Halloween in Seattle

Once again I found myself with Shanti, visiting friends Brad and Nancy (The Royal Tenenbaums) who were hosts to a big urban Halloween party with Ouchmyeye Productions in Seattle. We weren't sure what to expect, but we knew we were in for a good time. We arrived the day before to help set up the party, which was fun because we felt like it was our party too (the free entrance for being coat check girls wasn't so bad either)

We even managed to squeeze in a protest march all through Korea town to Pioneer Square. It was actually one of the Buried Life's 100 things on their list, but where are they?

The Royal Tenenbaums aka Brad & Nancy

Just a few weeks after their stint in Ketchum, The Buried Life boys were wrapping up their tour and joined us at the party. It was fun to have four young chaperones to ward off the urban freaks that took my naughty schoolgirl outfit seriously. The boys came as a boy band and even perfected a dance routine and Jonny got down in a dance-off with "Prince".

Photo Plus Expo in NYC

New York is an amazing place; I could never live there, but I will say that Giuliani did a good job of cleaning it up. Although there are thousands of things to do there, my main purpose of going to New York was for the Photo Plus Expo. And I had miles.

The trade show is basically three days of geeking out with seminars, new products, and learning about all the new develpments in photography. I went to seminars and soaked up information from Denis Reggie, Bambi Cantrell, David Jay, Joe Buissink, and Kevin Kubota. Found a great company that can print coffee table books one at a time, and use those now for my wedding albums. Brides are flipping over them! Oh yeah, and my other purpose to come to New York, was a "What Not To Wear" style makeover as per my friend Shanti. So I also hit 5th ave, and dropped some coin on some threads.

After doing a quick switcheroo in the bathroom after the trade show friday (had an evening top and earings -thanks Shanti) went to the after parties and met great people, and hopped in a cab with them and ended up at the Digital Railroad party in Tribeca. Felt totally safe to leave whenever I wanted and walk to the subway. But those fancy heals don't last 15 hours! 

Love the subways! It's like a pinball machine. You go down, and you can pop up anywhere! Then go down, and pop up somewhere else again! And I love the street musicians! I saw everything from a 12- piece horn band, to a one-man show banging on plastic buckets.

After popping up in Central Park, I rented rollerblades and cruised around to all the above ground street musicians. Loved the jazz trio.

I even found myself singing (a talent usually reserved for strickly inside the comfort of my own shower) all these songs that came to mind like "On Broadway" "42nd Street", whenever the subway would come to, say, Broadway or 42nd Street.

Luckily the stage was saved for my friend Erin who performs her comedy cello act all around Manhattan. We saw her at the Bleeker St. Theater, and wow, can she sing! She's great and is definately going to be famous one day. Check her out at erinandhercello.com

A big thanks to friends Steve and Erica for letting me stay on their couch, in their very small apartment in South Chelsea. 

The Buried Life Boys visit Ketchum

So, Shanti, who knows everybody it seems, helps manage a group of four fine young Canadian lads named Dave, Ben, Duncan, and Jonny, who have a list of 100 things to do before they die; they call themselves "The Buried Life" - an antithesis to all the dreams that seem to get buried along the way. Kind of the opposite of "Jackass".

And what would a group of guys trying to conquer the world be without their huge purple bus to take them from place to place in pursuit of accoumplishing each task?, (along with a film crew entourage of course for their tv show) 

Among the 100 things to do, was to catch something and eat it. So we accompanied them on their fishing lesson and hung out with the film crew. This was Dave's task in particular, and as a practical joke, the other three guys rigged Dave's hook so it was impossible to catch anything. They didn't spill the beans until after everyone else had caught one, and although Dave was pretty frustrated, it was great entertainment for the rest of us. 

Kathy (a fellow paraglider!! yeahy) listens in on the joke

My next venture with the boys was to go along with them as they practiced on a mechanical bull in preparation for Dave's other wish, to ride a real bull! I gave it a whirl, but after that episode, I think I'll leave the mechanical bulls to the next lifetime. ug.