Greetings From Atlanta

Sorry about the dearth of posts this week. I've been sort of busy getting ready for the upcoming holiday season, and now I'm in Atlanta for the weekend. I'll be at the Australian Pink Floyd show at The Fox tomorrow night, so maybe I'll have some pictures of that for you next week. And for the record, this is my first post from a Mac. I am not impressed...

See you all next week. ;)

The Next Week Of November

November is really flying by, isn't it? I have so much to do before the Christmas season starts, I don't see how it's all going to get done. Time will tell, though. But at least you get a calendar page for this week. I love this shot of an osprey giving me the evil eye as I photograph his nest. I shot this out at Myakka River State Park. There's a long line of power poles alongside a road called, no lie, Power Line Road. Atop each pole is an osprey nest. As I walked along, an osprey or two would fly away from each nest, circle around a few times, then land again after I had gone. I managed to catch this fellow right before he took off.

Now It Can Be Told, Part Four

I just can't get enough of these awesome Cube pictures. I stood there for almost an hour taking these shots, slowly circling the artwork trying to find just the right angle. Turns out that the best angle is head-on to one of the open sides. The lights inside this thing are capable of producing 14.7 million colors, or at least something close to that. I think it's got something like 7000 watts of LEDs in there, all computer controlled, changing every 90 seconds, thus the title of the piece, Pulse.

Be sure to go visit this, and all the other artwork, along the Sarasota Bayfront as part of the fourth annual Sarasota Season Of Sculpture. I met the director of the shindig tonight, so if you see her there, tell her Ernie (with the camera in the dark) said Howdy.

As time permits, I hope to be able to shoot the other pieces in the exhibit. I'm afraid I'm a little prejudiced though, since I had a small part in building this one.

Now It Can Be Told, Part Three

I omitted one small detail about the cube I showed you the other day. It lights up. I shot these tonight handheld. I need to go back with a tripod, I bet I could get some really awesome shots. Not that these are bad. Some of the more abstract ones are really cool.

A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas Indeed

I don't normally talk about what I'm going to share out at Christmas, but I'm so excited that I can't keep this one under my hat. The record you see above popped up in a pile of vinyl at the Goodwill this afternoon. It may be mono, but it's still awesome. I'd never actually seen one in person before. If you don't know why I'm so excited, just wait until Christmas rolls around and check back. You'll understand then...

Now It Can Be Told, Part Two

What does it take to move a sculpture that towers almost 14 feet in the air (And weighs 7100 pounds) from the parking lot where it was assembled to the bayfront for display? A lot of work and a little bit of luck. A mobile crane had to lift the unit not once but twice to get it onto a waiting truck. Turns out that the truck couldn't wind it's way into the lot where the assembly took place, and the weight of the piece prohibited the crane from moving it too far in one pass. So the second move got it onto the trailer.

Even though our shop is in an industrial park, it's not designed for easy truck access. We scraped against trees on both sides on the way out and had to pick plenty of leaves out of the unit later on.

Getting the unit on the trailer was only the first step. Then it had to be driven nine miles down the road while looking for low-hanging wires and traffic lights, driving at a leisurely 20 miles per hour or less. We had a guy in the cab of the truck ready to jump out at any sign of trouble and lift any low-hanging wires that might prove a problem. But luckily the route was scouted out well enough that we didn't encounter any problems. The driver did make sure and try to drive in-between lights, just in case. There are a couple of lifting eyes that stick out the top of the unit that would have done some serious damage to any traffic lights that happened to get in the way. Those lifting eyes were supposed to make it easier to move the unit, but after all the assembly work was said and done, nobody trusted them to support the weight of the piece, so we wound up running straps around the whole thing whenever it got lifted.

About halfway through the trip, I realized that we would drive right by the artist's previous sculpture of a similar design. So we drove on ahead and scouted out a good spot to get both works in the same shot. Look close to the right side of the picture above and you can see a similar white cube, only this time with a red interior. That earlier version could fit inside this new one.

Now It Can Be Told, Part One

For the past month or so, we've been working on a special project in the shop. It's something a little different from the usual industrial sheet metal we usually do, so I figured I'd share a bit of it here at the old blog. Today was the day that it finally got installed on the bayfront in downtown Sarasota, Florida, so I figure it's OK to talk about it now. The giant white cube you see above is a sculpture named Pulse, designed by local artist Christine Desiree (Hi Christine!) and fabricated in our humble Bradenton shop. To give you a sense of scale, each side is 12 feet, the opening in the center is 9 feet, and the base it's sitting on is 18 inches high.

