Whim ‘n Rhythm perfom at Woolsey Hall

Last weekend I traveled from Miami Beach up to New Haven for my Yale College Class of 1990 20th reunion.  Wow–time has flown.  But it was great to see so many people.  The head of reunions said we had 450 classmates show up out of a class of 1,300 students–not bad.  I only took a few photos over the weekend because I spent the entire time talking and by Sunday my voice was hoarse.

1990 Whiffenpoofs performing at our reunion

I stayed right in the dorm (Silliman College) on campus!

I just remembered I had taken some images with my iphone (the resolution is pretty weak!).  Before everyone had arrived at the reunion on Friday, I wandered around campus and visited a few of my favorite “haunts” and here they are:

Calhoun College’s common room piano.  I have many fond memories of my suite-mate, Harrison Pollak playing amazing music on this piano.

For lunch on Friday, I had my favorite Greek salad at Yorkside Restaurant on York Street.  This is the same great salad that I’ve been having since 1982 when my brother first matriculated at Yale!

I also visited The Selin Courtyard inside Sterling Memorial Library.  I remember the first time my brother showed me this wonderful place to read.

And of course for dessert, I had to go to Ashley’s Ice Cream on York Street!

To remember my Mom on Mother’s Day I thought I would post my last formal portrait that I did of her.  This was a tough shot to take because she was nervous about having me do it.  So I had her sit in a lawn chair in her back yard.  To get her to smile, I asked her to tell me about her last trip…that got her going and and she began talking with her hands which she so often did.  I shot this with my old Nikon film camera–one of the last photos I did in film before switching over entirely to digital.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

Ashley Swanson got a great shot of me and Peggy Russell of IRO Design dancing on the tables Sunday night at Taverna Opa in South Beach.  We all went out as a celebration to our photo shoot and a great time hanging together.  I have no idea how someone didn’t hit the floor!

I just saw and boogied to the Spam Allstars at one of the best bars in the world, The Green Parrot in Key West, FL.  I had been to the Parrot many times before and they have a reputation for great music but the Spam Allstars literally blew the crowd away with their show.  I mean the entire place was hopping to the music.  If you haven’t heard them, check them out.  They are a Miami-based band but they do travel.  The photos I took with my iphone so the quality isn’t that great (when is Apple going to release a 10 megapixel iphone? .  And yes, that’s their trombone player playing a conch shell in honor of  the Conchs in attendance (Key Westers)–the crowd went crazy when he did this!

Rum in Key West?

Hollywood, FL

I told my art director friend, Ashley Swanson, of AshAndBurn.com fame that I wanted to see more of the area outside Miami Beach.  That’s how I ended up sitting on a toilet outside at an infamous restaurant named Le Tub Saloon in Hollywood, FL right on the intra-coastal.

It truly is infamous: voted best burger by GQ magazine–absolutely enormous.  I mean Ash and I split one and there were still leftovers for the fish. You can probably visualize the place: shack-like, pieced together with abandoned and drift wood—forget even flooring–priceless.  And the view?  I mean right on the water–drop a fry and the fish fight each other for it.  Definitely worth checking out.

I just got back from marlin fishing with my brother Sean in Cabo San Lucas at the very tip of Baja.  I’m a big fan of Hemingway (accomplished deep sea fisherman) so Sean chartered our own boat as a birthday present.
You want to hear a great fish story?  Well, I had no idea that Cabo is considered one of the best marlin fishing sites in the world.  I mean, people come from all over just to try marlin fishing.  It is a HUGE thing here.  The marina is gigantic–hundreds of boats.  So, at 6:30am there were 130 boats all leaving at the same time—yes, you read it correctly–130 boats.  Well, Sean chose one of the best captains of the whole fleet and here’s why.  Most of the boats will go 10-20 miles out to get to their favorite fishing spot and then start trolling.  And that’s what we started to do.  We left the marina at 6:40am and we’re are going full throttle–I mean FAST.  20 minutes later we are only 6 miles out and the captain, Saul, up on the flying bridge yells down to his first mate, Rafael, MARLIN! MARLIN! MARLIN!  I have no idea how Saul spotted the marlin.  So, Rafael gets the gear ready and Sean says I should take the first one because it’s my birthday present.  Well, he’s hooked by 7:00am and it takes me 45 minutes to reel him in.  And I’m exhausted.  My left hand is scraped and cut up, and my left arm is cramped up.  But I get him to the boat.  And it takes all 4 of us to haul him into the boat.  So, out of 130 boats we’ve got the first marlin of the day in the boat by 7:45am.

And then we learn when we get back to the dock that we were one of only 4 boats (of 130) that caught a marlin, our’s was the first and was the biggest: just under 8 feet and 150 lbs!  There was 75 lbs of marlin steaks–we gave about half to the captain and first mate, gorged on marlin Friday and Saturday and I still have 54 steaks now in my freezer at home.

Oh, and by the way, we had a humpback whale breaching just off the port side of the boat.  HUGE!  The tail looked longer than our boat which was 30ft!  And did I mention the sea lion that climbed on the stern of the boat to check out the marlin on the back?! Check out the video….

What a great trip!

This is the marlin I caught! The captain, Saul, on the right and first mate, Rafael on the left

What a weekend!  Two days of skiing and snowshoeing in the White Mountain National Forest at Bretton Woods and it was 45 degrees both days!  Yes, that’s Mt. Washington in the background.