09.30.06
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Taken at Old Orchard Beach back in August; summer has fled since then. [
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Thirteen to inspire you this week, from Paris, New York, Portugal, and all points between.
- J-30 from Jean-Michel Berts; wonderful tone and depth
- Follow the yellow stripe…. from a view from the 6oh lens; great perspective on an abandoned Mini.
- battlestar organica from (bea); a subtle dream of flowers.
- Feminino, Arrabida – Portugal from SAKANA BLOG; a warm summer moment.
- a striped affair from small beginnings; a playful explosion of socks (note that none of the are matched…)
- Ethereal from Jon Swainson; they seem to march on forever; this is evocative of Michael Kenna.
- The east coast from The streets are alive; a wharf from two centuries back; I expect someone to whisper from the shadows, “Call me Ishmael…”
- sunday morning girl from optic anarchy; though it has that bright glow of a lazy Sunday with the newspaper, the textures and tones hint at something darker; a very evocative image.
- Sun + Dud from HELLO; I love the play of color between the sunflower and the abstract Polaroid “dud”
- Did our Tears have a Purpose After All? from Diary of a Superfluous Man; wow.
- talking with alix from rion.nu; sometimes you learn something from these photoblogs, like how paper mache is used to clean the Pantheon in Paris in this photo essay. (And don’t forget to click the links to Alix’s own photography, you won’t be disappointed!)
- Clouds and Smartweed from A Walk Through Durham Township; great interplay of lavender and blue.
- Pacific St-Atlantic Ave station ~ 9:55am from Express Train; a wonderfully captured moment (though I feel a bit jaded after reading The Onion’s coverage of Dave and Julie)
09.29.06
I was planning to start a series of color Holga shots of Old Orchard Beach, and I will soon, but first I need to vent…
This is a shot of the boys at the downtown Minneapolis library, a fabulous new facility that opened to much fanfare this spring. It’s got a great kids’ area, packed-to-the-gills fiction, and an impressive local history collection, not to mention some special collections that I hope to visit someday, like the childrens’ book art collection.
Alas, its hours aren’t exactly suited to the working family: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM or 6:00 PM most days, closed Sunday; getting downtown is a bit of a journey, so it’s hard to get there as often as we’d like. Our local branch is under renovation, and the nearest Minneapolis branch, while in a lovely old building, is in a rougher neighborhood than I like to go with the boys (and is closed on the weekend…). So we tend to go over the river to the nearest St. Paul library.
Anyway. I was checking the availability of a couple of books and the hours at a few branches, and saw that there was an online survey about the community’s needs for the library system. I started taking it, and was confronted with a grim reality: given the aid to local government cuts under the Pawlenty administration and general lack of funds, the library is looking at either (a) closing more branches, (b) reducing hours at more branches, or (c) cutting back on acquiring new materials (while closing branches and/or reducing hours…).
Which would be horrible enough if it weren’t for the Twins stadium that the taxpayers of Hennepin County will be buying over the next several years through a sales tax hike. Which was passed by the county board without a referendum. In their magnanimous graciousness, the county board has earmarked $2 million to the library system to increase hours; the library board notes that the funding gap is $6.5 million, likely to grow to $12 million in a few years.
So the public can pony up $350 million dollars of the $522 million needed for a new stadium (the old one was built 25 years ago, also with much taxpayer “support”), but we can’t adequately fund our library system? Because the stadium will have such a positive “economic impact”, but making books available to the community won’t?
Though one doesn’t like to be terribly political, one notes that a big part of the library’s woes is due to the Pawlenty administration slashing the state Local Government Aid (LGA) which made up 43% of the library’s budget. It costs a bit more to run a mixed-income city than it does to run a middle-class suburb, and the governor knows where his votes are coming from. I hope that the people who care about libraries make sure their votes head somewhere else on November 7.
Perhaps we’re drifting into the post-literate society, and I should just accept that the book is an outdated technology that is being replaced by iPods, widescreens, and camera phones. I mean, the technology of printed words on paper hasn’t really changed much since scribes were working with vellum and quills; it’s time to move on! Surely there’s not much use for the things anymore.
But all the same, Jack and Peter look forward to their trips to the library–any library–and sit rapt for their nightly stories. The library contains more worlds than a million television stations, all there for everyone to share for free. A place where any citizen, of any means, can go for knowledge and recreation, for improvement or escape, without buying a ticket or paying “convenience fees”. And it doesn’t even need a retractable roof.
