Sandhill Crane Migration

From The Christian Science Monitor, a selection of photographs documenting the sandhill crane migration.

Also don't miss out on the daily excitement over on the Eagle Cam—live eagle action. Right now they are looking a bit bedraggled from the rain.

Sandhill crane migration

The Cremation of Sam McGee

An interesting article from The Vancouver Sun about phonograph records recovered from a ship that sank almost 110 years ago—Phonograph records recovered from Gold Rush wreck. So what song did Gold Rushers listen to as to as they cruised up the Yukon River? Seems like "Ma Onliest One", "The Harp that Once thro' Tara's Halls" and "Rendez Vous Waltz".

The ship was actually found at the bottom of Lake Laberge—the setting of Robert W. Service's grisly poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee". So after you read the article, you can listen to Johnny Cash's reading of Service's poem below.

NYC Subway as Stringed Instrument

Artist Alexander Chen has turned New York City's subway map into a digital work of musical art. As trains cross paths on Massimo Vignelli's 1972 subway map they strum the lines. Go to Chen's interactive site, and you can also play the lines, or just watch the video below. An article, including an interview with Chen, is available here.

Conductor: www.mta.me from Alexander Chen on Vimeo.

Mies van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, probably the most important figure in modern architecture, was born 125 years ago today in Aachen, Germany. The BBC produced a show about him a couple years ago. The program recognizes what a towering figure he was, but, at the same time, it is not hagiographic. I am posting a playlist will the entire program below.

I have some pictures of Crown Hall, one of his buildings on the campus of IIT, in this set of photographs I took last summers. The first three photographs in the set are Crown Hall, and the ones of Lego City at the end are inside Crown Hall.

Tennessee Williams @ 100

Tennessee Williams was born 100 years ago today.

To mark his birthday excerpts from an American Theatre Wing seminar, "Interpreting Tennessee Williams," a remarkable one-time-only meeting of cast members from two concurrent Williams revivals on Broadway (2005) -- Natasha Richardson, John C. Reilly and Chris Bauer of "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Jessica Lange and Christian Slater of "The Glass Menagerie."

Maurice Sendak & The Hobbit

Here is an essay from the LA Times' blog "Hero Complex" about an attempt, in the 1960's, to have Maurice Sendak create a set of illustrations for The Hobbit.

The Hobbit illustrated by Maurice Sendak?

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

One hundred years ago, on March 25, 1911, one of the worst workplace disasters in U.S. history took place when the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City burned killing 146 people, mostly girls and young women. Among the many New Yorkers who watched in horror as young women jumped to their death from the burning building was Francis Perkins. Perkins, later Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, became one of the most important figures behind the New Deal and reform of labor laws.

In the aftermath of the disaster, fire codes across the country were strengthened, undoubtedly saving many since then.



[Added 3/26/11: A video from the memorial held yesterday for the victims of the fire.]

EPA Headquarters Buildings

Photographs I took last weekend of the four buildings that make up the current Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters.

Three of the buildings face Constitution Avenue, between 12th and 14th Street. These buildings were designed as a group by Arthur Brown, Jr., and constructed in the early 1930's as part of a plan to develop the area between Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues, now known as the Federal Triangle.

• The Environmental Protection Agency, West Building - Originally the U.S. Customs Service Building.


• Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium - Originally the Departmental Auditorium. This building was the location of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty which created NATO.
  


• The Environmental Protection Agency, East Building - Originally the Interstate Commerce Commission Building.
  

The fourth building was originally constructed as the New Post Office, but is now called the Ariel Rios Federal Building. This building has a semi-circular portico that faces 12th Street, with a Post Office entrance on Pennsylvania Avenue. Also constructed in the early 1930's, the Architects were William A. Delano and Chester H. Aldrich.

EPA Headquarter Buildings

Holi Pictures

For some color, a set of Holi photographs from The Big Picture blog.

Holi: Festival of Colors

The Daguerre Monument

Considering what a large part of this blog is devoted to photographs, I would be remiss if I failed to include this picture of the Daguerre Monument.

