IGAVIN.COM

Video, photo and story

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:38:00 +0000

I got a last minute assignment this morning to cover the Indiana state superintendent, who was visiting an Evansville high school to check out the school corporation's new netbook program. Beginning this year, all high school students were rented the small laptops and will use them in class for various interactive assignments.

It made for a busy morning: I wrote the story, shot and edited a short video and also took a few photos. The one on the left and one more I took were used as the centerpiece art on A4.

I've brying to do more videos lately. I recently filed one on a local kid who dropped a message in a bottle off the coast of Florida and then, a year-and-a-half later, got a letter from a boy in the Netherlands who found it. And last week, when a delegation of residents from Evansville's Japanese sister city came to town, I did a video and story on them.

Marina Pointe burns

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:17:00 +0000

I had to rush out this morning to cover a massive fire that destroyed the Tin Fish restaurant at Marina Pointe overnight.

I always check the TV station Web sites as soon as I get up and I immediately knew I'd have to rush out to get on scene. By the time I did, the fire was mostly extinguished, but they were still fighting lingering hot spots. I shot the above photo and also shot and edited a quick video.

Luckily, no one was inside when the fire started and there were no injuries. It felt strange to see the building in ruins, though, as I had just eaten there for the first time when family came to visit a few weeks back. I guess it's good we did so while we had the chance.

A closer look at Officer Marvel's salary

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:53:00 +0000

A story I've been working on for about two weeks appears in today's paper. It focuses on Paul Marvel, an Evansville Police Department officer who resigned shortly before a hearing to consider a recommendation he be fired. The details of his alleged misconduct haven't been released, but police say it generally involves failing to perform his job and isn't criminal in nature.

I started getting curious about Marvel when his hearing date was delayed for months by his lawyer and the merit board. Pending the hearing, he was on suspension with pay. So delaying it meant he would earn extra money in the interim. And, ultimately, he didn't even go forward with the hearing and resigned instead.

As I investigated how much money he made during that span, another element developed: the city actually agreed to give him a fairly significant buyout in exchange for the resignation.

It all made for a very fascinating story that revealed taxpayers forked over more than $30,000 in salary for Marvel for time he spent not working.

EPD officer arrested

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:04:00 +0000

An Evansville Police Department officer who was not charged in a sexual assault case weeks ago was arrested on a separate, similar case today.

Martin Montgomery is facing a preliminary charge of criminal deviate conduct with a preliminary court appearance scheduled later this week.

I broke the story on courierpress.com early in the afternoon and followed up with two stories for the print edition. One offered more detail on the allegations and included an interview with the assistant chief of police, who called Montgomery an embarassment to the force.

In the other, I tracked down and spoke to the woman who filed the first sexual assault complaint. Her case went to a grand jury, which ultimately decided not to file any charges.

Following up on Jessica Brooks

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:26:00 +0000

I wrote a follow-up story in today's paper about Jessica Brooks, an 18-year-old local girl who suffered serious burns to more than half her body a couple weeks ago when she doused her hair in gasoline. She was trying to kill lice.

Brooks is now being treated at the University of Louisville hospital burn unit. After contacting relatives for a story when the accident first happened, I got in touch with Brooks' mother. She graciously agreed to allow me to drive out to Louisville for the follow-up.

After an interview with the mom (which you can see in this video), I got to go into the burn unit and see Brooks in person. She was completely immobilized and covered from the waist up in bandages. But it was incredibly emotional to be there and see the interaction between mom and daughter first-hand. Hopefully, it came across in the story.

Mutlimedia at Bowling Green

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:34:00 +0000

The photo at left is me speaking with a journalism class at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. The editor-in-chief of the Courier & Press graduated from there and, as part of a relationship between the paper and the school, I went there for a week speaking to classes.
For the most part, I talked about the multimedia aspects of my job: explaining how I report for the paper but also shoot video, edit audio, create PDFs and work with a Web-first mentality as much as possible.
The students seemed to really enjoy the presentation, which included the following examples of recent video work.

And Bowling Green is a great little town. They've got a charming Downtown with an old-fashioned dime store and a huge record store, among all sorts of other shops, coffee shops and restaurants. There's also a number of renowned pizza places - and I can report the two I tried lived up to their reputation.

