Sean Henri

Video Tour of Martinique

November 08, 2008 // 3 Comments  // Add yours »

One last post about my recent trip to Martinique - a quick video tour of the island.

For more information on Martinique, visit France Guide.

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Coping with the commute

August 11, 2008 // 18 Comments  // Add yours »

There's only a few people I know who enjoy their commute.  My friend Steph is one of them.  From my understanding, she gets to cruise through scenic country roads on her way to work.  I'd imagine I might enjoy that as well.  For most of us, the commute involves sitting in traffic with a bunch of  miserable drivers on some major highway like I-95 and dodging street repairs and building construction. It can get depressing.

My commute starts off okay.  I usually get to cruise past the traffic in the Naugatuck Valley and then along most of RT 34.  By the time I get to downtown New Haven it all changes and the quality of my drive plummets.  Some jerk might cut me off, the road could be backed up due to construction, or a pedestrian will dart in front of traffic and nearly cause an accident.  Typical events like these could easily set a bad tone for the day.

There's a few ways I stay positive during the drive into work:

• Music (lately it's been The Beatles, Vampire Weekend, or Franz Ferdinand... played loudly)
• Coffee
• Fresh Air (always drive with the windows down)

Still, once I get downtown, my mood can easily change for the worse no matter what I do to prevent it.  And then I think about how it's quite possible that I could be doing this for decades to come.  Some days I wish I could ditch the car and walk to work, or at least take alternate routes. Unfortunately, it just isn't possible for the time being.  Any tips from my fellow commuters on how to improve this unfortunate part of the day?

Update: Some responses I received from my twitter followers below the cut:

Continue reading "Coping with the commute"

Posted in:  New Haven, Thoughts & Ideas, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (18)

Vampire Weekend

July 12, 2008 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

For the past month or so I've been advocating that my friends listen to Vampire Weekend, an indie-rock band from New York that's been enjoying a great deal of attention following the release of their self-titled album in January.  My brother recommended I give them a listen earlier this year and I've been a fan ever since.   They've describe their genre as "Upper West Side Soweto" - sort of an indie pop/punk sound with an Afro-pop influence.  It's really great stuff.. without a doubt one of the best debut albums I've come across in a while.

Ironically, as I was writing this post, I received a message from Ezra, the lead-singer in the band.  It happened because I was chatting with a girl from New York who happened to know him.  She got excited when she heard me listening to them, so she ended up sending him a text, and in response I received a message telling me to "rock on".

Give the album a listen.  You'll enjoy it.  Start off with "Mansard Roof", "A-Punk", and "M79".  Below is their most recent single/video, "Oxford Comma".

Posted in:  Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (1)

Paul McCartney Receives Honorary Degree From Yale

May 26, 2008 // 2 Comments  // Add yours »

This morning I caught Sir Paul McCartney in New Haven as he received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Yale University.  I had no idea he was going to be there until around 10am when my phone started ringing off the hook - courtesy of my twin brother Justin and a young lass named Brooke.   Once I had all the details I gave Jenn,  Mindy, Justin, and Brooke a call and we all raced downtown.  It was a short ceremony, and he didn't say anything.  They serenaded him with a quick rendition of Hey Jude,  gave him a bit of praise, and after a quick bow and a wave it was all over. 

I thought it was a great way to start of Memorial Day.  It's not every day one gets to see one of The Beatles receive a degree.  Here's some video:

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, New Haven, Paul McCartney, The Beatles, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (2)

Video from the NYC McCartney Show

October 27, 2007 // 3 Comments  // Add yours »

I came across some really good footage from the Paul McCartney show I attended this past June.  It's shot from right about where I was standing.  In fact, I think I can hear my friends voice on the video.  Anyway, enjoy.

Blackbird:

I'll Follow the Sun (Intro):

Posted in:  Concerts, NYC, Paul McCartney, The Beatles, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (3)

Paul McCartney's "Ever Present Past" Video

October 02, 2007 // 3 Comments  // Add yours »

The coolest 65 year-old I know.  Just came out today.  Great song, interesting video.

Posted in:  Paul McCartney, The Beatles, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (3)

Video from my trip (Part 2)

August 15, 2007 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

Here's some more footage from my recent trip to Ireland.  This one starts off on the tour bus that I jumped on with the Troop 3 scouts from Derby, which brought us through The Burren to the Cliffs of Moher, and then down to our hotels in Limerick.

