U.S.S. North Carolina
OK, So It Has Been A Year
And change… my bad. I’ve been a bit… busy!
Please allow me to make it up to you. I’ve got photos aplenty and I’m grinding on all the ones that will be shared, but to atone for my sins, please allow me to indulge and share with you a drink I just invented yesterday. I’m calling it Apple Rye until I think of a new name.
You need fresh apples and apple cider to make it happen. Ingredients also needed: rye whiskey (use the brand and variety you believe in), maraschino liqueur, orange bitters, & pecan bitters.
Take an apple, slice it.
Put in a mug, add 4 parts rye.
Let the apple slices soak in the rye for at least an hour.
Put the apple slices in serving glasses (preferably something wide and deep and cylindrical.)
Pour the soaked rye into a cocktail shaker.
Put a modest amount of ice (not too much; you will be pouring the ice out into the drinks) into the shaker.
Pour 1/2 part maraschino liqueur into the shaker
Two dashes of orange bitters into the shaker
Two dashes of the pecan bitters into the shaker
Shake
Pour 4 parts cider into the shaker
Shake again
Pour out the drink evenly into the glasses. Make sure to distribute the ice/foam at the bottom evenly to your guests. You shouldn’t have too much ice, and the foam is the best part and you really should share it.
Use this recipe for good, and not evil.
Oh, and behold a North Carolina beach after a glancing blow from Tropical Storm Hermine last month. I’ll be back soon.
One more from the Pier House
Going to step away from the Courtmacsherry pictures (for now) but wanted to share one last photo, taken from outside John Young’s famous Pier House.
I like this photo because, if you look at it right, you can smell the tide.
Asheville
Took this HDR about a year ago, but only recently got around to combining. This photo was taken from off the patio at the Biltmore estate. 
Absence
Now that I’m a few posts in, I sense there a dearth of images of people.
We’ll have to correct that in due time.
Confluence
This image was taken where the Crabtree Creek flows into the Neuse River (the Crabtree is on the right, 35.766°,-78.539°)
Given the last post’s brevity, perhaps I should expand a little on this post.
This is the second HDR I have ever processed. In the first HDR I processed (last week’s view of Raleigh) your humble host used a workflow that can be best summarized as chaos, wrapped in disorder, nested in ignorance.
This image of confluence (hopefully) represents an improvement, and that improvement (or hope therein) is this blog’s raison d’etre.
Chapter 2
Exhale
Inaugural Post!!!
Greetings!
Welcome to the first blog post of bobspaziano.com.
Please allow me to introduce myself and the purpose of this blog. My name is Bob Spaziano. I have a variety of interests that span the spectrum of expression (more on that as they unfold.)
Recently (and for numerous, boring, reasons) I have grown frustrated with the limitations and realities of social media. At the same time, I still have plenty of things to share with the world
through the internet.
This blog represents an opportunity and attempt to share and connect with the world, without our identity becoming commodified and aggregated. Ultimately, it is my name on the website; we will swap the frantic pace of social media for a more authentic exhale. My goal is walk the fine line between expression and narcissism, and keep it real.
As for the format of this blog, we’re going to go for some images and a little commentary. This will continue to evolve, and future posts will undoubtedly be less verbose. In the mean time, please feel free to voice any critiques or opinions you may have.
Without further ado, about this first image.
This is a photo of my home-town, Raleigh. It is taken from the Boylan St bridge (35.77°,-78.65°), shortly after a winter sunset.
Locals have seen images taken from this vantage point, ad nauseum. (Most recently, a similar image appeared on the Google Fiber Triangle announcement. If you’ve seen an image of Raleigh, most likely it looks like this one.)
I’ve chosen this image for our inaugural post for a variety of reasons. First, it represents my first foray into true high-dynamic-range processing (and I’m learning!)
More importantly, the tracks below represent to me the diverging paths and choices we all face.
To the left, the metropolises of the eastern seaboard. To the right, the shimmer wall and ultimately the coast.
Which route would you pick?