Tsunami Relief for Robinson Crusoe Island from Más a Tierra on Vimeo.

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit central Chile today creating a tsunami in its wake. The closest group of islands is the Juan Fernandez archipelago 700 kilometers off the coast of Santiago. Robinson Crusoe Island is the primarily inhabited island there and was hit by the tsunami probably only minutes after the earthquake. I spent 10 days there in Spring 2006 as part of a multimedia documentary project with UNC. I was the Director of Photography and shot the story A Lifelong Harvest. Friend and colleague, Andrea Ballocchi Coudeu has sent emails to those we know on the island but we have not had any luck reaching anyone yet. There is also a gallery of pictures from Isla Robinson Crusoe up on my website. Let’s hope everyone there is ok.

The New York Times has a weekly cycling blog called Spokes. One of the primary writers and colleague of mine J. David Goodman has a post today about depcitions of cycling in films. MASH broke new ground with the release of their film a few years ago and with notables like Macaframa, Empire, Bootleg Sessions, The Revival and others we are sure to see more and more beatiful HD films of cycling in our cities. Check out the Spokes post here. Prolly already has a post up as well, you can’t beat that guy.

We thought we were dong fine when we made it to the airport early this morning and on the plane pretty smoothly. At the last minute they pulled us off the plane because the pilot was too tired. I shit you not. So hopefully we’ll make it to NC before Xmas is over.

Sharon Gekoski-Kimmel/Philly.com

Cyclists in Philadelphia have been feeling the heat heavy in recent weeks. In October two pedestrians were hit and killed by cyclists in Philadelphia within the span of a week. As you might imagine there’s been some backlash against cyclists, not only from the public but from the law. Philadelphia police began heavily ticketing cyclists not obeying traffic laws. And some of the backlash has been specifically aimed toward “brakeless” fixed-gear cyclists opening up yet again the debate over mandatory brakes on bikes and what actually is the definition of a brake. Yesterday dozens of messengers and cyclists gathered at LOVE Park to counteract the “anti-cycling” mood that they feel has been bubbling up over recent weeks. It will be interesting to see how things play out in Philly and what ramifications if any it will have on New York’s relationship with cyclists. Until then we can all only dream of riding on Copenhagen’s bicycle superhighways. [via Spokes, Philly.com]

I knew this Thanksgiving was going to be a special one but I wasn’t quite prepared for the way it turned out. This year is my son Julian’s first Thanksgiving; he’s 10 months old.

A couple days ago he came with a cough then the night before last he spiked a fever of 102.1. His temperament didn’t change much besides wanting to sleep more than normal. We gave him Tylenol and Motrin to control the fever and planned on letting it run it’s course.

Last night everything changed when around 9:30 p.m. he woke up screaming. Now my wife Jenn and I were very diligent early in training him how to sleep on his own. He always goes down awake on his own when he’s ready and sleeps soundly until he’s ready to get up. So as soon as we heard the screaming start we knew something was wrong. We rushed up to his room and I pulled him out of the crib. By this time he was already hysterical but it seemed as though he was still in sleep. He was screaming and gasping for air but he wouldn’t actually wake up. We continued trying to wake him up for what seemed like many minutes while the gasping for air worsened. With a trembling voice and tears in my eyes I immediately called 911 and they showed up about 10 minutes later.

After several more minutes he finally woke up and calmed down but occasionally the gasping returned. We rode in the back of the ambulance to the ER where we spent the next several hours taking turns holding our child and reflecting on what had just happened. The doctors said his lungs sounded fine but he did test positive for Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

The thing I was most puzzled about was why it was so hard to wake Julian up. It was like he was having a very extreme nightmare. Whether it was a nightmare, blockage due to mucus or a combination of both, our first Thanksgiving together as a family will not easily be forgotten.

Despite making a scary trip to the ER, I found myself feeling extremely thankful for just how healthy our child is. This is the first time he’s ever been sick and even though it sucks its pretty much just a normal cold.

So here’s to family.