The cold months of winter in Akron tend to make it more difficult to recruit friends to model for photography projects. This was my attempt to mimmic Tim's recent post. The image was created using a tripod and layer masks in photoshop.

Last night at Square Records in Highland Square 'New Body Type' played a show to celebrate the release of their new record 'Pink Boys' and the release of Ted Mallison's comic collection 'Modern Funnies'. Both items are great and should be purchased immediately!

On the top photo I used a Photoshop filter to make the depth-of-field appear narrower. On the photo above left I was going for a black & white look which I've seen in a Visa commercial lately(the one with a couple riding on a sky lift). Above right is Ted talking about his new comic book and in between is a view of the crowd right after the show.

I know what you're thinking, "Wow, what a good looking group of guys!!" This was definitely the best breakfast I've had in a while - just relaxing with the three best dudes that I know. Ever get the feeling that your on the same wavelength as the other people around you without having to say a word?

There is a door on the East State Street of St. Bernard's church in Akron that I've walked passed hundreds of times and never really noticed. The only thing labeling the door is a small sign reading "Social Hall." It turns out this where the St. Bernard's Hunger Program has been serving meals to those in need for over 35 years.

This past Sunday, a group of us from Torchbearers joined about 30 other volunteers from congregations, local schools, and other organizations to help serve the hot meal program. The meals are served on Sundays and Wednesdays to an average of 220 people. In addition, the church offers a daily sandwich program serving 100 per day, a weekly food pantry program serving 150 families per month, and a clothing, furniture, and household items program. With the help of volunteers and donations, the church is able to do all this with an operating budget of about $90,000.

After getting the table places set, there was a short orientation given by Tony, who has been with the program for eighteen years. He shared some stories that I'm not able to do justice. The lesson was whether they are poor people there for food or the lonely looking for some company, he reminded us that this was their night out and we should treat them like customers in a restaurant.

Most of the volunteers seemed to have been there before and were busy working. I didn't really know what to do so I introduced myself to a couple of high school kids who seemed to be on top of things. Turns out they were Hoban students and I immediately dropped Greg's (I mean Mr. Milo's) name. I immediately had some friends. They helped explain how the meal distribution worked. I got behind them in the orderly line running plates of food out to volunteers waiting at the tables to set it in front of people.

Once the meals were all served, it was time to take out small pieces of donated cake from West Side Bakery. It so happened that one of the Hoban guys and I took out one of the first trays of cake. We were instructed to start at the tables in the back corner of the room that are reserved for families. These were only about 20 kids out of about 180 people there that night. It is tough to describe how it felt to hold the tray and help kids and adults alike decide what piece of cake to choose. I'll just say it was humbling.

They do so much behind this simple door on the side of St. Bernard's. I appreciated the opportunity to get to participate and hope to do it again soon.

Yeah, I've got the light right, but it is casting a weird shadow on the wall because it isn't up high enough. How about everybody take a knee. Nice. Looks very high school soccer. How 'bout everybody just grab something.

Sorry for my light posting over the past week. I've been without the internets at home. After fulfilling a new year's resolution to switch from Time Warner to AT&T, my happiness hit a brief snag. Apparently there was a faulty chord connecting my modem to the power outlet. The tech came this morning right on time and fixed it in about two minutes. Just another reason I'm glad I switched. Chad and Greg were worried. I hope this helps.

I'm always disillusioned by the constant reminder that we live in the greatest and wealthiest country in the world, yet much of what I see contradicts that claim (Note to critical curmudgeons: I'm not saying we're not great, I would just like to be better).

Perhaps it's where I live that scattered trash and dilapidated houses inhabit much of what I see day to day. But I don't think so. I see these reminders of carelessness and poverty whether I'm in Montrose or on Exchange. I see cigarette butts thrown from Hummers as well as clunky Oldsmobiles.

I noticed the pictured can and wrenched parking bumper near The University of Akron, but the picture could just as easily have taken at my high school or Summit Mall.

Constantly being told that we live in the greatest country makes us discard much of the failures and deficiencies around us and dismisses the necessity of progress. I don't question that our country is great, but I do question the constant reminder that we are. It seems like a sort of denial--so long as we say we're great, there's no need to reflect on any areas of improvement.

Side note: a trashcan sat 20 feet from this spot.

...which held the Democratic presidential primary two years ago today.



It was two years ago today that Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary with 55% of the vote and got his presidential campaign back on track. I knew a few people attending a watch party at McCarty's in Cleveland and went up to take in the atmosphere. One of the people I was looking forward to meeting at the time was Jerid from Buckeye State Blog (pictured above). He turned out to be a good guy and I really enjoyed following his blog that year. I had planned to do a post on the evening for the new blog Ben Keeler and I had started working on for the Akron Beacon Journal, but Ben and I had just come off our suspension and were still learning what we were allowed to say. Suspension explanation post. It turned out we were given pretty free reign after the initial hiccup. It is amazing how time flies.

I am always excited to watch a State of the Union address, but am particularly looking forward to tonight and wonder if it could be the turning point it was two years ago. If you recall, candidate Obama had lost the New Hampshire primary in early January and needed to pull out a win in order to begin his comeback. He did just that and had methodically worked his way through the rest of the primaries to pull out the nomination and win the presidency. I know healthcare is unpopular and some former nude model won Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. I get it. We're down. However, we've seen candidate Obama stage a comeback before and I believe tonight will mark the beginning of President Obama doing the exact same thing.

Side note: Two days after coming in third in his home state of South Carolina, John Edwards dropped out of the race. Anybody heard anything on him lately?

There are way to many neat places in Northeast Ohio that I've never been to - I've decided its time to start changing that. So on Saturday I went up to the West Side Market in Ohio City to find out what all the hype was about. There has been a public market on the site since 1840, the current market house was built in 1912 and is a National Historic Landmark. The selections of different meats, produce and other food stuffs was pretty cool.

Even though I've drank many a bottle of Great Lakes I had never been to their brewery/restaurant/pub (which is across the street from the market). I tried out a couple of the beers that they don't sell outside of the restaurant and had one of the best burgers ever(I know you people say stuff like that all the time but these burgers truly were amazing).

Technical terms and unfathomable technology, all triggering apparitions of scene 1 in Terminator 2.

I found myself in way over my head here. Despite my ignorance, I enjoyed the hours spent at Andrew's Studio Akron, save for one minor inconvenience--I've been without my right hand glove ever since.

Some time during our revelry, the right hand glove escaped from my coat's shoulder loop. I'm not sure why the poor fellow would want to escape, leaving his left hand compatriot matchless and his assigned right hand naked. Apparently, the Right Glove believed himself destined for brighter and better body parts. I have to wonder if he's scared out there by himself. I shutter each night, pondering his lonely fright.

Step into my glove's fingers for a moment. Imagine his worry. And imagine my right hand's inevitable chill.

Come home righty.

I was the only member of our staff who forgot to bring my camera to Andrew McAllister's Studio Akron last Friday, so I get to post some drafts of the images taken by Andrew - more photos. In the Pano shot, Tim is standing where we were placed for the group photo above. There is a beauty dish high above in the front and a bare strobe up high behind. Andrew's camera was connected to his Mac Pro so we could see the images on the monitor as they were taken. We passed around his pocket wizards and took pictures with Greg and Brian's cameras using the studio flashes. Tim bounced his flash off the ceiling and walls. Andrew's buddy David walked around snapping photos with his cell phone. It so happens he has curated two shows of cell phone photos. In between shots, we watched Andrew's work flow in Lightroom and talked as a group about how each batch of photos looked. It was fun and I hope we can do it again soon.