Published at last!

Forbidden love, originally uploaded by ZERO CEM.

I remember a couple of weeks ago I was contacted about giving some of my photos from the dress rehearsal of "Don Carlo" a performance of "Opera in the Heights" and I agreed hoping to be published at least electronically.

This past Monday and Tuesday, the dress rehearsals for the new performance from Opera in the Heights (The Pearl Fishers) took place, and one of my photos has already made it into a review of the Opera!

That reminded me of the photos I've sent for the soprano singer from Don Carlo (Emily Newton) so I went to her page and sure enough there are three of my photos published in her gallery along with the corresponding attributions so I couldn't be happier (well, probably I could be if I had made some money out of this but, this is happy enough for an amateur =D).

By the way, the opera "Pearl fishers" was really good. The opera by Georges Bizet, the great performances by the singers and the bright colors from the stage and the costumes all work together to make it a great season closer for Opera in the Heights.

If you are in Houston (or can get here before April 3rd) and like Opera -or at least are curious enough to try it for the first time- I would really recommend going to this show.

More information on tickets and performance times can be obtained at the Opera in the Heights website.

Just in case you missed the links above, here are the links to the pages I have photos published (they say if you're going to do flagrant self promotion you should do it right):

• Review
• Gallery

Historic Houston Majesticity

Majesticity, originally uploaded by ZERO CEM.

The Majestic Metro. Currently, it's a venue for weddings, parties and corporate events; but long ago it was a silver screen era theater (and I believe it's the only one of it's kind still standing in Houston).

I was "on assignment" on downtown Houston exploring Main St (when I say "on assignment", I mean trying to get pics for one of my favorite flickr groups, Assignment Houston), when on my way back to the car I stopped at the Majestic and started shooting some pics. That's when the manager stepped out.

At first, I thought I was going to get the "sorry sir, no pictures please" but to my surprise he was a very nice person and actually allowed us to go inside to know the place and let us know some of the history of the place.

Unfortunately for me, I'm still working on my people skills... and I was too shy to ask for permission to take some pics of the inside (not to mention I was worried they wouldn't come out anyway because of the low light) so I know I miss a chance there, but is just one of those things I'll need to work on.

Still the outside was nice and I got a nice story out of it so all in all it was a good experience. I was going to elaborate on the history of the place but Cinema Houston has a very comprehensive history so I've better point you that way in case you're interested.