I also had the pleasure of staying in the University president's guest house during my visit and got a write-up and photos in the department newsletter.

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:16:00 +0000

The Evansville Fire Department earlier this year acknowledged problems with its vehicle repair program and instituted a series of changes ranging from new reporting software to a new semiannual, independent inspection.

Those developments, though, came largely in response to the department's handling of repairs - fixing problems submitted by firefighters who work with equipment each day.

Following up on that story, I began an investigation into the department's routine maintenance program. The work - which includes all the normal maintenance you do for a car as well as tests of firefighting-specific equipment - is supposed to be done annually.

But after scouring a sizable stack of handwritten records detailing the maintenance history of all the department vehicles, I found that the work was often happening with much less frequency.

The resulting story ran on the front page of a recent Sunday edition. It's the first in a series of stories we plan on the fire department and some of the problems surrounding its vehicle maintenance program. Work on the next will begin this week.

In other news, I did some more video work when a major fire sparked at a horse stable in Henderson, the Kentucky city just across the river from Evansville. More than 25 horses were killed in the blaze, which quickly consumed the structure.

I shot the video with just my Flip camera and a monopod and then quickly edited it together using Moviemaker.

We're increasingly focusing on video across the newsroom - all reporters will be getting point-and-shoot cameras soon and I hope to receive a new camera capable of shooting widescreen HD video and some software with a little more editing options soon. One of my goals over the next year is to train additional staffers to be comfortable shooting and editing video from beginning to end.

Sort of in that vein, I recently had the pleasure of being the keynote speaker at High School Media Day at the University of Southern Indiana. I shared a presentation I put together called "Journalism in the 21st Century" in which I showed examples of all the multimedia and Web work we're doing and talked about how important it will be in the coming years.

Lastly, I've been hard at work updating and redesigning the clips section on this site. It now has PDFs of select stories - complete with text and design - as well as embedded videos, photos I've taken, links to databases I created and examples from college and internships. I'm still working out a few kinks and trying to make it look normal in all different browsers, but I think it's coming along nicely. Check it out.

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:51:00 +0000

I always look forward to election nights at the newspaper. It can be stressful, for sure, but it's a chance for everyone to come together, tackle a huge event and report big news as it happens.

This year was no different, though for the first time I didn't have a story to write. Instead, I was focused solely on video. A freelance videographer set up at Republican headquarters and I spent the night at Democratic headquarters - catching various sights and sounds on camera, filming an array of victory speeches and snagging interviews with politicians like reelected 8th District Rep. Brad Ellsworth and Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel.

The highlight of the evening, though, was when MSNBC projected Barack Obama had won the presidency. The entire room literally exploded in excitement and emotion. I immediately grabbed my camera and began recording as much of it as I could, which I then edited together in the video embedded above. I had to elbow my way through the crowd and past a couple photographers (not sure where they were from) to get the first shot, but it set the scene perfectly.

I didn't get back into the newsroom until after 11 p.m. and I ended up staying till 3:30 a.m. editing four videos, converting them to the right format, uploading them to the site and posting them in various stories they connected with.

All in all, I was really proud of the results. The Obama video was a good example of a news video story; the general overview was a good feature story with part of a musical performance edited over it; and the two interviews offered insight from pretty important local Democratic politicians.

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:07:00 +0000

An apartment in the complex around the corner from where I live caught fire early one morning this week, causing extensive damage and forcing residents out of all 16 units in the structure.

No one was injured, though local fire officials said that was fortunate considering there were no working smoke detectors in the entire building - common areas or individual apartments. I wrote a straight news story for the Web as soon as I got into the office and followed up with a visit to the complex.

I visited with quite a few residents, highlighting a few in a story for the print edition the next day highlighting the smoke detector problem and putting more of a human touch on the issue.

Among the angles I discovered while there, one woman who lost much of her possessions in the fire was being moved into a vacant apartment elsewhere in the complex. It, also, didn't have a smoke detector and was in generally horrendous shape - its bedroom windows had been broken out and boarded up. Glass was all over the floor still.

