Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing The Police in concert at Madison Square Garden here in NY.  Never mind the fact that this was my 3rd Police concert this year (I admit it, I’ve been a super crazy fan since I was 12).  This was their Halloween concert.  Each seat had a postcard from the band and a mask (doesn’t quite make up for sky-high ticket prices) on it, to remind you that you shouldn’t be at a concert, you should be taking your kids trick or treating (or was that just Mr. IT doing that?). 

The band themselves dressed in costume, as you can see below.  I used slow sync flash and super zoom for these two shots.  There are more, but you get the drift.  The woman next to me took about 40 shots, all blurry.  If only she had known!

This was from “Roxanne” – hard to get the video screens and the band in the same shot, and have them both look good:

This one was from the end of the show. 

I’ve taken pictures at all three shows, but these came out the best.  Yes, our seats were much better.  But I think fiddling with ISO and zoom and slow sync makes a difference.

As far as the costumes, Sting was interviewed on Today Tuesday and said he would be in a costume with tights and a codpiece.  As you can see, he brought it.  Andy was charming as Charlie Chaplin.  I have no idea what type of Egyptian zombie Stewart was trying to be, but there were amusing moments at the beginning of him pulling off his cape because he couldn’t drum with it.  Makes me wonder if he tried it on before he got there.

While I am on the subject, I have some suggestions for people attending future shows by The Police, in addition to other artists cashing in reuniting for tours:

1. People who look like they are 50+ accountants should not lip sync/air guitar/dance.  Ever.  I have some videos of this infraction from last night that are amusing enough for YouTube.  I was cracking up so much I cried my makeup off.

2. If you are a 50+ accountant, and someone asks you to sit down, because there is no one in front of you dancing, take the hint.  We have your best interests at heart. 

3. Don’t cuddle during “Every Breath You Take.”  It’s a creepy song, not a love song.  Sting wrote it about his marriage dissolving.   I remember some friends used it as a wedding song.  A bad omen, if you ask me.  Ick.

4. No one should dance to “King of Pain”.  Ever.  It’s got no beat, and you really can’t dance to it.

Used wisely, this advice should enhance any concert going experience.

I stand corrected…someone pointed me to a listing about Captain Kidd and his historical relevance to Philipsburg Manor:

Continuing down the path behind the barn, next to the Pocantico River that cuts through the property, is a pirate camp. Huddled around a fire in a canvas tent, is a band of miscreant pirates. These call to mind the notorious Captain Kidd who in 1696 lived in New York and had dealings with the Philipse family. He is also rumored to have buried treasure nearby. These “friendly” pirates celebrate finding his treasure by playing historical folk songs and entertaining the crowd with pirate tales. The skeleton guarding the treasure may be Kidd himself.

OK then.  Remember, I was a European History major.  Took very little American history.  Not that I’m using an excuse.

 Here’s a new age pirate song I captured at the event.  This song came at the end of a long story about wishing for an eye patch and getting an iPod instead (you had to be there).  I love the Ramones, so this song cracked me up:

Erin Manning, who I mentioned in an earlier post referring to her new book Portrait and Candid Photography Photoworkshop, is my photography hero. No, seriously, I may be biased, but 5 minutes with her convinced me of several things…

1. My new digital camera (a Canon PowerShot A630) was not engaged in a conspiracy to make everyone look like they had orange skin. There’s such as thing as WHITE BALANCE, and these cameras can adjust the white balance for different lighting conditions.

2. It is possible to take pictures in low to no light and not make everyone look like Casper the Friendly Ghost.  Slow sync flash…who knew? It allows ambient light to come into your pictures. Without it, would I be rocking amazing pictures like these (taken at Legend Weekend at Philipsberg Manor in Sleepy Hollow, NY)?

I honestly have no idea why a pirate is included in Legend Weekend.  Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman, and a pirate guy.  Whatever.  He was cute and entertaining, and made for a spooky ghostly picture.

What about this one?

Now we’re rocking some historically correct action.  It was hard to take this shot, as the friggin horse kept bouncing all over the place.  He really didn’t understand the concept of “stand still, the tourists need to record you digitally.  Plus there wasn’t low light, there was NO light, so the flash could have overwhelmed.  Next time, I’d like to see more horse and less fence, but I’m a rookie, so be gentle with me.

This is my favorite….spooky and ghost like:

I love that she looks so ghostly.  Really cool.  I was amazed by how great my ghost shots came out.  Casper who?

And all this from 5 minutes talkin’ digital with Erin.  Imagine how great my shots are going to be after I finish reading her book!

For those living under a rock, Halloween is next week.  According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween is the second-biggest decorating holiday of the year after Christmas.  Not surprising then to see vacant storefronts turning into specialty stores painted orange and black, only to be painted red and green on November 1.  Americans love Halloween.  We love trick or treating for candy, having parties, decorating our houses, and dressing up in costume. 

For a parent of a food allergic child, Halloween means something else altogether.  It means mine-fields that have to be navigated.  Practices that have to be maintained.  Precautions that need to be taken. 

It’s been four years since we found out about Little IT’s allergy.  In that time, we have worked tirelessly, aided by the support of the Food Allergy and Anaphalxis Network and great resources like Food Allergies For Dummies, to educate ourselves and others about how to manage her allergy.   No sharing foods or snacks, she can only eat stuff that we know is safe, etc etc.  For the most part, she feels “normal”, no different from any other kid.  But there’s something about Halloween that causes angst. 

