Bottle Up And Explode!

  

  

#44

02.13.10

  

Photo

  

This photograph is reminiscent of the light and glass light cubes from Dulles International Airport that I posted on January 17.  Only this time we're not in D.C., and there wasn't some high-browed artist working it out.  This time it was made by some creative line cooks at Mexico in Alaska, our favorite restaurant in Anchorage for authentic mexican food.
 
We had just been served a half-order of guacamole in a molcajete, but before I could dig in, this little glass and light piece over in a corner, adorned with nothing more than a sombrero, caught my eye.  Nice!  I had to walk over and get some photos, not necessarily intending them for this iPhone Photo Blog, but just because I appreciated the effort and attempt of someone trying to make something interesting to look at whilst eating Pollo en Mole.  The waiter came over to see what I was doing, and told me it was actually the line cooks that made the thing.  ¡Buen provecho!

When I was reviewing the photos today, I thought this close-up was actually kind of pretty, and it immediately sent today's featured music playing in my mind... and that is a sure-fire way for a blog entry to be created and shared.
 
Here are two more photos of the entire piece, which is more whimsical than beautiful (though I stand by my featured close-up as a thing worthy of looking at and appreciating):
 

 

 

What a rip in the shorts!  I love it.  Corona Light bottles turned into "something else".

 
And finally... what posting that relates to Mexico in Alaska would be complete without featuring both a molcajete of guac, and the wild, crazy-eyed stares it evokes from the E Clan up Alaska way:
 

Go Q, Go!

Music

 
At this point I think it hardly necessary for me to gush over the fine musicianship of Elliott Smith.  I believe I have made my position quite clear back in post #37 'Failure's Art'.  If Elliott decides to sing Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (from the afterlife, of course)... then I shall line up at Midnight to purchase it in both polycarbonate plastic, digital download, and vinyl if so offered.  
 
Bottle Up And Explode! comes off his album XO, the same album that featured Tomorrow Tomorrow in blog #37.  You may think I chose today's song based only on the word "bottle" in the title... but in fact it is also due to the following lyrics:

 

Bottle up and explode over and over
Keep the troublemaker below
Put it away and check out for the day
And in for a round of overexposure
The thing Mother Nature provides to get up and go
Bottle up and explode, seeing the stars surrounding you
Red, white, and blue
You look at him like you've never known him
But I know for a fact that you have
The last time you cried, who'd you think was inside?
Thinking that you were about to come over
But I'm tired now of waiting for you
You never show
Bottle up and go, if you're going to hide it's up to you
I'm coming through
Bottle up and go, I can make it outside
I'll get through becoming you
 
Becoming you
Becoming you    
  
Okay, so there really isn't "blue" in my photo... Maybe Elliott had something else in mind when he wrote it, aside from a future, random, obscure blog entry about beer bottles lit up with Christmas lights.  I do like the tension in the song.  I won't spend a lot of time trying to interpret the lyrics this time... I'm posting today's entry late and I think the lyrics are self-explanatory.  Don't let your deep emotional feelings get trapped inside... let them out before they explode.  
  
Thank you, Elliott... yet once more, I thank you. 
 

Parting Comments

  
It isn't lost on me that tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and my featured photo has red and white in it.  Please, please, please, PLEASE do not assume they are related!  I think Valentine's Day is for goofballs and ninnies who bow to the commercial pressures of Hallmarkian  schlockery.  Ptooey.  I shall not use any of my disposable income to buy T soft little stuffed animal plushies, nor a box of waxy chocolate made several months ago in some polluted industrial center, nor flowers 'forced' in some greenhouse twenty states removed from Alaska.  Instead, I shall give her a hug and tell her I love her; just like I did the day before Valentine's Day, and just like I'll do the day after.  (Incidentally, it will be today that I buy her a stuffed little soft animal plushie, and it will be the day after Valentine's day that I will buy her waxy chocolates and forced roses.)
  
