Camping on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina

The many dedicated readers to this great and wonderful blog already know when I say Erin, I am referring to my extremely cool, awesome girlfriend. hah! I actually don't think anyone reads this blog but perhaps they do. Perhaps, I don't just write to the wind. To the internet spaces deep out there in cyberland.

To my story already... Well, alrighty then. So, last weekend Erin and I decided to go set up the tent on the beach minutes before a huge storm was about to strike. In fact, tornado warnings had sounded. The weather folks, they said, don't go outside and we not only went outside but we planned to sleep outside on an open beach under a sky full of lightning and threatening thunder.

The tent was soon erected in gail force winds mind you, but securely constructed and holding steady against the strong winds and pitter patter of rain.

Then, all was quiet. The storm had passed. Or so we thought.

The tarp came off and minutes later the rain came back in full force. So, there I was hopping around under a sea of lightning putting on a wet tarp and the bugs came out to greet me. They bit me hard. They swarmed me and made me cry like a little baby.

Thats the story. I live today though. Many welts later but here I am. It was a good character building experience. And afterwards, I was fully convinced, Erin is a bigger lady than I. She didn't once wimper against the wrath of the bugs and the dangers of the sky.

Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals

I will never forget it. I was on my way home from working for the previous 6 months as a photographer on assignment in the San Juan Islands of Washington State and British Columbia and I had two tickets to go see Jack Johnson open for Ben Harper and Innocent Criminals at The Gorge in Washington. The reason I had the extra ticket is a sad story that I am not going to get into here.
Well, I did not know much about Ben Harper except for what I had heard my brothers car. I was prepared for a lot of cheesy, tear jerkin' love songs. No sir. Not a chance mam. Ben Harper threw down one of the most hard rocking performances I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. It was borderline heavy metal and I loved it. Every note of it. Jack Johnson was much less impressive. Sounded exactly like he does on his studio albums. But Harper, whew! AMAZING. I have a little clip below from You Tube that gives you an idea of what I am saying. Check it out!