artisticINSURRECTION

Little birds, big signs

2012-02-09T21:18:00.002-05:00

A quick photo I took on the ride home tonight (the pocket sized Kodak is always in my car!). There were dozens of little birds perched on top of the highway sign as I creeped along in rush hour traffic. I thought that it made a cute photo.

It may be a week or so before I post again...I am off on vacation for a few days. I look forward to posting a lot of photos when I return! Hang in there....I will certainly be back!

I have been cooking a lot lately...

2012-02-05T14:57:00.000-05:00

It seems to have become tradition that I cook dinner for my beautiful girl on Friday nights. We eat and watch a movie and somehow it always ends up being insanely late but without work the next day, who cares! I always try to come up with something interesting to cook or if it is something "standard" like steak I try and do something a little more fun with it. I also try and put some effort into the presentation. My girl generally thinks that I do a good job cooking and seems to like a lot of what I have done for presentation...to the point where she has been taking pictures of the food on her iPhone. I asked her for copies of the photos and I am posting a few of the fun ones here.

Pan seared scallops on top of ginger maple carrots, beef tenderloin on top of truffled potatoes with red wine mushroom sauce.

Dessert was vanilla ice cream with star fruit (carambola) and a raspberry pomegranate balsamic sauce (I wish that I had reduced the sauce and will do so next time). I used fresh raspberries for the sauce but bottled pomegranate juice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_fruit

Shrimp two ways...sweet potato and shrimp patties on top of shredded lettuce and cactus pear juice marinated shrimp on top of sugar snap peas. I had never tried anything with cactus pears before. The flavor was not super strong or distinctive however the color it gave to the shrimp was amazing!
Cactus pear (Opuntia fruit)

Marinated flank steak with an red pepper, onion, and parsley chutney. Also some sliced kumatos (those slightly purplish tomatoes) with smoked salt on them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumato

Lobster mac-n-cheese. This stuff turned out killer! I used the meat from a 1.5lb lobster and a mix of cheeses although about 2/3 of the cheese was gouda that I grated myself (the rest was a store bought mix of cheddar and mozzarella. After assembling it all, I topped it with some breadcrumbs and toasted them in the oven. The salad is just a salad...nothing too special there. :)

Here is a better view of the lobster mac-n-cheese.

Not the best picture of this one unfortunately...stuffed chicken breast (cheese and prosciutto) with a sun dried tomato and parsley topping on top of couscous. Fresh white corn cut off the cob with some fun little garnishes. I also made soup (not pictured). The soup was a puree of caramelized onions, garlic, beef broth, some cream, and parsley. I topped it with a couple croutons with melted cheese on them. What was a bit strange was the parsley added so much green color to the soup. I didn't expect it to play such a big role in the color and flavor of the soup. Fortunately my girl is a fan of fresh herbs and my soup got a thumbs up from her. I was less thrilled with the final product but it wasn't too bad.

Tiberius wanted to help out in the kitchen....can you hand me one of those sauces Tibey?

Tired from helping, he kept me company while I typed my blog.

At some point he took possession of my hand. nom! nom! nom! "You have been doing all this cooking for everyone except for me" is probably what he was thinking.

Can't go to the gym today...

2012-01-29T19:50:00.000-05:00

"I am sorry daddy, your gym bad is being used at the moment. You'll have to work out later."

That crazy cat just loves to crawl into bags. LOL.

Red roses and black candles...

2012-01-29T18:10:00.000-05:00

Cool reflection of the flame.

New additions to the fish tank!

2012-01-29T17:41:00.000-05:00

I was down to two fish in the fish tank (my red belly pacu and pleco) so my girl and I went fish shopping today. We chose two medium sized oscars, one albino and one tiger. Both are beautiful. Now I need to come up with names for them!

Here is the red belly pacu. Generally these guys are not all the aggressive however he was kicking the daylights out of my convict cichlid who was nearly the same size as the pacu (which is close to 5 or 6 inches at this point). Convicts are usually quite angry fish but this one was certainly on the receiving end of the abuse. Maybe the cichlid was old or dying but after his demise I got tired of looking at a near empty tank. It remains to be seen if he is aggressive to the new oscars but at least oscars are tough enough to return any unwanted attention!

Tibey snacking down in the kitchen.

Just one of those mornings...

2012-01-25T00:28:00.000-05:00

I know there is a lot of over exposure here. That is what happens when you point a camera into the sun! Still, it was a foggy weird morning and I took a couple minutes to take some photos....

...as well as on the bridge to work (stuck in traffic)

Light and Darkness...a day to doodle....

2012-01-16T22:10:00.001-05:00

A bit of a departure for me with multiple people especially multiple same sex intimate characters. I was wondering if I should even post it. The original image was from an artistic nude website that I get updates from. The original image (credited only as "Catherine") was so balanced that I got an idea and decided to doodle while watching TV.
This image was done with a black Pigma Sakura brush pen and then went in after with some colored pencil highlights to highlight the difference between the two characters. I may go back in and do some heavier black tones particularly between the bodies. A departure in general but a fun piece. I like it. I almost feel like some black lace over the image would make it better and more mysterious but I have none at the moment. Anyone want to supply some from clothing they are tossing? It needs to be about 9 inches across if so....

Arisia 2012, another year of crazy fun

2012-01-16T16:39:00.002-05:00

Arisia 2012 is over. Another year of sci-fi geeky fun. I have an interesting relationship with Arisia. Each year that I go I do have fun but I question what it is that makes me go back again. The sessions? Not really. There are certainly some that I enjoy since as the "Movie Year in Review' or the art themed "Dueling Easels" but over all the sessions don't interest me too much. Somehow it also seems that when I do find sessions that I want to attend they are all at the same time!!! How does this happen fairly consistently? LOL. Parties this year were a mixed bag, Friday night I attended a fun party serving homemade mead. Quite tasty indeed! Saturday night we wanted to party with the Barfleet crew but the party got shut down only a few minutes after we got there. This was quite disappointing especially given that my girl had come in to check out the convention and I wanted to share the Arisia party experience with her! Oh well.

The art show is usually a highlight for me since I generally present my artwork there however this year I decided not to. I just wasn't so inspired by my own creative output this year so I decided to skip a year instead of presenting older work. The art show was good as always although the fact that so many people just present prints is discouraging. I like to see the originals and presenting prints seems to be cheating a bit to me. Sure there is a print shop where people can buy copies of the original but not having the originals in the show itself is disappointing. There were lots of nice leather masks and interesting jewelry as well. For 2-D art, Bob Eggleton's art is probably my favorite of this year and always a joy to see. A link to his website is here:
Bob Eggleton
Eggleton blog
There was other notable presenters in the art show as well but some I have already mentioned in my post from last year. You can find those posts here:
Arisia 2011 part1
Arisia 2011 part2
There were two guest artists this year, Phil Foglio and Gareth Hinds that also had some nice work in the art show. Links to their sites can be found here:
http://www.studiofoglio.com/
http://www.garethhinds.com/

I had a great hotel room Friday and Saturday in the Westin looking out at Boston. A very nice view similar to last years. Two years in a row I have lucked out with that view! I came home on Sunday afternoon but went back in to the con to wander some more on Monday afternoon. Will I go next year? Let's see if I can get some artwork that I am proud of done and make that decision a little later.

View from my room:

Here are some pics I took at the con...

Partiers at the mead party. Jack Sparrow and Harley Quinn were just a couple of the costumed attendees.

Darth Talon from the Star Wars cmic series, Legacy wandering the vendor area.

I seem to have disturbed Wolverine's lunch with his costumed friends at MJ O'Conner's. I spent quite a bit of time at MJ O'Conner's chatting over beers but it was time well spent in my opinion. It was still funny to see costumed people there mixed in with people not attending the con. The people not with the con usually had interesting shocked expressions on their face as they dined next to someone in costume but some people were very curious and happy to see people having fun (others were not so happy about the con being in the hotel).

The dealer's room...what sort of sci-fi stuff are you looking for? It is probably here! Especially steampunk stuff. I am amazed at how quickly steampunk has increased in popularity. For anyone reading that doesn't know what steampunk is, here is a link to explain it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

More of the vendor area...lots and lots of fun stuff!

The one think that I did buy was a cool griffin pendant. My middle name is Griffin so I thought that it may be fun to have a nice bronze pendant as compared to a super cheap old one that I got years ago at King Richard's Faire. That old one definitely looks like it needs to be retired. Here is a link from the vendor that I got the new pendent at:
http://honecksculptures.com/

Tibey is actually a great Shakespearean actor!

2012-01-05T17:02:00.000-05:00

Funny picture of Tibey that I took last night while he was trying to catch a tiny fruit fly. He was on the little table next to my bed under my reading light...it completely looks like he is on stage acting something out!!! Hamlet perhaps? What line would he be quoting I wonder?

"What a piece of work are cats, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and movement how express and admirable! How like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!!!"

Neil Gaiman's New Year's Wish...

2012-01-04T19:03:00.002-05:00

These were posted recently on Neil's blog (although the first was written about 10 years ago) and I am reposting them here. Honestly? I may have posted some of them on my blog before before. I'd need to look back at this point to check since I have certainly quoted Neil previously in my blog (he is after all one of my favorite authors). I don't feel bad even if I HAVE posted some of this before. Take that!!!

Neil's blog did not give a name for the person that made this image of Neil's blessing but I hope that whoever they are, they don't mind the repost.

This one is about 5 or 6 years old...I quite like this one too.

I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

This year he posted this new one. It isn't my favorite of the three (I really love the two listed above) but I think that it makes a point. Without mistakes you don't grow as a person.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

Here is a link to Neil's blog. I check it every couple days or so...he always has something to say, new insights into old work (or new), or just interesting stories of places he has been or people he has met. It is well worth a bookmark and if you haven't read his work it is well worth picking up.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/

Bradford woods walk, first day of the year 2012

2012-01-02T20:43:00.000-05:00

Someone wanted a walk and was going to be very sulky if we didn't take him out...

We decided to go check out some trails that I had "found" back when I lived in Bradford. These trails lead up to a sort of wetland/pond in the woods where there is a really nice beaver dam. My girl saw one of the beavers pop up through the thin ice but I missed him. We lingered around a bit but the beaver didn't come back up.

I guess one of the beavers must have gotten too tired taking this tree down...I liked the way the ice looked around the bottom if it.

Nice reflections of the trees and sky in the still water of the pond...

When the wind blew it made a really interesting pattern on the water.

The clouds and sky were also amazingly beautiful. The weather was in the mid-40degF range...amazing for the first day of 2012. I wonder when we will actually get snow. I really wish we could have weather like this for the rest of the winter...I don't really need the snow.

Horoscope outlook for 2012?

2012-01-02T20:04:00.001-05:00

Sounds like it could be another good year! I am certainly not complaining about that! Things have really seemed to be turning around for me and I am quite happy to hear that the trend is going to continue. Okay, I know that these horoscope things are somewhat unreliable to say the least but it is fun to have some cosmic karma on my side as the new year starts.

Holiday candle from New Year's Eve at my girl's place

Overview

Although many have secretly been dreading the arrival of 2012, you've personally been looking forward to it. That's because karmic taskmaster Saturn has been doing a number on your life over the past two-plus years. Relationship lessons have been relentless throughout this time. If you haven't made important decisions about where to commit - and where to quit - these are your final months to do so. Don't wait another 30 years to get clear on what you truly want in your relationships. You'll be in the throes of Saturn's testing until October, when it moves into your neighboring sign, Scorpio. Consider this your final exam!

Jupiter will be in its fellow Venus-ruled sign of Taurus, making a magical aspect to your stars for a good portion of 2012. Jupiter's lucky presence in your sector of sexuality, transformation and other people's money brings every material and emotional resource you could ever want or need. You'll have no problem attracting the proper support to fund your current or future projects. This is also the year for coming into your true power by transforming all the dead weight of your past. Change looks good on you, Libra. You've been shedding layers of karma, and now you're about to reap the wonders of renewal.