When the building commission inspector showed up at the complex, he promised they'd inspect the entire complex for code violations in the near future. I told him about the woman moving into the beat-up apartment without a smoke detector and, on the record, asked if he would inspect it right then and there.

He agreed and within the hour, the inspector was telling the apartment manager a smoke detector had to be installed and the windows needed to be replaced that day.

That was gratifying, but I'm confident there's a lot more apartments in the complex with numerous code violations, lack of smoke detectors included. Follow-up stories are planned.

That's been my biggest story so far in a busy week. Other notable pieces were a video about a local jewelry store break-in, a story on a construction project that will cause major problems in Evansville for the next year and a story on two kids who beat up a man when he refused to give them cigarettes.

I started my week stopping by the Evansville Islamic Center's annual Food Fest. I wrote a quick story and got to enjoy a selection of some excellent Mideastern cuisine (pictured): tandoori chicken, tabbouleh, pakora and a spiced potato wedge that was quite tasty.

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:10:00 +0000

I started my Sunday shift extra early this week to cover the Evansville Half Marathon, a 13.1 mile race through Evansville that grows bigger and bigger each year.

If writing only for the paper, I probably would have slept in past the 7 a.m. start time and caught up with the winner and others as they made their way to the finish line later that morning. But knowing it had all the elements for a good video, I woke up early and made sure to be there to catch it from the very beginning.

The finished product is embedded above. I think it's one of the best videos I've made at the Courier. A few of us recently traveled to St. Louis for a workshop on multimedia journalism and I employed a number of techniques emphasized there in this effort. Among them, I shot a range of tight, medium and long shots, framed the interview subjects fairly consistently and correctly and let the action move through the frame, instead of the other way around.

The latter seems to be a common problem - there's a tendency among new videographers, myself included, to try and follow the action by panning and zooming. Unfortunately, when using a handheld, point-and-shoot camera the result is usually shaky and unprofessional.

(The first shot in this video is actually an exception, however. I wanted to capture the winner finishing the race, but needed to pan to do it. Otherwise, there was no way to capture his face while also effectively showing him crossing the finish line. I practiced it a few times, though, and used a monopod to steady it, so I think it worked out alright.)

The marathon video has gone on to be one of my most viewed pieces since the Courier started tracking video views. That's probably more a tribute to the interest in the marathon than the quality of the video, but I was still glad to see it was appreciated.

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:15:00 +0000

I wrote a story early this month about a former Vanderburgh County sheriff who returned to Evansville from Florida, where he retired more than a decade ago. Clarence Shepard, who served two terms as sheriff from 1983 to 1991, toured the new jail and department headquarters for the first time and visited current sheriff Eric Williams, who Shepard hired as a jailer in 1987.

I put together a quick, short story about the visit, took a couple photos of Shepard and figured that was the last I'd probably ever hear about him.

It turned out I was filing another story only a week later: Just days after returning to his home in Fort Myers, Fla., Shepard was arrested on accusations he molested a young girl. Williams, who had spoken glowingly of his mentor days earlier, was shocked by the news - as were several other local law enforcement members who called me asking if the news could be true.

I broke the story - all the local TV stations picked it up afterward, as did media in Florida who had reported the arrest, but not that Shepard was a former sheriff - thanks to tips from two different readers. I believe they were in Florida and looking for information about Shepard after his arrest when they came upon my story about his visit to Evansville the week before.

In any event, it made for a bizarre week of stories about a former sheriff who seemed to be generally well-respected by the people here who remember him. One day he was back in Evansville touring our jail and commenting about its amenities. A few days later, he was being booked into one in Florida.

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:04:00 +0000

One of the hospitals in Evansville - St. Mary's Medical Center - conducted a drill last week involving what might happen if a 7.0 earthquake struck Southeastern Illinois.

As far as the scenario went, that meant a lot of dead and injured people, two hospital elevators that crashed down their shafts and other structural damage to the facility, among a slew of other difficult problems.

In a bid to up the realism of the drill, volunteers portrayed earthquake victims - donning makeup to make them appear bloody, bruised and, for some characters, dead. The hospital staff had to retrieve the injured people from various parts of the center, bring them to the emergency room and prescribe the correct treatment.

