Kelley and Kim with their most excellent cake made by elé Cake Co in Dayton.

Please take note of the cupcakes.

There are

I used to think this expression was nonplussed but I’m not sure.

Eddie

I know these people on the tv.

There were unicorns and rainbows.

Closed out the evening watching the Hangover 2 which was bad,
but still fun at a drive-in, the Dixie Twin no less.

Kelley needed photos for a spread in a magazine.
I think the article was called, “Come to Dayton, Please!”

The editors recommended having the photoshoot at the 2nd Street Market,
which would have been fine, but I was angling to drive up and visit the installation
by Patrick Dougherty at Wegerzyn Gardens.

Everyone agreed and I was thrilled. Not only by seeing Patrick’s installation,
but that first picture of Kelley up there? It’s easily a favorite portrait that’s come from my lens.

The installation is going to be there for the next two years, be sure to visit! Details here.

Sidenote/Pimping for friends of Kelley: She’ll be up in Chicago July 22-24
for knitting, workshops and playing music. Details on her site.

Back in March I mentioned I’d be giving my first talk up in Dayton. That bar graph above is one slide from a deck of seventy.
I won’t lie, getting a coherent story together nearly gave me a heart attack. It wasn’t until the last 36 hours that it made sense.

In a nutshell, I talked about how I started with photography and why I still do it today, with lots of insight and examples
crammed in there for color.

Yep, I’ll share the contents online at some point, but I want to iron out a few wrinkles and make it extra pretty.

As for standing up in front of folks and holding a microphone? I need practice. Lots of it.
But it helped that when I looked out at the small crowd up at the South Park Tavern, I saw lots of familiar faces.
Thank you to those that drove all the way up from Kentucky and Columbus and Oxford and other places.
Really meant the world to me.

After I was done, gulped down a beer to get rid of the shaky legs and enjoyed the big ticket entertainment for the night. (more photos!)

(Thank you Kelley and Mike for pushing me to do something like this!)

The picture I took while sweating on the little stage.

Nick Eddy & Kelley

Above: Jasper the Colossal.

Above: Kelley & Mike as R.Ring.

A few photos from the NCAA Tennessee vs. OSU women’s basketball tournament game in Dayton.

The Lady Volunteers won this particular game, making these fans happy.
But I should mention since my delay in posting, Texas A&M took home the title
or whatever it is they call these things in the world of basketball.

The Ice Storm (not starring Sigourney Weaver – though that movie has sweet Criterion Collection box art.)
rolled into Ohio along with February. I decided to hunker down in Dayton and as it would turn out,
my home in Cincinnati pretty much escaped unscathed—nary accumulation of snow and just a bit of ice up north.

But I had fun as the cable went out along with the internet, praying the electricity would keep and taking
brief jaunts outside to hear the cracking of ice weighing on trees.

The following morning I learned how to wield a chainsaw with purpose to chop back the thick limbs that
blocked the driveway. No one was hurt (including myself) and for this I am glad.

Acoustics in unlikely places.

The new year kicked off and I was still in Dayton.

Popped over to an open house and had sauerkraut and pork which, according to tradition,
means the year will be filled with fortune and luck.

I needed no traditions to sample the pecan pie.

Everything was delicious, and the dogs of the house were pretty darn adorable.

Glorious sunset on I-675 on the way home.

There was Pictionary.

And even more Pictionary.
I’d just like to take this opportunity to whine that I never got to draw.

Gabe cuts into roast beef while the winter vegetables hang out in the background.

We played an old game of Charades from 1968.
It had gems like: “A man says what he knows, a woman says what will please.”
So Mad Mannian.

Nick and Amy have a great house with tons of little details that suck you in.
Like this wallpaper.

And a pillow that evokes Cookie Monster.

Watching the ball drop, just seconds away at this moment.

That is to say, Thanksgiving on the day of Thanksgiving.
But it was proper too, with a turkey and fixins including some very tasty sweet potatoes.

A hat tip to Nick and Amy for inviting me up!

In South Park up in Dayton.

They’re EVERYWHERE!

Kelley’s book is coming out in Australia and she needed a few photos for a magazine down there.
I don’t need an excuse to go hang out and catch up, but this was a fine premise indeed.
She brought out some quilts and other handywork to document.
Once things are published I’ll link ‘em up or post a gallery.

Until then, here’s a snapshot of Kelley making amplified sewing machine sounds.
(Related tangent: This is the sewing machine listed as an instrument on the track “S.O.S.”
from Last Splash, which was later sampled by The Prodigy on “Firestarter“.)

Our style for the night was “gutter punk.”

I rocked a Kentucky waterfall:

To celebrate a friend picking out a color for the siding of their house, we had an early dinner at the Pine Club.
This place oozes classic… everything.

This is where Sinatra would have (and probably did) eat when passing through Dayton.

Spent a little time with Kelley this afternoon. Here she is in her “pull room” with felted wool ready to made into goods.

I picked up a load of scarves and we talked about: dogs, music, cars, the future, color stories, garbage collection, and
the need for me to trim my mustache.

Spent a little slice of the evening trying to figure out a mini 4 track recorder on the porch.
We met with success.

The Breeders are hitting the road. I went over and said howdy while they were rehearsing.
Looking forward to catching them down the way in my hometown.