Versatile Blogger Award...

Extending thanks to Kimberly at the 'Garden of Secrets' blog for giving me the Versatile Blogger Award.  (Although I don't see this as an award so much as a means to spread around the existence of other blogs...but I am happy to receive it nonetheless.)

In accepting this award, I am asked to share seven things about myself.  

Hmm...lets see what I can come up with...

• I enjoy taking walks for the purpose of snapping pictures of whatever moves me.
• I like to hang out in cemeteries.
• Coffee is my main addiction these days.
• I enjoy writing, and am about to dive into the writing of a novel.
• My first play ever was produced a couple of times.
• I love to watch 'Ninja Warrior'.
• I am addicted to the frozen cokes from the market around the corner.

The following is a list of blogs I am sharing this award with.  Be sure to check them out.

365 blue photos

Confessions of a Recovering Cynic

Forest Dream Weaver

In My Current

La Dulce Vida ~ The Sweet Life

nava-k

Quad Erat Demonstrosity

Soft Voice of a Free Spirit

The Evolutionary Life Project

The Roaming Moon

Whatever. Whenever. Whoever.

Asgaya ~ Igeya

Revisited: The Laurel Grove Cemetery...

Today I returned to the Laurel Grove for some picture taking...and some peace.  Spending time in a cemetery is some of the best therapy around for me.  Solo time in an old cemetery makes my mind work in...creative ways.  The beauty of the stained and marred tomb stones.  The trees of the coastal south, moss lazily hanging on them like living spider webs.  There is a feeling that hides in every nook and cranny.  A feeling of mystery and of age.

Since I had made a preliminary trip a couple of days ago to find where the cemetery was, getting there was easier and quicker this go-round.  I had gotten off to a slightly later start than I had planned.  Driving up to the open gate, I pulled onto the cemetery property a little past 3:00 PM.  That gave me a good hour and a half.  

As I slowly drove between the black wrought iron posts of the entrance gate, I decided to start in the front section to the right.  I knew it was going to take me a few trips to see everything there in my usual scrutinous manner.  I never rush.  The 'Grove' didn't seem to be as big as the Bonaventure, but the plots...I can't even begin to guess how many graves cover it.  The plots are many, and they are full.  "Laurel Grove" is so named because of the Laurel trees that dot the property.  I am not sure just how many, but a lot of graves date back to the American Civil War.

Hanging a right down the first gravel drive, I passed some small buildings that appeared to be garages of some sort.  By the equipment around, I figured it to be where the grounds crew kept their tools.  Pulling past, I drove up on the grass at the side of the crunchy, rutted road, and started to explore.  As I climbed out of the car, I noticed a sign on the land by the fence that ran around that front section.  It said "Stranger Land".  There wasn't any description other than that.  I figured it meant that the unidentified were buried there...the 'John' and 'Jane Doe's'.

I scarcely knew where to begin.  I can spend hours in an old cemetery, but I didn't have 'hours'.  I decided to scope out for areas that 'jumped out' at me, and hop-scotch my car along my path (the road).  I could hear the thrumming of a lawnmower in the distance, so it appeared that the grounds crew were at work.  They obviously had just gotten their start because the area I was in was at least up to mid-calf.  

Grave markers peaked out from under grass and dirt.  Grave stones stood at off angles, the writing on them in various stages of wear, their edges nicked and worn.  Some had the dark browns and stark whites of different types of lichen creating mottled and lacy patterns on them.  Various types of trees, many old and a number of those in various stages of decrepitude, stood crookedly, shrouds of moss blowing lightly in the breeze that whispered by.  Other than the aforementioned sounds of a lawnmower, there was silence peppered with the occasional chirrup of birds, and the rustle of a squirrel skittering past.  Any distractions I had carried in with me were gone.  Any nagging voices were quieted.  This was not a place of chaos like the outside world, this was a place of neutrality.  A place of calm.

