IPHONE PHOTO ROUNDUP: THE FORT LAUDERDALE WATER TAXI DAY

'I wanna get on a boat!"

That was Mr13's response to the question I asked him yesterday, which was, "What do you want to do?" Fair enough -- we'll find you a boat, buddy! Our Florida hotel concierge had a $450 boat rental she wanted to sell us, which we firmly declined, and then she lost interest in us. Fair enough -- our boat experience instead was the much more reasonably priced Water Taxi, which runs from Hollywood to Fort Lauderdale back and forth on the Intracoastal Waterway. So, on a lovely 80-degree day we set out on our modest boat adventure.

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GUEST VIDEO: THE POOL

Our family vacation has been immeasurably enhanced by both perfect sunny weather and the wonderful company of new friends. One such friend, young Master Ethan B., took my Panasonic DMC-TS3 for a spin through our hotel pool and I thought his photo/video efforts suited this cool psychedelic groove by White Fence perfectly. Cameo appearances by Mr13 and MissNine included, no extra charge.

Thanks, E!

"The Pool," video/photos by Ethan B., music by White Fence

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AS PROMISED...NOW UP ON KEXP...BRUISE CRUISE 2012!

Woo hoo! So excited to share with you the best of my Bruise Cruise 2012 photos with the sweet wordsmithery of fellow Seattle writer/photog Suzi Pratt, now up on KEXP! At this year's Deck the Hall Ball as Suzi and I were in the photo pit getting ready to shoot, I, with many grand gestures and exclamations, told Suzi I'd be attending the 2nd annual garage punk rock Miami-to-Nassau boat concert/extravaganza. I used even more gestures and exclamations to try to convince her to attend as well, and was so thrilled when she told me she gave in to general insanity and booked her passage! She ended up directly across the hall from me on the ship, and we had a blast. Suzi so graciously stepped in last minute to write and format the post for KEXP, and I owe her at the very least a makeshift shrine consisting of a fruity drink, earplugs, a neon tube, and a sparkly Speedo.

Over the five days of the event (2 pre-show concerts in Miami, 1 day in Nassau, and 2 days on the ship), I shot thousands of photos. It was challenging, exhausting, and a total blast, with fantastic performances, weirdness everywhere, and great company with old and new pals. As always, YOU are always on my mind and in my heart when I am photographing anything. I want you to see what I see, go where I go, and hopefully feel what it was like to be there, whether you were a fellow Bruiser, wished you could be one, or prefer your insanity from a safe distance! I'll write more about the experience when I return home to Seattle-ish next week, and put up more photos, too.

For now, please to enjoy Bruise Cruise 2012 HERE on KEXP and HERE on my KEXP Flickr set!

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IPHONE PHOTO ROUNDUP: SOFLA CHILLIN'

Another mellow day at our SoFla hotel with Sick 1 and Sick 2 (MissNine and myself), but not so sick that we couldn't get out for two lovely meals, and a little pool time. As usual, iPhone cam takes you where I go, but without the cold germs.

Goodyear Blimp!

It was weird to see these seagulls drinking the water...then I figured out it was a saline water pool, derr.

Cool shirt, bro. Eat your waffle!

NO PROBLEM.

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IPHONE PHOTO ROUNDUP: HOW I SPENT MY SNOTCATION

Well, OF COURSE it would NEVER HAPPEN that I would have a family vacation without someone getting sick! Winding down from Bruise Cruise here in Florida, I immediately came down with a cold, and poor MissNine has an even worse one, fever and all. She even threw up in the rental car parking lot late last night, which I think is totally fair because the company didn't have the car model they SPECIFICALLY GUARANTEED US. Take THAT! So rather than jaunting about all merrily in the sunshine today, we had a very low-key day. I finished up my photos and sent them off to the station (I will let you cats know when they are up), everyone (else) slept late, we went out briefly for brunch and a trip to Wal-Mart (shudder), and ate dinner in the hotel room.

When I opened up the hotel curtains this morning, MissNine, instead of shutting the curtains, put on her sunglasses and went back to sleep, gangsta-style.

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VIDEO: THE ONLY THING I'VE LOOKED AT FOR TWO SOLID DAYS...BRUISE CRUISE SPEEDSHOW!

As planned, I've spent the last two days SOLID processing photos from the wonderful 2012 Bruise Cruise here in sunny Hollywood, Florida. Almost done now, but this site needs to be fed too, so here's a video of ALL the photos on my Lightroom. You can pretend you went to Bruise Cruise in all of one minute and ten seconds! If you are a creative and quick pauser, you might find a few photos that will NEVER be published, just sayin'! 


