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hey folks... just a quick note to say that there probably won't be any new daily photos until the first week of january. i'm headed up to new york for a few days, and i don't expect that i'll have good internet access there. have a happy new year and i'll see you in 2004!

a montgomery christmas

another christmas has come and gone. i think we may have set a record for slowest christmas day ever today. no one was up and about until after 10, (well, mom was up at the crack, making black-bottom pie) and lunch preparations didn't start until well after noon. by the time we had everything in the oven and sat down to open presents it was after 2:00. we read some scripture out of the gospel of luke, which, in typical montgomery fashion kicked off a long discussion over the deeper meanings within the text. after a good hour and a half of conversation we got started passing out the gifts -- now that our family is up to 8 it takes quite a while to get through them all. by the time we'd wrapped up the gift-giving (sorry, couldn't resist) the pork tenderloin was threatening to turn into pork jerky and we hurried to gather around the table for dinner.

i must say though, i do love the slow pace that our holidays have begun to take on. i think it encourages everyone to relax and take time for deeper conversation, and as a family, we're really beginning to appreciate each other and take advantage of our rare times together.

so what did i get for christmas? well, a handful of nifty things, coolest of all was a new bag for my iBook that ive been drooling over (thanks tim!). oh, and my other siblings got digital cameras! so maybe we'll have a few more montgomery photobloggers before long...

(if anyone, montgomery family i'm assuming, wants a printable version of the above dinner picture, you can find a larger version of it here.)

gainesville high school

more surrealism today... i was out doing some last minute christmas shopping when i drove by my old high school, gainesville high school. i started to pull into the senior parking lot - thought i'd take a picture of the sign for the blog - and before i knew it, i was wandering the old halls. i started thinking about it, and i realized that the last time i'd walked those halls was my last day of high school... in 1995. the weird thing is how little its changed. yes, some places have been repainted, and there's a couple new buildings, and the dining room has all new tables, but overall, it feels no different from the day that i left. and what surprised me most was how immediate it all seemed - i could hardly believe that almost nine years have passed. the one major difference appears to be faculty. i walked by all my favorite teacher's classrooms and it appears they've all moved on, or graduated to bigger and better rooms. perhaps they've retired - they did all seem pretty ancient when i was 18 years old.

well, tomorrow is christmas. i haven't wrapped a thing, and i'm headed out to have a beer with mike humphries. looks like its going to be a long night...

a day at the DQ

so i think yesterday was the first weekday that i've missed since i started this crazy photoblog. but then, i did have my hands pretty full. i'm finally back at my parents home in gainesville, FL for the holidays. i had hoped to get home on friday, and then on monday, but there was just too much to do, and then charity martin and i spent monday night cleaning up the house.

so, i got home this evening, and now i'm sitting on the couch watching some late night interview show with william h macy. tv is so weird. i never watch tv in chattanooga - i mean, never. like, i don't ever get the jokes that people make about television commercials. so, whenever i'm at my folk's home and i flip on the television its this really surreal experience. but, i have a hard time turning it off -- kind of in the same way that people slow down on the highway when they drive by a burning vehicle. its disturbing, but i can't look away.

oh - so, the photo is from the dairy queen on the corner of mccallie and central avenue where josiah's truck blew a tire the other day. ben horner, josiah and i spent the afternoon waiting for various trucks from AAA to help us out because the jack for josiah's truck was either missing or broken. the exciting part of the afternoon was that mccallie avenue has recently changed from a one-way street to two way, and all afternoon people were driving the wrong way into oncoming traffic. again, disturbing, but couldn't look away.

totten number 1

ladies and gentlemen, john totten, of "isaac wardell and the totten brothers" fame, hamming it up for the camera at CBC. john's actually somewhat difficult to photograph. in photographs he often wants to appear pensive and reflective - caught in a weighty moment of soul searching. and while all of these things are true of john at times, most of the time when he's with friends he's waxing poetic or making everyone laugh.

work is, for all intents and purposes, an insane asylum right now. maybe asylum isn't the right word. perhaps insane collective. or maybe its just me, and my upcoming 2 week holiday that has me so stressed out. if all goes well, after today i'm basically free until new years.

frodo and the adult bookstore

hmm... well, that entry title might bring some interesting visitors over from google. but, traffic is traffic i suppose. took this photo last night, well this morning actually, on the way home from watching lord of the rings: return of the king. (i say morning because its nearly 4 hours all told, and i didn't get in bed until about 4am.) anyone who's visited chattanooga, and taken the market street/lookout mountain exit is probably familiar with this view of the infamous broad street adult bookstore: an ever glowing beacon of, well, depravity? i must admit though, its a strangely comforting site after hours on the highway, whenever i return from a trip. can anyone relate?