As I made my way slowly along (get out of the car; walk around some; get back in the car; drive up a little and park), I caught up with the lawnmower.  Another guy with a weed-whacker was working a little farther down in a dense collection of stones and mausoleums.  Other than a quick moment of eye contact, we didn't really acknowledge the other's presence.  I made the effort to stay out of their way, and they didn't get in mine.  There were a couple of times during my trip that a ding-ed up pick up truck came driving by, always when I was in the car on my way to the next stop.  The first time we met head-on, and I pulled quickly to the side, the driver flying past in a cloud of road dust.  Our eyes connected for a moment, his face stoic but observant.  The moment made me think of old horror films where the caretaker watches the unwanted visitor with curious judgement.  The other times he passed, I was on foot. I'd hear the growl of the truck's engine as he wheeled past on his way to who knew where.  

My only other encounter with the 'living' was when I got out of the car to get a closer look at a large mausoleum, huge in comparison to others.  Throughout the areas I had visited there are road sized paths down between the rows of plots that are filled with grass and weeds.  They appear to be rarely traveled.  As I passed one of these paths, I felt eyes on me.  My gaze, as if pulled by a magnet, went to a heavily shadowed spot along the path's edge under a palm tree.  It took me a moment to see who my observer was, but looking back at me from around the base of the tree was a big furry black dog.  He stood still staring, his wide pink tongue hanging out in the heat of the day.  I said hello to him, but he didn't move.  I moved on to snap my picture,and a few others.  When I passed the area again, the dog was gone.

Today was a good day.  Although hot, the heat wasn't to the same extremes as weeks past.  The cool breeze helped.  The humidity was high, but bearable.  I hadn't felt that calm in awhile.  Getting philosophical...waxing poetic...I think I did a little of both.  Although cemeteries represent death, they also represent life.  For me, they are a rest stop between...lives?  Worlds?  Planes of existence?  Cemeteries are places for burying the shell, the vessel.  The form that carried the essence of the person(s) being remembered. 




The following are some more shots I took today.  I'm looking forward to my next visit, which will be in the not too distant future.       

(A mausoleum with a front porch...I have never seen one like it before.  A part of me was dying to go up there and shoot my camera through that hole in the door, but I couldn't muster up the guts to do it.    When I take photos in a cemetery, I try to act with some respect...try not to walk over any graves if it's avoidable.  Climbing up there for a shot felt a tad disrespectful to me.  I am still curious though...

This is the mausoleum I was walking to when I encountered the dog.)

(There was a lot of wrought iron in the cemetery, much of it in the form of fences around family plots, etc.  Wrought iron work is big business here in Savannah.  The picture on the left is an example of the white lichen I mentioned earlier.  There was quite a lot of the iron work that had a lovely patina to it...shades of brown and green.  Other fences were past the patina stage and deep into the rust stage.  Brilliant shades of pumpkin and clay coated some fences, the rust devouring them in spots.

As for the picture above on the right, I know nothing about the meaning of this emblem.  It says 

"K of P" at the bottom.  Judging by the helm, shield, etc. in the design, I assume it means "Knights of..." something.)

(This mausoleum was really beautiful.  I love the fence.)

"Small Faces : All Or Nothing 1965-1968"...

In many respects I am a Mod at heart. I say that as someone who is not British, and due to the year I was born I was kept from participating in the original Mod years and had to settle for the Mod Revival. (In 1965, I was a year old.) My appearance was a bit more androgynous than most mods. Think a fusion of male and female mod style, and that was me...I was known to wear the occasional thin tie (but in a feminine way). *grin* Lets just say that I was one of the more eccentric alumni of Georgia Southern College in the early 1980's.

I was in the throes of entering the world of the Mod prior to becoming a college DJ, but being in that music laden environment sealed the deal. "WVGS - Your Progressive Alternative" was what our station ID's said. We didn't have a format, and we all adhered to that religiously. You could tune in at any given point during airtime and hear anything. I had listened to them in the couple of years leading up to college, but it was during that time that I became a died in the wool fan of "The Jam". Fitting since Weller, Foxton, and Buckler, were the poster boys of the Mod Revival. During that time I also developed a love for the music of another band I had heard, but had never really 'heard'. That band was the "Small Faces".

(The Small Faces, from left to right: Steve Marriott, Ian McLagen,

Kenney Jones, and Ronnie Lane)

(This performance of 'Whatcha Gonna Do about It' is on the DVD, but without all of the fanzine-esque garbage around it.)

The impact of the Small Faces on the original Mod movement was huge. In many respects they are credited with influencing the Mod style of the time. There are also numerous musicians who name them as an influence, Paul Weller of "The Jam" being one. If ever a band could make me want to be a teenager and time travel back to a certain time or place, they would be the one.