09.28.06
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09.27.06
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09.26.06
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09.25.06
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One of the landmarks at Granddad's house is Elephant Rock, a hunk of granite deep in the woods. [
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Jack and Peter hold the map of the woods and hills behind Graddad's house in Maine. Granddad maintains the system of trails as part of the state snowmobile trail, and in the winter he negotiates a big grooming machine along the twists and turns; we borrowed his little Kubota dumptruck, and managed to get it stuck in the mud. We're obviously city kids, though by the end of our week in Maine, Jack and Peter were old pros at following the trails and were no longer quite so concerned about my trail-driving abilities. [
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Fourteen found from around the Internet:
- Silver Red from mistralcolors; the hard stones in soft focus; the soft silk in sharp focus; a wonderful contrast of textures.
- Summertime from Clopin Clopant; perfectly-placed shadows.
- slide film… from incidence; just fun–and what’s more important than fun?
- Venice, Italy from lifevicarious; another contrast in textures and colors.
- Avignon, France, also from lifevicarious; a perfect moment captured–the watcher watched!
- dune herbes maisons from Kéa; shot through gauze curtains, a wonderfully nostalgic picture.
- boot and hat from electrolite; that’s how they wear ‘em in Texas.
- stilt from Million-Year Picnic; simple and subtle.
- ol’ crazy eyes from the narrative; there’s a great series of portraits here, and this is the most striking of them–crazy eyes indeed!
- Boston from Below from Reciprocity Failure; a very dramatic perspective.
- thoughts… from gotreadgo; how could anyone be afraid of this sad clown? He looks like he needs someone to buy him a beer, poor guy.
- Some Introductory Remarks on the History of Summer from Square America; a fascinating project in found-photo history: a picture of summer from each of the first 60 years of the 20th century. A great way to send a fond fairwell to the season that was.
- Thailand Coup: Tanks Stand Guard from Hmmm; Daniel Cuthbert was on the scene to capture the recent events in Bangkok; here, the contrast between the brutal tank and the delicate gates is striking.
- It Was This High from Londonrubbish; what more is there to say?
09.23.06
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye.
John Milton, Areopagitica
The ALA’s annual Banned Books Week commences today. 2005’s list of books challenged in public libraries and schools contains many of the old stand-bys for raising hackles–”The Catcher in the Rye”, “The Chocolate War”, “Forever”–for the usual old stand-by reasons–sex, language, “anti-family content” (whatever that is, it’s what got the “Captain Underpants” series in trouble…). And books aren’t just challenged with polite written requests to have a book removed; folks continue to set fire to books, as if destroying the physical manifestation of an idea could destroy the idea itself.
Much as I love books, though, I’m confident that the ideas they carry are stronger than their pages. Books are powerful things, and readers are tough, toughened by facing challenging ideas head-on rather than tossing the uncomfortable and the intemperate into bonfires.
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
John Milton, Areopagitica
09.22.06
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Before the
Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater's May Day Parade got to our stretch of the route, some slightly-scary-looking fellows (they had pointy teeth...) drew dragons on the street. Quite nice dragons. [
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This is from the
Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater's May Day parade, 2006; I'm still dredging up the past a bit this week, but rest assured, these pictures are new to you... [
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May Day in Minneapolis means the
Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater's parade and festival on the south side, a fun and funky community event.
Yup, I've still got a few old pictures to work through, though I hope to do some film processing this weekend. Kindergarten has meant non-stop activity: curriculum night, the PTO potluck, homework and booklogs and practicing the boys' lunchroom passcodes. And I'm starting a project for Fáilte Minnesota, an Irish arts and culture organization, that will be taking up a good bit of time (but promises to be "an-chraic lÃom"). But fresh photos are coming soon! [Hide the verbosity]
09.18.06
09.17.06
Guardian of Health at the Washburn Water Tower, Tangletown neighborhood, Minneapolis.
09.17.06
A two-fer of lists this week, so I can get back on schedule: 16 beauties for your consideration …
- Pause… from Jean-Michel Berts; wonderful tone.
- Thirteen Steps from moodaholic; this has such a crisp, fresh feeling.
- holga Julien mer plage from Kéa; another wonderful summer memory, and a classic Holga shot.
- misty dawn from Absolutely Nothing; steps receding into the fog…
- Zitroneneis ist meine Welt from Peacemans Pixels; if lemon ice cream really is his world, it must be a marvelous world; that’s quite a look of satisfaction…
- hms acadia hms scott from LEVITATION; I love the way the bright colors of the flag and hull contrast with the dull grays of the water.
