Blue Ceilings

This is just beautiful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xMz2SnSWS4

The artist X is selling her art on tee shirts as a fund raiser so she can go to Escapade. Almost everything on her site is available on tee shirts, both her art that includes pictures of the guys, and her art based on iconic images. She explains it all on her update page.

Please go to her update page, and check out her art and buy a tee shirt! :-)

http://tenebris.org/x__art/x_art_updates.htm

I was bored in a meeting, so I decided to visit the Astronomy Photo a Day site, which I hadn't been to in ages. Found some amazing earth cloud photos - shelf cloud and roll cloud. Wow.

APOD: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Shelf cloud: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080122.html

Roll cloud: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100105.html

Creep santas:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/43010

Photoshopped movies:
http://artsdesignblog.com/photoshoped-movies-part-i/

Just got back from a day in Joshua Tree, where I've been wanting to go forever, and got to enjoy the utterly blue skies and high 70's temperature. I stayed after dark and took my first night shots and star trail shots, so they're not great, but they were quite fun. And I got to see the Milky Way again, which always stuns me where I stand.

ETA: Go to the Travel Gallery, and Joshua Tree is under there.

Enjoy.
http://riesling.smugmug.com

I've uploaded new photos, finally: http://riesling.smugmug.com.

* flowers under Macro - these include several photos I took/created for my Betterphoto flower class.
* Portland under Travel.
* Kane under Special Events.

Enjoy!

I brought my laptop into the local Apple Store today, and was assigned a young woman at the Genius bar. When we turned on my computer, I realized I had the folder with all my SPN slash stories open. I hurried to close it when my Genius exclaimed, "Are those Supernatural stories?" It took me a couple seconds to process her words, but when I did, and looked over to her, she was pointing to her Creation con wrist band. I asked if it was from Vancouver con, and she (somewhat smugly but very happily) nodded and grinned. Holy cow.

We chatted about the con, and the recent Kane and Steve Carlson concerts (she went to the Carlson at the end of the con in the private club that I considered going to). It was not full due to an autograph session that went WAY over, and of course Jensen was there. She had attended the Carlson concert in Portland that I went to. She had a couple photos of the Carlson concert with Jensen delivering a tray of shots on her iPhone (of course) and showed me one. Yes, I'm envious, and yes, I wish I'd gone.

It was pretty amazing, but it made my Genius bar much more fun.

Oh, and there's nothing wrong with my laptop. Strangely, the hardware errors and nasty noise that occurred when writing DVDs was due to a batch of bad Memorex DVDs. Who knew?

I forgot to report on one thing from last night - the Hair. As you know from watching Leverage, it's growing out nicely. I wanted to add that when he got on stage it looked clean and fluffy (in a manly way) and gorgeous. He does this wonderful two-handed push back thing that's sexy as hell.

Photos forthcoming.

I hope my previous post is readable. I did it on my iPhone, and didn't go back and proof it. I think I'm too afraid to... :-)

Well, Christian Kane is -- amazingly -- hotter in person than on TV. Probably because he's himself, the rock guy, and this has to be a big part of who he really is, because he's so natural. He's charismatic, and his music and voice are fantastic. The Jack Daniels made a short appearance, there was something about Steve not tuning Chris's guitar or his own guitar or something. Very cute. He was adamant about including one of his new songs on his album, even though his record company thinks it's too rock and roll, which is kind of scary since I don't have his first record, and this sounds more country.

The rest of the band was great as well. I'll focus on Steve Carlson. ;-) Finally, I get to see him in person - been dying to since I fell in love with his music. He played a secondary roll, of course, but he rocked and it was just great to see him. He and Chris are perfect together. It was just an excellent concert. They played just around an hour.

They started with Middle American Saturday night, which I adore, and got everybody rocking. He changed up the line "x & x saved our lives" everytime he sang it, so I still don't know who he says in the song except for the last one which is kid rock and johnny cash. Also on the menu was Spirit Boy, Seven days, House Rules (YES!), his new single, and a song that debuted tonight. Goddamn,it was amazing.

Now for the experience... When I showed up at 6:30, I decided to forgo sitting quietly in the room off the main room to watch the 3-song sound check, because it was that or stand in line. As I previously posted, I waited in line, sitting almost the entire time. People started crowding the door, going in front of where I'd been standing, so when they opened the door, I shot up and got in 4th. Heh. My table, which I had by myself, wes at the front of the tables, and center. There's an area between the tables and stage which quickly filled up with standing women. We got in around 7:45, and they started playing at 9:15. (Yeah, I remember when I could stand for 4 straight hours and be able to walk the next day...) It was pretty boring, but sudoku saved my brain. I ended up standing for most of the concert so i could take photos. I put kleenex in my ears and feared it wouldn't be enough, but it wasn't bad at all. The crowd was more irritating - fanninsh shreiking.

