Saturday, April 14, 2001

Buried in a Mercedes-Benz?
It's not uncommon in Ghana, with a rich tradition of handcarved wooden art coffins.
10:12 PM ::link::

By collecting the date of birth of the creators of personal web sites, through the Ageless project, Joe Jenett hopes to show the diversity of the creative forces at work on the web. Excellent idea and it made me feel a whole lot less like an old fart. ;-)
9:17 PM ::link::

I hope I didn't give the impression that we're living in hell. Purgatory, perhaps... with hopes of salvation in the future.

Life here does have its good moments. Starting the day with a chocolate croissant from the bakery stand at the farmer's market, finding a hydrangea plant at half price, watching the tulips explode into reds and oranges and purples.

Even trying to pull away from the curb last night on the way to the wedding reception of one of my wife's co-workers was a source of amusement. Immediately behind our car, right where I needed to back up to clear the truck in front of us, there was a small melee of half a dozen kids. Black, white, boys, girls, from eight to about twelve years old, all fighting over a scooter and who's turn it was to ride it. The noise of the car starting had no impact on them. They were oblivious to the back-up lights and a tap on the horn. My wife got out of the car and with arms spread wide herded the entire flock up on to the sidewalk. They moved but barely noticed her, still squabbling over the scooter.
7:10 PM ::link::

Hooray for dynamic, database driven web sites.

We've lived in what you might call an "interesting" section of Baltimore for quite a few years. It's not as bad as some sections of town, kids can still play in the street on a warm spring evening without too many worries about a stray bullet from a drug deal gone bad. It's been convenient for us, located half way between our jobs and our schools. The low mortgage has made it a possibility for us both to attend school simultaneously, not needing to alternate semesters to scrape up tuition payments. The house is old enough to have some character to it, a quaint charm that surfaces each time we rip out a room to renovate it.

Still, the neighborhood, the entire city for that matter, is declining. It's not a matter of a crumbling infrastructure, with poor and decreasing services, though that's occurring as well. It's more a matter of quality of life in general. Maybe it's become the case in other areas of the country but here I have noticed a sad and rapid decline in what I can best term as politeness. There's no longer a concern over how one's behavior effects others. There's no thought given to matters which should be a part of basic common sense.

I'm not talking rocket science here. It's the simple things like putting your garbage out on the day it is scheduled to be picked up rather than the day after. Simple things like running the drain line from your washing machine to your DWV pipes instead of sticking the hose out a back window to drain into the alley. Simple things like not shitting in your own nest.

We've had enough. It's finally come to the point where we recognize the futility of trying to turn the neighborhood around. You can only stand so many blank and uncomprehending stares when you suggest, in very reasonable tones, that perhaps playing your car stereo at full volume at 2:00 in the morning might not be in the best interests of one's neighbors. You can only sweep the street so many times, knowing that the wind will simply blow another load of trash down from the next block. You can only lay awake so many nights, trying to decide how loud the argument from another house will get before you dial 911... was that a door slamming or a body slammed against a wall... was that a scream of rage, or of pain and fear... or do you just wait for the gunshot?

So, we've decided to cut and run. It's time to get the hell out of Dodge. Unfortunately, neither of us is pulling in the big bucks and my wife's head has been filled for weeks with scare stories from a co-worker about the impossibilty of finding affordable housing in a decent area. Filled to the point of tears, with a firm belief that we'll be stuck here for years.

A quick search through some local realtors sites pulled up about 400 homes in better areas. Nothing we can immediately afford but close enough to motivate a search for better jobs and enough to warrant our continued savings program. Enough to stop the tears, enough to bring a smile.
4:42 PM ::link::

Friday, April 13, 2001

Stumbled through Sophie's Maze while looking for night photography and got sucked into the Labyrinth. Can you find your way out?

3:56 PM ::link::

Given my fascination with alternative photographic techniques, I'm kicking myself for not considering night photography before today. Like my other continuing forays into different methods, there'll be lots to learn and plenty of mistakes to be made. That's just fine by me. You can have just as much fun making mistakes and sometimes the mistakes turn out to be your best shot.

Whether shooting by the light of the full moon or on the darkest of nights with a flash selectively painting part of the image, this will open a whole new range of ideas and projects. It's so completely opposite to any sort of logical thinking about the best time of the day to make a photograph. That opposition, trying to draw light from darkness, intrigues me. The technical challenges alone are quite fascinating and the opportunities to make something new has all sorts of ideas percolating through my mind.

Cemetery photography at night may yield something interesting.
11:53 AM ::link::

Thursday, April 12, 2001

Wen Stephenson, editorial director of of The Atlantic Monthly's Web site, and of its online journal, Atlantic Unbound, discusses the role of publishers in maintaining a literary culture on the web.