Last night was a great example.  Little IT’s girl scout troop held a Halloween party.  There was a cake served at the party that came with a label that said “may contain peanuts or tree nuts.”  Personally, it seems like a legal warning, with very little chance of contamination.  But part of our allergy management plan is to avoid foods like that, both for her own safety, and to train her and others to read allergy labels.  I had stepped away from the party momentarily to pick up dinner for IT Boy.  When I returned, she had a piece of cake in front of her that I had to remove.  That got her very upset.  I had two options for her as substitutes – little black and white cookies, and Hostess Cupcakes.  She looked like she was going to cry and said she wanted nothing.  The other girls immediately raised their hands saying they would prefer the cupcakes to the cake.  One sweetheart volunteered to “test” the cake to see if it seemed nutty (if only that worked).  But, no, Little IT would not be consoled. 

Truth be told, she was a bit worked up from the incident and the excitement of the party.  I took her aside and told her that the cupcakes were the same ones she always begged me for.  She replied that she didn’t like the chocolate icing.  I told her I would give her 2 cupcakes and she didn’t have to eat the icing on either of them, which seemed to pacify her.  Another girl who has celiac saw the cupcakes and wanted one.  Her mom said it would be a waste because she can only eat the icing.  I countered with the knowledge that Sarah is only eating the bottom, so why shouldn’t she be able to just eat the icing?  Then other girls started going for the cupcakes, and I had to tell them they were just for the girls with food allergies. 

So, what did we do wrong there?  Well, first off, even though I was at the party, I needed to tell the other parents to NOT give my kid food unless I’m okaying it.  If I hadn’t been staying, I would have talked to a trusted friend to have her do the maintenance.   I had originally planned to bake my own cupcakes, but this week has been really hectic and I never got the chance.  The rule at school is that if someone brings in something that she doesn’t know is 100% safe, she says no thanks, tells me when she comes home from school, and we give her a special treat.  The thought of the special treat is usually enough to curb the disappointment when she cannot partake in a group celebration.   But last night, for the first time, I got the feeling that she was perfectly ok with letting her guard down, and that scared the hell out of me. 

I’m not going trick or treating with her this year, as I have a prior commitment that evening.  A very good friend is, and I know she won’t let her eat anything on the route, which is a smart idea whether you are allergic or not.  When she does bring the candy home, we sort through it into good stuff and questionable/definitely not good stuff.  Years ago, I came up with the idea of buying back the not good stuff from her, and then matching the dollar amount of purchase to give to FAAN or Unicef.  It has worked out pretty well so far, and the looks on the faces of parents when Little IT yells, “I’ve got some great stuff in here to sell to you, Mom,” is priceless.  I hope I can continue to maintain the excitement of the holiday for her, while at the same time keeping her safe and making sure she’s like all the other kids. 

This weekend, the family and I checked out the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze.  This is a holiday tradition that takes place during weekends in the month of Halloween at a historic estate north of NYC.  It’s billed as the largest Halloween celebration in Westchester and involves the installation of over 4,000 carved craft and genuine lighted pumpkins at Van Cortlandt Manor.  It’s pretty amazing (ablazing?) thing to witness.  I was so inspired, that I changed the header to one of the photos I took at the blaze. 

We went for the first time last year.  I could not say for sure how many years the Blaze has been going on, but it definitely has been growing by leaps and bounds in popularity.  Last year, we joined Historic Hudson Valley because as members you could visit the Blaze as many times as you wanted, utilizing your free admission benefit.  This year, they made the change to ticketed admissions, and members of our level only got to enjoy the Blaze once.  Since this is an event that sells out almost completely, picking one night to go can be a bit of a gamble, and a big downer in the case of rain, but more on that later.

Historic Hudson Valley is the not-for-profit that operates Van Cortlandt Manor and about 6 other sites.  They’re typical of most other organizations not run by “professional” business people – you have to have a bit of patience in navigating their quirks and trying to get stuff done. I worked for several years at a not-for-profit, as well as spending time in college with museum directors as a history major. They’re brilliant people, but don’t always emote business savvy. However, with the Blaze, HHV has rocketed into Web 2.0 by starting the Blaze Blog and runninga Blaze YouTube contest.  I’ve been most impressed with their blog.  They started it months ago, detailing the preparations that go into planning and executing an installation of this magnitude.  They’ve now evolved into reporting on what’s going on when.

In my view, the most impressive thing that has happened with the Blaze is the dialog between HHV and the Blaze patrons.  For instance, as I alluded to above, your Blaze ticket says “Rain or Shine” right on it.  The Blaze is totally outdoors, so in the case of rain, who the heck would want to tramp through the Manor in the mud?  But that is how you buy your ticket, and they are quite clear about that.  However, on Friday night, the weather was predicted to be so awful that they cancelled the Blaze for that night.  Ticketholders who paid by credit card had their purchases refunded.  Members were able to use their tickets on another night.  As a result of these actions you had several flavors of unhappy patrons.  You had the people who rightfully assumed rain or shine, and showed up only to be turned away at the gates.  There were others who complained on other rainy nights when they did not cancel the Blaze.  Paid ticketholders were upset that their ticket purchases were automatically credited and they were not given the option to rebook – since the Blaze always sells out, it would be hard for them to get back in on another night now. 

Now, what do these people do with their complaints?  They post them on the blog.  They detail long stories about how they traveled 2 hours to see the Blaze, after calling at 3pm to be assured it was still on, who learned of the cancellation at 6pm when they showed up.  And what is HHV doing with these complaints?  They’re answering them, right there in the open on the blog.  They are engaging in a dialog with their patrons, explaining what they did, and why.  Turns out they debated whether the weather was going to be that bad, and took a lot of care in making the decision to pull the plug on the pumpkins.  Is everyone going to be satisfied with their efforts at explanation?  Probably not, but I bet a lot of people appreciate the fact that they took the time to communicate with them and answer their concerns,  instead of hiding behind a computer screen.  For that, HHV deserves a lot of credit, and serves as a model for how an institution that celebrates the past is moving into the future.