about LOTR 3... it was fantastic. incredible. i'm at a loss for words. okay, of course, i have a few little complaints, but on the whole i was blown away. with each successive film i've let go of the need for there to be a direct correlation between film and book events. so, with this film, i dropped all expectations and just let myself be engulfed - and engulfed i was.

ice cold

this is the roofline of thankful memorial episcopal church across the street from coptix. the view is actually from the upstairs porch, and struck me as i stepped out to take a picture of my car. this morning when i attempted to leave the house, my car was all but frozen shut. once i finally got in, the door mechanisms were so cold they wouldn't close again, so i had to let it warm up for 20 minutes to get them to seal. ah... good old volkswagen hardware. so, like i said, i was going to take a picture of my ice-encased car, but when i stepped out, this view of the church just seemed so much more interesting.

speaking of volkswagen - anyone seen the new phaeton? its huge. V12? somehow this doesn't strike me as "the people's automobile"...

christmas lights

sunday afternoon we finally put up christmas lights and decorated the tree, up at 404 mcfarland road. i have to say, i really like what the christmas lights do for the room. with no overhead lighting, and few lamps in our house it tends to be pretty dark all the time. with the new lights up, everything has a warm glow to it. i have a feeling they won't be coming down until sometime next summer.

photoful weekend

this past weekend was very full of photographic assigments. it started friday morning at the bakery and didn't really stop until sunday afternoon. friday night and saturday i photographed the rehearsal dinner, wedding, and reception for jenn green and josh kring which took place out at hidden hollow. i think all of it went quite well, but i've got a serious knot in my back from holding the camera up to my face over and over the whole weekend. 14 rolls of film all told. still no images back from the pulse story, but hopefully this afternoon.

the wedding itself was actually a bit of a surreal experience, at least for me. it was a gathering of many old friends, but some who have never met each other, or barely know one another. so standing around the bonfire friday night watching people interact who i never really expected to meet was really fascinating. i spent most of the evening just wandering from conversation to conversation.

oh, the photo today is of cosette simmons - child of rob and terry simmons and niece of erin petrella. sunday we all met at lupi's with both sets of kirbys (matt and jerah, cannon and leah) and cosette ran circles around all of us.

niedlovs in the a.m.

another double photo day today. couldn't decide which of these i liked better, so you get them both. once again, i really need to redesign the layout of this site so that i can post multiple pictures more easily, but for now, this will have to do.

this morning i met aaron mesh down at niedlovs breadworks to begin work on our first collaborative article for pulse magazine. pulse magazine is a new chattanooga weekly paper devoted to local events, stories, opinions, etc -- movie reviews, editorials, that sort of thing. aaron has been writing for them from the start, and i've been pushing for them to let me photograph. finally we met with the editor last week and started hashing out plans for semi-regular profile pieces with a visual slant. essentially, stories told with pictures along with a solid piece of journalism. or at least, that's the hope -- this is our first story.

so, as i was saying, we arrived at niedlovs at an ungodly hour and spent the morning photographing and interviewing john and angela sweet, owners of niedlov's breadworks. some of you know that i lived with john sweet for over a year before he got married, but i have to admit, that i discovered more about his thoughts on baking and on life this morning than i ever did living with him. i don't know if this is a result of mesh's natural interviewing skills, or that john has been learning more about himself and the bakery in recent months. probably a combination of the two. either way, it was a fascinating way to spend the morning. i dropped the non-digital film off immediately afterwards. with any luck we'll have prints by this afternoon, and a published story next wednesday.

fire from the sky

this photo reminds me of scenes from the "classic" 1993 alien abduction film fire in the sky. its all about this guy Travis Walton who claims to have had an alien encounter back in 1975 or so. check out his website, and images...

in reality, this is the view from our own front porch on a foggy evening up on lookout mountain. what appears to be a streaking UFO is merely a car driving by, with a 2 second exposure on my digitial camera. maybe i should submit this image to george noory.

film update:
saw down by law last night and loved it. makes me want to make films more than ever.

stelmo ave

the view from aaron mesh's apartment, overlooking "historic st.elmo" (according to the sign upon entering the neighborhoood). note, this is the same apartment referenced yesterday on irresponsible journalism. also note, mesh is blogging again. and if any of you old-schoolers still read this blog, you may even recognize that white-ish house to the right with the christmas lights. yes, that is the once famous "white house" of becki luedde where we spent many an afternoon reclining on the porch, talking theology and sipping southpaw.

in other news...
wilco's been back in the studio, recording for spring '04.

