FYI ~ ticket please

The ticket ~ Syracuse, NY • click to embiggenRev. Hobson punching their tickets ~ Syracuse, NY • click to embiggenReverend Hobson's first wedding ceremony went off without a hitch. Well, except for the fact that everyone, to include the best man / maid of honor / Reverend Hobson and most notably the wedding couple, forgot all about the wedding rings until after I had pronounced them husband and wife (by the power vested in me). But at least they got their rickets punched.

In any event, I kept it short and sweet (the temperature inside the railroad car was over 100˚F) and everyone had a great time.

FYI, here is the script / text from my service (written by me - with an assist from the wife - and dictated to the wife during our morning car ride to the NYS Fair on the day of the event):

Welcome all of you to Luke and Linda's wedding. It means a lot to them that you are all aboard to see them off as they begin their journey. And, I'd like to thank Luke and Linda, for affording me the opportunity to be the conductor for this wedding ceremony...

When I first was informed that Luke and Linda were going to be married on railroad car at the NYS Fair, I thought it to be a bit weird. However, after thinking about it and now actually being here, I think it's really weird.

Nevertheless, I guess it is rather appropriate to begin one of life's most important journeys on this antique railroad car. After all, the naked truth is, if Linda didn't have a fondness for old things (indicate my brother), we wouldn't be here today.

In any event, like all train trips, there might be whistle stops at strange locations, derailments, or even train wrecks along the way. But I would remind Luke and Linda that the journey, with all its rewards and hazards, is at least as important as the destination. Therefore, enjoy this trip, that begins in new York state and arrives at the state of connubial bliss.

In that spirit, I now present Luke and Linda with their one way tickets, to their ultimate! destination.

Now, as You have all journeyed here to share the day as Luke and Linda become husband and wife, I invite you to witness their vows. Without actually knowing who's the engineer and who's riding the caboose on this train, I will begin with Luke.

Do you Luke, take Linda to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?

Ticket please (punch the ticket)

Do you Linda, take Luke to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for Rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?

Ticket please (punch the ticket)

By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife.

BTW, that last sentence is one that I never imagined ever uttering in my lifetime.

PS thanks to my son, The Cinemascapist, for designing the ticket on very short notice. While I had planned to do it, I nevertheless left home 2 weeks before the ceremony (taking Hugo to Rochester for hockey camp) without tickets in hand and never thinking that I wouldn't be back home before the ceremony. So, on the afternoon before the wedding date, I called Aaron from our cottage on Blue Mountain Lake and asked him to design the ticket. He send me a proof via email and I arranged for him to email the finished ticket to a Kinko printing center in Syracuse and was able to pick up the tickets the next morning on our way to the Fair. My thanks to Aaron the modern wonder of the internet and email.

Update on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 08:07AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment(s): John Linn wrote: "Do you Linda, take Luke to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for Rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?" .... Can we assume a typo or is there more to the story?"

And Sven W (no link provided) wrote: "A railroad car certainly presents limited opportunities for the wedding photog!"

my response(s): John, I guess the wife isn't as good at taking dictation as I thought. And Sven, that's no wedding photog, that's my wife (who made the picture) - the guy in the orange shirt is a tv videographer).

FYI ~ my next exhibit(?)

View ~ Old Forge, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenMain gallery ~ Old Forge, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenSide gallery ~ Old Forge, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenDuring my recent stay on Blue Mountain Lake, I ventured down the road to Inlet to play a round of golf, after which I went a little bit farther down the road to Old Forge to run an errand.

Entering Old Forge, I passed by view, a multi-disciplinary art institution of long standing (albeit it in a brand new facility). The wife and I have visited view on a number of occasions when passing through Old Forge. For some reason we almost always pass through during their annual Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors and this year was no exception to that rule.

In any event, as I was leaving Old Forge, I decided to stop and try to hookup with the view Director whom I had met last summer at a conference. My life without the APA book was circulating at the conference and the view Director had taken notice of it. We had brief conversation which ended with her stating, "maybe it's time that we had an exhibit which would stir a little controversy" and she invited me to stay in touch.

Long story, short, I didn't stay in touch. So, even though I had forgotten her name, I stopped in to view and asked the receptionist to see the Director (mentioning her interest in my work for a possible exhibition). The receptionist explained that the Director had nothing to do with exhibitions and I would have to see the Curator. She dialed up the Curator, explained the situation, and the Curator agreed to see me.

