Summer Pictures I

I didn't used to be much for snapping photos, but now that I have a digital camera, I've steadily increased the number of pictures I take. It's just so dang easy! As a result, I've got a little pile of pictures I've built over the summer. Nothing dramatic, but I thought I'd share some of them over the next few days.

First up, baby pumpkins! Actually, I don't know what to call them. Pumpkin buds? I'm no gardenologist, so cut me some slack.

Anyway, we started a modest garden this summer in an attempt to make this land give a little something back. One of the things we planted was jack-o-lantern type pumpkins. I really like the light and limited color scheme in this picture.


Just to prove the thing was growing, I came back a week later. The lighting wasn't as good this time, but the growth is evident.


More pictures tomorrow!

When Comics, History, and Computer Science Combine!

I'm sure you are familiar with the fascinating story of Charles Babbage who, long before the invention of transistors or vacuum tubes, designed and attempted to construct a general purpose computer he called the Analytical Engine.

[cricket sounds...]


I'm sure you are also aware of the story of Ada Lovelace who was one of the very few contemporaries of Babbage who fully appreciated what he was trying to achieve with his Analytical Engine. She's credited with being the first programmer since she published notes describing how the Analytical Engine could be programmed. Sadly, she never had the opportunity to see her programs run on an actual machine.

[more cricket sounds...]

Well, if you've longed to read an appropriately appreciative comic treatment about these far seeing intellectual giants, you owe it to yourself to read this stunning work by Sydney Padua.

In the remote chance you are not familiar with this rich piece of history, Padua provides plenty of resources at the bottom of the comic. Additionally, for a brief look at her motivation for creating this comic, Padua provides a FAQ.

And Now That it is Summer

Well, my previous worry about peacock population collapse may have been premature. One of the females around here has some chicks following her around now.


There's actually three of them. She does her best to keep them safe. She tries to keep them under cover and guide them around. She'll cluck warnings to them when danger approaches (like me). She'll sit on them or otherwise try to obscure your view of them by keeping them under her wings. But peahens aren't the most ferocious of birds, and she spooks pretty easy depending on the situation. So, we try to give her room.


Of course, the chicks aren't only in danger of predators. Some of the other peacocks and peahens initially followed her around pretty closely. They seemed very curious about the chicks, and not all their interests were benign. My mother says that in the past she's seen peacocks flinging the chicks around. I've heard of this aggressive and sometimes lethal behavior in other animals, and you can readily find possible explanations, so I won't horrify you with an explanation here. Regardless of nature's cruel reasons, it's not really something I want to see.

However, when things are going well, the guys are pretty fun to watch. I actually saw some behavior that I don't know what to make of. Sorry for the low quality picture below. It was dusk, and the exposure was a little long (I didn't want to use the flash). You see one of the chicks below sitting on the mother's back. What you don't see is that he was hopping on and off her back for a good minute. I managed to catch him in the middle of perching on her back. She just sat patiently while he did this, but I was wondering if this was a form of play behavior. I didn't know birds did that. Well, except maybe crows and ravens and types of parrots (Okay, maybe I did know birds played).

Anyway, I've never seen peacocks exhibit play behavior, but this little guy seemed to be having fun. Oh, and it has nothing to do with trying to fly. These guys have been able to fly around for a while now. He just seemed to enjoy trying to perch on her back.

Weird but Wonderful

I've seen this animation posted in multiple places, and I just remembered I could share it with you. I really love the flat coloring combined with the fluid animation. Also the sound is strangely effective.

This one time... from nelson boles on Vimeo.

Cannes Short Films

If like me you couldn't make it to Cannes this year (again), you might be happy to hear that you can get a little bit of the Cannes film festival online. The National Film Board of Canada has been hosting an online short film competition they call Cannes Short Film Corner. This is the fifth year. Several films are presented, and you get to vote for the ones you like.



As of this posting, I've only watched the movie you see above. I have no idea what other types of films you will find, but there's bound to be a few gems (if you like short films).

Found via the Drawn! blog.

Playing for Change

This morning NPR did a story about a music project called Playing for Change: Songs Around the World. I was previously aware of this project, but the NPR news story prompted me to write about it here since I realized it has progressed much further since I last heard about it.

The basic idea of the project is musical collaboration. But this isn't simply getting some well known musicians together and having them hammer out some songs. The vision of this project is larger. The idea is to record individual musicians and groups in their own settings all across the world. The collaboration occurs across time and continents via recordings of the other musicians that the producer brings along with him to the different sites. The result is quite beautiful and moving.

But my words aren't really doing this project justice. Here's the video that first introduced me to this project (you can see more videos if you click the above link to their website):



The project is also associated with the Playing for Change Foundation which appears to be trying to build music schools. I don't know enough about that foundation to comment one way or the other about it, but I'm always game for having more music in our lives, and more music schools sound like a worthwhile goal to me.

When I sat down to write this, I thought I was going to say something about how this project could be seen as a metaphor for all human endeavor. But I just realized that this musical collaboration isn't a metaphor, it's simply a wonderful example of the global human jam taking place all the time. We're all building off of what each of us have done. Ideally we do this in peace, but we know that isn't always the way we do things. Regardless, we keep trying. The project isn't metaphorical. It is better than that. It is inspirational.

MicroVisions

Irene Gallo has just posted that MicroVisions 4 auction is open! MicroVisions is a fund raiser for the Society of Illustrators scholarship fund. The idea is that several talented and well known artists create and donate 5"x7" works of art to be auctioned off. So far they've held the auctions through eBay. This is really cool because it allows anybody with an eBay account to have an opportunity to bid and win one these items. In fact, I won a nice piece one year.

I recommend following the link to Irene's post for more information, but click here if you want to go directly to the list of items being auctioned off.

All the pieces look good, but for me, the stand out items this year are from: Gregory Manchess, Michael Whelan, and Justin Gerard. (All those links go directly to their respective eBay pages.)

Gregory Manchess (website) is an established artist and illustrator. Even if you don't know him, you have very likely seen his work since he has done illustrations for many magazines (National Geographic being a notable example) as well as book covers. He has an energetic, painterly style I enjoy. I always look forward to seeing more of his work. I think his soaring spaceman would make an inspirational piece of art to have hanging around your home.

Michael Whelan (website) is an "old" favorite of mine. I discovered him through his book covers to the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn fantasy trilogy from Tad Williams, but he has done much more than that. Just go to your favorite bookstore and browse the fantasy and science fiction section. You will easily find his work gracing the covers of many of those books. He's one of those illustrators with the exquisite ability to distill a book's contents to a single, symbolic image while retaining wonderful compositions that make you want to find out what's the story behind that image. From what I understand, he has been focusing more on his "fine art" work, and his MicroVisions entry is a nice example of that. If you'd like a piece of art that makes you wonder and contemplate, I think his entry would be a way to go.

Finally, Justin Gerard (website) is a recent favorite of mine. I discovered him by browsing the internet. I follow various artists' blogs, and those artists inevitably will lead you to other artists. I'm sure that's how I found out about Justin. I wrote about his series of Hobbit paintings a while back. He has since updated his website's gallery with those paintings. Those are definitely worth checking out. Additionally, Justin went the extra mile for MicroVisions. Although he only entered one painting, he actually painted several and chose one. I personally think he chose very well. His introspective portrait of a dapper looking faun is fun and mysterious.

So, if you've ever wanted to own some original art work from talented illustrators, now's your chance!