Small corners of the web are filled with individual writers and artists, sharing their thoughts, creations and dreams. While these individuals are producing and sharing their works through self publishing efforts, there still remains a need for publishers to provide a mechanism to gather and distribute collections of works. To maintain a culture, a common gathering place for dissemination of expressive works is essential. Whether as an offshoot or companion to a printed magazine or as an independent e-zine, the work done by the editors and publishers of online collections contributes to the expansion of our culture by fostering a sense of community among writers, poets and other artists.
1:47 PM ::link::

Wednesday, April 11, 2001

Jenny's been busy moving her Post Mortem Cemetery Photography site to a new home. She's built quite a collection and is always looking for new photos, so if you have some photos of fine old stones or statues that are looking for a home on the web, let Jenny know.
9:38 PM ::link::

Stone Angels shares the uses of the angelic motif in cemetery art throughout the UK, including a history of burial customs and cemetery development. In development since 1999, this ever expanding site has an incredible number of fine photographs of angels in statues, headstones and in stained glass.
2:40 PM ::link::

Light! The Industrial Age 1750-1900, an exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art, examines the changes in our life and art brought about by discoveries of the properties of light.
11:30 AM ::link::

Piling on enough wasabi to bring on the feeling that a rocket has been launched through the top of your head may be looked upon by some as foolishness that obscures the delicate flavor of sushi. It's always been part of the fun for me when ever I get a chance to munch down on some dead raw fish, enjoying that brief blast and its equally quick subsidence, trying to survive through the few seconds of combined bliss and self torture. Turns out that the stuff might actually be good for you. I'll try not to let that take all the fun out of it.
10:23 AM ::link::

Tuesday, April 10, 2001

I've had some fun participating in several photo projects on the web, Cityscapes, Virtual Lawn, and most recently Day In The Life. They're a good excuse to get out and play with your camera and a fine way to develop your creativity.

They're also another way to share your work and enjoy the work of other photographers. They're a way to get a glimpse of how many different ways there are to approach a subject, how many different ways to see the same thing. Projects like these give you a chance to meet and discuss your craft with others, with both parties coming away the better for an exchange of views and ideas.

So, don't just sit there, jump in and enjoy.
2:57 PM ::link::

There are things even worse than bad sushi...
1:19 PM ::link::

Maggie's been busy in her garden and looks to be a good six weeks ahead of me as far as the growing season. Ahh yes, the benefits of life in the South.

One more reason that I'd love a digital camera... to be able to share a moment closer to the time it occurs, without a week's delay for processing and scanning.
11:28 AM ::link::

::drool::

6 megapixels knocks all my former concern about the adequacy of digital resolution right on its butt. A removable IR blocking filter opens up dreams of infrared photography in the digital realm. The price tag of 8 kilobucks means it's only a dream for now.
10:41 AM ::link::

What a difference one day can make, especially at this time of year. The weekend's cold grey gave way to bright sunlight and darn near hot temperatures yesterday, with a really fine electrical storm that broke just as I got home from school last night. The storm sent the cat scurrying for her "safety spot" on the bottom shelf of a bookcase as thunder rolled over the city and bright flashes streaked across the sky.

I went out to the garden this morning to cut some daffodils for my wife to take to work. Stuffing a biscuit in the dog's mouth quieted her pitiful moans at being separated from "Dad" by the garden fence. I had to do a double take as I turned towards the flower bed. Someone must have slipped into the garden last night and turned the "growth control" to maximum setting.

They say that your memory starts to go as you age. Maybe that's the case here but I really don't recall planting quite that many bulbs last fall. Last week's little sprouts pushed their way up and there is now a hint of color peeking out shyly from the beginnings of the tulip blossoms. New promises of brilliance, unspoken on Sunday, whispered the vows of Spring this morning.
8:38 AM ::link::

Monday, April 09, 2001

Will future historians be facing a 25 year gap in the records of our electronic culture? Without a physical "paper trail", it becomes impossible to trace the development and thoughts behind government policies, as only the final version of a document is typically saved. Other aspects of the world may be preserved in a more helpful fashion, thanks to the efforts of the Internet Archive project.
10:21 AM ::link::

Lomography on the loose, again. This time Taipei has been Lomo'd, with an exhibition of seven artists using the miniature Russian camera as their expressive tool.
10:20 AM ::link::

Hoffmann's classic children's storybook, Struwwelpeter, could easily pass as one of those joke collections of stories that you would never tell children. It's hard to imagine the Weltanschauung that saw The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb as an acceptable way to discourage thumb sucking. On the other hand, if your mind is as warped as mine, you might find yourself laughing with disbelief.
10:19 AM ::link::

Sunday, April 08, 2001

Cold and empty
Evergreen Cemetery, in Everett, Washington, has told the father of a murdered two year old boy that he can no longer place toys, Sesame Street dolls or other memorabilia on his son's grave. The cemetery management instituted a "clean up" policy last November and has provided two flower vases in concrete pads to replace the dead child's beloved toys.
10:48 PM ::link::

After much slacking off, my small contribution to Lane's Day In The Life project is online. Far from finished, with more images in the pipeline, there's enough there to prove that I do occasionally take pictures of subjects other than tombstones.
5:31 PM ::link::

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