Image for 4-9-11 - Mel and Billy

I am still back filling the days that were missed due to my stupid phone.

Here's a shot of Mel and Billy before the big hitch up. Billy was the best man and actually doesn't have a beard, that was a happy accident of the crappy tech. I enjoyed getting to know them better last weekend and look forward to hanging with them again sometime soon.

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Image for 4-8-11 - The Misty Mountaintop

I originally sent this from my camera phone to the blog, but it still hasn't shown up, so I'm playing catch up and reposting it directly. Friday we drove up to Wintergreen, VA to witness our good friends Casey and Laura be married. The ride up from the coast was uneventful until we got to the mountains. The cloud was down in the higher elevations and slowed us a bit. I am a big fan of fog, I love how it can take a normal environment and transform it into a mysterious adventure.

The truly dense stuff waited until later that evening when we had to make our way back from the Devil's Backbone down in the valley. The shroud dropped hard, reducing visibility to a few feet in front of the car and I had to creep along at five mph, clinging to the center line reflectors. It took awhile to get back to the chalet.

More catching up to do soon.

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Image for 4-7-2011 - Tangerine

I love tangerines. They unfold so easily and beautifully. Taste so sweet and are so good for you. I took a snack break at work today and found this cool shape after I cracked open this little fruit. It looked like an alien flower to me. Good thing I got a photo of it as it wasn't around very long.

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Image for 4-6-2011 - The Mistake

That's my keys, on the seat of my car, behind a locked door. Yeah. Bummer. Been a long time since I did that. Had to call AAA and wait over an hour for the guy to show up and pop the lock. I was hoping to get the groceries on the way home, then get a hike in. Instead spent that time pacing around my car in the Kroger parking lot as the sun went down. By the time I got home, I was too hungry and grouchy to hike. Bah. Some days are better then others.

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Image for 4-5-2011 - The Surrealist Sketches Return

Finally got off my lazy ass and did a little art. Continuing my series of little sketches of surrealist. I have a book on surrealism that has a lot of great old pictures of those wacky guys and have been filling up a little sketchbook with their portraits. I'm embarrassed to say how long it's been since I last added to the collection. I like some things about this drawing, but also have some problems with parts of it (hey, nothing's perfect). I mixed up the quality of line using fine, soft strokes for his face and heavy, looser lines for the jacket and background. Kinda like pulling focus. I know nothing about the artist, or in this case, filmmaker, Pierre Prévert, so I got some Googling to do.

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Image for 4-4-2011 - Alien Among Us

I've been looking at some of my old sculptures lately. I did a bunch of weird, tiny heads in sculpey many years ago, I've shown a few of them on this blog. Here's another one, a classic bug-eyed alien straight out of the Cantina scene from "Star Wars" (at least that's what I was hoping for at the time). I think he needs some new friends.

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Image for 4-3-2011 - In Full Training Mode

I got out today and hiked seven miles with the pack on in a great state park nearby called "First Landing State Park"; locals call it by it's old name, "Seashore State Park". I usually park behind a shopping center and take this multi-use trail into the park. The weather was perfect for hiking, sunny and not too warm. It felt good to walk among the trees. The paths through the park are all dirt trails, easy on the knees. Hiking with some weight on my back is working a lots of muscle groups that normally don't get hit. It's good. I can feel them getting stronger. I'll be ready for the big hike later this month in Scotland!

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Image for 4-2-2011 - More Hockey!

More photos from the hockey game last night. The first image is of the ceiling of Scope, the Norfolk civic arena where the game was held. I love Scope. It was designed by the Italian architect, Pier Luigi Nervi in the early 1970s and still today feels futuristic and daring. It also makes me feel like I am in the belly of a Cyclon battlestar, but that's another story. I've been to many great concerts in that crazy hall, including David Bowie, James Brown and Elton John. I graduated from high school and community college in there too. Sometimes small-minded people bring up the idea of tearing it down and building something larger. Norfolk excels in obliterating it's past by destroying any cool old buildings and the culture and identity those buildings held, but that's a post for another time.

During the game I looked down in front and saw this little infant being held up against the protective glass (or is it plexi-glass?). I thought for sure that baby would start screaming in terror when the players slammed up against the glass, but he or she seemed locked in fascination. There were a lot of children at the game and the crowd was laid back, not much swearing, a real family atmosphere. I'm not much of a hockey fan, but I love to catch a game in the Scope.

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