lbeefus

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #158: Built in 1889 in Port Townsend, for a city that would never fulfill it's hopes of becoming a major seaport, the Hastings Building's upper floors remain vacant, except for the birds that frequent the spired cupola and the iron cresting

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #157: The blackbirds in Lake View Cemetery swoop in all at once in summer, as they did back in July, when I took this photo. While it’s possible that this bird is some kind of psychic spy or witch’s familiar, I’m pretty sure the white eyes are due to the fact I caught it mid-blink. Birds have a concealed third eyelid that closes occasionally to clean the eye. According to Francis LeSourd’s obituary, he worked for the Department of Justice, and was heavily involved in the New Deal, as well as the Social Security Act of 1935. He also pushed hard for Yesler Terrace, an early racially integrated public-housing community in the 40s and 50s, and fought for the hiring of the first black bus drivers in Seattle in the mid-forties. At age 90, he was still advocating for public housing in Seattle.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #156: A single Greg Stackhouse, not native to Iceland, wanders Djúpalónssandur beach, at the foot of Snæfellsjökull (the same mountain where Jules Verne’s adventurers found passage in Journey to the Center of the Earth. The scrap metal in the foreground once belonged to the British trawler, the Epine GY7, which traveled here from Great Grimsby, only to strike the rocks to the East of this beach on the 13th of March, 1948.  14 men were lost, including the Skipper, Alfred Loftis, who shouted “I do not mind what happens to me as long as the boys are all right. Look after the boys!" before being swept away by a large wave. The pebbles of this beach are lava pebbles, called Djúpalónsperlur, or “The Pearls of Djúpalón”.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #155: This is Castle Stalker, in an inlet off of Loch Linnhe, which Elizabeth Brammer and I drove past after a long day of navigating the moors between narrow stone walls in a car with a right-side steering column. It wasn’t on the map, so it was a surprise to see. It was built in 1388 by the Lords of Lorn, the Stewarts, until they lost it in a drunken bet to Clan Campbell. It changed hands a few times after that, there were a few murders, etc, etc, and it was fully restored between 1965 and 1975, although it has no regular residents. It was featured in Monty Python and the Holy Grail as The Castle of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #154: Dubai, shot from atop the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world (for now). I have complicated feelings about Dubai. It isn’t my country, so I try hard not to bring a Westerner’s judgement to the place, but the mix of wealth and poverty, along with strict security and open racism can give a person whiplash. Still, a number of the poorer people I talked to were thrilled to be there, having come from less stable regions. The fountain at the base, in Burj Lake, was designed by the same company that designed the Bellagio’s fountain in Vegas. In a sense, Dubai feels a lot like Vegas times a thousand. Beautiful interiors in fantastic buildings, surrounded by construction, concrete, heat and sand.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #153: That’s actor/improviser Nicholas Schell, shortly after we returned from the top of Arthur’s Seat (derived from the Gaelic Àrd-na-Said, or Height of Arrows). Robert Louis Stevenson called it, “a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design”.  We were resting near the ruins of St. Anthony’s Chapel, and Nick’s performed enough Shakespeare that I couldn’t help but make the connection.  The pose is more Hamlet, but given the location, I think we’ve got to go with MacBeth: Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #152:  The New Parliment House in Edinburgh. The neoclassical building was erected between 1826 and 1829, as a school, with some funding from King George IV, for the Royal High School. When the school relocated in 1968, the school’s great hall was re-purposed into this debating chamber, as Scotland was proposing a Scottish National Assembly. This referendum failed in 1979, and the chamber was left unused. When a similar devolution referendum passed in 1997, many wanted to use the chamber, but State Secretary Donald Dewer was reported to believe that Calton Hill, where it sits, was a “National Shibboleth”, and a new building was constructed. The Under-Secretary, Lord Sewel, is quoted as saying, “Many people understandably assumed that the Old Royal High School building on Calton Hill would be the automatic choice for the site. As I say, that is perfectly understandable given that it was prepared for a similar purpose, to house a parliament in the 1970s. During the wasted years of the previous Administration, it remained a symbol of hope in Scotland. Clearly, there is great sentimental attachment to it in the hearts of the people of Scotland. However, time has moved on since then, in much the same way as our vision of a parliament has evolved.” Greg, Liz and I were lucky enough to get to wonder around the room as it was currently being used for an audio art installation, which was neat, but had no apparent connection to the building.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #151: This is a Basalt Arch off the Dyrhólaey Peninsula. A lot of Iceland’s unique rock formations are due to relatively large amount of basalt found on the surface. The igneous rock is found in vast quantities inside the earth, but it tends to only be found on the surface in places where volcanic activity brings it to the surface. Iceland is a mid-ocean ridge which has been lifted to the surface, so we get to see a lot of features that are normally hidden beneath our oceans.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #150:  Reynisfjara beach, shot from Dyrhólaey Peninsula in Iceland (the same place as yesterday’s photo). The columns are formed from basalt. You can see the Reynisdrangar Needles in the background: legend has it that these were formed when trolls tried to drag a three masted ship back to land, but were turned to stone when the sun arose. No word on whether any hobbits or wizards were involved

