Blogging

I've taken a hiatus from the blogosphere, and supplemented it with the wonderful world of social media.

Follow me on Tumblr.

Instagram: srcrumley.

Currently I'm working on a video project that takes up a majority of my time and I've been hanging out in New York a lot.

Check out some of my concert photos in Brooklyn Vegan.

In the meantime, I have a whole bunch of new New York stuff on my website, in the next few days I'll even be adding *gasp* video. VIDEO?? REALLY?!? I just finished my first commercial video two months ago, I've been working as a second video shooter in NY, and well, the project in Boston is also primarily video-oriented.

Anyways.

Sorry for the brevity.

Boston Barbeque Cat

July 2011-

Well, finally, summer is here. Finally.

Summer equals...

BBQS!

Bike rides!

Friends!!

Jared combined all of those together for a BBQ themed alleycat, benefiting the Boston Bicycle Messenger Associations.

I was working at Superb that day but fortunately we were also a Checkpoint...BONUS!!

In between customers I was able to duck out to grab a few shots:






Pickle slaps were exchanged for pogs. As were solo cups filled to the brim with pickle juice.

As an anti-pickle person, I shuddered at the thought. I feel like that's a viable response, seeing as pickle juice is essentially dill and garlic seasoned vinegar.

Yikes.

Joyous New England Tragedy

June 2011-


So. It's been four years since Tragedy played New England. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see them at Maryland Death Fest this year so when we discovered they were playing in Providence, a mere hour away from Boston, the answer was a hands down, emphatic HECK YES.

Not to mention, we got to visit two fabulous vegan nibble joints: Garden Grill Cafe and Wildflour Bakery.

In all of the excitement of vegan treats, I did not have half a mind to snap some photographs of this amazing food.

Naturally, we went for dessert before dinner.

I had the pleasure of chatting with one of the managers/owners who used to work at City Feed in Jamaica Plain. Super knowledgable about coffee and tea, it was great to get to hear about some other eastern roasters. Thanks for letting me geek out about coffee for a little bit!

The bakery works to be as local and organic as possible, while maintaining an amazing variety of both raw and baked vegan goodies.

We snagged a slice of coconut raspberry and lemon ginger cake, along with a variety of bakery delights (cinnamon buns, lemon poppyseed muffin, a variety of savory scones, coffee cake..yes..I know..that's a lot of sugar) and WERE BLOWN AWAY.

Great job guys! Glad to see a totally vegan bakery in our general vicinity! A Boston location in the future would be really lucrative...hint hint hint.

Garden Grille is always a fabulous experience. Eggplant stuffed with tofu cheese served over grilled polenta in a marina sauce? Uhm..is this even REAL?!

Needless to say...we left satiated, satisfied and swaggering to the show.

The show was at Industry, (ex Jerky's Bar). While there weren't a significant amount of people there, the age spectrum was pretty notable- from people barely (if even) twenty-one to old guys louging on the couches lining the walls, it was really awesome to see that variety braved it to Providence.

We ended up getting vegan ice cream milk shakes (yes, after all of the aforementioned food. I'm not joking.) and made it just in time for Tragedy.














There were several awesome photographs of the crowd, but apparently through the musical compact flash cards I've been playing at the shop and at home some of these photographs got lost in translation. So I hope this will suffice.

Vegan Haters Gonna Hate But...

May 2011-

Just throwing it out there: vegan treats sans dairy doesn't mean sans excellence in the baking realm.

Last night boyfriend made (and I came through with the cleaning/carrot grading assist) the best carrot cake I've ever tasted, vegan or otherwise.



Boom. Chicka. Boom.

Taste tested even by the omnivores at our shop today--this delight past with flying reverent colors.