I ended up spending several hours observing the operation, both to make the video shown above and the corresponding story. I was pleased with the final versions of both; the video in particular is one of the more complex ones I've made here.

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:31:00 +0000

Barack Obama stopped in Evansville Monday, making surprise visits to a local construction site and a labor union. I followed along with a large contingent of press people and made the above video, which thanks to new courierpress.com updates is embedded here. And you can see a photo of me covering Obama, taken by C&P photographer Erin McCracken, here. Enjoy!

The Eighth Wonder of the World

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 09:13:00 +0000

I finally made my way to West Baden, Ind., a small Indiana city located roughly between Bloomington and Evansville and home to a famed domed hotel once dubbed the eighth wonder of the world.

I had heard about the hotel before and seen numerous photos, but nothing really does it justice beyond stepping into its humongous atrium. Balconies from rooms from multiple levels open onto the huge open space, which is decorated with fancy furniture and - currently - a large, beautifully decorated Christmas tree. Originally built in the early 1900s and restored only recently to its full glory (as part of a resort that also includes a huge casino), the hotel seems like a tourist attraction torn from New York City or Paris. And when you consider it stands in the middle of Indiana as a palatial estate at the end of lengthy roads of nothing special from every direction, it's all the more impressive.

We wandered around for about an hour, perusing the atrium and the many rooms and hallways surrounding it. There's a number of stores and shops in the large, circular lobby, including a coffee bar that had some real good ice cream and a restaurant that looked well out of our price range.

After touring the hotel - and its gardens, which are also impressively decorated for the holidays - we made our way to the nearby casino. It wasn't nearly as nice and pretty much echoed my casino experience in Evansville: Instead of the exciting, fanciful atmosphere you expect, you find a smoky room filled with mostly older people pulling levers, wasting money and generally looking unhappy about the whole ordeal.

We only stayed a few minutes, though it was long enough for me to try my hand at a slot machine with the only dollar I'd brought with me. As luck would have it, a few similar-looking "Bar" signs lined up and I had won $5.

After taking the photo at right - which actually drew a small crowd of people who I guess thought I had won big since I was taking a photo with my winning slip - I promptly cashed out.

I did enjoy winning, although the highlight of the night was undoubtedly seeing the grand hotel. I'm sure I'll be back again if only to show more friends just how extravagant it really is - everyone in our party was, I think, more than a little stunned by its sheer size and extravagance.

Maybe I'll even stay there one day. But a quick scan of the room rates - particularly on a weekend in one of the balcony rooms - suggests I may have to win a few more games at the casino before I do.

Expanding video coverage

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:02:00 +0000

I've been doing a bunch more video lately - expanding from short pieces that accompany feature stories to videos from sit-down interviews and from the scene of breaking news. I'll hope to do a lot more of all kinds of those videos - as well as a new "man on the street" question and answer series we hope to start next week - in the near future.

Increasingly, it seems like video is becoming a bigger and bigger medium in newspapers. I'm hoping to stay up with the trend and have, in all the instances I can, replaced my digital recorder with my digital video camera. Even in the interviews where the footage doesn't turn out well enough to justify putting together a full fledged video, I'm still able to pull quotes out for the story and archive the files for future viewing. It's exciting to have the chance to do it and I'm eager to explore it further.

Posted above is one of my favorite videos of late: I went out at 4 a.m. on Black Friday to Best Buy and then a few other popular local shopping destinations. It meant rising mighty early, but I really enjoyed the assignment. It's sometimes refreshing to cover an event where people are friendly and truly excited/eager to get in the newspaper (or on its Web site). And the content - while in some respects a story we do year-in and year-out - was new and different in this form. The Herald Times in Bloomington and the Indy Star in Indianapolis each did similar Black Friday shopping videos, as did many other papers, I'm sure.

All of my videos are archived on courierpress.com, but I've also posted them on YouTube. There are updated links and embedded versions for all of them on my multimedia page.

Other than video, I was busy last week covering a local tragedy: Three high school kids were killed when their car hydroplaned on the Lloyd Expressway last Sunday. The wreck happened in the late afternoon of a day of solid rain - there were numerous other accidents, too, although none nearly as serious.

