Gnumoon's Stuff

Targeted Ads

I was emailing with my Uncle Jimmy, and you know how Gmail mines posts for keywords so they can target the ads to you? Check this one out...

Survival!

This is more of a tweet, but I'll put it here anyway... I survived another 4-day marathon shooting session. It was hard this time because it was difficult to be away from the baby that long, but it was good. Got some good shots, met some cool people. I wish I had a day off to rest tomorrow, but alas it is not to be.

Merlefest LiveBlog, Day 4

- I seem to have finally recovered from my food poisoning/food intolerance issue from last night, but not before a nap in the car and a good night's sleep. Pookie was affected by the high pollen count, so we were a snotty, nauseated, sleepy bunch last night. FUN!

- This last day of the festival is always the day DJ has to literally push me out of bed. It's the day I wake up and say, "I have another whole DAY?" But then I forget about this day in about 2 weeks and only have the fun memories.

-Current kept photo count is about 2050. That's a lotta editin' going on.

- Levon Helm has more energy than he really should have. Here he is tearing it up last night during Ophelia:

Merlefest LiveBlog, Day 3

Update (7:19 pm) -
-The festival feeds those of us who work here. Normally the food is pretty good, but tonight I seem to have gotten my hands on some bad bbq. I am NOT feeling well at all. I don't want to go from being "That pregnant photographer" to "that barfing photographer". Or anything else embarrassing.

- The Hillside Zeppelin set was pretty sweeeeet.

- I always run into the most random people here. I've seen several people from college, a few media people, and a guy who recognized me from being a sideline shooter at football games.

Update (3:38 pm) -
- Here comes the rain again, falling on my head like a memoreeeeee. This weather is blecch- I'm so glad I'm not out in the audience with only a plastic poncho to keep away nature's wrath.

- The Waybacks and John Cowan are performing all of Led Zeppelin's II on the Hillside Stage here in a bit. I'll def. have to make my way over there and take that one in. It's one of my favorite albums by them.

Original post -
- This morning was perfect. Beautiful. Sunny.
Now we are in the midst of the first real spring thunderstorm of the year. And I am coming to you live (right now) from an aluminum tent. My father-in-law would be horrified.
I am very, very glad that DJ chose not to bring Pookie down here today. I am unimpressed by a mere radar image showing a monster storm, but he was raised to respect that big green blog and heed its fury.

- More dudes in skirts. More ball sweat.

- Still no female photogs, and the count on "That's a big ol camera for a lady" is at about 14 so far. You'll think "big ol camera" when I smack you upside the head with it.*
* I would never do that. The lens cost too damn much.

- This is from last night, but here are some Avett Brothers for your Saturday viewing.

Merlefest Live Blogging, Day 2

- Perfect weather. oooohhhhhh it's nice!

- It is too sunny. Even though I'm in tent, it's so bright out here that photo editing besides cropping is virtually impossible.
<-This photo, for example...I know it is very strangely colorized, but I can't tell exactly how, so I can't fix it right now.

- Lots of dudes in skirts. Some are kilts, some are hiking skirts. I'm confused- I don't have the parts, but I'd imagine the balls, they sweat. Ew.

- Every year at this festival I discover a new band to love. So far the frontrunner this year is The Waifs, an Australian group.

- You can always tell when the "headliner" bands show up, because the nice tour buses appear in the gravel lot backstage. There's a lovely shiny shiny black and red one back here now, but I'm not sure who it belongs to.

- I underestimated the heat today. I'm not comfy in just pants and a pink tank top, but I might actually pass out if I was wearing my hoodie. Luckily my camera is really heavy, so it kind of makes my arms look muscley, even if the rest of me looks flabby.

- There are ZERO other female photographers besides me here. I keep getting weird looks from the crowd, and once I confirmed that there was no booger present, it occurred to me that I just look much different than the others. Oh well. Maybe if I was wearing a skirt I'd blend in?

- I just took a little break and sat and watched a band. It was very nice, but I of course ended up people-watching instead of band-listening. There is a high percentage of hippies here, and besides the usual hippie twirling-hula-hooping thing, I now notice little hippie babies. All hippies have babies; it comes with the dreds and earth shoes. (You can tie-dye a shitload of onesies with one box of RIT, by the way.)

