Spotted at a local Island Bar-- anyone care for some Manishewitz in your painkiller?

Merry Christmas from Spanish Town in Virgin Gorda.

Photos include: "happy" spelled out in plastic cups in a fence in town, decorations at the Mine Shaft Cafe, holiday songs with local legend Morris Mark, Island Christmas Trees (and market), and a local nativity scene.

2011 hasn't gone down as a benchmark year. On one hand, there were a lot of ups- travel outside of the country to China and Israel, travel within the country to Vermont, Florida and other New England hot spots, new friends, connections with old friends and the launch of writteninlight.net. On the other hand, it's been a tough year of lost relationships and a lot of personal struggles with identity, personhood and, in many ways, continuing to come of age at year 29.

With all that being said, and even with the knowledge that these rough times have brought forth tremendous amounts of personal growth and understanding of self, I'm ready to get the heck out of 2011.

I'll be going radio silent (or some version of it) until January 2nd. I'm heading home to the British Virgin Islands, to a quiet cottage called Hibiscus and 10 or so days of family warmth, beach warmth and hammock warmth. The plan is to return with not only updates for the website, but a new enthusiasm for the challenges of the upcoming year.

Check out the second installment of Jews About Town on JewishBoston.com.

This is a post about work. And the things that happen in our lunch room. I'm a bit tempted to let this all go without explanation... I think the pictures speak for themselves.

_In honor of the course I'm taking at the New England School of Photography on photographing people, I thought I'd share some non-people people portraits.

_ I'm an individual with an almost absurdly over active imagination. I'm a story teller- which sometimes gets me in trouble. I often wonder if I turned to prose because it's socially acceptable to create characters for the sake of fiction, while an adult with imaginary friends is probably heading to an institution. As such, part of the fun of writing with photography is capturing the spark of objects and scenes that might seem still to someone not on the lookout for a good story.

The library post from earlier today depicts scenes that inspired my camera.
Here are the pictures that inspired my imagination.

Boston is a town of many protests; in fact, I'm not sure I've been to Copley Square in the past six months without finding someone exercising their freedom of speech. Today's trip to the Boston Public Library is dedicated to these protesters: Occupy Your Mind!

I spent a few hours wandering this afternoon. Much of my wandering took me from fancy store front, to ornate building, to historical setting. In the midst of that wander I spent a good 15 minutes exploring a back alley. The dancing smoke, the spray paint and the contrast of rust to metal told a story of how a city works. Without getting too "artschool", I will say, this was a beautiful spot to photograph.