Classic Vegan Carrot Cake

yields 2 8×8″ cakes (or 2 9″ round cakes)

2 1/3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt

6 tbsp flax seed meal
3/4 c warm water
1½ c sugar
1 c oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 c shredded carrots
1 c walnuts, chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz vegan cream cheese
¼ c margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350º. Line two 8×8″ pans with parchment paper. In a small bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour through salt). In a large bowl, whisk together flax seed meal and water. Beat in sugar and oil. Add vanilla and carrots and mix until combined. Add dry mix and stir until moistened. Fold in walnuts. Pour equal parts into pans. Bake for 18-20 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 minutes.

For the frosting, beat together cream cheese and margarine. Add vanilla and powdered sugar; whip until smooth. (Don’t overbeat; in my experience, store-bought vegan cream cheese has a tendency to get runny.)

Use a knife to loosen edges of cake from pans. Using parchment paper, lift cakes out of pans. Carefully remove parchment paper from one cake. Frost cake, layer, and decorate with a marzipan carrot (brush a little cocoa powder into the indents for some realism). Serve chilled.

Thanks to Hell Yeah It's Vegan for making my Sunday night a tasty one.

Superb

May 2011-

So I've been working at Superb for about a month now, and it's been pretty awesome. Beautiful bikes, components and people to take pictures of.

Here's just a brief medley of some of my favorite shots:



Justin, a custom build customer/shop friend waiting patiently in our mechanic shop for his bike.



Pake frame lineup for 2011. Pakes a plenty!



Beautiful authentic Italian Bianchi Road bike I had the pleasure of shooting. I'm both grateful/bummed that it's not three cm's smaller. (My bank account is praying with thanks to the steel Bianchi gods of fate.)


Shop manager Jason Hollingsworth teaching a basic math lesson. Yeah, we're a well rounded bunch.


Ryffrank catching some rays through our shop window.


More coming later.

Late Night Train Adventures

May 2011

Last week a few friends and I decided to have a late night adventure. And for a bunch of 22-year-olds, adventures mean exploring, and under the cover of night, that means the taboo rules all: train yards.



Entry. Woops.



The Christkicker backpatch--a cycling group in the Boston area.



Walking the tracks. Sorry Mom and Dad.





Caboose entry.



I have a tendency to catch people mid sentence.




A fallen soldier, fatality of the train yard.

These times, they are a-changing.

March 2011-

Geez louise! I've been off the pixel map for awhile.

As of two weeks ago, I officially quit my college job of slinging coffee to working at Superb. I'll be getting my blog on over there with frequency so click it often for updates on new fabulous bike products, bike events and dance party extravaganzas.

Also, boyfriend ended his 8 year no pet hiatus and got a dog, which by proxy means that I sort of have a dog now. Sweet.



O hai.



...still is inconceivable how someone could actually abuse this little critter.


His name is Danzig. He is the man. If you don't know where that comes from do us both a favor, save mutual embarrassment and frustration and just google the name. You know where it comes from. I promise.


Up next: pictures from a myriad of shows, WRITE UP OF THE HEART OV STEEL COMPETITION.

Dark Horse Climbing Competition

February 2011--

Last month MetroRock Climbing gym of Everett, MA hosted the Dark Horse Climbing Series. The competition brought professional climbers from as far as San Francisco to flex their bouldering muscles.

I wish I had documented the transition of the orderly, composed and clean house of my boyfriend to a climber hostel, decorated with backpacks and travelling gear with the occasional set of chalk bag and set of climbing shoes. I think it took more than three or four sweep and mop jobs to clean up the residue of loved crash pads and people.



Pro climbers Max Zolotukhin and Natasha Barnes resting after finishing their sets after Natasha's upper lip got into a fight with the bouldering wall.



Third place Men's Pro Brian Kim getting burly.



Third place Tiffany Hensley sports her signature unorthodox attire in her finals round. Hensley ended up third.

ANNNDD THE FIRST PLACERS!



Pro Francesca Metcalf in first for women's.



Daniel Woods stepping up to his final problem at the Dark Horse Series Comp.

This month I will be fortunate to attend Boston Rock Gym's Heart of Steel competition.

