Storyboard - Indiana Dunes - 7/25/2011

Having hit the Indiana Dunes area twice during our most recent trip, we actually have some small story to both on the way and on the way back. Unfortunately, the former was primarily in the dark of night so while I would have delighted in capturing some of the Gary-area blight, I was denied that pleasure by lack of ambient lighting.

Sunset on the first day wasn't QUITE what I would have hoped for. A pendulous ruddy sphere backing up the distant skyline would have been optimal but it was not to be. Luckily, there are always more sunsets. At least until there aren't.

From Indiana Dunes 7-22-2011

Humans are such clean and responsible creatures.

From Indiana Dunes 7-22-2011

This, above all else, is the ultimate in evidence that Laura drives MUCH, MUCH too fast.

From Indiana Dunes 7-22-2011

And this cooling tower is not at ALL ominous at night. Actually, considering the area this is in, the entire neighborhood is a bit on the ominous side, but I digress.

From Indiana Dunes 7-22-2011

And now we move on from the lowlands to the highlands. Mt. Baldy is the highest dune in the park. It used to be second highest but they mined the first one until... well, until it was literally wiped from the face of the Earth.

I love all manner of contrasts, especially those between the steely cold of mankind and the delicate touch of nature.

From Indiana Dunes, Mt. Baldy - 7-25-2011

Quite a desert though the high tension lines give it that lived-in look.

From Indiana Dunes, Mt. Baldy - 7-25-2011

This is the delightful landscape that awaits you from the top of the dune. Who wouldn't want to climb up here to see THIS!!!?

From Indiana Dunes, Mt. Baldy - 7-25-2011

Such a lonely-feeling view in this direction. Based on recent history, this tree isn't going to make it long.

From Indiana Dunes, Mt. Baldy - 7-25-2011

Boy. All I can say is looking at this picture.... why is that woman hanging out with me. Jeeze. I'm afright. And what happened to my face.... ?

From Indiana Dunes, Mt. Baldy - 7-25-2011

I love the beach. Everybody's so interested and excited to be there.

From Indiana Dunes, Mt. Baldy - 7-25-2011

Anyway, so ends the Indiana Dunes and so ends the Michigan trip. I must say that looking back, we Humans sure are filthy. Find a spot on a lake and what do we do? We tromp it all down until they have to put up fences and build huge industrial complexes to belch out soot. On the other hand, I sure do love electricity!

Books: “Lost in Translation” – Eva Hoffman [1990]

The back of the book describes it as ‘graceful and profound’ and I will say simply that that is far too succinct a summation to be absolutely accurate. While the book does have a lot of interesting things to say about society and language and the complexities of moving between them it lacks a strong thread to bind the whole together. The narrative is a mind-bogglingly featureless one that fails to ever really grasp the reader’s attention. I found my mind wandering every few paragraphs and it was a force of will to actually affix my attention to it long enough to finish. No doubt my failure to find the core of the novel was at least in part due to my inability to read it for more than a few minutes at a time.

Putting aside the book’s merits as a whole, it did still manage to inspire new ideas though these appeared in very small increments primarily in accordance with the maximum attention span of the reader. The author moves from Poland as a young child and has only a tiny introduction to the English language. All of her internal dialog is in Polish and it is interesting to see how this colors the new world she’s living in. It emphasizes strongly the impact that the language in which we’re immersed has on our way of thinking and our way of interacting with others. As time goes on and she acquires more of a North American attitude her words too change both internal and external until her Polish language roots are no longer sufficient to sum up the whole that she has become as a person.

The other small hook in this novel lies in the cultural contrasts. She sums up well the “lostness” of American identify in which everyone seems to be pushing for more and more and more yet still feels they never have enough. While her more European background seems to be more placid, more content with the world as it is without having to constantly put such herculean effort into competing with everyone around you. These two combating viewpoints are a source of constant debate among her Polish friends until she too finally accedes to the American need to push.

