Running on Empty

Death and Taxes.

Both are a way of emptying one’s life.

Actuary tables vs. tax tables.

I’m still alive, but our new tax bracket (due to 401k disbursements) may well be the death of me.

Faux SG Custom

Another day, another guitar… This is a MIC version of the venerable Gibson Les Paul/SG Custom guitar of 1961.

It is actually a pretty nice guitar, better in some respects than the original (and at 1/20th the price of a re-issue and at 1/60th the price of a vintage model!) While some would object to this guitar as a “rip-off”, it allows modifications without destroying its value, including gold switches, cream knobs and an aged pick guard. The smaller switch allows the middle pickup to be switched in but out of phase; Keith Richards had a similar mod on his Custom.

More guitars on FITK…

Ten Years Ago on FITK

More From the Emerald City


Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, April 8, 2014

My first trip to Seattle was in 2002.

The first thing I noticed then was the vitality of the city and its citizens. Maybe it was all the coffee? Subsequent trips reinforced this—the population density and activity gave me the feeling of living in an anthill. This time, however, something seemed different. The noise level certainly hadn’t abated; the cacophony in the city center (buskers, performance spaces, sonic art installations, sea planes, traffic) was almost too much to bear. The change I sensed was in the people. It seemed as if more and more of the massed throngs had that same flat affect of the hard-core digerati—too much time spent hunched over a screen, nervously scrolling, with a corresponding loss of physical vigor. The same things I’ve noticed in myself. When I see a campus full of young people dimly grazing their devices I wonder what they’ll look like when they are as old as I am.

One of the things I wanted to accomplish when I first started this internet adventure ten years ago was to become as much as an original content provider as a content consumer. I can see that balance is now starting to tip in the wrong direction. The Seattle trip highlighted these concerns. I was much more engaged there (although it helped that the weather was gorgeous) that I had been in months at home. I took more pictures in six days than in the previous six months:

On Photography

The most distingushing feature of this blog is its imagery.

Mostly photo-based, although with manipulation and even a bit of AI-enhancement, it is harder to draw the line between illustration and photography. I erase that line whenever I think that the text could be improved with a dash of “visual enhancement.” When I was young I was pretty inflexible with my concept of photographic purity. Now, anything goes for me (with the exception of disingenuous malfeasance.) There is a fair amount of technique in my images, but how I create them doesn’t matter as much instilling a response in my viewers.

So, no discussions of camera models, lenses, f-stops, ISOs, workflows or shutter speeds here.

Photography is practical magic, and I am its practitioner. Enjoy the show. May your faded memories be stirred and suppressed emotions be rekindled—perhaps even getting some Punctum!

The Lights in the Sky are Stars

Whiling away the hours of a mundane existence.

The lights in the sky are stars but they, too, will pass.

Kenergy

So cool…


Posterized screenshots taken from YouTube Video

Secret Lives of Cats

Betty, 1982

Betty was a barn kitten I managed to hook up with when she was just the right age; already independent but not feral. She was the best cat with whom I ever shared a domicile. We were living in an old inner-city neighbor at the time, on the edge of an industrial area. She lived both inside and outside, an affectionate and interactive housemate in, and the queen of the neighborhood cats when out.

We did take her with us when we stayed at a cabin near Mora, Minnesota. She was just as home there, and would tag along when I went for walks in the nearby woods. Outside of exercising her natural tendency to prowl, I never quite knew what she was thinking, but I never doubted her ability to “live in the moment”, a lesson I still remember to this day when ever I feel bored.

Her “secret” is safe with me.

Milwaukee Masterpieces - III

Guerilla photography art gallery on bridge supporting column with graffiti editorial content.

Artist(s) unknown, 2014

Milwaukee Masterpieces - II

Milwuakee Art Museum, Burke Brise Soleil

Architect: Santiago Calatrava

Milwaukee Masterpieces - I

Kilbourn Avenue Bridge House