Now I Need A Coffee Table...
I just created a 30-page
Coffee Table book.
The 9" x 12" hard cover book is filled with colorful photos I've taken with my small digital camera - a Canon
S90 - at concerts, music venues and Blues Festivals.I don't own a SLR (Single Lens Reflex).
This is really slick looking!
An online company called
MyPublisher makes it easy and simple to do.
I was able to self-publish it in just a few days so you KNOW it can't be too complicated.
I was surprised that it wasn't very expensive either.
One of the members of my local
photography group brought a beautiful one to a meeting a few years ago.
We passed it around and were impressed with the quality of his book.
His wife had tapped into his photo files and blew him away with the surprise Christmas present.
In fact, he told us, she did a
2 for the price of 1 deal and he sent the other one to his son.
I downloaded the free software and then gathered together the pictures I wanted to include in my first book.
There are many page layouts just a click away.
You can easily change your mind, enlarge or shrink the photos and choose to use captions or not.
I decided to have text only on the cover and on the spine.
My photos include a 2-page spread of a
Paul McCartney concert in Charlotte.
There's a shot of me holding a ticket to a 1965 Beatles concert in San Diego.
Other music venues include the
Pour House in West Ashley, the
Music Farm, North Charleston
Performing Arts Center, the
Tin Roof, Home Team BBQ,
Windjammer, the old
Dough Re Mi and the
Charleston Music Hall.
Trombone Shorty is on the cover, joyfully performing at the College of Charleston Cistern.
John Mellencamp is onstage in Columbia, as is
Billy Joel and
James Taylor...in three separate shows.
I was front row center for a
ZZ TOP show and have an extreme close up of one of the two long-bearded guitar players.
The trio's drummer is clean shaved but his name is Frank Beard.
(Click on the photos - twice - for more details.)
Take a moment to see what kind of book you can make with MyPublisher.
They have various special offers and I think you'll be pleased with the possibilities to be creative.
I'm planning a sequel.
Labels: Billy Joel, Fiery Ron's Hime Team BBQ, Frank Beard, MyPublisher, PAC, Paul McCartney, Windjammer, ZZ Top Dough Re Mi
Light Up The Sky.
Be sure to click on the link to enjoy the
London New Year's Eve fireworks show. WOW!
It's like having a spectacular finale all the way through the booming, flashing and intricate 11-minute aerial celebration.
Last time I saw something that memorable was an indoor display at the Paul McCartney concert up in Charlotte. Indoors!
The Chinese really started something with that gunpowder thing didn't they?
I stood for several minutes on my front porch Saturday at midnight, watching MUCH smaller explosive displays in my portion of the sky.
I know that fireworks are banned in my little town of Hanahan yet, scant yards away, over the boundary into North Charleston, sale and use of such dangerous - but beautiful sights - are legal.
My older daughter is a police officer in northern California and says her real worry is people firing guns into the air.
A falling bullet coming back down is moving as fast as when it was fired.
One particular nearby celebrant had apparently paid big bucks for big booms. He/she set off a steady barrage of chest-thumping aerial bursts.
One after another, a long, long light show tore into the sky, sending colorful fragments screaming through the night.
As we remarked on the fiery display, a Hanahan police car - with its lights turned off - quietly coasted by and made the turn at the corner, heading up to the source of the rockets.
The loud and bright shots continued to soar skyward so I assume the yard of the launching pad was across the city limits line and my local lawmen had to sit and watch the show.
(Click on the photo - twice - for more details.)
Indoor pyrotechnics are startling. In the 5th row, I heard the booms, saw the flash and felt the heat. Yikes.
Labels: aerial bombs, Chinese gunpowder, city limits, fireworks sales, Hanahan police, indoor fireworks, London, New Year's Eve celebrations, North Charleston, NYE, Paul McCartney, pyrotechnics
Sir Paul was Sir-perb!
Paul McCartney.
(He was in a band before WINGS.)
His current tour had him appearing in Charlotte for the first time in 17 years so I had to drive up.
Might be another long dry spell.
He did not disappoint the sold-out crowd at the Time Warner Cable Arena.
I believe there were only two empty seats in the whole place...and they were next to me in
Row 5.
I had some elbow room in a crowd of 19,000 people.
Many fans had signs and banners and at least one license plate.
McCartney actually made a comment about the tag.
"It's thoughtful and beautiful but I hope you know it's also misspelled?"
My little sign was an enlarged copy of a ticket to the
1965 Beatles concert in San Diego.
I had covered that for the newspaper but Sir Paul and I did not get to reminisce about the last time we had seen each other..
This time I could hear the band.
He did a high-energy show that lasted almost 3 hours and included two encores of 3 songs each.
Oh, did I mention that I experienced my first-ever indoor concert pyrotechnics?
We all were singing along to
"Live And Let Die" and you know the part on the record (vinyl?) where there's an explosion?
Yep. I was rocked by the blast and felt a heat wave roll past me. Yikes.
I was flinching instead of snapping a picture but I was ready when the lyrics came back around to the part that gets REALLY loud.
Another BOOM and heat.
Oh yeah!
There was another surprise at the end of the second encore.
Someone handed McCartney a large bouquet of flowers.
He waved them over his head then he walked toward stage right to exit.
Suddenly 80 million tons of red, white and blue confetti came pouring down from above over the audience.
He was totally blanked out by the cascading display.
When it cleared, he was gone.
Thank you to my favorite former
Beatle.
(I've created a Flickr album of my concert photos. It was so nice to have a camera that could capture crisp, clear pictures. It's my Canon S90. Thanks.)
Labels: Band On The Run, Canon S90, Live And Let Die, Paul McCartney, The Beatles, Time-Warner Cable Arena, wings
I just created a 30-page Coffee Table book.
I was surprised that it wasn't very expensive either.
My photos include a 2-page spread of a Paul McCartney concert in Charlotte. 
