Live Transmission

30/11/2014

I went out last night to “Live Transmission.” It’s like Transmission, the popular Minneapolis dance night, that I design posters for, except with live bands. Cool concept, right? Local bands with that “Transmission sound” (could be.. punk, new wave, brit pop, etc…) play a mixed set of originals and covers… A lot of Cure and New Order.
I knew from the moment I heard about it that it was going to be a great, awesome night. It also seemed like the right time to try my hand at concert photography, so I lugged my camera around for the night, and you know, it’s not too difficult. I thought it’d be hard to focus in such low light, but I got some advice ahead of time. You can actually see in the progression of these photos how I improved throughout the night. The Rope Frankie Teardrop Two Harbors (They did one of my favorite covers of the night by starting off with The Stone Roses’ “I Wanna Be Adored.”) BNLX brought in fog machines. The Ocean Blue played a really excellent cover of Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face” and it sounded very Beach House-y. Really beautiful.Jake: the DJ, MC, Curator and friend of Transmission.

Wonderful Christmastime

29/11/2014

As is my tradition, I put up all the Christmas decorations *after* Thanksgiving (you know what? It should be YOUR tradition too. Christmas tree up AT Thanksgiving? That’s insane). Even though I tend to get jaded by many things, never Christmas. Never ever.

Yes, I did use my fixed 50 lens for these.
I’m even introducing spruce tops this year! I have tons of pine scented candles but these are sooo much better, and it reminds me of growing up with a real tree in the house. Can’t beat that smell.

Keep that credenza nice and Scandinavian, now.

Since we now have a large wedding portrait on the mantel, there was some new finagling. In other years, I just dump everything up there. Lots of wedding props live there now, and it was a real puzzler to incorporate them. Mercy. Also, how sad is that light strand? Look at all the burnt out ones on the left. It’s the most stressful string of lights to work with.

Thanksgiving 2014: Cold Turkey

28/11/2014

Hey, Happy Thanksgiving. Minnesota had a cold one. I did some very light research, and it possibly the coldest Thanksgiving in MN since the 30’s. We started the day at Alan’s Uncle’s house, sharing in some good times and catching up with that side of the family, then raced towards my parents house for the 59th (!) Royce Thanksgiving. We had to stop by our house first though because I forgot the camera. I almost couldn’t document ANY of this.

Ugh.

By the way, you like that clever title? Get it because it was really cold yesterday.

There doesn’t seem to be any stopping the baby boom in my family. I don’t think there’s been a time in the last 3 years (at least) that a Royce cousin has not been expecting.

Hattie’s First Thanksgiving!

Unfortunately we didn’t have all the 3rd generation there, hopefully next year, where there will be even more.
Weather can’t stop *true minnesotans* from taking a Thanksgiving walk. We were #blessed with a long afternoon of sunshine. It’s my FAVORITE time of day, in any season.
Alan found this on the path and gave it to me. A little 1up.
Everything was just pristine, cold and beautiful.
Then, pie.
And always, Vera.

Tomorrow it’s ON with Christmas.
It’s so on.

BTW, if you, like me, enjoy constantly looking to the past, you can see how my photo skills (and indeed my editing) have improved since a year ago Here.

Whisky & Smoke II

10/11/2014

photo source

Apparently blogging in Fall is not really my thing. Today was the first snow of the season and I realized I never posted the sequel to Whisky & Smoke, which loyal readers will know is my main pride of joy out of everything I’ve ever done. I love the idea of having an anthology of mixes. And then one day I can sell them all in Starbucks. I borrowed a few songs from The Walking Dead soundtrack for this one, which, despite it being a pretty “meh” show most the time, does have the best music on TV right now. This was a difficult mix for the longest time, and I felt like I was really only scraping it together until I heard “Terrified” by the Rural Alberta Advantage, and I KNEW. Also thanks to True Detective for giving me no other choice on an opening track.