Sleeping Lady

#15

01.15.10

Mt. Susitna is a smallish mountain that sits alone out in the Cook Inlet about 40 miles to the northwest of Anchorage.  The Dena'ina, literally "The People", who inhabited what is now Anchorage for hundreds, if not thousands, of years called it "little mountain" in their language.  Most people living in Anchorage call it "Sleeping Lady" because of how it appears to be a human figure lying supine with arms over chest.  It reminds me of a similar appearing mountain near Mt. Timpanogos in the Provo, Utah area.

I took this photo from the Earthquake Park vantage, just off Northern Lights Boulevard in west Anchorage.  The park is named in memory of the 9.2 earthquake of 1964 that wrecked the city, and pounded many coastal towns and villages for hundreds of miles.  It was very cold when I shot this, right around 0 degrees Fahrenheit.  The wind was really whipping, so I could only be out of my car for about 60 seconds before I'd have to get back in and warm up the hands and camera.  I've learned my lesson about shooting iPhone photos in the cold by now.  Sadly, I've not yet learned the lesson about wearing a coat and gloves whenever I leave the house.

I like the featured photo for the sublime orangey sunset and a view of the icy inlet.  I took some other photos of Mt. Susitna, and also the Alaska Range to the west and north.  The north end of the Alaska Range contains Denali, a.k.a. "the big one", a.k.a. Mt. McKinley, which rises to the highest point in North America.  That mountain is about 350 miles to the north of Anchorage, but we can see it clearly around 15 days a year when the weather is good.  It is such a massive mountain that it creates it's very own weather pattern; so even if it's nice in Anchorage, Denali might be completely socked-in with clouds.

Here are some of those additional photos taken of Mt. Susitna, the Alaska Range to the west, and Denali and Mt. Foraker to the north.  Foraker is just 14 miles away from Denali, and is the 4th highest peak in North America.

Mt. Susitna with Raven in Flight

Mt. Susitna close-up

 

Southern Alaska Range

West across the Cook Inlet

 

Central Alaska Range

Mt. Foraker (left), Mt. McKinley / Denali (right)

I know these images are super-grainy; but quite honestly I love them.  They kind of look like impressionist paintings by the pointillist Georges Seurat, and the colors kind of remind me of Armand Guillaumin's Sunset at Ivry hanging in the Musee d'Orsay.  The close-up of the Sleeping Lady shows snow being whipped up in the wind on its central crest.  

 

 Sunset at Ivry, Armand Guillaumin, 1873

I used the Camera Genius app on the iPhone to shoot the last three images posted here.  I prefer that app to the Camera Zoom app because in addition to a zoom feature, it has guide-lines, anti-shake, a photo-timer, burst setting, and a "big button" feature which is very nice.  With that you can touch anywhere on the screen and the camera will shoot, rather than having to hit the small screen button.  There is even a sound-capture feature, but I've not tried that to date.  I suppose I use Camera Genius third-most commonly after the native iPhone camera app and the Photogene digital processing app, for what it's worth.

I chose Sleeping Lessons off the album 'Wincing the Night Away' by The Shins for today's soundtrack in honor of the Sleeping Lady.  I adore the Shins.  James Mercer is their lead writer and vocalist, and he's simply wonderful.  The band formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but is now based out of Portland, Oregon.  They were touring with none other than Modest Mouse when they got signed by none other than Sub Pop.  (I find it amazing how my musical tastes and preferences are so intimately inter-connected.)  The Shins craft some of the most intelligent and artistic indie music these days, and I rate them amongst the best current bands, with a chance to break in to my All-Time Top 5 if they can put out another two or three stellar albums to match their current discography.  

This song can be interpreted many different ways, as any great song might be.  I interpret it as a rally cry to think for yourself, and to not conform to anyone else's ideas of how you should think, act or live.  There seems to be a lot of French Revolution imagery in the song.  The lyrics really are lovely.  My favorite passage is:

And glow,
Glow,
Melt and flow,
Eviscerate your fragile frame,
And spill it out on the ragged floor,

A thousand different versions of yourself.

I think this means to break the image of what you think you're supposed to be; or what "the old guard" thinks you should be... and be instead what you know you can and should be.

Until tomorrow... thank you for looking, listening and reading.  CCE