Project 365 - May 27, 2009

South Florida Media Coalition

Once a month all of the public information officers get together just to talk about issue that are facing all of us on a daily basis. PIOs from all over south Florida get together . . . could be from a TV station or from a municipality or police department. I met many people today. The situation at all media stations and newspapers is really bad, lay offs everywhere.

However, we took a tour of the studios after the meeting and that is when I snapped this photo of the South Florida Today set. They were in the middle of their live show but they like background noise and we didn't have to be quiet!

Project 365 - May 25, 2009

Poolside

Memorial Day started out with drizzle but soon the sun came out and was hot and sunny until about 2 p.m. Adina and I went out to the pool at about 9:30 and stayed until the clouds rolled in. It was a lovely, lazy way to spend the day. I snapped this just as Adina was complaining that she was hot and hungry.

Project 365 - May 24, 2009

Shopping

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I despise shopping. But for my girls, I will shop.

Adina has her 8th grade dance coming up and she wanted a new dress for the occasion. We tried one mall last weekend to no avail. But this time, luck on the first dress! Of course I don't have the photo at the moment but I liked this photo because we were in a store called "Hot Topic" which has every band t-shirt imaginable as well as workers with piercings all over their faces and ears and other body parts.

I loved these fake glasses on Adina because she looked like Sally Jessie Raphael.

Project 365 - May 21, 009

Third Thursdays

The Museum of Art l Fort Lauderdale, Nova Southeastern University offers free admission, two for one drinks and a concert on the Third Thursdays of each month. It is great because it is from 5 - 8 p.m. You get to see great art, socialize with fellow downtowners and miss all the work traffic on the roads.

This week there was a Beatles tribute band, Anthology, playing and they sounded so real! By the end of the evening I was twisting and shouting with lots of people!

This photo was taken by one of my board members with her iphone. On the left is Irvin Lippman, the director of the museum on on the right is Hal Axler, executive director of Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and Cinema Paradiso.

Project 365 - May 19, 2009

The Cappies

I had two tickets to The Cappies, the drama awards program for high schools. It took place at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Rachel and I went because we both love theater, because it is all about arts education and because her school was nominated for several awards.

Before the awards we went to Las Olas to Noodles Panini for dinner. After dinner Rachel wanted a cup of cappacino. Since I haven't been carrying my camera around, I have been using my Blackberry to snap daily shots. Not the best camera, but not terrible. At least I still capture the moment.

Project 365 - May 17 2009

Just a typical Sunday morning

Newt just hanging around! don't know why, but whenever we bend down in the kitchen to get something in the lower cabinets or in the refrigerator, Newt jumps up onto our backs. Sometimes it is funny, other times it hurts because he needs his nails trimmed. But I captured this on Sunday morning as Joel was chatting on the phone and I was eating a bowl of cereal. Okay, so I didn't ahve the good camera, but I Caught the shot anyway.

Project 365 -May 16, 2009

My Mother's Day Present




As a wonderful surprise for Mothers Day, Joel took the girls to our friend's photography studio. If you ever need a great photographer, contact Michael Zimmerman. He is wonderful with studio shots and his specialty is photographing food! But he can do anything. Here is the link to his website.

So they took these fabulous and silly photos. But the surprise was that they recreated the same exact pose as when they were photographed years ago by another photographer. This is the result!

Project 365 - May 9, 2009

Happy Mother's Day

As my mother always said, "Every day is Mother's Day, I don't need a special day to celebrate it." And I agree with her.

So what does a good daughter do on Mother's Day? Go and visit her mom. I sat for a long while just staring at her stone and talking to her. Nothing profound, just rambled and told her all the stuff I have been wanting to say about my girls and my job and whatever popped into my head. I wasn't alone, there were so many others there that day doing the same. Although I go fairly often, I don't usually go on Mother's Day, like my privacy when I visit my mom.

In fact, I much prefer visiting her brick on Riverwalk which is near the Brwoard Center for the Performing Arts. A place where she adored. A place that is the result of the fruits of the labor of my office! A place that I love too because my mom instilled a deep love of the arts in me by surrounding me with art and music all of my growing up years. She took me to the theater, to the ballet, to Radio City Music Hall, to the Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ellis Island, Washington, DC . . . the list is endless. And I have done the same for my own children.

So to my mom, thank you for all that you have done for me, I love you now and forever, up to the sky and back down again.

Project 365 - May 9, 2009

Calm

I started out my weekend at 7:30 a.m. with a bowl of cereal and a banana then I jumped into the car and headed east. I met my friend, Samantha, at 9 a.m. at Sunrise Blvd and A1A. We walked and talked our way all the way to Las Olas Blvd. and back. It took us a little over an hour and then we plopped down in St. Bart's Cafe for several tall glasses of water, juice and an iced coffee. By then we had sufficiently cooled off and we headed to beach. We positioned ourselves fairly close to the lifeguard stand with our toes ALMOST in the ocean.

Not a cloud in the sky, not an ocean creature to bother us in the water, I really couldn't ask for a more beautiful day.

We stayed on the beach and in the water for more than two hours and then I had to leave to pick up Adina. Samantha left me and when I called Adina, she wasn't ready for me to pick her up. So, I popped a few more quarters in my meter, headed back to St. Bart's and ordered a Mediterranean wrap and a bottle of water! It was a wonderful lunch. I sat there and did a lot of people watching and ocean watching.



This first photo was taken at about 9 am while I was waiting for Samantha to arrive. There was no one on the beach. It was so peaceful. I just sat on a chaise lounge that was chained to a bunch of other chairs and stared at this beautiful site until Samantha got there.



