Current Mood:
happy
Want to hang out with me and my many fractured thoughts this lovely late-mid-morning? Well then, let’s start with this – god bless the BBC, because I’m getting to watch in perfectly filmed awesomeness a show where James May, aka Captain Slow from BBC’s Top Gear television show, is getting to go for a flight in a U2 as he attempts to get as close to his childhood dream of being an astronaut as the US Air Force can get him. How did he put it?
“… at 47 I’m too old, too unfit, and frankly too long haird ever to know what what it would mean to be an astronaut. But this is a place where they can take you to a sort of first base of space flight, the nearest a normal mortal like me could come to knowing what it’s like to be an astronaut.”
“… take me up 70,000 feet avobe the earth where I’ll be able to look up into the blackness of space… “
Was it 20 years ago? wow … the TR-1. Proud. Confident. and in hindsight, amazing.
Have enjoyed the past few days, hope you have too. Friday night was Morgan & Beth’s tree decorating party. I wasn’t feeling 100% after a few days of a head cold and the medicine we take to try to keep working through it. Thankfully the party was awesome and though I’d have loved to stay through ’til the end, Boo was at Duke Coffeehouse with Mel to have Shaun’s cd release party for Humble Tripe. The Midtown Dickens were also on the bill, so I was happy happy to bop over and catch the girls (plus) for a number of songs – how can they still seem to be having so much fun?? and that fun is contagious.
Here’s sometihing you might not know – 12 men walked on the moon, only 9 are still alive. wow… Also, the BBC’s soundtrack includes a lot of Led Zep.
So the show was pretty damn good – the Dickens as always awe inspiring, and Humble Tripe being so much better than their name. After getting home kinda late from the show, and with certainly not enough sleep for what was to follow, I was up for a Saturday photo shoot for my Fine Art Photography class. Morgan and I were gonna head out into the grey and cold and wet afternoon to make it out to the location – Hillsborough’s Holiday Parade – and give it a go. Turned out that the other three classmates along with instructor Mike weren’t powerful enought to stave off the inclement weather, and apparently they believed using your expensive camera in the rain is something to frown upon.
So we went with plan b – the university mall in chapel hill. ‘meet in front of Wolf Camera’ said Melba for Mike; not a bad rendezvouz for a photo class, right? Five minutes into shooting, a very nice security fellow comes and asks us to stop taking pictures, you know, ever since 9 eleven, and there was a complaint, so can you come back on monday and talk to management? For some reason, I just laughed and didn’t decide to make any sort of point, and because it worked so nicely into the day/overall experience of our class, Mogan put away her nice camera, and we wandered the 30 odd feet over to where Mike and the other two (Melba and Nate) were milling , just as shagrined as Morgan & I were. Ah, continuing education classes – they ROCK!!!!
giggling like a fool, james may makes it to 70,000 feet. lucky bastard.”a view of eternity…” the sky below him… god smacked….
If everyone could do that once, it would change the world… our politics, our religions. James, I have no doubt that is very true. If you get a chance, it’s called James May On the Moon, on BBC America. Go james – or anyone else who pursues their childhood dreams.
Is it right to put your coffee cup on a beer coaster?
While pecking at the keyboard crafting this missive, I’ve also been looking at pics from the 21st of nov when mel and michelle and zach and boo and I went over to the museum of life and science. good time for all. Including Lightning the Donkey!
Mike took us into Wolf Cammy to show us how to futz with our pics at the ‘print bar’ (actually, a fabulous idea for the digital photography era – if only they had many more stations and a better beer selection, oh – and some waitstaff…) – it’s all kinda fascinating how film photos are a certain aspect ration, while digital sensors shoot a different aspect ration, so if you just send prints from you memory card to get printed – something has to give. Crop first, levels second, print with abandon!
Then we poked our heads into an art gallery next door to Wolf Cammy. Actually had a very nice time – just wandered and listened to the others comment on how they liked the art. Also it was good to have in front of us an example or two of the elusive abstract style that Mike wanted us to figure out by taking a picture that said thanksgiving – but in an abstract way. Uh, ok.
Plenty of talent on the walls of the gallery – definitely inspiring to me. We followed the gallery up with a few minutes at a framing store to let Mike expound on the ways and styles and pros and cons of framing (er, just got into printing this year – maybe next year I’ll start the framing experiment!)
After we ended our ‘photo shoot’ Morgan and I decide to go and enjoy a meal and a beer (did I mention our first meeting place was a bar in Hillsborough? and how Morgan and I had parked, gotten her gear together and were HALFWAY TO THE BAR when Melba showed up and said ‘back to the car’… we were so close, yet so so far away!) We relaxed a bit at the 501 Diner, and after I got home and waited for Boo to finish up her meal with MnMnZ, Boo, we headed over to Carrie and Nate’s.
They were having a holiday/wrap party for a short film C&A worked on with the Triangle Filmakers Meetup peeps… yeah, we were late, but the Hannigan Toddys were flowing, Rock Band was up and rocking, and well, we showed up about 8, and left about 4. Oh yeah, it was a good time. Did I mention the frost on Ramona as we headed out? Ah december in the south.
some sleep, some sunshine and coffee, and here we are – I’m in my house, you’re caught up with pieces of my life, and we still have most of the day to enjoy – so go and enjoy!!!!!
ciao,
~ S ~ || dona nobis pacem ||