not the barbarian

last weekend, my best friend and i had the pleasure of being among the few that witnessed conan obrien's 'legally prohibited from being funny on television' tour - initially a little skeptical about watching conan do stand up for a couple of hours - we were pleasantly surprised - it turned out to be a show full of sketches, musical performances, great comedians, and old conan friends and inside jokes - one of my favorite moments, pictured above, was a sketch where conan wandered aimlessly around his house in a robe, showerless and beardy, drinking far too much wine - all set to the tune of 'all by myself' - a possibly too-close-to-home depiction of his life since being fired from the tonight show

wacky tobacky

in addition to parades, another common traffic-stopping spectacle downtown are the many protests that occur, both peaceful and not-so peaceful - there was one of each last week, and while both carried validity, i decided my blog expressed too casual a tone to convey serious journalism, so i photographed the more peaceful/entertaining of the two - the legalization of marijuana - a diverse group of people came together to march, both young and old - pot head cliches, conservatives, hippies, artists, and even grandparents walked the streets of downtown dallas, carrying clever signs and chanting 'free the weed' - the cops monitoring the protest were in good spirits, which was lucky as many of the protesters were openly smoking the not-yet legal drug...i'm pretty sure i got a contact high

i am a warrior, hear me roar

click here to see the whole race

this weekend i participated in the craziest race to ever come through texas - the warrior dash - a 3.5 mile race through uncharted woods and farmland, with insane obstacles along the way - some of the obstacles included fighting my way through gale force winds (enormous fans at top speed - they called this one 'the texas tornado') climbing up and over a cargo net, sliding down a muddy river bank - crossing the river - and climbing back out the other muddy side, jumping over fire pits, swimming across a bog while pulling yourself up and over several huge logs floating on the surface, and crawling through a mud pit under barbed wire - at the end of the race, we were all hosed off by a powerful fire hose - and then it was on to the free beer, music, and turkey legs, all while adorning our newly acquired race medals and viking helmets - it was so awesome, i'm thinking of following it to another state and doing it all over again!