Greetings from a Leper Colony

Fine. Technically, I'm not at a Leper Colony. I'm home, nowhere near Hawaii. But check out this postcard from the Ginny files:

There are several things I love about this postcard. At first glance my eye is drawn not to the view but to the people on the overlook. Those are some seriously high-riding red short shorts. Not to mention the sweet mini-afro. So the question is, why would you sell a postcard that involved people other than the purchasers. It's one thing to want a picture of yourself at the top of an overlook, but a picture of complete strangers? Perhaps the idea is that if you're too lazy to hike up there yourself, you can live vicariously through these two anonymous people. Of course, it's designed to be sent to someone else, so maybe the idea is that you can trick the recipient into believing that you too made the hike.

The second brilliant aspect of this postcard is the description on the back:

"LEPER COLONY, HAWAII...far below this lookout lies world-famous Kalaupapa Leper Settlement on the Island of Molokai. Here, while helping to care for the unfortunate victims, Father Damien contracted leprosy and died of the disease April 15, 1889."

So, exactly who's Father Damien? And is this one postcard just a single example of a line of postcards dedicated to his life? It seems like such an odd fact to point out about the colony. So then I googled Father Damien and it turns out that he's the patron saint of Hawaii because of his work with the lepers.

So there's your little ironic moment turned history lesson for the day.

I'm Moving to Idaho

Seriously. I was listening to Weekend America today while driving to a student's house, and there was a story about this one town in Idaho that normally has lows of 35F this time of year. 35 DEGREES!!! Last night we couldn't even sleep upstairs in our bedroom it was so hot. Mel moves about 1 foot every 30 minutes to find a new patch of cool concrete. It's pathetic. I hate global warming. It's all humid and sticky - NOT the SoCal weather I've grown up in.

Anyway...it's been crazy this week. Maria's Pirates and Ninjas show opened last night and I was at the theater all day yesterday helping to paint the floor and make the programs. Plus, my first blog is up at Art of Tea (I explain biodynamics!) and there's about a six hour window every day that it's just simply too hot to work.

But here's my latest addition to the online collection of Ginny Larsen photos:


I love it. It speaks for itself. I'm going to go stick my head in the freezer.

What's Up?

When my great aunt passed away last year, she left behind photo albums filled with snapshots of her life throughout the past almost century. We spent time after her service going through the photos and trying to figure out whose dad was which little kid in each shot. People claimed their favorite pictures of themselves as little kids, or of their parents when they were little. What was left, however, says a lot about who my aunt was as a person and as a photographer. The remaining photos are often bizarre either in subject matter or framing. I don't know who most of the people are who inhabit this other prior world, but I've placed many of them on my wall. My plan is to post some of my favorites on days when I don't have anything better to blog about.

This one is one of my absolute favorites:



I think we decided that these are guys she worked with in an office in the SF Valley when she lived here until the mid-80s. Can you get any better than them? From their postures to their clothes, to the weird smirk on their faces... It's like a decade in a photo. You can hear them asking 'what's up?' in that tone that suggests they know what's up and if you're lucky, they'll share their secret knowledge with you.

Happy Haunting

This is Chuck - your financial advisor - scary no?

The lack of a forensics team tearing up our yard tells us that that bone we found was in fact an animal bone. I think I'm glad. I think I'm really glad.

A Quilt, Some Photographs and Photographs of a Quilt

Alison just completed this gorgeous quilt/wedding gift.




It's fabulous. I love it. It looks amazing in our home and we've been curling up in it every night on the couch as the summer heat turns into fall evening chills. The woman is amazingly talented, and I'm not just saying that because she's probably my most loyal reader. Her quilts are art. Our family has had a long tradition of quilt-making starting with my paternal grandmother (the one I share with Alison). Actually, it clearly started before that as I've seen some of the antique quilts that have made it thru the years. At any rate, my grandmother used to sew all the grandkids pajamas every year for christmas, as well as make an occasional quilt. When I graduated from high school Grandma made a quilt for me made out of all the flannel pajama fabrics she used over the years. I am happy to report that Alison is keeping the quilting tradition going strong, as you can see from the photos above. Thank you Alison.

On a side note, I know I said I wasn't going to post any pictures of photos we've printed, but that was a big fat lie. I admit it. I'm a liar. I can't help it. I feel the need to share these. The wall of photos above our desks is expanding.


Let me tell you...it's SO MUCH FUN to print 11x14 photos. It's not even funny how much fun it is.

Birthday Gifts

My birthday was Thursday and to celebrate I spent the whole day out at various gardens taking photos to develop in our new darkroom. I also received these beautiful flowers from my mom.