This sculpture was created for the annual show on the waterfront, which runs for about the next six months. They've been installing pieces for the past few days, and there are still quite a few to go. As you can see, this one got a great spot right on the water.

I was quite involved in the manufacture and assembly of this work of art, so I don't have pictures of the entire process, but I do have some I hope to share with you over the next few days. So if you're curious about how something like this comes together, stay tuned, and you'll lean more than you really want to know. Those of you who are anywhere close to Sarasota will want to drive out to the bayfront and see this show sometime soon. It looks to be a promising event. I'm a little prejudiced when it comes to which piece is my favorite, though.

The interior of the piece is filled with free-hanging mirrored plates that move about in the breeze. They also make a lot of noise when the wind gets going. It was rather loud as it got carried down the road on the back of a lowboy trailer.

More For November

This weeks picture is a great shot of Tampa Bay from one of the smaller bridges leading to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It was mid-morning one day when I was driving North, and I just thought I should stop and get some shots. I was extremely happy with the pictures I got, with the dead-calm water and the great clouds making for a perfect symmetry.

November, Part Dos

Here are the other two calendar pics for the month of November. The shot above is the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. I didn't actually go inside on the trip I took this picture, but I caught it on a later trip. It's pretty cool, but I don't know if it's worth a special trip to Cleveland. Something that might be worth the trip is the beach below at sunset, or, if you prefer, at moonset. It may be hard to see in the small version below, but if you look close, you'll see a tiny crescent moon following the sun to the horizon. I shot this a couple of years ago in Nokomis, Florida, while waiting for the annual Christmas nighttime boat parade. This shot was far better than any of the pictures I got of the boats.

November, Part Uno

Here's the first pair of calendars for the month of November. There seems to be an architectural theme going on here. The shot above, from the Florida set, is Castillo De San Marcos, the old fort at St. Augustine. This is the oldest remaining structure built by Europeans in America. (I have to be careful how I word that...) Not nearly so old, but probably just as striking is the church below. I forget the name of it, but this is in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, right off of the little square in front of Terminal Tower. I love how the skewed perspective makes the steeple reach for the sky, as if it's straining to somehow match the skyscrapers around it. And catching all the birds in flight is just icing on the photographic cake. I'll stop now...

The Onset Of November

Rumor has it that today is the first of November, so that means calendar pages! Here's the weekly page for the last half of this week, featuring some sort of fall-themed tin man or something. I shot this at Stan Hywet in Ohio a year or so ago during their Fall festival. They had lots of decorations like this, each of which sort of anthropomorphized some aspect of the house, this character being based on some of the vents atop the house. I'm not sure how successful the execution of the idea was, but it was a good idea.

Moldy Oldie

Something scary showed up in my email this morning. The two pictures you see here were taken sometime in the fall of '89, or maybe the spring of '90, not sure which. This was me and some of the guys on my floor in the Weaver dorms at UF before a big formal event. I think we were volunteering to help with security or something, which is how we rated tuxedos. I'm positive I wouldn't have provided my own tux just to go to some residence function. Even though these pictures are over 17 years old, I've seen all of these folks within the past year or so. Some friendships last forever. For those of you who don't know who I am, that's me in the dark glasses. You probably could have figured that out since I'm the only one who's in both pictures, but it's late and I'll cut you some slack.

Big thanks to Al for sending me the pix. He's on the left in the top picture. Al also sent me this other picture I shared sometime back.

Porter Wagoner, RIP

I used to listen to lots of country music when I was little, so I can remember plenty of Porter Wagoner on the radio. I can't say as I've listened to him any recently, but that doesn't mean I won't remember him in some small way. And to help you remember him, here's a version of Frosty The Snowman, as performed by Mr. Porter Wagoner. Enjoy!

"Visit the Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville, Tennessee."

The Last Few Days Of October

In honor of Halloween being this week, you get this creepy looking vulture as your calendar picture. I shot this guy out at Myakka River State Park. There are always lots of vultures hanging around out there for some reason. Not sure why.