breakfast for dinner

those of you who have spent any time around morris yaegashi will appreciate these pictures. as you know, morris doesn't exactly hold still very well, which makes for difficult, but interesting pictures. and last night as he was cooking up some eggs and bacon, he was in a particularly good mood when i snapped these photos. that first one, where you can actually make out who he is, was the closest i got to a blur-free photo. but then, he does spend all day around middle and high schoolers -- mornings teaching them how to speak japanese and afternoons how to wrestle -- yesterday having arrived home from another wrestling tournament triumph.

in other news...
are the pixies getting back together? hmm... it'd be fun, but what a heckuva a legacy to maintain...

the slammon ammons

kiko and isaac ham it up on friday night at the birthday party chris ammons, of jairus fame, threw for his wife anne. i feel like these birthday-party-images are becoming a bit tired (or perhaps everyone is just becoming tired of me taking them) but it was quite a collection of interesting looking folk -- hipster filled event that it was. i also saw the jacket-design for the new jairus CD, due out in the next few months, and was quite impressed. if the sound lives up to the look, we're in for some quality tunes.

ari, my sister-in-law, was also up for the weekend, giving my brother tim some time to study for his finals at tech. this is his last week before the break, and from the sound of things, he's under a pretty heavy load. but, if all goes well, he'll be up visiting next week sometime while ari finishes up her classes.

monty gets a date

okay, so it was only sort of a date. i was actually just filling in for a friend who had to cancel at the last minute. i'll not use real names here to protect the innocent, but a roommate of mine was supposed to go to the covenant madrigals with a friend of ours. however, said roommate regretfully had to cancel at the last minute due to other obligations, and i stepped in to fill his shoes so to speak. so you see, i was actually just a second-stringer getting off the bench. but it was a still a date, right? i mean, i got all dressed up and everything.

couldn't pass up the opportunity for a self-portrait here in front of the mirror -- me in a tie is an uncommon thing. second-string or not, it was a fun evening, though its strange to be back on campus for such an event, and not really recognize anyone who's a student anymore. madrigals is nearly the same as it ever was - incredible music, plenty of bad jokes, but the food this year has improved dramatically, thanks to the new food service.

mojo rising

Oh Mandy well,
you came and you gave without taking,
but I sent you away.
Oh, Mandy well,
kissed me and stopped me from shaking,
and I need you!

every man's dream according to our newest employee...

this is a sight i'm becoming quite used to seeing each day when i roll up to work now. many of you will recognize the tail of josiah roe's truck. he's the most recent hire here at coptix -- he started last week as project-manager/coptix evangelist/coptix cheerleader -- and so far he's kicking butt and taking names. since he arrived, he's not only raised company morale, he's even provided us with a company song. keep up the good work josiah, and remember, i'm still taking 2 weeks off at christmas!

santa and the christmas trees

can it already have been 4 weeks since i posted the triscuit pic? i guess so. well, its my kitchen week again, and i passed this big guy on the way out to Bi-Lo yesterday afternoon. i'd like to make some comment about how quickly the christmas paraphernalia comes out as soon as thanksgiving's over, but he's been on signal mountain blvd for at least a month already -- our local weaver christmas tree farms representative. i sort of wished i'd waited to take his picture later though - apparently he's full of lights and glows a christmas-y red after the sun goes down.

back to work today...

chopstix

bethany leans in close to overhear the political discussion that kiko, carrie, and mesh we're having on saturday night at chopstix in gainesville. saturday we also saw the latest stephen frears film dirty pretty things down at the hippodrome. it was excellent - i think everyone pretty well agreed on having enjoyed it, though it leaves one feeling a bit disturbed. mesh's assessment seemed quite accurate: a class-struggle film in the genre of a thriller.

i'm back in chattanooga finally though. a long trip last night, brought me in around 2am. i decided to take today off from work in order to recover, and i'm very glad i did. i'm always surprised at how long it takes to get caught up. but tomorrow, back to the grind...

the thanksgiving crew

remember how i mentioned the incredible-extending table? well, i wasn't kidding... from the top, clockwise: dad, elijah, mom, (me,) bethany franks, carrie galpin, morris yaegashi, brent jackson, yukiko takata, ari montgomery, tim montgomery, joel montgomery... and that's gotta be a record. oh wait, then we topped it on sunday for lunch. i think we had 14. my parents have been so gracious this year with the house, and it's so great for entertaining. mom has been incredible with all the cooking.

but now the dust has settled. everyone hit the road to chattanooga and atlanta yesterday afternoon. i decided to stick around for a day to visit with my parents. we're going to dinner tonight and then i'll be on the road home myself.