Orange Door and Record Store Day Recap 2011: South Florida Music Photographer

First off, congrats to the GIVERS who made it into the Bonnaroo line-up. Their infectious and upbeat tunes have cycled regularly on my "Monica Mix" CD's since I saw them play live at Propaganda last year. Just a few days after my wedding! Hadn't left for my honeymoon yet and Steev from theHoneyComb.com kept talking about this show so I had to go. So glad I did! Listen to "Up, Up, Up" while you check out a couple images from the Prop show:
Up Up Up by NYLONmag
The GIVERS on Fire!




Even the Dewars had to dance!!

If anyone would like to send me to take photographs of them plus all of the other bands live at Bonnaroo, I have the dates available. Just putting that out there...

Friday eve I caught the show at the Orange Door in Lake Park;
Love Handles kills it @ the Orange Door.

Love the Jameses!



I left around 1:30am before the Blank Dogs went on. I heard that's what a lot of people did. Hope they didn't take it personally. My excuse was that I was planning to catch them at their next gig, the Record Store Day celebration in Ft Lauderdale. Drove there early just in time to photograph the mad rush of people getting first grabs at new/limited releases.
Following Images Originally Shot for Broward Palm Beach New Times.

Upon my recommendation, this guy bought John Ralston's new album, Shadows of the Summertime. Very cool! The album and this guy ;)

Another cool person I met amongst many throughout the day is Phil, from Consequence of Sound. Photographed below, doing his share to document the day.


Then I had a brunch/coffee/nap/ice cream break before I went back to the store for the live music. Who said the Blank Dogs don't like photos?? They were very kind to let me do a mini-photoshoot before their set.
Don't Laugh!

"Do you guys know anyone named Jimmy?"
"No."

Love their feet in this photo.

From Blank Dogs to a cute dog.

Speaking of cute...

Jacuzzi Boys (Go to their show tomorrow!!)


Congrats to Mikey Ramirez and staff of Radio-Active Records in Ft Lauderdale for a truly successful event.


Did you get your Radio-Active sticker yet??


GOOD NIGHT!

(Thank you to Travis Newbill and Courtney Hambright for the tea and wine!!!)

(more photos on my flickr page...more to be added...)

Breathe, RELAX, Let Go and DANCE!!

So much going on this weekend! The perfect kick-off to the week started off with another installment of 1810 Yoga. While I enjoyed spending time with everyone who came out to the event, the only photos I took were of this frog:



I was especially grateful to see fellow New Times freelancer Alex Rendon and his wife, Catalina, attend for the first time. His unofficial review via Facebook message stated:

"Just wanted to drop you a line and say thanks for being such a great yoga sensei (don't know the yoga jargon.) My wife and I had a great time. We had been so stressed out for a multitude of reasons that a little relaxation was just what we needed. It was a blast. You made a believer out of me."

Thanks again to everyone who attended! YOU are helping me to manifest my vision of creating a space for artistic minded people to re-connect and focus on their internal source of power and inspiration. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So after a little relaxation, then what? Live your passion!! I've been told many times that people enjoy watching me take photos because I look like I'm having fun. Clearly I can't hide the truth :) Tonight is going to be a very fun night of dancing/photography/awesome music! That's because of this event going on at the Orange Door. View my photos from the last event there of a mix of some of the same bands.

While I'm not shooting this event officially i.e. getting paid, they def deserve the attention as it promises to be an amazing night. Oh well, nights like this help to keep my blog pretty and where else can you let go and dance on a huge orange and white checkerboard floor??

FYI there's always the option to click the little "Donate" button if you feel so moved to help me along my journey of documenting the South Florida music scene....the truth is, I'm going to do it anyway. BUT we could all use help along the Way!!

Another event deserving of press is the Top Five Records line-up going on tomorrow in downtown Lake Worth. Unfortunately I won't be able to see some of my favorite local acts as I'll be covering the Record Store Day celebration at Radio-Active Records in Ft Lauderdale. Here are some photos instead of the most recent Invisible Music show at the Bamboo Room, to help you get your John Ralston fix.

Lake Worth's Musical Savior...

Seriously great music. Dan Bonebrake and Tiffany Jezek.

With Jeff Snow on drums!! Download Invisible Music's "Let Me Be" single to support the Snow family with their son's road to recovery :)


If this isn't enough, check out a great review by Arielle Castillo with images by Ian Witlen from the Further Seems Forever/Legends of Rodeo show here.

One of the bands performing tomorrow at Radio-Active is the Jacuzzi Boys whom I last saw live on the Bruise Cruise!! Here's a Polaroid I took of them with an SX70.


Really looking forward to this weekend....see you on the dance floor!

1810 Yoga & Creative Meditation, and Amish Friendship Bread

"Yoga Day" is almost here again! I keep meaning to take some overall photos of the tropical backyard that serves as our outdoor meditation space during the events coined "1810 Yoga." (1810 is the address of the house.) If not before this event, I promise to document the space during!

In my excitement for the next "1810 Yoga" I decided to make some Amish Friendship Bread. It was very popular "Up North" where there was actually a significant Amish population. One particular memory stands out as we had stopped off at a McDonald's on the way to my Grandmother's house in Mid-Michigan. As we pulled around the curve of the drive-through, there was a peculiar sight. Alongside a row of cars was a parked Amish horse and buggy! Apparently even the Amish can't resist the devilish temptations of Ronald McDonald.

Anyway, if you don't know already what friendship bread is, the easiest way to sum it all up is that it's a non-vegan, gluten containing, but very tasty sweet and edible chain letter. Because it contains yeast, the batter grows/ferments over the ten day period that you have it, resulting in enough dough for you to bake bread with, plus two batches leftover. Then you give the leftover "starter" dough to friends for them to let grow for ten days and the process continues.

So with ten days until the event, this is what the batter looked like on day one:


The hardest part is deciding what bread you're going to bake it into once you have the starter. I think I'm going to go with this recipe. :)