BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #575 11/04/06 Today Allison and I went to See Ellis Paul and Antje Duvekot at Circle of Friends in Franklin, MA. The show was great and ran till 11:00pm. We got home about 11:30pm. I have tons of photos from the show and tomorrow I will put together a nice gallery and add them to buzznet for you to see. For tonight here is the Circle of Friends Mural that was behind the stage. We may even do a little He said / She said thing with the review too.

Photo-A-Day #525 09/15/06 Today I got home from Michigan and then headed up to Natick to a Buffettless Buffett party. The second of its kind. I was to bring and retire the Tiki of Death. That was retired early on in the night with a 750ml of Jose Cuervo margarita. The Tiki is still at Betsy’s. I had a heck of a time getting up to Framingham to catch a ride over to the party. Allison came from work and we decided to leave my car at my office and I would get it tomorrow when Allison was on her way to book club. I was coming up from the PVD airport and figured I would shoot up 146 to the pike and save myself some time. Nope that did not happen. No time was saved in fact time as wasted. I ended up going about 25 miles out of my way to end up one exit past the one I got off. I was coming up on 146 and noticed that there was a huge back up so I veered off onto 122 and ended up making a wide u-turn essentially. The party was as always a very fun time. Betsy and Peter are fantastic hosts and w...

Randy, the proprietor of my local comic book shop has a band and they have a myspace page. I think seeing these guys may be a rockin time. I’ll have to catch a show. www.myspace.com/wildtimeband Allison and I are gone for the weekend to Andy and Rondi’s wedding. Mucho pictures when we return. Also today is my Grandfather’s birthday. Happy Birthday Karaoke Rick!

Photo-A-Day #512 09/02/06 Allison and I were on the Cape today. I got to sleep in and when I woke up I worked with Dad on a project for the garage. We have talked about putting up some shelves on the side of the garage for his ladders. For a long time the ladders were on these old pieces of staging that Dad used to use for cutting the hedges, until one of the rungs broke and he nearly sliced off his nose. So those were retired and given the job of holding the aluminum ladders. Today they were retired for good. Some of the pieces went to the dump and some are going to be burned this winter. I their place Dad and I constructed three posts with 4 16 inch platforms spaced at 22 inches apart so there are essentially four “shelves” for the ladders. The posts can hold 8 ladders easily. The side of the garage looks nice and neat now. The next project is construction of a kayak rack on the back of the garage for easy access in the summer. Although from the looks of the weather this weekend I do...

Photo-A-Day #489 08/10/06 Today was Buffett Day. Allison and I went early with a group of my friends and co-workers. We met at the Stop & Shop in Mansfield to round up the cars and caravan into the parking lot. The Mansfield Stop & Shop knows when Buffett is in town. They had a Tiki themed concession stand out in front of the store where you could get your last minute grass skirts and other items. The Liquor store had a sale on Corona 12 packs. Yep they knew that Buffett was in town. Once the crew arrived, nine cars, we formed up ranks and drove into the parking lot. We had a four-car width to spread out all our stuff. The folks we were with did not screw around when it came to set up. Within five minutes we had two tents up and four tables, a ton of food, tons of chairs and liberal flowing of libations. We brought three coolers including, a Styrofoam one and two real coolers. I broke that in the span of the first five minutes. I dropped a chair right on it in my haste to unloa...

Last night Allison and I went with Neil and Andrea to see Don White perform at the Jimmy Tingle Off Broadway Theatre in Davis Square. Jimmy Tingle is one funny guy. I had never seen him before but had heard of him. I would certainly like to see another show at the theatre. It was great, we parked at Alewife, caught the T and we got there walked around Davis Square and when we went to pick up our tickets we caught up with Neil and Andrea. We had dinner and got back to the theatre about an hour early and sat at a table that was practically onstage. I was three feet from Lawren when he came out and played with his Dad. That is how close I was. We started the evening off by going to the BBQ restaurant Red Bones. Red Bones was a pretty tasty place. We got our tickets so that we could get a discount on dinner and as a group we ordered the easy dinner for 4. It had ribs, pulled pork (like Allison wanted any more pulled pork this month let alone this week, yes next time we make it we will have...

Photo-A-Day #399 05/12/06 Today it has been six months since we got married. And tonight Allison and I had tickets to go see Catie Curtis at TCAN. These were tickets I bought for her for her birthday not really knowing that today was a six-month-a-versary. We had dinner at the Naked Fish and then headed to TCAN. Meg Hutchinson opened up for Catie and she also sang on a few songs with Catie. It was a very good concert. I took quite a few pictures but there were only three that came out well. Bonus Pictures Meg Hutchinson Meg, Stephanie, Catie and Kevin.

