On the 4th of July

 

I had the pleasure of spending yesterday's July 4th celebration off camp (and in the States for the first time in two years) at Josh and Leah's house doing all those wonderful Summer things our founding father's had in mind when splittin' from ye Old England: grilling, fireworks, beer and friends!

 

We were also joined by Josh's parents, who were in from Illinois, both of Leah's assistants from Blue Lake, and a couple from across the street.  Not just any couple, mind you, but part of North Muskegon's political elite—the wife was the first female city counsel member who then went on to become the first female mayor of the city! (Which, unfortunately, is probably not what the founding father's had in mind :-/ )

My contributions to the evening were two of my go-to fav's: Jezebel sauce (a spicy jelly concoction served, of course, over a block of cream cheese) and watermelon salsa.  And what Summer in Michigan is complete without Bell's Oberon!

 

 

Josh also picked up some de-licious burgers from Mac's Meats and Country Road Bakery in the nearby town of Rothbury. I'm just gonna go on and put it out there that these burgers could kick your burger's ass from here to the Canadian coast.

Grill, baby, grill!

 

After dinner we headed out to the "party-o" to enjoy the fireworks display to be held over the nearby lake. 

Please note… the presence of fire does NOT equate to a chill in the air

 

While we were waiting for the sun to set, the former Mayoress told the group about a recent death in another nearby community.  Apparently a local man who had run a fireworks stand every holiday season recently passed away and requested only one thing: that his remains be packed into a firework and shot off over the lake during the festivities. 

R.I.P Tom: As it oft repeated in these somber moments: Earth to Earth, ashes to ashes, dust to highly-combustible-multicolored-dust and GOD BLESS 'MERICA!

 

Unfortunately my phone battery died before the official show began so I have no real evidence of the real display.  At any rate, here's hoping everyone had a fun and safe holiday!

 

Artist: James Taylor / Album: October Road

Land of a Thousand Words

 

Everyone knows the old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words," right?  Erroneously ascribed to Confucius, the saying has nonetheless become synonymous with the ability of a photograph to capture our collective imagination.

Brooklyn-based "creative technologist" Matt Richardson has taken this notion to it's logical next step and created the Descriptive Camera, a device which works thusly:

Point it at subject and press the shutter button to capture the scene. However, instead of producing an image, this prototype outputs a text description of the scene. Modern digital cameras capture gobs of parsable metadata about photos such as the camera's settings, the location of the photo, the date, and time, but they don't output any information about the content of the photo. The Descriptive Camera only outputs the metadata about the content.

 

 

The device is still very much in its infancy and the descriptions aren't exactly the most picturesque, but I could imagine with the right person behind the keyboard they could be quite poetic.  If anything it'd certainly make for an interesting show at the John Cleary Gallery!

 

Artist: Scissor Sisters / Album: Ta-Dah

Snap Count

 

Due to the warmer climate Michigan had this Winter and early Spring there has been quite an influx of rodents around the camp.  As such, we've had many a night visitor to the cabin in the form of mouse after mouse after mouse. (Here's a free tip for you: those sonic deterrents don't do a damned bit of good) Needless to say, the camp has been nice enough to provide us with traps and they've definitely been effective!

Hail to the Victors Valiant!

 

So far we've managed to catch six of the little fellas and I'm fairly certain that number is only going to go up over the course of the next month and a half.

Better wipe that smug look off your face, Ryan Gosling, we're gunning for you next!!

 

Artist: Jerry Goldsmith / Album: The Sum of All Fears

Wasn't That a Mighty Storm

 

This morning the July 2012 edition of National Geographic officially hit newsstands, and I promptly headed to Meijer to pick up a copy for myself.  "Why the rush," you ask?  Featured inside is a ten page spread highlighting the awe-inspiring storm photographs of Mitch Dobrowner.  (You may remember some such images from a previous post).

Apparently the stock team at Meijer had yet to update the magazine section, and I had to search out an employee to ask where the newest issue was.

Me: Hi, could you help me find the new National Geographic that came out today?

Sassy Lady: Um, those are still packed up in the back.

Me: So… … … then I'll just wait here while you go get one or would you prefer I come with?

Sassy Lady: *sigh + eye roll* One moment, sir.

 

 

I'm like a kid in a really windy candy store!

 

The full "Epic Storms" article may be found on NG's website here and I've taken a couple of quotes from Jeremy Berlin's article for your convenience.  Do yourself a favor, though, and splurge the four dollars and get your own copy! 

Rope Out, Regan, North Dakota

To document these awe-inspiring tempests, Mitch Dobrowner, a landscape photographer inspired by Ansel Adams and Minor White, teamed with renowned storm chaser Roger Hill, a witness to more than 600 tornadoes. Over the past three years, aided by mobile satellite data, radar imaging, and more, the pair have stalked some 45 weather systems over 16 states and 40,000 miles, sometimes driving 900 miles in a day to capture a moment. “With storms,” says Dobrowner, “it’s like shooting a sporting event. Things happen so quickly, I really have to adapt.”