World travel beckons in 2012, so pack your bags! The spring-summer eclipse patterns activate your travel sector in May and June, and Venus is in your travel sector between April and August. During the retrograde phase in May and June, you may want to be lay low or avoid more intricate itineraries. Mars will be spending the entire first half of the year in your sector of sleep, unconscious processes and dreams. This could create some inner turbulence (if not all-out insomnia) if you don't give yourself enough expressive and physical outlets. As always, it's about finding balance, Libra.

Romantic

Uranus, the planet of unexpected surprise, continues to play tricks on your relationship sector in 2012. The method to all this madness is to persuade you to think outside the box about dating, mating and relating. Co-dependence is set to become a thing of the past for you, as the planets insist you find your inner warrior and forge ahead on a new path of individuality and freedom. This doesn't mean you have to be alone, nor will you; in fact, this could be one of the most rewarding relationship cycles of your entire life, if you play your cards right. With Saturn continuing to exert its grave, but wise influence over your chart until October, relationships are nothing to take lightly. No more flirting just to see if you're liked. If you're in it, you've got to back up all your subtle innuendo with substance!

You can expect to forge a better sense of grounding in who you really are, which can only translate into more passionate relationships. With Saturn helping improve your integrity over the past few years, you have a clear sense of self and boundaries. It's finally become easier for you to say no without worrying so much about disappointing others. This allows for more authentic relationships and romance to enter your life. And when Saturn leaves your chart in October, you'll be ready to apply all the powerful relationship lessons you've learned over the past two-and-a-half years.

Love may be blind, but you're thankfully about to have one of its veils lifted after February. Neptune, the planet of illusion and delusion, leaves your romance sector after haunting you for several years. Instead of projecting your ideal onto lovers, you'll be more inclined to look for a partner who is your equal. Fancy that!

Career

The cosmic taskmaster, Saturn, takes his final run in your constellation until October. Use the first 10 months of the year to perfect your relationship with time, your integrity and your value system. Work and collaboration are the prime focusese for the first six months. You love to team up in all affairs, but business is always a bit tricky to navigate when it comes to the balance of give-and-take. If you haven't figured out what doesn't work for you, let Saturn show you the way. When Saturn moves into your money sector in October, focus on how to rebuild your resources wisely. If you haven't done so already, now is the year to weed out all projects that waste your time and reap little reward. Too much output with little payback has to become a thing of the past.

This is the year to expand your horizons, Libra. If 2011 was the year of deepening your commitment, 2012 is your year to go beyond comfort zones. There is a whole world of creative potential waiting for you, and all you have to do is grab the brass ring. With Neptune returning to your work sector in February, you're being called to cultivate a more soulful attitude toward your daily process. If you can dream it, you can become it! Let your dreams and your imagination be your guide. No longer can you get away with putting off doing what you love without a huge sack of guilt hanging over your head. You may be more drawn to music, film, fashion and photography than ever before.

Communication plays a vital part in your professional projects this year. With the eclipse patterns activating your sector of correspondence, you'll be asked to choose your words even more carefully than normal. Watch for blunt language and putting your foot in your mouth, especially during the summer months.

Thursday morning window cat

2011-12-29T21:25:00.000-05:00

Watching outside is definitely Tiberius's favorite past time. This morning I had a few extra minutes before heading off to work so I took a couple photos of him.

I love how he sits on the little stool that I placed next to the window for him. He knows very well that it is there for him to sit on.

Deep thoughts? Perhaps not but he sure gives the impression that he has them.

Christmas time has passed again...

2011-12-26T16:41:00.000-05:00

Gingerbread cookies as made by my girl. Supposedly the decorations didn't work out as planned but they look pretty awesome to me. :)

Amazingly, another year is drawing to a close. So much food this past weekend, so many drinks, and of course so much good company!!! I scored some really nice gifts and people seemed generally pleased with what I gave them as well. For my sweetheart I gave her a plane ticket to Paris...since I didn't have a physical ticket to give her I printed out a fake one online here:
http://omatic.musicairport.com/
Then I wrote a silly little poem and attached it to a Paris picture book. I think that it came together fairly nicely. I got permission to post it here. :)

25,000 page views? 450 blog posts? Me? Really?

2011-12-21T19:42:00.000-05:00

I was shocked the other day when I realized that I had over 450 blog posts and that I had over 25,000 page hits. Many from around the world. How they stumbled upon my blog may forever be a mystery to me but I appreciate every single view. I hope that I have made people smile, feel a bit of wonder, find inspiration, or just shake their head and exclaim that "I guess anyone can have a blog these days!!!!". The last part is true...anyone can. But thanks for looking at mine.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say Happy Holidays. Whatever holiday it is you celebrate this time of year, make sure that it is fantastic, that you tell people around you that you care about them, that you help out where you can, and that you remember that in just a few short days we get to start again with a brand new year...2012. I have high hopes and resolutions to make (and maybe, just maybe, I'll stick to them this time). Onward and upward...

The amazing art of snowflakes

2011-12-21T16:26:00.000-05:00

Some readers may have seen photographs of snowflakes previously but one thing can't be denied...they are truly amazing. I came across an article in a scientific journal (Nature) talking to Kenneth Libbrecht a scientist at Cal Tech that can "design" snowflakes in his lab but also photographs snowflakes that fall naturally.

A short interview with Kenneth Libbrecht here:
Nature magazine interview

What amazing work and what fun to get paid to understand how snowflakes are made!!! Here are three images from Kenneth's site:

There are a lot of other snowflake images here:

Snow crystal images

RIP Joe Simon....

2011-12-15T20:56:00.000-05:00

Most readers may not know the man, Joe Simon, but you may be living on a different planet if you don't know some of his creations. Let's just say that this man created and conceived Captain America....see? That is one creation of his 100s of original characters. Do you know any comic book characters from the good old days? Then Joe Simon probably had some hand in creating or writing them. Sleep well Joe. You made my life better with your creativity.

More info here:

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/12/15/rip-joe-simon/

Time- Person of the Year...by artist Shepard Fairey

2011-12-14T12:44:00.001-05:00

While I may not not 100% agree with every cause that a protester takes up I can say that this truly has been the year of the protester, as chosen by Time magazine as "Person of the Year". With Arab Spring protests, Moscow vote fraud protests, European economy protests, and the OWS movement in the USA it seems that there are daily news stories about protesters.

I would like to compliment Shepard Fairey on scoring the cover image for Person of the Year issue. It is a perfect and striking image in his very recognizable style. Visually very powerful and technically very accomplished given the "hidden" details of the protest images and news clippings that the primary character is painted on top of. Nice work indeed! Politically I have a different opinion than Shepard Fairey does but artistically I am a big fan.

Some fun with Brussels pictures...

2011-12-09T21:28:00.000-05:00

Belgium is quite a diverse place...full of modern and old, beautiful and sad. A very interesting place to visit. Perhaps not on my list of places I NEED to go back to but I am very glad I had the opportunity to go.

A long way from NYC but still wearing the hat 3000 miles away.

New drawings...it has been a while!

2011-12-09T20:46:00.001-05:00

Here are two new drawings done recently. I admit that I have been really bad about drawing lately. I need to learn some discipline and get back in the habit of drawing. When I finally sit down to draw I realize how much I miss it but getting the motivation to even get out my pencils is not so easy lately. I have even decided not to present at Arisia this year since I have not been creating enough drawings that I think are worth putting in the art show. This is actually a personal disappointment not because I make money at presenting and selling my work but because I have only missed a year or two of the last 20 years as far as presenting at the Arisia art show. In a weird way, I hope that feeling of disappointment pushes me back to the drawing table next year.

This piece was done about a month back...a departure for me I think since I don't usually do such a "soft" type of illustration. The original photo was from a magazine. I have had it for a while and apologize for not recalling the issue. I can work this image farther I think, but I haven't rediscovered the same feeling as I did when I was initially drawing it yet...

This next drawing I did last night. The drawing assignment was "cat" which is simple enough and for some reason I had this image kicking around my head for a while. I won't claim that it is a great illustration (looks almost like a tattoo?) but I think at least the cat is very effective. I like the face and I like the circle of triangles around him. The skull came out less cool than I had hoped.

Craziest car ever? I think it may be!!!

2011-12-07T20:50:00.000-05:00

Saw this car on the walk back from lunch earlier in the week. Someone definitely had extra money at the toy store! Being a sci-fi and comic book geek, zooming in on these really brings back some great memories and brings a very wide smile to my face in many cases! Sort of sad that I look at some of these action figures and say, "Wow, that one would have been worth some money". LOL

Grande Place, Brussels...fun with Photosynth and various apps

2011-11-30T20:20:00.000-05:00

The Grande Place square in Brussels, Belgium. For more Brussels pictures check out this post:

Previous Brussels post

Using Photosynth I took the top picture and then using various apps I played around with it during one of my dinners alone over there (yes, so sad!). I particularly like the reflected one although they are all quite fun!

Photosynth only:

OldPhotoPRO

Picture Magic

Bonus Photosynth of the Royal Palace in Brussels

Marblehead, MA on an unusually warm November day

2011-11-27T19:59:00.000-05:00

A late November day and it is over 60 degrees F? On a day like that my girl and I had to get out and wander by the seashore. We headed up to Marblehead since I hadn't been up there in many years. We wandered briefly around Fort Sewall and then checked several of the boutique shops in the center. Dinner was at a restaurant called The Landing and it was tasty although not amazing. We caught the 9:00 showing of the movie Hugo (slow paced, well acted, and visually amazing) and then got stuck in horrible traffic on the way home due to a tragic car accident. Being stuck on the highway for two hours aside, it was a really nice day.

Pardon the lens flare but here is a cool image taken at Fort Sewall. I remembered the park being much larger but that was probably because I was much smaller the last time I had gone there!!!

A wonderful view over to the Marblehead lighthouse. Perfect!

A great little flowershop with a cute dog watching the people walk by.

A day in Brussels, Belgium...lots of sights to see!

2011-11-27T19:21:00.000-05:00

Even though I was in Belgium for work I managed to add one day on for some exploration of Brussels. The city has some quite beautiful architecture, wonderful food (and beer), and plenty of chocolate to keep visitors happy!

I didn't go to the beer museum but I loved that it was in such a fancy building!!!

My belgian waffle dinner. I had this with a Belgian beer of course.

Tasty, tasty beer....

They have waffles
They have fries
They have fine Belgian lace
What more can I ask for
In this old far off place?
They have chocolate
They have...BEER?
Lots and lots of tasty beer...

(I guess I never finished that poem...LOL)

View from my breakfast table.

The Christmas decorations were going up while I was there. This tree was in the Grande Place (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). More info on the Grande Place can be found here:
Grande Place Wiki

Tasty treats in a shop window. Not sure what they all were but they looked fancy!

There was a lot of public art, some legal and some not (tons of graffiti---good and bad). Belgians love their comics and lots of the public art was of various Belgian comic characters.

The Cathedral of St. Michael. Gothic in styling and beautiful. More info here:
www.cathedralestmichel.be

The St. Hubert shopping galleries. I bought chocolates to bring back home in the shops here.

One thing that was almost always present in the Brussel's skies are airplanes and the contrails they leave behind.

Brussels is the capital of the European Union. Both flags can be seen here with a flock of pigeons flying by in the background.

Cool eye graffiti...

More graffiti in one of the city's alleyways.

This was truly the view out my hotel window. I spent some time just sitting and looking out at the view. It was marvelous! This is the Grande Place (info linked above).

Morning light...

My hotel window is actually the round window (the left one) on top of the building in the back of the square. It was noisy at night since evidently people in Brussels drink until very, very late.

Tiny Belgian Bed...

How do they fit in these tiny beds?
Looking at my night's place of rest
Voices from the cobblestone Square
Filter up through my round hotel window
I have ended the night early
Though clearly most outside have not
I lay my head down unsettled
Grasping some swirling thought
I decide to see this city
In chilly morning light
To make a fresh start
After a mixed feeling night

Shots taken out the hotel window in the early evening. So pretty and inspiring.

