My neighborhood hosted it’s 3rd annual arts festival this weekend. I’ve been saying this is my favorite day of the year in Fishtown, a day when I’m extra proud to live here and be part of such a vibrant and wild-spirited community. What promised to be a rainy affair turned out to break free of the showers and even give me a sunburn. It was lovely, as always.

A big part of the festival, for those of you who don’t know yet, is the ‘Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby’. I took lots of photos of the derby and here’s a video of some of the best sculptures in action:

Being the history buff that I am, I was excited to learn about Flickr’s partnership with huge archives of public domain images like the Library of Congress. There are thousands of images there now, ranging from black and white baseball photos to rich colorful images of sharecroppers. The photo above, “Faro and Doris Caudill, homesteaders, Pie Town, New Mexico“, makes me think of my day dream of Audrey and my future life. Like some kind of nostalgia for the future.

One of the great things about the Flickr Commons images is that most of them are copyright-free. I’ve been looking for images for posters and other artwork, and it feels great that I could literally take my pick.

On a side note, I think I might want to emulate the guy’s style this year. So cool!

[Migratory worker, FSA ... camp, Robstown, Tex.]

Audrey and I have a soft spot in our hearts for the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. It’s one of the most wild areas on the East Coast, and lord knows we love wilderness. As it happens, our friend Allan (aka Lord Whimsy) knows a heck of a lot about the nature and history of the area and loves trecking out to the cranberry bogs in search of interesting stuff. In case you missed it, I took some of my favorite photos of the year on our orchid hunting adventure last spring. It was bitterly cold out – only 5′F and windy – today, but we had a great time exploring.

As always, there are many more photos on my Flickr page here.

Audrey and her classmate Jesse are shooting a short film on 16mm this month and we all went out location scouting on the banks of the Delaware River just north of Port Richmond in Philly, nearly under the Betsy Ross Bridge. We just happened to stumble upon this fabulous little old overgrown jetty that was simply magical.

See the whole set here:

I (Audrey) recently took a trip down to Hot Springs, Arkansas to begin researching a documentary film I am making. I met my mother (whom the film is partially about) down there and we spent 5 days digging up the past, eating fried catfish and barbecue, bathing in hot springs and soaking up the vibe of this little town, and I have to say- I am in love with the history and old Americana feel of Hot Springs. Here are a couple of photos from the trip, the rest are on Mark’s Flickr page. I will be posting more about this project in the months (and years?) to come, I may even create a separate blog for the film, but I will keep everyone POSTED. Ha ha. Pun intended.

Sailing:

Fireworks!

Acadia National Park:

BBQ!

We were lucky to spend the weekend up near Wellsboro, PA to celebrate our friends Andy and Darshana’s wedding. Andy’s folks have this amazing farm right on the edge of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, which I have never seen before. We camped out there, falling asleep to the sounds of wild nature – toads and owls and all sorts of cool sounding beasties.

We took a hike out to the rim of the canyon, swam in one of their small lakes, played mad bocce ball, ate awesome vegan goodies until stuffed to the gills, and built huge campfires. An A+ event, for an A+ couple. Happy day!

From the sky:

And from the highway (no, I probably shouldn’t be taking photos while driving in traffic, but…):