Monitor BBC: 4 August 2013

The Monitor Base Ball Club of Chelsea welcomed the Union Base Ball Club of Dexter and the Welkin Base Ball Club of Port Huron to town for a three-team Gatling gun match. I know that sounds violent and potentially harmful, but it doesn’t involve any guns. Just three teams playing base ball.

As usual, the captains addressed the cranks before the match.

Port Huron brought a young Japanese team member who had arrived in the country just a week earlier.

Every ballist has a nickname, and his should come as no surprise: Samurai. He seemed to be having a great deal of fun — he had a smile on his face almost every time I spotted him.

One of the fun things about photographing sports is the potential of catching things you won’t see in real time, like the compression of the ball on the bat.

Sports: fun with physics!

Midway through the match I noticed Honest Jon showing a bat to the crowd. It turns out the bat had cracked during his last at-bat.

Hey look! It’s Mike and Bethany!

Okay, enough of that. Back to base ball.

I just can’t take the next picture seriously.

Great timing; not such a great angle. It’s funny, though, so I’m keeping it.

You can go ahead and caption the next photo yourself if you’d like.

(Don’t worry: he was just throwing to first.)

The Welkins were the last to bat, and they found themselves facing a deficit. Samurai decided to don the rally cap in an effort to bring his team back.

Was the rally cap was part of base ball in the 1860s? Let’s pretend it was.

Here’s a look at the final score:

And here are the clubs:

The Monitors’ final home match of 2013 is on Saturday, August 24. Don’t worry: it’s after the fair parade. Go watch the parade and then head to Timbertown to enjoy some base ball! You’ll be glad you did.

Sounds & Sights: 1 August 2013

Seven Bridges was by the courthouse. (I tried “Seven Bridges were…” but it sounded strange.)

During one song they invited a special guest drummer.

At the end of the song the regular drummer borrowed from the guest drummer to finish with a flourish.

Not far away, Back to the Roots was offering THE BEST TACOS EVER.

Dave Boutette was in the alley.

Coconut Radio was at the Glazier Building.

There was dancing.

(I warned you, Emily!)

Spin Cycle was at the Sylvan Building.

Captain Ivory was on East Middle.

The Modern Day Drifters were on the library lawn.

Sounds & Sights continues in downtown Chelsea tonight from 6:30pm-8:30pm. There are only two more left this summer — come on down and join the fun!

Sounds & Sights Festival: 27 July 2013

On Saturday morning I went to the clocktower area to check out the kids activities during the three-day Sounds & Sights Festival. But before we get to those photos, let’s talk about signs. Specifically, signs with very clear and very important messages. Signs like this:

The text on the sign doesn’t seem ambiguous:

STOP
IT IS UNLAWFUL TO
CROSS THE RR TRACKS
CROSS AT MAIN ST.
OR MCKINLEY ST. ONLY

As I’m sure you can see, there are two kids happily crossing the tracks in full view of that sign. Actually, they were in full view of at least two of the signs. They also weren’t the only people who crossed the tracks there in the ten minutes I was watching that spot.

Why the signs, you may ask? Well, it seems the Chelsea police have been advised by the railroad of problems with people crossing the tracks outside legal crossings, so they posted the signs in preparation for strict enforcement of existing laws. In other words, it’s going to cost you if you get caught on the tracks. Is it really so hard to walk a minute or two to the nearest crossing? No. No it isn’t. Please be sensible.

If you need further encouragement, here’s a hilariously instructive train safety video. It’s written for a larger city setting, but the idea works anywhere.

Okay, back to the pictures. New to the kids zone this year was an outdoor bowling lane courtesy of Chelsea Lanes.

Mad Science was doing a show nearby.

There was an ambulance for kids to explore, too.

It was all going so well…until the clouds opened up and drenched everything in sight.

Sounds & Sights: 25 July 2013

The ever-popular Chelsea House Orchestra was on the library lawn.

Up by Zou Zou’s there were hula hoops for the general public’s enjoyment.

Bulletproof Snow was at the clocktower gazebo.

The drummer’s hair was just about as photogenic as it gets.

The drummer also had the perfect reaction when he noticed I was pointing a camera at him.

The sun was setting behind the band, and at one point I made the mistake of shooting at the wrong angle. The result was a photo that looked a little bit like it had been mangled by one of those insufferable Instagram filters.

My hope is that if you’re an Instagram user, from now on you’ll mentally replace every filter name with “Oops.”

It wasn’t hot like last week, but kids were still enjoying the fountain.

The Nomads were at the Glazier Building.

The Shelter Dogs were at the Sylvan Courtyard.

The drummer looked mild-mannered…

…and then he started yelling and hitting stuff. (Oh relax. He was hitting stuff with his drumsticks. That’s what drummers do.)

It was fun.

See? The band thought it was fun, too.

Before long he went back to regular drumming and singing.

The Appleseed Collective was on Middle.

Poppet was wandering around downtown dancing. When I encountered her, she had a couple copycats.

Sounds & Sights will continue in downtown Chelsea this Thursday from 6:30pm-8:30pm. There are only three left this summer, so come on down and check it out!

Sounds & Sights face painting: 18 July 2013

During last week’s Sounds & Sights there was face painting in the clocktower courtyard. I stopped by in time to watch one youngster get his face painted.

