I moved to Minnesota in 1974 and at the end of my first Minnesota winter, it snowed 11″ on April 8. At Carlton we celebrated by having a snow sculpture contest on The Bald Spot. So I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked that it’s snowing right now. But really?
What trend are you just finished with?
Forty years ago I gave myself a quest: to photograph MY North Shore, the stretch from Flood Bay to Silver Cliff, or as locals called it then, Silver Creek Cliff. Because I had use of a darkroom, it was at first all done in black and white, or perhaps with some sepia toning, or duotone effect, or Sabattier effect. Flood Bay back then was not the mass of concrete and curbs and cables it is now. It was then as it is now one of the very few official state wayside rests. Despite that, back then it was just a gravel patch with some posts to keep people from driving into the lake, which every so often people still managed to do. Locals routinely hauled away lake stone and gravel for their use, which left no dent on the amount on the shore. Also, then there was no monstrous resort along the shore. And Silver Cliff was a road, not a tunnel. The pictures I framed in simple shadow boxes without glass. I hung them on our knotty pine living room wall. (More about that later.)
The winnowing process of history to our benefit has eliminated most of the pictures. A few exist in my computer, taken from the negatives. My goal was to push pictures to expressionism. Often with high or low contrast.
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One picture that I took in the remnants of a lumber mill a quarter mile from Betty’s Pies was our Christmas card picture.
Sometimes good fortune favored me, when it disfavored elsewhere with a massive storm.
A few I have drawn in graphite or pastel, often doing some adjustment of reality.
One sad picture remains, even though I did not frame it. How did history not winnow this poor picture out? It must be a sign, must it not. (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)
When this picture first appeared in the developing fluid, my first thought was it not worth making anything of it. My second thought was that here indeed was a sign. It must be from God giving me my life’s quest. (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.) It could not be just random change. I was, in fact, until recently quite good with needle and thread, which my mother taught me at an early age, despite long sideways glances from my father.
I am sad to report that I never did discover how to fulfill the quest. Sigh. And now my chance is lost. Sigh. But I did fulfill one smaller quest and quite by accident. An undisciplined boy a year older than my son lived down the road from us. He was often in our house as small boy but not later. His teens were much troubled, as were his twenties. Now he is a brilliant photographer. I mean that. Does amazing work in the camera and in his computer. Travels the worlds. Makes a good living. Has a happy life. Most of his work is of the North Shore. He is friends with both of my children on facebook, where he told them that his inspiration came from looking at those photographs on our wall. To think such beauty came from such a shriveled seed!
Did you find a life’s quest? How has it gone?
Last Sunday I had lunch with a friend – tried the new St. Paul Bagelry that has opened up near my house. I had a Reuben bagel sandwich (vegetarian version) – something I’d never even heard of before. It was messy but yummy.
Laura and I weren’t quite ready to go back to our chores and regular life so at the spur of the moment we headed over to the Como Zoo and the Conservatory. We weren’t the only ones – it was a busy day at Como. The spring show at the sunken garden is all purple and yellow – one of my favorite combinations and we also wandered through the hothouses looking for orchids and then inspected all the bonsai. It was a good way to spend a dreary afternoon.
Since I had to figure out how to make a slideshow out of a gallery this week to showcase Edith’s wonderful photos, I thought I’d try it again with some of my Conservatory pictures (not in Edith’s league but at least colorful).
When have you learned a new trick?
As I was waking up this morning and staring at the ceiling, I saw a brown spot start to move. I watched the spider crawl along, defying gravity with what I assumed were its eight “sticky paws”. Suddenly it wasn’t there, and I thought, “Uh-oh, now it’s on the floor and I have to kill it.” But I didn’t see it on the floor. I looked up and there it appeared on the ceiling again. I finally realized it was dropping down, either by accident or design, on a spinner thread, then crawling back up. It’s apparently building a web. Watched this until s/he went behind a blade of the ceiling fan, then I lost him/her. Now see it some days, not others.
You can tell it’s been a long winter when I’m so hungry for watching wildlife that a spider is a big deal. (I am, happily, not especially unnerved by them.) I started wondering: how the heck do they stay up there, anyway? Went to the web, and found a site for kids under 10 years, called Ask a Grown-up:
“If you could take a really close look at a spider, then you would see that their feet are covered in tiny little triangular hairs. They look a little bit like paddles on the ends of stalks, and they give the spider a much bigger surface area. When the feet make contact with a wall or ceiling, they create a force – a temporary attraction between the bottom of the spider’s foot and whatever surface it’s on (the grown-up name for it is van der Waals forces).”
I see while searching that I’m not the only one curious about this. Here are other questions being looked up:
Can spiders die and still hang on the ceiling?
How do spiders walk on walls/ceilings without falling off?
Why would a spider spend days in the same place on the ceiling?
How do I get the spider off my ceiling?
How do you feel about sharing your home with critters?
What wild life are you looking forward to seeing as we edge (ever so slowly) toward spring?
, I don’t usually watch the Oscars, but decided to tune in Sunday night about 8:00. It’s fun to see all the gorgeous gowns (or non-gowns) and the antics of the host, et al. – like Jodie Foster blaming her crutches on Meryl Streep (they were reportedly due to a skiing accident). And this year I was curious to see what would transpire as a result of the “Time’s Up” movement.
