New Haven, Missouri Balloon Festival

New Haven had it's 19th annual Balloon Race and City Festival this past week, and it was a terrific event. Many thanks to Mark and Ellen Zobrist for their leadership and generosity in sponsoring the race. What a perfect day for 20+ balloons to chase the Pepsi Can chase balloon.

Summer Cycles, Songs, and Silliness

If you are a city mouse instead of a country mouse, you have much to experience. Ever seen an Egg Toss in the "Super Farmer" Competition at the Gasconade County Fair? Neither had I, but it was hysterical.  On one of the hottest days of the year a bike race around the Missouri State Capital in Jefferson City can have you thinking you're watching the Tour de France. Slow down and listen to teenagers play classical guitar compositions at the Mid Missouri Guitar Camp and Competition. These kids were so focused and so good.

Electric Vehicles Meeting

An earnest group of people met at Earthways in Grand Center to learn about how to make their own electric vehicle. Several of the newly formed grouped had made their own vehicles from late model light trucks and one from a Porche 914. We all felt a lot more empowered armed with new knowledge and stories from the builders. 

New Haven, Missouri welcomes Victoria Vox

The Riverfront Cultural Society in New Haven, Missouri hosted the lovely and entertaining Victoria Vox. Victoria is famous for playing ukulele and singing; and travels internationally performing and enchanting her audiences. RCS hosts lots of folk and alternative music groups, but there are rare nights when magic happens on the stage. Victoria gave us one of those rare gems of a concert. Always leading off a set of songs with a humorous story, she mixed ballads and love songs for a sweet taste of her music and wit. There was a story that she told about our female police officer catching her playing her warm up in the alley and how she imagined that the officer might have thought she was doing something that would warrant an arrest. She was only kidding, but one of the audience members went down to the police station and persuaded the officer to come in for a minute to watch Victoria perform. The officer brought along another officer and their brief presence was a wonderful practical joke when Victoria stopped playing and asked somewhat nervously "This is a joke, right?"

Digital Photo Class Upload

After seeing how easy it is to create a blog, I had my Digital Photo class create their own. Here is a photo from a trip to the library where we practiced photojournalism techniques.

Lots to do on a Saturday night

Summer in the Wine Country of Missouri offers a lot to choose from. On July 12 we packed a lot of excitement into one evening. First, John and Rosemary Nagel exhibited their photography at the Kunstlerhaus gallery in Hermann, Missouri. Next, just down Highway 100 in New Haven, MO, was a blast of gas and dirt at the featured truck and tractor pull. If you've never been to a "pull", I suggest you experience one before gas prices drive them into extinction. Finally, a jam session at open mic night at the Riverfront Cultural Society in downtown, New Haven. Besides bringing in great name musicians from all over, RCS lets us amateurs have the thrill of performing on stage. 

inspired by friends

Friends always surprise me. Sometimes, I think I'm doing all this wonderful stuff and then a couple of friends start blogging. Their blogs had terrific information and images. So I salute my two friends and mentors. John Nagel and Jerry Tovo for paving the way for another image maker to load up a server at Google with images and video for you to ponder.