Teaching others how to fish
February 23rd, 2007
Yesterday evening I covered an event sponsored by Chrysalis (www.changelives.org). This nonprofit organization takes homeless women through empowerment programs, such as writing resumes, interviewing skills, etc. This group is trying to solve homelessness from a long-term point of view. I had the blessing to covering their event before their “graduation”, which was held at a salon and day spa in santa monica. They got a makeover and a new suit too to further equip them going out to the working world.
”I’m 116 days clean and sober!” Lorenna (above) tells me. “That means I’m not only free of alcohol, but also of cocaine too.” She began her job working for a magazine in Hollywood just last Monday.
Valentine’s Day
February 15th, 2007
Valentine’s Day keeps on getting better and better for me. I started off the morning with about 20 men singing a cappella to me and ended the evening babysitting a cute l’il boy and enjoying chocolate covered strawberries and champagne with my husband while watching a movie.
The neat thing about covering this feature is that I got to see them serenade people from all walks of life: from stockbrokers at big corporate buildings to the Albertson’s check-out lady above.
Murphy Brown
February 12th, 2007
As I kid I would always watch Murphy Brown (along with I Love Lucy) with my sister. So it was really neat taking some portraits of “Frank Fontana” (Or Joe Regalbuto) at his home this past Friday for the newspaper. He still gets letters from fans of Murphy Brown, and he’s a great photographer to boot; he has recently been published in Rangefinder Magazine. He tells me he has always had an interest in photography but got into it again courtesy of actor William H. Macy, who is also an avid photographer.
On another note, my editor assigned me Valentine’s Day this week, so it’ll be interesting documenting acts of love around the city. I’ve called a few flower shops; and maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get to photograph kids in school exchanging valentines.
Knit Picks
February 8th, 2007
…weekly meeting of the Bitch n’ Knit in Santa Monica. I think I’ll try to make it to the next meeting, I’ve always wanted to learn how to knit.
Happy Waitangi Day
February 6th, 2007
Yesterday I celebrated Waitangi Day with the Kiwis at Santa Monica Beach. They celebrated the holiday in Santa Monica by building a 100 ft. fern sculpture in the sand. For the complete article see today’s issue: www.smdp.com
A Santa Barbara Native American drives all the way to Santa Monica to help.
This lady’s family name is tatoo’d on her face. She’s a Maori tribeswoman who came from New Zealand to help build the sculpture.
Alot of people skipped work. I didn’t photograph them because I didn’t want to get them in trouble, but now you know one reason why people call in sick on Superbowl Monday.
If you’ve seen The Ring, John Woo’s Windtalkers, or the new movie Smokin’ Aces, you’ll recognize him as Martin Henderson (a Kiwi native who came to help dig). Since I didn’t see any of these movies, I thought he kind of looked like Keith Urban. I’m sure he gets that all the time.
All done…