I recently ordered, "The Small Faces: All Or Nothing 1965-1968", and it is well worth the money ($19.99 US from Amazon.com). Not only does it have 27 complete performances, it has quite a bit of archival footage. Included are interviews with surviving members, Kenney Jones and Ian McLagen, and archival interviews with Ronnie Lane and the late great Steve Marriott. (How obvious is it that I am a Marriott fan?)

All of their hits are included on this disc, and the interviews do shed some light on the bands ups and downs (fame without the fortune due to money grubbing management). There is an interview with their first manager from the time of their first recordings..."I only exploit those who want to be exploited". (Bastard...)

To this day "The Jam" and the "Small Faces" are two of my top three favorite bands (the other being "The Chameleons UK"). I am just glad to have their recordings. Actually watching the DVD was kind of bittersweet. Listening to those pipes, that voice that Marriott had...well, it makes one sad to think what might have been had he not died in that house fire in '91. He is arguably the best white soul singer ever, and I wish he were still here delivering the goods. But as I said, I am just glad to have the recordings of him with the "Small Faces", and his venture after, "Humble Pie".

As for this DVD of the "British Invasion" series, I can't recommend this installment enough. If you are a fan of the "Small Faces" or ever were (are) a mod in any way, shape, or form, this DVD is a must for your collection.

Laurel Grove...

In recent years, I have developed an interest in photographing cemeteries. Living in the deep south puts me in prime territory for old graveyards that are rife with history and mood.

Since moving to Savannah, I have visited and explored two of the three main cemeteries known for their historical significance. The first, The Bonaventure, would have to be the most popular and the better known due to it being featured in Clint Eastwood's film version of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". It is a place I have visited on a number of occasions. The second, Colonial Park Cemetery, in downtown Savannah. Rather diminutive at barely a block in size, it is surrounded by businesses, apartment buildings, and busy streets, the buildings being rather old themselves. Although it lies on the sacred ground of a cemetery, many people (probably neighbors to the site) seem to treat it like a small city park. On my visit there I saw people sitting on blankets eating their lunch, and even one character playing Frisbee with his dog. The sandwich eaters I could take, but the man playing with his dog...have some respect...

The third cemetery is one I have wanted to visit for some time. Today I finally found it. Tucked into a rougher area full of pot-hole filled roads and ramshackle row houses of the historical district, is the Laurel Grove Cemetery. This particular graveyard has two sections that are set apart from one another. The north section (the one I saw today) was for whites, and the south section was for slaves. As I said before this is the deep south, and segregation and slavery are parts of our history...as sad as that is. Many graves here date back to the confederacy, and when I do a bit more research I won't be surprised if I find that there are graves that date before that.

What moves me most to visit and photograph old cemeteries is the energy present. A sense of peace bordering on the mystical. Laurel Grove is rather large, and has a lot of nooks and crannies to explore. I see more than one return visit in my near future. Maybe even this week. The pictures in this post were all shot during today's preliminary visit, and all but one of them from my car window. The cemetery gates close at 5:00 PM, and it was past 4:00 PM when we arrived. I don't know if they have some sort of procedure in place for notifying visitors that the gates are about to close, but on the chance they didn't I made sure to keep a close watch on the time. By all appearances, no one else was there as we saw no other signs of life other than ourselves. Getting locked inside a graveyard...although intriguing from the outside - that thought alone conjures some story ideas...well, it wasn't something I wanted to leave to chance.

In the next couple of days I plan on returning to Laurel Grove for an 'on foot' photography session. I am looking forward to getting a closer perspective on areas out of reach of my car window.

Friend Moon...

Some nights one walks outside to get some cool fresh air and to absorb some of the night's energy. There is always the required amount of stargazing, too. Then there are the nights one walks outside to a scene like this one. Even more spectacular than the sight is actually being able to capture some of its essence in pictures. These shots are of the moon I saw last night...truly spectacular.

"No sight is more provocative of awe than is the night sky"

~ Llewelyn Powys

"I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does."

~ Jorge Luis Borges

"Night is the blotting paper for many sorrows."