Gargoyle! I should have taken more pictures of the various gargoyles.

Grande Place buildings...strange to think that some are 350+ years old.

Another shot of my hotel. Not bad for 90Euro per night (around $120 at the current exchange rate).

The previously mentioned hotel window...

I can't claim to understand why this little statue (Manneken Pis) is so popular but replicas are all over the city and used by various restaurants to draw people in as well. Info on him here:

Manneken Pis

Even Coke gets in on the action...but is sort of gross when you think about it.

One of the great bars in Brussels, the "A la Mort Subite" (At the Sudden Death).

A quick little poem I wrote while enjoying some Chimay at the Mort Subite...

At the Sudden Death...

Sitting at the sudden death
A la Mort Subite
As Belgium drinks around me
A noise quite unreal
Trappist or lambic
Blonde beer or triple
They drink
They laugh
Wide smiles
Happy eyes
It has been a good day
I've put miles on my shoes
But tomorrow I leave for Boston
Tomorrow I return to you

A great Art Nouveau door. Brussels has a lot of great Art Nouveau buildings.

Window details on the Brussels Opera House

The Opera House...

The Royal Palace of Brussels.
Royal Palace of Brussels

A photographer with no fear of being hit by cars taking some shots in the middle of the road.

The City Hall in the Grande Place can be seen from almost all over the city.

I have more photos that I'll try and post later but this post is getting quite long!!!

Genval, Belgium...miles outside of Brussels

2011-11-27T17:57:00.000-05:00

I spent a week in Belgium, most of which was spent in Genval a small town outside of Brussels. I was there for work but managed to get a few nice photos either on my morning walk or the walk home.

One of them is real. ;)

The hotel that I was staying at...pretty nice!

The odd couple? These two ducks I saw several mornings. Not a normal mallard couple!

Locals feeding the ducks and geese.

Contrail of an early morning flight reflected in the lake.

The ducks were up earlier than I was.

I like turning reflection photos upside down...a twist of reality that adds to the image I think.

A Week at Chateau du Lac
This setting
This place
Seems comfortable
Seems serene
The reflective lack
HAppy ducks drifting by
A life much simpler
Than my usual 9 to 5
Frosty morning walks
Sunsets guiding me back
I breathe in the difference
A calmness I lack

When you get back...

2011-11-21T00:19:00.001-05:00

It is a strange bitter sweetness
The returning from any trip
The bitter of the end of an adventure
The sweet of the known and warm.

____

Through the clouds
Over the sea
The wheels touch down
You are so much closer to me

A few images from the Kodak...frosty morning and a sunny day

2011-11-06T19:20:00.000-05:00

These frost images are actually a week or two old. I just hadn't downloaded them from my little Kodak V1253. I love the patterns that frost makes on the windows in the morning. Particular when behind it is a clear blue sky.

Went off to Waltham Open Studios today. A perfect fall day...the sun was out, the temperature was around 55degF, and the air was crisp and clear. As we crossed the Charles River I managed to snap a couple pics of a swan floating around.

One of the old mill buildings in Waltham. They used to make watches (hence the nick-name for Waltham being the Watch City) as well as other things such as shoes in these old mills. The moon was also out and can be seen just to the right of the smoke stack.

Reflection of the mill building in the river. Makes for a nice abstract image.

The open studios this year were okay...I am always disappointed by the amount of abstract work that people as showing there and the lack of photography studios however it is still fun to wander the studios and chat with some of the artists. Lunch was at Bison County...always a good place to grab some grub. I had a buffalo burger (as in the animal and not the sauce that some people put on chicken wings). A side order of sweet potato fries, a couple hard ciders, and the great company of my girl and my good buddy and I was a happy guy.

Looking for some cool tunes? Check these out!

2011-10-30T18:46:00.000-04:00

Looking back through old posts, one thing that I used to do was a sort of "what am I listening to, what am I reading, what am I watching" type post. When the lack of photos or art is bothering me I will try and post something similar to what I used to and highlight either some music I adore or perhaps a movie or a book that I am enjoying.

Here are three albums from the last several years that I highly, highly recommend particularly if you are into heavier music like I am. Obviously I grabbed the cover images off the internet and I use them only to bring attention to the music and hopefully make some new fans (I admit I don't have permission to post them here).

Within Temptation has been one of my favorite bands for about 8 years now. They are a Dutch symphonic metal band and their lead singer Sharon del Adel has a fantastic voice. I am highlighting this particular album- The Silent Force (2004)- because it was the album that got me into the band. Filled with both epic metal and touching ballads this is a great album for someone testing the waters of female fronted progressive metal.

Here is one song off the album that really demonstrates the type of song you'll find on it...

Stand My Ground

Next up is Kamelot's album The Black Halo (2005). I mention this particular album because it was this album that turned me into a HUGE Kamelot fan. Sadly their lead singer Roy Khan has departed the band but that is no reason NOT to check out this and the few albums that came after it. Perhaps similar in style to Within Temptation but with a male singer this album rocks out but also has some very touching songs. Additionally this album plays as a concept album loosely based on Faust (Goeth). Technically this is the second part of the story that was started in the previous album (Epica) however I think that the songs are stronger on this one. Check out this song to see what I mean about this band creating powerful and exciting music...

March of Mephisto

Lastly but not least, the band Redemption and my favorite album by them, Snowfall on Judgement Day (2009). Lead singer Ray Alder (of Fate Warning...another one of my favorite bands) handles the vocals with his great voice although he doesn't have the range of Roy from Kamelot or Sharon from WT. Redemption is truly the brain child of guitarist Nick van Dyk who plays guitars and keyboards and a lot of the songs would appear to be somewhat related to what is going on in his life. Really emotional stuff on this album although it may take a couple listens before it becomes one of your favorite albums of all time...check out this song if you don't believe me:
Walls- Redemption

Boston Museum of Fine Arts...bigger and somewhat better

2011-10-29T21:57:00.000-04:00

My girl was at a conference in Boston today so I drove her there and then spent the day wandering the MFA. The MFA has gone through a lot of changes lately. The new Art of the Americas wing (very nice, very well done) and then new Contemporary Art wing which is not so much my taste as the rest of the museum. However there were some fun neon signs in the new contemporary art wing...

So true...but why does most currently contemporary art just seem so lazy to me?

Light up, light up...from the inside.

In the Shapiro courtyard...an organically shaped mirror finished piece of art.

Not impressive in the photo but very cool in person. A Columbian artist Olga de Amaral and her woven linen and gold leaf art.

"Touch each other"? Well that depends...

Thought about my girl with this one...sometimes when you are with someone you realize THAT is how it supposed to feel. THAT is how it is supposed to just....work. You can just breathe when you are around the other person. A nice feeling.

One of my favorite paintings from the new Art of the Americas wing. St. Michael slaying the dragon by George Hallowell. It is quite large in scale and more colorful in person. Plus I like angels and dragons. :)

The "Zen Garden" outside the Contemporary art wing (formerly known as the "west wing". Perhaps not the best time of year to be there but still nice.

Drawing assignment...progress!

2011-10-25T19:22:00.000-04:00

This month's drawing assignment is simple enough...fall. As in the season of fall (although the verb fall may be a great assignment as well). Initially it was going to be Halloween as an assignment as it had been previous Octobers. Fall includes Halloween so it expanded the the drawing options and I have a couple more ideas to try if I am motivated enough. I'll admit that my buddy mentioned that he was going to draw a scarecrow so that got my scarecrow creative juices going. I know his style well enough to know that I could get away with a "scary" scarecrow and not overlap with his idea and we'd have something to talk about. My prediction is that his will be more in the vein of the Wizard of Oz scarecrow vs my darker take. So I started doodling. I knew that I wanted a pumpkin head, cats, and bats. Here is what I came up with at this point. I think that it is done or pretty close to it. I have one idea how to improve the circle background but I have put the drawing aside for the evening. If it changes a lot I'll post again.

The under appreciated art of towel animals...LOL

2011-10-22T15:13:00.000-04:00

I have heard that this is common place on other cruises as well but we were gifted with some fun towel animals when our cabin steward (Jimmy) turned down the room for the night. It was always fun to return to the room and see which animal we got that evening.

We think that this one was a rabbit?

It was quite disappointing that we didn't get one on the last night.

Bermuda cruise...snorkel adventure and the best of the rest

2011-10-21T18:26:00.000-04:00

Here are a few images I took while snorkeling. The area we were in was quite deep (at times ~30 feet) so I don't have super cool images like some of the ones that I have posted before from other destinations like the Red Sea but the snorkel trip was still excellent. We motored out about 4 miles to the coral reef and visited two ship wrecks, the Montana and the Constellation. The night before we had taken a night time glass bottom boat ride out to the wreck of the Vixen (closer to the island). I didn't take any pictures of the Vixen.

Part of the iron skeleton of the Montana.

The Constellation was full of bags of concrete. Even though the wreck is over 100 years old the concrete is still laying there on the sea bottom.

Don't bump the jelly fish of you'll be itchy. There were two types of jellies, this was the larger of the two. The smaller ones were floating around by the hundreds and didn't pose any stinging threat.

Some other pics that I thought were sort of nice but perhaps don't deserve their own post category.

The Norwegian Dawn was the ship behind the RC Enchantment. The Enchantment (out of Baltimore) was only there for less than two full days we had almost three days.

Lots of nice flowers on the island. Here is a perfect hibiscus.

Cool but scary island Crab Spider.

Just a reminder that you are on a British owned island...

Prickly pear cactus...so pretty!

Rum Swizzle anyone? At the Swizzle Inn, probably the most famous place for drinks in all of Bermuda.

We spent a very short time in St. George to catch the bus. The colorful buildings and colonial architecture highlight why it was names a World Heritage Site.

Bermuda cruise: The beaches are why you go!

2011-10-21T17:57:00.000-04:00

We all know that people go to Bermuda for the beaches. The warm weather, perfect fine pink sand, blue water, and beautiful rock formations. If we had more time we would have explored a lot more of the shore but we really only ended up with one day of beach time. We checked out John Smith Beach, Jobson Cove, and Chaplin Bay (and maybe some smaller ones along the way). Unfortunately around 3:00 the sky opened up and we retreated (quite wet) back to the ship. Since we were sailing out that evening it was not the worst thing that could have happened but another hour of beach and blue water therapy would have been nice!

John Smith Beach...

Jobson Cove...

Caplin Bay....

...and then the storm started heading our way. Hoping it would pass us by, we didn't leave the beach. After all, we were already in bathing suits anyway. A little rain won't hurt you!

One last look back as we left the beach.

Macro of the pink sand....

Royal Navy Dock Yards (next to where the cruise ship docked)...

Bermuda cruise: Perfect skies and underground wonder

2011-10-21T17:19:00.000-04:00

I have returned from a great cruise to Bermuda! For those that have followed the blog for a while or maybe know me personally you know that I may not be someone that you would think of as a cruiser but I have to say that my first cruise was a big success. Not only was the company great (thanks honey!) but it was more of an adventure than I expected. Sure, there was the standard cruise ship stuff...lots of drinks, tons of food, silly shows, crazy games, and gambling but there were also rough seas, ridiculously fun people watching, and Bermuda was fantastic!

The cruise itself (7 day cruise to Bermuda from Boston on the Norwegian Dawn) spent two days at sea before getting to Bermuda where we had about 3 days. Then it was two days back to Boston. If anyone is interested in that cruise make sure that you get a room with a balcony. We used the balcony a LOT...whether it was starting the day with some morning coffee or ending the day with a glass of wine...relaxing and watching the water was very therapeutic.

With regard to the food, it was fantastic. A giant buffet served up tasty but not exceptional food but there were other "included" restaurants that were a much nicer dining experience with a standard style menu and higher quality food. There there were other "specialty" restaurants that served amazing food. We only went to the Brazilian steakhouse and the French Bistro restaurant where you pay an additional per person "cover charge" but the quality of the food was top notch. As good as you may expect at a fine restaurant in any major city. Also of note was the dance production "Bollywood" show that we checked out on the last day at sea. While it wasn't Cirque du Soleil it was quite well done with great music, signing dancing, and acrobatics that were amazing to see on a cruise ship. The comedy shows were fairly funny and the game shows were intentionally silly but a great way to pass the time if you wanted something silly to do.

