Jailbirds!

Folk art, crafts...sometimes there's a fine line between "crafts" and "trash". Sometimes a keen eye can tell them apart. Sometimes time passing can be the only test. Usually it's just a matter of opinion: any piece of handmade craftiness could be a treasure to some and junk to another. 

I recently started making t-shirts, so I know this. They don't impress everyone all the time; in fact, I now no longer really care for the one that reads "WWWTF". It had a lukewarm public reception but seemed like a good idea to make. 

Folk art comes about when an entrepreneurial spirit conceives a notion that is unavailable on the public market. This is either because it's so genius that nobody's thought of it yet, or maybe it was invented but not marketed well; maybe the time was wrong for it; maybe it was just a bad idea. Maybe the art/invention is so brilliant and demands such skill that only one person in the world could ever make it. (That is the case with my t-shirts.)

Be your own judge on this piece. It was at a craft sale on the Fourth of July in Steilacoom, a small town near Tacoma. I opted to take its picture rather than buy it, and see if the test of time would lead me to regret this decision. It's been almost a year and I'm not losing any sleep. Don't get me wrong -- I like a lot about it! It's creatively built, makes you chuckle, and it has a function -- just not for me.

Jailbird-house, Steilacoom, 2011.

Slackers

Americanature has been heavy on the nature and light on the Americana lately. It's the season of lawn chairs, parades, BBQs, and county fairs. Let's get back to a little Americana.

 I took this picture of a bar window in Shawano, Wisconsin, with a digital point and shoot camera. I was on a sales trip with my friend Craig. I believe we had just, or were about to, eat lunch across the street at the Chinese restaurant with the red awning. We were going to have lunch with our associate Ted.

I stumbled upon this photo on my hard drive earlier this week. I am not sure why I took it. But if I was anything then like I am now, I had a cynical sense of humor. I believe it was the "For Sale by Owner" sign on a place named Slackers that got me. The effort that they put into selling this bar was 1. Go to Hardware Store. 2. Post sign on window. 3. Wait.

Slackers Bar, Shawano, WI, January 2004.

Has the strategy paid off? Well, that was 2004, and Google Streeview captured it in all its glory in 2009, looking exactly the same (except no sign). I'm not saying it's certain that the ownership didn't change, but what's your guess?

This led me to an impromptu internet research project: Google Streetview captures. I thought it would have been cool if, by chance, the googlemobile had driven by and photo'd me taking this picture. It didn't, but here's a collection of interesting links. 

http://imgur.com/gallery/1h0sc

http://mashable.com/2012/03/02/google-street-view-peeing-suit/#5002120-Hello-Me

(check out the bonus slideshow below this article -- #17 is my fave...

awesome job to be this cameraman:

http://mashable.com/2012/06/12/google-street-view-hiking-trails/

Annular Eclipse

It's been a hot month for celestial events. Just a few hours ago, Venus could be seen passing in between us and the sun, appearing as a tiny black dot on its face. When my friend Eric encouraged me to borrow his viewing device, a thick piece of dark cellophane designed for such things (apparently it allows three minutes of direct sun-gazing), I was impressed. I first saw nothing, but when I heeded his advice to give it a second, a-ha! There it was -- the sun's best Cindy Crawford. Apparently this will not happen again until 2117, so I hope you got to witness it. If not, there are plenty of online pictures for the "armchair astronomer" to check out.

On May 20, San Francisco was buzzing. There was this bobolink in town that you've already heard about. The famous Bay to Breakers run thundered through the city. Preparations were being made for the GGB75 event. And there was to be an annular eclipse that evening.  As I understand it, this is a partial eclipse that blocked all but the "annulus" of the sun, or 85 percent of it.

Annular eclipse, San Francisco, May 20, 2012.

People gathered all over the city, as a strangely dim light enveloped us, to view the eclipse. Many resorted to their own creative methods of seeing it, as illustrated below. The woman has about four pair of sunglasses on, and the gent is projecting the image through his eyepiece onto a small improvised screen for others to see.  I missed seeing an effect that I heard of later, where sun-dapples cast from trees during the eclipse were tiny round projections of the eclipse event.

There will be a total eclipse in North America on August 21, 2117 -- save the date.