I've also been following the Liberty Dollar story, which has made headlines all across the world, including the Washington Post and the New York Times. Essentially, an Evansville-based company produces an "alternative, voluntary currency" called the Liberty Dollar, which is backed up absolutely by gold, silver and other precious metals. The company contends its money is inflation-proof, as opposed to the U.S. dollar, which it says is constantly depreciating because it is not backed up in gold or silver.

The debate between the company and the federal government reached a boiling point in early November when federal agents raided the Evansville offices and seized about a million dollars worth of metals. I wrote about that initial raid and later sat down with the company's founder, Bernard von NotHaus.

Things have been real busy at work lately. I prefer that tremendously to slow days, although it's made for some long hours here and there. I have vacation coming up at the end of the month, though, and will be going home to celebrate Christmas a few days late back in Maryland. It should be good to kick back and relax for awhile.

I'll be back in time, though, to see, of all things, a musical about Johnny Cash. I remember posting this brief about it coming to Evansville while wondering who would actually want to see such a thing (it seems in the same vein as the Twyla Tharp dance musical about Bob Dylan, of which I had no interest whatsoever.)

But, last week while driving home, the radio station I had on in the car had a contest to call in for tickets. I'm not sure what compelled me to do so, but I did, and, lo and behold, I was caller number 10. It was a strange experience - I'm not a regular listener of any radio station, just a flipper of channels and avoider-of-commercials type. So when they excitedly asked me which station was sending me to see "Ring of Fire," I had to think back to the phone number I'd just struggled to dial (425-WOLF or something like that) and awkwardly offered "The Wolf?" I'm not sure what they would have done if I hadn't known, but luckily that was enough. I guess I'll see if it was worth it - although I'm not even entirely sure I can make the show.

Live from Bloomingtom

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 05:09:00 +0000

I've just returned from my fourth Bob Dylan concert - this one very conveniently held at Assembly Hall on IU's campus. Dylan used to come to the IU Auditorium here on a regular basis, but then ceased visiting for the five years I was on campus. Tonight, though, he returned, along with Elvis Costello and Amos Lee to kick off homecoming weekend.

All in all, it was an enjoyable show, although certainly not as much fun as being right up against the stage at Ripken Park in the pouring rain 2004. I bought tickets for me, Kelly and her friend Kelsey the very second they went on sale during the online presale, but somehow we weren't on the floor. The seats were still pretty good, though, and rather close - just off to the side rather than down in front.

It was the first show I saw where Dylan played guitar. He did so for the first few songs before switching to keyboards, which he had played exclusively at all the other concerts.

Dylan's voice was raspy as usual, but the performance seemed tight and intense, which it isn't always. The set-list leaned heavily on newer material, which disappointed Kelly, but it had a few classic songs mixed in too. The biggest highlight for me was the closing, where he played perhaps my favorite all-time Dylan song - and perhaps just song in general - Blowing in the Wind.

He also played two of my favorites from Modern Times - "Workingman's Blues No. 2" and "Spirit on the Water." The release date of that CD virtually coincided with my move to Evansville and, probably because I played it so much then, those songs always remind me of discovering Evansville for the first time and getting used to the idea of actually having a job.

He also played "My Back Pages," which I hadn't heard live before and "High Water," one of my favorites from Love and Theft.

I knew little about either of the openers, but they were both enjoyable. Amos Lee has a great voice and played a few songs that made me want to listen to him some more. I don't think I'd say the same about Elvis Costello necessarily, but he was a good showman, talked with the audience, encouraged them to sing back and seemed like a generally engaging, entertaining personality. He put on a good show.

I'll be in Bloomington for the next two days. IU football plays tomorrow (today?) at noon and, with a win, clinch the possibility of a bowl berth for the first time since 1993. They play Penn State and a win won't come easy, but I'm holding out hope. A victory would be a huge step for the program, not to mention a particularly exciting time to be in Bloomington.

