In Sight

Photos/Chris Preovolos

ABOVE: From left, Kevin Gallagher, of Stamford, center, and other Santas head from the Brick House Bar & Grille to Tigin Irish Pub and Restaurant during the 2008 Stamford Santa Pub Crawl on Saturday. The costumed revelers drank at several downtown Stamford bars, ending a Tiernans Pub and Restaurant on Saturday night as part of the crawl that was organized and promoted on the internet.
BELOW: Matt Zielinski, of New Rochelle, N.Y., left, and Paul Bergagnin, of Stamford, right, talk over a pint at Tigin.

I was driving east on Broad St. today and a snow-covered Saab with four adults in full Santa costumes pulled up next to me at the red light at Greyrock Place. I reached for my Canon G10 point and shoot, which happened to be on the passenger’s seat. The battery was dead.

Eventually, after heading back home I was able to figure out this was part of a downtown Stamford Santa pub crawl. I decided this must be documented and I caught up with them in front of Brick House Bar & Grille.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Does he come to your work dressed like Santa and mess with you? Leave the man alone, he was work to do!”

–CP

Kathleen O’Rourke/The Advocate

Elizabeth Ast, 11, takes a seat as students in The Ballet School of Stamford prepare for their student performance at the Leonhardt Studio in the Rich Forum.

Chris Preovolos/The Advocate

During a talk at Darien High School, Bob Schieffer, a legendary broadcast journalist and host of Face the Nation, leans in for a question about the future of journalism from the concerned father of a young reporter.

His answer was refreshingly upbeat in a general sense, though he did mention something about newspapers being devastated.  Still, I came away from this not wanting to bang my head into the wall…which is pretty much how I have been feeling lately.

Long story short: I can forgo the boilermaker I had earlier predicted needing after work today. Well, at least the shot.

–CP

Kathleen O’Rourke/Staff photo

Brian VanOrsdel rappels 22 stories down the Landmark Square building during a test run Friday morning for Sunday’s “Heights and Lights” event in downtown Stamford.  VanOrsdel will be playing Santa at the event which begins at 4:30pm.

A man assisting with the test run takes a donut and coffee break in the early morning light atop Landmark Square.

Here’s another one of those early morning, beautiful light, assignments that I hate getting up for but love the results.  Although this particular event always makes me nervous because of the risk factor.  Whenever I’m told that I must harness in and sign a release before doing my job, I get a bit fearful.  But just hold on tight to my camera and don’t look down.  That reminds me of the time I was a rookie photo assistant and dropped a Hasselblad lens from three floors up at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.  Funny, I never worked for that guy again.