nothing left of all my gold

casey, katie and i went out to sauvie island last week to make a video and a few pictures. there's something about an autumn sun, the way it cuts through the atmosphere at just the right angle, that seems to set everything on fire, all honey-hued and burning. but there's also something about the way a camera sees that makes it near impossible to take a picture of all that gold. still, i tried.

the air is familiar

sorta like this, but different.

let's do it again

another polaroid 450 test shot.

i've been pretty awful lately about putting together playlists for this blog. normally i'd have one up for the summer by now, it's just hard to find the time and energy. still, i did just put together my first true attempt at a dj mixtape. take a listen if your ears are in need some some noise ...

  

coming in all directions

i've been trying to do more projects these days -- keep busy, creative. last weekend, i saw reynosa -- a punk//cumbia//indie//everything band -- play in north portland. i've always loved their stuff, but this time around i was downright moved. so, on saturday, i shot some photos of them. i used an old polaroid 450 land camera and black and white pull apart film and tried to channel, in a super loose way, robert mapplethrope shooting patti smith for some of her early albums -- horses in particular.

this is one of my favorite group shots. i'll be posting more soon.

where it ends, in the night

the impossible project film seems to be getting better. (or maybe i'm getting better at using it.) here are a couple shots taken with the latest black and white film they have on offer -- as usual, these were shot with an sx-70.

i wanna plan something nice for the weekend

   

late at night the feelings swim to the surface

we wanted it this way

it felt so warm last night. and then again this morning as a i rode to work. the warmth made me think about the cold a few weeks ago, how it snowed and how it felt impossible not to go out into the snow. we stayed out there, even after it stopped, taking pictures, not so much of ourselves, but of a feeling.

i wanna bust free

they both left me.

i knew right then that i'd been abducted

camera pointed at the window as the car hurtled toward vernonia and then the coast.

  

better not to quench your thirst

from that two

it's been a long time

are you free or are you tied up?

meat.

i see you on a dark night

a few hours before new year's eve dinner, i ran out to the florida room, took a picture of the curtain in their photobooth and made two huge printouts. casey and i hung them up on her bookshelf and made friends take portraits. here are some of my favorites. (the whole set is up here.)

              

i'll grow ... i will grow

i once read something about how it doesn't make sense, the way we act at the end of one year and the beginning of the next. we treat midnight on january 1 as the moment when everything gets reset. really, nothing's changed. there's no blank slate. but it's a hard urge to fight.

last friday night, somebody broke into my car and stole my black notebook. i can hardly remember what i'd committed to its pages. some collection of bad prose and lists and notes to myself. i do know that i'd written down a set of things that i wanted to do this year. maybe it's a good thing i won't have that to look at in these last couple weeks of 2011.

this was a good year. that's reflection enough.