So in summation, the book is a lot to digest and defied my expectations upon beginning it. It is a work to be studied and pondered upon rather than enjoyed. There is some small possibility of both, but the reader will be hard pressed to find an appropriate stopping point along the prosy primrose path to ponder the author’s intent since the book boasts three long chapters of 100 pages each and no real breaks anywhere in between where one can take a breath and internalize what has been presented.

Storyboard - Muskegon, Michigan / USS SIlversides - 7/24/2011

Ahhhh, yes, wonderful Muskegon, Michigan, the furthest northern destination during our recent trip to the north. Like many of its larger coastal neighbors, Muskegeon is a city ruled mostly by water and the pictures from that day reflect a bit of aquatic ennui with the whole wave-tossed shoreline concept. The primary photographic survivors from that day are from the USS Silversides, struck from the Naval register in 1969 and serving as a tourist attraction in Chicago in the 80s and currently residing in Muskegeon.

Anyway, enough random background and on with the photos.

The "bloody sea birds" as Monty Python might say are almost too accustomed to the presence of humans. They sit quietly and wait for you to take their pictures despite the quite real possibility that their souls are being stolen in the process.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

OK, so I apparently lied a little bit. All these pictures aren't from the Silversides. After watching the sun set at "Captain Jack's", local salty purveyor of fine spirits of a distilled and generally happy nature, we wandered out into the inky darkness to see what we could possibly find to look at. As it turns out, dockside night photographic opportunities are far from shabby. The U.S. Coast Guard completely failed to kick us out of their domain during our visit.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

The southern lighthouse, taken at 13s exposure, makes an eerie subject. Just wish I'd bothered to actually drag my tripod out rather than having to snap ridiculous pictures with the camera resting on the ground.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

Ah yes, and now it's the light of day and the Silversides. I won't bore you with stats. If you want them, that's what Wikipedia is for.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

I like this one only because of the bubbly green glass of the light in the extreme foreground. It's an odd contrast.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

Texturally interesting, I suppose. Not quite enough to inspire me to a massive stint of photographing just for visual tactility.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

Leaving the glorious light of day, we enter the depressing bowels of the beast. I just stepped through the hatch and I have a sense of foreboding.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

I love the play of shadows on the various curved surfaces.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

Some sense of the close quarters aboard ship. I'm fairly certain I would not want to wake up to such a view, especially given that the torpedo tubes would be literally at my feet and I'd be a very short trip from bunk to open sea in a loud WHOOSHING sound.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

This is the point where one realizes that the lighting on board, despite requiring 1/10 of a second shutter speeds, is probably many times brighter than it would be when the ship is in service. This dull red beacon probably gives some indication of the real lighting circumstances.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

Yes, the S is missing but I SWEAR it wasn't me.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

I wonder if the windings on the wheel are standard issue or an addition of the crew?

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

Must admit to being fairly struck by these copper conduits leading who knows where.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

All in all, the place makes one feel more than a bit claustrophobic and the iron grates over most of the exits don't do much to assuage that feeling.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

Controls so simple that even the military can't screw them up. Stop. Start. Run. Easy enough.

From Muskegon, MI 7-24-2011

Alright, well that's enough of that. You get the idea. The day did serve to teach me that Laura is a huge fan of the submariners and I was not denied some fairly unique photographic opportunities. 'twas a day carved from the bleached bones of naughty angels, to coin a phrase.

On Life

So honestly, what the hell is the point of it all? To be clear, this isn’t a nihilistic diatribe about the hopelessness of existence but in actually it is exactly the opposite. At this exact moment, I have so many directions that I could take my free time that I’m more than a bit at a loss as to which to choose. Seriously! Look… right now I could be….

* …downloading, for free, the greatest literature in the history of mankind. Now more than ever the wisdom of the ages is banging on our doors waiting for us to consume it. Best of all, it doesn’t cost us a blasted thing. In years past you would have at least had to go to the bookstore but now the whole of history is here for you. Covet the Library of Alexandria all you want, you still had to unroll the scrolls.

* … listening to the most soul-searing music ever made that speaks to us at a visceral level unthinkable fifty years ago. As with the literature, I can do most of this for free if I choose wisely.