Photo-A-Day Bonus #386 04/29/06 Allison and I went to see Christopher Williams at the Mt. Zion Christian School in Bedford, NH. He opened for Jars of Clay. It was great to see Christopher with the energy of a huge crowd around him. He was awesome tonight. So many great songs and one new one that was fantastic and so moving. He certainly knows how to write meaningful beautiful songs. If you have never seen him go out and see him when he is playing in your area.

Photo-A-Day #385 04/28/06 Antje Duvekot had her CD release party (tonight) last night at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. Allison got us tickets for my birthday. It was a concert for Antje’s CD release Big Dream Boulevard and she opened for Ellis Paul. Ellis had Don Conoscenti, Flynn and another guy whose name I cannot accurately remember. It was funny because it was the most unpronounceable cast of characters last evening. The show was fantastic. It was so awesome to see Antje and her band which included Austin Nevins. Allison and I had dinner at Not Your Average Joe's in Arlington and then took the T to Davis Square. It was quick and painless for our in and out of the city. Dinner at Joe's was very good, I got a great meatloaf with garlic mashed potatoes and Allison had a teriyaki steak with a pineapple salsa, both were very good meals. We had terrific seats at the concert and enjoyed the show thoroughly. I borrowed my sister’s camera. It is a Nikon D70 Digital SLR Cam...

Photo from the Antje and Ellis show tonight. Good images tomorrow. Just posting this because my mother-in-law is keeping me honest.

Photo-A-Day #380 04/23/06 Tonight Allison and I and Tara and Erik went to see The Legend of Lucy Keyes at the Boston Independent Film Festival. Ellis Paul and Flynn both contributed songs to the movie and that is what got Allison and I interested in this about a year ago. Tara had heard about the movie about 4 years ago on Chronicle and she was excited to see it. The movie was very good, especially for an independent film, there was some very nice cinematography, and the story was also interesting. It was filmed in Princeton MA, which was were the legend originated. More specifically, it was filmed on the backside of Wachusett Mt. Erik drove us into Boston and we had dinner at the Border Cafe over near Harvard Square. After dinner we took the T over to Davis Square and got our tickets and found some seats. The Somerville Theatre is an very interesting place. Very old and detailed, there is a balcony and it is also where we are going to see Ellis Paul and Antje Duvekot for Antje’s CD re...

I took 144 pictures last night and got about 2 decent ones. So what to do with the others. Well, I was using a tripod, (mini tripod from Eddie Bauer, great device) so many images were from the same exact place. So I made some animated Gif files. The guys were moving anyways so I made the motion of the pictures really move. Enjoy. Having them too close together may be distracting.

Photo-A-Day #363 04/06/06 Tonight Allison and I went to see Christopher Williams play drums for Jake Armerding. Jake was also joined by Zach Hickman of the Josh Ritter Band. I must have taken about 100 pictures but without using a flash it was very hard to get one where each guy was in focus. This was the only one. We had the front row, a great thing about seeing a show at a college, college kids hate the front row of everything, like classrooms and such. The show was a lot of fun and we spoke with Susanne Williams after the show, it was nice to hang out and talk with her. We bought one of Jake’s CD’s, we are all caught up on Christopher’s CD’s. Today I made a few ticket purchases. We are going to see Catie Curtis at TCAN on May 12, Christopher with Jars of Clay on April 29th and the Legend of Lucy Keyes movie on April 23rd. And Allison got me tickets to see Ellis Paul and Antje Duvekot on April 28th. Lots of Concerts and events coming up.

Hulk mad and apparently constipated. It is once again Jimmy Buffett ticket time and also time for the yearly rant about the suckiness of the big evil ticket giant Ticket -#!@$!’n- Master. Actually this year we did much better than last year. Marcia was 2nd in line at Filenes and she got 6 reserved lawn tickets for Saturday. But guess what? We can’t even use them! So it looks like Thursday will most likely be the day that we may be looking to trade for tickets. Shouldn’t be a problem. My buddy Peter got 6 reserved lawn tickets for Thursday. We are buying two from him. We used AOL Instant messenger to communicate while buying tickets, it was a fast and frantic morning, but overall pretty fun way to do something like this. Allison and I got blocked out of the site and got nothing. In preparation for getting tickets this year I put on my Far Side of the World 2002 shirt and my Mardis Gras beads, a Hawaiian shirt, three Buffett books, (Where is Joe Merchant, A Salty Piece of Land and Tales ...