I decided to break up the Bermuda photos into some different categories. This first one will focus on some of the great skies and some of the amazing cave formations that we saw at the Crystal and Fantasy caves.

First the caves:
Info on them can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Cave,_Bermuda

Our first day at sea after leaving Boston was grey. As we headed out there was the surreal effect of the fog making it nearly impossible to see where the water ended and the sky began.

There were some fantastic sunsets while we were cruising around...

Windy white capped wave... the boat bounced around quite a bit the first and last days at sea.

The boat we took out to snorkel. The setting on the waterproof Olympus Stylus Tough for taking images underwater made the above water scene very blue!!!

An afternoon wander for some new photos...

2011-10-10T20:27:00.000-04:00

Since I was sort of mad that I left my Nikon at home for the camping trip I decided to take it for a walk around the woods behind my apartment complex.

A cute little garter snake. I spotted this guy (?) just before getting back to my apartment on the lawn outside! I scared him into the woods or else someone walking their dog probably would have stumbled upon him and some dog may have had a little slithery snack!

So cute. Well, at least as cute as a snake can be. LOL

Next lens for me may have to be a longer zoom. I am tired of so many of my bug shots being so far away, never mind birds or other animals!

Northern Leopard frog. Very nice looking frog and not too upset about getting his photo taken!

A silhouetted dragonfly.

A quick camping adventure to the White Mountains

2011-10-10T17:16:00.001-04:00

With weather promising to be around 80degF and only in the 50s at night my brother, sister-in-law, and I headed up to Tripoli Road in the White Mountains National Forest for a night or two of camping. I took some time on Sunday to hike part of the Falling Waters Trail. My initial intention was to do a longer hike, or at least try and do the Franconia Ridge Loop (of which Falling Waters is part of). Unfortunately I left for the hike later than planned and motivation was lower than expected (not to mention that it gets dark really early this time of year). So I hiked about 4 miles of the trail (2 up, 2 back). I got to see the amazing water falls and enjoyed the great foliage. Unfortunately I was an idiot and left the Nikon at home so these images are taken with the small Kodak point-and-shoot.

A panoramic of the first fall on the trail, maybe 0.5miles in.

The second falls, some hikers can be seen in the upper left for scale.

The third and largest fall. There is more of it farther up and it is a nice challenge to get up there.

Blue skies and yellow trees...so pretty. I believe that it is Canon mountain in the background.

Some colorful birch trees. These were actually taken at the camp site.

Fallen fall colors.

I ended up just staying one night and heading home around 7pm after my hike (and some nice campfire cooking). While I do like sleeping in a sleeping bag I knew that I'd be leaving in the morning and wasn't in the mood to drink beer around the fire *shickingly enough). The idea of sleeping at home won out over sleeping in the woods THIS time. A couple hours later I was home and the short camping adventure was over.

Lovely Lilies for a Lovely Lady

2011-10-07T19:35:00.000-04:00

ssshhhh...don't tell my girl that I got her some lilies. :)

iPhone download...lots of random goodness

2011-10-07T18:47:00.000-04:00

This was taken two days after Steve Jobs passed away, over by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) there is a new "technology walk" where Steve's name is one of a dozen tech innovators mentioned. I love that people left apples for him. Very, very moving. I wonder how long people will leave tributes to him.

Alien taking possession of my new iPad! Unacceptable!

Sunset at Lake Cochichewick, taken with Photosynth while walking with my girl and her dog.

Taken in Salem, MA. This is the old vault at the original Salem 5 savings bank, founded in 1855. I am not sure if this vault dates to then but it is a really cool vault! Just like you'd see in a movie or something!!!

I have no idea what this is a picture of. It was on the phone, looks like cobblestones...given that it was taken in Salem, MA...witch city....maybe it is supernatural? Since it may be I felt that I needed to post it. There is something cool about it.

Modified with Old Photo Pro app for the iPhone. Tiberius screaming about the boot being on his paw maybe?

Steve Jobs...a visionary passes on

2011-10-06T10:19:00.001-04:00

Steve Jobs, founder and long time CEO of Apple computers lost his battle with pancreatic cancer last night at 56 years old. He will be missed as a true visionary in the computing industry. As a proud owner of a Macbook, two iPods, an iPhone, and soon to purchase an iPad I am a huge fan of the company that he led and the truly cutting edge technology that they developed. History has shown that in most cases Apple leads and the rest follow and the undeniable fact is that Apple under Steve's leadership has transformed the way billions of people live their lives.

I hope that he passed on peacefully and surrounded by friends.

Images from the web...

Overdue for some doodles...

2011-10-04T21:37:00.001-04:00

Just a couple photos of two pieces of art that I created recently. I meant to post this first image a while ago. Last month's monthly drawing assignment was simple enough..."babe". I chose to do a sword fighting babe in a kind of art deco style. I don't think that I pushed it far enough or perhaps it needs some coloring? Still, it was a fun assignment and there are a few things about this image that I like, particularly the hair and the swirls around the legs.

This month's assignment is "alien abduction". This is a photo of my idea that I created with cut paper. I'll admit that the small figure in being abducted by the smaller UFO is done in pen but the front figure is actually cut out of the paper (with a black piece of paper behind the cut-out). Again, I could probably push this idea farther and the fact that this sort of looks fun makes me want to try again in the future with the cut paper idea. I have done one or two in the past but never fully embraced the style. Not the best photo of it but it was too big to scan. Sorry but you get the idea.

Here is a bonus photo of Tiberius looking extra cute this morning. The rain had just ended and the birds had just started to chirp again so he was checking out what was going on outside.

Central Square, Cambridge graffiti

2011-10-03T22:12:00.000-04:00

Ventured over to Central Square at lunch today since I needed some art supplies (for those times that I think about making art but seem to never make it). While I was there I stopped by the alleyway where they let graffiti artists play around (Modica Way). There was a whole new crop of cool graffiti art since the last time I was there. So cool that in just a few months the whole alley was changed. I can't wait to check it out a couple months from now...but how often does it change? How often do I need to stop by?

The last time I was there...LINK!

Above the Indian restaurant close to the parking lot at the end of the alley.

Left over from the Shepard Fairey?

Chilly Willy!

Who is this bummed out dude?

Boats, subways, cars, and Kermit...another assortment of random photos

2011-09-30T21:59:00.000-04:00

I seem to have a desire to take somewhat random pictures lately. Still, some of these are fun and it was a really nice day. Hopefully the trip I have planned to Bermuda in mid-October will bring a little more order to my blog instead of taking snaps of whatever I happen to walk or drive by. These were all taken with the point-and-shoot Kodak.

Wandered around after eating some lunch...a panoramic of the boating options on the Cambridge side of the Charles River.

I liked the small sailboats all lined up and ready to go.

Some old rusted iron from one of the bridges crossing an inlet of the Charles.

This lock has clearly been here a while.

On the ride home, one of the old subway bridges by the Boston Museum of Science.

The always beautiful spans of the Zachim bridge. The clouds were really nice.

I love the Muppets and this is one of the signs on the ride home on rt93 north of the city. I have no idea what the website REALLY stands for (values?) but it made me smile and it was a cute sign that reminded me that last week would have been Jim Henson's 75th birthday.

40 years old? Wow...

2011-09-27T18:16:00.001-04:00

Double the wishes from my girl. :)

I certainly don't feel it but I turned 40 today. I just wanted to make a quick post to thank everyone for checking out my blog over the last couple years that it has existed. I hope that in at least some of my 420+ posts that I entertained you, some of my photos have been of interest to you, or perhaps some of my art interested you. It has been quite a year...Bahamas, China, and too many other places locally to count. I absolutely need to thank my girl for being a powerful force in my life and motivating and inspiring me to be better. Thanks honey.

Hopefully the next 40 years will be just as exciting, rewarding, and interesting as my first 40. Cheers, and thanks again to all the people that stumble upon my blog or check back regularly. I'd love to hear back what people would like to see more or less of...movie or music reviews? Recipes? Poetry? Drawings? Photos? Links to other sites that I enjoy? Help me make this blog the best it can be.

...I got paid for this? Very nice!

2011-09-26T21:20:00.000-04:00

The summer outing for work was today...it was supposed to have been during the summer but got moved to late September due to rain. If you had asked anyone (including the meteorologists) it was supposed to rain today as well and actually the whole weekend before today was supposed to be a wash out but what happened? It was fabulous all weekend and ideal today! Great for us! As a scientist I am completely confused by a science like meteorology where they can be totally wrong most of the time and still somehow get respected and paid.

The outing this year was at Thompson Island...one of the Boston harbor islands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson_Island_(Massachusetts)

The bus left work at 9:30 and we were at the ferry by 10:00. By 10:40 were on the island (and by10:45 we all had our first beers of the day). There was a constant flow of food...first fruit, cheese, and crackers. By noon the lobster, burgers, veggie lasagna, and chowder was laid out. All very, very delicious. Sports, kayaks, and trails for hiking were available for the motivated. There was no kayaking allowed if you were having anything alcoholic to drink so that ruled me out but I was more than happy to give up my spot to someone else especially since you had to go out with an "instructor" which just doesn't do much for me. Having kayaked for years and in some pretty scary seas I prefer to kayak without training wheels---so to speak.

I grew up in the Boston area and had never been out to any of the harbor islands. This was a real treat for me. The view of Boston was amazing and Thompson itself was beautiful. I wandered the trails on the marsh side and took a few photos. These are somewhat out of order chronologically but you'll get the idea of what the island and the trip was like...

I don't know the story behind the boats on this area of the grass but they made good photographic subjects.

Along the trail there was a pile of rubber boots. Again, a mystery like the boats, but somehow they looked sort of fun so I took a picture.

The view from the island, looking back at Boston.

Another view of Boston...this one from the ferry. Fort Independence on the far right, port of Boston center, city of Boston left.

Downtown financial area, near where the ferry docks.

On the island marsh trail...lots of flowers and natural beauty.

On the way back we were pretty close to Fort Independence. The fort is right across the harbor from Logan Airport. Here, a plane is coming in. It made for a cool picture I think. There has been a fort here for over 300 years but this structure was built in the mid-1800s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Independence_(Massachusetts)

I liked the grasshopper but also the curls of the dead grass.

Not sure what the story is for the these hand sculptures. They are seemingly made from stuff from the island. Very cool.

Lunch is served...so tasty. A traditional New England lobster dinner...chowder, corn, and clams in addition to the big red tasty bug!

The beaches on the island were FULL of shells. More than I had ever seen on any beach. Less people collecting them and taking them home perhaps? Say what you will about Boston harbor but clearly the shellfish like the water!

Clams, muscles, and crabs that fell prey to the seagulls.

Part of the dock at Thompson Island.

Playing with shutter speed with the wake of the ferry.

A seriously random day...but a good one!

2011-09-21T21:26:00.000-04:00

Today was pretty random...started with a very spooky misty day on the way to work. I pass a wet land on the way in and I stopped for a couple minutes thinking that it would make a cool picture. I always have my Kodak point-and-shoot in the car so I took a chance. The wetland itself was fairly cool but I was happily surprised by some really cool spiders webs.

Lunch time I wandered around after stopping by the farmer's market and found a really cool flower to photograph over at the community garden. I was in a photography mood from this morning so I still had my camera in my fleece vest pocket.

After work I decided to go in to Harvard Sqr to hear Craig Thompson, one of my favorite graphic novel artist, speak at the Brattle Theater (Harvard Bookstore sponsored). On the way to the subway I passed a cool sculpture fountain in Kendall Sqr. They don't always have the water running so I stopped to take a quick picture of it (still in that photo mood!).

