I was lying down in bed the other night, when I thought bout the fact that I’ll be turning twenty-nine. The number hadn’t occurred to me, yet. It’s a big number… a close-to-thirty number. Somehow, the fact that the numbers use less characters makes it seem like the worst is over. XXIX. That’s way better than. XXVIIII. It’s the difference between, almost to something cool and fuck, that’s a big number. We just don’t do cool things to our numbers anymore. I’ve never worried about getting old, and I certainly don’t feel old. I just don’t like how big twenty-nine feels.
Speaking of my birthday [I told you I'd think of more], I thought of something else I could use:
a brightly colored case for my glasses/sunglasses. In my car, with it’s mostly black interior, I often can’t find my glasses until I’ve stopped and dug around the back for a while. If it’s got some cool feature that makes it stick or mount or clip somewhere, making it even harder to lose, that’d be great, too… and if it’s even a little more sturdy than the crappy cases Lenscrafters gives out with their glasses, I won’t worry so much.
And now, because it has been requested (via mom, from several family members, at the very least), I’m going to attempt to write up some captions/stories/explanations to go along with the images in my calendars. This sort of reminds me of a website I used to contribute to called Themestream. I could put photos up there and get critiques from people, but they had to be accompanied by 500 words of text, since it was originally a writing based site. Adding those descriptions seemed like a lot of work at first, but it was sort of fun by then end. I hope that goes this way, since I’m about to write 26 such descriptions. Anyway… here they are. And the calendars are both still available at Cafepress, i you didn’t get one (or wanted the other one).
Cover (Original Calendar):
Worn. Taken in Olivia’s parents’ backyard in Newtown, PA. I thought these flowers, even with their obvious imperfections had some sort of strength. I put it on the cover because that’s how I feel about a lot of my photography. It may not be a beauty in the obvious and traditional manner, but there’s something about it that’s likable.
January: Drip. Taken after a particularly treacherous adventure in my van, to a show at a VFW hall in Grafton, MA. The roads were about as frozen as everything looks in this shot. Chosen for January for weather reasons.
February: Baby. Taken at a restaurant in Blackstone, MA, the day I met this Baby. Her name is Diamond, and she’s no longer a baby. She’s the oldest daughter of my old friend Sarah Green, who I had lost touch with for several years, before randomly finding out that she lived 5 minutes from me… this restaurant was about halfway between us and we met there for breakfast.
March: Cover. This was taken while driving, somewhat dangerous, I know. I think I was on the way to work in Marlboro at Telecomnow… or perhaps that’s just a subconscious association I put with it after the fact. I was amused at the logo of Sherwin-Williams, so blatantly ego-maniacal and full of undertones of manifest destiny. The fact that it was red, white and blue just made it irresistible to me. Such a glowing example of american corporate ideology… ‘we’re a paint company and our goal is to paint the whole world. GAH!. Probably chosen for March because it was taken in March. (sorry to say that I no longer have the original or any copies of this photo anywhere except on Cafepress.
April: Eggs. Taken at MaryBeth’s house in Webster, MA, on the weekend of Easter, probably, because we were definitely about to dye those eggs. There was a pretty large group of us there, mostly friends from high school, a good four or five years after we graduated. Chose for April due to Easter ties.
May: Road. Taken from a dam in Connecticut (the name escapes me), overlooking an abandoned road with a large section that’s gone… flooded, washed out, former bridge… I dunno. It was a favorite spot for me and Mark to go take pictures. Chosen for May because it was probably taken in May.
June: Shadow. Taken at a park in Pennsylvania, somewhere near Olivia’s parents’ house. The dog’s name is shadow. I have a similar image to this one, but not the exact one, in my gallery. I don’t remember if this was taken on the first trip down there or the second. We got stuck down there for an extra week or so, due to car trouble, so we had lots of time to hang out and take photos of dogs and dams. Chosen for June because I think it was taken in June.
July: Playground. Taken at a playground in Woonsocket, RI. This was a day when I drove down to Woonsocket with Mark and met Candace and Drew in the park. I think Drew and Candace lived in Woonsocket at this point, but I might not have moved in yet. Chosen for July because it was probably taken in July.
August: Swim. Taken at one end of that closed/fooded road that the Sunset/may photo was taken. I liked his puzzled body language and the obvious problem. Chosen for August because it was probably taken in August.
September: Red-handed. Taken at the after-school day care program I worked at in Woonsocket. This was our activity on 9/11, the year after it happened. This little girl was a trouble maker, and I couldn’t resist the Irony of catching her red-handed. Chosen for September because it was probably taken in September, and because it seemed patriotic enough that I wouldn’t draw anyone’s wrath for dismissing 9/11.
