arizona wedding photography ~ brenda eden photography

{Joseph's Birthday at the Phoenix Center for the Arts}

My friend Heather threw a most amazing birthday for her husband Joseph.

Months and months before the event, she told us about her plans: she was going to fill the Phoenix Center for the Arts with all Joseph's friends, family, and co-workers and people from the community to surprise him for his 40th birthday. There were a couple times when Joseph might have found out, but her plan worked. The night of Joseph's birthday so many people came from all over to celebrate him and he was totally surprised. Joseph is the director (hope that is the right title) for the Phoenix Center for the Arts and so it was very cool to see the theatre filled just for him. Friends and family got up and talked about Joseph, there was a film of images of Joseph's life, a film about the Center, music, spoken word poetry, and the ladies pictured in the first image danced to Michael Jackson's Thriller and Joseph joined them onstage at the end.

If you ever meet Heather, ask her about the story of how she and Joseph ended up together. It's a really cool storybook type of story!

Click HERE to see the images or copy/paste this link

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/av0ddrbc0iodrjf/6BMB1IpbKW/JosephBenesh%20Birthday

And then you can copy/paste your images to your computer.

Heather and her kiddos:

Okay! So as I uploading these photos I am listening to Thriller. So lemme link to the video so you can listen to the song while you look at these images! 

Joseph breakdancing. I am truly impressed.

 From the video for the Center:

After the films and dance and presentation, we walked over from the Theatre to the back of the Phoenix Center for the Art's courtyard for cake and music. And I took photobooth style photos.

Palm trees and downtown city lights. Swoon!

Heather, you are a beauty.

One of Joseph's birthday presents? A bow tie!

Actors and dancers are so much fun to do photobooth style photos of. It doesn't take much direction to get them to pose and be silly. Good job, you guys!

These three were amaaaazing at silly poses. 

Joseph's family.

Heather and Joseph, you guys rock and I am so very, very, very glad to know you.

You guys are both so creative and kind and warm and generous and entertaining and just so downright sweet. 

{Parking Day 2011}

When I was a kid getting endlessly dragged around places like Price Club and football games and tailgate parties and the grocery store, I would think about how, if I had to, I could make parts of the places where I was at into a living space in the case of some catastrophic event like war or fires or flood or alien invasion. I would look around at what was available and think about what I would use for furniture and bedding and think about just how I would reorder the space into a living space. I also thought a lot about what I would do if I got marooned on a desert island. I remember putting things in my backpack that would be handy in case of an emergency if I ever got stranded in some remote place. 

I don't know if it was because of the books I read, or because we went camping a lot, or because my neighborhood friends and I would build forts all the time from blankets and chairs and other found materials....I'm pretty sure I thought about this sort of thing  A LOT, because I can still go into stores in Tempe that I got taken to as a kid and I will involuntarily remember exactly what my plans for the space were. 

So I love the idea of Parking Day. Summed up really quickly, I think it's just a day to think differently about how we use space. We have given so much space over to cars in our country, but of course there are other ways to get around and we really need to think about those other methods. Trains, biking, walking!

Parking Day 2012 is this coming Friday, September, 21st.

Here is your invitation:

Click here or copy/paste

http://www.facebook.com/events/262908967163236/

Here are images from Parking Day 2011, across the street from City Hall in Phoenix.

If you are in these photos, please copy and keep them and link to me if you use them online.

David brought cupcakes. I remember I got one, but then ended up giving it to someone and never got to taste it. :(

Courtney's park was inspired by Willy Wonka.

I've been dreaming up what kind of Parking Day space I would create for Parking Day 2012.. Hmmmm....I have this really cool looking yellow and white, vintage-y lounge chair and I have lots and lots of sidewalk chalk - which could both come be good for Parking Day.

If I can, I am going to make a space, but if I don't have time, I am definitely going to visit other people's spaces.