The reason we were going was to visit Cherise’s brother, Lucky, who was one of something like 20 accepted from around the country for the freshman class of University of the Arts.

This is not his dorm. But it is one of the dorms. And it’s of note, because it used to be an insane asylum. I kind of wonder how students feel about this dorm, especially as they’re passing a row of foreboding bare trees to enter the place.

We checked out a place called Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens. The pictures will tell the story better than I can describe it, but this place is insane. Basically, a few decades ago an artist bought a block of buildings, and has spent the time since turning it into an extremely intricate, highly decorated mosaic. Imagine if a pile of glass, tile, wood, mechanical and metal rubbish exploded over freshly plastered church ruins, and you start to have an idea of what this place looks like. Not an inch is spared- allow me to show you.

The artist community in the area is thriving, to say the least. We walked around town at night and saw galleries all over the place, with some unique window décor. We also enjoyed some excellent pizza. Everyone says that New York has the best pizza in the world. I’ve had it, and it is excellent, but frankly, I found Philadelphia’s to be even better, especially at those cheap by the slice places.

Yes, those are various cooked fowl over the faces of those portraits.

After a day and a half in Philly, we made a day trip over to New York City. We got up a little late and took a good amount of time taking the train. When we arrived, we enjoyed some fine vegetarian dim sum. It sounds weird. In fact, it probably is a little weird. But it’s damn good.

It was quite late by the time we were done, and we went to see Times Square since Cherise and Lucky hadn’t seen it. I’m not a fan… frankly, it’s gaudy and ridiculously overpriced versions of stores you can find anywhere else.

But I guess it does have fun lit up trinkets.

There’s a few more pictures in the gallery. Click on the picture of me to have a look.

There’s a new political cartoon I randomly found that I’ve been liking a lot, Jen Sorensen’s Slowpoke. Here’s the latest one.

A couple weekends ago I did some engagement shots for my friend Bbora and her fiancé Minh. I met Bbora donkey’s years ago, while I was still in high school. I went to an all male Catholic school which her brother was attending, and while visiting his house, met Bbora.

I remember her first words to me… after learning my name is Alex, she said something along the lines of ‘Did you know you’re named after a bloodthirsty gay warlord?’ She was so young and precious then. I was obviously charmed, since we’ve been good friends, and at one point roommates, since.

Here’s the happy couple. We shot these in Hakone Gardens, a Japanese garden in Saratoga with a lot of really cool scenery. If you’re ever in the area, I’d recommend dropping by.

I’ll be shooting their wedding on Saturday. I’m a little nervous, since it’s the first wedding I’ve ever shot solo. Whoops, Bbora reads this… it’s all under control Bbora. It’s all under control.

EDIT: OK, one more couple shot.

But are we all familiar with LOLcats of Death?

Speaking of deaths, two legendary directors have died in two days.

Ingmar Bergman:

Michelangelo Antonioni:

‘That’s dark’ is a phrase coined morbidly/humorously at my work. My coworker mentioned a time that he had to run across a parking lot to stop this guy driving off. You know how some people drive off with their coffee on top of the car? This guy was driving off with his baby carrier with baby on top of the car. We were amazed at this story, and took a moment to reflect.

After a couple beats, I chimed in. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘that’s just natural selection, right?’

Laughter ensues, and my coworker says ‘Man. That’s dark.’

A couple weeks ago, Cherise and I hit the waters of Newport Harbour. The vessel was Destiny, and the occasion was Albert and Junko’s wedding.

I’ve known Albert since 2001 or so, and he and Junko had been together long before that. I started playing violin that year, and enquired with the music department at UCI as to where I could find a teacher. They gave me Albert’s phone number, and it quickly became apparent that he was a bit of a screwball. Naturally, we hit it off pretty well.

I was always pretty flexible with lessons in those days, so I usually had wildly different times from week to week. This let him accommodate his young students better, but I guess it made tracking my lessons a bit more difficult. At some point, he stopped billing me, and whenever I asked, he told me he’d get back to me.

After years of this, we settled on an agreement. We’d call it even if I took some photos at his wedding. Looking back, this may have been a clever trick on his part. It wasn’t high pressure by any means though- he had an official photographer, so I was basically free to shoot what I wanted.

A quartet of Albert’s students greet guests.

It’s actually thanks to Albert that I played at Carnegie Hall. That’s right readers, a mere two or three years after learning violin, I was heading to the same stage the likes of which Tchaikovsky played on.

I know what you must be thinking. That I must be brilliant. And I am. But not in that sense, unfortunately. It seems Carnegie Hall invites youth orchestras around the country to play their stage every so often as sort of a publicity stunt. The audience is mostly comprised of the students’ beaming parents, all armed with video cameras. Peppered throughout our mostly young Asian student orchestra, there were the occasional older guys like me, however.

Basically, months earlier, the conversation went like this:
Albert: ‘How would you like to play at Carnegie Hall?’
Alex: ‘OK.’

Albert, being the consummate networker that he is, managed to get his youth orchestra into this arrangement, and invited several of his older friends to tag along in the orchestra just to be able to say they’ve played the Carnegie Hall stage. (If you haven’t played it, you haven’t made it!)

The great Mr. Wu and co.

Playing on the stage was quite an experience, to say the least. Just for fun when we rehearsed, I gave one string on my fiddle a slight pluck. The reverberated throughout the entire room… you could have probably heard a pin drop on the stage.

Instead, during the softest, most beautiful part of the adagietto of Mahler’s 5th Symphony, we heard a loud BANG as one of the kids behind us dropped his shoulder pad. As luck would have it, we had an official videographer centered right on him when it happened. This event has been captured for generations to come, for this child’s children and grandchildren to witness.

Mischa, a groomsman, fiddling around.

The younger me probably would have never gone on that trip. I would have thought too much about it, decided I wasn’t worthy, couldn’t ready myself, and come up with a million reasons not to do it. I would have heard his proposition, probably told him I’d think about it, and then decide I couldn’t do it rather than simply agreeing to it and worrying about practising later. I think partly thanks to Albert, I gained a little bit (ok, a lot) of impetuousness, and a willingness to put myself in these kind of challenges. Sometimes it’s ok to act then think.

Anyway, I’d wish these two all the best if I felt there wasn’t any need. They’ve been together so long that I have no doubt they’ll be a happy couple for years to come.

Enough talk, more pictures.

Out in Newport Harbour.

Cherise and I. Even wearing a vest instead of a jacket, it was monstrously hot.

Moments before disaster.

Let me just caution to everyone- sandstone is slippery. It looks and feels solid. It isn’t. That is all.

Eric let me play around with a 15mm fisheye lens he brought with him. First I took a self portrait.

Then, a group shot.

Finally, an HDR for good measure.

Afterwards, I used the good old 24mm tilt shift lens.

As the sun was setting, a good time was had by all as we tried to set up portraits and mess around with the fading sunset colours.

I recommend you click on each of their sites. It’s safe to say they all have wildly different styles, but they’re excellent photographers.