October: Playground. Taken on the street I lived on in Woonsocket (though possibly in North Smithfield, that far down). I remember wandering around and trying to get some good foliage photos one of the first years I lived in Woonsocket. I might’ve gotten a couple, but my weakness for arrows drew me to this. Definitely taken in October.
November: Pumpkin. Taken in Mom’s backyard. This pumpkin had grown out of her compost pile from “last year’s seeds.” I think she wanted a picture of it, and I really liked how it came out. This is in November because Cafepress messed up the original November image, and I have no record of what it was. I did find the original list of who was going to get copies of this calendar, though, and my friend Erika was on it, so that might mean it was going to be this one of her, but I don’t remember.
December: Mug. Taken in the Kenmore Diner in Worcester, MA. All I truly remember about taking this photo is that I was incredibly tired at the time (this is a diner that is specifically open after last-call, for that sobering-up crowd. I remember that my head was actually at this angle, and I was staring at my coffee mug for some time before I pulled out my camera and took the shot.
Cover (New Calendar):
Bridge of photographers. Taken in Yosemite. You had a pretty good view of ElCapitan from the bridge, and that’s why all the photographers are squished over to that side… including Sarah. Put it on the cover to show off my girlfriend and for the irony of a bunch of photographers on the cover of something full of a bunch of photography.
January: lsda. Taken in the camp office of one of the YMCAs I worked for. This brand of lock seemed to be on everything at that Y, I’d seen them all over, but this one ws very striking… posing in the bright sunny spot on the desk.
February: Taken on the way to work in North Attleboro, MA. The sagging half of the barn is gone, now. I actually took this with a friend in mind who needed to make a jigsaw puzzle out of a photo to demonstrate the capabilities of the photo lab she worked for.
March: three. Taken at Roger Williams Park Zoo. These are radiated turtles. I was at the zoo with Olivia for her visit, for some good photography subjects. Chosen for March because there are three of them.
April: Stepped out of my apartment door one day (in April)… immediately ran back upstairs, grabbed the camera, ran back downstairs and shot lots of pictures of the pretty flowering trees. The winds had blown most of these petals away in a matter of 24 hours. I might have been late for work that day… but it was worth it.
May: Waterfall just off the road in Yosemite. Very easy to miss, I just happen to be looking that way on the way out to our goal. Sarah missed it, so I took her back to it and surprised her on the way back.
June: Taken at the zoo that Sarah brought me to when I visited her in Chicago for the first time. The kids and the exhibits were moving pretty fast for such a low light condition, but I managed to come away with something that looked okay. Chosen for June because it was taken in June.
July: Taken at a beach at Big Sur during our southern road trip from San Francisco. Wish I could’ve taken more pictures on the Pacific Coast Highway, but in order to get to this beach in time for sunset shots, we couldn’t really stop too many times. Chosen for July because it was taken in July.
August: Moon Bear at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, RI. There were a lot of foggy, plastic windows to view the animals through, but the rocks were ow enough and I was tall enough to grab this shot without the blurry plastic between us. Chosen for June because it was taken in June.
September: Former mill/factory in Putnam, CT (or somewhere between N Grosvenordale and Putnam). It was quite a landmark, as route 12 had to zig zag around it. Definitely a place where I had stopped and snapped off shots when I was in high school… but then I drove by it again, after not having traveled route 12 for a while… and all that was left of the mill was the smokestack and the tower… and a lot of nice lue sky in between.
October: The Sutro Baths ruins, in San Francisco were such an interesting place to wander around with a camera. None of the pictures really captured the huge feeling that place left you with, but some of them were pretty neat, anyway.
November: Crunchy. While Olivia was in Woonsocket, we were lucky enough to get breakfast at the “shiny diner.” One of their specialties was this yummy dish, called Crunchy French Toast. Essentially, just french toast with cornflakes all over it… but so good. I grabbed Olivia’s camera to take this shot, as I didn’t have mine with me.
December: Taken at the teen center in North Attleboro, MA. These cookies, made from Nutter Butters and melted white chocolate, with mini chocolate chips, mini m&ms, red sprinkles and white chocolate chips, were a popular holiday project for the kids. Everyone who helped out took a small plateful home with them to contribute to their family’s after dinner treats.
. It’s a simple, yet effective way to transfer Mom’s VHS stuff to DVD. It has all sorts of nifty features that make it super easy from Sony video cameras, but it works quite well from any video source with composite cables. Its built in software makes a simple menu interface and you can force new titles wherever you want. I got through a Fox News “Zip Trip” to Dudley, but didn’t manage to get to any of the high school performance videos… maybe on Monday?
). Then we headed back to Webster and went to 
woot
