Friendship Oak in Gulfport

I had a chance to pass through the old site for the December retreat. I came away with loads of great images that show all that place has been through since Katrina. I am saving most of what I captured for the doc this summer, but I wanted to share a short video of a tree that many would have a memory of. We are going to try to compile some reflections on the retreat site, what you remember from your time there. It is pretty straightforward, all you have to do is give us a call and we can take it from there. We want to hear from you! Below is a little video that hopefully will trigger some responses.

If you’d like to tell us what you remember about that tree or the weekend in general, just leave a post below and I’ll contact you on how to do that. Cheers. Brick.

Profiling High School Sports and ACE’s impact

One pattern that has emerged in my travels is the impact of ACErs on the sports programs at the various schools. From introductory elementary programs to the more intense high school sports, ACErs help out at all levels.I spent some time profiling a day in the life of the Bishop Dunne baseball team, it was a chance to revisit some my own experience playing baseball and coaching.

Panorama of Los Angeles ACErs

Pose

Goofy

Candid

Panoramic Photos on the Road

Photo Album*

*Click on link above to view album**

**Read instructions***

***Question the use of too many asterix

Sunrise in San Francisco

Our Mother of Sorrows

I spent about 4 hours at Our Mother of Sorrows in Los Angeles this past week. I had a chance to meet with Jen Beltramo the principal there and get a glimpse of their routine. I will spare stereotypes the of the school’s area, suffice to say that the students who live near the school are in a pretty tough spot. The school itself is a secure and stable place in the midst of an area whose SES is scrawled in graffiti, littered along the sidewalk, and can be heard buzzing with the air patrol overhead. But inside the school is quiet and you hear the humm of learning. In fact you don’t even hear the shuffle of desks and chairs, as every leg of every chair and desk in the entire school has a tennis ball. That is a lot of tennis balls.

Compton cupcake

I was filming the morning recess today when a 4th grader wandered up with a luminous orange icing cupcake. He said, “here, it’s my birthday” and wandered off. I ditched the frosting and ate the cupcake. Moments later he came back with a bag full of superhero rings and gave me an Incredible Hulk ring. He said, “everyone who gets a cupcake gets a ring”. It was true I saw a number of 4th graders and teachers wandering around with cupcake wrappers and rings. So I said thank you and continued filming. It was an unexpected 3 minutes, but hardly surprising.

Stopping along the Colorado

Car rental

I called the rental car company today and they said that the class I selected had a wide variety of PT Cruisers. I paused on the phone to the point that they said, “Hello?”. “uhhhh…I can’t do that, its just that road trips are really cool, they are this iconic journey that occupy a special place for Americans who long for a sense of adventure, and I feel like I couldn’t make eye contact with anyone while I was driving, parking,  filling up, or walking toward a PT Cruiser.”

Art on the Road

I would like to take time to sketch and paint things that are interesting. It will be mostly landscapes because people don’t stop moving, and its kind of weird when someone you don’t know is glancing at you, and their notebook, then you, then their notebook, then you…. So I’ll just draw rocks, and mountains and trees, rivers, buildings, bits of grass, water (oceans or puddles)

Below is a sketch from a friend’s house in Lahinch, Co. Clare in western Ireland.  He is a surfer, with a Budda in nearly every room of his house.  He is currently working on a surf documentary and this statue is right next to all his editing equipment.