artconspiracy.org

The Art Conspiracy at the Longhorn Ballroom
150 artists // 5 bands // 1 very large fiberglass longhorn

On November 30, 2006, one-hundred fifty+ artists will descend upon
the legendary Longhorn Ballroom, located at 216 Corinth @ Industrial
to create one-of-a-kind artworks, all based upon 18inx18in plywood squares.

~On Friday, December 1, 2006 at 7:00PM, the doors finally open to the public~.
$10.00 per person admission at the door.

~Art for sale between band sets by donation system only~
Minimum $20.00 requested donation for artwork. Cash or check only.
Mediators available to handle on-the-spot auctions and drama.

Live music provided by
The Happy Bullets
Spitfire Tumbleweeds
Peter Schmidt and His Gentleman Scholars
Fishboy
Salim Nourallah

between sets and before the show: John Holiday and Dj Stephen R!!
video installation by Edward Ruiz, Robert Moreno, Robert McCollum, and Kris Youmans

Free, secure parking available and most importantly,
All proceeds will be donated to the La Reunion, a non-profit artist residency program forming in Oak Cliff.

____________________________________________________________

last year was an amazing experience, with artists spread out like children in arts and crafts and then walls filling up with brilliance and just as quickly bought and shuffled away. i'll be there. you should be there too.

www.artconspiracy.org

penn's 3

penn is officially three. i can't believe i have a three year old. we kicked it off with a spongebob party. mary asked what she could get him and i told her she could bring balloons, expecting, maybe 10 yellow latex balloons. she brought 40. FOURTY. i thought her taurus was going to float away.

can you believe we ate almost the whole cake?

hats, party blow things, finger munchies . . .

more spongebob . . .

three candles . . .

so many presents . . .

including a very cool real camera from grandma jeanne so he can take pictures like mommy.

we had a total blast. there was a real live toddler party in my very own house complete with kids and songs and sugar highs. i am so thankful to everyone who came and to nana and papa for traveling from so far away to help us celebrate. penn is three and if it's possible, i love him more every single day.

friend and old neighbor andy took over my camera so i could enjoy the party and took most of the photos. click here to see more.

grossest/weirdest thanksgiving day ever

because i woke up to this, the camera sort of stayed with us all day long. we layed in bed and called the family to say happy thanksgiving.

benji and i had decided we would "do something" for thanksgiving, but never declared what that something should be. last minute i decided to make a quick salmon lunch with what we had on hand. then we all went to our spaces, circled around three times and snuggled in to our thanksgiving naps.

then off to sarah janes for an amazing meal of phalic squash yummies and chocolate pie and almost-pumpkin pie that we almost died for.

***but before that! a half block from her house even, a perfectly fine penn yakked in his car seat where i immediatley pulled over and scooped out salmon specked phlem. jiri kindly loaned us clothes and penn was at about 75% but still having fun and not wanting to go home. 9:30, more puke, in my lap, so off we went. there was too much puke in the car seat, so he sat in the front. and puked. i cut mr. gansta-lean guy off making our exit and gansta-lean pulled up slow next to me and cracked his window. while i was thinking, "please don't shoot me," what came out of my mouth was totally, "my kid is puking i'm sorry!"

at home we both had to change our clothes. this strangely happend simultaneously with both of us falling around a bit in a chaplin-slapstick puke dance. once i got my pants on i coughed really hard, which made me pee just a little bit and that's way too much information, but i think it's important you get the full details of my really strange thanksgiving because me peeing in my pants, just a little, was about the middle layer of the cake.

so i had to change my pants. again. then penn screamed and pointed and behind me was a really really big bug, 1st cousin to a roach i'm certain, but wider, more circular, and sort of striped, but definetly big and even small bugs pretending to be big strike great fear and panic in the deepest parts of my heart where i cannot control a scream. so now, we're running, we're screaming and we're half clothed, with a little puke and pee still around the edges and we're chasing a disgusting bug with bug spray. when that didn't work and my rank in the food chain sank in i stepped on it. i stepped on a big bug for the first time ever. so not my proudest moment.

then penn puked on the couch. then the chair. i let him stay up as long as he could make it to keep it from getting in the bed and to get as much of the mucus out. (it's mucus he's expelling, which i'm told is a good thing. . . . .) i called benji at 12:30 and had him bring over the humidifier.

penn climbed in bed, happy, apple juiced and heavy-lidded. i put a towel beside him and told him to try and puke on it if he had to. he assured me everything was out and he was fine. and then, of course, he puked. no where even close to the towel. so i had to change all of the linens. and his clothes. again. poor guy.