When the Curator came to the entrance area, I again explained the circumstance of my visit and she was gracious enough to take the time to look at my work. I did not have the life without the APA book with me but I did have all 5 of my new folio books*. She looked at the life without the APA pictures online and then looked at all of the folio books. The net result was that she very enthusiastically suggest that she would like to have an exhibition of my pictures, mostly likely my decay and disgust and kitchen life work.

What was of particular interest to me, exhibition possibility not excluded, was the fact that she "got" nearly everything regarding my picturing intentions, the visual statement and implied meaning(s) (aka: the illustrative and illuminative properties of my pictures). Amongst many other things, she loved how I had "embraced the square" and my utilization of the 2D space within that format. She also mentioned that she thought the prints in the books were outstandingly beautiful.

After the better part of an hour with her, looking at and discussing my work, she took me on a tour of the exhibition galleries and made special mention of the particular gallery (see Side gallery, 2 of 4 walls, above) in which she would like to exhibit my work. She specified that space because she said it had the best gallery lighting and my work deserved to be exhibited under the best of conditions.

Needless to state, I was and remain thrilled by the whole affair.

*the folio books comprised of bound together, lay flat, photo prints, not reproductions.

ku # 1173-74 / civilized ku # 2320-27 ~ an odd night out

Post, steps, flowers ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Camp Flat Rock wing ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Flat Rock bedrooms wing ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Lake Champlain shore ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
flat rock ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Interior ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Interior # 2 ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Pack basket ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Rocky point ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Vermont ~ Willsboro, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenYesterday evening, the wife and I went out for a $1,000.00USD-a-ticket political soiree. The event was for our good friend (the wife's ex law partner), US Congressman Bill Owens (a Democrat).

What made it an odd night out is twofold: 1) we don't ever have any $1,000 nights out, and, 2) the party was chock full (34-36 of 40) of top-1%-ers Republicans, a group we don't normally hangout with. Nevertheless, we sorta had to attend, so we sucked it up and went.

The party was held at Camp Flat Rock, a seasonal privately owned Adirondack Great Camp on the shore of Lake Champlain. The camp is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and, even though privately owned, it is under the stewardship of the Adirondack Nature Conservancy to ensure that the land (40 acres) will not be developed in the future.

The soiree's host family (the camp owner) are dyed-in-the-wool, multi-generational Republicans - one of the family's patriarchs broke open a bottle of champagne on the occasion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's death, apparently believing it was cause for celebration - and most of the other attendees, the wife and I excepted, were of the same political persuasion.

Why a Democrat political fundraiser attended by mostly Republicans, you might asked?

My guess is simple ... most of the attendees could be classified as "lost generation" Republicans. That is to say, Republicans who, although they be Conservatives (most might actually be Rockefeller Republicans*), are most definitely not beady-eyed zealots of the Tea Party / Republican far-far Right Wing political persuasion. I am fairly certain that most, if not all of them, are quite dismayed by the current state of their beloved political party.

As such, they appreciate Democrat Bill Owens and his true practical and bi-partisanship approach to governance - he voted with Republicans 35% of the time. He is an honest-to-god political moderate, dedicated to sensible political compromise in order to get things done and he has no stringent political ideology to which he must adhered at all costs.

It is extremely unfortunate that Bill is in such a minuscule minority in the US Congress. Our country needs many more like him on both sides of the aisle. Here's hoping he is re-elected simply because he's a good man and I don't want to be represented by his moronic Tea Party-backed opponent.

*a member of the Republican Party of the United States of America, who is fiscally conservative, but not Christian conservative, and politically ambiguous on social conservatism.

ku # 1172 ~ what the frick??

Sunrise ~ Blue Mountain Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOn the entry ku # 1168-71, Paul Maxim asked:

"Chasing the light" or "taking advantage of the light": What the frick is the difference??

IMO, the frickin' difference is: reflexively responding to a serendipitous encounter with the natural world vs. a fetishistic and obsessive-compulsive preoccupation, picture making wise, with picturing only the "right" landscape in the "right" light.

And, BTW, I didn't coin the phrase "chasing the light". It was coined, as an honorific self-aggrandizing title, by those who do, in fact, chase the light. I suspect they coined the phrase because they are very proud of the effort and work it takes to get it all so "right".

Whether one considers the nomenclature to be praise or demeaning, I am in basic agreement with the art critic, Sally Eauclaire, who so eloquently wrote:

... such photographers often choose such picturesque subject matter as prodigious crags, rippling sands, or flaming sunsets. Drawing upon the Hudson River School's legacy in painting, they burden it with ever coarser effects. Rather than humbly seek out the "spirit of fact", they assume the role of God's art director making His imminence unequivocal and protrusive.

