"Days With My Father" by Phillip Toledano

This is a beautiful and moving photo essay.  It originated on the web a couple of years ago and is now a book as well.

Days with My Father

h/t Rex Taylor Smith
------

The Loaded Chicken

By popular demand, here is what a Loaded Chicken looks like.

It's not natural.

Great picture by Nancy.

---

Update: Food & Think, the cool Smithsonian blog about food, did a followup piece on the photographer who authored the original "What's in Your Fridge" project.

What's In Your Fridge?

I found Good Magazine's pictorial essay of the contents of people's refrigerators fascinating. I'm not sure why, except that it is one of those slice of life exercises that the Internets seem to be good for.

The one with the rattlesnake was pretty interesting.

Here's what's in my fridge ------------------>

Obviously my snapshot is vastly inferior to the ones in the essay. And, for the sake of authenticity and personal integrity, I didn't pose any of my foodstuffs. This is them in their natural, candid state, caught unawares before the intruding lens.

The only thing that I can see here that may merit some explanation is the thing on the top shelf next to the egg carton. That is a chicken made out of wire. It's function, allegedly, is to store the eggs. My wife always tries to get me to "load the chicken," but I refuse, on philosophical grounds.

Sometimes a guy just has to put his foot down. A man needs to know where to draw the line - what battles are worth fighting and stuff like that.



h/t Mark Bittman

Everyone Can Go

This is an Associated Press photo from a couple of weeks ago showing religious pilgrims returning from a...uhm, pilgrimage to their home in Multan, Pakistan.

Click to enlarge.

Indiana University/Bloomington 11/7/08

This past Friday, Nancy and I spent the day in Bloomington, visiting JP. While he was in class in the late afternoon, we wandered around the campus a bit, taking photos. Even though the full glory of autumn is a couple of weeks past, it was still really beautiful.

(If you click on the pictures above, most of them will expand.)

Update:  Nancy took some great pics....check them out here.

Schmap! A Guide To Rome

Check out the widget in the right panel.  It is a very cool web-published travel guide to Rome and it features a photo taken by my wife, the international photo-journalist.  After we returned from our vacation in Rome earlier this year, Nancy posted some outstanding photos of our trip on her Flickr page.  The editors of Schmap!, no doubt scouring the internet for quality photo work, expressed interest in her work.  They ultimately selected her photo of the Fountain of Triton for inclusion in their guide.

This guide can be downloaded to most web-enabled personal devices such as the Apple iTouch, the iPhone, of course, and probably any smartphone, as well as blogs or websites.

Nancy at the feet of Triton.

INDIANA SKY 7/30/08

"They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory." 

Matthew 24:30b

Nancy took this picture a couple of evenings ago. Evidently, the Lord never tires of either sunrises or sunsets. Not only can He see both occurring continuously somewhere here on our planet, but He has made the universe such that this same phenomenon is rendered unceasingly across the breadth of His creation, in infinite and relentless variety. 

What does that say about Him?

Water Striders

This website has some gorgeous photography and covers a fascinating scientific study. It documents research done recently by a couple of students at MIT on insects who walk on water. Among the amazing things that they've done is design and build a tiny robotic insect to mimic and simulate the movements of various insects.

I am married to an international travel photojournalist

Well, you knew that already from her Flickr pages. But go here to read an interesting online article about the opening of a recently discovered pagan tomb from the second century A.D. under St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The author asked Nancy for permission to use a couple of her photos for the feature.

Art, History, and Architecture in Rome

One of the principal reasons we like to travel is to experience and learn about other cultures, in particular through art and history. Nothing opens one’s mind and expands one sense of and appreciation for other people more than actually going and seeing where and how they live.

Art and history are so intertwined in Italy that it is difficult, and probably pointless, for me to disassociate the two. It is seemingly impossible to consider either one without invoking the other.


The architecture of Italy is fascinating because it reflects both art and history, form and function, in very visceral, immediate way. When one enters the Pantheon, for example, one is compelled to consider simultaneously it’s obvious massive structure, profoundly classic design, and the astonishing constructional detail that goes into each square foot. And then comes the appreciation for the fact that it was completed in 125 A.D. under the authority of the emperor Hadrian. Considering that, still today, it holds the record for the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome, and remembering that the building utensils of the time were mostly primitive hand tools made by other primitive hand tools, one is quickly overtaken by a sense of awe. The intricacy and intelligence of the design, and the surpassing beauty of the richly colored carved marble components is incredible. Incredible because of it’s age, because it has survived and continues to thrive some two thousand years later.


Throughout Rome, one sees ongoing restoration and preservation. Italy truly understands and values it's historical significance, to be sure. Just as we observed in Vienna a few years ago, there is an army of workers whose perpetual function is to protect, restore, and preserve the historical and artistic treasures. Something is being worked on all the time.  

More than once I marvelled at the careful and precise methods employed by construction engineers and contractors to simultaneously provide for the installation of modern necessities such as indoor plumbing, ventilation, cooking facilities, and reasonable access while at the same time retaining as much as possible the original look and feel of an ancient building.

