Wonderful Photo Essay

I am utterly fed up with a) the snow and b) pictures of the snow.

I recommend you have a look at Days With My Father by photographer/artist Phillip Toledano, one of the most beautiful photo essays I've ever seen.

To those of us with either aging parents, or ones who have already died, this essay speaks especially eloquently. Toledano's other work is worth a look as well.

Ghosts of Shopping Past

You know I like the old, the decayed, the abandoned. This photo essay from The Morning News tickles all my fancies. Photographer Brian Ulrich has done some splendid work.

Why nothing new from me? Because I spent a giant hunk of my afternoon on the ongoing project: Dig Out My Car. I did enough so that ~ if tomorrow is sufficiently sunny ~ meltage should make it possible for me to escape the back alley for the first time in two weeks.

Naturally, snow squalls are predicted for tonight. I believe the expression I'm looking for is FML.

Loss

Photo taken 7/30/2006, at my father's 85th birthday party in Boston, MA.

I am heartsick with sadness. I just learned that Howard Zinn died yesterday.

Most people know him as the author of A People's History of the United States, or they remember his name because of the movie Good Will Hunting. I knew him as a family friend, wife to warm and wonderful artist Roz (who died two years ago). He was kind, fierce, brilliant, eloquent, tirelessly energetic, generous, charismatic, and also soft-spoken and modest in personal conversation. I looked forward to his visits to DC, when he would often invite me to join him at his speaking engagement and sometimes include me in dinners with the lefty literati.

Not many people are able to reach and change minds, and to speak with fearless passion about the issues that matter. I didn't always agree with Howard, but I deeply admired his commitment to justice and peace. I was lucky to know him and I will miss him.

Read an obituary here.

Snowpocalypse

The snow was a pretty substantial inconvenience for everybody, but it's both lovely and fascinating from several miles up. Photo courtesy of NASA.

New Vista

A new land-based infrared telescope called Vista has started producing images. Awesome.

A Book After My Own Heart

While I was trolling the internet seeing what else was out there using the phrase "something beautiful," I came across a children's book that demonstrates exactly the attitude that I am seeking to promote here.

And guess what the book is called.

Yup!


Something Beautiful

This lovely book is by Sharon Dennis Wyeth, and if you are looking for a gift this Christmas for a young child, I believe this one will keep on giving past the first reading. It has the potential to show a child how to seek, find, and make beauty even in circumstances where it seems hard to come by, which is one of the very greatest gifts of all. While this book doesn't boast the most eloquent prose or the most glorious illustrations, its simplicity and directness communicate its vital message effectively.

Wish I'd Taken This One

This photograph is by designer Mark Coleran. It's got all the stuff I like: patina, beautiful old machinery, jewel-tone color, and an aura of iconic mysetery. You may recognize some of Mark's other work from the movies… check it out.

Symphony of Science

Okay, the autotune is funny, for sure. But I also like the message in this mashup.

Solar Eight

Photographic analemma by Vasiliy Rumyantsev. His other photos are interesting too.

It's worth noting that this image is proof that winter will both end and come again.

Golden Spider Silk Tapestry

(photo R. Mickens/AMNH)

This is completely nuts and awesome in only the way something utterly extravagant and over-the-top can be awesome. They "silked" a million spiders to make this. (Supposedly it doesn't hurt them.) The color is not a dye, but natural to the fiber. Go learn more at NPR's All Things Considered or at the American Museum of Natural History.

Our Island Home

Another gorgeous space shot that I found courtesy of Wired.

Spiffy Infographic

It's worth having a look at the full size version of this graphic depiction of space exploration missions.

Beautiful and Occasionally Terrifying

Check out this album of unusual and fascinating cloud types. Some of them are eerie, others are downright nightmarish, and they are all beautiful.

Galactic Beauty

This is an animation is a view of the Galactic Core made from a mosaic of 88 images taken by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Learn more here.

(There's also a silent, large, and higher-quality QuickTime version available here.)

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is one of the most astonishingly creative and elegant of "environmental artists." Please visit this digital catalog of his work. He has also published some wonderful books.

Universal Beauty: Deep Space

Trust me, watch the whole thing.

[Tip o' the hat: Rex55]