- Avon Hill Street from Photosensitive; the sort of thing you glance out of the corner of your eye but somehow remember for days.
- Path Through The Corn from these fleeting moments; wonderful sky.
- Reconsidered from Big Happy Funhouse; motion captured.
- 911 (5Y) from cpl; great composition.
- Urbane Decay from gotreadgo; this looks like a movie still from some film about quiet desperation.
- ikea lamp from .mused; great texture and color (and I dig Ikea, I just can’t help it…)
- range of sharpness from pinholemedia; a clever illustration of DOF, using a definition of DOF…
- untitled from fijaciones; the clouds go on forever.
- Autumn Story – The Liquid-Rust Ship from 3 a.m. from Kyoto; another from this site that could be an illustration for some odd and dark fantasy in the style of Kelly Link or Roald Dahl.
- Brooklyn Platfrom ~ Broadway-Lafayette ~ 6:40pm from Express Train; a little of everything in this picture and then some; the expression on the bearded gent is priceless!
09.16.06
Light fixture at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago; I love the aquatatic motif that is echoed even in the architectural details.
09.15.06
Oh, I’m behind on my lists of pictures–I’ve selected them, but I haven’t pulled them together. Kindergarten is almost as exhausting for me as it is for the boys…
Chilly waters seem to be a theme in this set, I’m not really sure why.
- brighton beach from apparently nothing; there’s something especially cold and still about a winter beach.
- scarista bay from Absolutely Nothing; I like the way the drama of the waves and sky are accentuated by the slight tilt of the photograph.
- along the water from Mike’s Right Brain; wonderful mist and fog.
- #239 from the streets are alive; there’s such playfulness in the little girl’s coy hide-and-seek with the camera.
- peggy’s cove, again from LEVITATION; wonderfully rich colors.
- In the golden sun from HELLO; wonderful blur and buzz.
- dress accordingly from gotreadgo; the “goofy filter” works magic in contrastic sharpness and blur.
- september 03, 2006 from a visual notebook; the bristles on the seedheads seem almost tangible.
- sunflower from .mused; the contrast between the dark center and the flaming petals makes this image for me.
- Choco from polom.org; nothing says warmth and safety like a mug of cocoa.
- worship from boxman; great composition.
- Capilla. San Pedro Carcha, Guatemala from Nimla; a classic street photograph in the Cartier-Bresson style–it might have been taken any time from 1900 to earlier this morning.
- Sauna-ilta from graciform; simple and spare.
09.15.06
Penguins at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
09.14.06
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I'm no
Travis Ruse--subway cars aren't my natural habitat--but I certainly thought about his great scenes of New York City transportation on our ride back to the hotel after a busy day at Chicago's museums. Here Mom and Peter discuss the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, and Navy Pier as we head toward a pizza supper at Gino's. [
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The semis was a Roman coin, weighing 6 uncia; a bit more valuable than the quincunx (5 uncia), but not nearly as much fun to say. (This useless trivia has nothing to do with the picture above, of course.) [
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The
Birchwood Cafe is one of our favorite neighborhood spots--real good food. (And very vegetarian friendly.)
I'll be churning through some of the backlog this week: school for the boys is exhausting (we get homework...), and I'm starting a new project that will be a lot of fun but a little time consuming. More on that later... [Hide the verbosity]
09.10.06
St. Paul’s Candyland has shelves groaning with tasty treats.
09.9.06
One of the best spots in St. Paul is Candyland, conveniently located around the corner from the Children’s Museum. If you can’t find something to satisfy your sweet tooth here, you’re simply hopeless.
09.8.06
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Hot dog culture is an interesting thing. In Chicago, of course, the dog of choice is a Vienna Beef (or a Polish) topped with pickles, peppers, tomatoes, relish, mustard, and celery salt, served in a poppyseed bun. In New England, the preferred dog is a "red hot" (so called for the color, which is fire-engine red, rather than the spice, which is pretty mild) in a classic square bun. I'm partial to the Chicago style myself, and also like a good bratwurst topped with 'kraut and spicy mustard. But I do love those square buns: they grill so nicely, and hold the butter well. (Though I like mine stuffed with lobster salad rather than red hots).