 

Vapor Cloud, Near Clayton, New Mexico

Indeed, both Dobrowner and Hill see supercells as living things: born under the right conditions, gaining strength as they grow, changing shape and form, fighting for their life, eventually dying. Not that personifying them removes the danger. In the still wild West, says Hill, storms demand admiration and respect. “I feel honored to be shooting them,” says Dobrowner. “If I’m going to go, let me go like this.”

 

As always, we at the John Cleary Gallery would just LOVE to facilitate purchasing one of you very own Mitch Dobrowner prints… just tell 'em Joseph sent ya!

 

Artist: James Taylor / Album: Other Covers

Release the Stars

 

First up on my reading list for the Summer was the Right Reverend of Science Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson's recently released Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Dr. Tyson is the current director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History in New York and throughout his career in astrophysics has taken up the mantle left by Carl Sagan to bring the universe to the masses … his reasoning being that, as NASA is funded taxpayer funds, we should at least be able to understand what that money is going towards.

On meeting Carl Sagan and the duty of mentorship:

In fact, Dr. Tyson will be reviving Carl Sagan's Cosmos series in 2013 … stay tuned!

 

Most importantly, though, Dr. Tyson is continuously and actively engaged in informing the public on the importance of scientific literacy and how it relates to the electorate and public policy.  Below is a fantastic interview with Stephen Colbert (a rare one in which he is out of character) that I cannot recommend highly enough.  Though it comes out at a little under an hour and a half, I have watched it numerous times.  Please make the time to watch!  No, seriously though…

Skip to 6:15 for the beginning of the interview

 

On the realities of NASA's budget and the importance of the James Webb Telescope, Hubble's successor.

PREACH!

 

Due to his increased presence in media and pop culture he has also entered into one of the internets' greatest realms: meme-dom.  When speaking of Isaac Newton he offered up a fantastic reaction shot that was later turned into an animated GIF and then black and white drawing often accompanied by the phrase "Watch out, we got a badass over here".  (Click here for a much better definition from Know Your Meme)

 

Don't mess with a badass astrophysicist from the Bronx!!!

 

And finally, when asked what he thought was the most astounding fact about the universe, he answered thusly:

(Video by Max Schlickenmeyer)

 

Artist: Rufus Wainwright / Album: Release the Stars

Color on the Walls (Don't Stop)

 

The first session of camp officially begins tomorrow, but Blue Lake was host to several sessions of Suzuki courses this past week. In layman's terms, the Suzuki Method is an early childhood music training program developed in the mid-20th century for pre-school children, none of which is particularly pertinent to this post.  Needless to say, the cafeteria was SWARMING with 3 – 5 year olds for the entirety of last week. 

I couldn't help but be reminded of a recent installation at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art by Yayoi Kusama entitled The Obliteration Room, in which the artist began with a pristine, white room full of furnishings and, over the course of two weeks, had the child visitors to the museum plaster it with thousands upon thousands of colored dot stickers.  The results are nothing if not a cacophony of color!

 

 

 

 

Artist: Foster the People / Album: Torches

A New Deal

 

Every two years Houston is home to FotoFest, a several weeks long celebration set up "to promote the exchange of art and ideas through international programs and the presentation of photographic art."  The Bayou City becomes host to fine art photographers from all over the globe, countless exhibitions, portfolio reviews and workshops all centering on photography.  In addition to getting to go to the swanky opening night party with Catherine, it was also an opportunity to get to hang out with the fabulous Susan Burnstine.  I was lucky enough to meet her when she came for her Within Shadows exhibition at the John Cleary Gallery during the Fall of last year and can now happily count her among my dear friends!

During her time here she invited me out to dinner with several of her fancy photographer friends.  At one point Susan realized she didn't have a picture of me on her phone to show up when I called and so she whipped out her iPhone.  All of a sudden I looked up and ALL of them were taking my picture!

L to R: Brad Moore, Rania Matar, Michael Crouser, Susan Burnstine

 

Michael was kind enough to send me two of his pictures… as partially seen through Susan's phone:

 

I LOVE that in the one on the left I'm smiling in Susan's phone but not in Michael's picture

 

Now comes the "audience participation" portion of the blog post!  A couple of days ago I saw the following message on Michael's Facebook page and wanted to share this fabulous opportunity with y'all:

Dear Friends,

This coming August the Festival de la Luz in Buenos Aires, Argentina will be exhibiting my series "Los Toros" at the Fotogaleria de San Martin. This is an important venue in an important festival, and I'm quite excited about the honor and the opportunity. In an effort to attend the opening, I am selling a limited edition of two small prints from the series at a very low price.

The two attached images will be available for a short time as 8x10 toned silver gelatin prints, each in numbered limited editions of 25, for $150. The prints will be signed, numbered and delivered to you prior to the exhibition.
Those interested can contact me directly through Facebook, or by email at mc@michaelcrouser.com.

Thank you for considering these print, and for your help in getting me to Argentina for this great opportunity!

 

 

As of this posting both images are still available.  Opportunities like this rarely come up for such fantastic work… take advantage of this amazing deal today!

 

Artist: Michael Giacchino / Album: Ratatouille