I had a great time, it was good to catch up after so long! Thanks for everyone who pitched in to buy some birthday drinks. Cal, you get to pick the date of the January meet up!
Barret the "Birthday Boy" will pick the date for the January Meet-Up and also the February Meet-Up because in February we will have the SECOND ANNUAL M-BODY BEAUTY PAGENT which he will be judging.
Since Barret is the MC and judge of the pagent, it is in the "Best Interest" of pagent participants to attend the January Meet-Up to gain favor, garner influence, and bribe the judge with alcohol and food. In the first event, Barret did a great job of enciting audience participation and things got rather rowdy. I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes, because Damaso got aggressive over a vintage issue of Leica Fotographia International that featured the Leica M6.
Since I own a JUKI comercial sewing machine and since I am studying men'swear at FIT, at the Second A M-Body Beauty Pagent the Grand Prize will be a custom made camera bag co-designed with the winner.
Here are the rules: Leica M-Bodies only. Initial first round of judging will be based on one camera with one lens, but an unlimited amount of accesssories is allowed and encouaged, but finalists will be judged by a single body two lens kit. The Grand Prize will be a custom made camera bag for the winning kit. The winner will purchase/supply the raw materials for construction and will help design the custom bag. Estimated time of delivery of the prize since I'm a lazy slacker/artist is sometime before the Third Annual Leica M-Body Beauty Pagent sometime in February 2013.
To be fair, Carl is excluded from participation because he is a famous collector and owns a "Ringer." If Carl brings the "Brass Monkey" (The Brass Monkey is a black paint M2 with Leica winder that has about half its paint worn off through use, not abuse.), I will make a custom bag for Carl, but Carl will have to supply all the raw materials.
I will wear to the January Meet-Up a tailored dress shirt that I made as an example of my sewing skills, and I will also bring a working prototype bag that I made for myself to work out possibilities and ideas that remains an incomplete work in progress.
Cal