Results tagged “photos”

It's not that I didn't want to update my News, it's just that I wanted to wait until I had all my photos from our recent trips to Cancun and Puerto Rico sorted, tagged and uploaded. It just took a lot longer than I thought it would, because there were so many good photos (and because I took my damn time).

Robyn and I don't have any more vacations planned until next July, so I should have no excuse in the future to keep things updated. That being said, I've been busy lately..

Let's see.. I've been collaborating on some music with musician and friend Dan Abreu, I created a small corporate website for Viewpoint Lifestyle, and I've even found some time to play Little Big Planet on PS3, which by the way, totally rocks. And of course, with the holidays coming up, there are lots of presents under the tree, so Robyn and I are both pretty excited.

If I get any good loot from Santa, I'll write about it here. I promise!

Recently, Robyn planned a little weekend trip for us to New York City. We walked around Times Square, Central Park, saw Young Frankenstein on Broadway, and Larry Carlton at the Blue Note. Robyn took some photos too, so check them out (I especially love her Trump Tower shot).

Even more recently, we saw the Red Sox of Boston take on the Indians of Cleveland. And in the end, the Red Sox triumphed by hitting a spherical ball made of leather through a big field. It was a most ripping victory. Ok, it wasn't even close to a most ripping victory, but the first inning (and maybe a few other things) were entertaining.

Last, but not least, I finally upgraded my home music studio to a brand new machine running SONAR 7. The photo I uploaded to Flickr was, ironically enough, featured in an article on optimizing SONAR 8 for Vista. I don't even run Vista.. but shh–don't tell anyone, okay? Either way, I'm working on writing and recording music again, so expect more tracks from me, soon!

Robyn and I recently attended the Newport Jazz Festival, for our third year in a row. Let's see.. this year, we got to see Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Aretha Frankin, Ledisi, Chris Botti, Brian Blade, Charlie Haden, Bill Frisell, Chris Potter, Dave Holland, Christian Scott, Esperanza Spalding, Fred Wesley, Lettuce, Soulive.. the list goes on and on.

And for the last few years, Robyn and I just went to relax and listen to the excellent music, and maybe get a sunburn or two.. but this year we went not only to listen, but also to take a lot of photos. And we did! Check out my Newport Jazz Festival 2008 photos, and also check out Robyn's Newport photos as well.

I just posted a few photos from our recent trip to Rockport, MA. Also, check out Robyn's photos if you have the time.

We went to the Newport Jazz Festival again this year, for both Saturday and Sunday. It was excellent, we had a great time, heard some amazing music, and took a ton of photos (I'm still sorting through mine). I should have those up sometime next week.

I'm also trying to get back into recording some of my music as well. I've been sitting on four or five completed songs plus a ton of ideas, and just need to spend some time working out the details. Hopefully I'll be able to spend some more time collaborating with Ben Hillman, since we've been exchanging song ideas here and there for a while now.

And finally, I'm looking forward to beta testing and then playing the upcoming MMORPG Warhammer Online with Robyn and some of my crazy "online" friends. We all used to play World of Warcraft together, but got tired of the end-game loot/rep farming grind (that's MMO-speak for "repetitive, boring crap") so this might be the change of pace we're looking for. We'll see.

Robyn and I have been pretty busy lately. First, we celebrated Kara's 30th birthday. It was fun, and Nick got to use his blowtorch, so it was a win-win, as far as everyone was concerned.

Not too long after that, we went to my parents' for the annual Alman family barbecue, where two 60th birthdays, a one-year wedding anniversary, and the successful migration of my parents' email accounts to google apps were celebrated.

And finally, last weekend we went up to New Hampshire to visit Nonni and Chet. It was a great visit: we relaxed, ate some of Nonni's super-tasty home-cooked food, and their dog Ollie is super cute too, so yet another win-win there. Sweet.

Well, Robyn and I are officially insane, as if you didn't already know. We waited in line for the iPhone 3G on launch day, didn't get much sleep, went into work late.. etc. But we do have these shiny new phones, so it's all good.. right?

Robyn and I recently spent a relaxing long weekend in Kennebunkport to celebrate our first wedding anniversary (June 30). And even though the weather was overcast and rainy, we had a great time. All I can say is kudos to Robyn, who did all the planning. I just wonder where we're going next year! Check out my photos from the weekend, as well as Robyn's photos.

The other night, Robyn and I went over to Dan and Michelle's place (wih Jeremy and Kristin) for some dinner, booze, and Nintendo Wii. Michelle was cooking, so the food was good. Dan was bartending, so the booze was good. And there was a big-screen TV, so the Wii was good. I'm personally not really into Wii Sports, but it's a lot of fun if you get a group of people together (booze mandatory, of course). Check out the photos.

And today, Robyn had her annual dance recital. She says she flubbed part of it, but nobody noticed. I didn't notice, at least. Of course, maybe that was because I was taking a million photos of her. Either way, it was great. She was great. She is great. Etc. Here are the photos (and there are a few funny ones of the requisite disorganized little kid dancers too) so take a look.

I'd never been to Martha's Vineyard before, but Robyn, Jeremy, Kristin and I all took a trip down there together for the Memorial Day holiday long weekend. The weather was pretty much perfect, and we had an amazing time. I took a ton of photos from all over the island, so check them out.

