agnoli

Its almost surf trip status at the house down here. Living with your friends is always an illuminating experience. I'm on the floor, lewis is on the couch, and Shayne is sleeping on the porch on the blow-up bed.
Avery is the elder elder, exhibiting overly mature behavior in the face of Shayne and lewis' childish/crotchety berating of each other. I'm cooking and gardening, my standard retreat from life's complexities.
It wouldn't be complete if lewis and Shayne weren't arguing about surfing no-existent waves. "if we want to go surf we should have already gone by now."
been cooking in, its coffee and french toast this morning. I have been in town for three days and all I've seen is Thalia street and trestles. And I'm happy about it.

         

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five_old_men.zip (734 KB)

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.
broke from home early to meet Avery and Cline for breakfast at Zazie.
"une, deux, trois". 
lots of boy talk.

   

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zazie_with_the_boys_a_stroll_d.zip (512 KB)

walked off our breakfast with a stroll down haight, a lovely car fire got us all the way to masonic, it was out by the time we got there.
license plate reads "no muff to tuff", an ad for a muffler shop.

retired to avery's for a nap on the couch, the wind was blowing hard, making a mess of the ocean, and blowing sand across great highway.

Its the end of our surf season as we know it. And I feel fine. I leave for Chile in a three weeks. Avery is going to Alaska, and Cline and Lewis are working on their Music careers.

Sorry, I shot a lot of pictures, so I'm breaking this night up into a couple posts.
 
The Elks were gracious hosts and we thoroughly enjoyed their environs. The thought did cross more than one of our minds "When I grow up I want to be an Elk". They even accept women these days.
By the end of the night we were all adorned with pins from the Exalted Ruler.

         

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...._and_friends_part_two.zip (1024 KB)

Ever since Lewis remade himself as a media persona, hanging out with him has become more entertaining. In Spain the pros were either out to buy him a beer or beat him senseless. Luckily he's painted himself as a lover not a fighter, so he's been able to sidestep most altercations. Witness here Lewis applying the tried and true, "I'll just keep talking until they get bored" defense when approached about his stance on european surfers.

             

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0...._and_friends_part_two.zip (1341 KB)

we finally tore ourselves from the bar to go in search of food, only it took a good hour to tear ourselves from the bar.

               

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1...._and_friends_part_two.zip (1760 KB)

Aaron was kind enough to host a night of music at the Elks lodge down on Post. Five sets of 5, he kept it moving along with a good mix of original blues, folk, and alt-c. He runs a tight ship and it shows. Ryan and Lewis played a nice set of acoustic, electric, and piano backed by everybody's favorite drummer. The whole singer songwriter thing made me think about how i spend my time and if there's any of that inside of me. Nah, I think I'll stick to shooting photos and blogging.
The crowd was a nice mix of everybody's friends and the local elk personalities. We met the "Exalted Ruler" and his queen as well as the MC of the night, were treated to the 11 o'clock moment of remembrance, and a wonderful tequila at the very friendly bar.
A most memorable night in my pantheon of experiences due to the mix of old friends, new acquaintances, and totally unique venue. I'll post more pics of the bar scene shortly.

http://www.myspace.com/ryanscottcline

     

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ryan_cline_and_friends_at_the_.zip (699 KB)

Lewis and Ryan waiting to go on.

     

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0ryan_cline_and_friends_at_the_.zip (772 KB)

I decided I hate red and green lights, they are so harsh they just wash out the chroma values. They are really hard to shoot around, maybe i need to figure out a better white balance setting. When I open my night club its going to be candle light, or something equally soft but even toned.

             

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1ryan_cline_and_friends_at_the_.zip (1671 KB)

closing time....

Everybody has their strategy, some work, some don't. Some only work against other equally warped strategies. Obscure strategies change the nature of the game. Witness Enzo and Adrian playing the Boardwalk and Park Place strategy. It had Adele puzzled if not a little entertained.

         

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monopoly_strategies.zip (1147 KB)

mmm, pork chops and cabernet.

     

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0monopoly_strategies.zip (696 KB)

Dave brought his camera gear, we played around with remote triggering his flash (Canon Speedlite 430EX) with my master (Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2). I originally bought the ST-E2 for its AF-assist beam so I could shoot in extremely low light conditions, but using it for its intended purpose was also very cool. I ended up holding the flash in my left hand while shooting with my right. The flexibility of the rig makes for infinite lighting possibilities, none of which i fully explored. It did make night into day, the change in temperature being my main complaint, will have to get a set of gels or something.

           

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1monopoly_strategies.zip (1462 KB)