Well, hello again...

Yeah yeah, I know I often claim that I will be better about blogging, but it just doesn't ever happen.

However, tonight was a great night that had me thinking a lot about how I feel about Sacramento. Some friends and I went to see Dan Deacon, Nuclear Power Pants, and Alexis Gideon at the always wonderful Luigi's Fungarden. Shows there always seem to let out an untapped energy that exists in Sacramento, an energy that I honestly don't see exhibited anywhere else in this city. People actually get excited and dance and the energy is great and I think that is something Sacramento needs more of.

Unless Sacramentans begin to build a more creative, collaborative, positive community for artists, musicians, writers, bloggers, etc, it will remain in the shadow of cities such as San Francisco or Portland. I know that I won't remain in Sacramento for much longer, but I hope that while I'm here I can figure out something I can do to make the city at least a little more supportive for the arts. I hope that we can create a community that can bring the energy that was brought out at the show tonight.

Now I leave you with a preview photo of the Dan Deacon show that I shot for Submerge. I'll post more once they are published!


Dan Deacon + crowd at Luigi's Fungarden, 19 October 2009

summer so far...

Some candids of some of my closest friends and some other shots for what the summer has been so far. There's still so much to happen, I can feel it...


This was actually before the summer, when Amy, Karen, and I went to San Francisco to see Friendly Fires.


dinner at the Guad


John


Karen at the Grizzly Bear album listening party at R5 Records


In Santa Cruz with John, Lucy, and Amy. It was almost 90 degress in Sacramento so we thought it'd be a good day to take a trip to the beach, but when we got to Santa Cruz it was about 60 degrees. But we went in the water anyway.


Also Santa Cruz

First published shots...

A little over a month ago I was asked to shoot the show that Vivian Girls headlined here in Sacramento! I shot them for Submerge Magazine, a local free publication and it was the first time my work has been published. Local bands Agent Ribbons and Dog Party, along with Abe Vigoda from L.A. opened. Here's some photos that I took that didn't end up in the article, along with a link to the article at the bottom:

Dog Party


Agent Ribbons



Abe Vigoda


Vivian Girls

more at my flickr

click the thumbnail to read the article:

Happy New Year!

I'm usually terrible at keeping my New Year's resolutions, but I think they're a good reminder to have around throughout the year.

- graduate college (I'm 99% sure this is one resoultion I will keep)
- find the good things in Sacramento while I'm still here : throughout the last year I've been longing to leave Sacramento as soon as possible, but I've realized I will have to settle here for a bit before I make a big move. To make this stay more bearable I need to find things that I really love about this city and take advantage of those things.
- meet new people : I've never been very good at this, but I'm getting better
- spend more time with my friends : We get so busy that we forget to make time for each other. And when I say "spend more time", I mean doing things other than sitting around each others' apartments watching TV and drinking
- put together a better portfolio : one that I can be really proud of. All my portfolios thus far have just been something I've thrown together. "Good enough" is not good enough.
- manage my money better : I've been getting better at this with time, but I could still use improvement
- do more of the things that I say I'm going to do : I'm notorious for coming up with plans and never following through. Whether it's blogs, photography projects, plans with friends, I tend to be mostly talk and hardly any action.
- sell my things at a craft fair : this is something I've been meaning to do for a long time. I don't know what's been holding me back from it because it is something that can only help me finally sell all the things I've made over the years.

That's it for now. I wish everyone a happy and healthy new year!