One of the things that impressed me so much in all of these ancient structures, was the quality of the maintenance. Looking closely at one of the Pantheon's massive pillars, for example, one sees careful patching and repair work in places. But this is repair work that is most often several centuries old, performed by unknown contract artisans, long dead, using classic technique.

The same type of maintenance, repair and restoration was evident in the statuary rooms of the Vatican museums as well. The Vatican museums were fabulous, by the way. That is a "must see" if you go to Rome, and I will probably have a separate post on that at some point.

Again, I direct you to Nancy's Flickr page for her outstanding photo work.

Thoughts on Rome

We've been back from our wonderful vacation in Italy a week now.  The paucity of posts is due primarily to the fact that within two days of our return I had to prepare for and then work a tradeshow this past week, representing my company, ProAudio.com.  This required substantial time and concentration above and beyond my normal work catch-up.  It was time-consuming, hard work and largely unblogworthy, although I may come back to it at some point.

However, the break has given me the opportunity to distill some of my impressions and observations about our trip.  I am no longer interested in blogging it chronologically, but I do intend to approach it topically, discussing the aspects that I found most enjoyable and interesting.

First, for an outstanding collection of excellent photos, check out Nancy's Flickr page.  Her camera is much better than mine, her artistic eye is impeccable, and her pictures are all great.  I will likely borrow some of her pictures as needed.  She continues to edit and add to her pages there.  Feel free to comment on the photos or ask her a question. Flickr is her Blogger.

----------------------------------

There is so much to see, so much to love about Rome.  One of Anthony Bourdain's aphorisms is "Be a traveler, not a tourist," and that is what we always try to do.  We certainly participated in a number of tourist activities and saw many of the most notable sites, but we planned our trip on our own, eschewing the many pre-packaged tours that are available.  Instead, we read as much as we could, talked to people we know who had been there, and plumbed the depths of the internet for information, making our own decisions on where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do.  One of our goals was to immerse ourselves, as much as possible in one short week, into the culture and life of the people of Rome, and I feel like we achieved that.  We figured out how to ride the buses, how to read the street signs, how to buy a train ticket and, generally, how to move around like the Italians do, and that really increases the quality of the adventure.  

We were blessed with beautiful weather.  Some days were overcast, but the temperature was in the 60's and 70's during the day, and just perfect for walking the streets of Rome.  And walk is

what we did.  We easily did at least 5-7 miles a day, and it is a town that requires footwork in order to see it properly.  The streets are narrow and serpentine, the sidewalks undulate, expanding and sometimes contracting down to nothing.  It is a maze and it is amazing,  Often I would consult our little street map and find that we had wandered off our intended path.  Many of the streets are what we would call alleys here in America, and some are literally only about 20 yards long.  And yet each one has a name and is a destination in its own right.  Each has a history much older than our country.

I really enjoyed observing the people.  A lot of my pictures depict street scenes of people walking around against the beautiful background of stucco and marble buildings.  Rome attracts people from all of the world, obviously, but one of the things that we observed is that no one enjoys this city more than the Romans themselves.  Day or night, there are hordes of people walking, talking, eating, roaming, working, playing, smoking, shopping, and generally imparting an uptempo, vibrant energy to the streets.

In the piazza at the base of the Spanish Steps

Some of the sights really defy adequate description, too.  It is remarkable to find these gigantic, ancient structures, architectural masterpieces, really, of ages long since gone in the middle of this busy city.  Check out this breathtaking view, taken at sunset, the first day we were there, near the Colosseum:

Not yet spring...

Butterfly wings on ice...a brutal incongruity.

Baby Pictures...

Hey! Drop everything and go look at these baby pictures. Who doesn't like baby pictures?!?!

Odds & Ends

I think I have fixed one of the problems that was plaguing my Mac laptop, making it frustrating to use. I hope so. At any rate, I am enjoying posting this entry from the front porch, at dusk, after a rather strenuous day at work.

I slept about 3 hours last night. It was not for lack of trying, although I did give up around 2:00AM and decided to get some work done. I am not normally an antisomnabulist. My hope is that I will return to routine this evening. Soon, in fact.

Here are a few loose bits of change that I've been carrying around in my pocket for a bit. None of these notions, on their own, merit a blog entry, but combined, they are like the handful of curious and unusual stones that you pick up in the field in the very early spring, pushed up to the surface by the thaw. You look at them, roll them around in your hand, clean them off in the sink and put them on the window sill. Some months later, you add them to the gravel that lines the driveway.

Above is a picture of the Lynn Friends Church, from some 50 years or more ago. My ancestors helped establish this church back in the early 1800's. It is still a thriving worship community. There are things to appreciate about the Quakers. My grandma, at 91, is now the oldest member of this church. This is an honor about which she has mixed feelings. As a follow-up to my post some time ago on some of the area's country churches, go here for some history as well as more excellent old photos of churches here in Randolph County.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

One of the most interesting websites that I know of is dirtybeloved - un regard oblique, and I recommend it to you now. It is a distinctly different and eclectic website that, in turn, will take you to some remarkable places. Places filled with stunning archives of photographic imagery, graphic anomalies, cultural peculiarities, and insightful, creative thinking. It is a blog, but not one like any other that I have seen.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+

This past weekend, I consciously avoided an opportunity to volunteer to teach a class this fall on the Book of Revelation. I wonder if that was a mistake. Sometimes I wish that either the Holy Spirit would speak more loudly and forcefully, or that I would be wise enough and quiet enough to know for sure when I am being whispered to.