just yesterday i was caught up on my laundry! we are a far cry from that now and after all that you totally had to predict that today is penn's birthday and family's coming up and i'm throwing a party because penn and i have great timing like that. *grin*

it was the grossest thanksgiving ever. i'm a little glad it's over. penn woke bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning and the doctor says we can probably look forward to two more weeks of this before the virus is gone. woo.

click here to see a few pics of what was happening in between the grossness.

dreamjob

shooting in space.
photo by hal samples.

holiday portraits starting off with a bang

i am proud to say i got to take a photo of this little one from the "outside" while she was still enjoying the comforts of the womb.

that was five (?) months ago. and i got the pleasure of meeting a completely fabulous family that i could happily spend all day photographing.

but i can't when there's so many other fun things and awesome people booked in a day. dood. the holiday portraits are turning out to be super-fun.

general opening to family conversations:

family: so, how's everything going?
me: everything's good.

family: how's work?
me: work is busy.

family: how's the weather?
me: it's november in texas, so everyone is raking the leaves, mowing, then sprinkling the lawn. heater off by 10 a.m., on by 7 p.m.

family: heater? you just need to eat a steak and get some meat on them bones. how's penn?
me: most amazing kid in the whole entire world 75% of the day. watch out on that other 25%. he's recently developed an "ugly face" and a foot stomping habit accompanied by, "that makes me angry!" followed up by buckets of "i love you's" and lots of kisses. he put something up his nose for the first time today. a sudafed.
family: a sudafed?
me: yes. small. round. red. nostril-sized. and, i know. sudafed shouldn't be within three year old fingers. do you KNOW how high three year old fingers can reach? we're both sick with the neverending cold. (almost two weeks!) lovely upper-respitory issues. i learned that you shouldn't cough or blow your nose while you're peeing. it's not supposed to come out that fast. i learned that lysol should make a new scent. (if you come to my house, know that it is eagerly and regularly disinfected. you can tell by that hint of "retirement home berry" on the door knobs.) luckily, i'm the only one who's suffered occasional mild fevers. the kiddo is not phased a second.

family: awww, you should go to the doctor and drink tea and buy a bunch of pill stuff. does this affect your work?
me: i've learned that if you work for someone else and you're sick, you just take a sick day and sleep and watch movies and let someone else do it. if you work for yourself, then there is no such thing as sick days. it was really cool when i was shooting this wedding and this groomsman came up to me and said i was the funnest photographer ever while i was trying to covertly swallow this big wad of snot down.

family: ewwwww. what are you doing for thanksgiving?
me: well, when you're single with a kid and every related member is a million miles away thanksgiving options pour in. HOW COOL IS THAT! we picked the vegetarian one, hee, thank you, and thanks to everyone who extended their home to us. i think i still owe some replies to a few people . . . .

family: what are you doing for penn's THIRD BIRTHDAY?:
me: hard core spongebob, all the way. the 25th, everyone's welcome, even if you didn't get a super cool spongebob invitation.

family: who's spongebob?

me: some variation of: my phone's dying, the baby just woke up, dinner's ready, a client is beeping in, we're running late, i'm on the road . . . .
family: some variation of: bye, keep blogging so i can keep up with you, love you. . . .


***some family responses have been humorized for the betterment of this entry.

carissabyers.com

a lot of people go to my website that don't read this blog. and the entry about the portrait is going to be pushed down as i keep writing. after the previous post i got quite a few calls about holiday portraits! so, since this is the best price i have ever put out there and it may not happen again for a while, and so many people seem pleased with it, i decided to do a quick re-design to let non-blog readers know that the special is available until the end of the year.

i'm doing it because there are a lot of folks out there who enjoy the holiday cards with their photo on it. it's a decent way to show all those people how tall the kids are, but after the price of typical sessions, or going for a really good portrait (which excludes all major department stores) and then cards, prints, and stamps, like everything, it adds up. this is far below the typical fee, so i'm hoping it makes some people happy.

i'm certain that some part of the website will break in someone's browser and i'd love for some of my text to be the appropiate color (i have the most ridiculous web problems, sometimes), but other than that, it's a fun new look.

the part where i make the baby earn his keep

front of postcard:
back of postcard:
do tell your christmas card hungry friends!

movie night

just rented davinci code. let me know if you wanna watch.