Finally, I don't know if it will strike you in the same way, and I would bet it does not... but every time Bottle Up And Explode! winds up and there is that little disjointed baritone saxophone solo, I find myself giggling like a school boy who just put a grasshopper in B.B.'s backpack.  (I swear, B.B.!  It wasn't me!  It was, er, D.R.S.!  Yeah, that's it... it was D.R.S.!)  
 
I really don't know why that little solo generates boyish giggles from me.  I played the alto sax for years, but that isn't it.  I love the bari sax, especially when played by either Dana Colley of Morphine, or Pepper Adams / Ronnie Cuber when working with Charles Mingus.  But that still isn't it.  And it's not because Lisa Simpson plays disjointed bari sax solos in every Simpson's episode worth watching (I've only seen about 2 episodes, but they both had that element.  Perhaps every episode has it?)  
  
In the end, I guess I won't ever know why it makes me giggle.  Maybe I'm just 'jolly'?
 
Until tomorrow... thank you for looking, listening and reading.  CCE 
  

Diamonds in the Sky

     

       

#43

02.12.10

    

Photo

    

This photograph was taken through a dirty glass window on the 5West unit of Alaskan Native Medical Center, facing West.  There was a heavy cloud cover high in the sky, but smaller clouds beneath that which lit up like diamonds as the Sun dropped beneath the cloud cover for just a few minutes before hiding behind the Alaska Range.  It was simply gorgeous.  I hadn't been there one minute before several other doctors, nurses, orderlies and patients were gathered around smiling at the beauty of it all with me.

    

It all began a few minutes earlier when I was on the 2nd floor in the ICU doing an inpatient consult after wrapping up my outpatient clinic.  I looked up to speak with a nurse and behind her was the most amazing alpenglow on the Chugach range.  We both walked over to a recently vacated room (a graduate of the ICU, who-hoo!) and I took these photos:

    

 

 View through the window.

   

 

 Alpenglow on the Chugach Mountains.

   

After these photos were taken it dawned on me that there was probably an amazing sunset over the western Alaska Range, so I jumped up to the 5th floor for a look.  That's were I got the featured photo, and here is one more taken when the sky was just a bit higher over the horizon:

   

    

Looking northwesterly from the 5th floor I had a nice view of Mt. Susitna absolutely glowing.  You can see the humble skyline of downtown Anchorage in this shot, too.  I cropped it down quite a bit, and that's why the resolution is particularly crappy.  But if you kind of squint your eyes, you might think it's an impressionist's painting of downtown Anchorage and Mt. Susitna:

   

  

Music

        

How is it that I pride myself on knowing good music, often times before the masses, yet I had never heard of Katie Melua before a few weeks ago?  A great friend with a kindred ear sent me a link to her track Belfast (Penguins and Cats), and I've been slowly checking out her musical catalog as able ever since.  The fact is she is a remarkable vocalist with a pure voice.  In today's featured track she covers the Beatles Lucy in the Sky (With Diamonds).  

   

She was born in Georgia of the former U.S.S.R., but was raised since a little girl in Ireland.  She moved to England when she was 16, and has been a big star there and across Europe ever since.  As far as I know she hasn't "hit" yet in the U.S., but it's just a matter of time.  A big Thank You to my friend for hooking me up with her music!

 

Because this is such a cool, classic and psychedelic track, I thought it would be acceptable to post an alternate cover version that perhaps you had not yet heard.  Right after Melua's cover, and if you stay on the blog long enough, you'll hear Bono of U2's cover of the same song.  His recording was a part of the soundtrack for the film 'Across the Universe', which features a compilation of covers from the Beatles catalog.

  

Parting Comments

  

I wouldn't necessarily place today's featured photograph amongst the greatest to date in this blog... but I thought the small clouds sparkling beneath the heavy, dark clouds above was pretty enough.  I especially liked the idea of pairing it with the featured song today.  And I particularly liked the idea that somewhere up there with those diamonds in the sky, even as I type this, my parents and my youngest brother are flying to the Top of the World for a visit.  What fun!  We'll eat the finest dried game meats, and there will be mugs of melted ice for all.  We may even have some Krispy Kremes (if they bring them from America).