So I was watching this one cute little hippie family and I started noticing things that didn't jive ... for example, they had this stroller that costs $1300. I know it does because I think I loudly mentioned it in the store ... "WHO would pay that much for a stroller?! How bourgeois!" (You know what irony is?) The parents also had on matching Merrills, a 3.0 Kelty pack (the $300 version to my $100 cheapo) and were snacking on uber-expensive local organic yogurt.

Ah, so not hippies, then. Trustafarians. Riiiight. These are people who ACT like hippies, but have the money to buy nice expensive things while pretending to be broke and not cowing to the Man. My town is overrun with them. Other tip-offs are: Brand new Land Rovers or Subarus, perfect straight white teeth, and lack of tattoos. Also any overtly stereotypical hippie behavior may help you spot them - it's an overcompensation mechanism. LOTS of patchoulli? LONG dreds? INORDINATE amounts of body hair? The tendency to loudly write off Trey Anastasio because he "like, sold out the rest of the band"? These are all signs to look for.

There is nothing wrong with TFarians, by the way, but those who don't know what to look for might mistake them for something different. I'm just providing a public service, you see. Their kid was 100% adorable, and incredibly well-behaved, so they are doing something right.

Merlefest Live blogging, Day 1

Ah, here I am again at MerleFest. Hard to believe it's my 3rd year. So far:

- At least 6 people have asked me how my baby is. Last year I was stage-blockingly pregnant. Everyone here is so incredibly nice, but I'm even shocked that they remember.

- I have had to go to the car a few times to pump. I am doing the "pumping in the car" world tour- National Championship games, music festivals ... where could be next? Stay tuned!

- I have now been to this festival enough that several performers have greeted me with a hug.

- The currently-playing band has a rhythm guitar player who looks like the love child of Mick Jagger and Tm Petty. I mentioned this to another photographer ... and the band just now launched into "Running Down a Dream". heh

This is for Marie, whose favorite photo effect of ALL TIME is lens flare. Seriously, you should all head over to her site and demand it. She LOVES it!

*facepalm*, the South Carolina edition

Dear Idiotic Backwoods Southern Church -
      Thank you so much for further solidifying the rest of the nation's opinion that we in the South are racist rednecks who haven't even two brain cells to rub together. While you're at it, can you please add to the other side of your sign that Jesus rode to temple on a velociraptor (since the earth is only 6,000 years old) and that insolent wimmins should be beaten for daring to wear slacks? Thanks so much.

XOXO,
A Southern Lady

ps- Shouldn't you guys be losing your tax-exempt status right about now for voicing political opinions? Just curious.
pss- Since the congregation is so behind you in this matter, perhaps you could just cut to the chase and put "We don't want no negro president" on the sign next time. Saves some time in translation.

Scary economics and good bluegrass

This is scary.
I'm increasingly afraid that anyone who says we've already bottomed-out is either 1. On Chimpy McFlightsuit's payroll, 2. Selling something, or 3. a moran.
*hugs modest fixed-rate mortgage tightly*

I'm all for taking the good with the bad, so here's a taste o' MerleFest. If'n you're thinking of coming, I'd highly suggest Friday as the best day to come.
There will be Avetts:

And Carolina Chocolate Drops:

Hey, did you guys hear something?

We took advantage of Grandfather Mountain's "Dollar Days" promotion today, where the yokels of the local variety get into the park for one buckeroo. Not that I mind the usual $14 - I think it's very worth it. But a dollar? I'm there. Also, you don't feel bad about leaving the bridge when it's so freaking cold and the wind is blowing about 150 mph...you can just say, "Well, it was just a dollar."

I'll be honest. Watching the bears snag peanuts out of the air was the most productive thing I did all weekend.

I feel like my laziness was justifiable because we have something planned almost every weekend from here until football season, starting this week. Merlefest starts Thursday- I can't believe it's been a year since the last one. Maren will be joining us this year, and we even bought a special Pookie pack to haul her around in.

This. Is. Spartaaaaa!

I haven't had much time to update (between work, playing with the baby, and planning a vacation (I know you're weeping for me)), so here's a little Lightroom-ed up photo of the Pooker. I just installed a bunch of presets into LR, and one is called "300." It is what it says it is.