Best Coachella Yet

Yes I've been absent for a while and no I haven't done a whole lot of drawing. I've still got one big project in the works, but it's stuck in draft stage until I get off my butt and buy some paper to make the final product. But I've been a bit distracted.

Our condo is finally put back together after the water damage, so that's one distraction down. Birthday madness begins now with my wife's birthday, my own birthday, and mothers day falling on top of each other as usual.

But last weekend's distraction was the the finest. 3 days of heat, music and art. This was our third April visit to Indio for the incomparable Coachella music festival, and our fist since they went to the 3 day format. Our last attendance was cut short by a family medical emergency, so 3 days was a test. But we did it right, rented a house with a few other couples, having leisurely breakfasts/swims in the morning, and soaks in the hot tub at night. Good times.

The concert itself was off the charts. Blown away by several acts, notably Man Man, Sharon Jones and the Dapp Kings, Holy F*ck, Gogol Bordello Portishead, and, winner for most spectacular, Roger Waters.

I didn't really expect much from Waters other than zoning out to some good music. I knew he could still play and I absolutely love Pink Floyd music, but I figured that after 30 or so years, there wasn't much he could pull out to really get me going. How very wrong I was. Long story short: giant inflatable pig with anti-war/anti-Bush slogans that he released into the night sky ("That's my pig"), and a low-flying airplane with WWII-style shark teeth painted on it dropping Obama leaflets. It was an absolutely otherworldly experience and I'm thrilled to have witnessed it.

Others may have had him beat on their overall performance (I was particularly taken by Man Man's outrageously manic set), but Waters' show was the very definition of spectacular.

Anyway, here are photos from the weekend. Many of day 1's photos were taken by my wife, while I took the vast majority of day 2 and 3's shots.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Couldn't have been a nicer day

Flashing back for a moment to our October vacation, this photo was my favorite of the countless I took of the Statue of Liberty. Hard not to take a good shot, of course.

I'm also particularly fond of this one. I love the somewhat disorienting mix of scales, between the massive base of the statue, the comparatively minuscule people, and the distant but huge city. Makes a nice statement, no?

And of course I had to play with the telephoto lens. Can you believe the color of the sky that day?!

The old country

I'm not being very productive on the drawing front. Two weeks of travel, plus I've picked up an instructive drawing book. So I guess I am drawing, but they're drawing exercises, not my own stuff.

Visited Chicago and New York, took over 1000 photos. This one is a particular favorite, taken with my 55-200mm lens, it's a ginkgo tree at the home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, Il. I did a lot of experimenting with depth-of-field while on the trip and this one came out particularly nice, wouldn't you agree.

Oh hell, I just rememberd I do have a finished drawing I should post. And maybe I'll track my progress through the instructional book here as well.