Category: Places

Categories
Places Weather

Don’t visit in the summer

I love my new adopted home, I really do. I’d love to share it with all of you, except that I have to honestly say, whatever you do, don’t visit this summer.

It’s only the middle of may and we’re heading to 90F, and 85% or better humidity. I went to the library and the store, both of which were cooled (and the library had some kind of band playing, go figure), but by the time I came home, I was dying. And it smells like something crawled into the attic and died.

With the rains we’re having and these 20 degree above normal temperature days, and the mild winter, the Missouri Green will have progressed from beautiful and mysterious and richly emerald to forests black as night because the foliage is so heavy. Not to mention the ticks and all the other insects out this year.

But let’s face it: bugs aside, you can’t do much when it gets over 100F and close to 90% humidity. Well, maybe you can. I can’t.

Fall. Fall is a nice time to visit St. Louis. Not September, I’m heading to Alaska in September. October. Octoberfest in St. Louis.

Categories
Places Weblogging

The Greening

The Greening happened overnight. When I woke up this morning, even the tallest and largest trees were sporting leaves, and every car was coated in green dust. No matter how carefully I look for it in the Spring, the Greening happens suddenly, without warning.

In the front yard, I noticed that the seed I scattered carefully on top of the mulch, and missed by both squirrel and bird, has sprouted. Good. This will be food for the bunny that makes its home in the bush on the side of our townhouse.

Frank from Sandhill and Jim from Noded had lunch at the BloggerCon conference and talked about the possibility of Jim hosting a BloggerCon in Chicago, or me hosting something like this in St. Louis. Though I agree that we need to focus more conferences in this lovely city, I can’t see myself doing something like a BloggerCon. A blogging conference has little appeal to me nowadays.

Meeting people I’ve come to know online has more appeal. I could see myself inviting any and all to St. Louis just to show off the city and all of the many, many places I’ve discovered. We wouldn’t need a hall because we could take our conference to the parks or along any of the water fronts, and get together at any number of good places to eat, or to listen to St. Louis’ own unique form of Blues. Rather than backchannels and facing each other other silver titanium barriers, we’d sit next to each other, and just talk. That, now, that does have appeal.

Fall. I would invite people to come here in October, because the heat of the summer has finally died down, and the Autumn colors are in full swing. People talk about fall colors in New England, but the Northeast has nothing on this state. Nothing. And neither San Francisco or Boston, or even New York, can match our unique blend of Northern/Southern history, nor our less expensive but just as quaint Bed & Breakfasts. Not to mention genuine riverboat gambling.

I wouldn’t invite people for September, because it can still be too warm in September. Besides, I’m planning a long drive in September, visiting friends and family here and there. Weblogging friends, too, if they’ll be glad of a visit.

Of course, meeting outdoors or at restaurants wouldn’t provide wireless access, but there are Starbucks all around for those who just have to blog any event immediately or they’ll implode into green pixy dust. And the libraries in town here all have Internet connectivity in all of the meeting rooms if we must shut ourselves away, though why I couldn’t understand.

There would be no fees and no sponsors and no formal invites, and all of you would be welcome–but there’s a potential glich in these plans: I have no idea of where I will be in October, or what I’ll be doing. By choice and by fate, my circumstances are uncertain day by day and I may not even be in St. Louis in October.

To be even more contrary, I’m also not sure if I’ll be a weblogger at that time, and no, this is not another “Why do we do this?” writing. But to assume that I’ll be a weblogger in six weeks, much less six months, implies that I’ve set my course and fixed my interests and nothing can possibly happen to change this. Life is far too quixotic and filled with fascinating possibilities for any of us to say with any certainty that next week we’ll not only have something to say, we’ll want to say it online.

There are a few, a very few, that we can comfortably say of, “they will be weblogging in six months”, but not necessarily among the people I read with the greatest delight. No, not even among you who are sure, without a doubt that you’ll be blogging in six months. Though we may say that the Internet is forever, there’s more than a hint of the ephemeral in this art form, and that makes it unique, and interesting. We are not sculptors, making statues of marble for all time; we are the street artists with our bits of colored chalk.

