Spring comes, Summer waits in Syracuse. Canon s95.

Update: The trestle is part of a larger mural project “A Love Letter to Syracuse.” by Steven Powers.

Beach closed, North Shore, O'ahu. fBHF on expired Ektachrome.

These are from the North Shore of O’ahu the day after the 2009 Eddie Aikau, an irregularly held surfing competition only held when the wave swells at Waimea Bay are over 20 ft. Greg Long rode a 40 ft wave to a perfect score, passing Kelly Slater to win. The following day, waves were easily still 20-30 feet high.

My wife & I had planned on exploring the North Shore in the morning, having an early lunch at Ted’s Bakery then shave ice at Matsumoto’s before heading back out to drive the Wai’anae coast.

It didn’t go exactly as planned.

Tasked with now entirely too much time on the North Shore, we tried to make the most of it. We drove the stretch from Waimea Bay to Turtle Bay and back, stopping at random beaches and whatever else struck our fancy for several hours; each time praying the police had finally reopened the road to Haleiwa and its delicious, delicious shave ice.

Long story, short: Matsumoto’s is worth the wait, the North Shore is both amazing & terrifying, and we never made it to the western-side of the island.

See more:
Gallery: fBHF – O’ahu 2009

Icicle. Shot with a Canon S95

So my delayed/back-ordered Christmas present finally arrived from Best Buy this afternoon! My wife decided I needed a Canon Powershot S95, as I often told her that I would like one.

In essence, it’s the pocket camera I’ve always wanted. Small, compact, yet capable; or so I’ve read.

I haven’t quite had the chance to put it through any paces yet, but I anticipate it becoming a constant companion, joining the ranks with my cellphone, Moleskine & spacepen in my pants pockets.

Therein lies its charm. Too often I find myself without a camera when I suddenly want/need a camera; or conversely, lugging my Canon 40D and backpack full of lenses around without taking a single frame.

For awhile there, my beloved fBHF filled the niche of a constant “on hand” camera, both literally & figuratively; but its bulk, lack of versatility, and the need to carry spare spools, not to mention the cost of film, lead to its retirement from daily use. (I also took a chunk out of her film advance knob this summer, when I accidentally clipped a cement fence post outside of Fordham. So I had been carrying her with a tad more careful trepidation than I had in the past, lest I cause any further irreparable damage).

A digicam that fits comfortably in my pocket, shoots both RAW & 720p video and has an added ADH warranty to boot sounds pretty good to me.

Maybe this will help snap me out of my creative funk; maybe it won’t; it can’t hurt.

Anthony Bourdain at FNCE 2010, Boston.

Ok, fine. Here’s one where you can actually see Anthony Bourdain‘s face. I like to imagine he’s singing “O Sole Mio,” but alas and a lack, he wasn’t.

He was the closing speaker at this past year’s Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE) in Boston, giving a talk entitled “How to stop worrying and enjoy globalization.”

I thought he was an odd choice to address a room filled with registered dietitians, given his predilection towards… shall we say… foods on the “unhealthy”* side of the spectrum.

Yet Bourdain was funny, engaging and he assuaged any fears of being contrarian to modern dietetic paradigms, by acknowledging he was a father who wanted what was best for his child. The dietitians, for their part, had no reservations about Bourdain (no bad pun intended) embracing & applauding his commonsense point of views and raucously laughing at his witty banter impugning his fellow celebrity chef/ tv personalites Rachael Ray, Paula Dean, & current first-lady of New York, Sandra Lee.

I had some prior reservations about his talk, stemming from the whole “enjoy globalization” part of his title. But instead of espousing a nihilistic homogenized western culture that dominates and eradicates indigenous cultures (as I tend to connotate globalization), he was rather suggesting that we take the opportunity to expose ourselves to other cultures & cuisines, while we still have the chance.

Part of the whole “be a traveler, not a tourist” and “eat like a local” concepts that I wholeheartedly support.

So yeah. Good stuff.

*I put “unhealthy” in quotes, as I try not to think of food as “healthy” or “unhealthy,” but rather follow a philosophy, given to me by my dietitian wife, that every food has its place and everything should be taken in moderation, including moderation.