Now for the photography - I filled 3 4G cards - I just kept running out. I just couldn't stop shooting - Steve was out of the main spotlight, and Chris's light was so strong the highlights kept burning out. ARGH. I was on Manual the entire time, going back and forth between the two exposure settings. I started with my 50mm 1.8 lens, and I was manually focusing, because the auto focus is very slow, but went to autofocus eventually. I was at 1000 ISO initially, but when I realized I could reduce it significantly, and still get focused photos, I figured that I could probably try my zoom lens with is 4/5.6, and it worked! I ended up using it for the rest of the show. I could zoom back out and try to get Steve and Chris together. Not sure it worked, and I know the head-lock hug Chris put on Steve at the end is blurry, but we shall see.

I had to take as many photos as I could because most of them (seriously most of them in that lighting) will be blurry. Cavorting around the stage in low light. Ugh. At the end (they did an encore of 2 songs) they were front lit in red, but back lit in white and blue. I think I got some really cool shots of Steve. Hope.

Despite the traffic I'm going to encounter returning tomorrow, and taking into consideration that it was only an hour show, and the wait absurd, it was definitely worthwhile.

Adding later (after the entry wouldn't post): I rule. Seriously - I got some amazing photos. And two or three of the neck hug that Carlson put on Kane are clear, or clear enough. I'm totally excited. Will try to post them soon.

am in line waiting to get into dantes in Portland to hear kane. They're doing a sound check right now and my god it's loud. My earplugs are in the hotel, so it's Kleenex for me. I walked around the town for an you and a half earlier, so I'm v. Happy therecare a couple chairs out here. Ihope (& think) Portland has a smoking ban, too & I think they do--it's Portland -- cause if not I'll be unable to breathe and be deaf.
There'sa nice Japanese memorial park on the river here with haiku carved into boulders.
At least the weather is perfect.
Oh, &there's one guy in line,everyone else is female- yeah, so not surprised.

This is a 2007 movie about traditional karate in Japan right before WW2. It was a good movie, mostly because the actors are clearly true karate men before they are actors, although their acting was fine (they've only been in one other movie). There's an authenticity to the karate that you don't often see - my style is traditional even though it embraces modern fighting methods, and it felt very familiar to me. These are not actors who had a couple months of training (and like Tom Cruise - oh! so impressed with himself that he had to learn a kata. Ooohhhhh, a kaaaatttaaaaa. But I digress.), and look like goofballs in their un-rolled-up karate gi sleeves. These guys are seriously advanced karate students.

It being a Japanese film, there's sweet sadness, and there's a lot of grey, but there's a clear lesson. There's also some deeply satisfying karate.

Now for the prurient - the guys are gorgeous. (Yes, I know you knew that was coming.) And I'm sorry, but there's little sexier to me than a gorgeous guy in a gi who can punch and kick really well. Mmm mmm. The dojo consists of 3 main students, two of whom are the leaders, and the moment I saw them on stage together I thought: Whoa, slash! It would be especially interesting considering how their relationship changes through the movie. And no, I"m not writing it...

There are other (one especially) good looking guy in the film, but he lasts only a couple minutes. Damn.

Still, an interesting and authentic movie. A little violent (duh). And, you know, pretty.

Keiko_kirin, I thought of you immediately. ;-)

It's available on Netfiix.

An a cappella choir from Slovenia does their rendition of Toto's Africa, but with their own wonderful twist... They begin by simulating the sounds of an African rainstorm - a cappella. It's really delightful.

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=91229143548&h=ugiF7&u=v4jlS&ref=nf

I am black_bird_777 on Dreamwidth.

I'm crossposting here.

These are from W.S. Merwin's East Window - translations of Asian poems.

Old Man in Retirement

I stop worrying about anything
     I give up activities
          I'm full of my life
I no longer
     go to the temple
          evening and morning
If they ask me
     "What are you doing
          in your old age?"
I smile and tell them
     "I'm letting my white hair
          fall free"

Buddha's Satori

For six years sitting alone
     still as a snake
          in a stalk of bamboo
with no family
     but the ice
          on the snow mountain
Last night
     seeing the empty sky
          fly into pieces
he shook
     the morning star awake
          and kept it in his eyes

I meant to post this days ago, but I lost my train of thought.

Merwin won the Pulitzer Prize (for the second time) for his most recent book of poetry, The Shadow of Sirius, published by Washington State's own Copper Canyon Press (www.coppercanyonpress.org). Merwin is the press's second Prize winner - they also publish Ted Kooser.

Here's a poem from his second to last book, Present Company, where all the poems are written to someone or something.

Hope you enjoy!


To the Dust of the Road

And in the morning you are up again
with the way leading through you for a while
longer if the wind is motionless when
the cars reach where the asphalt ends a mile
or so below the main road and the wave
you rise into is different every time
and you are one with it until you have
made your way up to the top of your climb
and brightened in that moment of that day
and then you turn as when you rose before
in fire or wind from the ends of the earth
to pause here and you seem to drift away
on into nothing to lie down once more
until another breath brings you to birth

I'm inspired to post from kassrachel who posted of one of my favorite William Stafford poems.