Yesterday we spent the afternoon developing our first rolls of film and then all night printing them.

Here's my first photo that I took, developed and printed.


It's better in person. Here's the second one and I promise this is the last photograph I photograph because that's just ridiculous.



What's the plan for tonight? More printing!

Let there be...

Darkness!

Bryan and I decided that instead of going away for our birthdays/anniversary, we would spend that money on the equipment needed to turn our bathroom into a darkroom. I've been traveling a lot lately and just couldn't pack my suitcase one more time and this is something I've always wanted to do.

Bryan didn't know that he wanted a darkroom until he realized that it wasn't just a pipe dream and we actually could afford one. Here's the thing: ever since sophomore year of high school I've wanted my own darkroom to work in, and it's a desire that's built with every intro to photography class I've taken. Bryan's never taken a photography class, but has an incredible eye and loves black and white photography almost as much as movies (and that's a lot).

So I figured that though it's been a good 5 years since the last time I was in a darkroom it would all come back to me. And it has, mostly.

First things first, we had to make our bathroom light proof.



We then assembled the enlarger...


and after a not-so-quick trip to Home Depot (which sucked my soul out) we arranged the chemical trays.


Look how happy Bryan is, and we haven't even made our first print at this point.

But now we have, and here it is in the wash bath!


You know you're jealous.

But you don't need to be. Friends and family are all welcome to use our darkroom anytime. We only ask that in payment you give us a print. We'll even walk you through the process. If we can figure it out...anyone can.

Oh, and now we're officially hooked. Bryan's busy trying to arrange his schedule so that he has the maximum number of night to print without having to work the next morning.

And today to celebrate my birthday, I spent all day at the LA Arboretum taking photos so that I can develop after dinner tonight and print tomorrow. We've officially turned into printing junkies, a not-so-unusual occurrence according to the folks who work at freestyle. I'm not giving up my digital camera yet though. I wouldn't have these photos if it weren't for the digital.

Looking for Inspiration in San Pedro

Last night Bryan, Mel and I piled into the bug and headed to San Pedro in search of location-driven inspiration for a script we're working on. I think we found some along the way. Here are some of the (better) images from the journey.




San Pedro always makes me think of Bukowski, so I thought I'd add one of his poems to this post. The following is used with no permission whatsoever (sorry!)

Be Angry at San Pedro

I say to my woman, "Jeffers was
a great poet. think of a title
like Be Angry At The Sun. don't you
realize how great that is?

"you like that negative stuff." she
says

"positively," I agree, finishing my
drink and pouring another.
"in one of Jeffers' poems, not the sun poem,
this woman fucks a stallion because her
husband is such a gross spirit. and it's
believable. then the husband goes out
to kill the stallion and the stallion
kills him."

"I never heard of Jeffers," she
says.

"you never heard of Big Sur? Jeffers
made Big Sur famous just like D. H. Lawrence
made Taos famous. when a
great writer writes about where he
lives the mob comes in and takes
over."

"well you write about San Pedro," she
says.

"yeah," I say, "and have you read the
papers lately? they are going to construct
a marina here, one of the largest in the
world, millions and billions of dollars,
there is going to be a huge shopping
center, yachts and condominiums every-
where!"

"and to think," my woman says smiling, "that you've only
lived here for three years!"

"I still think," I say,
changing the subject,
"you ought to read Jeffers."

Retrospective

I was down in San Diego for the weekend with the fam and I forgot my camera, so I don't have any fun pictures to share. Instead I figured it was time for a retrospective of some of my projects. As one of my many side jobs (I try not to have any real jobs) I paint sets for theater productions.

Here are a few of the results. This first series is for a play entitled "Bright Ideas" about a couple who murder a woman so that their child can have her child's spot in the best preschool. It's a dark comedy.


This is stage right. The direction I was given was to make the set look like it's both the real world and a preschool.


This central panel functions as both the outside park and a mural inside the school.


Stage left is the kitchen in which the main characters make poison pesto. This is essentially Macbeth set in Manhattan.


This last image is a detail one of the trees in the background.

Because of this show, I got a call to paint some other sets, this time for a high school production of "Uncool". The sets were simple. The director just wanted lockers and a mall setting. So he got these.




He also was doing a kids theater production of Snow White. For that he wanted 4 sets (I only photographed 3 of them): the throne room (unpictured)...


the witch's cave


the dwarves' cabin


and the forrest. I know some of the perspective on these is a bit off but I was doing these extremely quickly and I figured it was for kids anyway, so maybe people wouldn't notice the lack of the chimney on the fireplace.

So that's it so far in the set painting department. I'll post more as I paint more!