wailin' jennys at caltech

last night i ventured to my first show at caltech's beckman auditorium. we were there to see the canadian folk group, the wailin' jennys. and oh my, did they ever put on a great show! i sure was proud of my fellow canadians. oh, and the beckman was a pretty interesting venue. i'll have a few pictures of it in the coming week.

crown city mattress works

an old building in old town pasadena. have a happy saturday!

eagle rock brewery grand opening!

while their brewery has been open for business for a few months, eagle rock brewing is opening their doors tonight for their grand opening celebration. here are the details from their blog:

"grand opening celebration on friday from 4pm-10pm. 8 taps flowing - 4 with eagle rock brewery's brews, and 4 guest taps! Frysmith will be joining us from 6p-10p, so come join in on the party with a side of delicious fries"

it should be a fun time!

almost cliché?

this blog contains quite a few photographs of this marquee pasadena icon. you can check them all out right here.

cactus yard

we may never be able to afford to buy a house in pasadena. but if we do, we'd love to have a yard that didn't need to be watered every day. this home owner seems to be doing things right!

a little slice of americana...

...right down the street in pasadena.

what a lovely place to live!

daisy mint - why did it take us so long to find you?

friends of ours have been raving about their experience at daisy mint, a local thai restaurant along colorado blvd. on friday we decided to go check it out, and i sure am glad that we did! the food was wonderful, the decor charming, and the bill was reasonable. their yelp page has well over 200 reviews, yet still maintains a strong 4 star rating.


pasadena has a wealth of culinary options. every now and then we stumble across one to add to our list of favorites. currently our local list of eateries include green street, the kitchen, saladang, mezbaan, brix 42, thai dishes (does that make 3 thai places on my list?) and if i'm allowed to extend to south pas., gus's barbeque.

so help me out locals, am i missing anything on this list?

another acoustic concert at jameson brown

last night we went to hear our neighbor dave and some other friends play a live music set to a packed house at jameson brown. we had a great time, and though seating was hard to come by, it seemed like everyone else did too. every artist who performed was really excellent in their own way.

settlers of catan

have you tried your hand at settling catan yet? i've loved this game for several years, but my enjoyment has recently experienced a rebirth with some of my neighbors. we currently play a few nights a week, and recently expanded to the cities and knights version. nerdy? yes. fun? absolutely!

look up!

laurie inspired me to point my camera up and hope for the best. here's what i came up with!

more skywatch friday can be found here.

the cookie monster cupcake

i've been curious about polkatots cupcakes since i heard that they won some awards at an l.a. cupcake challenge. it took me a while to venture a few blocks down the street to sample their confectionary delights, but i was happy i did. as the title of this post suggests, i ordered their "cookie monster cupcake" - a delicious chocolate cupcake with cookies and cream frosting. kind of pricey at $3, but pretty delicious washed down with a tall glass of cold milk. check them out at the corner of lake and orange grove.

sidewalk art

one of our neighbors shows off her fantastic artwork!

snow peaks from a guest blogger

my friend ryan makes his second appearance as a guest photographer on this blog with his picture of the snow-capped mountains from last week. loyal readers may remember that ryan provided the photographs from our recent trip to eagle rock brewery.

another shot of the rose bowl from above

i posted a similar picture of the rose bowl from above way back when u2 was about to play there. this photo is more of a winter scene with some snow on the mountains and empty parking lots.

alesmith

a pleasant saturday afternoon was made even better with a trip south to the greater san diego area and a few stops at some of the local breweries. alesmith is worth a visit if you are in the area - any beer on tap is only $1 per taster sample.

welcome to vancouver 2010

i sure was proud of my home country last night while the opening ceremonies of the 2010 winter olympic games were being broadcast. this photo is from our trip to vancouver this past fall.

i'm really looking forward to see what this canadian team can do, and along with most of canada - hoping that team canada can win hockey gold! on the downside - i feel like my quick browsing of nbc's coverage on the west coast shows that i'm not going to get to watch much of the canadian teams performing in their best sports - hockey and curling.

meredith's choice for skywatch friday

hope you enjoy some san gabriel mountain sky! this one was selected by my lovely wife.

more skywatch friday can be found here.

snow

our recent rainy weather (again) gave us another dusting of snow on our mountain range. i asked my friend chris (from monday's post) to capture an image from his home. you can see the snow dotting the tops - i wish i had my camera out earlier in the morning, because the snow came down even further than is shown here.

here we get the benefits of the snow's beauty, without the incredible headache that has occurred on the east coast this winter.


side note: i just discovered that another pasadena photoblog has been added to city daily photo! sorry to be late to the party on this, but welcome to the family - pasadena, 91105 and beyond. that makes three in pasadena alone, and many more in southern california.