Pumpernickel
Philip Schultz

Monday mornings Grandma rose an hour early to make rye,
onion & challah, but it was pumpernickel she broke her hand for,
pumpernickel that demanded cornmeal, ripe caraway, mashed potatoes
& several Old Testament stories about patience & fortitude & for
which she cursed in five languages if it didn't pop out fat
as an apple-cheeked peasant bride. But bread, after all,
is only bread & who has time to fuss all day & end up
with a dead heart if it flops? Why bother? I'll tell you why.
For the moment when the steam curls off the black crust like a strip
of pure sunlight & the hard oily flesh breaks open like a poem
pulling out of its own stubborn complexity a single glistening truth
& who can help but wonder at the mystery of the human heart when you
hold a slice up to the light in all its absurd splendor & I tell you
we must risk everything for the raw recipe of our passion.


My Name

Mark Strand

One night when the lawn was a golden green
and the marbled moonlit trees rose like fresh memorials
in the scented air, and the whole countryside pulsed
with the chirr and murmur of insects, I lay in the grass
feeling the great distances open above me, and wondered
what I would become—and where I would find myself—
and though I barely existed, I felt for an instant
that the vast star-clustered sky was mine, and I heard
my name as if for the first time, heard it the way
one hears the wind or the rain, but faint and far off
as though it belonged not to me but to the silence
from which it had come and to which it would go.



Moon

Mark Strand


Open the book of evening to the page
where the moon, always the moon, appears

between two clouds, moving so slowly that hours
will seem to have passed before you reach the next page

where the moon, now brighter, lowers a path
to lead you away from what you have known

into the places where what you had wished for happens,
its lone syllable like a sentence poised

at the edge of sense, waiting for you to say its name
once more as you lift your eyes from the page

and close the book, still feeling what it was like
to dwell in that light, that sudden paradise of sound.


and there's always Merwin...

To the Dust of the Road

W.S. Merwin

And in the morning you are up again
with the way leading through you for a while
longer if the wind is motionless when
the cars reach where the asphalt ends a mile
or so below the main road and the wave
you rise into is different every time
and you are one with it until you have
made your way up to the top of your climb
and brightened in that moment of that day
and then you turn as when you rose before
in fire or wind from the ends of the earth
to pause here and you seem to drift away
on into nothing to lie down once more
until another breath brings you to birth

In case anyone is interested, Fastlane is out on DVD. I never thought I'd see it, so this makes me happy.

Amazon has it as well as Deep Discount ($43) - the whole series is packaged together.

It's really irresistable, cause it's so rare to get this kind of dumpage. I dragged myself away from my work computer today when the sun came out, for a walk around the block with my dog and my camera. I also got out to the pond park near my house last week for a short photo shoot.

I'm starting to feel the date of my 2nd foot surgery creeping closer, and I waffle between not wanting to bother going out to shoot and enthusiasm. Going out was worth it today, for nothing but the joy of taking a walk with my dog, which I haven't done sine August (except the one time when I snapped my stitches - ahem). Walking with my girl is such a fun, bonding experience - it's just a happy thing to do. She frolicked, even on a 6 ft lead.

Photos of the frozen pond, frolicking dog, and snow are at my site, http://riesling.smugmug.com under Landscapee > Seattle Snow 2008. Oh, and there's a shot of Sammy modeling his inherited blue and white parka.

I've been taking movies of the dogs, mostly Sammy, navigating snow higher than he is in the backyard. He walked on the crusty top of the snow, but would sink in every 2 or 3 steps. It was great exercise for him, and I laughed so hard I was crying.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

I just popped over to the Ten Inch Hero blog and they've announced that the DVD will be out in the US in February 2009! Blockbuster is handling the release.

So great news for Jensen Ackles fans!

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The brilliant and talented Gwyn-r has graciously agreed to host a new story for me at her website.

The story is a crossover with the Paul Walker and Vin Diesel characters from Varsity Blues and Knockaround Guys. Admittedly, I was impressed by the pretty in these movies, but I got through (most of) the movies because I was taken by their characters, and this grew into wanting to know what happened to them after the movies' ends. I also have a fondness for the story because I discovered an interest in football while researching this story (do not be concerned - there's so little football in this story that if you blink you'll miss it - I promise!).

The story is in PDF format, because it's way too long to be in HTML. Acrobat Reader can be downloaded free.

If you haven't seen The Fast and The Furious, I recommend that you experience this pretty and oh! so slashy movie. The fourth in the series is out in 2009, again with both Walker and Diesel.

My email is at the end of the PDF for feedback purposes, and commenting here is great, as well, of course.

Huge thanks to Gwyn for hosting, and of course, for editing.

If you read the story, I hope you enjoy it!