Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween part 2!

For as long as I can remember I've always loved Halloween, it's my holiday. Some people have the joys of Christmas and that yule time happiness crap and dressed up family get togethers, me I love horror movies, costumes and all things that speak festive fear. Perhaps I'm a bit twisted for that, but what the hey, I know I'm not the only one out there.

Although I've sadly reached that age where I can no longer dress up and go door to door trick-or-treating, I can somewhat live it vicariously through my niece and nephew and all the little trick-or-treaters who come to my door as I dole out the goods.Happy Halloween everyone!




Happy Halloween!



Sunday, October 30, 2011

Snowpocalypse


It snowed yesterday. It snowed quite a bit. It’s October and I’m pissed off and without power and hot water for almost 24 hours now.

It was predicted that we would get between 8-12 inches of snow yesterday afternoon and into the evening, and as I’m sitting next to a power outlet on the floor of a seldom visited strip mall, I can’t help but wonder why the hell didn’t the power companies prep better? Playing chicken with Mother Nature has never proven well and the end result is over 117,000 homes and businesses in Dutchess county alone without power. I will also add that I believe the latest count including Dutchess and surrounding counties, is about half a MILLION homes and businesses without power. Also the latest bit of gossip is that this could take between 2-3 days to fix.

Happy Halloween...




Taking Back Sunday at The Chance Theater


Right after hastily packing up all the equipment and a quick stop back at the station it was time to run over to The Chance Theater and set up our sound system and WRRV table and tent outside in the bitter cold. For roughly two hours fellow road crew member, Kaitlyn and I stood outside while everyone was inside, warm and getting rather inebriated.  

The time went by rather fast as we danced around to keep warm and try to intrigue the few stragglers, who were to the show to come over to our tent, which meant it was time for the show. We started to break down as Taking Back Sunday was getting ready to take the stage and as I heard a round of applause, I had to leave Kaitlyn to do the rest so that I could go in and shoot the show. I was cold and incredibly tired/borderline exhausted, but if there’s one thing I love doing, it’s shooting concerts.  However my spirits slowly were falling as I walk into a sold out and packed venue, I could barely move and everyone was taller than me, I knew it would be a tough shoot, and even though I had an official photo pass from the band, there was no guarantees I would be able get anywhere near the stage to shoot. 

Also here’s the thing, when you’re 5’4” with an insanely quiet voice and rather timid, shooting in a packed venue with a bunch of drunkies is more challenging and tiring than it is fun,the no matter who’s playing and if they’re good or not. Thanks to the help of Kaitlyn holding my rather large camera bag, it was a little easier to manage maneuvering through the crowd, but still intimidating to do with my huge camera. At one point I tried to make my way to the pit, I managed to get somewhat close to the stage, but as soon as I did, the crowd decided to try moshing a bit, tossing me about and then tried to shove/crowd surf some random guy.  Although it provided for an interesting photo, I was more scared for the safety of my camera as once again I was being shoved about in the madness. 

At the end of the night I managed to get a couple of good photos, but compared to other concert I’ve  gotten to shoot throughout the summer, the rest are mediocre at best unfortunately.

Also, I should add that Taking Back Sunday didn’t disappoint and put on a great show, and I must say that they definitely have a new fan as I’ve downloaded probably a bit more than I can afford off iTunes… 





















The WRRV Bowl-a-Thon with Taking Back Sunday

The other day was the 3rd Annual WRRV Bowl-a-Thon with Taking Back Sunday, an event that was inaugurated to help raise money for the Jen Coudrey Memorial Scholarship Fund, which took place at the Mardi-Bob Hoe Bowl Lanes in the city of Poughkeepsie. The scholarship, which is named after a much loved former morning DJ who sadly lost her battle with a rare form cancer, is awarded to high school senior girls who plan on attending college for Physical Therapy (Coudrey was a physical therapist before she became the co-host to Music All Morning with Boris on WRRV).

This year the musical guest was Taking Back Sunday, which I have to admit I wasn't all to familiar with until I heard them play in the middle of two bowling lanes. It was an odd place for a mini concert, but it was a nice cozy and intimate atmosphere with the two main members of the band, lead singer Adam Lazzaro and lead guitarist John Nolan performing three of the bands songs, the last of which was their new hit, Faith. In between songs they talked and joked around with the listeners and reiterated announcements from the concession stands, reminding folks that their food was ready. Lazzaro and Nolan were entertaining and patient as we went through photo ops with every bowling team and the radio staff, and signed countless autographs. However, their time at the bowling alley was cut short as they had to head over to The Chance Theater for their performance later that evening.

After the band left the bowling continued with interesting and fun little competitions for prizes such as bowl through your legs backwards and try to get a strike by bowling by laying on your stomach. Not only did it provide for some fun photos, but the listeners were having a good time performing such acts and winning some pretty spiffy prizes for them.


At the end of the night tired listeners slowly started filtering out of the bowling alley, some with signed photos of Taking Back Sunday and others with commandeered WRRV banner tape in hand. It was fun event and only halfway over for me and another road crew member, Kaitlyn as we had to rush over to The Chance to do another WRRV set up for the band's performance there, but that's a story for another post . . .









































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