Jennifer Brookes: I wanted to shoot this week’s piece on Halloween, and living in Capitol Hill, there are a thousand interesting resources at my fingertips. The amount of crazy people on Broadway increases tenfold on October 31st. I checked out the scene for a bit but couldn’t get into it; the number of Lady Gagas that I ran into was overwhelming. My attention was increasingly distracted by the overcast night sky, which, underneath the leverage of a full moon, was glowing fantastically and moving rapidly. The clouds in each layer of atmosphere moved in separate currents like the sea, reminding me of the distance that separates me from the moon. I racked my brain trying to think of somewhere I could go to be alone with the sky and away from everything. There is a place I like to visit called the Thomas Street Garden, one of Seattle’s many P-Patches. Normally this garden’s gate is closed at night, but I walked to it anyway and found it dark, empty, and open. Disobeying my gut I entered the garden, filled with a network of dirt paths between each individual plot. I found a path hidden from the front gate’s view, set up a tripod with my camera pointed toward the sky, and began clicking the shutter over and over again. There were a few close calls with Halloween party people running into the garden, getting scared, and running out..but not once, during the hour and a half that I spent lying in the soil, was I discovered.

Eric Peterson: This last week, the first major storm of the season hit Denver. The University of Denver shut down Wednesday and Thursday due to heavy snow. I’d been sick since Sunday, so I found myself alone at home mostly, which afforded me ample time to work on this week’s piece. It was originally layered deep with intricate guitar arpeggios and interplay, but it lacked a melody. I thought the child-like tinkle of a toy piano would suit it well; so on Halloween, I borrowed my bandmate Lucas Johannes‘ toy piano. There’s something about its sound that’s completely enchanting. When I got home and played around with it, somehow it managed to wipe away the isolation of the past week and brought out something else in me. Instead of layering a melody over what I’d worked on, I put down a completely new piece over the course of about fifteen minutes. Thanks Lucas.