It all started with Saturday morning tv and a home improvement show host with a hyphenated last time. This led to a discussion about last names and their origins, and, eventually, a Google search on our own last names. I found out that there were other Falchetti artists (Guiseppi Falchetti, 1843 - 1918) and, strangely, pop singers (Giovanni Falchetti), and Kiersten found out that her name is famous, in movie sound editing circles, for The Wilhelm Scream. It turns out the Wilhelm Scream is a very distinctive scream which has appeared in movies since the 50's. It gets its name from the 1953 movie, The Charge at Feather River, in which a red-shirt character named Private Wilhelm gets taken out by an arrow, emitting a shrill scream which has since become a bit of a running gag in movie soundtracks. You've heard it - if you've seen any of the Star Wars or Indiana Jones movies, the editors at Skywalker Sound seemed to have an affinity for it, whether it's a stormtrooper tumbling off a balcony or a bunch of Indiana-Jones-chasing henchmen driving off a cliff.

We thought this was too funny, especially when we discovered there's a bit of a cult following to tracking the scream's usage in movies. Check out the YouTube links below:

It's been about 2 months since our engagement, and it's been a whirlwind of wedding planning. But we've got our ceremony and reception site - the beautiful Sayre Mansion in Bethlehem, PA, and our date in June 2008. This past weekend we met with the photographer and florist, and now we're starting to choose all of our yummy options from the caterer. Today's task: address and send out all of our save the date cards....which are cute little magnets. The magnets, as it turned out, required assembly - they came as separate adhesive backed magnets and printed cards. Aligning the two took a little more skill than you might guess (sooo sticky!). On the plus side, we had plenty of left over adhesive backings, which are exactly business card sized. Kiersten suggested I stick them onto some of my art cards - so now I have 'Artwork of Shawn Falchetti' magnets. Neat!

Kiersten and I carved our pumpkins this weekend, and now are munching on some roasted pumpkin seeds. Happy Halloween!

....yes! Two weeks ago Kiersten and I spent her birthday at a beautiful bed and breakfast near New Hope, PA. We had our own cottage at Woolverton Inn, complete with a small private garden just outside the doors from our room. The grounds were filled with arbors, cobblestone fountains, lazy pastures with sheep, and scenic views. After a wonderful dinner at Sargeantsville Inn, we returned to our room, lit the fireplace, and opened a bottle of wine we'd bought from a winery during a trip to Monticello when we first started dating. It was then that I popped the question....and Kiersten accepted! The next day we had lunch with Kiersten's parents, and dinner with mine, and everyone was very excited to hear the news. As we told friends over the next few days, we were surprised the everyone immediately asked all of the details of when the date was, where, type of ceremony - we haven't got to any of the details beyond the "we're engaged!" stage! So, last weekend we venturedto Barnes and Noble, bought a wedding planning book, and started to think about some details. This last week we've been looking at ideas for ceremony and reception sites, and visited a few this weekend.

We'd love to have an outdoor ceremony in Pennsylvania either in the Wyoming or Lehigh Valley area ...the type with a gazebo or arbor, a scenic backdrop....and a convenient nearby "plan B" indoor locale if the weather doesn't cooperate. We're planning on an indoor reception, and it doesn't have to be at the same site as the ceremony. For the reception site, we're looking for someplace with a little personality. If you've got any recommendations (either for outdoor sites or reception sites), I'm all ears!

Kiersten snapped this photo this morning from our deck, looking out at the bright yellow leaves of the tree in our back yard.

About 3 months into our pottery lessons, we picked up our latest stash of fired, glazed pieces. What a difference compared to the first few weeks! We've got cups with handles, pots with separate lids, and bowls big enough to eat out of - plus some really cool multi-hued glaze effects. The house is beginning to overflow with little bowls and cups. Looking forward to see what our next stash will look like.

Just returned from vacation with Kiersten at Sandals in the Bahamas. It turned out to be a great week to go, because while we were lounging in 80 degree weather, 10 inches of snow got dumped on our house back home - and completely melted by the time we returned. Sandals was a lot of fun - aside from the 2 big pools at the resort, there were some great beachs both at the resort and on their nearby private island. From the pier you could see the hotel Atlantis in the distance, and the steady arrival and departure of cruise ships. The resort's evening entertainment was a little lacking, but we enjoyed shooting some games of pool at the piano bar, or just a nice walk outside along the pier. Both of us got a little fried our first day, but overall we did pretty well from a sunburn standpoint, and I ended up with a nice tan to gloat about when I go back to work on Monday. We've been joking that we really got spoiled by the all-inclusive aspect of the resort - just walk into a restaurant, eat, and leave without a bill - and now that we're home we'll have to be careful not to bolt before the check comes

After 4 weeks of pottery lessons, we picked up our first stash of completed, fired pieces after last week's glazing session. It's amazing how different pieces look after you glaze them - they look like real pottery now! Most of the cups and bowls we made were a little small to be functional mugs and dishware, but they did look great when arranged on a display shelf in the dining room.

