Last Sunday, The Girl and I attended the Maker Faire.  What’s the Maker Faire, you ask?  Well, it’s a lot of things.  Mostly it’s a bunch of oddly creative people making oddly creative things in oddly creative ways.  It’s sort of like what would happen if Burning Man crashed into Cirque du Soleil while Cirque du Soleil was busy ingesting a county fair.

There are robots.  There are Legos.  There are cars that run on trash and walnut shells.  There are victorian houses on wheels, and giant copper snails and tesla coils and furry cars and fire trucks that shoot fire and lots and lots of people in top hats and corsets (sometimes at the same time).

And of course, I took pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures:

This Red Bat had the pleasure of seeing The Avett Brothers play at the Rio Theatre last night. Wow, are those guys ever energetic! Are they like that every time they play? How do they do it, night after night? They must be fairly exhausted after they finish a show. I was awed by their songs, their musical skills, and most of all their work ethic. They try really, really hard, even though it’s obvious we already love them. Which just makes us love them more.

Today I’m swamped with non-Avett photos needing attention, so I’ve only got time to post a few from last night. Of course I took a lot of pictures. My apologies to anyone near me who suffered through my incessant clicking (not that any of the ecstatic fan horde up front even cared). I hope I can get back to the rest of the photos soon because this band has the kind of stage presence that makes for lots of fascinating shots.

Recently I had a frustrating, painful experience with unexpected computer problems during a crucial stage of a project, so in a spirit of solidarity I’m including a few photos of banjo problems that happened during the show. Also because the phrase is inexplicably hilarious to me. From now on, when I have technical difficulties, I’m going to refer to them as “banjo problems.”

The night we elected Barack Obama to be our next President back in November, I didn’t have to leave the house to know that lots of people in Santa Cruz were happy about it. From my back steps I could hear fireworks, car horns, chanting, singing, laughter, and general woo-hooing. The noise and excitement continued late into the night.

For some reason, I didn’t expect Inauguration Day to be quite so exciting.

But I should’ve known better. After all, the previous Inauguration Day in Santa Cruz was an occasion for mourning, with everyone walking around near tears, evidence that Inauguration Day really does mean something in this town. This time around, Santa Cruz was ready to party.

It was a wonderful surprise to me when I walked into the inauguration rally downtown last week, and boy was I glad I had my camera with me. Lots of cool people showed up to celebrate and represent, including the Reverend Deborah L. Johnson of Inner Light Ministries, the Watsonville Brown Berets, the Santa Cruz chapter of the Raging Grannies, and numerous other local activists, performers, artists, parents, children, pets, dancers, sign-wavers, and friends.

I’ve included several photos in this post, and you’ll see many more if you click the link below. Also, if you were at the downtown Santa Cruz Inauguration Day party and you see a photo of yourself or your group that you’d like to have, email me at redbatphotography@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to send it to you.

Congratulations Obama and Santa Cruz and the USA and everyone who made this day happen!

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