Josh Singer
Thanksgiving Dinner
Los Angeles, CA

Despite my pleas to go out, Josh insisted that we cook a Thanksgiving feast at Deborah's house. Deborah protested too, but in the end, we found ourselves assembled in her kitchen with several hundred dollars worth of food and cooking implements, and a skull-full of headaches. Having spent 110 hours at the French Culinary Institute in New York, I figured that I was at least partially qualified to make dessert, but Josh insisted on using his mother's recipe for Pumpkin Pie. So instead, I picked up my camera, snapped several shots, and spent the bulk of the afternoon watching football.

The meal was delicious. Note to self: go out next year.

The day after Thanksgiving was comprised of our not-so-annual Movie Marathon which began many years ago on Christmas Day. Back when I was working like a dog, I wasn't able to get home to Hawaii for Christmas, so instead, I spent the day with a couple Jewish friends (Josh and Cathy) running from theater to theater trying to see a minimum of four movies in a day. Starting off at the Mann Chinese Theaters 6, this year was no different (although we sorely missed Cathy who is now located in San Francisco), and we managed to see Bad Santa, Shattered Glass, The Station Agent, and 21 Grams. I liked the first three movies, but 21 Grams managed to give me a headache from the handheld camera shots. I also found the non-linear storytelling and processed colors too reminiscent of Traffic, which also starred Benicio Del Toro. And that ends my movie review.

Heading east soon....

Me
Sunset on CA 1
San Simeon, CA

Everyone who's driven it, has raved about CA 1, aka The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). This mostly 2-lane highway winds its way from above the Bay Area down past Los Angeles along some of the most scenic coastal routes the US has to offer. Having driven from LA to SF on the less-than-scenic I-5, I decided to try CA 1 on the advice of a number of friends on the way back to LA.

Much of the road reminds me of portions of O'ahu, and I was really enjoying the ride, until the curves started to come fast and furious. I have a little issue with motion sickness ever since I was eight and I rode the "Spider" at Busch Gardens. It was at that moment that I realized I wasn't the invincible child I thought I was. Since then, I've fallen victim to the Road to Hana, a small dingy in Kaneohe Bay with blueberries and tiny fish, and a number of stomach-turning encounters. While I didn't get sick this time, I did manage quite a headache (which is still pounding in my skull).

The drive is fairly solitary, and rather than take boring scenic shots, I got off my lazy ass, and pulled out some of my lighting gear that I've been hauling around for the past 14,000 miles. And rather than pack it up after I used it, I just threw it in my car, still mounted on the lighting stands. This proved to be key as I witnessed a very spectacular sunset. I pulled my gear out, sat on a rock, and pretended that I was someone important for this "hero" shot (that's what we like to call it in the "biz").

I shall digress now.

I've been much more social on this leg of the trip. In San Francisco, I managed to hang out with a bunch of old hotjobs.com colleagues (Richard Johnson and Emily Hickey), and with a couple of great photographers (Brad Mangin and Grover Sanschagrin). In San Jose, a late night dinner at the Gordon Biersch Brewery with photographer Karin Higgins went awry as our waitress forgot my hamburger. She had delivered Karin's food and my appetizers, and a few minutes later when I asked about my hamburger, she flashed a panic-stricken face for just a second and headed to the kitchen. Since it was past closing time, we figured the hamburger wasn't coming, and indeed, we were right. No matter, she comp'd us a huge piece of carrot cake.

I love carrot cake.

Lastly, when you have high-speed internet, and then you don't have it, you realize how fast "high-speed" really is. And when you twist an ankle or are having a bad day at work, you think back to how slow a modem connection is, and you realize that a turned ankle isn't so bad after all...

Oh heck, one more photo:

Stefanie Atkinson
Emmy Award Winner
San Francisco, CA

Despite winning an Emmy for her work doing motion graphics for CNET TV, Stefanie Atkinson decided to drop that work to pursue a line of work that had more significance for her. Her work with a breast cancer survivor led her to the Eddie Adams Workshop where I met her last month. Earlier this month, a show of her work helped to raise over $40,000 for breast cancer programs.

Atkinson has decided to continue documenting the lives of breast cancer patients because the problem has really reach epidemic proportions with one women dying every 12 minutes from the disease. Despite years of research, there haven't been monumental changes in the way patients are treated in the past 30 years, and incidence rates (particularly in younger women) have only increased.

