Month: November 2003

I set out for another two days of image gathering this past weekend. I set out without a map in hand. I thought I knew exactly where I was going. I was totally off base. I set out Saturday and drove north to Palm Beach County, then west toward Belle Glade but, I knew I had to drive a bit further north. I couldn’t find it. I bought a map only to open it and find it only showed the eastern half of the county. What kind of stupid map makers do that?

I decided to drive to Indiantown and possibly find my true location of Port Mayaca, where Lake Okeechobee and the waterway flowing east to the St. Lucie estuary and the Atlanic. I glanced at a roadside sign and did a U-turn to a place called, Grassy Waters Preserve. I had never heard of it.

Images and more text…

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Holiday, even if you don’t live in the US. My Canadian friends have their Thanksgiving on a different day but, my warm greetings extends to all.

I have always liked Thanksgiving as a holiday. Lots of love, food, fun, and no gift obligations. Thanksgiving reminds me of my mother and her good cooking. Of course, she was a great cook any day of the week. It also reminds me of nosing around my grandmother’s kitchen watching, listening, tasting, and having a good time playing with cousins, and siblings. Ah, the days of my youth are but a fleeting memory… *smile* Anyone for some apple pie?

I forgot to say I put a nice turkey breast on my smoker. It should be ready in about 3+ hours. It should be moist and delicious. 🙂

To provide you a reference to where my weekend pics were taken, I’m providing an area map. There is a long strip of land along the coast separated from the mainland by the Indian River Lagoon (part of the intercoasal waterway). The coastal islands are divided by Ft. Pierce Inlet. They are North & South Hutchinson Islands. The pier and power boat were taken on the North Causeway where I’ve circled an area. The Savannas is within the rectangular area.

The agricultural citrus growing land along I95 and Florida’s Turnpike going through 3 counties mostly belongs to Becker Groves. Old man Becker, if he’s still alive and working, is a pretty nice southerner and boss. He and his grove managers used to eat where I had a parttime job. They liked Becker and he paid pretty well. Grove workers, well, that’s another issue. I’ve never heard anything bad about Becker but, working in the groves isn’t easy, nor does it pay well. Get an education! (*A note for anyone that hasn’t figured it out yet.) I loved hearing them talking about ‘people from up north,’ ‘trucks,’ and ‘big city folks that think they know so much.’ I used to kid around with ’em and use my southern accent, like when I told one guy, Pete, he wasn’t dressed right, ’cause he didn’t have his name stamped into the back of his belt (like everybody else). I loved the down-home nature of these guys. I’m the same way, down-home.

Even though this image has not been manipulated, it is an idealized image of Ft. Pierce, FL. This city has an economy largely based on agriculture. That is a seasonal occupation for many migrant workers that provides work for them mostly during the winter months. That’s when citrus is harvested.

The city has an interesting history albeit, one of many in Florida. I have some friends there that I don’t see often. I found myself more involved with being more active in the community when I was living there too: co-founder of the regional bicycle racing club, organizer of a regional cultural arts conference, rewriting the by-laws of the local cultural affairs council, board member of several arts and cultural orgs. The city sits on a manmade inlet that serves agri-business and shipping to and from the Bahamas. Fishing is still pretty good although some fish stocks are gone (flounder). I used to do a lot of fishing. Beaches are good too. I’m not a beach goer. I lived in the area 9 yrs in total. My relatives (mostly all deceased) moved to the area some 80 yrs ago. Anyway, enjoy the image… 🙂

Okay. I had time tonight to post these two images from my weekend trip.

This picture was taken at dusk before I went to my friend Roger’s for the evening. In the background are some of the islands I’d like to visit. They are mainly bird rookeries. I also took my new thumbnail icon on the same pier where I took the boat pic.

This is the place of my short canoe adventure. Not all of it had so much grass. But, that’s what the Everglades look like. A big river of grass.

The weather was good but a bit windy. No rain. I arrived at my desination. Drove to where I thought I could rent a canoe but, didn’t find a store. I parked and called the phone number. Some guy who apparently works for the county spoke via his voice mail that he and his wife were not home. “If you need me, call my celphone.” Puhleeeze! What a waste of time and an even greater disappointment, with a touch of frustration for good measure.

I drove over to Chuck’s place. We talked about the situation. There was a place up the road from him that sold canoes. Maybe I should just go buy one. I don’t have a roof rack but went to check prices anyway. They were good. However, the store is closing at the end of November. Thinking….

I didn’t know what to do. I called Roger. He and I worked together briefly in 1976-77. He’s still a county employee, and a great friend and wonderful person. He didn’t know anyone with a canoe for sale but, “Come on over for a visit,” he urged. No urging necessary. I went on over. After dinner, he and his wife invited me to spend the night. They are some of the most wonderful people I know. Friends after all these years is a treasure since we didn’t work together that long. I’ve always liked Roger for his kindness, fairness, honesty, and sexy good looks (even now).

Roger suggested I try the county park, The Savannas. I did find some canoes to rent and had a good two hour paddle along the outer edge of the wetlands. I had planned a different trip, however. One that went out into the Indian River Lagoon.

The Indian River Lagoon stretches for 156 miles spanning Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, and Martin counties. The St. Lucie River and Estuary is an essential component of the environmental and economic well-being of Martin and St. Lucie counties. There is an intersection of waterways in Martin County, commonly known as the “crossroads.” This is the place where the Indian River Lagoon, the mouth of the St. Lucie River and the St. Lucie Inlet meet.