Posted in:  Ireland 2007, Travel, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (1)

Video from my trip

August 14, 2007 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

This is a real touristy-like video from my trip to Ireland.  It's mostly just footage of the landscape from when I first landed and then while I was walking around Galway.  It's more for my own memory than for anything else, but I'm sharing it anyway.   I have one more clip coming.

Posted in:  Ireland 2007, Travel, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

My mom's a big Keith Urban fan

August 02, 2007 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

Parts of a video that I shot of my mother and a bunch of other Keith Urban fans at Yale is now playing on the big screen at Keith Urban concerts across the country.  I think it's kinda cool.  She also gets to meet the guy at a concert sometime later this month.  Here's footage with parts of the video playing behind the band at one of the recent shows:

Posted in:  Culture, Stuff, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (1)

New Webcam / Video Player

July 14, 2007 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

I've improved the webcam a bit.  I'm rarely on there, but during those few times that I am you'll now be able to communicate with me instead of just watching.  You can log into the chat, hear what I'm saying, and even communicate with video if you have a webcam of your own.  I'm gonna put it to use when I go to Ireland in a couple of weeks.  Whenever I'm not there I'll have some video playing so there won't be any "Offline" screen like there has been in the past.  It'll be a good cure for boredom.  You can find the webcam by clicking the "cam" link up above or by clicking HERE.

Alllllllsssooo, I've posted my video from Dave and Alexis' wedding here.  Enjoy.

And some new pics are up as always.  Take a look and leave comments please!

Posted in:  Blogging, Stuff, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

A party bus to Six Flags

July 10, 2007 // 0 Comments  // Add yours »

My aunt and uncle were kind enough to treat my cousins and I to a trip to Six Flags New England this past Monday.  Somehow we all managed to get the day off from work and it ended up being a lot of fun.  My only gripe was the intense heat.  It was in the 90's all day and the humidity was brutal.   Thank god for the artic-like air conditioning on the party bus we rode there and back in. 

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (0)

The High School Days

July 08, 2007 // 2 Comments  // Add yours »

My friends and I used to do some great stuff when we were younger.  We need to bring back the days of the Riceminers.  I've started putting the old videos up on YouTube and Riceminers.com still gets close to 100 hits a day... so I think I should start putting up new content again.  I've been saying that for a while but it's been hard motivating people.  So I might just go ahead with it on my own and see who joins in.  Josh, Steve, Bobby, Nick, Shane, Chris, Justin, Kevin, and everyone else who used to be involved in some way... if you have any interest, let me know.

Here's "The Dream".  It was put together using an old school camcorder, two vcr's, and a karaoke machine back in 2001.

Posted in:  Memories, Riceminers, Stuff, Thoughts & Ideas, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (2)

Life

June 24, 2007 // 1 Comments  // Add yours »

Here's a short little video that was thrown together as a result of a lazy, uneventful Saturday:

I've also posted a video clip from my trip to Portland.  You can see that HERE.

Posted in:  Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (1)

Paul McCartney's Secret Gig at the Highline Ballroom

June 14, 2007 // 8 Comments  // Add yours »

I'm back from the Paul McCartney concert!  Time for the recap:

Let me go back a few weeks to explain this.  About a month ago I found out that Paul McCartney would be doing some type of live performance in NYC to promote his new album Memory Almost Full.  Any large-scale world tour would be postponed to next year due to "personal issues" (his divorce from Heather Mills).  So being a huge Beatles/Paul McCartney fan, I did some intense research until I found out the details of what would be going down.

I found out that the show was going to be a small-scale "secret" show about two weeks ago and that I'd have to win tickets through a radio station contest in order to go.  Only a few hundred contest winners and invited guests would be given tickets.  So after looking through the websites of nearly every FM radio station from the country's major cities, I finally found a contest where you could enter a raffle to win tickets by correctly answering 20 questions about Paul.  I didn't win.  But my friend Steph did, and she offered to take me.  Amazingly, my friend Bret won as well and offered to take my brother Justin.  So now we had 3 people from CT's smallest town attending a concert that thousands of people from around the world were trying to go to, and I was one of them.

More below the cut.

Continue reading "Paul McCartney's Secret Gig at the Highline Ballroom"

Posted in:  A Day In The Life, Concerts, Contests, Culture, NYC, Paul McCartney, Photos, The Beatles, Videos | Permalink |  Digg This | Share on Facebook | Comments (8)