The Gordon/Merkley Affair

June 13, 2015 by Brigham Barnes

(And by "affair" I mean "to-do")

Last weekend I was out in Utah and the keynote event of my being there was Grant and Lauren's wedding celebration. I had the incredible honor of having been asked to do the music at their reception. But I also got to party and see some great New Yorkers and former New Yorkers.

The party was at a beautiful cabin up Hobble Creek Canyon from Springville, the sort of beautiful cabin that rich grandpas build for family gatherings. Or for renting out to strangers' wedding celebrations.

Was there an in-ground trampoline? Of course.

Kim shares a story that must be head to be believed.

I call this sequence "Amigas (starring Maria and Lauren)"

Party moved into the cabin for a moment

So Grant and Lauren could welcome us from the balcony and invite us to go back outside and eat.

Look how much everyone loved being welcomed!

This picture is called "Proud Father of the Bride"

Back outside to eat, we receive a visit from the father of the groom.

Tamara.

Lauren's sportswriter brother-in-law, Matt.

The parking lot. I only got stuck a little on my way out.

And then it was back up that cabin again Saturday to celebrate Grant and Lauren's wedding earlier that day.

Grant's dad invents inflatable play items and there were a ton of them on hand for playing on.

Here they are. The marrieds.

Everyone's laughing and corn-holing except for Buster!

Off in the distance...the traditional Husband/Wife Canoe Ride

Seats ready for the Ring Ceremony, people slowly filling them.

See this horse? He was in a corral right by the ceremony site. Just before everything started he got down on his back and started rolling around, sending dirt clouds a'flying. Lucky for everyone he got the rolling around out of his system pretty quick and didn't dust up the ceremony.

Here comes the groom.

Ceremony assembled.

A couple behind-the-scenes photos from the reception.

Vote on your favorite Loren and Adrienne photo:

Jenny, Kim. Old roommates reunited and laughing.

Ian.

Rebekah.

Some hero brought a whole plate of extra mac and cheese to the table for everyone to share because as crazy as we were about all the food, no one could get enough macaroni and cheese!

Oh just showing off rings.

Moved indoors for some toasts and cake-cutting.

I moved up into the loft-area to handle the music. Oh! All while we were eating outside? Music was playing. But I was too far away from the speakers to notice I hadn't hit "shuffle" on my "Cocktail Time" playlist and that it was playing by Artist. Whoops! Oh well, didn't hear any complaints. Any major complains. HARDLY any major complaints. Ok a negligence lawsuit has been filed.

Behind the scenes again...

Lauren pretended the cake-cutter was a microphone for their whole post-cake speech. It was funny! Maybe you had to be there?

A Cool Table forms.

And then I was on the clock, getting that music played. There was a light rain situation going on outside, so the party started indoors.

But around 9 things had let up and we moved it outside. Are Johnny and Kim forming a two-person conga line? Who's to say?! It was a wild party!

It was also really dark and not the best for photos but it WAS the best wedding reception!

Ignite 2015: The Play At Home Version

June 09, 2015 by Brigham Barnes

Monday night I spoke at my church's annual Ignite event (while held at a church this is not a very churchy event--just clearing that up before you get to the slideshow). Ignite is like short Ted talks where you give a five minute presentation along with a twenty slide slide show where the slides change automatically every fifteen seconds, so you've always got to be moving (verbally). I was told I could speak on whatever I wanted. Deciding what to speak on was not easy. While on a flight last week I went through my photo library to see what I had a lot of pictures of and made three slide shows. Eventually, for better or worse, I chose the slide show posted below so you could experience it yourself.

The first things you're going to want to do is turn up your volume and then click "play" (the arrow, duh) on "Untitled" here to hear the audio:

And then sort of count to 15 while looking at each picture before clicking to the next one:

Isn't it just like you were there?!

(Perhaps it requires explaining: I started the presentation with a fake "title page" slide to make people think my presentation was going to be boring and serious. And I almost forgot to record myself speaking, so you miss my introduction and chatter as I was adjusting the microphone height)

Additional Director's Commentary: I made the slide show on a Wednesday and submitted it on a Thursday and by Monday (the day of the presentation) I realized I better figure out what I was going to say and write my talk. So I wrote it all out word for word while I was at work and then didn't read any of it at Ignite. I guess I was just loaded everything into my RAM and then grabbed at it wildly when I was at the microphone.

Last Day of Tutoring 2015

June 03, 2015 by Brigham Barnes

My fourth school year tutoring up in Harlem drew to a close on Tuesday. By 11th grade I just don't understand any of the math anymore, but I'm still going.

Something I encountered on the way up: a jungle's worth of plants for sale on the street.

First wave of kids arrives.

A major tutoring responsibility: setting up tables and chairs, then taking them down a little later.

Chamacos

Although the program is called "Hotdogs and Homework" I've only ever had hotdogs there once. Usually it's pizza. But on special days, Taco Bell!

And on even more special days? Root beer floats, although most of the kids just opted for cups of ice cream.

It wasn't all partying Tuesday night, though. We still dug out books to force the kids to read if they didn't bring any work with them (on account of it being "the last day" and who works on the last day?)