Polaroid, and still sits on my book shelf. She's smoking a cigarette, looking very literary, and much like she does now. I love those moments, when you remember a piece of art or memento (or in this case, both) that while sitting out in plain view, has gone unnoticed.

There is something endearingly nostalgic about a Polaroid contest.

Zach Selwyn & Ron Jeremy Short Films

Porno Fireplace - Parts I, II, III

My buddy Zach (and his wife, and yes, Ron Jeremy) stars in this hilarious series of shorts by Zach's brother Jesse. They used their own home for the location. Note from the set: Zach told me at one point, Ron was on his sofa, wearing nothing but a towel and scratching at himself. Now that's entertainment.

Jesse Dayton

So in one of the small world instances that me and Caro are becoming famous for (at least among a select few friends), it just so happened that our Austin friend, Jesse Dayton, was playing in Aspen on the Saturday before Memorial Day. He's been touring with Mike Ness from Social Distortion. He was a little surprised to see Caroline and me, and we probably should have given him some heads up. Also, in a stroke of luck, we showed up without tickets, and our group of five got the last five before the box office sold out. Crazy! Jesse is a blast, so definitely check out his site to see if he's coming to a venue near you. 

Aspen

Memorial Day weekend had us up in Colorado visiting friends. The view from the patio was amazing (this photo doesn't do it justice). The mountains were still snow-capped and there was a Spring chill in the air. The air was fresh and the sky blue, and the buds of the trees were just beginning to open.

Happy Mothers Day

Henry got into some mud puppy, dirt pie makin' happiness last night. We went over to Zach & Wendy's house last night to have some burgers, to share some stories over beers and simply just to relax on a cool, California Saturday evening.

The Saddest Dead Pinata in All the World.

We had a party for Caro's birthday along with our friends, Zach and Wendy, for their son's second birthday. Seeing that it was around Cinco de Mayo (the party was on the 3rd and Caro's birthday really is 5/5) we decided to throw in a pinata. The good news was, that unlike Steve Martin in Parenthood who had to resort to sawing through the unforgiving paper-mache, the young kids were able to smash open the donkey with a plastic baseball bat. One family had to leave when they're young son didn't take the paper animal annihilation very well. Drifting out of the party late at night, after one Coors Light too many, I found this sad view before me. I snapped the photo just before getting the creepy feeling that the pinata might actually come to life and attack me. So I ran, ran away from the dead pinata.

Go! Go! Raleigh

My friend Dana is again publishing an amazing blog at gogoraleigh.com. He was out of the scene for a while, but is back this year with what I think should be recognized as one of the best, most comprehensive civic blogs I've ever read. Would someone give this guy a Webby?

Everything from the highest level city development plans, to sports (he's an admitted Carolina and general ACC basketball addict) to where the next chain restaurant is opening down to local music events, if there is anything you want to know about what's happening in Raleigh, it's here. Speaking of Raleigh, and the fantastic time we spent there with Caro's friends and our families, if you want to see change happen fast, look at that place. If you think they're only building high-rise luxury towers with downtown loft living in places like Manhattan, Atlanta and Los Angeles, well then think again. With an air of objectivity, the site feeds you some insight into the impact that development is having on economy, civic pride and local activism. Growth (and the sprawl that goes with it) isn't all it's cracked up to be, and this site will give you some perspective to follow the impact of development on a mid-sized city. My aunt, who also lives in Raleigh, tells me developer greed is taking over there at the expense of sustainable and environmentally sound growth. It's in these mid-size cities where you can really see how fast change and growth can happen. Interesting stuff.

"it's a big world" Performance with Renee & Jeremy

Here is Henry (chewing on a book), in Studio City while seeing our friend Jeremy and his singing partner Renee play at a children's program at Storyopolis. Renee and Jeremy have an fantastic children's album, and you can find out more on the official site (and a really well produced one, at that) for "it's a big world."

Above the Sunset Strip

Waiting at the top of a hill above the Sunset Strip, after catching the Kansas vs. Villanova NCAA tournament game. Stopped by my buddy Greg's place to park at his apartment, and looking down the street, I was struck by both how dark it was, just a few dozen meters up the hill, and how much activity there was in a small postage stamp window of light down at the base of the hill. Greg and I tried Rainbow, but they wanted ten bucks just to come in to hang out with the heavy metal skanks, so we just opted for the pub at Red Rock instead. A fine, beer soaked evening out on the Strip.

Canvas | Eco Detour: Set the Record

canvas | Eco Detour: Set the Record is the latest feature travel article by my friend and true inspiration, Bruce Northam. This article has Bruce exploring the labyrinthine maze of favelas in Rio de Janiero, where many of the city's poorer residents live.

Village Green Preservation Society

I heard this song, The Village Green Preservation Society, on XM Radio today and it got to me. It's a 3-disc set of The Kinks' 1968 album. Has some great lyrics, and I'm thinking it would be a good name for the weekly weekend family trips that we have on our New Year's resolution list, trips that we'd like to take with our friends and their kids around Los Angeles.

This weekend, we're planning on seeing the (c)Murakami exhibit at M.O.C.A.