But for me Frances McDormand, who won Best Actor for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, stole the show. She played the glamour game to a point, wearing a long dress and little if any make-up or jewelry. And Sunday night she was all business: “So I’m hyperventilating a little bit. So if I fall over, pick me up ‘cause I’ve got some things to say…”
After setting down Oscar on the floor beside her, she continued: “And now I want to get some perspective. If I may be so honored, to have all the female nominees nominated in every category stand with me in this room tonight. Meryl, if you do, everyone else will… Ok, look around… ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell, and projects we need financed. Don’t talk to us about it tonight. Invite us into your office in a couple days or you can come to ours, whichever suits you best, and we’ll tell you all about them.”
From Variety.com: “She finished her speech by calling for contractually mandated inclusion across films: ‘I have two words to leave with you tonight: inclusion rider.’ Specifically, an inclusion rider is a clause in the contract of the top line talent on a film that requires a diverse crew to be hired around them.” The article continues with McDormand’s comments about how “trending” differs from what is really happening in Hollywood.
Frances McDormand has become my role model, and I plan to see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, plus any of her other films I haven’t yet seen. She is my new favorite maverick. (Try and forget the Sarah Palin image that just entered your mind. I was going to call F.M. my favorite “renegade”, till I checked my definitions.)
Who is your favorite maverick, renegade, or iconoclast?
Watched a fabulous special about the Great Wall of China today. Just one place on my very long bucket list.
You have to decide right now. You leave tomorrow. Money is no object. Where do you want to go.
I’m not much of a movie-goer – too cheap and too fussy. I prefer to wait until movies come around on the small screen; if it’s dreadful I can turn it off and not feel badly about wasting time and money. It it’s good, I can watch it again!
That’s just one of the reasons that I don’t pay too much attention to the Oscars. Most years I haven’t seen any of the nominees. In addition, I’m still not over the 1977 Oscars in which not only did Network win for Best Picture over All The President’s Men but Faye Dunaway won Best Actress beating out Liv Ullmann in Face to Face. Faye Dunaway. I’ll pause for dramatic effect.
So I doubt I’ll be watching the festivities this weekend. I’ve actually seen one of the movies this year as YA chose it for our Christmas morning movie; The Shape of Water isn’t something that I would nominate but since I haven’t seen any of the other movies this year, I guess I shouldn’t judge.
Do you have a favorite movie? Oscar winner or not.
Today’s post comes from Occasional Caroline
I think it was back in October, when I was too busy with my mom to even be occasionally on the trail, and was catching up days or weeks after a post was current, that the topic of carousels was raised in a post about something else. Anyway it was too long after the fact for me to comment by the time I read it, but I did have something to say, so here we go. Has anyone been to Lark Toys in Kellogg, Minnesota? http://www.larktoys.com/carousel/
When we first started going there, I think when my 40-something daughters were a pre- and young teen, the carousel was in process and you could sometimes watch the carver working on the individual animals. They are all hand carved from large hunks of beech-wood, and stained, not painted. The intricacy of the carving is fantastic. When it was being carved, there were informational posters on-site and one of the things I partially remember reading was that Merry-Go-Rounds had only horses and Carousels had many different animals. This one was originally going to have 4 horses, one representing each primary compass direction; North, South, East, and West. I believe by the time the mechanicals were sourced and acquired, some of the carved masterpieces had to be left off the final collection to keep the weight down. I think only one or two horses made the cut, and a moose and several other larger pieces are now displayed in the building, but not on the actual carousel. The horses are beautiful, but the dragon, the goat, the goldfish family, and others are works of an amazing imagination. You could study the goat for an hour and not notice all of the intricacies hidden in it’s depths.
The entire complex is wonderful. There’s a children’s book store; a toy store with a model train running on a long track high up and around the perimeter of the store. Among other wonderful, unique and creative toys, is a huge collection of hand puppets. A Christmas shop, an antique toy museum that has every toy you or your cousins or friends had as a kid, a boomer toy store that carries replicas of many of your old toys, a candy store, an ice cream stand, and a mini golf course in the summer, are all part of the magical experience.
The original owners lived nearby and walked their pot-belly pig (his name was Gip, (Pig backwards)) to the store every morning to take up his supervisory post in a large open home away from home in the building.
The complex changed hands probably about 10 years ago (maybe longer ago, time flies when you’re old) but the current owners seem dedicated of maintaining the original spirit of the experience. Kellogg is south of Wabasha and north of Winona on Highway 61. BiR, you must have been there, possibly even posted about it, and I missed it. This hidden jewel is well worth a day trip with children, grandchildren, or nostalgic boomers. I haven’t been there for several years, but now that I’m thinking about it, I’ll have to make the trek soon.
Where do you go for a day trip?
An update from my home town: The Rock County Star Herald reported last week that the arts, defined as the Tri-State Band Festival, the new Rock County Historical Society Museum, the Herreid War Museum, the Brandenburg Art Gallery, the Green Earth Players (a local acting company that performs at the historic Palace Theatre), the Beer Fest, and various performances at the high school and at other venues, brought $2,000,000 into Luverne’s economy last year. I think that is pretty remarkable for a town of 4500 people so far from the Twin Cities.
If the arts can have such a big economic impact, why are they often viewed as expendable? How have the arts impacted your life? What good news have you heard lately?
I just saw an ad for the new movie Peter Rabbit, opening in a couple of weeks. It looks really mean and violent. Beatrix Potter must be turning over in her grave.
What cinematic travesty has set your teeth on edge?
Trail Baboon 