Craig Thompson was a joy to listen to. He spoke for about 30 minutes and then answered questions from the audience. He was on "tour" to support his new work Habibi ("beloved" in Arabic). I was kicking myself for pre-ordering it from Amazon since I haven't received it yet and every single one of the 100+ people there seemed to have theirs or bought it at the theater. RAR!!! At the time I ordered it I didn't even know about his visit to Boston. Oh well. It was still great to hear about his creative process, the problems he had finishing the book (took him 7 years but it is 700 pages!), what sort of research he had to put into creating the story, and just the overall feeling of starting and finishing such a huge project. The creative process was the most interesting...covering the sketchbook doodles all the way up to the final brushwork. I can't wait to receive and pour through this book! It was also his birthday so the host brought him a cupcake and some balloons as you can see in the (blurry) photo below. I was so psyched that I could get a ticket to this at the last minute! It was motivational and inspirational...I should be drawing right now instead of posting photos!

Sleepy Tiberius

2011-09-18T20:50:00.001-04:00

I haven't posted many pictures of Tibey lately so here are a couple to hold people over...maybe I should give him his own blog or Youtube channel like Maru or that strange looking little dog? LOL

Is this really the life of a cat? Yeah...pretty much. Sleeping on the desk chair.

The great kitty emperor Tiberius is no longer a kitten! He is actually over 2 years old now (almost 2 and a half!) and weighs in at around 13lbs.

He is also super fuzzy as is quite obvious from this image...I am glad that the vet was totally wrong about him losing his soft kitten hair and getting rough fur...he is still as soft as when he was a kitten.

Open Studios 2011: South End United

2011-09-18T20:05:00.000-04:00

I had a very nice day wandering the South End for the 2011 artist open studios although I wish my girl could have gone with me but she was busy this afternoon. The sun was out with puffy white clouds in the sky and there were dozens of artists to see spread out over several blocks or red brick buildings in Boston's South End district. I lucked out with on street parking and set off, picking up a map of where the artists were located at an information table on the corner of Harrison and Union Park St. This year I tried to focus on some of the artist buildings that I hadn't checked out previous years and I am pleased to report that I saw some nice artwork. Overall there was a lot more abstract art than I would normally care for (sorry, it just isn't my thing) but there were several great photography studios as well as some other fun artists.

Lots of info on the open studios and artists can be found here:
http://www.useaboston.com/

I tend not to take photos of any artist's work unless they exhibit it in a common area so any of my "favorite artists of the day" I will post a link to their work in a subsequent post.

There are a few images I took either of interesting things around the buildings, art in hallways, or the buildings themselves.

Partly covered but still quite a funny sign...Popeye saying "I yam what I yam and what I yam is tops"!

I had seen these "tips" before online taken from some old artist text about selling images but I had never posted them. I would have to say that based on this the probability of me selling some work is remote at best.

John Gonella's work. Fun and funny and large! I recall seeing his work previous years and getting a chuckle out of it.

Also fun and funny (mostly) this is Bren Bataclan's work. Some of his more recent work is inspired by the floods in the Philippines.
http://www.bataclan.com/

Crazy warning sign...unsure of the artist on this one but I smiled when I saw it. Lightning can be dangerous it seems...

There were a couple dome windows that I walked by on one of the upper floors of a building of studios...I liked the distorted view of the surrounding buildings and upper floors.

More artist buildings...and one lonely but nice balcony.

On summer Sundays there is a area of artists that set up tents in one of the parking areas to sell their wares, in another area there is a nice farmers market. They were there again this Sunday but I also liked the cool building in the background. I didn't wander around this area too much because I was starting to feel very hungry and the lines for the food trucks in the area were all 20+ people long.

Interesting window decorations...(Felice Medell)

After wandering around for a few hours I had to stop for some food (I didn't eat lunch although some studios had small snacks). I went to a new place called The Gallows for a burger and a glass of white wine...the view was great looking out at the South End Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

Shadow of a street lamp on the cathedral.

While wandering the studios there were a few random things that I photographed with an idea to switch them into black and white later. Some of them came out sort of fun...

The Zachim bridge on the way home (okay, no lectures on driving and photographing).

Other artists that caught my eye or impressed me are:
Charles Tersolo- really amazing oil paints with a tight impressionist feel of various places...Boston, Paris, and the American South West stood out in particular to me.
http://www.charlestersolo.com/

Beth Dacey- a less detailed painting style that worked really quite well, like looking through the fog or shallow water at an old photograph.
http://www.bethdacey.com/

Stephen Baumbach's photos were excellent. Unfortunately I don't see my favorite ones that he took of whisps of smoke on his website.
http://www.stephenbaumbach.com/

So true...so true...

2011-09-17T22:41:00.001-04:00

Originally posted on Geeksaresexy.net

Kickstarter, Michael Zulli, and supporting artists that you like....

2011-09-15T20:18:00.001-04:00

I came home this evening to a very exciting surprise. A project that I had contributed to online had finally sent out the final product and it was AMAZING. I say that with some small caution since I haven't actually READ the book yet but the book itself was amazing looking.

First, who is Michael Zulli? He is a comic book artist as well as a true fine artist in my opinion. A master of line work you really don't need to color his art to get a full appreciation for what is going on like you may have to with some other artists. Is he flawless or anatomically perfect in his work? No. I can't claim to be either but his work shines with a mythical and fantastic feeling like very few graphic novel artists. I have liked his work since I saw him draw some issues of Sandman for DC Comics.

Kickstarter is a place where artists who have a project in mind go to get them funded. Art, music, photography. Name your price and people will contribute. Word of mouth or other webpages turn people on to the project and if it gets funded then it gets produced. Michael Zulli more than doubled his requested funding and I think he poured it into the project.

I had a good feeling about the project. Zulli was closely associated with Neil Gaiman and things associated with Gaiman tend to be both good and popular. It was a win-win in my mind. For my $45 pledge I expected a nice book with a signature and my name printed somewhere and a tipped in print as promised. $45 was the minimum to pledge and get the book and you got the bonus stuff too. I got all of that but at a level that I never expected.

On the face of it I will admit that $45 is a lot to spend on a graphic novel that I have never seen before. At the same time I have been fortunate enough to have people inspire me by buying my artwork and that sort of thing means more than anything. A small investment in an artist you like? $45 wasn't THAT hard to part with.

I am not sure how long the Kickstarter page will be up but here is the info.
Kickstarter Zulli

I ask you to keep in mind that this was a "fan funded" project...I never expected this quality....

Signed copy....yes in a book plate with really nice end papers.

A colored version of the cover the included print may not be something I frame but it was printed on quality paper and signed as well.

The page printing was super high quality. I chose this page at random but the artwork appears to be very well reproduced and the pages were of nice quality paper.

My name is there...not in some crappy list but nicely done.

I hope that the story is good, I'll report back on that but as far as the initial "does it look like $45" impression...oh, yes. I have zero regrets and can't wait to read it.

Long story short, I feel like for a "blind order" through Kickstarter I didn't get taken for a ride. Check them out...

http://www.kickstarter.com/

Demotivator?

2011-09-13T21:44:00.000-04:00

Somehow the truth kind of hurts...oh well...I'll still keep posting my pictures!!!

While I have been out of school a long, long time I have been very tempted to say something similar when people ask how my vacation or time off went...

Images are copyright of their respective owners listed on the images.

Macro fun in the goldenrod

2011-09-10T17:32:00.000-04:00

Didn't stray too far from home today but I did get a couple cool macros in the field near the apartment.

A couple photos of the honeybee.

Thread waisted wasp...Very cool looking bug!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecidae

Yellow and black seems to be the color there lately. Are their really so many yellow jacket mimics out there?

Double ambush bug! Perhaps having a naughty moment.

Milkweed seed...this was an early release. Most of the pods were not mature yet.

Since Irene drenched the area there have been lots and lots of mushrooms....Maybe tomorrow I'll see if there are any chanterelle in the woods where I have found them previous years.

Macro fun at the Ward Reservation in Andover

2011-09-05T21:11:00.001-04:00

I took the 60mm/2 for a walk in the Ward Reservation today. The mosquitos were out in full force which made the picture taking a little more itchy than expected however it was a nice time. The bugs and carnivorous plants were out so I was a happy photographer. I still haven't mastered this new lens and need to see how much depth of field I can get away with holding the camera as opposed to having it on a tripod. These images were taken just letting the camera and lens do what they wanted. Some are okay, some could have been a lot better. I am presenting some of my favorites from the day anyway...

Yes, the eat like crazy and love ornamental roses but they are still really cool looking bugs.

Pitcher plants...rare carnivorous plants that seem to enjoy growing in the quaking bog at the Ward Reservation.

Detail of the pitcher plant...tiny hairs and fascinating patterns!

Red darter dragonfly. I love the facial "expressions" on dragonflies. They are easily my favorite bug.

My favorite local plant...the sundew. Looking sticky and ready to catch some small flies!

This looks like a normal yellow jacket hornet but the eyes are unlike anything I have ever seen before. Searching through the internet didn't really yield much help in identifying it. Still a beautiful insect up close!

Types of Yellow Jacket Hornets...

UPDATE 9/6/11) The mimic has been identified by my buddy at work...
Yellow Jacket mimic flower fly

Wandering the forest in Maudslay State Park

2011-09-05T20:47:00.001-04:00

Saturday we ventured up to Salem, MA however I didn't take any pictures (not for lack of not having my camera!). I did continue the eating theme of the weekend by eating a huge amount of prime rib for dinner at Rockafellas...yum! Perhaps another trip will be order around Halloween when all the best dressed Salem folk are wandering around.

Sunday we ventured out to Maudslay State Park in Newburyport with my girl's family and her dog! It was a warm day but quite nice. The dog enjoyed playing in the ponds, river, and puddles and the rest of us enjoyed a nice hike through some meadows and pine forest.

More info about the park here:
Maudslay State Park site...

There were some really nice clouds in the sky...

Duck weed, water lilies, and reflected sky...

Mushroom...

A much bigger mushroom! Clean and white pushed through the floor of pine needles.

Sun through the pines...

The park borders the Merrimack River. We rested a short time here looking out at the water in the shade before wandering on...

The perfect place to picnic? A really nice oak tree with a picnic table underneath.

Friday spent at Crane's Beach in Essex...

2011-09-05T20:25:00.000-04:00

A vacation day from work made for a great opportunity to escape the apartment with my girl and head to Cape Anne. She had never been to Woodman's for their famous fried clams. I can't claim that she will want to go back (too much fried food!!!!) however it was a fun experience chowing down on some clam strips, fried scallops, french fries, and onion rings. In fact the only thing that we ate that didn't come out of a deep frier was the chowder (and some beer)! Absolutely a case of it tasting good at the time and hating the fact that we ate a HUGE amount of calories afterwards. Ah well, the harm is done!!! Afterward we went off to Russell Orchards to buy some hard cider and then on to Crane's Beach for some beach lounging, gull feeding, and exploring of the Crane Estate. Truly a nice day...

An Essex fisherman in the marshes...

Blue sky gulls...

The boardwalk leading down to Crane's Beach.

Feeding some left over crackers from lunch to some hungry gulls at the beach.

Plovers playing in the seaweed.

One of the small towers at the Crane Estate.

A deer wandering through the woods by the Estate.

Wild turkeys make their way through the pine trees...

Half a mile of manicured grass and statues leading down to the sea...

The moon seen through a crescent architectural detail...

The Estate seen through some red pines.

With a fortune made from plumbing and toilets isn't this the type of home you'd expect?

The sun sets over the Essex salt marshes. So pretty. We managed to get onto some of the carriage roads that I don't think that we should have been driving on (hey, we didn't see any signs!?!?!) but it was a small adventure. If we had more time before the grounds closing we probably would have explored some more!

A child's footprints in the sand at Crane's Beach....