A few were just the right size and made it into the cupboard.

We're going to continue with another month's lessons, and hopefully learn how to make some handles for our mugs, as well as some larger forms. I'm really enjoying the hands on, 3-d aspect of throwing, and I love that you end up with dozens of little pieces to use or display around the house.

Kiersten and I began our pottery lessons at Green Dog Pottery. After driving by the little shop with the iconic deranged green dog icon, I bought Kiersten some lessons for her birthday last year. Our first lesson involved getting our feet wet with a small, pinch form cup, before diving right into throwing on the wheel. Unlike the movie Ghost (which was my only reference up to this point), throwing was much harder than it looked. In particular, centering the clay on the wheel initially was remarkably hard - somehow my efforts just unbalanced it all the more. With a little coaxing from the instructor, though, I was able to make a somewhat cylindrical cup, which will dry this week. It actually was remarkably fun to mold the clay with my hands - a very different artistic experience than the usual 2D work I'm used to. Next Saturday is our second lesson - more to come.

Recently I've been reading Art & Fear, Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of ArtMaking (Bayles & Orland, The Image Continuum Press, 1993). I think this should be required reading for the artist, whether you're a doodler or been doing it for years. I recall my first group exhibit a few years ago when I joined the local CPSA chapter; as I peered around the dropoff location at the MacDonald Gallery, I questioned whether my work was good enough to exhibit. The picture in hand was Pensive. I'm glad I decided to drop it off - the artist's reception - my first - was fun, sipping wine while munching on snacks, having people ask about the woman in the picture, the colors, the idea for the pose. Pensive showed up again in the fall show, and, feeling somewhat a slacker for not having anything new, it egged me on to do Tangerine Dreams. This past year has been very productive for me, with 12 works completed. Blue Nude, my first Colorfix work, and one of my favorites, was nearly abandoned halfway through creation. The Colorfix paper was completely different than the Stonehenge paper I'd been working with, and the colors were interacting in ways I wasn't expecting. It just wasn't turning out like the picture in my head. But it was a small (9 x 12) picture, and even if it turned to mush, I thought I'd learn something along the way, so I pressed on. More importantly, it was out of my comfort zone - I'd been doing warm, high contrast, heavily burnished pictures, and Blue Nude was soft, cool, moody, and textured. Trying something new was good enough reason to push on. In the end it did gel. Funny how the one I almost tossed became one of my favorites. Later in the year it was juried into the 2006 Fine Arts Fiesta, a show which I'd submitted to twice before and had not succeeded in getting into.

So, I like Art & Fear. The message of drawing what you care about we've heard before, but it's a good one. I think it's important to keep stretching, and be a little fearless. One of the themes of Art & Fear is that an artist's work is a journey, and each new work opens up paths and ideas to the next. Even if the work doesn't quite turn out as planned, the dozen ideas you get from the process were worth the investment; and, sometimes, not working out as planned isn't a bad thing at all.

Kiersten and I did our 3rd and 4th tapings for WVIA Ballroom Dancing. We even got an interview in the "Hello Dancers" spot (nothing too exciting - just our names and where we were from). The episodes should air in about 2 months. Here's a snapshot of us all dressed up for our afternoon of dancing at the WVIA studio:

Monday, May 15^th, noon. Shawangunks Mountain Range, New York

Shockley's Ceiling, belay ledge at the end of the first pitch:

Naoko rubbed her hands together, wringing the water from them and trying to stave off some of the numbness. Overhead the dark gray sky spilt water down upon us, catching onto a slight rocky overhang to form a natural rain gutter whose overflow was bathing us in cold splatter. I could see that Naoko was regretting leaving her jacket at the base of the cliff. Craig busily juggled a series of cams and nuts, searching through the slick, wet fissures in the ledge to find good anchor points for our rappel. It was a three pitch climb and we had just finished the first before the rain spilled upon us. There were no rappel rings on this pitch; to bail here, Craig would have to build us a rappel point, and, unfortunately, abandon some of his gear in the process. A hazy, gray mist obfuscated the valley span below; it was a remarkable view of bushy tree lines from our perch 60 ft up. I wondered about the other two climbers who had passed us earlier on a parallel route. Their ropes had been pulled up out of sight about 30 minutes ago, and we didn't hear anymore belay calls from them. Had they outclimbed the storm and found a spot to hike down from, or were they also sitting quietly drenched on a higher ledge, mirroring us, looking out over the rainy valley? Craig coiled the rappel line, peered over the ledge, and tossed the green rope wide over the cliff.