~ Author Unknown

"Sounds and Furies: Seven Faces of Darkness" by Tanith Lee

A few weeks ago, I was on amazon to pre-order a book. Since they have free standard shipping on orders of $25 or more, I decided to take a little time to browse. There wasn't anything in particular that I wanted to look for, other than the pre-order. Always one to keep my eyes open for books I haven't read by favorite authors, I checked to see if there were any Tanith Lee titles. I have read a lot of Ms. Lee's books, but had not seen her book "Sounds and Furies" before. That rounded out my $25 sale...free shipping status achieved.

I enjoy a good short story. One of my favorites is "The Legend of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson, although I consider it to be more of a novella due to it's 246 page length. As with any novel, I feel a short story should have a relatively distinct beginning, middle, and end. Even if the story goes on in future volumes. Having said that, there have been short stories I have enjoyed that contained just enough information about the situation the author is describing to then leave what happens next open to speculation. A primary rule of thumb for me when reading someones work is, 'when you reach the end, don't leave me hanging'. With short stories I seem to be a tad more lenient on that point. There is a difference between leaving a reader hanging, and causing a reader to become involved in your story enough to get them thinking about it. Leaving a reader 'thinking' is a key element to most short stories because after all...they are short.

Tanith Lee has a rather intense way with words. Her vocabulary is great, and she uses her knowledge of words artfully. Creating worlds of darkness...worlds on the flip-side of the mirror...she plays to the visceral. Her worlds can be garishly lush, or stark, but all play to the senses. Her worlds of darkness and the macabre are enticing. They lure you in and caress you (some more than others...a number of her tales have rather intense sexual encounters). I find her books to be page turners, and I have enjoyed consuming every book of hers that I have read...with her vast bibliography, that's a lot of books. She takes the more conventional subjects of vampires, witches, werewolves, dark and mysterious subjects in general, and turns them on their heads putting her spin on things by creating her individual worlds/interpretations. Are her works everyone's cup of tea? I have recommended her to a number of people, and have found things at a 50/50 enjoyment rate. Not everyone can groove on her writing style. For those who can't, it's their huge loss...

"Sounds and Furies: Seven Faces of Darkness" is a collection of Tanith's short stories, all of which have been published before in various publications ranging from 1987, to the present. Thankfully, I had not read any of them before. I find it so irritating when short stories are republished ad nauseum in short story collection after collection. One or two fell a bit short for me, but all have the vibe I have come to identify with Tanith's work. When I finished the book I was far from disappointed.

• The first story in the collection "Where All Things Perish" is a period piece based around a fictional religious order known as the Lilyites, and a vacant house. The story tellers aunt lives near said house, and she fills him in on the homes history...it was once owned by a devotee of the Lilyite way, who believing his wife a witch, locks and bricks her up in the attic.
• The next "Midday People" centers around a woman who is visiting Spain (from what I could tell) with her husband. The marriage is far from a happy one, the husband being verbally abusive, and an all around jerk. This story centers around Chrissie, the wife, who one day notices a beautiful young couple in the square. Living in such a horrible situation, Chrissie starts to live vicariously through the couple, wondering who they are, etc. Ignoring the local custom of noon Siesta, Chrissie stays out to see her young couple as that's when they daily appear. Before long she gets a closer look at the two beautiful people (or are they) and she becomes 'entangled'.
• "Cold Fire" is the one story I couldn't get into, a rarity for me when reading Tanith's work. The character's are on board a ship and are hired to tow an iceberg in a designated direction. All of the crew fall ill (due to some bad hooch) except one who tells us the tale. This story was written in a form I couldn't pin down which kept me from being able to immerse myself in the story. Cockney, Jamaican, a broken English with a Russian edge...no idea. Unfortunately, it made this one kind of a throw-away for me.
• "Crying In The Rain" is an intriguing story that I felt to be set in a post-apocalyptic world...in the future, at any rate. Life expectancies appear to be greatly shortened as the outside air is rather toxic, and rain carries some sort of contagion that is always fatal. The rich live under domes. The story centers around a mother and her children, and the potential sale of her eldest to a rich man.
• "We all Fall down" is a very short piece. News reports globally that massive rose vines are growing everywhere. Ring-around-the-rosies....
• One of my favorites in the collection was "The Beautiful And The Damned By F. Scott Fitzgerald". There is a virus going around. Once it infects a person, it corrects any imperfections making the carrier absolutely beautiful. Why? To entice others to come closer...and to get infected.
• The final story is "The Isle Is Full Of Noises", one of Tanith's forays into the world of vampires. Her world, anyway. Yse (pronounced Yeez) is a woman writer living in an island of buildings. The city she lived in on The Sound was flooded, but some still live in this island of glass and metal. One day a piano washes up on the tree that has taken root by her apartment. This tale skirts both the real (as far as this fictional world) and the fictional (in the form of a dark story Yse is writing). A man she has a bit of a sad infatuation with is the inspiration for her story. As with all of her vampire tales, Tanith injects her ample and dark imagination into the creation of hers. There is also a heavy presence of dark sexuality, and she is very descriptive (as she frequently is). Other authors who use similar sexual encounters in their books, without Tanith's mind and articulation, can end up creating a repellent, rather than pulling a reader deeper in. (There is a fine line between an intrinsic sexual encounter, and gratuitous porn.) This tale exhibited all of the markings that I have come to know with her work.