Here Peter poses in front of a poster showing exactly how to present the perfect Chicago dog--more condiments than sausage! [Hide the verbosity]
I’m a little behind in processing the rest of my Maine pictures–there are still some black & white rolls from the Holga, and some color to send out. Since school starts today, I don’t expect to get to those until the end of the weekend.
Luckily, I’m also behind on posting shots from our Chicago vacation earlier this summer. Here the boys pose outside Chipmunk’s on Diversey; you can’t leave Chicago without eating at least one Vienna Beef with all the fixings (tomato, sport peppers, mustard, relish, pickles, and celery salt for me; ketchup for the boys).
09.6.06
This is the end of the “Secret River” series, at least for a little while–I may have some Spotmatic shots of the Peabody as well. Tomorrow is the first day of kindergarten, so a whole new kind of adventure is starting…
09.5.06
Jack and Peter on the Peabody River, a few days before their fifth birthday.
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There were twa brethren in the North,
They went to school thegither;
The one unto the other said,
‘Will you try a warsle, brither?’
The Twa Brothers from The Oxford Book of Ballads, Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. (1910)
Like so many of the great border ballads ("The Twa Corbies", "The Bonnie Banks of Fordie", et al), "The Twa Brothers" is a grim little tale of murder and mayhem and sin and punishment. But after refreshing my memory of the genre with yesterday's selkie song, I couldn't resist... [Hide the verbosity]
09.4.06
An’ it sall pass on a simmer’s day,
When the sin shines het on evera stane,
That I will tak my little young son,
An’ teach him for to swim his lane.
The Great Silkie of Sule Skerrie from The Oxford Book of Ballads, Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. (1910)
I’m not sure if the natives of the Peabody River area have any legends about creatures who emerge from the chilly waters to take human form for a time, the way the people of the rocky shores of Ireland and Scotland do about the selkies; if not, there ought to be some developed–a secret river like this deserves some monsters.
09.3.06
Peter among the rocks on the Peabody River, near Gorham, NH.
09.2.06
Here in the North Country, Autumn “is i-cumen in” (or would be if one were speaking Middle English): the air is a little crisper in the morning, and night sets in a little earlier, and school starts up next week. For me, at least, Autumn has always had a mix of melancholy and anticipation: summer is having its last golden hurrah, the leaves are dying and the geese are leaving, but there are fresh notebooks to open and everyone’s wearing their new school clothes.
Perhaps that’s why I’ve been drawn this week to several pictures that have that sort of melancholy end-of-summer feel to them; many of the 16 pictures presented for your enjoyment capture that fleeting golden glow as the season makes its final bow.
- central park on a very hot day from twinlens; perfectly captures that hazy-hot feeling of a summer day that never seems to end.
- ‘Brella from Wood | Stone; I love the stillness of the monochrome blue reflection.
- snapshot out the back of car window from A.D.H.D.; the sharp vertical lines play wonderfully against the blurry house.
- Köhniön uimaranta from luotokuva; a wonderful northern beach scene, with the still and stately reflections.
- Les goélands du pont Marie from Paris Cool; this might be a still from a Kieslowski film; marvelously evocative.
- Suddenly, Like Flames from Broken Heartbeats; the shallow DOF and golden haze make me think of a late summer afternoon.
- * Chat * macro * Mao from Kéa; “Notre pauvre chat” … “our poor cat” … a melancholy picture for a melancholy occasion; so blue, so brown…
- Backyard garden in Santa Barbara from the_gataad_photos; another sunflower (I do like them a lot); this one makes me think of an illustration in a botany textbook.
- almost gone from LEVITATION; even without the audio (which is a great touch on this site, by the way; click the “play” button, it’s worth it), you can hear to foghorn.
- World in Blue and Green from Hungaro; dreamy.
- untitled from Mareen Fischinger; it would seem to be a pretty prosaic picture, until you notice the seven-foot-tall rabbit (”…endlich ein Bild von meinem Freund Harvey
“).
- Like Soldiers from cpl; wonderful lines and tones, with the softness of the sand behind the stacked chairs.
- Umbrella On The Shore from these fleeting moments; a wonderful end-of-the-season shot.
- Braids from HELLO; this one also has that melancholy fairwell-to-summer feel, at least to me.
- silent reflection from life is too short; a wonderful reflection, and a great combination of cool and warm colors.
- dream from Big Happy Funhouse; a final fair-thee-well wave to the season that was.
09.2.06
09.1.06
What could be better, when you’re almost five years old, than having your Granddad carry you over the secret river?
