I have been listening to Alexi Murdoch as we transition from spring to summer. Add him to the list of artists I’d like to photograph one day: Joe Purdy, Ray Lamontagne, Chan Marshall, Brandi Carlile, the list goes on…

“Every minute in the United States, an ambulance gets turned away from an emergency room because hospitals are simply too full. In Los Angeles, where the wait time in some ERs is as long as 48 hours, the entire 911 system is being challenged in ways that are alarming.

FIRESTORM follows Los Angeles Fire Department Station 65, located in South Los Angeles, a neighborhood with a largely uninsured and undereducated population. The LAFD handles all emergency medical services for the city of Los Angeles, and currently 82% of the department’s work is medical, rather than fire-related. Eleven hospitals have closed in just five years in LA, and the challenge of delivering more than 500 patients per day to a shrinking number of hospitals is overwhelming to the LAFD. With resources strained, and 911 being used for everything from heart attacks to stomach aches, LAFD paramedics have become virtual ‘doctors in a box’.”

I was first introduced to The Swell Season in the fall of 2006 after watching Once at the Strand Theater in Rockland, Maine. In many ways Once embodied the foundations of life: love, relationships, family, finding yourself, challenges, and progression.

From Wikipedia, “The Swell Season is a folk rock duo formed by Irish musician Glen Hansard and Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová. “The Swell Season” name is derived from Hansard’s favourite novel by Josef Škvorecký from 1975 bearing the same title.”

Although their third and newest album Strict Joy is wonderful, there is a rawness about The Swell Season’s live performances that radiates authentic emotion, passion, and feeling we can all appreciate.

There’s also a fantastic trailer for the new album here.

The Voice Project from The Voice Project.

Carry Me Home from Barefoot Workshops.

Title: Carry Me Home
A Film By: David Wright and Susan Fritz
Produced By: Barefoot Workshops, Inc.
Instructors: Julie Winokur, Teddy Symes, Yoni Brook & Chandler Griffin
Sponsors by: Canon USA, Sennheiser, Bogen Imaging, Lowel, Litepanels
Created: February 2010, Clarksdale, Mississippi
Synopsis: A self-determined man confronts his past, is given a chance, and discovers the freedom to change on the Sunflower River.

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This was my first foray into documentary filmmaking and the experience was nothing short of remarkable. There were 12 students including myself, 4 incredible instructors with a plethora of experience and knowledge, and an endlessly helpful support staff composed of savvy locals and Delta Workshop alumni students.

Our home base was the Shack Up Inn in the Mississippi Delta. It was an ideal environment to learn, edit, eat, and sleep, although there was not much sleeping to be had after week 1! Thanks to all for making these 2 weeks beyond enjoyable.

I highly recommend Barefoot Workshops for documentary filmmaking and photography. For more information, visit Barefoot Workshops.

jónsi – “go quiet” from Jónsi.

“Go Quiet” is a film of Jónsi performing the “go” album acoustically, shot at home in Reykjavík, Iceland over new year 2010 by Dean Deblois, the acclaimed director of “Heima“.

Maya Lin – Unchopping a Tree.

We started with our first dog, a yellow lab we named Buttercup. A few years later we added a second yellow lab and named her Sierra. I deeply loved Buttercup and Sierra but going away to college and later moving to Maine created large physical and emotional distances from them, and we saw each other less and less.

While living in Maine, my parents came for a summer visit and we went for a walk in the Camden Park. As the sun dipped beneath the horizon my parents began to explain that cancer had rapidly spread throughout Sierra, and that they had no choice but to put her to sleep, reliving her from her suffering.

Upon hearing this I began to feel very disconnected with her passing by not seeing her regularly. After watching this documentary I am able to better connect with her passing and identify with the emotions I was unable to feel for so long. May you find peace and connection with your family during this holiday season!