afraid of vacume cleaners

as penn rides his trike through the neighborhood, the pup and i closely in tow, people gather their children around them and clear the sidewalks. at parks and playgrounds children run away so that ringo and i have to keep our distance for penn to have a playmate. when we walk through the farmers market or stroll to the pet store, people wait until we are on a steady path before entering stores or passing. the commentary is not mouthed quietly or mumured into ears.

this week we've heard, "what kind of dog IS that?" and "i'd hate to meet THAT alone on a dark alley. which house is yours again?" "no, let's not pet that one, okay?" and the most outstanding, heard IN THE PET STORE, with wary eyes that said, how could you have a dog like that in a public place, "would you mind backing up a little, please?"

ha HA! which is so bizzarre. if you've ever met my dog, then you know what a spaz he is around new people. loves. people. is apologized to daily by the baby who cannot resist seeing how long hard objects will sound when bumped on the dogs head and has never displayed the slightest rejection or defense. he has no defense, that i'm aware of. doesn't bark. doesn't poop on walks. worst offense is pulling on a leash. and he's not a big dog.

if you know me and are a dog owner, then we've had this discussion: why the heck are people so gaurded against my dog? (okay, okay, when he ran in on the cleaning ladies next door and they screamed their death in spanish, well, that was totally funny.)

what i wish, though, is that everyone could meet ringo when he's sleepy. he is the best furry cuddler. normally kept to the end of the bed on a blanket, he's so sweet that i often don't refuse the creep up to the pillow where he manages to take up the entire bed. *groan* i know. i caved on the "no dogs in the bed" rule. but it's that cute. sleepy ringo kills the spastic-i'm-in-the-middle-of-puppy-puberty attitude and brings on something that, so far, has been witnessed only by me.

to review: my dog will kill you with waggy tails and whines of love. my dog won't jump on me, but he will jump on you. all in the name of love and a good face licking. and his name is RRRRingo. like the beatle, of course. despite his tejas birthright, it is not Gringo.

carissa byers photography: rouleau-oger wedding

this recent wedding was truly one in a million. every last detail was checked, double-checked, and brilliant. kinda like this dress, purchased on a trip to france to meet the grooms family.

everyone was calm, enjoying the amazing weather and the ranch, and then every so often something would happen, a memory or an item or a hand held that would remind everyone of what a huge occasion it really was.

i don't remember what the groom's actual occupation is, but if i had to guess, it would be comedian. i could go through this whole wedding and pick out only photo's that would make you laugh. but i won't. *grin*


the ceremony was held in the quaintest of churches.

i nestled myself inbetween the cello player and the wall for some shots of their face.

after doing only two weddings with this florist, darryl (link coming soon), i have already learned so much about how to make a wedding go. he especially knows how to make an exit. it's all about a few fake petals in the mix. (fake petals float. real ones drop like rocks. almost.) so i owe all of these shots to him.

THEY RENTED AN OLD TRUCK! seriously. how cool are old trucks?

i wasn't the only photograhper there! heh. maybe i should start bringing fancy murals with me. eventually i'll scan in the one he took of us.

the south austin jug band played well into the night. "crowd pleaser" doesn't even begin to describe their show.

not really sure how to describe this cake either. maybe "best thing ever put in my mouth, EVER." not to mention it was bigger than me.

i keep looking at this picture and trying to figure out what i like about it. i think it has something to do with being an adult, and how adults don't hold hands and frolic in fields often enough.

we probably don't sit at open stone tables playing chess often enough either.

and we definetly don't go swimming at night in 60 degree weather every day. (i was totally fascinated with the beauty of all the kids at this wedding.)

can you blame me?

so, the funny part about this whole thing is that i've been shooting for the bride's company for two years now and this is the first time i've ever met her in person! i think our first words went something like this:

her: oh my god, you are so tiny!
me: oh my god, you're so pretty!

this was also the first wedding i did with somethingblue.com. if i could find enough words out there to explain how fantastic they are i would write them here. truly, there's not a better wedding coordinator out there. i promise you. they think of things you didn't know needed thinking about and then, like magic, perfection appears and doesn't leave your side. i think this whole wedding was comprised of some of the best "vendors" in dallas.

i keep getting referred to as a "vendor." to be honest, i'm not too fond of the term. it sounds as if you're supposed to feed me a quarter and wait while i dispense your poloroid.

you can read more about this wedding and see more of my photos in the upcoming spring issue of D Weddings.