(Music courtesy of the awesome Mikal Cronin, one of the artists onboard.)

Bruise Cruise 2012 Lightroom Photo Speedshow

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IPHONE PHOTO ROUNDUP: THE BEST POST-BOAT BREAKFAST IN MIAMI

I HAVE RETURNED FROM BRUISE CRUISE! I know, hang on to your nitzels everyone! Excitement Time! My gratitude bouquet goes to Dena for tending to the site while I was on the boat; you were in excellent hands. I will be working here in Flo-da like a diligent pro-feshun-ul person the next few days processing all the photos I took for a very special radio station, but here today you get to see Stop One as we left the ginormous Carnival Imagination sea tank in search of FOOD. My hosts Rob and Stacy said that the S & S Diner, located between the Winwood and Overtown neighborhoods in Miami, had the best breakfast, and a hot delicious breakfast is GOOD when it's 8AM, you are fresh off a cruise ship, and would like to sleep on some large banana pancakes.

I had Eggs Benedict, the creamiest, most yummy grits in the world, two wonderful cups of coffee, and some really big bites of Rob's banana pancakes. MMM MMM MMM!

Back to Photoshop for me! See you tamarah!

 

Stacy took these two!

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THE STORY OF PROZAC

Many years ago, I sent Marianne a package. It was one of those meticulously assembled care packages we used to send each other when we had no childrens and much more time on our hands, filled with cheap jewelry and trinkets, handmade art, and random objects designed to provoke laughter. In one of those inspired gestures to which I am prone, I threw in an empty Prozac sample box containing a single large rubber bug. I chuckled to myself about this for, oh, probably a week, and then forgot all about it.

A few weeks later, Marianne informed me Couch Teen, then in preschool, had taken the box to school with him to share with his peers in Show and Tell. I found this more than a bit alarming, having meant it strictly as a nudge of slightly twisted humor for the eyes of slightly twisted humans. I was not there for the presentation, but apparently what happened next was that Little Couch Teen first displayed the medication box to the curious roomful of four-year-olds, then introduced his classmates to his new friend.

"This is Prozac," he declared, brandishing the rubber insect and forever traumatizing and confusing his classmates.

To this day, I laugh.

This has probably been my last appearance in this space for the foreseeable future, and it has been fun. I do thank you for you patience with my seeming inability to twiddle the right knobs at the right time here, but that's what blogging nerves will do to a person. In the end it's all about the sharing.

Assuming Marianne has not fallen off the poop deck, she should be back with us tomorrow. And: Ha ha, I said poop deck. Sunburned and inflicted with tinnitus Marianne may be, but with a million tales of her exploits on the Bruise Cruise and more travel madness to come. I, for one, can't wait.

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IF THIS IS SUNDAY, YESTERDAY WAS NASSAU

Apologies to all of you for the lateness. First I managed to publish Friday's post before I meant to you, and now I find I FAILED to publish yesterday, despite being all ready with the goods. I sigh.

For those of you just catching up with Marianne, she is not with us. Our lucky and intrepid shutterbug has flown the coop to Nassau, Bahamas with the Bruise Cruise, having set off from Miami Harbor yesterday. Every day she zaps me, Dena, pictures of her big adventure, on her iPhone, which I then have the great privilege of sharing with you.

From what I can tell our thing with the sunshine totally worked, because it looks to me from these pictures like it was absolutely gorgeous there today. We are having actual winter weather here, because, well, you know, it's February, and I have to post these pictures. FML, for real.

I am guessing we'll have one more day together, after which Marianne will more than likely step back into her own "big and strange" shoes here in this space. In the meantime, if you ever wanted to know what it looks like to shop for snacks in the Bahamas, scroll on down and peruse Marianne's enticing photos.

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ALL ABOARD FOR FUNTIME(S)

Hey man, where'd you put that lotion? At some point earlier today, Marianne walked up the gangplank in Miami, FL, boarded the Bruise Cruise vessel, and set off for Nassau with a bunch of guitar-bearing hooligans and indie music buffs. I hope she remembered to bring her earplugs, and I also hope she wins the limbo contest. Who's got a lovely bunch of coconuts?

It's a mystery from one day to the next whether or not we'll hear from Marianne, but thanks (again) to modern cell phone technology, we can all take a gander at how her big seafaring adventure commenced. Cue in a sea shanty, me hearties!

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