This was my view as I chowed down on my wrap. Lovely site for a lovely sandwich! The funniest thing is that around the corner is a biker bar and every few minutes about ten to twenty bikers would come by, scoot around the corner and then ten or fifteen minutes later they would all leave. This happened about five times with different groups of bikers! I felt like I was in a TV show or something.



And this photo just shows the sadness in my daughter's face as she struggles to understand why a friend of her's lost his life so suddenly during a Boy Scout hike in the Everglades. He was to graduate the same day as Rachel. It is a very tragic story and all of the local TV stations and newspapers were covering this story at the high school today. Here is the link to the newspaper: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-scout-death-bn051009,0,6813684.story

Project 365 - May 1, 2009

Cleaning Day

Cleaning day at our office revealed many surprise items. We found fun photos from twenty years ago which I took quite a bit of ribbing for! But this Wicked poster was my favorite! Number one, it is my favorite show of all time and number two, it decorated my office in such a nice way to hide the ugly cement pillar in the center of my office!!

Project 365 - April 18, 2009 Part II

Every Night. After dinner and before bedtime there is a peaceful calm over the household when the girls are in their rooms and Joel is in his "cave" and I tiptoed into their worlds for just a moment to snap these photos. Rachel was doing homework and texting on her new Blackberry and Adina was sitting at her desk working on something that was due in the morning.

Project 365 - April 16, 2009

Work. Sometimes work is a lot of fun. We have a column in the Go Riverwalk magazine and the next issue will be about Cinema Paradiso's 10th Anniversary. Cinema Paradiso used to be a church and then the Vinnette Carroll Theatre and ten years ago the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival took over the operation of the building and started to show independent films year round.

So we needed a good photo to go with the article and I was elected to shoot it. I actually like the end result!

Project 365 - April 18, 2009

Prom. A difficult time and a happy time. It marks the beginning of the end of high school. The kids are going through so many emotions, rushing to finish their high school careers, hurrying to cram in as many experiences as possible before it all comes screeching to a halt and then they have to start the rest of their lives. It is scary for them and scary for parents.

We went through many, or I should say, I went through many emotional days before the grand event. But as it got closer, I became calmer and more level headed and made sure that I was the parent and that Rachel was going to look and feel her best and i was going to steel myself and handle it.

I did have a HUGE outpouring of support from my friends and colleagues. It really helped. And in the end, all was well.

I took Rachel to the salon to get her hair done up in a fancy do. They had a ball with her and there were about a hundred bobby pins in her hair when all was said and done, not to mention about ten pounds of hairspray!!!

I helped her with her make up and before you knew it, they were off for their night of Prom. Her date, Zach, has been her friend since 6th grade.

Project 365 - April 23, 2009

Take Your Child to Work Day. It took place on Thurday, April 23 this year. Sometimes it is just a normal day at work and we put the kids to work in the office stuffing brochures into press kits, or filing papers or coping stuff. But this year we knew that we had an artist's poster signing event coming up and we planned it to coincide with the children coming to our office.

It was a fun day. We started out with a staff meeting and the kids got to introduce themselves to everyone and say a little something about themselves. Then we were off to the airport to set up for our event.

We had hired a jazz guitarist to play during the event to attract attention to our new art gallery on the departure level of Terminal 2 at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.



The kids posed for us in front of the Lee Wagener Art Gallery. My graphic designer created the sign at the top of the gallery. He also designed the poster that the artist was signing and giving away. Not to mention the signs and graphics to announce this event!



Bob Hanni is the jazz guitarist in the photo and travelers stopped by before they boarded their flights.



Artists Mary Lou Siefker (left) is currently on exhibit on the walls in the gallery and Suzanne Scherer (right) and her husband (not in photo) Pavel Ouporov have a permanent video installation at the back wall of the gallery. They are being photographed by Jose Luis Amador, my graphic designer, photographer and "jack of ALL trades!"



This is another public artwork that graces the stairwell as you descend to the baggage claim. The photographer, Clyde Butcher, lives, exhibits, works and photographs in the Everglades. I love his large scale black and white photos and I liked the eerie quality of this photo that I took and then transferred to black and white in Photoshop. I also love the artist. He is a huge, bear of a man and so interesting to talk to. He leads walks in the Everglades every year.

Project 365 - April 8, 2009

Passover. It is always a time when we invite friends and family to our home. We make sure that the house is clean and tidy. We set the table with our best white table cloths and usually pull out the special plates and glasses. Out come the Haggadas so that we can conduct a sedar . . . not a long one like we attended last year (it was an Orthodox sedar and they didn't start until 10 pm and by 1 am they were still going strong and we had to excuse ourselves!).

This year the same Orthodox folks invited us again, but we declined but they insisted on giving us boxes of matzoh that were made in Israel. These are the round ones and they have a burned flavor to them.


















































Samantha and Rachel were deep in discussion here about Rachel's upcoming prom. I didn't get involved in this discussion, but I wanted to capture the intensity of the moment.

Project 365 - April 6, 2009

Ok, so I am uploading out of order, but at least I am uploading. That is what happens when you take a break . . . you get out of the habit of doing this on a regular basis. These photos were taken at the beginning of April when we drove over to Crystal Beach to celebrate my uncle's 80th birthday. It was the first time that we ever left Rachel behind by herself. It was a bit nerve wracking, but she IS 18 and she will be leaving for college in August. But we were still a bit sad that she didn't join us.

The sun seems to melt into the water during the breath taking sunsets. I was able to capture a few shots that I really loved. And the early morning light was fabulous on the Gulf as well.