Rainy night sights

Tonight I was at the Naselle-South Bend football game, a huge local rivalry. Naselle dominated the line of scrimmage all game to pound out an impressive 22-8 win to secure a playoff berth for the third straight year. What was perhaps most impressive was the fact that they didn't let the sloppy wet weather affect them, switching up their offense a bit and ramming fullback Alan Erickson into the end zone three times. Last years team was really good, but I am now totally convinced that this years team is truly great and can beat people so many different ways.
Anyways, enough of the accolades, here's some pix from tonight.
Here's coach Eaton getting doused with the water cooler shower. I thought it was somewhat suspect that there was a water cooler on the bench for the first time all season (they usually use water bottles) but I didn't really suspect that they'd get him since we were all soaking wet already. But sure enough ... I was lucky enough to be right in front of him when they got him, but I wasn't so lucky to come away unharmed myself. In the course of getting the pic a player backed up into me causing my camera to nail me above my right eye. As I was leaving, one guy was nice enough to tell me I had blood running down my face...
Alan Erickson is such a heart and soul of this team, and with three TDs tonight? Defintely deserves to get a little silly afterward.
Oh, did I mention it POURED tonight?
Pregame national anthem moment. Dig the hair.
Pregame touching moment between friends.

If you wanna see more pix from the game go HERE
Well, here it is almost midnight, getting ready to head home, only to get up at 7 to drive to Olympia to shoot the district cross country meet. C'ya

-DKM

Wyse - 4 pix, 1 day

A few weeks back I got one of my cameras back after it had been in the shop and I had yet to reprogram it to my specifications if you will. I finally got around to it yesterday and took some test shots of the boy. I really love this one.

Wyse's favorite show is Sesame Street, the first TV he ever showed any interest in, and that was only like 9 months ago. Here he is dancing along to the "fruit dance" song — he loves going bare-legged at home.

Last night was Kenz' final soccer game of the season. He decided to bring his baseball and glove to keep himself occupied.

One of our friends needed a pic of a parent interacting with a child for a presentation she's working on, so I snapped this one of them sharing a book on the couch last night before bed. He just looooooves books.


-DKM

Endless, Nameless

Todays post is named after the "secret song" at the end of the Nirvana album Nevermind. On some of the original CDs after seemingly ending the album with the hushed acoustic track Something in the Way, if you let the disk keep playing for like another six or seven minutes you get the long, loud, lyrically unintelligible track that just keeps going for almost 7 minutes.
After more than a week without posting anything, what you're basically getting here is one long recap of last week or so for me. I'll try to keep my rantings a little more coherent than the song.
So we begin two Saturday's ago at the Naselle High School homecoming game. I like to think that they were thinking of me when they decided to schedule the game for a Saturday afternoon, but I know better. I will say that I'd gladly speak at a school board meeting and make a passionate plea to have more Saturday afternoon games in the future if anyone thinks it will do any good. Love shooting football during the day!

These are two pix that didn't make the paper that I liked from the coronation at halftime. I always think it makes a good pic when a football player wins and gets the cape and crown. The Comets were so far ahead by then that the coach actually let the players sit along the sidelines and watch, rather than heading off to the locker room. Can honestly say I've never seen that before.
The start of last week was also the start of what I'm referring to as the "sick days" at the Mulinix house, as my daughter came down with the flu. My wife took her to the doctor and was told that they aren't screening people for H1N1, but that we might as well assume that's what it was. By my day off on Wednesday everyone in my house had it — except me — to varying degrees. In fact, save for some added tiredness and a rough throat for a day or two, I was just fine. No clue why. I told Ness it was my superior Polish genes, but I have my doubts. As I was assessing the scene that afternoon I sent an email to my boss saying that my house was like the Dawn of the Dead with all the zombies around. I also considered putting a quarantine sign on the door like the one on the LOST hatch.