* … making contact with complex and amazing human minds that have a lifetime of experience to add to my own. More than ever, humans are just completely and utterly interesting. Because the world has opened to us, we all have a little something to add. We’re not digging in the dirt any longer, trying to scrape out a simple living. We’re all a part of the larger world and we all have a unique perspective that isn’t rooted in the hedgerows and byways of the countryside.

* … creating and sharing something new (and hopefully interesting) with the rest of humanity. It is boggling to think that 100 years ago it would have been nearly impossible to reach the same audience that is accessible to us today by a simple web page. Every day someone from some far-flung clime reads the random burbling on my blog. That would have been unthinkable a century ago. My tiny voice would have gone only as far as my ability to print and hand out fliers.

All this brings me around to a simple question, however. What exactly IS the point of any of it? We have so much available to us. We can go so far and see so much yet what is really the right thing to do? Should I pursue a simple lifestyle based in making myself as happy as possible or is it really necessary to create something new, to contribute to the total body of work of humanity to have any sort of meaningful existence? Is it enough to toil on mindlessly and promote the position of one’s progeny (by earning enough money to send them to Harvard?) or must one do more in order to be truly meaningful? Why live? What to do while we’re here? Such heady questions with such diverse and fluffy answers.

Storyboard - Douglas, Michigan - 7/23/2011

To place things in a small and easily-digested nutshell, Douglas Michigan seems to be one of those delightful little towns that you might see illustrated in a Norman Rockwell painting.  Sure, most of its charm is manufactured in order to attract tourists but Rockwell would probably still spend an evening there. 

As usual, in no particular order.  So when we arrived I had determined that perhaps it was best to put the camera away and just enjoy the quaint little shoppes.  This lasted for all of about 7 minutes, which I must say is a record for me.  So don't hold back on the applause.

One thing I've noticed is that when Laura and I travel, we somehow manage to come across the most interesting random crap.  This time it was an olde tyme baseball game between the local Douglas...onians?... and some random non-local team.  At any rate, during one point in the game they broke out in delighted HUZZAHs! which made me think of work.  Not that that's a bad thing mind you, but it was still worth noting.  Anyway, here's the umpire discussing something over the somewhat primitive water cooler.



As with most towns in Michigan, this one of course sports a large, and in this case, very placid lake.




It's funny that as many pictures as I produce during a given trip and as many pictures as Laura produces that very, VERY few of them actually feature the both of us. This is all the more reinforcement, I suppose, for my policy of always taking pictures of photographers wherever I go. They are a far underrepresented demographic in photography. In a rare happenstance Laura and I appear in the same picture, thanks mostly to my long arms and willingness to rattle off 58 pictures until one of them just HAPPENS to have both of us in it.



Ah yes, there was a Catalpa tree too. Did I ever tell you the story of the second time Laura and I met? Well suffice to say, she still has the "magic bean" that I plucked so manfully from the tree under which we sat.



At some point I feel that I'm eventually going to run out of new colors of wasp to photograph but not yet it seems. In orange this gent looks a bit unique. The hornets of Beech Grove would be proud, I'm sure.



OK, so one thing that Douglas Michigan had in abundance was absolutely gorgeous Asiatic lilies. Makes me want to grow my own again.



And yes, the sun-behind-the-lilies motif really caught my attention.



Alright, well that's it for the quick trip through Douglas Michigan on a very hot and very sunny July day. A nice time was had by all. You should visit if you're ever in the neighborhood.

Storyboard - Benton Harbor, Michigan - 7/23/2011

Every time that I leave the state, I'm convinced at some point that next time I absolutely MUST plan something.  Invariably, we leap into the car and surge forth into the unknown asking at the first turn... "OK, Left or Right?" and from there the die is cast.  A semi-random selection of turns later and we have arrived at our destination of.... who the fuck knows.  We have yet to have to sleep in the car and have yet to be bored.  It is approximately at this point that I say, let's just leave our vacations as they are.  Random assortments of who the hell knows what are, after all, what Tiggers do best... or something.


So, Benton Harbor, in no particular order.  And, not necessarily really having much to do with Benton Harbor anyway.

