Sunday, January 17, 2010
Light Cubes
pleasing thing to lay eyes on between the C and D Terminals at Dulles
International. Next stop: San Juan.
Limbo
01.17.10
This photo of Q may seem unremarkable to anyone else; but for me it is
both poignant and wistful. Our trip from Alaska to Puerto Rico via
Seattle and Houston came to a screeching halt shortly after I posted
the 'brass fish in flooring' photo within the SEA-TAC terminal.
After boarding and the proper discussion on How To Behave As Your
Plane Burns In The Sky; we then had a 30 minute delay before we could
pull back from the gate, only to immediately break down. A series of
updates spaced at 30 minutes ensued for about 150 minutes, until we
were greeted with "This is the cockpit... Please gather your
belongings, exit the plane, and find alternate travel arrangements at
our pulpit in the concourse".
{Sigh}.
After about 8 hours of continuous standing in line for the single
(read: lone, solitary, only) agent Continental bothered to dedicate to
the cause, we had accomplished the task our fearless (crappy) pilot
had given us. We were switched to a different airline, even
(Hooray!). I frankly loathe Continental, and fly them as
infrequently as possible. I did not book this trip; a travel agent
did, and sadly my misgivings bore fruit.
So now we've been stranded at SEA-TAC for about 14 hours, and will fly
another red eye flight tonight to Dulles in DC before picking up an
8:30 am flight to San Juan.
Thus the title "Limbo". Purgatory, even. We're neither here nor
there, we're unrested, away from home, not at our destination, and
frankly we're a little bit cranky.
Q's pose at the window looking out at Alaska Air jets, one of them
painted light blue with Disneyland characters struck me in the ways I
have described above. I might add that for the 8 (eight, 10-2, 5+3)
hours we stood in line to get re-routed, we saw literally dozens of
our trusted and beloved Alaska Air flights come and go.
Things are looking up though, now that we're on United and they're
bending over backwards to make us feel better (i.e. They bother to
book flights on planes known to be in good repair), so we're thinking
another sleepless night can be tolerated, and then 7 days of sleeping
under the tropical sun.
Until tomorrow... Thank you for listening (to me whine), looking and
reading. CCE
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Violin Practice in the Airport Terminal
2008 at the amazing Karyn Grove-Bruce studio in Anchorage. He has
missed exactly one day of practice during that time... 12.25.08 to be
precise.
Sooooooo... Stranded at SEA-TAC for a day?
No problem.
The travellers in N Terminal were serenaded with May Song, O' Come
Little Children, Go Tell Aunt Rody and Song of the Wind.
If we got a nickel for everyone who tipped our burgeoning busker...
we'd have collected exactly zero nickels toward his future education
at the Curtis Institute in Philly.
I shot the photo in color, then turned it black and white in the
Photogene app. I greatly increased contrast to obscure Qs features
(I'm not yet to the point where I want total strangers looking at my
son), and then used the Color Splash app to recolor the violin and bow.
Fun exercise!
the Ever Lonely Evergreen
#16
01.16.10
I've always empathized with this lonely evergreen tree. I first noticed it several years ago when I went golfing with my father-in-law at Anchorage Golf Course off O'Malley. It's a gorgeous course, winter and summer. This tree stands so very straight and tall, yet it is completely isolated from all of the other evergreens in the area. How does it do that?
The Chugach mountains are actually much closer than they appear in the photograph (you can see them through the clouds in the background); and the wind can come ripping through on any given day, often times exceeding 60 m.p.h. Yet here stands the lonely evergreen, ever strong.
Today I thought I might drive by around 10 a.m. when the sun was coming up to see if it would make a decent photo. I'm not thrilled with the photo, the foreground is too dark, but I'm posting it anyway. I leave on a 10 day trip tonight, and I just needed to get something up for tomorrow while I travel. I hope you'll forgive me.
I took another few shots at the golf course and saw the morning Sun light some amazing clouds on fire:
I chose Evergreen by Ryan Adams & the Cardinals for the soundtrack. His career seems to parallel the previously featured artist José González. Better stated, José González's career parallels Ryan Adams. Both started out in punk rock, but then both switched to folk / alternative-country to better express their entire range of emotions. After his punk phase, Adams was a founding member of the critically acclaimed alt-country act Whiskeytown, but they only made two albums. He left and formed the Cardinals, with whom he has been rather prolific.
Evergreen comes off his latest album 'Cardinology'. I think it is a nice companion to the photos.
I have been experimenting with posting blog entries from the iPhone on the road, but haven't figured out if I will be able to add music to those posts. So Evergreen may be playing A LOT in the next 10 days. At least I have the alternate up-to-date running playlist called "iPhone photo blog soundtrack" on the site, if desired.
Until tomorrow (I hope)... thank you for looking, listening and reading. CCE
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