So much fun

We're down in DC and last night went out for dinner with our friends Dale and Steven and some other friends at Brasserie Beck - incredible beer selection, very good recommendations from the staff including the favorite Scaldis.

Then I took a short nap and met them at the club hosting Blowoff. It's the third one I've been to and I think this was the best, although I like the Manhattan location a bit better for its size and air. I REALLY enjoyed the music at all times, and the last set was intensely danceable. Fun bright projected graphics, HOT HOT HOT HOT friendly (very friendly, approachable) men. Several people I was looking forward to seeing but it wasn't really amenable, to me, for chatting.

We saw Alan Cumming, he was down in the crowd, a friend got a picture with him. He's small and very very white, almost reflective in the camera flash.

There was an appearance by Lady Gaga which consisted of her standing on a small balcony with a bright flashlight shone on her while they played one of her songs. And people watched her. It was very strange, I think.

The only thing I don't like is that it starts late - 11:30 - which means it's a big effort to stay up late which we don't usually do. But once there, the energy kept me going until 3:30am.....

Diving

I've been working on processing the pictures from the Diving for Life scuba trip we went on a few weeks ago. We shared a villa with friends from DC Dale and Steven, and it was just a great vacation. We had the whole resort for the group, the diving was excellent, the food OK, the company ranged from pleasant to completely simpatico.

Underwater pictures are hard to process because of the way light is at any sort of depth. The brain adjusts for it but there is almost no red light and even when the water is clear it's filled with stuff that causes scatter and reduces contrast. The only way to get decent images is to shoot at ISO 800 which my little camera is good at, but there is more noticeable noise that can get worse when trying to adjust contrast and color. So there's a lot of hand work.





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