This impermanence and the subtle underlying promise of empty spaces makes this experience that much more alive and vital and beautiful because, just like the Greening, we never know when a new voice will suddenly emerge, or a beloved voice go, just as suddenly, quiet.

We are mono no aware, and that is our essence and our uniqueness:

By lonely roads
this lonely poet marches
into autumn dusk.

Basho

So by all means, please come to St. Louis the first week of October if you will, and you’ll see such beauty as will leave you forever changed; and you’ll listen to great music and eat wonderful food and enjoy interesting conversation and have a marvelous time. But I may not be here. I hope you don’t mind.

Categories
Photography Places

Funky Towns: Nashville, Indiana

Yesterday I took a much needed drive into the country, stopping at Nashville, Indiana along the way. Nashville is one of my favorite places, and I wanted to get some photos for an article proposal I’m working about funky towns.

What does a town need to be a genuine funky town?

Old, old buildings lovingly preserved, usually hosting one or more art galleries or other shops. The buildings should either have colorful window displays, and be painted bright colors or left in a careful state of oldness. It also helps if there’s some interesting historical reference about the community. For instance, Nashville’s most interesting aspect is that it has been an artist colony and tourist spot since 1905–long before funky was invented.

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A funky town must be described in at least one guidebook as either quaint, charming, or both. It must encourage walking, and be big enough to make it worthwhile to visit, but not so big that a person feels frustrated by the size. Shops should carry items appealing to all tastes and budgets, and totally ignore the concept of ‘less is more’.

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It helps if the town has an old movie theater, or playhouse.

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Most importantly, the place should have at least one fudge shop, and one ice cream parlor.

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Funky towns don’t hide their funkiness. During my walk about Nashville yesterday, two older guys were sitting on a bench talking about the town, and I hovered around pretending to take photos and shamelessly eavesdropping. One guy says to the other that the town has changed in the last twenty years, with all these shops and tourists.

“Never used to have all these stores around, ” he says. “I don’t like it. The town would be a lot different if it didn’t have all these shops.”

“You’re right, ” says the second man. “There’d be a stripmall where we’re sitting.”

Funky towns aren’t ashamed of what they are, and cherish their funkiness; wearing it proudly, like a woman gaudily bedecked with all her jewels.

As soon as you see one, you’ll know you’re in a funky town.

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Categories
Travel

Travel now while I still have the chance

Reading the new stories out today, if I don’t do my global traveling in the next few years, I might never have the chance:

Observer story about a leaked climate report from the Pentagon (found at Allan’s)

Australia having record breaking heat waves

However, President Bush joins with the Church to assure us that these things can’t possibly happen, and that we’re all overreacting. As Duncan Anderson writes:

It’s a pagan temptation to think, as some environmentalists seem to, that God is angry at us for enjoying the comforts of civilization-rather than to accept human ingenuity as His gift to us. The global-warming believers- vision seems to be for everyone to live like graduate students on a hiking trip: bringing the latest, lightest, high-tech gear, but eating only gorp and dried tofu and bearing no children.

The Emperor’s New Climate promised by the computer models should be so warm, we can all go around naked. If you must believe the scare stories, you can plant some palm trees and buy extra sunblock. But I don’t suggest you spend much. And if you live where I live, I promise you that for at least one season every year, you can expect to shovel some snow. Thanks be to God, spring is just around the corner.

Why worry? God will provide.

Categories
Photography Places

Life in Missouri

I wasn’t in a crowd mood yesterday so didn’t go to the Grand Mardi Gras parade in St. Louis. Besides, I’d rather focus on the true Mardi Gras parade Tuesday night. I plan on taking my digital camera and my film camera will have the ISO 400 B & W film–what is, I feel, the perfect choice for this type of event.

Though I didn’t go to the parade, the weather was fine and I grabbed my cameras and headed out to a park to hike and take photos. However, I hadn’t walked too far before my hiking boots were getting stuck in the inches thick mud, having forgotten that rough dirt trails just after a thaw are not the best terrain. I then moved to my favorite lake region and spent a happy time walking around the lake, letting the moist marsh grasses clean my shoes, and pestering the geese along the way.