no regina

i try to take penn to as many musical events as he can go to and was super pumped to take him to see regina spektor at good records yesterday.

unfortunately, i was mistaken in the idea that she was actually going to play. she was there to sign discs before her gypsy tea room show that night which i was, again, wrong, about being sold out.

the biggest rule of not only humanity, but especially toddler-dom, is honesty. so, it always really sucks when well-intentioned parents come off looking like liars to their almost three year old. penn was expecting a piano to be played and was highly annoyed at me that there was nothing but free pizza and a chick behind a table.

at least there was hal and pavlov. (pavlov being the dog you'll see if you follow the linky-links to cuteness.)

click here to the photos i took.
click here to see hal's.

happy birthday hal

happy birthday to one of my favorite people/photographers, hal! how awesome that you gave everyone free photos, food and music on your birthday! i had a super fabulous time.

even my dog ringo had a great time! (despite his bladder dependability, space is but a mile from my house, so i left around 11 to let him out, and decided to just let him come back with me.)





















and do you even realize how ridiculous it is for sj and i to stand next to one another? at one point i put my arm around her waist in a friendly hug. i then realized, that, umm, it wasn't her waist and that her rear is totally shoulder level with me and that'd be really funny to me if it wasn't so overshadowed with the fact that many of my peers butts are somewhere in the vicinity of my upper torso.

so it was fun. and i can't believe you were out traipsing across the us for a month, got home late the day before the shin-dig, and still managed to pull it off. amazing. and all of the photos are amazing. wouldn't expect anything less, heh, and can't wait to see what comes out of your 34th year.

cheers!

click here for hal's photos.
click here for the randomness i took.

truck time

my friend julia sent me an email about "truck time," a kids charity event at a jewish temple that lets kids play on firetrucks and construction equipment and all those other transportative things kids are fascinated with. maybe its not a long shot that my 2.90 year old son would love this, but OMG he would LOVE this!

and off we went, rain and all, and climbed, "drove" and honked everything. twice.

we also got to watch the end of a jewish kids concert that wasnt too bad, though i couldnt understand everything. penn is fascinated with live music. especially if he knows the person singing.

for example, daniel came on in my ipod shuffle and from the back seat i hear singing and, "i like this song, momma." so i told him it was mr. daniel. then he started craning his neck. "where?" "the music," i said. "on the radio." to which penn decided he didn't like the music anymore because he didn't want mr. daniel stuck in our radio.

we're still in the ideal that we can enter and physically get lost in two dimensional or fictious things. sometimes penn wants to go into the tv and play with someone. but the greatest is, while reading "the lorax" (follow the link for info. plus trivia!) by dr. seuss (every night) "momma, i want to go into the book and play with barbaloots and eat truffula fruits and then mary can read us in the book!" he's writing his own stories now, too.

click here for a few more truck time pics.

"6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. "

i'll be honest with you. i just don't read your blogs like i used to. i'm sorry. i know, in the beginning, we were all in this together. we were commenting, and blogrolling and updating our flickr accounts. we were chatting on instant messenger and actually saying goodbye before we left our conversation partner facing the cold greyed-out "offline." we sent emails. we replied to emails! we called one another because, "i read your blog today, everything okay?"

then there was the blogger drought of 06 where there were no natural disasters on television to piss us off, opinions dried up and brains invested in blinging layouts for the festive myspace season of meaningless surveys, twinkly-backed animations and the hours it takes to write and post a thoughtful "thanks for the ad!" comment.

in the real world everyone dealt with a wash of dramatic interludes where we all tried to get lost in music and actual personal space and the blogosphere content became more illustrated than literary.

i'll be honest with you. this blog is not all that interesting.

here's one that is.

brought to you by the popular and crappy "i-held-the-camera-at-arms-length-and took-a-picture-of-myself" self-portrait

i've always hated wearing glasses. but always loved getting new ones. my other pair is 7 years old with an outdated prescription and i've dropped them for the last time. i picked these out without having my contacts in, so it was a hard judge but i went for it. now that they're here i'm not sure they're the one.
i wanted a wider lens because my annoyance with glasses, despite the slipping down my nose, glare, eyelashes crammed into the lens so that i have to use that eyelash curly thing when i wear glasses and the fact that they make my eyes half their size due to my weighty sight loss, being as blind as i am makes no peripheal vision downright dangerous.

so i got a wider frame. might be too wide, though. dunno. yet. i've 30 days to return them.

they say "killer loop" on the side which seems a little obnoxious. inside is orange.