Unlike her first subject, her current subject isn't projected to live as the cancer has spread to her bones and liver. Confronting difficult emotions have become commonplace for Atkinson as she tackles her project, but she feels content to work at a subject that is important to her.

Joan Barickman
"Open Forum" at the ACES
Bedford Hills, NY

Housed within a former church near the railroad station in Bedford Hills is a tiny alternative high school founded by Joan Barickman in 1977. Having had success with a tough group of kids in the "conventional" high school, Barickman got the approval, blessing and budget of the principal to start something for the misfits that nobody wanted.

But unlike other alternative high schools were chaos runs rampant, this tiny school comprised of 15 students and three faculty show how small class size and an environment where everyone is treated as an adult can breathe life into kids who didn't know they could succeed.

Drug addicts, alcoholics, attempted suicide victims, rape victims...they are all here at the ACES (the Academic Community for Educational Success), but you wouldn't even know it unless you were told. The students have jobs and organizational positions within the school ranging from the hospitality committee to the disciplinary committee (DC). The DC meets weekly to issue subpoenas for behavoir that violates the student handbook, which was created by the students. Caught lying? 5 detentions after the other students decide that an infraction has truly been committed. The kids, by and large, recognize the value of education and that is why they come back every day to the ACES instead of cutting class.

On one day that I visited, the school was having their weekly "Open Forum," where any item of concern is discussed. After a few seniors discussed their anxieties about their future, the forum leader, Michael, passed out a worksheet for an exercise he had done in his drug rehabilitation session earlier that week. Students and faculty participated in what I can only describe as a humbling experience.

I chatted with Jackie who told me about how she hadn't fit in at the local high school, so she started cutting class. She never thought she could succeed before she came to the ACES, but now thrives running numerous committees including the upcoming pie sale for Thanksgiving.

I will continue to cover the ACES for the duration of the school year.

Rob McGarry
Beirut Tournament at The Big Easy
New York, NY

Although drinking and socializing are a part of almost every nation and culture, the excesses of drinking games seems to be uniquely American. "Beirut," better known as "Beer Pong" is a rite of passage in many colleges, and for those recent graduates, can follow them into their young professional lives. The Big Easy, one of hundreds of bars in Manhattan, plays host to an annual Beirut tournament that drew fifty-five, two-person co-ed teams from around the city. The illustrious pack included some nationally ranked Beirut teams (who knew?) with skills and superstitions that would make baseball players blush.

The premise is simple: throw a ping pong ball into a cups filled with beer, arranged in a triangle formation. Each time a team sinks a ball, the opposing team must drink. Continue till the cups are gone and the team is eliminated. Sounds easy, but the task is complicated by the increasing effects of alcohol. The $30 team entrance fee is offset by the chance to win the $1000 first prize.

Wilted Cactus
California Wildfires
Scripps Ranch, CA

The smell is much too familiar. It's the acrid smell of burnt life that I first encountered on September 11. But this time, it's 1 million acres of the state of California. And while the toll in human lives is significantly less, thousands of homes and consequently thousands of lives were affected by the fires which burned out of control for a few weeks.

Driving northbound on I-15 leads you an 8-lane highway surrounded on both sides by scorched earth. And at first maybe you think you're seeing things, but it becomes apparent pretty quickly that the magnitude of destruction is enormous. Entire hillsides are black with ash, and the guard rail posts that surrounded the highway have been incinerated by the intense heat.

Ironically, there are communities just feet away from the destruction that have escaped unharmed. A green lawn with a park table sits oblivious to its near death. And people go about their day with an attitude of "business as usual," because they have to. People are still wandering about at the nearby malls with their designer shopping bags as the Parks department clears away fallen, burnt timber. A Parks department employee tells me about how he saw the fires on both sides of the highway, but I get a sense that he's more in awe at the enormity of the conflagration, than he is at its destruction.

Finally, you might be inclined to believe that there are actually no people in America since my photos have been devoid of humans for the past few months. I'll fix that soon.

66 °
The World's Tallest Thermometer
Baker, CA

Driving along I-15 from Las Vegas to San Diego takes you through the Mojave Desert National Park, which is the home to Death Valley, the hottest place on earth. In keeping with the superlatives of American life, it is only appropriate that the world's tallest thermometer jut out of the barren landscape to announce the highs and lows of desert life. But if you're also looking for the world's largest supply of mercury, you'll be sadly disappointed to find that the thermometer is digital and that computers run everything now.

P.S. Vegas is nuts on Halloween.