0126B: Bar Photography and Christmas Cheer

Between our O Bar run last night and an earlier start to my Christmas weekend, I'm struggling to stay awake given I had only managed about three hours of sleep between events. Even just writing this entry is taking a nearly Herculean effort to get my brain to cooperate.  Oh holidays.

Last night at O Bar was crazy fun, especially since some good friends both old and new showed up. On the one had we had Mahar, who has gotten to joining us for these O Bar runs more and more. On the other hand we had the likes of Jhonnel, this being our first in-person meetings after about half a year of internet forum interactions. Plus you can add in a bunch of the usual O Bar friends and it certainly made for a pretty stellar night.

The night was enjoyable enough for me to take over 380 photos while at the bar last night. Admittedly, most of them were the consequence of high speed burst shots aimed at capturing more interesting images of the poi dance routines. And given the different lights they have to generate various patterns, such high speed shots are the only way of capturing the best images, at least based on my experiments. I'd try for video, but then thus far it seems the lack of light in the bar severely impairs any attempts at recording the performances. Then again, maybe I just need to conduct more experiments and see what comes out.

I've had this camera for more than a year and I'm still fully mastering all that its capable of. But it seems that my areas of focus have become food photography and pictures at O Bar. And the effort that I put into trying to capture the various aspects and scenes during our various O Bar trips has Mahar calling me an O Bar archivist. The odd title sort of works I guess - the bar just makes for fun photography material. Plus a lot of the performers seem to appreciate what I do given how they don't always get to see what they look like when they're dancing, lip-syncing or spinning flashing lights around.

Perhaps it may seem like a weird way to celebrate the holidays, but it worked for me. It made sure that we also celebrated with members of our "other" family - the social connections you build with those people that you talk to outside of family and / or work or those that you turn to for advice and such.

A lot of friends have started to post their Christmas greetings all over the social web while others have devoted the time to discussing how much it doesn't feel like Christmas to them. And that last bit is sort of an interesting concept - I mean what does it mean for the period to truly "feel" like Christmas? As much as I'm sure we all have our own ways of defining the Christmas experience, I'm also sure that the media has played a big role in influencing our thinking related to this holiday and thus also our expectations. While I'm not saying that TV has made us expect that snow will come this weekend in time for Santa Claus to arrive, but it does mean that we associate certain activities with the holiday like noche buena, the exchanging of gifts and what have you.

Were I to fully describe my Christmas weekend thus far, it probably won't match what a lot of people traditionally think to be a Christmas experience. I started the weekend with a trip to O Bar after all and today it's been about watching the Star Wars movies and episodes of the first season of The Big Bang Theory in sequence. We ended up just ordering out for dinner despite being more than capable of heading out mainly because the house just get so darn comfortable that it's hard to leave. In that sense I can speculate that the singularity that exists in the bedroom that I share with Tobie may have a related cosmic event here at my parents' place.

For me, Christmas will always mean family. And s for as long as I get to spend some time with my family over the holidays, then that tends to make it a pretty successful Christmas for me. Sure, we make the effort to gift gives to one another, even if it just becomes cash from the folks, but beyond that we tend to be quirky. We share meals together but not quite a big noche buena, as everyone seems to look forward to during the holidays. Sometimes we plan out of town trips to far-flung locations but for the most part we tend to spend  Christmas day at home.

And thus far, this does feel like a good Christmas to me. Sure, a tree would be fun and more presents perhaps but otherwise I don't really have significant complaints. It has meant geeking out with my mom while watching the Star Wars movies and providing limited commentary when appropriate - at least for this year. I other years the holiday celebrations have been rather different and taking on different forms.

But every time it's about family. It's about being with the people who have been there for you since the very beginning and who continue to support you in their own special ways. That's how I've come to make sense of this holiday and it keeps me smiling for the most part. And for this year it's also keeping me awake, despite my body wanting to crash...right about now.

So Merry Christmas world! Thanks for being stellar.
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