I have been playing between 6 and 13 running Scrabble boards over Facebook with my Mother since last April.  I simply won't know what to do when we are able to play face to face.  And if the doctor professor CQE gets involved... it's lights out for the rest of us.  He takes no prisoners.  I think the last time I wept openly was after a few games of Boggle with him when I was a college student.  I believe my highest scoring word was "aniline"; his was "annihilation".

  

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

   

Your Rocky Spine

   

  

#42

02.11.10

 

Photo

 
You know how annoyed you get when you're on a flight and you see some buffoon snapping photos through the grimy plastic windows?  
 
Well, meet me / get to know me.  I'm that buffoon.
  

If you really line up your shot and try angling your iPhone camera in different ways... you can actually get stunning images.  Well, I think so, anyway.  And the 3 other members of Inflight Photographers Anonymous with whom I meet every Wednesday night for hugs and tears feel the same way (only one of whom attends wearing a straight jacket and has an armed escort).


Most of our flights to the lower 48 out of Anchorage are on Delta Airlines, usually around 1 a.m.  It's a pity, because there is some spectacular land covered in those flights.  When we fly Alaska Airline (Best. Airline. Ever.) to Seattle or Portland we get better day flights, and get to look out over the endless glacier streaked mountains with impossibly high and rugged peaks.  On a flight home from Ketchikan a few years back I managed to capture this image featured today.  The image fits the smoothness and seductiveness of the musical track.
 
I like this black and white version of the photo, and think it almost fits the music better:
  

 
Here is an image of a "rocky spine" that I captured last autumn near Las Vegas where I hooked up with brothers and friends for a fantasy football draft:
  

Not quite Alaska... but beautiful just the same.

  

Music
 

Your Rocky Spine is an astoundingly beautiful song by my favorite musical discovery in the past year; Great Lake Swimmers.  They hail from Canada, and have that ideal folk sound that I crave.  I think the lead vocalist / guitarist / lyricist / writer Tony Dekker is simply brilliant.  The first song I heard them play, yet again off SomaFM, leveled me with it's simple beauty.  That was the song that I was trying to hook up the other night but couldn't figure it out.  I won't post that blog / photo until I can match it to the song.
   

I hadn't even finished listening to that first GLS track on SomaFM before I had the album downloading off iTunes.  By the time I had listened to the first downloaded song, I was downloading the entire Great Lake Swimmers catalog.  Interestingly, this band has slowly but surely supplanted Cannonball Adderley's 'Somethin' Else' and Miles Davis' 'Round About Midnight', and 'Kind of Blue' as my routine Saturday morning soundtrack.

Today's featured song can be interpreted in one of two ways.  The different interpretations won't be obscure to you, and I'll simply propose the following to those of you who like one interpretation, but not the other:
  

1.  If it makes you uncomfortable to hear a sensual song about exploring the beauty of your partner's body... then never fear.  It's not about that at all.  It's just about exploring the beauty of Nature's mountains, streams, lakes, etc.
  

2.  If it makes you uncomfortable to hear a sensual song about exploring the beauty of Nature's mountains, streams, lakes, etc.... then never fear.  It's not about that at all.  It's just about exploring the beauty of your partner's body.

 

There.  It has been dealt with.  Now we can all be happy in our own interpretations, right?  And I shudder to think what it means if you like BOTH interpretations! In the parlance of my Jr. High School youth... I'd have to ask... "are you 'Bi'?"

 

Sorry.  Just trying to amuse myself here.  I hope my idiocy doesn't detract too much from this gorgeous song.  

Finally, let's give some attention to the lovely Sarah Harmer on backing vocals... she's a great folk singer in her own right and one post soon I'll feature her music.

