One Year. Ten Random Facts.
So today is my first Flickr anniversary. After being tagged numerous times, I figured this would be as a good a time as any to get this over with.
I also think it's a good time to thank all of you for the time you spend viewing and commenting on my work. You are an enormously talented group and I never cease to be amazed by the quality of the images I get to see in my contacts streams every day. I count you all as friends and I value that friendship immensely.
Anyway, enough of the sappy stuff. Here are ten random things you probably have no interest in whatsoever...
1. I was born in Blackpool England. It was a dirty old seaside town where the working classes took their boozy, bawdy vacations. It rained almost constantly. It's heyday was a hundred years earlier and it had been deteriorating ever since. It was probably the greatest place in the world to grow up.
2. When I was 15, my best buddy and I got a one day gig with Eric Clapton's road crew when he played in my hometown. We worked so hard loading and unloading the gear and setting up the stage that they wanted to hire us full time. It was the beginning of Clapton's world tour and we could be a part of it. It was either that or finish school. I'm still kicking myself.
3. When I was 16, I was in a rock band. We played heavy progressive rock stuff - Led Zeppelin and the like. We hadn't had a haircut in years. One day our guitarist showed up to our practice wide eyed and pale and visibly shaken. He put the Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bollocks" on the turntable and things were never the same again. We spent the next 24 hours ripping up our tee shirts and safety pinning them back together. And we all finally got a haircut.
4. When I was 19, I came to the States with a group of friends. It was Summer and we headed straight to the beach. We charged into the warm waters of the Pacific, yelling and screaming with excitement. About 15 minutes later we were puking seawater on the beach after the lifeguards pulled us out of the rip current that almost drowned us. Lesson learned.
5. I went to college with Luminous Landscape. We took a photography course together. We lost touch for almost 30 years. Thanks to the the internet and pure dumb luck, we reconnected. After all that time, he inspired me to pick up a camera again. I don't think I will ever be able to thank him enough for that.
6. About 10 years ago my wife and I had a trip planned with another couple. We were to visit their home towns on the East Coast. They grew up in Cape Cod and the Hamptons and we had never been. At the last minute some work issues arose and they had to cancel. We decided there was no point in going without them so we postponed the trip. The return flight that we were booked on and miraculously had to cancel was American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, on the morning of September 11th. 2001.
7. Food - Italian. Wine - Californian. Cars - German. Women - American (preferably born and raised in San Francisco, of English and Dutch ancestry and with an amazing ability to put up with my bullshit)
8. I trust most dogs more than I trust most people. This is of course a very broad generalization and there are some very notable exceptions to the rule. Jack Russell Terriers, for example. I learned that one the hard way.
9. I think that the sport of boxing is the purest and most admirable expression of athletic skill, inner strength and raw courage. The officiating, of course, is another matter entirely.
10. I've recently learned that I am substantially less comfortable in front of the camera than behind it. I've also discovered that trying to come up with 10 facts about yourself that you are not too embarrassed, paranoid, ashamed or self-deprecating to share is way more difficult and time consuming than it sounds. I will therefor not be tagging anyone in particular but I would extend an open invitation to any and all of you to give it a shot sometime. No pun intended.
One Year. Ten Random Facts.
So today is my first Flickr anniversary. After being tagged numerous times, I figured this would be as a good a time as any to get this over with.
I also think it's a good time to thank all of you for the time you spend viewing and commenting on my work. You are an enormously talented group and I never cease to be amazed by the quality of the images I get to see in my contacts streams every day. I count you all as friends and I value that friendship immensely.
Anyway, enough of the sappy stuff. Here are ten random things you probably have no interest in whatsoever...
1. I was born in Blackpool England. It was a dirty old seaside town where the working classes took their boozy, bawdy vacations. It rained almost constantly. It's heyday was a hundred years earlier and it had been deteriorating ever since. It was probably the greatest place in the world to grow up.
2. When I was 15, my best buddy and I got a one day gig with Eric Clapton's road crew when he played in my hometown. We worked so hard loading and unloading the gear and setting up the stage that they wanted to hire us full time. It was the beginning of Clapton's world tour and we could be a part of it. It was either that or finish school. I'm still kicking myself.
3. When I was 16, I was in a rock band. We played heavy progressive rock stuff - Led Zeppelin and the like. We hadn't had a haircut in years. One day our guitarist showed up to our practice wide eyed and pale and visibly shaken. He put the Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bollocks" on the turntable and things were never the same again. We spent the next 24 hours ripping up our tee shirts and safety pinning them back together. And we all finally got a haircut.
4. When I was 19, I came to the States with a group of friends. It was Summer and we headed straight to the beach. We charged into the warm waters of the Pacific, yelling and screaming with excitement. About 15 minutes later we were puking seawater on the beach after the lifeguards pulled us out of the rip current that almost drowned us. Lesson learned.
5. I went to college with Luminous Landscape. We took a photography course together. We lost touch for almost 30 years. Thanks to the the internet and pure dumb luck, we reconnected. After all that time, he inspired me to pick up a camera again. I don't think I will ever be able to thank him enough for that.
6. About 10 years ago my wife and I had a trip planned with another couple. We were to visit their home towns on the East Coast. They grew up in Cape Cod and the Hamptons and we had never been. At the last minute some work issues arose and they had to cancel. We decided there was no point in going without them so we postponed the trip. The return flight that we were booked on and miraculously had to cancel was American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, on the morning of September 11th. 2001.
7. Food - Italian. Wine - Californian. Cars - German. Women - American (preferably born and raised in San Francisco, of English and Dutch ancestry and with an amazing ability to put up with my bullshit)
8. I trust most dogs more than I trust most people. This is of course a very broad generalization and there are some very notable exceptions to the rule. Jack Russell Terriers, for example. I learned that one the hard way.
9. I think that the sport of boxing is the purest and most admirable expression of athletic skill, inner strength and raw courage. The officiating, of course, is another matter entirely.
10. I've recently learned that I am substantially less comfortable in front of the camera than behind it. I've also discovered that trying to come up with 10 facts about yourself that you are not too embarrassed, paranoid, ashamed or self-deprecating to share is way more difficult and time consuming than it sounds. I will therefor not be tagging anyone in particular but I would extend an open invitation to any and all of you to give it a shot sometime. No pun intended.