Pioneer Photography Practice

Last Sunday was the Umpteenthsomething Annual Forks of the Wabash Pioneer Festival in Huntington, IN. It's much like any other festival of the type, a big group of people set up tents, appear in era appropriate garb, and sell exceedingly inappropriate for the time period merchandise. I don't believe those unfortunate individuals on the Oregon Trail were sporting peace sign necklaces or looking forward to filling their new homestead with tacky lawn ornaments. Maybe I just missed that chapter in my history book.

Nicole makes it a yearly tradition to visit the festival, and since we may not be within a thousand miles for next year's, she wanted to make sure we made a visit. Unfortunately, this meant we got there about 1 hour before it closed. Cue "Yakkity Sax" and a Benny Hill style run around in circles as we attempted to locate everything on Nicole's must buy list, all while trying to avoid tripping over lots of 19th century skirts in the way of our mad dash.

The Unfortunate Tale of Ms. Gabriele Nichols

Photo by Arthur Tress, found on ContemporaryWorks.net

Apparently, I live a double life. To my friends, family, co-workers, and pretty much any person that actually knows me as a human being, I am Gabriele Nichols, an adult male in his middle 20s who could only be mistaken for a female if we’re talking about the bearded lady. To countless advertisers, credit card companies, and various producers of junk mail, I am Ms. Gabriele Nichols.

The tail of this confusion begins before my birth, when it was determined by my parents that I should have the name Gabriel. However, due to a desire to do something different, I received the spelling-of-indiscriminate origin Gabriele. Apparently, this spelling is French in origin, though it took my language expert English professor in college a full 5 minutes of thought before he could place the nationality. This man could give you the entire history of the word “beer” in 5 seconds flat, so my being able to stump him was quite a feat.

The Great Honeymoon Debate

Photo from The Commons on Flickr

While I’m definitely obsessed with selecting the music for Nicole and I’s wedding next year, what I’m really thrilled about is planning our honeymoon trip. Travel is one of my loves in life, and this is one of those few opportunities where you are expected to spend loads of money and disappear from the real world for a week or two.

At first, I was obsessed with one idea. We would go to Europe. A large part of the time would be in London, and then maybe Germany for a few days since Nicole knows some German. Oh, and of course Paris, because it’s the city of romance, and there’s Disneyland Paris of course. I’ve also always wanted to go to Italy.

NSP Review: Matt & Kim- Grand

Album artwork from Matt & Kim's Website

Album: Grand

Artist: Matt & Kim

Label: Fader Label

Sounds Like: Someone took the White Stripes, taught Meg White how to drum, gave Jack White an electric keyboard instead of a guitar, and took away about 3/4th the melody and the blues influence.

Matt & Kim are an extraordinarily simple band, so this is going to be a short and simple review. Hailing from New York, everything about the band seems to evoke the idealistic view of the place, with art school origins, album artwork built from collages of the city, and live shows where the two-piece loses itself literally in the middle of the audience. “Constructive Chaos” might be the best way to describe the band, as they seem to put a lot of effort into seeming random and destructive.

Requiem for a Record Store

Photo from The Commons on Flickr

I have spent nearly every day since this past Tuesday trying to find a single CD. This is not uncommon, as I happen to live in a town where there are literally 3 sources for music, a Wal Mart, which has eliminated half its selection, a K-Mart, which has eliminated 9/10th of its selection, and a place called Karma, which probably only sells a bad selection of CDs to disguise the fact that it is filled with pot memorabilia. Add on the fact that most music I consume is completely unknown by anyone else in this city, and you’ve got yourself a typical problem.

The more frustrating part of this search, however, came from two factors. One, it was the new album by Grinderman, entitled Grinderman 2, which is Nick Cave’s side-project. Nick Cave also happens to be one of my favorite artists ever, and one of the few that would turn me into a screaming pyscho fan if I ever got within 10 miles of him. Second, my search wasn’t just of my hometown, but also of Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana, two of the biggest cities in the state. I finally found the disc today, but was almost to the point of vehicular homicide by the time I discovered a store that carried it.

Florida Invasion Plan: The Reconnaissance Mission

Photo from The Commons on Flickr

In just a few weeks, Nicole and I will be infiltrating Florida to find our new base of operations. We will arrive via air, and commandeer a commercial vehicle to investigate potential sites. We will break for R&R, then share intelligence with a fellow operative already deep in the field, before returning via air to resume our civilian jobs.

You could say it all that way, but that would be ridiculous. Instead, here’s a rough plan for our apartment hunting trip next month.

The Absence of the Other Half

Nicole is not a spirit helping me solve mysteries, because she is, in fact, alive.

Photo from The Commons on Flickr.

Lately I’ve suffered not seeing my better half often enough. Due to Nicole’s work schedule and vastly different sleep schedule, I managed to see her a grand total of 10 hours, non-consecutive, including falling asleep, in the last 3 days. Yes, I did the math, because I’m that intensely bored without someone else in the apartment. If it wasn’t for Team Fortress 2 and random music, I’d be tugging my hair out at the roots, and the former is only possible when our intolerable internet works. As anyone can tell, however, she’s not only absent often in my life, but also on this blog.