  

I was lost in the lakes

And the shape that your body makes
That your body makes
 
And the mountains said I could find you here
They whisper the snow and the leaves in my ear
I traced my finger along your trails
Your body was the map
I was lost in there
 
Floating over your rocky spine
The glaciers made you and now you're mine 
Floating over your rocky spine
The glaciers made you and now you're mine
 
I was moving across your frozen veneer
The sky was dark
But you were clear
Could you feel my footsteps?
And would you shatter, would you shatter?
Would you?
 
Your soft fingers between my claws
Like purity against resolve
I could tell then there that we were formed from the clay
And came from the rocks for the earth to display
 
They told me to be careful up there
Where the wind blows a venomous rage through your hair
 
They told me to be careful up there
Where the wind rages through your hair

Parting Comments

When I decided to feature this song in the blog, I excitedly asked my wife T to pose for a photo with her back exposed; "I'd shine a light in such a way as to create shadows o'er your spinous processes.  Your Rocky Spine.  You know, for art's sake."

She not-so-politely* declined.

I decided to go with the photos of mountains posted above.

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

*She pulled a shiv from her pj's and asked if I'd like to try asking the same question just one... more... time... with a menacing look in her eyes.
  

Lionfish of (the Great) Salt Lake

  

  

#41

02.10.10

  

Photo

 

I took this photo of a very beautiful (and venomous) Lionfish at the Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake City, Utah, just this past December 2009.  It's one of those fish I've seen many  times in books, magazines, and perhaps even movies.  But to stand in front of a real one swimming in a smallish tank was a surprisingly amazing experience.  The thing is off-the-charts magnificent, and made for a fine iPhone photo subject.

 

I hope one or two images I've captured and presented in this blog to date have persuaded you that spectacular images can be achieved with a simple camera phone.  In my mind, this Lionfish shot is just such an example.  I like the color, the contrast, the focus.  And the event was so spontaneous that an added second or two trying to get my Canon Xsi set-up for the shot would have likely resulted in "no shot at all", as the fish stayed in this pose just long enough for one photo, and then it was off behind some coral to hide from the humans (smart move, fish!).

 

At the Living Planet I also caught these photos that I am rather fond of:

 

Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Ugh... I'll pass on shrimp next dining experience.

It's pretty enough, but "cleaner shrimp"? I don't think we have to ask what it's cleaning.  No thanks, Waiter!

 

Dwarf Cayman Crocodile

I have a particular interest in this Croc... as some of you may know.

 

  Lionfish Puzzle

I was almost done with this blog entry when I went in to the kitchen for a drink, and look what Q had on the table?  Amazing little harmonic coincidences in this everyday life... 
 

Field Guide to Ocean Animals

This is the book Q was working with coincidentally while I was preparing the blog.  It's really a cool book.  My mother got it, and others like it featuring land animals, dinosaurs, etc., at Costco in SLC.

Music

 

Today's song is The Great Salt Lake by Band of Horses.  This is another group I heard first on SomaFM Indie Pop Rocks! (Thank you, cybermusical-soul-mate DJ Elise!), and this was the first song I heard by them.  I assumed at the time that they might be from SLC, because... why would any non-SLC native sing a song called the Great Salt Lake?!

  

It turns out that the amazing lead singer and guitarist Ben Bridwell is from South Carolina, and he formed Band of Horses in Seattle.  Go figure!  I still don't know the reason he wrote this song, and based on the  bizarre lyrics, I don't know if he knows why, either.  I've hunted down message board reviews of the song, and it seems not only does no one know what the lyrics are in the first place, no one knows what they mean. 

I like the repeated phrase:

 

If you find yourself falling apart

I'm sure... 

I could stand... 

on...

  

the Great Salt Lake.  

  

The hesitations are amazing, and suggest he is coming up with the boastful idea on the fly.  I think there are biblical allusions here, too; if his friend needs saving, then Ben offers the miracle of standing on water for him/her.  What he doesn't tell his friend is that he can only do it specifically on the Great Salt Lake due to the super-high buoyancy from it's high salinity and it's extreme shallowness.  I suppose he should have also told his friend that he still wouldn't be able to stand on the water, but I like his confidence.