Speaking of Bloomington, it sadly wasn't spelled correctly on a Bob Dylan poster sold at the event. I picked one up anyway - I have at each concert and it's a neat memento specific to the particular show you've seen - but the top, as you can see in the picture, says it took place in BloomingtoM. The man who sold it to me rather strangely advised me not to bend it or roll it or it would lose its value. I wanted to tell him it would probably be worth more if the name of the city was spelled correctly, but I thought better of it.

Fall Festival 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 16:54:00 +0000

I finally had the chance to really take in Evansville's Fall Festival as a spectator rather than a reporter. Last year, I was working nights and wrote quite a few stories about the festival - which is said to be the second-largest street fair in the country behind Mardi Gras - but never really got to enjoy it personally.

This year, my new day schedule afforded me a bit more time off during it, so Kelly came down and we spent an evening there. The event basically shuts down a four-block stretch of Franklin Street on the city's West Side. An adjoining park houses carnival games and rides while the street is lined by stages, more than 100 food booths, tables and lots of people.

Kelly and I sampled all sorts of delicacies - from, my favorite, a "walking taco" (pictured) to a potato injected with cooked alligator meat to Buckeyes, a chocolate-y peanut butter treat apparently popular in Ohio. Kelly ate a chocolate-covered cricket, but I declined that one.

We stayed several hours, saw a concert, played a few carnival games and generally took in the festive atmosphere. It's definitely an experience and amazing how many people attend - it literally seems to draw in all of Evansville and people from locales near and far.

On the reporter side, I visited the Fall Festival pretty much every day for one story or another. I did one about how the festival affects the local businesses it crams in front of and one By the Numbers column offering some perspective on the massive event. That assignment was the most fun, as I simply went down for a few hours at lunch time and searched for interesting numbers - pounds of ice used each day, tons of trash hauled off, number of tickets sold, etc. It turned into a neat, bold-looking front-page centerpiece with flashy design and lots of photos. The web version isn't nearly as compelling, but it gives you some, though not all, of the numbers.

Videos, New Harmony and football

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:25:00 +0000

My position at the Courier & Press changed a bit recently: Instead of working nights, I'm working days and, in addition to covering the police beat, I'm the primary Web reporter. The latter fits my interests nicely and involves posting breaking news directly to the Web site and developing as much extra content as possible.

As such, I've spent the past few weeks fiddling with video. I produced the videos on the left completely from scratch - I went out, shot interviews and other footage, transferred it to my computer, edited it with Windows Movie Maker and then coded it into flash for the Web site. I hope to do a lot more of it in the future.

Evansville's West Side Fall Festival is about to start, which is one of the city's most famous events and is said to be the country's second largest street festival second only to Mardi Gras. Between writing stories on it and shooting videos, I expect I'll be there for some time these next few days.

In other news, I recently had the pleasure of traveling to New Harmony, Ind. for the first time. It's about 30 minutes west of Evansville, right along the Wabash River between Indiana and Illinois. I went there for a story about a 77-year-old bridge and major local thoroughfare that was being shut down over structural concerns. I spent a couple hours wandering around downtown New Harmony talking to residents and shop-owners about the closure and thoroughly enjoyed being there. There are no chain stores/restaurants whatsoever, the people were all incredibly friendly and the whole place feels almost like stepping back in time a few decades with its old-fashioned, easy-going atmosphere. I hope to return.

Amazingly, IU football is 4-1 and the Redskins are 2-1, although my fantasy teams are faring far worse. I'm particularly looking forward to going to Bloomington for homecoming - in addition to seeing IU play, Bob Dylan will perform at Assembly Hall the night before. It will be my fourth Dylan concert, but first at IU. He came there pretty much every year for some time right up until I went to school there and then never returned until now.

Changes abound

noreply@blogger.com (Gavin) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:37:00 +0000

Welcome to the new, slightly redesigned IGAVIN.com. You can access the old blog here, but new updates will come on this page.

The redesign is ongoing, so some links may be broken for the near future. Check back for new updates.

That's a picture of me with an Irish Wolfhound at the Indianapolis Irish Festival. Kelly, Zennie and I went last weekend. Sadly, the Celtic Canine tent was among the most interesting - and certainly least expensive - things there, although we did get to hear a bit of good music, meet some native Irish wildlife and sample some authentic corn-beef sandwiches.