Field Day

In celebration of my good friend Ethan's golden birthday, a crowd of us assembled in Roxbury Park in Los Angeles for a "Field Day," a day of competitive events including the gunny sack race, the three-legged dash, the wheelbarrow run, the hula hoop challenge, the water balloon toss, and the egg relay. I was doomed and defeated when it came to the hula hoop and a little over confident when it came to the wheelbarrow run. My memories of consistently being regulated to the "B" team in elementary school quickly faded upon eating Yirko and Cathy's amazing homemade red velvet cake and finding an 'N Sync magnet in the pinata.

I decided to shoot some film of the events and chose kodachrome film in honor of the era that this celebration was evoking. This was my first time shooting on my own, and although I was challenged with a broken light meter and a bit of rain, I was very excited about the endeavor. When the time came to process the film, to my amazement I discovered that only one lab in the U.S. now processes kodachrome. This discontinued film stock, much like the whole notion of a field day, risks being forgotten entirely one of these days.

So I have made a few promises to myself since Field Day. One, I really need to work on the hula hoop in private before I ever attempt that in public again. Two, 10 push-ups a day should qualify me as the next wheelbarrow run champion. And three, I need to figure out a way to cheat when it come to the water balloon toss.

Thanks PJ for the music and titling.