  

I really love Band of Horses.  They are Indie Rock all the way, but with a southern edge.  Therefore they are compared to My Morning Jacket, and I prefer BofH over MMJ.  I hope you like them, too.  If you want to check out a  solid BofH album, Everything All The Time is where you want to start.  Rumor has it they're working on a new album called Night Rainbow.  Oh, and guess what their label is?  By now you should know that "if it's good... it's probably SubPop".

  

Parting Comments

   

Wikipedia says the salinity of the Great Salt Lake is around 25%, compared to the world's oceans at 3.5%, and the Dead Sea at 30.4%.  The Red Sea approaches 80%, I read. I suppose one could cure a pork roast in just a few minutes in that Sea!

 

Growing up in SLC through the 70's and 80's was a blast.  It was a unique place and time, and I'd bet it isn't the same now that it has exploded in size.  I grew up with a real close group of friends, and we've stayed connected all these years later (mostly through fantasy football).  My folks still live in the home we moved in to when I was 7, and I love that stability.  Many of their neighbors remain there, too.

SLC is the birthplace of fry sauce, pastrami burgers, and those non-biodegradable styrofoam Big Mac containers.  And you simply haven't lived until you've played tackle football with your brothers and pals on M.R.B.'s front yard (with thorn bushes as one end zone, and a wood fence as the other...) when suddenly a southeasterly breeze brings the smell of "lake stink" to your nostrils, forcing a "game's over" whistle and everyone scrambles to the nearest friendly domicile for a nice jello cup and some orange tang.

 

The inspiration for today's post was actually a lovely phone conversation with my mother in law this evening, and I just felt like it would be really nice to be in SLC with her, and the rest of our family and friends, more often.

 

Keep fighting the good fight, R.R.O.!  We're all behind you and love you.

 

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

 

Gone to Earth

     

 

#40

02.09.10

 

Photo

 

I shot this picture of our floor globe last weekend, intending to post it eventually in this blog.  I'm posting it now because I've just spent about 5 hours trying to figure out how to link a song for a different photo I wanted to post tonight, but the song wasn't on playlist.com.  AAAAAARGH!  I could just pull my hair out!  But since I only have a few dozen hairs left, I shall take a deep, calming breath, and post my globe photo.

 

{Deep breath.}

 

Okay.  I feel a titch better.  

 

It is fairly uncommon to get direct sunlight in our living room during the winter, so when it happens it makes our ordinary furniture, decorations, and even the paint on our walls come alive with light and shadows.  I always go scrambling for my camera at those times, as if it's the last time it will ever occur.  I'm such a simpleton.

 

I enjoy rich colors and texture in photos, and this globe photo has both.  Just that little pinch of sunlight and it becomes something special for me to look at.  My favorite feature of the house is the bank of 9 windows in the living room, and that's what provided the light for this photo.  Here are those windows taken at the same time the globe photo was shot (I know I've shown them before, but they always look new to me almost every time I look at them, so I cannot resist reshooting them!):

 

The Bank of 9

   

Music

  

The American Analog Set is a nice shoegazer band that has a consistently mellow, yet steady beat.  An excellent choice when you're driving, if you're me.  This song Gone to Earth comes off their 4th album, Know By Heart; my favorite of their albums.  The track is rather short and simple, and that is part of the charm.

  

The receiver in my rocket ship

Always stays in tune

To the right waveband

In galaxies unknown.

 

And that, my friends, is my own constant hope and desire.

 

Parting Comments

  

If anyone out there knows how to add a song to playlist.com so I can post it with a photo here, I'd be most appreciative to learn how.  It was devastating to spend so much time on a blog / photo and then not have the song I had matched for it in my mind.  All the same, now that I've been listening to Gone to Earth on loop for 30 minutes, life is good again.