Kamelot at the Worcester Palladium

2011-09-01T18:44:00.000-04:00

Last night my girl and I went to see one of our favorite bands, Kamelot, at the Worcester Palladium. Kamelot is touring on their new album Poetry for the Poisoned (pictured above) which in itself is fantastic. In fact their last 4 albums have been near flawless. One of the best bands in the Progressive Metal scene they went through a change recently when their lead singer Roy Kahn left the band siting "burnout". My heart sank a bit when I heard this since he is easily one of my favorite metal singers in the business. Fortunately for the tour he was replaced with another fantastic singer Fabio Lione (Rhapsody of Fire). Fabio did a great job considering the were songs that he hadn't recorded originally and he had several vocal "solos" where he would sign and ask the audience to sing back. Overall the band was in great form and each member got his chance to solo. They cranked through almost two hours of music hitting all of my favorite songs and the energy never stopped. Well done Kamelot. I can't wait to see them again.

Setlist can be found here:
Kamelot Worcester 8/31/11 Setlist

Apologies for the grainy iPhone photos...low light did me in. The Palladium doesn't allow cameras so I was pretty limited.

Fabio belting out a song...

Elize Ryd (also of Amaranthe) sang many of the female parts of the songs. Beautiful and a great voice...

Simone Simmons (also of Epica) joined Fabio for one of my favorites songs, Abandoned.

Fabio getting into it...

I won't get into the opening bands since they really weren't my type of music (death metal growly vocals for the first two bands) but the third band Alestorm seemed pretty original (Scottish Pirate Drinking Metal?) but suffered from poor acoustics since I couldn't really understand the lyrics since they were so far down in the mix. I do plan to check them out online and will report back. :)

A brief visit to Portsmouth NH the day before the storm...

2011-08-28T12:57:00.001-04:00

Knowing that Hurricane Irene would be keeping us inside on Sunday my girl and I ventured up to Portsmouth NH for a little walking around and lunch. My poor choice of a "2 hour" parking meter cut the trip short (moving the car after 2 hrs ended up with a decision to just head home after a quick drive through the historic Strawberry Bankes area) but it was still a pleasant escape from my apartment.

Portsmouth is a cute town and the historic area is easily walkable. We didn't check out too many stores since we wanted to get some food in our bellies! As it turns out we didn't choose the best place for lunch either. We went to River House which bills itself as casual dining. That is certainly accurate but our interest was in their award winning chowder and their back deck that overlooks Portsmouth harbor. The chowder itself was amazing...full of seafood, creamy, and not too salty. Really probably one of the best chowders I have ever had. The rest of the meal was painfully below average. The caprese salad of tomatoes and mozzarella was inexcusably made with greenhouse supermarket tomatoes. Come on River House, it is August in New England, you should have had local amazing tomatoes (and house made mozzarella, more balsamic, and a nice twist of sea salt and black pepper would have been nice too!!!!). Also the salad greens with it were clearly straight out of a bag. The other dish we got was the lobster artichoke dip...a tiny portion of cheesy canned artichokes with a few small pieces of lobster and a heaping amount of toasted bread (far too much bread for the small amount of dip). My recommendation is to stop in for a beer and some chowder and save your money on anything else.

There is some new "street" art around Portsmouth. Here are two of the pieces that we ran across (of the six we could have found). I will have to try and find the other ones before they get painted over some day. Foolishly I had left the apartment with only my 60mm Macro lens instead of my normal "touring around" 18-105mm but the pictures came out okay I think.

Info on the project can be found here:
http://www.portsmouthmfa.org/portsmouthmfa/exhibition.html

A pretty crazy piece by Alexandros Vasmoulakis. His website is here:
http://www.vasmou.com/
His building work:
http://www.vasmou.com/buildings.html

Beautiful work by Herakut. His website is here:
http://www.herakut.de/home.html

Be a mermaid when I grow up...

Best friend kitty....

View from lunch, looking out at the Portsmouth tug boats.

View from lunch... Smuttynose IPA foam macro! Hey, why not?

Another view from lunch of two kayakers heading out toward the Piscataqua bridge.

I looks forward to heading back to Portsmouth, trying more food, taking more pictures!

Restaurant Week 2011 and paddling around the State Forest

2011-08-21T18:43:00.000-04:00

A fitting end to a nice weekend. Up to the point of getting out to the local State Park (Harold Parker State Forest in North Reading, MA) the weekend was all about EATING since it was also Boston Restaurant Week!

A brief tangent for a review of the two places we went for food---Winter Summer at the Burlington Marriott and Umbria Prime in the Financial District---I have to say that both of these places were really excellent. At Winter Summer I had the late summer sweet onion vichyssoise with crispy onions, shallots, and harissa. I can't claim that I liked this soup much at all however my entree of the brown sugar pork chop with mashed potato, roasted carrots, and pickled blackberries more than made up for my less than excellent first course. The ingredients of vichyssoise are all things I like (leeks, potato, cream, and chicken stock) however this one tasted way too much like it was made with white beans as opposed to potato...or maybe it was the harissa (North African hot sauce) that they mixed in that threw off my taste buds. Perhaps it was just that the evening was just not calling for a cold soup? Fortunately the corn, ham, and caramelized onion flatbread that my girl got was more than enough for both of us. My pork chop, which may have been the best I have ever had, and her whole filleted sesame trout were out of this world and the portions were quite large. Dessert was also great. At Umbria Prime were both had our hearts set on the Filet Mignon (with potato and broccolini). The steak was amazing, cooked perfectly, and truly flavorful...as you may have expected an Angus Prime steak dry aged 35 days would taste. For appetizers we got the ahi tuna and the giant lump crabmeat appetizers. The crab meat app was out of this world and hugely plentiful...tossed with just the right amount of seafood sauce. The tuna was tasty as well, just spicy enough and served with some toasted crostini. For $33 a person (plus wine of course) both of these restaurants were worth checking out!

Concerned that the weekend would be dedicated to cooking, restaurants, and eating I somewhat insisted on getting out to paddle around a bit. The pond we went to (Field Pond) was only a short drive away and the weather was looking pretty nice. After floating around for an hour and a half or more we headed back....just in time to avoid the crazy downpour that probably soaked other people still enjoying the pond in their kayaks and small boat. Besides seeing a few geese and a couple turtles the pond was pretty empty of wild life. Too many people out boating, fishing, and swimming I guess!!!

There were plenty of lily pads but very few were blooming. I think that the next week or two will see a lot of the flowers opening.

The same lily shot two ways...not so exciting I agree but still sort of pretty.

The sun peaking out from behind the clouds in North Andover on Saturday. Truly beautiful and somewhat inspiring to look at.

I hate that summer is winding down already. We can almost see September from here. Soon it will be dark before I leave work and dark when I get up in the morning. So get out and enjoy the summer air and summer beauty while it still lasts. I plan to.

As a post script, we watched a couple movies as well...Due Date (a comedy in the vein of The Hangover that starred Hangover's Zack G. and Robert Downey Jr.) and Limitless (which coincidentally starred Hangover's Bradley Cooper playing it without any comedy this time). Both were good rentals and worth checking out!

As promised...flowers, bugs, and things of summer!!!

2011-08-19T19:19:00.000-04:00

The picture above is a pretty old one that was still on my camera. I liked it so I figured that I'd post it. There is a small flower market near the subway stop in Kendall Sqr. There is an older Chinese lady that sells the flowers and she is there whether it is below zero in the icy winter or hot and humid during the long days of August. I took this picture the day that I bought an orchid for my girl's mom's birthday. Last I saw it was still doing quite well!

Took a short walk around at lunch today to clear my head and wandered over to the community garden down the street. I won't claim that any of these photos are all that original given that I have posted a LOT of flower pictures over the few years that I've had this blog but perhaps some will make people smile.

The photos were taken with my pocket camera...the Kodak V1253. I have had this camera for several years at this point and it still does a very nice job for a compact digital camera.

A very tall daisy? No...but one advantage of a small camera is you can get under regular sized flowers!

Details details...you just have to get in there and look sometimes!

Pink petals...

There were lots of tomatoes in the community garden at various states of ripeness. I really love this time of the year with the local tomatoes. Makes me long for the days when I had tomatoes in my garden. I have just herbs this year.

Details of a pretty flower and a visitor!

Faces of Recent Travel...where to go next?

2011-08-17T21:33:00.000-04:00

I am starting to get that international travel urge again...since travel has been on my mind recently and I wanted to play with my 60mm macro lens I decided to take a couple quick pics of a few knick-knacks that I had brought back from some of my last trips. My girl and I haven't decided where we'll travel next or when we'll be able to escape (work seems to get in the way of such things for both of us) but hopefully we'll have an adventure together by the end of the year. With some luck I may also have a work trip coming up that will partly satisfy my travel bug temporarily but I won't count on that until I get told to pack my bags!!!

Travel is so important to me. Both from a cultural point of view but also from a "know myself" point of view. You end up learning so much about other people and places and by interacting with them you learn a lot about yourself. Not to mention that I find a certain clarity of thinking when I get taken out of my day-to-day routine and pushed totally outside of my comfort zone. The rush of adrenalin and the change of scenery clear away those cobwebs....cleans out the mental attic that is full of all the same old excuses, same old ideas, and same old perspectives. In some ways it is like hitting the reset button and I come back mentally refreshed (although almost always physically exhausted).

First, an alabaster cat that I brought back from my trip to Egypt last year. A fantastic trip in a country of warm and curious people. I am sad that the political situation over there is such that it may be some time before people feel safe heading back over.

A slightly older souvenir (2008 I think!?) but still a great photo subject although as matryoshka go this is a very cheap one. My trip to Russia was totally eye opening. As a product of the 1980s I vividly remember the talk of the USSR and the supposedly impending nuclear armageddon...to have gone over there and walked through Moscow was amazingly emotional. Being able to make that trip says a lot about how much things have changed in the world since those days as well.

Two terra cotta replicas that I brought back from my most recent trip when my girl and I went on a grand but far too short adventure to China. People certainly complain plenty about China whether it is because of their flood of cheap exports or the fact that they own so much of the USA's debt but the country was fascinating. Great food, architecture, and history. If it weren't for the crazy long flight I would go back again for sure but there are other places on the travel list before I head back there (some of them equally long flights!).

I suppose that I have been fortunate to have traveled a fair bit. I could probably spend all evening taking pics of various treasures that I brought back and telling stories about where I went and what I saw but I won't bore any readers (and I run the risk of sounding like I am boasting). Honestly some of these things just make fun photo subjects! Pics from all my recent trips are on this blog somewhere if you choose to search for them.

One thing that I will say is that times change, life changes, people change, and before you know it you will regret not getting out and seeing places whether it is the town next door or the other side of the planet. Get out, explore, take pictures, meet people, eat their food, walk through their streets, and bring back memories...whether those memories are photos, drawings, or just little souvenirs like some of these were. You may laugh at the idea when you are traveling to bring back something as simple as a little stone cat but once you are home I guarantee that you'll wish that you had brought back more little things that will help stimulate those memories of places near or far.

I'm sure that I'll get back to my normal summer photos soon...flowers are blooming, bugs are jumping around, and there are lovely places to visit on weekends. For those of you frustrated by posts like these I apologize. I'll get some new photos up soon. :)

Girl in Field

2011-08-16T21:32:00.000-04:00

Apologies for not posting any pictures this weekend. I'll try and take some during the week and get them up ASAP. In the short term I present to you one photo of a pretty girl in a field. Okay, so this is a photo that I took earlier in the summer but I was playing around with it tonight and liked the way it came out and the warm comfortable feeling it conveyed. So here it is. I usually don't post photos of people but this was fairly anonymous given the pose and I can take it down if they don't like it.

Farm stand fun, petting zoo, and lots of tasty fruit...

2011-08-07T14:28:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was overcast but still plenty of fun. The hunt was on for fresh veggies and fruit at the various local area (North Andover and Boxford, MA) farm stands. Of the two top stops that we made Ingaldsby Farm in Boxford was great due to the cute animals that they had there.

Who doesn't like a cute little piggy like this one?

Cutest curly piggy tail ever!!! He wagged it like a dog would wag a tail. LOL

Goats always look sort of scary to me. It must be the eyes. This one was sort of colored like a dalmation.

Relaxing ewe...