It's a very beachy sort of place.  It struck me walking through that it's a different sort of beach than one is normally used to.  In California or Florida, it's hot and beachy all year long.  Sun, sun, sun and maybe, on their worst day, a bit of rain.  But Michigan is a WHOLE other kettle of kippers.  This place is gloriously sun-baked one part of the year and a hell-hole of ice and snow and wind the other part.  So when the summer hits Michigan, I can't help but imagine that the denizens of that fine state appreciate it in a manner vastly unparalleled by any of their more southern cohorts.  Anyway, I digress, this is supposed to be about pictures.


We start with an image that doesn't have a ton to say for itself except that I love the layout.  This kid looks like he feels REALLY fast.



This is your standard cliche ocean pic, notable only because I'm not really sure about the purpose of the fence. It seems like all beaches have this. Perhaps it's just to keep people off the vegetation that's trying hard to keep the beach together.



It was, as I recall, a bit of an overcast day. I like how vegetable, mineral, sky and sea all live together in this shot with all having something to say.



Yeah, I know, cliche lighthouse pic. I can't help think of the lonely lighthouse keeper when I see such things but I'm fairly certain those days are long gone. The keeper has gone home to nurse his family of 57 cats while a computer keeps the light on.



In case you can't tell from the album contents, I was just FASCINATED by this bit of clover. In the midst of this quarter-mile long slab of concrete, this fluff of clover gave the proverbial middle-finger to all that man-made schlock and made its home right in the middle of a thousand tons of rock. If this doesn't say nature can kick your ass for you, I'm not sure what does.



Yeah, too many things to say about this picture. Make up your own commentary.



Laura: "It looks like that guy's sitting there naked."
Sorry, no such luck... maybe if you ask nicely...



So, as we walked past this on our way back to the car, we heard several women talking nervously about this fountain as if it were about to erupt into a torrent of magma. As it turned out, it did erupt, but not into magma so much as a soul-scraping deluge of water.

Random Bits and Pieces for 7/31/2011

I started this particular ‘bits and pieces’ feature under the advice of some wise person or other that if you don’t make note of what you learn in a day then you’re likely just to forget it again. While this is good advice to be sure, the sad result is the grim realization that I just don’t learn nearly enough interesting things in a day. This is tribute either to my rather uninformative lifestyle or else my poor note-taking abilities. Either way, here’s what I have in my log of bits and pieces since last I wrote on the topic.

As anyone who knows me is well aware, I have a fairly incestuous relationship with the English language and I pick up new words and utterances like the average person picks up loose change on the street. That is to say that I ignore everything under $.25 but covet the rest as if it were a foundling kitten. This past week while tromping through the last remaining bits of “Lost in Translation” I was reminded of a couple of old favorites. The first is abecedarian, a very nearly self-explanatory word meaning arranged alphabetically (as you might note from the a-be-ce-d prefix). It also serves to describe something which is elementary in nature. Next we have a word from that long list of German words that describe the world more succinctly and accurately than any of their English counterparts. Weltanschauung (the entire worldview of an individual or group) joins leitmotiv (a dominant or central theme), Schadenfreude (enjoyment of the suffering of others) and Zeitgeist (spirit of a particular time in history) in my list of delightfully useful utterances inherited from a close linguistic cousin.

Moving onward, this weekend I found myself doing some lighter reading than I’m normally accustomed to in the form of the “Julie and Julia” book which somewhat recently found its way into movie form. The author does tend to be much easier to digest than my previous book choice, but still doesn’t leave one totally without items of note. Specifically, I was made acquainted with the potato ricer, a device that I can only describe as a very large garlic press for a potato. Those louvered glass windows you crank open and closed and that are generally reserved for locations on lakes and other bodies of water apparently bear the more formal moniker of “jalousie windows.” And lastly, I was read about, though still remain nauseated by, the delightfully meaty flavor of bone marrow. This last serves only all the more to fortify my growing vegetarian tendencies but one cannot help but notice when someone describes a dish as having the flavor of “life itself”. Her comparison of the experience to a cannibal eating the heart of his rival to gain his strength is convincing, but not exactly in the direction that was probably intended. Oh, and her brief discussion of Samuel Pepys did cause me to go and obtain his unabridged diaries on the Kindle for the ripe and reasonable sum of absolutely nothing. If nothing else, it is my sincere hope that the Kindle will make us all read more classics.