I also picked up what is probably one of my best photos to date, at least in my opinion. I’ll have to figure out a nice essay to use it in, but I want to use some care – it’s a strong photo and needs a strong subject.

I captured the photo with both my digital and my film camera. I rarely go anywhere now without both cameras ever since I lost the chance to have my photos highlighted in an article of their own at Missouri Life magazine. Still feeling the effects of that one, and probably will for some time. However, life goes on.

(Heh. At least I still have my sense of humor. )

Yesterday, though, my film camera was acting sluggish and when I’d finished the roll and tried to reroll it, it wouldn’t budge. I got home and took out the batteries and one of them had failed and was leaking. Luckily, the leak didn’t hurt the camera housing, but I’m not sure how this roll will turn out, so the one photo may only be captured in digital and not film. That doesn’t matter; all that matters is that I captured it.

My time wasn’t just devoted to photos. As I was driving yesterday, and walking in all the muck, I was thinking about turning 50 this year and how I wanted to do something special. I thought that I could take a road trip and finish all the states in my ‘visited’ list, including visiting Alaska, but this just doesn’t have that much appeal for me.

After playing around at that web site that allows you to generate your ‘visited’ maps, I’ve been thinking how my visited country map has so few countries that I won’t even post it. The only countries I’ve visited are Canada, Mexico, and the UK (London to be precise). Not much when you look at it on a map.

I had planned some trips out just before the dot-com bust, back when I had money. I had already completed one trip, the one to London. Also on my list were other countries such as Ireland and Scotland, Germany and France, and perhaps even Italy or Spain. Outside of Europe, I wanted to visit Japan, China, Africa, and Australia. Especially Africa and Australia. Since I was a little bitty kid I’ve desperately wanted to visit Africa and Australia. I still do, though if I visited Africa I’d probably restrict my visit to South Africa primarily because I know folks there, Farrago and Mike Golby. (BTW, Mike Golby is back writing online again.)

However, my preference of all these countries would be to visit Australia. When I worked at Skyfish, several of the people were from Australia, and I learned much about the country through them–enough to want to visit. A couple of them have gone back home, and I’d like to see them again, catch up on old times. Besides, there’s at least one person from Skyfish who I’d love to visit because he owes me a really nice, expensive dinner, and good bottle of Australian wine.

Then there’s the people I’ve met online who are from Australia. I’d list them out but I don’t want them to think I’m inviting myself to their homes. They might be forewarned and then have to pretend they’re not home if I come knocking. However, it was working with one Australian friend, Allan Moult on Leatherwood Online that really did it for me. I kept looking at the photos and reading the stories, and I wanted to visit and see the places for myself; not just Tasmania (the focus of Leatherwood) – I want to see as much of the country as I can, culminating with New Year’s night in Sydney Harbor.

More than just wanting to visit, to explore and to experience (not to mention fill in countries on a map), the trip would fill another purpose. For the last year, I’ve been primarily living each month at a time, and I’m getting a bit weary of this. I want to have something to plan for, something that extends out past the end of the month. Just getting by isn’t enough. I want, and need, more.

What I need is to start a Australia travel fund. I’d reserve my books for paying for day to day living, and then any funds I receive from articles and photos and teaching would be marked for this fund. I have some good article ideas I’m in the process of marketing, and I’m thinking of starting up a site to sell prints of my photos, including the ones that Missouri Life wanted to use but declined when they found out I had no slides for the photos. Sort of my own version of “Missouri Life”.

In addition, I hope to teach a few classes at the St. Louis CC extension program, and that might earn something. Maybe I can even use a trip to Australia to promote my new book, or generate new article ideas and grab new photos. I might see if some of the training companies there would be interested in me training a class or two.

I’d like to stay in the country a couple of months, and might be able to swing this if I live and travel frugally. There are a lot of inexpensive hostels in the country and one can get a good deal on airline tickes if you shop around carefully.

Then, once I’ve been to Australia, I’ll start planning my next trip to Africa.

Regardless of how long it takes, and it probably will take a long time, the nice thing about having something to plan for is that I find myself thinking of new ideas and getting enthused about writing and photography again. I’m not sure how fast my fund will grow, but it’s nice to have a dream again.