Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

I’m really pleased with this picture I took at Slim’s on Sunday:

Life went on during all of the birdy drama. On Saturday night, after the final home bout of the Carolina Rollergirls (go Tai Chi-tahs!), I went out on a night shoot with the Raleigh Flickr Group organized by Daniel. Despite a downpour in the middle of it, some great shots were taken by all. I will share a particularly great one of yours truly taken by Engelfish, who I repeatedly say is that only person who gets to take my picture. I’m, of course, kidding. I have a number of friends who have taken WONDERFUL pictures of me, despite my camera anxiety and tendency to mug anxiety whenever a camera is aimed my way. I’ve learned that I’m best off while on these shoots just trying to relax and continue what I’m doing when I detect a camera trained on me. Chris’s directive style actually gives me something to focus on instead of my anxiety. You’d think this would have gone away after all the time I spend with these people… but I digress.

View all the pictures that have been uploaded so far from the shoot. Over time, the total number of images will grow as more people get around to uploading and tagging. This was created using a neat little site I’ve just found (thanks, Sooz) called Splashr. I recommend it highly!

I went to Artsplosure yesterday and participated in the Seeing Beyond Sight Challenge. This means that I put on a blindfold and walked around the art festival with a guide (Tom, a Flickr friend) and took pictures of items on a list (non-human animal, something with an odor, self-portrait, a family, etc.). It’s an exercise that was created by Tony Deifell. he has a book of photographs taken by blind teenagers.

It may sound odd, but it was a great experience to help you to understand what it is like to not have use of your vision. It forces you to rely on other sense completely. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. I think I’m a very sound-oriented person. Not that this is surprising to me. I also found myself relying upon smell a lot. Touch was probably third. Vision still played a part, because I knew immediately when I was moving from sun to shade. Families were really easy to locate because of their unique sounds: baby stroller wheels on the pavement, children’s voices, and Mother-ease.

One thing I did notice most was that I was pretty able to just trust that Tom wasn’t going to let me hurt myself, so I just walked ahead… certainly smaller steps than normal, but not fearful as I might have thought. When Tom tried to tell me about what I was approaching, I asked him to stop. I mostly wanted information about when I’d need to turn to avoid banging into someone or if I had to step up on a curve. If you click on any of the individual pictures in the slideshow that follows, I describe my experience of taking them. I think the dog and the Cigar Man are my favorite.

I ran into some people while leading Tom around who were totally cheating! They were younger girls. The girl who was leading kept telling the blindfolded girl exactly when to click and what she was approaching. The blindfolded girl actually pulled her blindfold up while we were with her!

I really enjoyed myself, and I like the pictures I took a lot. The inventor of the challenge was there. It was nice meeting him. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to see his talk at Quail Ridge Books on Tuesday.

I’m also using this post as a chance to try out a new slide show tool for Flickr pictures. It seems very nifty and easy to use. We’ll see.

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Update: Well, that slideshow totally didn’t work! Click on the picture of me and Tony to be brought to the slideshow!

From the Lovely Molly of Bickett Gallery:

Dear Bickett Gallery patrons,

This is the last weekend at Bickett Gallery. I hope that you will be able to attend at least one of our events. They are all going to be very special. We will be celebrating the gallery with multimedia events, food and drinks. Please stop by and enjoy!

Friday, May 18th

Renay Aumiller and Bickett Gallery present “I Bickett Fluently” a multi-media collaboration featuring independent choreographers, musicians and writer Eric Amling, who will read from his new work. Presenters are from Raleigh, Greensboro , Chicago, and Louisville , Kentucky. I Bickett Fluently consists of six works from active members of North Carolina’s dance world, as well as Laura Chiaramonte, a Chicago-based dancer. Cost is $6. Doors open at 8pm with the performance beginning at 9pm.

Saturday, May 19th

Bickett Gallery presents a night of melodic Indy music featuring Zachary Gresham of the critically acclaimed Athens Ga. band, The Summer Hymns, Raleigh’s Bowerbirds, who performed first at Bickett Gallery and has just released a new record, under Raleigh label BurleyTime Records, The Never of Chapel Hill (Trekky Records) and Deleted Scenes from Washington, DC . Doors open at 7pm. Performances begin at 8pm. Cost is $7.

Sunday, May 20th

Bickett Gallery will have an extended day event opening at 4pm. The afternoon will begin with a screening of Who Gets to Call it Art? a film by Peter Rosen about curator Henry Geldzahler, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first contemporary art curator.

Featuring Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Jackson Pollock, Larry Poons and many more mid-century visual artists. The film also features The Velvet Underground. The film depicts the New York art scene of the 1960’s and the man who made it POP! Screening is at 5pm.

Performances by a number of local musicians will begin in the evening. Charles Latham, *Sons, Heads on Sticks, Monologue Bombs among others will play. 7pm. Cost: $7

View the rest here. I’ll probably add more as I have time to edit, but that link will include anything I’ve added. I don’t know that I’m a rodeo fan now, but I sure enjoyed shooting there!