Leaving the literary world behind, I was reminded this weekend of a small fact that I tend to forget in the world of personal interactions. In general, when a person in my acquaintance leaves the realm of my daily interaction, I quickly get wrapped up in the day-to-day and they pass into history. From time to time I realize just how regrettable that is because it is those old relationships that are the most valuable, the most well formed. To use an unflattering analogy, an old friend is like an old cheese or a well-fermented wine. Not only do you know them best but they know you best and when they pass on into history and are forgotten, they take a piece of you with them. As much as we like to be independent and stand on our own, those around us really do help to define us. All of our best times are spent in the company of others and if we let them trickle away then a part of those good times goes with them. At any rate, that’s my observation on the matter.

What I Learned on one of my Summer Vacations

Last weekend Laura and I made haste unto the north in search of milder climes and more amusing locales. I will not deny that we found both but nonetheless there were certain lessons learned from this trip unto the random unknown. I will enumerate them here for the benefit of those who are unfamiliar in no particular order.

Always eat somewhere that you’ve never heard of before. While there is great benefit in knowing what you’re getting, the unknown by far promises greater reward. Our first stop of the weekend was at a known chain only because I was desperate for calories but thereafter we kept fairly truly to the random and unheard of. In almost every case, we were pleasantly surprised though it has called to mind a few simple rules.

* If the place is almost empty when you get there, don’t break their streak by helping make it less empty. The wisdom of the masses applies. If no one else is there, you shouldn’t be either.
* Any place that says “Casual Attire is Welcome” is too damn pretentious to eat at. In fact, any time a restaurant says that anything is “welcome”, if you ARE that anything, don’t bother. You’re clearly at the fringe. It’s much easier to walk away while you’re still in the parking lot than it is to get up after they’ve started fluffing the napkins. Follow your gut.
* Never order anything ethnic at a place that isn’t itself ethnic. If you’re ordering the stir fry or fajitas at a place that isn’t either Chinese or Mexican exclusively, then you are, very likely, fucked. You wouldn’t have a TV repairman take out your appendix so don’t ask a cook at Chez Steve’s to make you pot stickers. If most of the menu is grilled meats, don’t order something sitting out on the fringe. Stick to what the cook’s good at.

The rule here seems to be that most places are good at one or two things. If you deviate from that thing, you’re just asking for it. As the saying goes, dance with who brung ya. Don’t ask a sushi chef to make you a hamburger.

This weekend we ventured into the unknown without so much as a single personal computer betwixt us. It seems in retrospect that this was a mistake. Don’t get me wrong here. Disconnecting is a good thing. No work emails. No outside worries. Those are all benefits. However, I couldn’t help but feel that I could have benefited from some good time to simply sit down and vomit out the day’s happenings onto paper. I have a great deal of difficulty relaxing on vacation and spending a couple of hours sitting somewhere quiet writing about the day would have been exceptionally beneficial. The additional connectedness would have doubtless had a down side but it would have also allowed me to purge myself of any lingering thoughts in a permanent form and would have also left a much better textual record of the trip. So I think it’s important to disconnect, but not disconnect TOO much.

I still remain undecided on the overall strategy for travel. Part of me nags loudly that one should completely explore a given location. That the best goal is to find a spot and get to know it for an extended period. The other nagging belief tells me that it’s best to widen one’s experience as broadly as possible. That every single brown sign bearing an arrow should be explored and that one should miss no opportunity because it’s unlikely that one will be back again. As usual, it is the eternal argument between vacationing broadly and vacationing deeply. I don’t claim to have an answer but I do recognize the difficulty.