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

Every summer we try to take advantage of a very special attraction that we have in nearby Winchester. We have one of the few remaining drive-in theaters in the country. I love that when you call in to find out what the features are, the answering machine informs you that "all movies start at dusk." On Tuesdays, it is $5 per carload and $10 every other night to see a double-feature, which is an antiquated bit of entertainment jargon that means you get to see two shows for the price of one. You tune your car radio in to the low-power FM frequency that broadcasts the movie audio. Families come from all over, mostly hardworking blue collar or farming folks, to park next to people they don't know, eat some snacks, and watch the movie from their favorite lawn chair. There is a playground there with all manner of unsafe toys, like jungle gyms and carousels, and sand piles, swing sets, and slides. The kids play until it gets dark. There is a squat, cinder block building in the center, painted yellowish green, that houses the funky concession stand and from which the ancient projectors beam. Just out of sight, less than a quarter of a mile a way, there is a busy convergence of active railway lines that rumble and blow without regard for what features may be showing. The sunsets are routinely spectacular from the drive-in parking lot.

All that to say, that last week we took my niece, Camomille, and her young son, Bryce, to see the animated feature Ratatouille. This movie is much better than one might expect, I am happy to report. There is one scene that is especially interesting to me which I feel I can relate without spoiling the movie for you. At one point, a character tastes a particular dish that dramatically transports him momentarily back to his childhood, so powerfully does it remind him of the flavor, the smell, the essence of his mother's kitchen, the feel of his own childhood.

That resonated with me, in all of its animated surrealism, because it taps into what for me is a curious experiential truth. That is, the way certain sounds, tastes, smells, objects and, for me, especially music all summon remembrances so quickly, so powerfully, without reason or warning. I really like when that happens. I don't understand how that works or what, if anything, it may mean or say about the way we are made. But I like it.

Last Sunday, in conversation at dinner with my parents, I happened to think of and then recalled aloud a certain kind of cookie that I remembered my Mom making when I was a kid. They were called "Secret Recipe" cookies, and they were splendid and perfect in every way. They were, even to my child's mind, the archetypal homemade cookie, long before I knew what an archetype was.

It is not so often that we eat with my parents, and almost never during the week, but last evening we joined them and my grandma for dinner again. As a surprise, my mother had made the "Secret Recipe" cookies. First the sight of them, then the smell, and then finally the taste and guess what? Just like the animated character in the movie, I was 10 years old again. Just for a little while.

That is a powerful and mysterious magic.

Indiana Sunset - June 28, 2007

Rural Route #2: Country Churches

More pics from Rural Route #2.

Rural Churches in southern Randolph County.

Carlos Christian Church

Carlos United Methodist Church

Martindale Friends Church

New Liberty Church of Christ

Spartansburg United Methodist Church

Rural Route #2: Are you looking at me?

One of my mail patrons. She lives on E. 600 South near Base Road,

Rural Route #2, 47355.

Kansas Tornado

Kansas.com has a startling set of aerial photographs from Greensburg, KS, showing the devastation wreaked by the tornado.

Pray for these people.

Dogs in Space

This is excerpted from the Space Today Online website:

"Korabl-Sputnik-2 (Spaceship Satellite-2), also known as Sputnik 5, was launched on August 19, 1960. On board were the dogs Belka ( Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow). Also on board were 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants.

After a day in orbit, the spacecraft's retrorocket was fired and the landing capsule and the dogs were safely recovered. They were the first living animals to survive orbital flight. Strelka later gave birth to six puppies, one of which was given to Caroline Kennedy, daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

Today, the bodies of Strelka and Belka remain preserved at the Memorial Museum of Astronautics in Moscow. Belka sits in a glass case in the museum while Strelka is part of a traveling exhibit that has visited the U.S., China, Australia, Israel and other countries."

The photograph is from a Library of Congress photograph collection. Stumbling over one of the cutest dog pictures I've ever seen inspired me to do a little research on it's subjects.

BIRD'S EYE TOURIST

Check this out.

The name of this site is Bird's Eye Tourist, and it is an online collection of satellite imagery. It is similar to Wikipedia and other interactive websites in that the owners invite reader participation and submittals. Many of the entries, like the one for the Coliseum in Rome pictured here include historical footnotes. The entries are tagged and carefully arranged into into collections or categories based around location or theme, which makes browsing or searching productive and fun. Some entries are quite detailed and specialized, like the fascinating collection of retired military aircraft, the architecture collections, national landmarks, prisons, or the views of carousels from all over the US. There are also, of course, celebrity homes, crimes scenes, and such, as well as noteworthy historical locations, like the site of the great Hindenburg zepellin crash in 1937.

Fascinating stuff.