  

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

 

Orange Sky

   

  

#39

02.08.10

 

Photo

 
We traveled to Utah in early December to spend time with T's mother, whose battle I have alluded to briefly in the past.  As we came home from the airport we were bathed in the strangest orange glow which contrasted starkly and beautifully with the deep hoar frost on the trees.  So when we got all of our luggage in the house, I went back out into the sub-zero temperatures to get some photographs.  It really was quite striking, and I reflect on these images often.  
  

What wonderful and strange light we get in Alaska, especially during the winter when all the pay customers have left.  I find that ironic and satisfying, for some smug reason.  It's like we have this secret winter paradise that everyone down in the 48 imagines to be a 6 month scrum of misery for those of us residing here.  I hope I don't perturb my fellow Alaskans at slipping out a titch of our secret!
  
Here are some more shots taken at the same time:
  

Front of House

  

Closeup of Birch and Flag

I would have featured this photo if the orange had been as brilliant as the one I ended up choosing.

  

Back of House

  

Music

  
There was no iPhone Photo Blog (not maintained by me, anyway) when I shot these photos, but I remember distinctly having the song Orange Sky by Alexi Murdoch playing in my head that evening.  So when I heard that song this morning while snowblowing I thought I'd post pictures from this series instead of looking for a different photo today.  I want to get straight to the day's activity; a Lego Millenium Falcon with Q while we watch the Super Bowl.


I first heard Alexi on a radio program called etown that plays Saturday mornings on KNBA here in Anchorage.  I must admit I don't care for the tireless ramblings about beating ourselves / each other up over using paper products and heating our homes with natural gas, etc... but I know a lot of folks tune in specifically for that.  And no, I am not oblivious to the fact that many reading or stumbling across my blog will be similarly annoyed with my ramblings on music, or the amateur photography for that matter.  We all like what we like, and extract what's of interest to us from the sources we choose to look at, right?
 
In just that way, I tune in to etown for the live music and interviews.  Similar programs I seek out in order of preference are World Cafe hosted by David Dye at WXPN in Philly (in my opinion the best radio station, and best radio show ever, which I have followed since 1995); Live from Mountain Stage recorded in West Virginia; and then etown in Colorado.
 
So getting back to Alexi Murdoch... I remember driving to Border's Bookstore here in Anchorage a few years back, and etown featured Alexi over my radio.  He played 3 or 4 songs of his EP album, and Orange Sky was one of them.  It was stop-the-car-and-listen powerful and beautiful to me then, and it remains so today.  He was born in London but then spent time growing up around the world in some amazing places... Scotland, Greece, France, and I think he said New Zealand?  I also think he was studying at Duke University when he started putting out his music, but I didn't see that on Wikipedia (or any mention of New Zealand, for that matter).
 
What I did see on Wiki was distressing, and previously unknown to me.  This song has been featured in the following tv shows or movies: O.C., House, Ugly Betty, Prison Break, Dirty Sexy Money, Ladder 49, Garden State, Paradise Now, and Southland.  

Cripes!  That level of commercializing a song probably makes Moby feel uncomfortable!  Which is not a criticism... just a comment.  Like my selfish wish to keep this winter paradise all to myself and the small populace already residing in Alaska, sometimes I like to think special songs like this are above the fray of mass consumption.  I know that's utterly ridiculous, and I also know that this guy is a hard working and talented musician who deserves to live comfortably for his efforts.  I'm just saying I liked it better when I thought I was the only one who had this little nugget in my treasure chest.
 
I'll definitely be featuring other Alexi Murdoch songs as the blog progresses, and hope that if you haven't heard him to date, that you enjoy him now.  Hmmm... even if you've heard him to date, why not enjoy his music again, now?  The lyrics are a tribute to family; really nice.  Some people even call it a 'hymn', though I don't know exactly what makes something a hymn or not.
 

