A couple years ago I put together a why I love summer post. One of the things that I did not talk about in that post was outdoor concerts. Milwaukee has amazing support for all types of art and is home to an abundance of outdoor concerts from local park series to Summerfest. A couple weeks ago, my brother's band Hood Smoke played Jazz in the Park.
Last year Hood Smoke played Summerfest! Check out the photos over here.
Finally, on the subject of summer, last year I complied my summer photography tips. If you're like me and you get out and shoot as much as possible during the warm months, check it out.
This was supposed to be my beginning of the month post for May. Obviously that didn't happen. Better late than never, right? Some of you know that since I started working from home almost three years ago, I've spent most of my working hours listening to the same Pandora station. For a number of reasons, I've been feeling restless lately and needed to mix up my routine a bit. One of the things that I've been doing is listening to a lot of new (or new to me) music. Here are just a few of my latest favorites.
Chopin Pandora
Over the past few years I have tried a handful of Pandora stations. I've only ever found one that I really like. Recently I've finally been taking the time to customize a couple other ones, which gets me to listen to them more. Most of the time when I'm working, I'm listening to something classical or jazz that is fairly upbeat, but doesn't have any words, like the Chopin station.
John Coltrane
In an effort to mix up my classical and jazz routine, recently I've also been listening to full albums that I already own or full albums that I've always wanted to check out, including John Coltrane's Blue Train.
John Mayer
Like many women who were in their late teens / early 20s when John Mayer's Room for Squares came out, I listened to it a lot. A LOT. Then I didn't pay much attention to anything else that John Mayer did. Back in the fall I heard his live version of Free Fallin' somewhere and couldn't get it out of my head. Since then I've been listening to everything that he has recorded since Room for Squares, and all of it is amazing.
Matchbox 20
I'm not sure what made me decide to listen to Matchbox 20 again except that some part of me has never really left the late 90's. You knew that already. I've honestly never gotten tired of some of their biggest hits and can't believe that I've never listened to more of their albums. Similar to John Mayer, I have yet to listen to anything that I haven't liked.
Everclear
There are a ton of things in my Amazon wish list that have been there for years. I've been checking out some of those albums recently to see if there is anything that I'd ever want to download. I've been an Everclear fan for quite some time and had added their Invisible Stars album to my list a while back. It's just as great as all of their older classic albums.
Piano Guys
One of our friends played us a couple Piano Guys videos during a recent resident get together. I thought it was kind of cool at the time, but it wasn't until I listened to their songs a bunch more that I started to really appreciate them. The Piano Guys are hugely popular right now, and I'm sure that some of you have already listened to them. If you haven't, you don't know what you're missing.
Today I'm featuring one of my favorite instruments: the piano. Most people don't know that I can play the piano. I've been playing since I was little. I don't a lot these days, but it remains one of my favorite instruments. I love to hear piano in everything from classical to jazz to rock music. As such, I'm sure that it's not a surprise that I also enjoy photographing pianos and people playing pianos and keyboards.
my brother, July 2005
I'm starting this Alphabe Thursday post with another old photo. Really old. One of the first digital photos I ever posted online. I took this photo of my brother for a newspaper announcement about a concert.
Forest Home Cemetery's Chapel, June 2013
They have a Steinway. Rock on.
Old World Wisconsin, July 2013
Mark Glatzel of I'm Not a Pilot, Lakefront Festival of Art, June 2013
My Brother With Hood Smoke at Summerfest 2013, June
My Brother With Hood Smoke at Our Dad's 60th Birthday Party, July 2013
Mark Glatzel of I'm Not a Pilot, Sounds of Summer in Whitefish Bay, August 2013
I have one more set each of Hood Smoke and I'm Not a Pilot from this summer that I haven't edited yet. Crazy, right? Jake and I were so blessed to hear such a wealth of live music this summer. It was amazing getting to photograph some of these events as well.
Check out what other participants posted for the letter P this week right here!
