James "monotone" Augustine

So here's a photo from one of my assignments the other day. The photo is of James Augustine laughing at a question from an elementary student after reading a book to them. I"m just surprised the kids stayed awake for the length of the story. Augustine was more monotone than a robotic voice from your computer.

Don't get me wrong, he's a hell of a guy. Really nice and respectful. It was just nice for him to actually show up, unlike Dee Brown who yo can obviously see from the picture is not there. I almost feel bad for James. The goddamned parents were worst than the kids when he showed up.

One lady almost tripped him because she wanted to compare her size to his monstrous 6' 10" build. She snuck up behind while he was talking to someone else without even asking him and stood back to back with him. He backed up and stumbled a bit. The look he rigtfully gave her was like "who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing."

Now I say I almost feel bad for him because as I'm sure his celebrity stardom is burdensome I realize his first paycheck will be more than I'll see in several years as a photographer. So I guess if his arm cramps from signing a few hundred autographs at a time it's worth the millions he'll make. At least his back won't kill him when he gets home because he's been lugging around 2-3 pound Nikon cameras, a bag containing a 3 or 4 pound 80-200 mm lens, and two other bags containing a dyna-lite system in each othem probably each weighing over 5 pounds.

I must say I love little children. They kind of put people like James in their place. Especially when they ask what sport he play, or when they ask what team he plays for and my ultimate favorite, "Who won the Final Four last year?" Absolutely classic moment. James grinds his teeth and finally answered the young kid with North Carolina.

I also got to go up on the grid today in Assembly Hall. We've been having problems with a strobe so me and RK had to go up and look at it. I have to say I held myself pretty good for being up over a hundred feet suspended on steel grates by cables. I wanted to take pictures, but you have to empty your pockets of all unnecessary items and take off all things like cameras. Safety precautions are a bitch. If I ever get a chance to shoot photos of it again I will though for sure.