Maybe this will give you some idea as to why I find this project extremely important for myself and for the cultural heritage of the area.

I found the most interesting art online yesterday from the U.S. Navy Collection of all places. One artist really captured my imagination, Kerr Eby (1889-1946). Aside from the fact he was a really good draughtsman, his depictions lead me to have other ideas than about his ability to reproduce reality. The picture that did it was one the Navy does not provide a link for. It’s a soldier with jungle rot, bent over having his ass inspected by a fellow soldier.

When the United States declared war in 1941, Eby tried to enlist, but was turned down because of his age. He instead received his opportunity to participate when Abbott Laboratories developed its combat artist program. Between October 1943 and January 1944, he traveled with Marines in the South Pacific and witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the war, landing with the invasion force at Tarawa and living three weeks in a foxhole on Bougainville. While on Bougainville he became ill with a tropical disease, one which weakened his health. He returned to the United States unable to regain his full strength. He completed his final drawings for Abbott and two unrelated etchings, but could not complete the etchings that he intended to make from his war pictures. He died in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1946.

Kerr Eby #13
Charcoal, 1944
[click image]

Results of Your Type A Personality Test

Personality Type

Your score = 29

What does your score mean?

You seem to be far from having a Type A personality. Your attitude to life is more of the “smell the roses” kind. You know how and when to relax. The hostile, aggressive and competitive part of you surfaces rarely. You are easy to be around, and people tend to feel relaxed and comfortable in your presence. It’s a very healthy attitude towards life. Just make sure you don’t miss important opportunities because of being too cool and relaxed. Picking up a challenge and competing a little bit for your place in the sun can add some spice to your life.
Take your test here.

Response: This seems pretty accurate I have to agree. Challenges are already there in my life although the ones currently competing for my attention are not the type that seem to be about being in the sun, so to speak. Sounds cryptic but, I would love to have another gallery show but I am currently working in ways that not many galleries would be interested. That, of course, means local galleries. Work is being produced these days in spite of the financial constraints on materials and travel.

Both of my photo classes were SO thrilled by my assignment to do something experimental, I gave them another. Here’s both assignments.

Experimental
This assignment can be accomplished in several ways. Please chose one and produce your weekly four images for critique.
A) Make a double exposure with your camera. Please be aware that you may need to slightly underexpose one of your exposures.
B) Use high contrast film, infrared film, or some other non-typical film.
C) Sandwich two (or more) negatives when making a print.
D) Multiple print using two (or more) enlargers.
E) Make a high contrast sheet film (8×10 Kodalith) to be used for contact printing. Two or more of these sandwiched pieces of sheet film can be contact printed.
F) Scanned negatives can be used to produce a transparency (using a copy machine) to be contact printed.
G) Photograms or other non-negative prints can be made.
H) Normally printed prints can be cut up, collaged, montaged, or otherwise manipulated by drawing, painting, or cutting. Collaged or montaged materials can be just about anything.
I) Have I forgotten anything???

Needless to say, they came running into my office, “Oh, look professor! Look at this! This is awesome! This is so much fun!”

Four Random Words
This week I changed the assignment to the following: Each student was asked to write four words on a sheet of paper. These words were, two different emotions and two subjects or objects. Of course, they understood that they would be illustrating photographically the words they chose. However, what they didn’t realized until I walked into the dept. office next door and returned with a bucket, that they would be photographing the four words that another student wrote, randomly picked out of the bucket. We laughed so much because some people thought they would get something really difficult to photograph. Untrue. Although one girl shook her fist at the boy that wrote “drunk” on his list that she got. We all had a good laugh about it.

Try it if you like. Use a novel or book of poetry to chose your words. Open the book. Close your eyes and point. There’s your word. Pick four in that fashion. I have a ton of papers to grade but I’ll do mine this week too! I hope I don’t fail… 🙁

1. Have you ever been attracted to someone of your same sex?All my life!
2. How old were you when you lost your virginity?Can that happen before puberty? I sure remember stuff before then.
3. Do you still keep in touch with that person? Not, but I wouldn’t have trouble tracking him down.
4. Best music to have sex to? I don’t have to have any but, Hindemith comes to mind.
5. Best sexual experience? I’m not sure but I definitely remember one from 1969.
6. Worst sexual experience? Those I try to forget, quickly!
7. Ever faked an orgasm? And, you haven’t?
8. Ever thought about someone else while having sex? There’s a good way to forget about bad sex!
9. How do you feel about one night stands? In the past they meant more than now. I turned one down a few days ago. (I didn’t want to think about some other guy while having sex.)
10. Where’s the most interesting place that you’ve had sex? On top of a hill in a park with impending rain, getting drenched and we orgasmed!
11. Do you own any porn? Only a few video clips on a CD.
12. Have you ever walked in on your parents? Never.
13. Have you ever been walked in on? Unfortunately, yes.
14. Drunk or sober sex? Mostly sober in the past, always now. Doesn’t take much to get my drunk.
15. Lights on or lights off? Is it day or night? Doesn’t matter, both.
16. Cuddling afterwards? With somebody I like, yes.
17. Foreplay? Of course!
18. Would you rather have sex with someone stupid or ugly? Depends if they have a big cock or not. *wink*
19. Are you a member of the mile high club? No, although it would interesting.
20. Would you be abstinent for a million dollars? With a 6 month period of celibacy, sure. Show me the money and make a convincing offer!