my school

i'm sure most fuller students have a photo like this buried in their collection. everyone who has family visit them in southern california, want to take your picture next to the fuller sign. my sister took this picture way back in 2007, shortly after i arrived in pasadena.

this setting might look familiar to those of you who are regular readers of the fantastic post secret website. the idea is simple - mail in a postcard of your deepest secret to be posted anonymously on their site. it has become so popular that the creators have published several books.

this week they posted this photo. interesting, right? i wonder who that is and what made fuller seminary so difficult...

one week until pitchers and catcher report

now that football is finally over and done with, we can move on to the first sign of the baseball season's arrival. believe it or not, in just over one week's time, the first professional baseball players will start to arrive at their spring training sites in florida and arizona. this photo is from a trip i took last spring with my aunt to see some "cactus league" games in arizona.

time to play ball!

winging it

our super meal... er, i mean bowl - festivities included one of the most excellent displays of chicken wing eats i've ever witnessed. our friend chris whipped up five different flavors for the hungry crowd, which accentuated the pizza (both in traditional form as well as bite-sized morsels), salad, cheese dip, veggies, and a tasting of each of our batches of homebrew we've made so far this year.

needless to say it was quite a meal. i'm still full.

head on out for a bike ride with friends

if only it would stop raining on the weekend.

enjoy your super bowl sunday! i'll be making these for the big game.

griffith park observatory, on a clear day

we really enjoy griffith park. it has quite a lot to offer, and many parts are free to the public. the observatory specifically is really worth checking out.

brewday at eagle rock

i've been fortunate to help out a few times at eagle rock brewery on brew day. making craft beer takes time and attention, and they do these things extremely well at eagle rock. this image is actually a very steamy picture of cascade hops being added to the brew kettle. unfortunately the steam in the brewhouse makes it almost impossible to take photographs of the process.

in case you were wanting to stop by and check out los angeles county's newest brewery, they are now open from 4pm - 10pm on fridays and saturdays, and from 12pm - 6pm on sundays.

rose bowl and golf course

a slight haze on the horizon prevents this photo from being truly epic. click on the image to get a full sense of the area. you may be able to find the colorado street bridge, city hall, vista del arroyo hotel, and many other local landmarks.

the dodgers shop trader joe's in pasadena

i recently noticed that the dodgers caravan would be coming through pasadena. the idea was that several current and former dodgers would have 30 seconds to fill a grocery cart with as many items as they could possibly fit in. each cart would then be donated to the los angeles food bank.


i had no idea what to expect, but i was pleasantly surprised to find that although the store was teaming with dodger fans when i arrived, there was still plenty of room for me and my camera. it was pretty interesting to see local baseball legends running around in a grocery store. it was also amazing to see how willing they were to hang out for a little while after the event to chat with fans and pose for pictures.


all in all, a very fun afternoon. if you'd like to see more photos and a rundown of the event, check out the facebook album i created, right here.

just hungry

on any given night in the city of pasadena, an estimated 1,165 people are homeless.*

unfortunately, pasadena has many homeless people, and many people who make their living by begging on the street. i admit that i struggle with how to respond. on the one hand, the money handed out to people like this often encourage begging to take place. on the other hand, living a life like this can't be very rewarding, no matter how much money you are earning.

i was struck by how young this guy was. he could easily be my age. i can't tell if the smirk on this guy's face was because he knew i was taking his picture, or if i simply caught him thinking about something happy. either way, it didn't last long, as a police officer arrived soon after i took the photo to ask him to leave.

my ethics are built on the teachings of jesus - especially things like the sermon on the mount. i believe we are called to reach out to those on the margins of society in whatever way we can. in this photo i wanted to demonstrate the pain of life on the street, but his expression totally changed the way the photo came out. i was reminded of the beatitudes and how difficult they are to understand. one in particular - blessed are the hungry - maybe this guy understands more about that than i will ever know.

february theme day: wood

i recently discovered that the city daily photo february theme day was going to coincide with the bloggers unite for haiti event. i was wracking my brain for how to connect these two things when a friend showed me this gallery of photos taken by my friend, benjamin myers - someone i went to college with who has been in haiti taking photos in the aftermath of the earthquake. his images are real and present and incredibly powerful. this image that i "borrowed" for today's blog post does contain a great amount of building resources - including wood, the subject of today's city daily photo theme. please go check out the rest of his photos - they pass on an incredible story.

and if you haven't done so, please donate to the relief efforts to help rebuild haiti. if you are looking for a trustworthy place to donate your money or your time, please check out mennonite central committee's website.

you may also want to visit itunes to download the hope for haiti now concert - the first album to ever reach #1 on billboard without having a hard copy available in stores. 20 songs for $8, and all the funds go to haiti.


Click here to view thumbnails for all participants