Awesome

Conversation with Dad

Last weekend when I was home in Manassas, VA for Thanksgiving I got the opportunity to sit down with my dad and talk about his dad, my grandfather, Pete Blum. Grandpa Pete was a pretty amazing person and a lot of people have a lot of great stories about him. It was also special to me to talk to my dad about his dad. I saw some similarities in all three of us as well as some differences. This is just one of the many things we talked about in our hour and 20 minute conversation.

Labels: chess, fathers, Grandpa Pete, woodworking

Meet the McGowans

For class this Fall we were assigned a story in Skaneatelles, an affluent, touristy finger-lake community about 30 minutes from Syracuse. A friend of mine pointed me to this awesome family who own a equestrian center and have triplets. I had a lot of fun hanging out with the three boys and I hope to do more things like this in the future. It's just a matter of finding the right people.

Meet the McGowans from Joe Blum on Vimeo.

Young and the Wireless Episode 2

The second installment of this web series for the Syracuse University News21 Project. I'm still working on episodes 3-5. Hopefully they'll get done someday soon. Until then...

The Young And The Wireless Episode 2 from Joe Blum on Vimeo.

The Young And The Wireless

I know I haven't been updating that much this summer, but hey, it's summer! I've been doing summery things like drinking beer, working all day, hiking, picnicking, going to Massachusetts, going to Wisconsin, drinking more beer, and making videos. The videos I've been working on are a web series for the Syracuse University News21 project. If you don't know what that is, that's ok, I'm not going to explain it because it's complicated and confusing. Anyways, I was asked to create some soap opera-esque webisodes to go along with the title of their project, The Young and the Wireless. It took me a couple months to come up with a story and write the script, but I finally came up with a concept I thought was good and interesting.

The web series is centered around Samson Goldwater, a young, rich computer maverick who's created an online social networking empire in order to mask his own inability to make real friends. We then follow the lives of the people who are connected and affected by his websites and explore the drama of life that technology is often apart of.

I hope you enjoy and would definitely appreciate your feedback/criticism. Cheers.

The Young And The Wireless Episode 1 from Joe Blum on Vimeo.

Back to Wisconsin

In about an hour Sara and I will leave for the airport to go to Wisconsin for the holiday weekend. We're going to help my Aunt Mary paint her house, then visit with my other relatives. It's kind of hard to believe that pretty much a month ago we were headed to Wisconsin for my grandfather's funeral. It was kind of an unreal experience. Just everything happened so fast; he got really sick, passed away a few days later, then the funeral a few days after that, then back to normal life again. It will be nice to get back to the greatest state ever on happier terms. I always love going back to visit relatives and enjoy the awesomeness that is Wisconsin. It will be sad not having Grandpa there, but I will always remember the times that he was.

Grandpa Pete's workshop in the basement of his house (photos taken on the day of his funeral).

Jamesville Balloon Festival

Last Friday Sara and I met up with some friends at the Jamesville Balloon Festival. We were excited because according to the website at 9pm all the hot air balloons would light up their fires and glow. Since most of us are photographers we thought it would be awesome. The night was gorgeous, one of those perfect early summer nights when it's not humid and it's pleasantly warm, but you wear a sweatshirt because there's just enough briskness in the air to make you feel alive. However, the balloonists decided not to get their glow on after all, so we just kind of walked around, buying cotton candy and frozen bananas and kettle corn and listening to some generic local rock band with the secret weapon of a kickin' harmonica solo. Even though we didn't get to see a ton of hot air balloons, it was still a good time out and about enjoying one of the many Central New York Summer festivals. I think we got the Polish Festival coming up this weekend. I better start saving my nickels for some Polish sausage.

The Liberty Bell Balloon. Sara found it.

Mary, Jamie, Elisha, and Wasim eating dinner.

Every Ballon needs to be deflated sometime.

Time to go home.

Golf before a wedding

Memorial Day weekend was a pretty busy weekend that included, but was not limited to, an improv show, helping paint a friend's house, and shooting the groom's side of a wedding, which involved golf in the morning and then getting ready for the big moment. I was not involved in shooting the actual wedding, which was fine because I don't really enjoy/am any good at shooting weddings. But I did have a lot of fun hanging out with the guys on the golf course and getting ready. Maybe I should hire myself out only for the bachelor parties/activities. I wonder if anyone does just that? Maybe I should just start. Okay, so if you want me to just shoot things prior to the real wedding, I'm your man.

(The groom is in red).