7/365

Last night I played at Trees with Jacob Metcalf as part of the Local Edge Live concert series. It was free and it was a glorious line up. We opened the show around 8pm, followed by, Baruch the Scribe, Seryn and then finally Spooky Folk.

It was a wonderful, Denton-heavy line up (we were the only Dallasites on the bill) filled with amazing musicians. My 2/365 photo was an image of one of the rehearsals we had for this show. One of the two rehearsals I was able to attend, that is. That's the one thing about playing with really excellent instrumentalists. We didn't have a single rehearsal with everyone present, and the show went off beautifully without a hitch! Jacob Metcalf, the band's namesake, guitarist and lead vocalist, decided that for this show he'd like to do something a little different. Different = 9 string players on stage, all with direct inputs (that's "stage talk" for fancy plug-in thingys). Every sound guy's delight......or worst nightmare. I knew two of the string players already - Miss Buffi J, cellist extraordinaire, who I've known because she plays in bands such as Robert Gomez and the Polyphonic Spree, and we also play in the orchestras for musicals together 3-4 times a year. I heart her. I also knew Markus, another cellist I know through Kevin, who lives in Nashville primarily and does studio work as well as playing in the Kopecky Family Band. In addition to my already great friends, I met 6 new people/string players, including Miss Petra Kelly, fellow violinist lady who also plays with the aforementioned Spooky Folk, and she also wrote/arranged the violin parts for Jacob's songs, which were so gorgeous.

The sound guy was completely accommodating and Kevin said that the music sounded perfect from the audience and it was just a really wonderful time. It's not often that I get a chance to play with a group of strings like that alongside a band, and it was sooooo much fun! I couldn't stop smiling the whole time!

Here are a few pictures I took/gathered of last night, and I'll sum it up with my 7/365 photo.

Jacob getting his mic check on:


Blurry Buffi & Markus:


Petra & Jacob:


Orange Me & Petra:


De la audience ("borrowed" from Mark from the edge's twitpic):


De la stage ("borrowed" from Mark from the edge's twitpic):


And finally, 7/365 - "conductor"

That cute little tweet tweet was our "conductor" and Jacob cleverly painted a little tuxedo on his chest. Totes Adorbs!!

6/365

So last night, Kevin and I went with Eric & Mandy (Kevin's cousin & his wife, as well as being our friends) to see National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen at the Winspear Opera House as part of my work's Brinker International Lecture Forum. It. Was. Awesome. Not only is he an incredible photographer of all things polar, he was also quite hilarious. And Canadian! What's that aboot?!

We (our Public Relations Director at work) got him a spot on KERA's Think from 1-2 yesterday, so if you're interested in hearing his interview with Krys Boyd, "The Stories Behind the Shots," click here.

I tried to take a few photos of him on stage presenting his photos. Most of them turned out blurry and I was trying hard not to get forcibly removed by one of our friendly but dutiful ushers for taking photos, but I got a couple acceptable shots. (if you don't enlarge them....DON'T enlarge them....you're enlarging the photo, I knew it!). I tried to find the shot I ultimately ended up choosing for yesterday's picture on his website but I couldn't. His photos, despite my inability to fully capture their clarity and intrigue on my Sony Cybershot sans flash, are truly incredible. He did a book signing after the even for his new book Polar Obsession. There's a really cool video embedded in that page with a short version of a story he told us about last night. Check it out!

All that to say, here's my photo for yesterday.

"Curiosity"

5/365

Last night I hung out with my wonderful friend Elissa. We went back in time to Mesquite, Texas, land of the greater part of my upbringing, and in honor of the trek, we also ate at.........get ready for it.........Olive Garden. I knew a lot of people who worked at Olive Garden when I was in high school, and let me tell you, from what I understand the restaurant business is a scandalous business of late nights and debauchery galore!

But.....that has nothing to do with my photo for the day yesterday. I decided that picture of Olive Garden wasn't going to cut it, so my picture comes from the guest room of none other than Elissa. Her design aesthetic is something I've always coveted. She has an artistic sense like no one I know for decorating her home and I find myself just looking around a lot while I'm there and trying not to steal too many ideas.

"multi-purpose"

4/365 - "warm"

Okay! At long (4 day) last I am caught up on my photos!! I had another rehearsal at Jacob's house, but rather than take another picture there I thought I would take a picture of another place I'd be visiting tonight....our room. :)

"Warm"


We have a cornucopia of furniture in our place. From IKEA to Eurway to thrift stores, etc., we have pretty eclectic taste. I think my very favorite part of our bedroom is the quilt on the bed. It was a quilt that Kevin's Granny made for him when he was 1 year old, and in addition to being sentimental and familial, it also happens to bring all of our mish mash of colors in the bedroom together. I love our bedroom and I love it best by lamplight. Feels cozy and welcoming.

3/365 - "Alice"

Day 3 (yesterday) was a great last day before starting back to work after the holiday. Came home and took a nap after church - Sunday naps are the best - then Kevin and I headed out to the IMAX theater up at 635 and 35 to see Avatar in 3D on the IMAX screen. We got there about 30 minutes before our showtime thinking that surely it wouldn't be sold out on it's 3rd weekend out in theaters. We were wrong. So we ended up just going to the "regular" 3D screening 30 minutes later. Which was also almost completely full. CRAZY!

I read that as of yesterday, Avatar had already (in only 17 days) grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Apparently only 5 films have ever done that. I was pretty skeptical about the movie initially, and in conversation about thoughts on the movie I may have uttered the word "lame" more than once. But then when it came out I started hearing repeated rumblings about how great it was, so last night we decided to check it out. I must say....I enjoyed it quite a lot. If you haven't seen it and are interested, here are a few things you should know:

1. it is 3 hours long
2. it took 30 minutes for my eyes to adjust to the 3D
3. people will clap when the movie is over
4. you will feel a strange urge to explore outside your race/species to find love
5. that might or might not actually be true
6. it took about 10 minutes for my eyes to adjust back from 3D. I couldn't even look at my phone screen without squinting and making some sort of indecipherable noise of discontent. My precious eyes!

All that to say, we really liked it. Feel free to make your own decision after you see it. I took a few photos from last night's IMAX excursion, and finally settled on this one for my Project 365 pic:

"Alice"

2/365

I'm still running a day behind, but hopefully I'll catch up tonight - I have another photo idea in mind. I am playing this Thursday (1/7) at Trees w/my good friend Jacob Metcalf's band. (SIDEBAR: It's a free show that starts at 8pm for anyone interested in a glorious and FREE night out!)

We rehearsed yesterday at Jacob's loft, which is one of the most beautiful places and I love all the natural light during the day, so I decided to take yesterday's photo at his place before we started rehearsing.

"Practice"

1/365

Okay! So I'm not a day late after all. Or at least my first photo isn't. I took this photo last night. We went with Dragan and Elissa to see the Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra at the Wyly then headed to Ships afterwards. That's where this photo was taken.

"Ships"