Oodles Of Doodles CCCVII

It's been a bit since the last doodle I posted, so here's a quick one to tide you over. This festive scene comes from the back side of Karneval In Koln (Music Of The Colorful Carnival Celebration Of Germany) (Capitol T10222). Featured artists include Willi Hofmann, Werner Preuss, Horst Mys, Colonia-Orchester and Rheinland-Chor. This is another record in the Capitol Of The World series which seems to be a particularly rich source of doodles, provided you can find the long out-of-print records in the first place.

Shuttle Shutout

Well, I'd hoped to bring you pictures of the shuttle launch this morning, but this is all I got. Up until a couple hours before launch, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, but as 11:38 am approached, so did the cloud cover. All I saw was this little bit of smoke peeking through a hole in the cloud cover. I waited for it to come out above all the clouds, but if it did, I didn't see it. I didn't actually drive anywhere, so nothing ventured, nothing gained. This was shot from right in front of work, so the distance from there to the launch pad is about 140 miles. I was a lot closer last time.

Happy Halloween Music

Prior to today, the only holiday music I've shared out on the blog has been for Christmas. Lots and lots and lots of Christmas music. But occasionally, as I was hunting down Christmas music, I'd occasionally spot something a little less jolly, something spookier, something more appropriate for Halloween. So I started collecting up those tracks when I stumbled across them. And now, the time is here to share them with you. It's just a collection of tracks, no special CD cover, so don't get all excited. Some of these are great, some of them are good, some of them are OK, and some of them, well, let's just say they're worth whatever you're paying for them. I think there are 24 tracks, most of which are instrumentals. The few vocal tracks I think are my favorites, but they are hard to find. Other bloggers have done a great job of bringing you more Halloween tracks, but I don't think I've seen any of these shared out elsewhere. If so, sorry for the duplication. So what's in the zip file?

Sid Bass-The House Is Haunted
Ralph Materie-Haunted Guitar
Phil Napoleon-Satanic Blues (written by a guy named Christian!)
Noro Morales-Mr. Ghost Goes To Town
The Modernaires-The Rockin' Ghost (co-written by Steve Allen, I think this is my favorite. Whoops, I seem to have put in both the stereo and mono versions. Sorry...)
The Mighty Sparrow-Madam Dracula
Michel Legrand-Old Devil Moon
Marty Gold-King Of The Mountain (Great version!)
Lou Levy-Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead
Lord Melody-Creature From The Black Lagoon
Les Brown & Vic Schoen-Oh, Those Martian Blues
Lenny Dee-Satan Takes A Holiday
Johnnie Long-The Boogie Man
John Gart-Funeral March For A Marionette (You know, Alfred Hitchcock's theme...)
Jimmy Durante-We're Going UFO-ing
Herbie Harper-The New York City Ghost
Ethel Smith-Ethel Meets The Count
Dinah Washington-My Man's An Undertaker (What was the inspiration behind this?!?)
David Rose-October Mist
The Count Of Monte Cristo & Congo Bey-Zombie Jamboree
The Brute Force Steel Band-Beastly Meringue
Billy Strange-Theme From The Munsters (No, I don't know why it sounds like that...)
Billy May-Return Of The Zombie

There you have it. Lot's of tracks from those old LPs that you know I love. Everything should be tagged with artists, titles, LPs, dates labels, you name it. No covers, though, 'cause I'm lazy. Hope you enjoy it. Here's the Linky-link.

The Next To The Last Week In October

More great fall color for the calendar picture this week. I think I shot this detail of a maple tree behind Stan Hywet in Ohio last year, but it could really have been anywhere at the height of the fall color. Impressive, no?

Field A'Flower

Several weeks ago, I was on my way somewhere when I spotted a large expanse of flowers. I made a mental note to come back over the weekend and shoot some pictures. Then I forgot where I had spotted them. Flash forward to last week on my way home from Big Cat Rescue, and I happened to drive past the spot. I had to cut across a couple lanes of traffic and enter a parking lot through the exit, but I managed to get to where I needed to be for the picture taking. Turns out it was a small, shallow pond that was covered in water hyacinth. Unfortunately, most of the flowers were past their prime, but I still got a few great pictures.

Big Cat Attack, Part 20

This is the last cat I shot at Big Cat Rescue last Saturday, so this is the end of my big cat pictures. Hope you enjoyed seeing these great cats up close. If I remember right, this was their very first tiger, so he has a huge pen, almost a full acre, with access to the lake and plenty of space to romp. Yet he still hangs out in the front so he can watch the tourists and get his picture taken.