One thing that occurs to me is the importance of using the opening day of enthusiasm to one’s advantage. Our last trip didn’t quite make it as far north as I would have liked and I attribute that at least in part to failure to seize upon the enthusiasm of the first day. Rather than punching manfully through to the far north of the state, we somewhat lazily drifted northward and by the time we’d reached the northern extremity of our trip, the enthusiasm had drained somewhat from both of us. This makes me believe in the importance of choosing an aggressive destination on the first day and making sure to achieve it so that the more indolent days of recreation which follow can flow more naturally and more relaxedly without any concerns or regrets.

Lastly, I have been made mindful of the depth of small towns in America. When we stopped in Chesterton, Indiana for breakfast, I expected a small and lazy town, not overly filled with great ideas or personal depth of feeling. Upon exit, however, I was forced to remark to Laura that I was rightly astonished. Whether it is the amazing lilies of Douglas, Michigan or the simple wisdom of Chesteron, Indiana, I will admit that I have a new respect for the simple value of small-town America. These simple realizations make me want to hop from town to town across the state and experience all there is to be had, to listen to the simple, homey conversations and draw firmly and satisfyingly on all they have to contribute to life. I would very nearly argue that the true value of a vacation “away” is not to be had only in the far-flung reaches of a neighboring state, but probably living right around the corner.

Random Bits and Pieces for 7/18/2011

I recently decided that I needed to round out my education a bit… well, strike that. I decided a couple decades ago that I needed to round out my education a bit. Pursuant to this goal, I did a quick search to find a reading list to provide a grounding in the classics and humanities. One particularly helpful website not only provided a list but also suggested that the very first thing one should read before reading anything is the somewhat circularly titled, “How to Read a Book.” So of course I immediately purchased a copy…. For my Kindle. It promises to have a lot to say on the seemingly simple topic.

Something in my day jogged a recollection of something I’d read in a book a few weeks ago. The author was describing the origin of the Mafia. My source on this is not entirely credible on this topic or any other, but he described the mob as starting out as a simple group of inventive individuals who did little else but “run numbers.” These simple lotteries were easy and profitable and nobody got hurt. It wasn’t until the state decided to outlaw the numbers racket and replace it with a state-run lottery system that the mob turned to other more violent practices to support themselves. This could be utter garbage, but the story appeals to the cynical part of my brain that thinks most of the problems of society are in fact caused by the greed and ignorance of those in charge.

For some long while I’d had the sense that the process of adoption was tough. That position was fortified in my mind upon learning that it requires a significant course of self-improvement equivalent to two semesters at college. It is a vastly cliché statement to make, but it boggles my mind that the process of bringing an otherwise unwanted child into your home to care for it is so many orders of magnitude more difficult than the almost careless manner in which you can have a new child of your own.

I’m a man of many potential hobbies and I learned today that a simple model rocket can be had for a mere pittance at $20. For $100 you can purchase a nose-cone with a video camera in it. I’m hopeful (as is my wallet) that if I put this nugget of information down in this blog and then never refer to it again that I can shove this fact far enough from the forefront of my mind that I won’t go drop a few hundred dollars on rocketry equipment on a whim. So much to do, so little time.

Storyboard - The Celery Bog 7/14/11

I will have to say that the celery bog in West Lafayette Indiana was one of the most prolific photo locations I've been to in a long time. To this point....


The bees were absolutely fruitful beyond reason.

From 2011-07-14

I have trouble with movement in nature. The apparent motion of this bee's wings both makes me happy and sad. I know, however, that if I'd managed to set the shutter to catch this fully that it would have looked like any other still photo.

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This one makes me wonder.... which was yellow first? The bee or the flower? Either way, intense color.

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It's not clear to me what the relationship is between the ants and the aphids here.

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Spring is the season when young minds turn to...

From 2011-07-14

This is one of my favorites. It's so simple yet so filled with potential. No clue what this will hatch into, but I love the picture in its contrast and its symbolism.

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The contrasts here are marvelous.

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One of my favorite photos ever. Nature is amazing in that it provides that long, slender proboscis so that the butterfly can seek out the deepest bits of sweetness from the flower. Amazing.

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Oh, those eyes.

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This is a pretty standard photographer's shot, but I still love the contrasts here.

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Another of nature's marvels. The monarch larvae is provided with two heads complete with antennae to confuse potential predators.

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