Pretty as a peacock...

Next we went to Smolack Farms to pick some fresh currants and raspberries. The pink currants were the most plentiful of the types they had there (white, pink, red, and black).

Raspberries were also pretty picked over but incredibly sweet when you found some. It was certainly a case where there was one for the container and one for the belly every time you found some to pick!

Not a bad haul...but now what to do with the currants and raspberries? I am thinking a fruit tart? Muffins? Currant bread? I need to decide soon...

Next week is Smolack's tomato festival...I may have to go back for that one. Peaches are coming up as well...

Museum of Fine Arts- Boston's Chihuy Exhibit

2011-08-04T21:36:00.001-04:00

Are you a fan of blown glass? Color? Organic abstraction? Light? Fantasy? Fairy Tale? Any or all of the above? Then you will enjoy the Chihuly exhibit currently at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on view only until August 10th. If you are in the area, get there soon!!!

I got there right after 5:00 and managed to not have to wait in any line as a member however when I left the museum later that evening (around 7:00) there was a long line outside the museum to get tickets... this has been on display for months and people are still lining up at night to check it out!!!

Is it worth it? Absolutely. I have seen Dale Chihuly's work at other places...out in Lenox, MA as well as in the Atlanta Botanical Garden but it never gets tiresome. There is so energy in his art. So much excitement. You need to look at it twice, maybe three times to try and figure out just how he made the sculptures.

As a sort of disclaimer, it was hard to try and capture the amazing colors of the exhibit.

The crazy organic chandeliers! Like something you may see under a microscope or a Tim Burton movie!

I don't recall the name of this one either...something about fire...Fiero? Fuero?

A smaller sculpture...I didn't note the name. Sorry!

The Lime Green Icicle sculpture...I wonder how many pieces it took to make this!!!

The Ikebana Boat...easily my favorite of the show.

Reeds on Logs....

The Tabac baskets.

The Persian Ceiling. It was far too crowded to lay on my back to get a wider view of the ceiling for the camera but I did quickly sit down to get a little farther "down". I am not sure about the Persian part of it...it was far more like swimming in a bloom of jellyfish.

The Persian Wall.

A higher altitude view of the Green Icicle sculpture as it stands in the Shapiro Courtyard. I had some soup and a glass of wine after viewing the show at the little "bar" in the center. They want to raise money to keep the Icicle sculpture at the museum. I hope they do, it is a very special piece.

Want to learn more? Check out this link:
WBUR exhibit review

Or this one...
Chihuly Wikipedia

Two very different boats...

2011-07-31T21:30:00.000-04:00

Spent the day having a fantastic time with my girl and her family. A sailboat ride around Boston harbor and a delicious lunch at the Sea Grill overlooking the water. I have quite the sunburn but it was all worth it.

Could two boats be any more different than these two? The superspeedy Codzilla with Boston in the background and The USS Constitution with the Bunker Hill Monument in the distance.

Cars, cars, and more beautiful cars...

2011-07-28T22:25:00.002-04:00

For anyone that has been to this blog before you know that I love taking pictures of the classic cars at the local pizza/Italian place (Kitty's in North Reading, MA) that does a cruise night once a week during the summer. Last week was a waste of time with only a handful of cars. The temperatures were reaching 100degF and humidity very high as well...nobody wanted to hang around giant pieces of metal radiating heat in a parking lot. This week was perfect weather, sunny, cool 72degF, and dry. Everyone was out with their cars and I think that I got some nice pictures. I'll probably try and go one or two more times this year. Apologies if the chrome, paint, and horsepower bores any of my readers. :)

This amazing blue monster looks like a skull face to me...oozing anger and power.

It is hard not to get yourself in the photos when you are surrounded by so much highly polished chrome.

"You want to drive home?" How funny are these two?

A very well behaved co-pilot!

I just love that blue car...and the one with the flames is amazing as well!

The mirror finish on the bumper is perfect, the whole car was flawless.

Another picture of the 427 turbo-jet Stingray.

Ooh....I wanted to hear this engine rev up. The car was nice but clearly the focus was on the engine that happens to not fit in the car...

Pretty red Chevy...perfect light in the evening for this type of picture as long as I avoided getting my shadow in the way!

Classic...just classic...

Well detailed Ford...not sure how much of this grill was stock. Looks like probably not much?

1967 (?) Corvette Stingray. What an absolutely fantastic back window.

So very different but very nice rear ends. :)

If you are going to play with the outside then play inside too! Crazy steering wheel!

I got a lot of nice photos tonight but I'll quit posting them for now...more in the future!!!

A couple of macro shots and an iPhone download

2011-07-26T21:11:00.000-04:00

More fun with the 60mm macro lens. The first red pepper seed picture looks a little...naughty? No? It is just me? Even if it is just me, the image is still sort of fun.

Okay, anyone else see some sort of face here? Perhaps I have watched too much Muppet Show?

A lucky shot of Tibey's eye. A moving cat does not make for easy macro shots!

A few pics that I wanted to get off my iPhone. We all know that the iPhone is a great phone. We also know that it is super convenient in the sense that you have a 5MP camera in your pocket at all times. Argue the merits of the camera all you want, it is better than not having one at all. Here are a few somewhat random images either Photosynths or just standard images.

Some fabulous pink Asiatic lilies that I saw at the local community garden (Costa Lopez Taylor Garden). I have posted flower images from this garden before.

A Photosynth of the garden...the lilies were just off image to the left. I love the squash shaped gates.

A fun little bug on some happy daisies.

Fortune cookies from lunch on of the days that I stopped at the local Chinese take-out place.

Playing with Photosynth again...somehow the hydrant all by itself in the gravel seemed interesting to me.

A nice sunset at the Weir Hill Reservation in Andover...

Flowers and seaside charm in Rockport, MA

2011-07-25T21:15:00.000-04:00

The heat of the last few days finally broke on Sunday and we were gifted with a bit of perfect weather. Since the previous day was far too hot and humid to be outside too long my girl and I took advantage of the sun and cool breezes on Sunday and headed up to Rockport. She had never been and I was excited to show her one of my favorite places on the North Shore. We didn't make it up to the coast until after 4:00 (the multiple mojitos the night before made for a slow morning) but the late day sunlight made the afternoon even nicer. Dinner was a simple one of stuffed clams, smoked salmon, and a sweet cinnamon elephant ear pastry all eaten outside. We wandered through a few galleries and some cute jewelry stores before calling it a day and heading home. The best part was as we walked back to the car we had ideas of what to do the next time we went up there...we'll be back Rockport!!!

Never been to Rockport? Check it out. Here is a link to the Wiki page for it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockport,_Massachusetts

The gardens were in full bloom all along Bearskin Neck so I was happily snapping photos as we walked along. Bearskin neck is an area that juts out into the water full of galleries, restaurants, and stores. Certainly one of the highlights of Rockport.

Sunflowers were either just about ready to pop or already in full bloom. Bees were flying around but that didn't stop me from getting in close.

The texture of some of the sunflowers was amazing...

Table for two overlooking the water...

Hydrangeas happily popping through the white picket fence...

I caught this bee just as he was heading off to the next flower. It makes a nice photo I think...

One little daisy in a bunch of purple ones.

What could be more fun than an orange boat? So perfectly Rockport!

Flowers, buoys, and lobster traps. Could any other image sum up Rockport better? Perhaps not. This was also where we ate our "picnic dinner".

Not sure if this was meant to look like art but it did to me!

Evening sun as we walk back to the car and head home.

I look forward to going back soon and taking more photos...

An art wander and sail around Gloucester harbor

2011-07-18T21:20:00.001-04:00

Almost an ideal day...art near the ocean followed by sailing followed by seafood and a few drinks! My girl had never been to Gloucester and my brother had mentioned that he and his wife were headed out on a schooner cruise on Sunday so we headed about 40 minutes north to join them! Before the sailing we checked out the oldest artist colony in America, Rocky Neck! My girl had the added bonus of meeting Sigrid Olsen, a fashion designer and artist that has taken up residence on Rocky Neck. While I was admittedly unfamiliar with her work (fashion or otherwise) she was very nice and her work was fun, fresh, and colorful. There were several photography studios that were inspiring and paintings that (at times) I feel like I could do better. Still, the Cape Ann flavor of the area was great and we had a fantastic time. I predict that we'll be back!

After that we headed to the "working" downtown area of Gloucester where we would board the schooner. which was moored near various restaurants and fish processing plants. The boat itself (the Thomas E. Lannon) is only 16yrs old but it was a true beauty and we really couldn't have asked for better weather or water. The crew were fantastic and always ready with a cold beer when we needed! After the sail we checked out some local seafood and then called it a night.

If you are in the area here is the link to the schooner:

http://schooner.org/

This first image was actually taken on my patio. A fuzzy caterpillar on my apple mint! I snipped the leaf and grabbed the camera! Somehow it ended up inside later which was amazingly strange since my girl had a dream the night before about a fuzzy bug in the bedroom! Granted the scale of this one was not the same as the one in the dream that she had told me about but even still, a very strange coincidence.

Rocky Neck...bohemian and fun!

There were beads of every color!

Inside one of the stores...I liked the Asian lanterns and the shells in the window. Somehow the design decisions were the same that I would probably have made!

Peace love and art...I am guessing that the resale value on this Hyundai is minimal.

Not sure who this is but what a perfect place to sit and read the paper!

Antique bird cage...

I want this to be at the end of my street...

Pretty flower with a little visitor! Can you find the worm?

On board the sailboat...I liked the shadows cast by the rigging.

Perfect weather...

It takes talent to knot like this...nautical rope is such a great photo subject in my opinion.

Mid-year check-in...the good the bad and me.

2011-07-14T23:03:00.002-04:00

Okay, for a mid-year check in the image above may be a little boastful but it actually sums up a lot of things for me. First, I am half a year into a relationship that seems to have dragged me out of a valley of darkness (until I run through the muddy valley of darkness in the Warrior Dash of course!), second I seem to have found someone that understands a lot of what I put forward as a person-good bad and really bad, and third inspires me to make art which to me is super important and something I have missed. In this case I was just sitting on the beach while she and her family did their own thing wandering around and enjoying the sun and cool breezes. Is this "art" all that special? No. 1000s of people have done the same but I did this one. I was "inspired" by a simple book that I gave to my girl on Valentine's Day where all of the images had some sort of heart shape to them. I loved it and considering we had only been together a short time I think that it helped define my crazy idea of romance (and me!)....photo books? hearts??!?!? I can't claim originality but I can claim that I seized the moment for the statement and the image. I am glad I did.

July 5th was the beginning of the second half of the year and as I heard one day on the radio, a reason to look back on those 1st of the year resolutions that we all made. Kept them? I think not. So choose one or two and try again. My second try is certainly to be more creative, particularly to draw more.

As the image above shows, my fear (and pride somewhat) is that I am the striped stone on the beach. Some may think that is amazing and special but after some time it is a stone you put down because it doesn't quite match what you decorated the living room in or how you think it should look. It would just be easier if the stone was not striped. Sorry, I happen to be that striped stone and there are times that I am happy to not be the same as all the other stones.

In my opinion you should embrace the differences. There are whites, and grey, and dark grey, and even darker grey, and speckled, and me! So, I vow to try and make the second half of this year about me ignoring the crowd. I failed earlier when I said it would be the year of Andy. Sorry, I have a hard time being selfish. Now I realize that the way to do that is to include and not exclude. I have an amazing girl to include that makes me want to reach for the stars and amazing friends that make me want to be all I can be.

A couple fun bug images from yesterday...

2011-07-11T22:12:00.000-04:00

A short walk in the woods yesterday only produced a couple interesting images. Sorry for the lack of photos this weekend!!! I'll try better next time.

Not exactly sure what this bug is. It flew sort of like a dragonfly but clearly is not one!

This image just makes me chuckle... a bee's butt sticking out of a little yellow flower.