Dallas, PA, 8 hours earlier

I squinted through the darkness at the buzzing alarm, a pillow crumpled half over my head. A soft blue glowing display read 4:45 am. I was wired the previous night from anticipation of the climb, and couldn't fall asleep until after midnight. I got up, stumbled through the morning routines, did a final gear check, and munched on a peanut butter sandwich as a car pulled into my driveway. A knock on the door, then Craig drove the two of us off to the meeting point in Wilkes-Barre at the Wilkes-Barre Rocks Climbing gym. The weather looked dicey, and we had an uncertainty about if anyone would show. After 10 minutes of sitting in the dim light of the early morning packing lot, Naoko's truck pulled along side us. Shortly afterwards, the remainder of the climbers pulled into the parking lot. Splitting up into two cars, we began the 2.5 hour drive to the Gunks, New York.

Spirits were high when we met up at for breakfast in a small deli near the Gunks. A short drive to the Trapps had us park at the base of the Stairmaster. The aptly-named Stairmaster is an extended series of stone steps which form the ascent to the base of the cliff. Since you are loaded up with ropes, water, and climbing gear, it gets the blood pumping. Everyone was a little winded when we arrived at the cliff, and after a brief discussion of group pairings, we split into three groups. My group was Craig (our lead climber), myself, and Naoko. Today would be Naoko's first outdoor climb.

Shockley's Ceiling was our target, a 5.6 three pitch climb which had the quirky tradition of occassionally being climbed in the buff by free-spirited climbers. We decided to keep all of our clothes on. After the usual set-up and pre-climb checks, Craig began his first lead ascent, and soon disappeared beyond the roof of the initial couple moves. I followed, removing the gear as I went, with a second rope trailing from me. This would form a top-rope route for Naoko. The first of the three pitches was graded 5.4, although a few of the corners, and, in particular the initial roof, I thought were harder. Naoko had no problems with them though, and soon joined us on our ledge 60 ft up. Craig pulled out his guidebook and began mapping the second pitch, choosing a traverse to begin. In no time he had his first piece of protection placed. Just then he said, "and I just felt a few drops of rain."

A uneasy moment passed as me and Naoko looked up, and I heard the soft pop of raindrops on my windbreaker. "Yeah, me too," we both said. We wondered if we should continue and try to make the second pitch, or figure out how to get down. After a short discussion, we decided to wait a few minutes on the ledge and see if it was a false alarm. Craig back climbed to us, removing the piece of protection he placed. Over the course of the next ten minutes, the fine mist evolved into a steady light rain, and the rocks started to glisten with wetness.

Shockley's Ceiling, 1^st pitch ledge, 12:30 pm

Naoko was about to take a literal leap of faith. Holding onto the rappel rope with both hands just under her ATC, she needed to toss herself off the ledge, with 60 ft or air and rock below her. Craig had already descended and had her on a fireman’s belay, and, with it, could stop her descent if she had any trouble. This was her first rappel, and she got her lesson on a water covered ledge while shivering during a rainstorm. Although your brain gets its usual logical checklist reassurance of "the anchors are solid, my partner can stop me, everything will be fine, " there still is the overwhelming experience as you peer down over the cliff you're about to jump off of that says "you want me to do what?" Naoko does a great job and descends smoothly. I follow aftwards.

On the ground, Craig sees the other climbers descending I'd been wondering about earlier, Chris and Julia. Craig calls up to Chris, and he agrees to stop on our ledge and retrieve Craig's gear. The two climbers had made it to the next pitch before the rain hit, and sat soundly under a rocky overhang trying to wait out the rainstorm. The rain didn't let up, and they rappelled out like we did. As this was going on, I tilted my head back and stared up at the tall, dead tree near me. My green rope was wrapped high in its branches. The first rappel line to be thrown, it was rendered useless when it got tangled in the tree. It was brand new, and, like all climbing ropes, expensive. We were talking about cutting the rope to salvage part of it, but I was determined, and began jumping up and putting all my weight on it. The dead tree bent and protested, and, after the third yank, snapped at a thin point right on the top. The rope thudded down with a 12" section of branch. I cheered. We all collected our gear, met up at the cars, and headed to someplace warm and dry to get some food and hot tea.

Heading to Philadelphia this weekend with my girlfriend to see the Andrew Wyeth exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Really looking forward to it!

If weather permits, I'm planning on heading up with a few friends to the Gunks in New York for some outdoor rock climbing. This will be my third trip there. Hopefully I'll get some new black and white photos out of the trip.