Sear and Poaching on Cape Cod

Bands play music, and bands break up all the time. But there are only two bands, who when they called it quits, I almost shed a tear (I was alone in my car, if I did shed a tear, no one can prove it!)

These two bands are Pavement and Piebald. I recently ran into Andrew Bonner, former bassist of Piebald, and told him this exact thing. He replied "That's a pretty good list to be on".

Piebald to me, was basically the soundtrack of my life between the ages of 18 and 26. So many good times spent going to their shows, and shouting to their songs at the top of my lungs ("And you've got the sexy legs!!") on the way to the beach. If you were a real Piebald fan, at some point or another through the years, you run into one of the guys around Boston, or after a show, and say "whatsup". Real Piebald fans never really viewed them as "famous", but as old friends, that you've already hung out with hundreds of times.

Yesterday I had a photo shoot in Buzzards Bay, and unexpectedly ran into an "old friend". It was an event hosted by Bay End Farm, and The Blue Room of Cambridge. It is a dinner where the chefs from the Blue Room, came earlier that day, picked which vegetables they wanted cooked that afternoon, and then prepared an organic fresh meal for about 50 people sitting at One Long Table (the name of the event)

To my surprise, when I arrived, Andrew Bonner, of Piebald fame, was one of the chefs from the Blue Room! It was cool to see him, away from the crowds, bringing his skill and banter from the stage to the kitchen. He obviously has a good time doing what he does. Observing him and chef Jorge Lopes trading barbs and working in sync as good as any musical duo, was alot of fun. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather see him throw down the opening bass notes to "Holden Caufield" instead of throwing down garnishing on a scallop ceviche, any day of the week. But until 2014, when Piebald has their 20 year Anniversary tour (huh? whatdaya think?) you can catch Jorge and Andrew putting on a show at the open kitchen of the Blue Room.

Here are a few photos I took of of Andy and the gang playing a show at the Worcester Palladium in the summer of 2001.

You've heard of Lewis & Clark, but I doubt you have ever heard of Cutrona & Beavers. It is the great exploration team from the summer of 2008. Last August, Amy and I, and our good friends Bryce and Shanna went to Washburn Island in Falmouth for the night. I pitched this story to Cape Cod Magazine a while back, and then they said. "Do you want to WRITE it too?" Whoa. The last published item I had written was a Stephen Malkmus concert review for the Fitchburg Sentinel newspaper in 2001. I was rusty. But I accepted the challenge, and with a fabulous re-write by my wife (Shhh!!!) I think it is pretty darn good. You'll have to read the story for a full account of our harrowing tales, and the joys of camping without a fire, and being stranded on the island. So go to your local bookstore, have a drink of water instead of a Caramel Macchiatto, and cough up the four bucks to buy the magazine. :)

Just a little background on the photos: The photo of the glowing tent is a 10 second exposure with Bryce wearing a headlamp, and Amy and Shanna inside the tent furiously shaking around their flash lights. Then there is the silhouettes of our intrepid team, left to right, Amy, Shanna, and Bryce. And now I'm off to prepare for the convention!

I have a really cool baby. At the ripe old age of 3 Months, little Stella has already made her first apperance in the "People on the Scene" section of the latest Cape Cod Magazine. Amy and I took Stella to the Chatham Magazine launch party when she was 4 weeks old! She loved the jumbo shrimp. Stella also makes an appearance in the magazine before she was even born, as a two month old fetus in Amy's belly as part of the Washburn Island article, along with our friends Bryce and Shanna. More to come about that in the next blog posting! For now, I decided I would post the family photo, and the cover photo, which I shot at the end of last summer at the Sandwich boardwalk. Little boy with the net, I hope you are enjoying your fifteen minutes of fame as much as Stella is!

Photographers pretty much always complain about how their pictures look in magazines. "Oh they cropped it wrong", "The color is off", "It's too small"(Insert joke from The Office here)

But this months issue of American Art Collector features a photo I did of Wellfleet artist Rick Fleury as a DOUBLE page spread. I've never had an environmental portrait showcased as a "double truck" layout, so Rick, congratulations on being the first! Also, congratulations to Rick for being featured in a national magazine that is a pretty darn big deal if you are an artist. I think artists are my favorite subject, and this is the second time I've photographed Rick. It was a great session, and we hung clean blank canvases behind him, which I think is cool, and one of his paintings in the foreground. His work really is amazing, and if no one in my family needs my kidney, I will definitely own one of his paintings some day! Check out his work at www.rickfleury.com and he is represented by www.addisonart.com