Hi everybody! Rebecca here. You know, the Red Bat Emerita. I know I said I’d check back in before the end of the year to give you details about how to keep in touch with me. But then the end of the year arrived a lot earlier than I expected it to and alas, my new photo site was not ready. Holidays and website-building do not mix well.

But this is a brand new day, a non-holiday in fact, and I’m back for my last post on this blog ever, to tell you that you can find me at rebeccabarnesphoto.com. Should you desire to email me, just write to rebeccabarnesphoto [at] gmail.com.

Here’s the last image I’ll ever post on this blog…sniff. I just realized it kind of looks like I’m sliding into the ocean, but that’s only the effect of the wide-angle lens. Lots more of this kind of thing at Rebecca Barnes Photography, so come check it out!

Well now here’s a post that would’ve been way more relevant six months ago! But at least the event described here happened within this calendar year. That makes it all okay. Right?

As you may remember, we (or rather, I) photographed the first annual Santa Cruz NEXT awards ceremony back in January 2010- you can see those photos here. On January 23, 2011, the NEXTies happened again, making this the second annual Santa Cruz NEXT awards ceremony, in case you were losing track. This time Patrick was there too, and he got fabulous photos, as you will see.

The 2011 NEXTies happened at the Top of the Ritt, and once again Timerie Gordon made it look space-age-awesome. This time around she included real live humans in her design, because she’s a genius like that. These living statues were brought to us by Santa Cruz Dance. At the start of the event, they posed on scaffolding in the lobby. Later they made their way around the venue and became part of the decor, sometimes holding still and sometimes moving very slowly. They started to seem like some other kind of lifeform, something oceanic. It was a little bit disconcerting, and totally cool.

Many tasty tidbits were offered by local vendors and served on wheels by several Santa Cruz Derby Girls. These tidbits included the teensiest brisket sliders I’ve ever seen (by SmoQe BBQ) and yummy stuff by Coastal Catering and others. Later on Dan P and The Bricks took the stage and got people to do some fancy dancing. The first time I ever saw Dan P and the Bricks was actually in front of that same building, right on the street, where they had a piano and a crowd of pleased tourists around them.

You can read more about the 2011 NEXTies and who was honored there in this article.

On a photographic note: one of my favorite photos that I’ve ever taken is the 12th one down in this post. There’s something so incredibly strange about it. I think I’ve had dreams that looked like that photo and the one after it. Recurring, perplexing, Lynchian dreams. Also, the final photo, the view of Pacific Avenue from the Top of the Ritt, is definitely one of my favorite photos by Patrick.

Overall, I think we did pretty well considering how dark it was in there (low lighting plus no nearby walls plus dark ceilings equals flash frustration!) And now our did-pretty-well-ness is preserved forever on this blog, which means It Officially Happened. Hooray!