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #149: This was taken near Vík í Mýrdal, south of Iceland’s  Mýrdalsjökull ice cap, from the Dyrhólaey Peninsula.  The central feature is Búrfell, which is a basalt tuya.  Tuyas are formed when a volcano erupts through thick ice (or a glacier): the ice cools the lava more quickly than normal, which gives them the steep appearance.  They’re pretty rare, as they require a combination of glaciers and volcanoes, although we have a couple in the Northwest, both in Oregon and in British Columbia.  Another cool fact: Inside of the tuya is one of Iceland’s largest hydroelectric power stations: it was built in 1972 to support the Alcan Aluminum Factory, and continues to produce a lot of power today.  The tuya is full of tunnels to support the station, with very little apparent from the outside.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #148: I caught this dove sitting in a tree, just off my parents’ lawn in Norris, Tennessee. I’m not great at identifying birds, but I believe this is a Mourning Dove.  I originally thought it was a White Winged Dove, based on photos in my guide, but their range doesn’t usually extend this far north: and my dad says it’s more likely a Mourning Dove. So there you go!

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #147: I found this old barn driving around on backroads of the Smoky Mountain foothills, in a place called Dunn Hollow. There are a lot of great, dilapidated barns in the area, but its also the kind of place that I take “No Trespassing” signs pretty seriously, so I was lucky to find one so close to the road.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #146: This is the Pump House, out in the woods, near the abandoned Northern State Hospital. It’s supposed to be the most haunted building. It was definitely creepy, but I didn’t see anything that wasn’t explained by years of neglect following a long period of being part of a mental asylum for the poor... which is enough for me!

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #146: This is the slaughterhouse at the abandoned Northern State Mental hospital.  I love abandoned places like this. I’ll post some photos of this place, along with other places I’ve been recently over the next few weeks.  What’s left of the hospital is still accessible near Sedro-Wooley. Several of the buildings were built with patient labor, and there was an on-site farm that used the same.  Creepy Fact:  When the hospital was finally closed, 204 containers of cremated remains were still stored in the morgue. The hospital, which had its own crematorium, had failed to bury them.  The unclaimed ashes are now buried at Hawthorne cemetery in Mount Vernon. The on-site cemetery contains only a single tombstone: for some reason all the other tombstones have been removed.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #145: Meet Foxy, the Jack Russell Terrier adopted by my parents. She doesn’t quite have the side eye that Jane Boston, our Boston Terrier, has, but she’s pulling a bit off of it here, while sitting in the front seat of my parents’ SUV.

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #144: Kent Whipple was kind enough to work with Jeannine and I on our “Bad Faeries” project, in the role of our fifth Faerie, the Mansplainer Faerie. We had a lot of fun during this shoot, and Kent was an incredibly good sport. Also, the fabric Jeannine found for Kent’s costume was fantastic and a lot of fun to shoot with!  This project is coming along well: We need to reshoot our first couple of Faeries, now that we know a lot more about what we’re doing, and schedule some more shoots: hopefully, we’ll start to have a good collection sometime next year!

[lbeefus]

Image of the Day #143: Jeannine and Jana Hutchison somehow convinced Elizabeth Westermann and Cheryl Platz to be their personal hair and make-up dolls last night.  That’s the hand that Elizabeth puts in puppets.