The French artist Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (1787-1851) became interested in the 1820s in trying to capture images photographically. In August 1839 his "Daguerreotype" technique--fixing an image on a light-sensitive, polished silver plate--was announced to the public. This was the first photographic process to be used widely in Europe and the United States.

In 1890 the Professional Photographers of America donated this monument to Daguerre, by the American sculptor Jonathan Scott Hartley, to the American people. The bronze figure was cast by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company of New York. Placed in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum Building (now know as the Arts and Industries Building) to the celebrate the first half-century of photography, the monument was displayed on the Mall from 1897 to 1969.

Monuments & Sculptures - 2011

National Christmas Tree 2.0

Following the toppling of the National Christmas tree in a wind storm a few weeks ago, a new National Christmas Tree was planted on the Ellipse last Saturday. A 26 1/2 foot Colorado blue spruce, it comes from a nursery in New Jersey. While not a little tree, it has some growing to do before it can match the 42 foot height of the tree that toppled over.

I have included a picture of it that I took on Sunday in a new set of pictures of trees.

Trees - 2011

The Marble Faun

For the first day of spring, a quote from The Marble Faun.

The advance of vegetation, in this softer climate, is less abrupt than the inhabitant of the cold North is accustomed to observe. Beginning earlier,—even in February,—Spring is not compelled to burst into Summer with such headlong haste; there is time to dwell upon each opening beauty, and to enjoy the budding leaf, the tender green, the sweet youth and freshness of the year; it gives us its maiden charm, before, settling into the married Summer, which, again, does not so soon sober itself into matronly Autumn. In our own country, the virgin Spring hastens to its bridal too abruptly. But here, after a month or two of kindly growth, the leaves of the young trees, which cover that portion of the Borghese grounds nearest the city wall, were still in their tender half-development.

— The Marble Faun, Chapter 12, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Spring Flowers

A new set of photographs with spring flowers. So far these pictures are all from Georgetown, including the one below of the Cherry Blossoms at Washington Harbor.

Spring Flowers - 2011

Canal/River Photographs

I have started a set of photographs of the Canal and the Potomac River, and add three pictures that I took today.

Canal/River - 2011

Chinese Scroll Painting

A video from the New York Times on ancient Chinese Scroll Painting.

A Brief History of Title Design

Great video of film titles.

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

FLW - The Early Years

A video on the early career of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Water for Elephants - Trailer

The trailer for Water for Elephants, opening in the US on April 22.

Gatsby Mansion to be Razed

Lands End—thought to be the inspiration for Daisy Buchanan's home in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby—is schedule to be razed. Off course, it will be replaced by several mcmansion's which will probably never inspire anything..

[Added 3/9/11 - I have included a post on my music blog to accompany this post.]

Gatsby-Linked Long Island Mansion to Be Razed
to Make Way for Subdivision

[Added 4/20/11 - Alas, it has been turn down.]

Alberto Granado

A post to mark the death, on March 5, of Alberto Granado. In 1952, Granado and Che Guevara took a motorcycle trip across Latin America which lead to Guevara's political awakening, and the rest, as they say, is history. More information about Granado in the Washington Post's obituary.

In 2004, the motorcycle trip was recreated in the film The Motorcycle Dairies, with Gael García Bernal portraying Guevara, and Rodrigo De la Serna as Alberto Granado. Here is the trailer for that film.

1922 Kodachrome

Following up on my earlier post about the Brighton exhibition on color film, here is a video reproduced from a 1922 Kodachrome Film Test. More information about this film, and the actresses appearing in it can be found at this A Thousand Words blog post.

Rev. Peter Gomes

Rev. Peter Gomes died earlier this week. A professor, minister and successful author, he is one of the characters that Anna Deavere Smith recreates in her current show Let Me Down Easy. (See previous blog post) Here is part of an interview with Gomes. You can click on the link to see the entire interview.

Capturing Color

A video on an exhibition at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery covering the development of color film, Capturing Colour: Film, Invention and Wonder. For those of us who will not be in Sussex in the next couple weeks, this video is the next best thing to being there.

Guangzhou Opera House

A link to the Guardian's Video on Zaha Hadid's Guangzhou Opera House, which just opened last year.

Zaha Hadid on song