Here is a sneak preview of what is to come:

Dang, I forgot to put up some last pictures from Guadalajara! So please take a moment and go backwards one city to la gran ciudad de Guadalajara. On my last day in Guadalajara, Sunday, the city shuts down a big main avenue for MILES and MILES and people bike and rollerblade and run through the streets. It's beautiful and I took a few shots to capture the event. There are literally thousands of people out and about biking. Also, the parks are full with people jumping rope, doing Capoeira, playing giant chess.

Let me just say that, since my study abroad trip in Spain about three years ago, I have really taken notice of the personality of cities, how they cater to tourists and to their own, and what they have to offer. My city of Santa Barbara is fantastic about this. We've got free concerts in the park two days a week in the summer, fireworks for the Fourth of July, parades, tons of benches and water fountains and parks. Guadalajara was pretty good about this, as you can see. The bigger the city, I think, the greater the resources. There is nothing worse than coming to a city with nowhere to sit but the curb.



And lastly, my gracious couchsurfing host, Ernesto, who is a very talented Jazz guitarist and whom I got to see perform at a ritzy restaurant in the rich section of town.

This was at a HUGE festival in Oaxaca called the Guelaguetza that happens only once a year. I was going to stay overnight in Mexico City after Guadalajara but I made the spontaneous decision to take an overnight bus to Oaxaca from Mexico City instead. I arrived tired and bleary eyed in Oaxaca at 6am. Found a hostel, layed down my bags, made some friends with a couple of Canadians, and came to this, a 10,000 person arena with dancing, free sombreros and fans and stuff, and lots of heat.

Here's some more from Guadalajara! Just cruising around the city.





















































I'll be putting in just a couple more from Guadalajara (tomorrow?) and then some from Oaxaca, where I am now!!

Ok, I'm changing the size of my pictures now so they should load faster and you can click on them to see them at a decent size.

As you can see, I went to the market! And downtown there are fantastic old buildings, like Europe, and statues. I asked my hosts who Jose Antonio Torres is and they had no idea. "He's not a musician" was their response. Ha!

I am in Guadalajara, staying with my couchsurfing host who is a doctor and looks like a doctor from a Spanish soap opera. This is where I am staying. It's a little gated, 12 apt complex.


Cute, huh? Next, I will go to a musicians' house (note where I put the apostrophe) and see some live music tomorrow night!

















Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico, after Mexico City. There are buses everywhere and they drive really fast. They are always either speeding up or slowing down. There's a street here called '16 de Noviembre.' Do you know what happened on that date? It's the main street in the city.

I drove to Phoenix, Arizona, where my good old friend Sarah lives with her husband Lee. I took a bus from there for freakin' 31 hours or so. That was a long ride.

I count Sarah and Lee as my first couchsurfing hosts. Couchsurfing.com is a place where you can seek out people to host you for free, stay on their couch, and see a place from an insider's perspective, which I think is wonderful. And it is very safe, for all you old-world skeptics out there who don't even make deposits from an ATM machine but wait 30 minutes in line at the bank. Seriously, now.

With Sarah and Lee I played Scrabble (and won tremendously), went swimming, ate BBQ chicken and fruit salad, played Beyond Balderdash (and lost terribly), saw a mall, witnessed heat, and met some cool friends, Matt and Chris, who drunk dialed me once at 1:40 in the morning trying to impersonate Arnold Swarchenegger.

I am going to Mexico. I am going to Mexico on a bus. I will go to at least 15 different cities and I plan on seeing some phenomenal jungle ruins. MAYAN jungle ruins.

I should be posting on here as often as I can get online. And I'll include pictures, so stay posted! Save this website!

Love, Phil

At the Summer Solstice Parade 2008

From a photo shoot with Mark S.

In Boston over Spring break:

f/11, 1/80, ISO 400, 48mm, post processing [overlay]



f/9, 1/640, ISO 400, 28mm

Here we are, one month later. I leapt into summer like a warm puppy into a cool pool. Sorry I haven't written. It's not that I don't care. It's just that I was a little burnt out. So for now, I will be posting photos from the summer. The photo blog is inspired by Mark Skovorodko.

From the Live Oak Music Festival, June 14-17:

f/4.5, 1/250, 105mm, post processing



f/4.5, 1/500, 45mm, post processing