Americana Opening Nite

Kinda corny to stand next to your entry but it’s what I typically like to do.  Some very nice photos on display.  The one selected of mine for inclusion is probably not the one that I would have selected.  All in all I feel very honored to have anything of mine selected.



Modern Americana

Entered a local photo contest where the theme was Americana- upon closer inspection they are going for ‘modern’ americana which is a tough one.  How to know what subject now will be held in regard in 10 years as americana?     Also what’s modern for me is likely to be old school for others.  Anyway for better or worse these are my entries.




Cheap Sunglasses ///// I mean lenses

Some with a $68 Chinese AF Nikon mount lens - it’s not great but they are now charging hundred of $s for “art” lenses that aren’t in focus.  So this is better.  They did want to know if I want a $13 repair plan - what a joke - that’s what trash cans are for.


Diverse Friends

Spotted at a friends house.  While I totally despise this ass-hat I respect my friend so we don’t talk much politics.  Won’t lead either of us to change our minds so it would be a battle with no winners.  And once this POS POTUS ( just coined this acronym - like it?)  is gone I still would like to have my contrarian friends around.  




Book sold instead of being Kept

This book was recommended on The Online Photographer  which is a thinking persons photography blog by Mike Johnston.  So I went and ordered it as a lightly used version from Amazon. I was saddened to see this upon opening the book

The owner was given this book by his parents but at some point he decided he needed to off load it.  I have had the pain and angst of selling off 40-50 photo books at a single time.  It’s heart wrenching, but I’ve never sold a book with a dedication in it.  I will strive to enjoy it as someone’s parents had intended.



Holcomb, Kansas - In Cold Blood

Someone mentioned to me that the “In Cold Blood” house was somewhere in SW Kansas where I go once a month.  Turns out it’s 10 min. drive from Garden City where I travel.  I set out to see the house.  I wasn’t successful because it’s down a single lane private driveway - got close though.  I did snap a picture of this house with a confederate flag and that’s almost as scary as seeing the Clutter Murder House.  The second picture is a Google Maps version the Clutter Farmhouse.  A trailer clip from the movie CAPOTE is also featured.  Wonderfully acted.  The book has some amazing writing and it’s clear why he was thought of as one of Americas best modern writers.


  “It was ideal apple-eating weather; the whitest sunlight descended from the purest sky, and an easterly wind rustled, without ripping” - TC

THE VILLAGE OF HOLCOMB STANDS on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call “out there.””-TC


“Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there.” -TC


 



The Airstream Camera

Something nifty that we picked up at the Cherry Creek Art Festival - a real Kodak box camera that when you open the back an airstream scene is revealed.  Just caught our eye and we had to have it.


Lotus 7

At High Plains Raceway today and who should show up.  Richard Spritz and Diane Dills - his 911 is quite ready for Vintage Racing next week so he’s out today with a friends Lotus 7 - nice to have friends like that.  


Cobwebs and all

Despite the cobwebs I matched my best time at High Plains Raceway.  2:29.  Not amazing in the real world or in the paddock but good for me. This is after all the criteria.  Yeah you can take a Nissan GTR and go 4 off happy in the knowledge that you passed me 30 seconds before but where’s the skill?




Alma Festival in the Sky

Alma, Colorado - highest incorporated city in the USA at 10,500+ ft ASL.  Music and crafts fair.  We had our Airstream Club Rally there.  Very nice.  Pancake breakfast today to support their local fire department.  I not a big pancake fan but they taste “better” if they are for a local cause.


Amache Internment Camp

Even though I’m a native of Colorado I never knew that there was  a WWII Japanese internment camp here.  Never was it mentioned in the Colorado History that we had to take in the 8th grade.  Now it is part of the curriculum which is good.  It is in Grenada, Colorado near the intersection of Highway 50 and 385.  There is a Museum right in town as well as the actual site which does not have many structures left.




Monument Rocks Kansas

In Western Kansas, between Oakley and Scott City is a very unique rock formation.  This land is out of character for the rest of Kansas.  The rocks are on private property and several miles on a dirt road off of KS 83.  The trip is well worth it. It is the work of erosion and as the map shows there was once a hugh waterway thru middle of the continent.  You could go from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada entirely on a ship!


Heartland

Pat Metheny Cross the Heartland - one of his best in a career spanning several decades.  From the Album ‘Airstream’.  When I first started listening to PM I thought he and his band were European because they were on the ECM label.  Turns out he’s from Missouri and explains the title.  I have ‘tortured’ both my kids into seeing PM as a way to expand their musical horizons.  Sorry kids.


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