an infrequent repository of mostly new stuff
Datura Inoxia time lapse
One night, about 30 years ago, I was walking down a sidewalk in an old neighborhood in Richmond, on the way home from a social engagement. It was very late, the streets were empty. I was tired and pleasantly overstimulated – much scintillating conversation, coupled with subtle inebriants consumed on a visit with some very creative friends.
To Scale: The Solar System from Wylie Overstreet on Vimeo.
On a dry lakebed in Nevada, a group of friends build the first scale model of the solar system with complete planetary orbits: a true illustration of our place in the universe.
A film by Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh
alexgorosh.com
wylieoverstreet.comCopyright 2015
When my daughters were young we spent a lot of time looking at the sky. Comets, meteor showers, constellations, satellites, planets. On camping trips, especially; but sometimes we juat went out into the country to find dark places so we could see better.
Laying in the dew-wet grass, or bundled in winter coats on the still-warm hood of the car, we’d listen to the whippoorwills, the crickets and katydids, the owls, and distant trains, and look up into the big dark and empty that seems so full when the sky is clear.
In elementary school they made models for science projects, and posters. We used flashlights for the sun, and basketballs and baseballs for planets, and we tried to get our heads around the scale of things.
We are not alone, it seems. These guys did that, too, and tried to make it real on a much bigger scale. It’s beautiful on many levels.
Curt looking for The Hole in the Wall
This is going to be fun.
It is true that I should have left 15 minutes ago. Yes, it’s still dark, and the mountains to the west are a deep cold blue like waves crashing on a beach of stars; but the horizon in the east is glowing embers. Fifteen minutes is easy to make up. Normally not a problem when driving 2 1/2 hours east, to the Chesapeake.
But crews have been replacing two of the old steel truss bridges on the River Road along the James. In the semi-dark I sit at temporary stop lights blinking on deserted roads, deep in the woods – no work crews around, no other cars, just me sitting in the dark, alone, listening to the car idle and the katydids and the tree frogs and the fish jumping in the Hardware River below, dutifully waiting tor some imaginary line of cars to pass so the light will turn green and let me safely pass. Is that a police cruiser in the weeds on the other side? A ticket would make me really late. I have to do it all again at the Rivanna. I love these old bridges, and will miss them when they’re gone. I miss the one they took down a few years ago on the road north from town. A double insult to be delayed by their funeral.
deadrises at Gwynn’s Island
video: Mailboat entering Mailboat Harbor on Tangier Island
Two other times I’ve been to Tangier. Once as a boy of 12, my grandparents took us – me, my brother and sister – on the ferry from Reedville, Virginia, just up the road from where they lived, where I spent summers. Thirty years later, when my own daughters were the same age, I took them over on the same ferry. Ten years later still, on the mailboat from Crisfield, will be the third time. What’s most surprising is not how much has changed in all that time, but how very, very little.
Our group meets for breakfast down by the town dock at the Waterside Cafe. (It’s good hearty food, with omelettes that cover a dinner plate and endless coffee.) From there the we split and parts ways. Some head back to the campsite to sleep and read through the rainy day; others drive south to scout the lower peninsula; five of us wait on the dock to board a boat for Tangier.
Continue reading “Tangier Island Homecoming ~ Chesapeake Float 2015”
The Ballad of Holland Island House from Lynn Tomlinson on Vimeo.
This is a lovely piece. You’ll remember last year, while sailing near Deal and Crisfield, I wrote up the story of Holland Island. It has been one of my most visited and favorited posts.
This animation on the same story, made with clay on glass and set to music, is really well done, and the medium lends itself well to the subject.
A nice post on Colossal is here, with additional links:
This is Colossal: Holland Island House
the harbor at Isle au Haut, Maine
Michael Bogoger, The Doryman
Speaking of boats . . .
Back in January, at the end of the Epic Cross Country Road Trip, there was a fun little bonus waiting: A chance meeting with longtime boatbuilder and maritime blogger known as Doryman.