Our dear friends Emily and Warren introduced their newest familial addition to their friends and family with her brit milah ceremony on Sunday morning at the oh-so-ritzy Four Seasons (or would that be oh-so-four-seasony?). In any case, it was a wonderful morning of history – where we learned the origin of Erin’s name and namesake, and met more of her friends and family. They asked me to shoot photos for them, and here they are! Complete photo set is here, slideshow is here.
Two friends of Amy’s from her days in the Savannah Symphony before that organization’s premature demise spent some time with us this past weekend. Sam was so happy to have a new audience for his performances he was in hog heaven. Here are some of the entertaining photos of Sam and Noah with Pat (reformed oboe player from Portland) and Anne (viola player from Indianapolis). Slideshow is here.
I heard the news the way things happen in this age. Via instant messenger. That’s what makes this all the more unreal. Jon was literally, larger than life. Gregarious, warm, a bear of a guy. Seemingly invincible. We spent several years together at CNNSI.com during the height of the web bubble, and Jon always had an amazing head for sports and journalism. Great family, great kids, great philanthropist, then this. Snatched unexpectedly at 39 from his friends, his family and his community. It’s so difficult to understand. Even moreso in this digital age. His last Facebook update posted less than 24 hours before his passing says ‘Jon Barkan is surviving another day on this planet.’ One of his last Twitters said ‘ OK – this three kid thing is tiring … guess I will have time to sleep when I am dead, huh?’ And there he is on his blog, smiling back at us, holding Lord Stanley’s trophy, and posting the Peanuts mashup version of Outkast‘s ‘Hey Ya!’
Well, HEY YA to you, Jon. You will be missed by all those you touched in your too-short time with us. We all need to remember to embrace every day on this planet as if it were our last – take nothing for granted. God bless.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to:
Links:
Oh did we have a treat last night. With the impending arrival of baby #2, it was pretty much now or sometime in 2010 before we’d be brave enough to go over to our friends Jay and Kate’s place to get a taste of their backyard brick-oven pizza. This thing is truly a marvel – handcrafted, standing probably 10+ feet tall, it takes a good hour+ to fill it with hand-chopped wood and bring it up to proper levels of incineration. With a dough recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, Jay does an amazing job. He’s got the dough-tossing schtick down, too (much to Sam’s amusement). The simplest were among the best – pepperoni and fresh mozzarella (with a dash of truffle oil, ‘natch) and the goat cheese, mushroom and onion (also with truffle oil) was perhaps even better. Great food and great hosts – a fine night was had by all. See the photos of the pizza process here.