To celebrate the holiday, I present to you a doodle from my marker board at work.
I was on a *really* long conference call. It was boring. I got distracted.
May you and yours have a fabulous, gluttonous day!
Photo taken by Karen Fayeth with an iPhone 4 and the Hipstamatic app.
Back in March I talked about the Rosanne Cash album “The List,” a collection of songs culled from a list of 100 must-know songs crafted especially for Rosanne by her father.
The List is an essential music history lesson.
That story and the resulting album became the inspiration for my best friend and I to endeavor to create our own list as a legacy for my two goddaughters.
It’s been an ongoing process, serious work, and we’re making progress.
Over the weekend, I had the chance to see Rosanne Cash perform live at the Uptown Theater in Napa, CA.
I’ve been a fan for a while and I think Rosanne is a massively accomplished songwriter. I love the heart and emotion she puts into every lyric.
I figured as a consummate musician, she would put on a great show. I was in no way prepared for how stunning seeing Rosanne perform live really was.
Her backing band, including her husband John Levanthal on guitar, was one of the tightest bands I’ve ever seen. I told The Good Man during the show “I know musicians who would kill somebody to get at her drummer.”
I’ve spent a lot of years in the company of musicians who struggled have a band that is tight and seamless. Rosanne has that in spades.
And talent too. She’s an amazing, emotional and powerful singer. Like any great musician, the sound seems to pour from her effortlessly. It takes a lot of work to make it look that easy.
Then, after putting on a show that brought the house down, Rosanne went to the lobby and signed autographs for her fans. I got her signature on my copy of her recent bestseller “Composed” and had a chance to tell her that my best friend and I are working on our own version of The List.
And when I awkwardly mentioned that her gorgeous song “Seven Year Ache” is on the list, Ms. Cash smiled and shook my hand.
Made. My. Year.
What a powerful, beautiful, wonderful woman.
I am deeply inspired.
Photo by Karen Kristofferson, as posted on her @KarenKristo Twitter stream.
I love Cee Lo Green’s internet hit “F*ck You“, but it just got that much better when, at the request of Steven Colbert, Cee Lo changed the lyrics of one verse from f*ck you to Fox News.
Drink it in:
Ain’t that some sh*t?
You spend time refining your art. You take classes. You learn your tools. You seek out a mentor. You push your bounds and find your limits.
But you can never, ever predict what work you do that might capture the attention of others.
For me, with my photography, it’s been about patience. About learning how to set up a shot. Understanding the exposure triangle (ISO, aperture, and shutter speed) and how to apply it.
I study other people’s photos. I figure out what I like about them and what I don’t, and I learn. I try to replicate. I use the levers and switches and sliders and I take them to the very ends of their capability to see what I like.
And sometimes I get a really good shot. Something I’m excited to share.
Every once in a while, something special happens. Something like…a parade.
And I think to myself, “well, why not take the camera.”
So there I am at the corner of Market and Powell in San Francisco, and trolley cars start rolling by carrying the players from this World Series winning team.
The light is terrible. Not only am I down in a canyon of tall buildings, but my subjects are in motion. I bump ISO, but that gets too grainy. I fiddle with white balance, one setting is too blue, the other too yellow. I mess around with my aperture. A little depth of field or a lot?
The parade is in full swing so I begin shooting away. I’m using my 70-300 lens so I can see faces.
Later, at home, I download the batch, some 200 in all. Most photos are blurred. Some turn out ok.
But there is one. Something magic. Something special. Something unpredictable.
And out of nowhere, six hundred and fifty people have looked at my photograph on Flickr.
That photo is below. It is San Francisco Giants players and best friends Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell. Aubrey has just handed Pat a Bud Light.
Oh, might I add…Aubrey is wearing his Cooperstown bound red “Rally Thong” around his neck.
Tomorrow Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead is here again.
When all the plastic spiders and smashed pumpkins of Halloween have passed, I turn to this well known Latin American holiday to celebrate my friends and family who have passed on to the next journey.
Other cultures have similar holidays and traditions, the Bon Festival in Japan, All Saints Day in Europe, but it’s the Mexican version of Dia de los Muertos that resonates with me.
The belief, loosely, is that on this day the veil between the living and the dead is thin, and so offerings of favorite food, booze, decorations and memorabilia will be seen, enjoyed and appreciated by our deceased.
I think Dia de los Muertos appeals to me because it brings a sense of humor and fun to a painful, somber thing. It’s a chance for a community to come together and remember. To feel close to those we have lost.
Personally, just this past August, I withstood a very deep loss. Tomorrow I will remember my friend who died way too young.
I will remember my father who passed away almost six years ago. My mom will certainly remember her husband. Together, we keep his memory alive.
Grandparents, friends, family, people I hardly knew, famous people. We all deserve to be remembered by those we’ve left behind.
My grief is a slippery thing. Sometimes so overwhelming, I don’t know how I can sit up and walk through the world. Other days, it’s like a dull noise in the background. Remembering on a day like tomorrow helps keep me grounded. Keeps me sane.