To be certain, if "prodigious crags, rippling sands, or flaming sunsets" (et al) and "assuming the role of God's art director" float's one's picture making boat, then, by all means, have at it. It's big broad picture making world out there and somebody's got to do it.

For me, I'll just take it and make it as it comes.

civilized ku # 2319 / diptych ~ illegal to feed bear/deer

Road sign / wall of snapshots ~ between Inlet & Eagle Bay / Keyes Pancake House in Old Forge, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenIt's been a dry(ish) summer which has had the effect of severely diminishing the natural food sources of many wild animals. The most noticeable animals affected by this problem are bear and deer.

Bear and deer are most noticeable because their solution to the problem is to forage for food in close proximity to human populations. And, they're big. While deer are a nuisance - eating shrubs and munching their way through gardens and the like, bear are a pain in the ass. They have no inhibitions about coming into your kitchen through a screen door ... and I do mean through the door.

In any event, because of the dry weather / low natural food supply, 12 bears have been put down this summer as the result of being "nuisance" bears. All things considered, this number of downed bears, while unfortunate, hardly puts a dent of any consequence on the bear population inasmuch as 70% of New York State's estimated 7,000 bear population reside in the Adirondacks.

FYI, there has never been a fatal bear attack in the Adirondacks. Virtually all encounters with bears in NYS / Adirondacks are entirely benign. A bear's first instinct upon encountering a human is to turn butt and run. While there are occasional displays (when they feel threatened) of what is mistakenly thought of as aggression by a bear - swatting the ground with their paws, charging but stopping short of contact, slow and deliberate approaches, clacking teeth, huffing, growling, snorting and other sounds, those displays are, in fact, acts of defensive behavior. However, if given an opportunity to withdraw, the bear willingly and eagerly does so.

In only 1 of my several encounters with bears have I witnessed a display of all of the defensive responses listed above. The bear was defending a very large purloined tin bin of crackers and not about to give it up. His (I know the bear to be a male because he was big, much bigger than a female ever gets) display was both impressive and intimidating, so, true be told, I was the one to willingly and eagerly withdraw, albeit it very slowly.

civilized ku # 2318 ~ you can take it with you

RV + recliner ~ Old Forge, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenFiled under: where there's a will, there's a way, or, all the comforts of home, or alternatively, nothing could ever go wrong with this plan.

FYI, click here for the full version of RV bu Dana Lyons.

ku # 1168-71 ~ early morning gifts

Sunrise / birch ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Sunrise / mist ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Canoe / loon ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Shoreline / mist ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenDuring our stay on the shore of Blue Mountain Lake, the wife and I were treated to a number of spectacular sunrises. Needless to say, I made a few sunrise pictures - approximately 50 pictures to be approximate. So many that, as I post some of these pictures over the next week or so, one might come to think that I was "chasing the light".

However, if that were true, I would have had to set my alarm clock for 5:45AM, get up, make a pot of coffee, shake off some sleeping cobwebs, put on clothes, fill a coffee travel mug (with coffee), and then go outside to check out the goings on, sunrise wise, and hope for the best. But that's not at all how the pictures came to be ...

In fact, as my body's current age-related plumbing dictates, I am awaken every morning at 6-6:15 by an undeniable urge to pee. Most mornings it's just a minor annoyance inasmuch as I am able to pee, return to bed, and go back to sleep without any problem. However, last week, on at least 3 occasions, as I arose and looked out the bedroom picture window, I was confronted with some spectacular vistas and there was no chance of returning to bed.

So, instead of a well planned and orderly picture making event, I engaged in a barely-awake Chinese fire drill. At 6:15AM, Ma Nature had already raised the curtain on the picture show and, as is usually the case, she wasn't going to have an intermission just for me. My only choice was to hurry and pee (first things, first), grab whatever clothes were at hand (no time to deal with buttons or belts), grab the cameras, and head out the door with sleep in my eyes, at which point my picture making adrenaline kicked in and I was in my picture making element.

By the time the show had ended, the wife had made coffee and all was right with the world.

civlized ku # 2317 ~ small is beautiful

Principal's office / Inlet Common School ~ Inlet, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen

Update on Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 11:25AM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: Gilbert Plantinga wrote: "I saw it differently... in my Rt.28 series..." (ed. note: picture # 21 of 28)