I love dragonflies. Their funny faces are just so cute! I liked the little twig he (she?) landed on as well.

iPhone as a photo tool...Photosynth app

2011-07-07T22:10:00.001-04:00

Okay, I won't claim for a second that I think that these images are the best ever or even all that interesting. What I do want to mention is that this iPhone app is a lot of fun. I have had it for a couple days and can't wait to play with it...you will be seeing more images from this app!

I put this link here more so that you can investigate on your own as opposed to claiming that every link for every phone and smart phone OS is here...

http://photosynth.net/capture.aspx

What I found after a few initial frustrations is that as a smart phone app you need to embrace the lack of perfection than stitching together a large number of photos poses. Now that I have, I actually LIKE the small disconnects and I think that it adds to the "art" of the photo. If I were at the Sistine Chapel in Rome I would want something as perfect as possible but just playing around I am okay with some iPhone clunkiness!

This first image is simple enough...the Boston skyine a block or two from work. Water and waves obviously cause an issue for any panoramic software, never mind the stripped down software that ends up on your smartphone. If you look, you can see the breaks but overall I was pleased with this image. After some more aggressive attempts with the software I got a bit frustrated and stuck to a linear panoramic. When dealing with a fluctuating light source like the sun with clouds it is tricky. Totally clear or totally overcast and I bet it would work great. Over exposure at the right hand side isn't too surprising for the iPhone even though I started the panoramic there. Bright whites are terrible on the iPhone. Sorry Apple!

My favorite of the tests I tried is below. There are three levels here as opposed to one or two levels in the photos above. The software did REALLY well considering moving objects like clouds are involved. A windy day and I would have been in trouble but it wasn't too bad. Again the whites are over exposed.

Considering that almost nobody in the world (and I have seen some of it) is without their smart phone I think that almost anyone can do what I presented above. I have some artsy things to try. You may see some of them. Let me know what you think of the app! Tell me if you've tried it yourself!

Classic automobile beauty, Thursday night at Kitty's in North Reading

2011-07-07T20:47:00.001-04:00

During the summer the closest classic car meet is just down the street at a local Italian restaurant called Kitty's. I have posted images from there last summer if you care to look back at previous posts from last year. The quality of the cars is really fantastic even if you (like me) are not as knowledgeable about classic cars as 99% of the folks wandering between the polished chrome, waxed paint, and supple leather seats. Still, the artistic merit of both the original vehicle and the restoration is hard to not appreciate given the plastic and bland styling of most modern cars (not mine of course!!!). These classic cars just shout class or muscle!!! Even the modern sports cars that were present, like the ones from the North Shore Corvette group, exude an air of sexiness and I completely respect anyone that takes the time to clean and detail every small bit of their cars. A handful of modern one-of-a-kind modified Mustangs and Camaros give hope that the muscle car idea in America is not dead and maybe 50 years in the future people will be admiring the best that this generation has to offer.

Here is an example of a fun detail added to their Model A Ford. A chrome air filter maiden that he even bothered to dress! Funny but cool!

Sun reflection was intentional to give some life to the image.

Details, details...all the nice chrome details and shiny paint. I love it.

This is a Mercedes. Yeah, I did a double take as well. Wow. Fancy and what is going on with those horns?

Compared to the Benz above this doesn't look so special but it was pristine and I loved the hood ornament.

What ever happened to fins on the back of cars? They should come back. Seriously.

A little mixing of the years...this is a vintage Cadillac hood ornament on an Eldorado Coupe (that also had 22" wheels). The best part of this car was the front license plate..."insured by the Mafia. You hit it, we hit you."

Ford V8...even mentioned on the wheels!!! LOL This seems to be stock since I saw other Fords with the same center caps on their wheels.

Model T Ford reflected in a hubcap.

Fairlane...red and white and looking pretty.

Okay, here is a psych test for you, do you see the happy face here or are you too familiar with the car and only see how aggressive this 1933 Ford is? Bonus question is whether this car reminds you of ZZ Top videos from the 80s? Okay, that car was red but still...

Heavily modified classic but look at that amazing paint. I want that reflection on my car!!!

This paint looked like silk and the chrome was beautiful. I ended up with multiple images of myself in this one though!

Another great hood ornament. I liked that I could capture two great classics in one shot as well. I muted the colors and fuzzed the edges a bit to give it a more classic feel.

I am sure that this won't be the last time I stop by on a Thursday night to take photos of the cars. If people like them then please leave a comment and I will make a point to stop by more often. It would be an assignment that I would love to have!

All these pictures were taken with my Kodak V1253 point and shoot. Next time I'll tote along the Nikon. and maybe get a slightly different perspective on things.

Finally a little drawing, "journey to the stars"

2011-07-06T23:26:00.000-04:00

The assignment for this month's drawing club is "journey to the stars". The idea came to me when I was listening to a song if I recall correctly. I mentioned the idea to my drawing buddy and he was equally excited about it. Okay, fun idea but what am I going to draw? A cat in a space suit of course! I particularly like the 1950s style rocket ship that seems to have brought him to this far away place!!! As always I love to pick apart my own drawings and as always I need to remind people that the scanner I have isn't actually big enough to fit the whole image in but you get the main idea. I am not really happy with the cat face. He (she?) is neither serious enough or cute enough. Sort of in between as though I couldn't make up my mind. I also may come back and add some grey color to the area directly around the bottom half of the astro-kitty. He appears to be floating in front of the image too much. I'll have to brain storm how to solidify him in the image. The drawing itself was initially in pencil then I used Pigma markers for the black and Prismacolor warm grey markers for the greys. There is a bit of detailing with white colored pencil as well.

One good thing is that I spent about 3 or 4 hours over the course of a couple nights drawing this out so at least I did SOME drawing! It felt good to put pencil and pen to paper. I need to do more of this!!! Next up will likely be another more traditional Andy drawing (more sword and sorcery themed) but I had fun doing my astro-kitty.

A fine Fourth of July at Fort Foster, Kittery Maine

2011-07-04T23:15:00.000-04:00

I ventured north to Fort Foster park in Kittery, Maine for a couple hours of sun and seashore with my girl and her family today. Boris the crazy boxer was along for the trip as well. The weather was perfect although it was slightly hazy as you can see from the photos. The sun was out, the ocean was beautiful, and the beach roses were blooming everywhere. Given that it was the 4th of July the park was quite crowded and shade was hard to fine (as my red nose and forehead will attest to) but it was great to be there since I had been wanting to go to the ocean for a while anyway! I had never been to Fort Foster and look forward to going back some time when it is less crowded and I can explore the various parts of the forts. Fort Foster was used as a fort for several wars (from the Spanish-American war up until WW2). More can be read about the park and fort here:

http://www.seacoastnh.com/Travel/Scenic_Walks/Fort_Foster/

Colorful chairs. Perhaps the occupants got washed out to sea? Not sure where they went actually.

Kids playing on the rocks.

A small boat going past Whaleback lighthouse near Fort Foster.

The pier. I didn't get a chance to wander out on the pier this time but look forward to taking some pictures there the next time I go. My guess is that I could probably take enough photos there (and perhaps under it) to have a whole post of its own.

A slightly slow exposure of a wave rushing in. The sun was quite bright so taking a longer exposure than this was tricky to get. I liked the action conveyed by the splashes.

...and another one...

The clouds were beautiful and wispy for a lot of the afternoon. By the evening when we got back the thunder clouds had rolled in.

A little bit of beach art that I did for my girl. :)

A nice puffy white cloud above the grey rain clouds as I headed back home.

A night of camping in the White Mountains

2011-07-03T11:53:00.000-04:00

My brave girlfriend and I spend a night camping with my brother and sister-in-law in the White Mountains this weekend. She hadn't been camping since she was a child and decided to give it a try for one night since I like camping so much (thanks honey!). It was a success I would say. We ate some tasty campfire food including skewers of sirloin, onions, peppers, and mushrooms, baked potatoes in the coals, and grilled corn on the cob. Ham and cheese omelets for breakfast, a picnic lunch at East Pond after a couple miles of hiking, and then burgers and hot dogs before heading home. The weather was nice and we avoided rain. With the exception of some black flies tormenting us at the pond even the bugs were manageable.

All I brought along for the trip was my Nikon "kit lens" the 18-105mm but as a travel lens this is the easiest and most versatile.

The highlight (photographically) of the trip was certainly the sheer number of butterflies around. Evidently this time of year must be the peak of when they are fluttering around the forest. There were also some spectacular moths however they all decided to get a little too close to the camp fire before I could get a picture of them!!! In the words of the rock band Jethro Tull, "the first moths of summer suicidal came". It was a shame considering that one or two of them was several inches wide in size.
The Jethro Tull song for anyone that is curious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EESgk34o19o

A beautiful fritillary. There were fewer of these pretty orange butterflies.

There were dozens and dozens of these White Admiral butterflies. As you walked down the trail or sat around the campfire it was not uncommon to see 4 or 5 of these at any one time.

We hiked up to East Pond, a hike that I have done a dozen times but it is beautiful a the top and my girl had never done it and I wanted to show her the amazing clear waters of the Pond and I thought that it may be an easily manageable short hike for the afternoon. There were a number of water lilies, a couple of fly fishermen, and a lot more people swimming than I had ever seen before considering that some years that are lots of leeches in the water. I didn't see any this year.

The water is amazingly clear in the Pond as is evident from this image.

I didn't see this fishermen catch anything but there was a second person that seemed to catch a coupe small trout while we were there.

A somewhat damaged but still beautiful yellow tiger swallowtail collecting nectar from the "Devil's paintbrush" Hawkweed flowers.

The stream that runs next to the campsite that we try to get each year is peaceful and pretty.

A few more flower pictures with the new macro lens...this may turn into an addiction

2011-06-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

More macro fun...sometimes the short depth of field can give a really nice effect.

Marigold....

Some sort of yellow flower....honestly not sure what sort of flower it is...anyone care to help?

Orange day lily. There are lots growing out in back of my apartment complex in the woods...I wonder if they just grow wild back there?

Closer and closer and closer...

Attack of the macro! Madman with a new lens...

2011-06-27T22:06:00.002-04:00

This is the story of a boy with a new 60mm/f2 macro lens and a walk around the Ward Reservation...I think that I probably drove my girlfriend a little crazy with all the photos I was taking but she was quite understanding and could probably see how much fun I was having. The following pictures are a subset of what I took. :)

Apologies for any slightly out of focus images. All of them were taken without a tripod and at this distance any little movement makes a big difference. Still I am pleased with the outcome!

Drip!

My, what big eyes you have Mr. Bummble!

Playing with the crazy short depth of field...a pitcher plant in the quaking bog.

I see you too!

Pretty grasshoppers!

The reflection in the frog's eye may count as a self portrait? LOL

I love that the eye on top is in focus on the daddy long legs.

Cat tail pollen...almost looks like something you'd see under water!!!

Clover with various parts in focus.

A couple pics from a lunch time wander...round 2

2011-06-23T21:29:00.001-04:00

Took the Nikon for a walk to the same garden as I had posted about a week or so ago. Seems that I got some slightly better results this time. The D90 performed quite well even though it was a little misty and I had to keep checking whether the lens was getting misted on. For a lens I was using my Nikkor 50mm/1.8. Truthfully the plan was to shoot with the 50mm, walk down to the camera store Calumet which was a couple blocks away, buy a true macro lens, and then take similar shots to try and convince myself that a macro lens was better (I knew this probably wouldn't be too hard to do) but when I left the camera store it was raining and not misting. I decided not to ruin my camera or new lens so I think that there will be a "round 3" in this garden before too long. The macro that I bought was a Tamron 60mm/2.0. It is a 1:1 macro so the focal length is about a third of the 50mm that I have. I can't wait to really get that close!

These photos are admittedly digitally cropped to "get closer" but the 50mm takes nice crisp photos so I think that they hold up nicely. Certainly better than the previously posted images that I took with the Kodak in my opinion.

Perhaps the coolest drink list ever?

2011-06-21T19:41:00.000-04:00

Found this online and since I hadn't posted in a little while thought that it was worth putting here. :)

Drinks anyone?