Parting Comments
 

I was perusing a friends web page the other day and noticed she does a lovely job of putting links to show where she's found certain bits of information.  I like that, and feel goofy for not having done it before.  So you'll note I'm following her lead here.  There is no expectation that you'll follow those links, but they are there if you would like to.


Finally, I must say that I am thrilled with all the public (posted) and private (email) comments regarding the Elliott Smith feature the other day.  I was worried about posting him and doing his music a disservice.  Now that I know most enjoyed it and hadn't been exposed to him before, I'll be sure to feature him often.


And now... please pass the guacamole.  It's game time!
 
Until tomorrow... thank you for looking, listening and reading.  CCE

ADDENDUM:  Wow, the Saints did it!  I didn't give them much of a chance; and if they played the Colts next week I still wouldn't give them much of a chance.  That's why I'm not living off my gambling earnings in Vegas, I suppose. 

Snow and Lights

  

  

#38

02.07.10

  

Photo

  

After a week spent battling sinus congestion and trying to get by at work and in this blog, I awoke this morning feeling quite a bit better.  And it was a good thing, because fresh snow awaited my attention outside on the walkways and driveway.  
 

I usually enjoy snow removal, because it's a great time to listen to music and be out in the cold.  Two of my favorite things!  Today I was listening to the Silversun Pickups on random play, because I tend to favor faster / louder music when I'm working.  It wasn't enough, however, to distract me from the beautiful light patterns on the snow caused by spot lamps in our landscaping.

Again I am struck by the observation that beauty abounds, and it just takes a moment to look around and notice it.  In the least likely of places or most frantic of times, beauty does indeed abound.  Piloting this blog has taught me that; because now I'm always looking for that next potentially interesting and beautiful shot to post here.  I hope I remember that observation down the line.

I like a few things about today's featured photo.  First, I'm drawn to the flowing light which suggests the aurora borealis.  Secondly I like how the margins seemed "fuzzed out", and the crest of white crystals is in sharper focus.  No tampering involved... all iPhone camera magic smothered in goodness.

Here are some bonus photos from the same 'shoot':

 

 Snow on Fire

 

 This looks like a strange cloud pattern to me.

These next shots are 'pulled back' to show the area and lamps I was photographing:

Close to the garage...

 Walking toward the front door.

Music

Snow and Lights by Explosions in the Sky (EITS) is a beautiful piece that I could leave on 'repeat' for hours at a time.  The band is a post-punk instrumental project based out of Texas.  I really like their work.  They remind me a lot of the Dirty Three, another excellent instrumental trio band.  EITS have left a strong enough impression on me that even while listening to the Silversun Pickups and snow blowing / shoveling / sweeping, I could hear this song in my head as the soundtrack to the photos I had just taken. 

Parting Comments

Tomorrow (when this entry posts) is Super Bowl Sunday; the Saints vs. the Colts.  I considered playing Louis Armstrong's When the Saints Go Marching In, Jan Hammer's Miami Vice, Johnny Cash's Like a Young Colt, or Super Bowl Sundae by Ozomatli for today's soundtrack.  But fortunately I went with Explosions in the Sky after I found a clue hiding under the couch cushions next to a delicious cheese puff, a stray piece of fruit leather and what I thought were two pieces of popcorn (after I put everything in my mouth I realized those last items were actually dehydrated marshmallows).  

I know the sentimental favorite for the game is the New Orleans Saints, but it's hard for me to imagine that the smartest guy in the NFL (Manning) who has had several weeks to plan, and already has big game experience and one ring, won't find a way to win.  I really like Drew Brees, too... so I'll be happy for either team to win.  I know there are coaches and supporting players on each team, but let's face it!  Quarterbacks win and lose games, not the coaches.  Go ahead and ask Brad Childress 'exactly who wins and loses games?'; he'll give it to you straight up, no chaser.  

So best of luck to both teams in the Super Bowl.  Too bad it won't be my Eagles for yet another year.  Fortunately for me, next year is the Eagles' year, so I have that to look forward to.

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