Look at what just posted at Jimmy Buffett’s MARGARITAVILLE.com — Online State of Mind! Okay so those who know us and who are not parrotheads but would like to help us get tickets please go online on Saturday March 11, 2006 and buy as many tickets as you can (we’d prefer the Saturday show if possible.) I will buy those tickets from you at the price you pay for them and you have to know me personally, sorry not leaving Buffett tickets to chance. No making money off of Jimmy Buffett. It is not in the parrothead spirit. If you are a parrothead and we don’t know it or maybe we do know it but you want to remind us, let us know. Or if you would like to help wait in line up in NH on the 11th so we can try and buy tickets at Filenes in Manchester let us know. Buffett Back in Mansfield. AUG 10 TWEETER CENTER Boston, MA On sale Saturday, March 11 @ 10AM8:00PM AUG 12 TWEETER CENTER Boston, MA On sale Saturday, March 11 @ 10AM8:00PM”

What was #1 on the Charts on the Day you were born. Mine was Benny and the Jets – Elton John. Scary that sometimes Derek calls me Bennett and the Jets. What was #1 when you were born?

Last night Allison and I and Marcia and Dan and Erin and Bart and Dick and Vivian went to see Don White and The Loomers play at Tupelo Music Hall. The Loomers were the best I had ever seen them. I think that getting their CD at the last show and listening to it a few times made this show even more enjoyable. It was fun to hear Dead End Street. The Loomers played about 4 or 5 songs and then Don White came on stage (after a five minute intermission). Don started with Rascal, that always gets the crowd going. And I could tell that he had been honing his stories even more since the last concert. Yes they were the same stories but he had added certain embellishments to each that made each story new and refreshing. After Rascal Don told the story of the accordion door and played the song Brown Eyes Shine. Then he told the story of the cantankerous old man society and played Be 16 With Me. You would think that 3 songs would have been over in about 15 minutes. Nope not with Don. With Don you g...

Photo-A-Day #266 12/30/05 Tonight we went to the Ellis Paul show at Club Passim. It is an annual event that we go to. Tara and Erik got us tickets (front row). It was a great time.  Last night Allison and I along with Tara and Chris went to see Ellis Paul, Don Conoscenti, Christopher Williams and Special guest Vance Gilbert at the Annual New Year’s Eve shows at Club Passim. Tara got her usual spot which is front row table, she has had that table for 5 years. We have been lucky enough to get to go for 3 or 4 of those years. We determined on the way in that Tara has been following Ellis Paul’s music for 14 years now. Since she was in High School. Tara introduced me to Ellis’ music in 1994 at a small show in Woods Hole at a chapel overlooking a harbor. I don’t think I can remember how many times I have seen Ellis in the past 12 years. But I do know that each show has been great. Allison was introduced to Ellis when we began dating. So she has been a fan for 5 years at least. We were a...

Another Year over? What am I talking about, New Year’s isn’t for another week. Another year over means that we have just completed Year #2 of the BenSpark. Yep this Blog has just Turned 2 Years old today and we head into Year #3. So what lies ahead in Year #3? Expect more Photos (of course, I now post them to Buzznet, Flicker and mySpace) as I complete year one of Photo-A-Day and start Year #2 (I think I am going to do it again, it has been so much fun). We should hit the 1000th post right after New Year’s. Expect more messages about music as mySpace has become a great place to find new musical talent. I’ll be keeping a running tally of the Books, CD’s and Movies I mention on the BenSpark (Look for a Year in Review of all the things multimedia I mentioned this past year around the 1st of the year). There will be new drop down menus on the right hand side that will list those items. I will continue to be on the look out for other Photo-A-Day friends, funny music and videos and generall...

Gotta Send a message out about my musical friends on myspace. One of my favorite things about mySpace is that I have been able to not only find longtime childhood friends (or rather they found me.) but I can also be exposed to musical talent I would otherwise not have found. And some of that musical talent have Christmas Songs on their profiles. First up is Christopher Williams. CW has a Christmas Album called Unbroken Song. Allison and I picked it up at the last show we went to at the Lyon’s Den in Norton. The CD is great. You can hear one of the songs “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” on his myspace profile. Great song. Next Check out Timothy Daniel and his song “This Christmas” A cool sound. Shawn McDonald has his rendition of O Holy Night. Very Nice. Check out Over the Rainbow and Take my hand too, (I know they aren’t Christmas songs but they are cool.) Check out Paul Wright’s song Love Year Long, cool little original Christmas Song. Made especially for myspacers. If anyone want...