Over all a fine read. Each story brings the reader into a different and intriguing world. There is the exception of "Cold Fire"...had I known where the language originated it might have improved things. (Interesting how one detail like that can take the wind out of a story...) The one that I could have used more from was "We All Fall Down". A very intriguing threat to the world...rampant rose vines. To readers who enjoy entering the occasional dark place, I highly recommend "Sounds And Furies".

Guess It's 'Same Time Next Year'...

(Photo of the Perseus constellation as seen by the Hubbel)

Tonight was a double-header. The Perseid meteor shower, for one. The shower is associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. The comet travels through it's orbit about every 130 years. The radiant (point of origin) for the meteors is said to be in the Perseus constellation, so big guess where their name comes from. Seen for about 2 millenia, the shower is best seen from the northern hemisphere. This year's peak time was supposed to be August 13, 2011, at approximately 11:00 PM/EST.

The other big event for the night was the Aquarian Full Moon.

(Photo of a Perseid Meteor Shower)

I am assuming the meteor shower was spectacular. Something I wouldn't know, as my night sky was completely overcast and rainy. To say I was geared up for some sky watching would be an understatement. Reports said to expect about a hundred meteors per hour. Throughout the better part of the afternoon, I watched the weather radars with dismay as storms moved my way. Better luck next year, I suppose...

The thick blanket up there also obscured the night's Full Moon. Well, not completely...about a quarter past 12:00 midnight I got this:

Better than nothing? Well, that's what I keep telling myself. It did rain. That's something. I'm always up for a good dose of rain, which we did get earlier. I guess it's a bit apropos since Aquarius (the 11th sign of the zodiac) is the water carrier, it's celestial form pouring down the constellation of the Eridanus river.

Since I had been geared up to take (what I hoped would be) some lovely photos of the Full Moon and the meteor shower, I decided to not let the day go to complete waste since the other pics weren't going to happen. There were some really beautiful and bright lightning flashes in the storm clouds covering Savannah. Trying to snap photographs of actual shafts of lightning can be insane making...capturing a good shot is near impossible. Instead of taking pictures, I decided to take some video and do some experimenting.



Animated GIF's are something I have wanted to try making. I know that free online GIF making sites are out there, but the part I was having difficulty with was trying to isolate the small sections of videos I wanted to make into an animated GIF. I do have a free program that I downloaded for making slide shows into videos for upload to YouTube. I have several of the slide shows I created on my blog. Some in posts, others on my 'Slide shows' page. After some minor noodling on that program, I quickly figured out that it was a 'no-go'. Time to do some 'Google-ing'.
One of the first things I found was a freeware program for editing down AVI videos (which is what my camera produces). I was able to pare down a video section of a few seconds from an AVI video about 8 minutes long. It was easy to figure out without having to consult the 'Help' section, too. You can find the download site for the video trimmer I used here.
For the second step, I found a web site where you can create animated GIF's for free. It's extremely simple to do. For creating animated GIF's from video, that is. (I want to learn the process for making an animated GIF out of a JPG, but that should be a lot more involved.) Just upload the section of video, and the site automatically creates the GIF, and assigns it codes. The GIF creation site can be found here.

Not the evening I was hoping for, but productive nonetheless. Now that I have figured out how, I'm sure there are many GIF's in my future...