Anyway, by the time Thursday came around I was more than happy to get back to work. Here's an outtake from a little parade by the Boys & Girls Club kids I went to.
Later that evening I was up in Naselle to shoot volleyball. After a hot start to the season the girls hadn't been doing so well — they'd yet to win a league game. Guess I caught them on a good night, as they made short work of North Beach. And while I would like to think that I was some kind of lucky charm for the team, I have my doubts yet again as a bunch of players came down with the flu a day later and they had to cancel their appearance in an invite tourney Saturday.
After a drive up to Menlo in the afternoon the next day I was out in the cold at Peterson Field for the Ilwaco homecoming game. The coronation at halftime was a little different as the seniors came out escorted by their family and are then made to each open a box in front of them that shows if they have won. Annika Wolters was the queen this year, to which she and her mom were pretty excited about. The girl has had a tough year, and it was nice to see her classmates get behind her.
The king, Troy Harkness' mom Maryann was pretty excited as well. You may remember a few weeks back I caught some ridiculous flack from some staff at the school for a picture of two students briefly kissing before a football game. Hope they don't have the same feelings about this one.
The game itself was a pretty rough affair, as the team the Fishermen were playing started taking cheap shots late in the third quarter. I guess they figured they could get away with it since the referees essentially turned a blind eye to it. The Fishermen hung tough for quite awhile, but couldn't keep up in the fourth quarter.
The next morning I had the chance to meet up with a father who was taking his 12-year-old daughter hunting for the first time. Now, I'll have to add that this was not her first time out, more like her fourth or fifth, but this season has been her first. It was mostly a lot of walking, as we never saw any game. Jerry said that was likely because the weather was so bright and calm. There also wasn't many chances to catch them interacting much, as it is a fairly quiet and almost solitary kind of thing. I like these ones though. I also have plans to go out with another family that duck hunts, so we'll see how that goes.



Lastly, later that night I went to the candlelight vigil down at the Bolstad beach approach — part of domestic violence awareness month. What really made it poignant was the fact that it took place less than 100 yards away from the memorial for Lisa Bonney, and the fact that her sister Kim and several friends, including the woman in the pic below who had been a friend since childhood, were there. I got to talk with her some afterward and found that she lives in McMinnville, and has for several years. In fact she lived there when Me and Ness did, and her apartment is only a few blocks away from the house we lived in. Small world I guess.

-DKM

Blessed Beasts

On the Sunday before I went out of town I visited the Methodist Church in Ocean Park to photograph the blessing of animals by Pastor Rene' Devantier. This was in honor of St. Francis of Assisii, the patron saint of animals. We used a couple pix as a front page package this week and I put together a short audio slideshow HERE if you wanna check it out.

While getting his face baptized by Coco the dog Pastor Devantier said "You're giving me blessings, I'm not giving you blessings."
And while most of the animals being blessed were dogs, one young woman brought this baby chick that was particularly afflicted — born with one eye, which had since dried up, and a crooked beak. But she loves it, and named it Popeye.

-DKM

Director Dad

Last week I headed south with Wyse to catch my dad's directorial debut in California. In the last few years he has gotten back into the theater, which was a big part of both my parents lives for several years. Now debut isn't totally true, as he directed a summer melodrama summer before last, but this was his first time helming a full-fledged musical.

The show was "The Fantasticks," a show that he was in when he was like 20.
It's tradition to have an "energy circle" prior to the start of each show. I remember doing this when I was in a production of "The Music Man" by this theater company back in the late 80s when I was like 12.

Wyse was cool, he hung with Gramma backstage before the show and then sat contently watching the whole two hour show, even clapping after the musical numbers.

We went on opening night and it received excellent reviews from the audience, much to my dad's enjoyment. Great job old man!

-DKM

Grilled Berger

I know this is a little late, but I was out of town most of last week to go see a play my dad directed in California (pix to come soon). Anyway, the day before I left town I shot the Ilwaco candidate forum, which featured the folks running for city council and mayor. The council has been best known over the last couple years as being a particularly cranky bunch, with the meetings filled with infighting and personal scores between each other. Usually I wouldn't go to shoot something like this but with their history I had a feeling it could be interesting. Turns out I was right.

This is Don Berger, a candidate for one of the council seats getting into an animated argument with two local business woman — Wendy Peterson and Karla Nelson — following the forum. The fact that two other candidates are laughing behind his back is typical. Nelson told reporter Amanda Frink afterward that the argument stemmed from an accusation by Berger that the two ladies had cut down one of his campaign signs... A couple days later Berger sent me an e-mail refuting that he ever said such a thing.

I love this town

-DKM