When the process was complete, he got to see his face in a mirror. I think he was happy.

Sounds & Sights: 18 July 2013

Sounds & Sights continued with a pretty good crowd despite the heat and humidity. Seven Bridges was on the library lawn.

The Whiskey Charmers were on East Middle.

Bill Grogan’s Goat was at the Sylvan Courtyard. No, it wasn’t an actual goat — it was a band. But they did have a goat of sorts:

They also had regular human band members.

David C. Bloom & Friends were at the clocktower gazebo. This is NOT David C. Bloom:

This is NOT David C. Bloom:

This IS David C. Bloom!

Down in the clocktower courtyard, this young boy was using the fountain to beat the heat.

The Bob Skon Trio was at the Glazier Building.

From Grace was by the courthouse.

The Sounds & Sights Festival is this weekend. In addition to the usual Thursday night entertainment, there will be other events through Saturday evening, including music in the social tent, an art market, and a car show. The full schedule is here.

(There are a few more photos from Thursday, but I think they deserve their own post, so look for those tomorrow.)

Well struck, sir: 14 July 2013

A little over a week ago, the Monitor Base Ball Club of Chelsea made the arduous journey to Greenfield Village to take on the Lah-De-Dahs. What’s that? You seem to recall it was outrageously hot and humid that day? You, sir or madam, are correct. Those of us who chose to be outside that day weren’t breathing oxygen so much as we were inhaling a giant invisible wool blanket that someone had soaked in water and put in an oven. It was like some southern state had decided it had a surplus of terrible summer weather and had decided to export its decidedly unappealing natural resource to some unsuspecting northern state. WE DO NOT THANK YOU.

Anyway. If you’ve never been to Greenfield Village, I recommend a visit — it’s a thoroughly enjoyable historical experience. But we’re here to recount the vintage base ball experience, so…here we go.

The field they use for base ball is spectator-friendly — there are plenty of trees providing shade, and there’s a hill that offers comfortable viewing of the action. There was a good crowd present for the match.

In the above picture, it’s safe to assume anyone in a yellow shirt is a Monitors fan. (I was wearing my yellow Monitors shirt as well, but I didn’t take a picture of myself.) Also, there were more fans to the right.

As if we needed another reminder that Greenfield Village is old-school, this gentleman moseyed past the field during the match:

Fielding a ball without a glove really isn’t that easy. Take a look at this sequence:

My dad made the trip with me to watch the match:

At this venue, right field is cut a bit short by railroad tracks. The tracks carry this:

The tracks run in a loop around the village, and the train pulls a set of cars carrying visitors to the park. When the train approaches the field, the umpire stops the game and the players salute the train and its passengers with hearty huzzahs.

When the game ended, the teams lined up and offered huzzahs to the crowd.

The afternoon ended with a group photo in front of the scoreboard.

If you’d like to catch the Monitors in action, the club has a home match at 2pm this coming Saturday, July 27. The match will be at Timbertown. Come check it out!

Impromptu portrait session: 11 July 2013

While I was enjoying the music on the library lawn during last week’s Sounds & Sights, I couldn’t resist turning my camera away from the music when friends of mine showed up. When you see the photos you’ll understand why I couldn’t resist.

Sounds & Sights: 11 July 2013

After a break for Independence Day (the actual day, not the movie), Sounds & Sights came back just in time for last Thursday’s gorgeous summer weather. The comedy on the library lawn wrapped up at the end of June, but the library lawn didn’t go quiet: there will be music at that spot each week. This week was one of my favorites: Annie and Rod Capps, accompanied by the fantastic Jason Dennie.

This is Jason. He’s looking at you.

Half his face is unusually radiant because it was a sunny day, the last place I’d taken pictures was relatively dark, and he spontaneously posed for that picture before I’d adjusted the settings on my camera. Here’s how he looks when he’s not giving off an unearthly glow.

Here are Annie and Rod.

One of the younger audience members was in the mood to chew on a Slinky.

When she finished that task, she decided the Capps’ music was good for dancing.

Last Exit was by the courthouse.

The Sarah Swanson Band was a block down the street.

Mike Vial was in the alley.

The alley can be a challenging place to get photos. The sidewalk by the alley is narrow, and since it’s in the middle of downtown, there’s a lot of foot traffic through that area during Sounds & Sights. That means you can be taking pictures of the singer in the alley without a care in the world…

…and then it all starts to go south (which is odd because the pedestrian was headed north)…

…and you find yourself taking an entirely different photo.

Hello, side of someone’s face. It’s nice to meet you.

Despite my trials and tribulations, Mike kept singing like nothing happened.

Back at the library, Annie and Rod Capps and Jason Dennie were still performing. One member of the audience was sporting an unusual hat.

More young audience members decided the Capps’ music was good for dancing.

Sounds & Sights will continue in downtown Chelsea this Thursday from 6:30-8:30pm.

Sounds & Sights: 27 June 2013

Despite a downpour just before 6:30, Sounds & Sights went on as planned. The rain cleared quickly, but the library decided to move the comedy indoors just in case. This week’s comedy showcase was the last of the summer — it’ll be music on the library lawn the rest of the summer.

As always, it started with Kevin Kramis.