And I actually ended up heading down there a day early with Greg Luttrell to do a friday night gig with Blacksnake at the Ritz Cafe in Oak Bluffs. The gig was a basic trio with Tony Hall on drums, and was a lot of fun. Normally, I'm just too busy to be able to find the time to do a Vineyard gig, but because I was already heading down there for the weekend, it worked out perfectly.

Also, if you're ever down that way, be sure to stay at the Clark House Inn in Vineyard Haven. It's a fantastic bed & breakfast run by Lisa and Bud Rusché. Not only was the bed super-comfy, but the breakfast was super-tasty. Good on both counts!

Playing to a sold-out Paradise Rock Club in Boston last night, The New Deal broke beats left and right. These guys are all about the groove. up-tempo, down-tempo.. mid-tempo.. They're tight and when they're playing, you can't not move your body to the music.

The drummer (Darren Shearer) beatboxes, plays kit, and percussion.. and is usually doing at least two of those three things at any given time. The bassist (Dan Kurtz) plays his Fender Jazz through the mothership's control board (apparently, since everything he plays sounds like it's from outer space). And the keyboardist (Jamie Shields) is surrounded by a half a dozen synths and god-only-knows how many delay pedals.

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing these guys *live* on Red Bull. It's the new coke. And I don't mean -a-cola. Check out my photos from the show!

It was great to see Robyn play out with her drum ensemble at the Drum Connection's "Acacia in Kenya Scholarship Fundraiser" benefit performance last weekend. I've been playing music for a long time, and I've had countless gigs.. but it was a real treat for me to get to see Robyn having fun, playing djembe and dunun, on stage in front of people. I managed to get some decent photos of the group (ok, mostly of her) playing.. check them out!

So, everyone gathered at Skellig the other night to wish a fond farewell to Karen and Pat, the two most recent casualties in the Cosmic Blender - Broad Street - Evoke Interaction roller coaster ride from hell. It seems like just the other day that we were saying goodbye to Michael and goodbye to Samantha and goodbye to JB and Erwin.. and me.. of course.

Photography is a passion of mine, I just love to take photos and upload them to my Flickr page. I also love to create web interfaces. Put two and two together, and you get this..

This weekend, Robyn and I went up to Portland, Maine with Brian and Melissa Coakley to check out the Greyboy Allstars at Asylum. First things first: the opening band sucked, hard. But we weren't there to see them, we came for the Greyboys.

Simply put, they were awesome, playing a good number of tracks of their latest album along with some of their classics (including Soul Dream, the first song of theirs I ever heard). The best part for me was that Robyn really dug the show, and said she'd gladly see them again. Awesome.

If you'd like to read more, check out my photos from the show.

After sitting on the benalman.com domain for what seemed like forever, I finally decided to do something with it. The old RJ3 Cowboy 4.0 website was great, but I just wanted a fresh start on a new server (that didn't have nearly ten years of accumulated files). I took the portfolio / resume mini-website that I created last year, added in a Movable Type blog, and then created a custom photos index page using the Flickr API. After all that, I widened it by a few pixels and this is the result. It's a work in progress, as I'd like to create some kind of homepage mashup of my latest news post, featured portfolio items, and some recently uploaded photos.. and I would also like to add a music section.. but at least I've laid the groundwork.

The holidays were great, I got (and gave) some fun presents! The new job is great, and I've been kept very busy with some exciting projects that I'll post about soon. The new TV is also great! Oh, I didn't mention that? Robyn won it at work in a raffle. 42" 1080p HDTV. Insanity. The Superbowl was pretty fun, even though the Pats lost.. but the game LOOKED awesome on the TV. Other than that, there isn't much to report. A good start to the new year!

So, it's early in the morning on the day before Christmas Eve, and I'm sitting here in the living room trying not to look at or even think about the big pile of presents under the tree (that I'm not allowed to open until tomorrow evening). It's not easy, just one more day. I can do it.

But things are changing! After a lot of looking, I finally found myself a new job at Pangea Media.. almost right across the street from my old employer. I start in about a week, and am really looking forward to the change. It's a smaller company, and I'll have more responsibility, which is exactly what I've been looking for. The guys over there are really smart and enthusiastic, so it'll be fun.

I just uploaded some more wedding photos as well as photos from our trip to philly and shabhannukah (leave it to Dan and Kym, right?). I'm sorting through our P-Town trip photos now, and hopefully I'll get those up soon.

The Pollotronik All*Stars got together for our "annual gig" at Lizard Lounge last night, opening up for Organism at their CD-release party. We were damn funky, the gig was a lot of fun, and hopefully Yahuba will get us some more in the future!

Head on over to my Flickr page and check out the photos from last night!

Newport was a lot of fun again this year. We saw Dave Brubeck, Marcus Miller, Branford Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Chico Hamilton.. the list of amazing musicians goes on and on.

The weather was perfect, the music was fantastic, and we had a great time. And I got some good photos.. and a sunburn!

Robyn and I got together with the family yesterday for the "Annual Alman BBQ." And this year, it was new and improved.. with one more Alman! The food was good, the rain held off, and my niece Aislynn was super-cute as usual.