Vote for me!
March 31, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
My dear friend Leita once again pulls through and sent me this.. I only have four days to accumulate a massive amount of votes, so please vote for me and pass along the link to any friends!!
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/Ricci/picture-a-pilgrimage/
ps: only good till April 3.. so hurry!
Team KayCo
March 25, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments
I think I’m going soft. Weddings keep making me cry – even while I’m shooting them.
Last weekend I got to shoot two of my dear friends getting hitched in Florida. I tried not to let them see me get a little choked up, because, well, they’re not that sappy. Especially Kari – the bride. She is what one might easily call the least demanding bride ever. EVER.
She’s laid back and creative and not one to fuss with silly traditions that no one understands anyway. And it’s great, cuz Nico – the groom – is a laid-back creative guy who also does not care much for the status quo.
In fact, I’m a little worried that they might not want me to write a whole bunch of mushy stuff about them on a blog, but too bad, that’s what you get when I like you.
I met them both in Dakar just a little more than a year ago. They are two people that if lives had movie credits that rolled at the end – credits that described various roles played in a person’s life – they are two people who would have prominent roles in my credits. Sometimes you get lucky and meet the right people at the right time in your life whom will encourage you and make you feel welcome and make you comfortable and be your friend when you need one. These two fall into that category for me, and I am SO HAPPY that they’re happy and going to be a family together.
Kari might be one of three people in the world who sometimes talks as fast as me. I find I get along with fellow fast-talkers well. She’s also incredibly driven with an almost nervous energy that fuels not only her great journalistic talents, but also her fun spirit. And Nico is a guy always willing to lend a helping hand to someone in need. He’s a little complicated to understand sometimes, but thus again why he and Kari are great – they seem to ‘get’ each other, and sometimes you look at them and know they’re in their own world, and they know they’re so lucky to have found someone who inhabits that same plane and speaks that same language.
Congratulations you two – I heart you both!
ps - Kari’s also got a great family whom I got to hang out with all weekend. They’re from Oklahoma, and they reminded me of my family and friends back in the Midwest.. you know.. the three g’s: good, genuine, generous people. Shout out to the Barbers! 
Secret Dreams and Such
March 24, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments
I want to make a music video — just one — someday. This kind of brilliance by Oren Lavie is why. I can not stop watching this.
Don’t Drink the Green Water.
March 23, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 5 Comments
A coupla weeks ago St. Patty’s Day came to Chicago. It was a GORGEOUS day, and as usual the powers that be dyed the Chicago River green.
Interesting fact: Although St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, and St. Patrick’s Day is an Irish holiday, Patrick was not Irish. He was Welsh, and the Irish captured him when he was 16 and brought to Ireland where he was a slave until his early 20s. Obviously, hundreds of years later people celebrate by dying beer and municipal waterways bright green.
Bono - 4 O’clock
March 18, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments
As promised, U2 made a surprise appearance across the street last week. And as promised, I risked life and limb to get a shot of Bono while hanging out the window. Here he is, surrounded by police.
and just worth mentioning..I dreamt last night that I saw an asteriod fly really close to Earth. Then I woke up and read that an asteroid will be going past earth soon… weird.
Human Flapjack
March 10, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments
First of all, and this has nothing to do with today’s post, but I thought I would share that U2 is playing a secret concert ten feet from my apart today… I’ll try and sneak over and take photos for y’all this evening…
Now, to the actual post. Today I found a site called SoulPancake. It was created by Rainn Wilson (the guy who plays Dwight on The Office). It’s a pretty cool site about spirituality, though I hesitate to use that word cuz of all the gush associated with it. Just go to the site — there’s all kinds of interactive things to do, such as make a video describing what your soul smells like, or a challenge to make a cool piece of public art (the one posted below is from their site — I didn’t do it).
Wilson created the site to have a public discussion about a lot of things people feel awkward talking about. He credits his open mindedness with growing up in the Baha’i faith. It’s definitely an interesting religion, and from what I can tell one of the most tolerant I’ve read about. Wilson wrote about it here and here. Here’s my quick take, from facts pulled off the Baha’i website.
It’s the world’s youngest monotheistic relgion, and it recognizes Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed — you know — all those other dudes who were divine messengers and such. Some of the rules include daily prayer, fasting and — my personal favoriate — abstaining from partisan politics. Also, according to their website: “The Baha’i Faith encourages interracial marriage as a concrete expression of the oneness of humanity. Marriages are not pre-arranged, but once a partner is chosen, both sets of parents are required to grant consent to the marriage.” It was founded in Iran in the 1800’s and according to many people the religion is currently under prosecution by the Iranian President.
Back to SoulPancake: It’s got some cool art ‘challenges’ that I hope to crank out possibly this weekend. Plus — I also found out Rainn Wilson has the same birthday as me. No wonder he’s so awesome.
Bubbles in Chicago
March 9, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Found some huge bubble thing-ys for $1 at Wal-Mart the other weekend when we were in Macomb. Obviously, this was a good investment, as we took them to Navy Pier and made fools of ourselves on Friday. That’s right — with the stock market all up and down (or just down) more than you might like — I’m suggesting that everyone put their money in bubbles. I know we got a good ROI (that’s Return on Investment for you non-business-y folks).
Factoids: For the Strongly Curious
March 4, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
First of all, if you don’t get the title play on words (Altoids.. Curiously Strong Mint..) boo to you.
Moving along…
My most recent adventure is to try and make a forum into religion journalism. And because I haven’t been able to actually publish anything on this topic yet (shame on me), I figured I published what I learned today on the old blog.. because that’s what blogs are for….
Though I want to report on all religions, I made this decision because of my experiences with Islam in Dakar, when I realized we only get one side of a VERY DIVERSE religion. I just got to thinking the more information about different religions gets out there, the more likely people are to understand each other..maybe?
Here’s what I learned this morning thanks to that fancy Internet!
Gallup poll recently completed its first national portrait of American Muslims, which is part of its Muslim West Facts Project.
Here are some of the interesting, and probably unsuspected statistics:
On diversity..
Muslims are the most diverse group in America: 28% are white, 35% are black, 18% are Aisan ..
On women…
One thing people usually say is women are not treated well in Islam. While this is definitely true of some groups and regions, Muslim women in America are the second most educated religious group in the country, second to Jewish women.
And, they have the most gender-equal pay within the household of any other religion (Muslim women are more likely to make the same amount of money as their husbands. Interestingly enough, Jewish women are the most likely to make significantly less than their husbands, which I find odd considering the most-educated thing.. hmmm.. but that’s a different study, eh?).
On voting…
Young Muslims are least likely to be registered to vote of any other religious group, with only 51% registered. Protestants had the highest voter-registration at 78%.