If you think Dark Horse is cool, check out VIDEO INSTALLMENT NUMBER ONE of this bad boy:

HEART OV ZTEEL • Pt1: Missing from Louder Than 11 on Vimeo.

Savage. Brutality. In the best way possible.

NEW WEBSITE NEW WEBSITE NEW WEBSITE

So I've been working off the old website that I created senior for awhile. An incredibly outdated, PJ-istic website that really doesn't emulate the extent of the work I've been doing lately.


Over the past month I've been working on something and one of my clients asked me about my website so I decided that I'd finally suck it up and finish it. I'm still not totally satisfied but it surely showcases some different things I've been working on. So here we go: MY NEW WEBSITE...for the time being.


CHECK. IT. OUT.

Thanks for looking! Stay tuned!

Proxy Puppies, Purses and People

January 2011--

After more than a year at Simmon's College, Proxy says goodbye to its origins and heads to the wonderful world of Somerville to a new office space conveniently located in Union Square. We share the same roof with an eclectic talents from a guitar builder to Groundworks Somerville. So far we are digging the new space and have even set up a nifty little product studio that I will detail in later posts!

Last Sunday we had our official office warming party/sample sale, and introduced everyone to the newest member of our team:




BESO!!

There was a wonderful turnout of new and old faces to see some Winter favorites and a few sneak previews into our Spring items.




Purchasing the holiday dress!



Awesome new bags made ENITIRELY OUT OF RECYCLABLE MATERIALS.





Beso's best friend was also in attendance.



One of our Lasell models stopped to give Beso a few scratches of encouragement between talking it up with our guests.

Missed out? Not a problem. Monday, February 7 fashionista Naomi Mirando and Proxy will be taking Mission Hill's Savant Project by storm with Fashion with a Conscience:



Hope to see you there!!

January Dance Party Extravaganza!

January 2011--

Whew. This month has been a busy one for the GOOD boys, despite the New England's mandated weekly blizzard. Here are some of the more interesting photographs I've taken over the past month from the dance parties, hope you enjoy them.

GOOD:





Here are the highlights from Substance, the Zuzu dance party gig:



Joe's new ink!



New faces ripping it up on the Substance dance floors.




DANCE DANCE DANCE




Close friends, close tattoos!!!

Yoga Hot Spot-- Stil Yoga Studios

January 2011--

I've been working with Doreen of Plank Designs the past few months.

This past week we went to one of her vendors, Stil Studios in Dedham, MA to do a catalogue shoot and sit in on a class.



Doreen in lotus before the class.



Feet!







Relaxing after the class.


I immediately fell in love with the studio. A boutique adorned with tasteful jewelry, yoga accessories preceeds a large rustic barn door opening to a yoga studio.


Yoga teacher Betty shuts the door before class.

The studio teaches about 5ish classes per day, with a variety of instructors with a variety of yoga disciplinary backgrounds.

It's MBTA accessable, and drops you off literally a hop skip and a jump away from your destination. And if you've got time to kill, it's conveniently located in a shopping center with a myriad of clothing and accessories stores. Seriously...you'll want to parooze AT LEAST one of them; being void of any window shopping desire is actually impossible.

Knifey Spoony, Now Denial Breaking in an Allston New Year

January 1, 2011-

The first night of the New Year I celebrated the turn of the times seeing Allston's Now Denial and San Francisco's Knifey Spoony at Obrien's. Amazing crowd, amazing bands, if you're in the market for some new ear candy I suggest checking both of them out. Now Denial frequents the Boston venue scene so you'll have plenty of opportunities to check them out live!



Stevo from Knifey Spoony




Knifey Spoony



More Stevo




Joe from Now Denial



Now Denial



Now Denial




More Joe.

This was show number one of using the 50 mm f 1.4 WITHOUT FLASH FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. Not gonna lie, I kinda dig how the focal length and aperture infuse a sense of intimacy into these low fi sets. Looking forward to how I fare in more low light settings!