Day 237/365 - Moonrise over Alaska

We hit the first port on our Alaskan cruise today, the capital city of Juneau. I went for a six mile hike on a mountain alongside the Mendenhall glacier. The trail started out pretty easy and then got really steep. The views were great though and it was nice to be out in the woods. The weather was amazing. It's beginning to look like I packed the wrong sorts of clothes. I packed longsleeved shirts and turtleneck sweaters and jeans and I might have been better off packing shorts and t-shirts. It was sunny and in the 80s. Not what I expected from Alaska. I'm not complaining though. It was much better than hiking in the rain and the clear skies make for much better photos. This shot was of the moon rising over the mountains ringing the Inside Passage after we left Juneau to head further north to Skagway. The sun didn't set until 10 p.m. tonight. Now that is what I expected from Alaska.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 236/365 - Self Portrait at Sea

We are currently steaming our way toward Juneau, Alaska. We’re going to be at sea this entire day. I spent the first part of the day sitting near various windows in sundry parts of the ship looking out at the passing scenery, listening to old radio programs on my iPod, and reading (as you can see in this week’s self-portrait). It was deeeelicious. Then this afternoon, my brother and I went bowling (there are four bowling lanes in one of the bars onboard the ship) and played a game of Scrabble whilst seated at the stern as the mountains rolled past on either side. We have port calls the next two days and then another full day at sea, followed by two more port calls before debarking in Seattle. I think my brother and I will try out the rock climbing wall on our next day at sea. Gotta do something to burn off the steady stream of desserts.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Seattle Cityscape

This week's extra photo from my archives is another shot I took of Seattle from the top of the Space Needle today. Can't believe how great the weather was. The visibility from up there was amazing.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 235/365 - Getting Underway

We couldn’t board our cruise ship until noon, so this morning I walked over to the Space Needle. Even though I’ve only seen two of the most touristy parts of Seattle (Pike Place Market and Seattle Center), it seems like a cool city. I’m going to have to come back here when I have more time to spend. The nerd boy in me really wanted to check out the Science Fiction Museum, but I ran short on time. The view from the Space Needle was pretty spectacular. I could even see my ship tied up to the pier.

Once we got aboard, I spent about an hour just wandering around and taking photos of every nook and cranny. My cabin is pretty cramped and there are four of us in it. I’d like to have gotten a balcony room on my own, but it was easier for my brother to afford the trip if we packed four people into one room, so that’s what we did. There are two regular beds, a roll-away bed, and a bunk that pulls down from the wall. I claimed the folding bunk. It’s my own little penthouse.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 234/365 - In Seattle

After a 2.5 hour flight, a 2 hour layover, and a 3.5 hour flight, I finally arrived in Seattle this afternoon. Once I got checked into the hotel, I met up with my brother and the rest of our small herd (there are 8 of us all together – me, my brother, my sister-in-law, some of their friends and some of her relatives) and we headed down to the Pike Place Market (that’s it pictured above) to get a bite to eat and wander about for a bit. It was a rather touristy spot, but still kinda cool. Some of the street performers were interesting. There was one guy who kept four hula hoops spinning while playing the guitar, balancing a second guitar on his chin (and occasionally reaching up to strum it), and blowing on a harmonica. I had to tip him after that. I figured he earned it. Who says guys can’t multi-task?

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 233/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 6

I was long overdue for another installment in my occasional series of Post-It Note impressions, so here it is!

Quick, who am I this time?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 232/365 - Ready to Ship Out

Saturday morning I'm catching a flight to Seattle so that the next day I can board the Norwegian Pearl and get underway on a 7-day Alaskan cruise. I am 'redtago" (ready to go). Well, mentally ready to go anyhow. Still haven't started packing yet. I think I've picked out the shore excursions I want to do, though. In Juneau there's the Mendenhall Glacier hike, in Skagway there's the vintage railway scenic tour/Sawtooth Mountain rainforest hike combo, in Ketchikan I'm leaning toward the floatplane mountaintop sightseeing and crab feast outing, and in Victoria it will be the killer whale watching boat trip.

The excursions sound cool, but I'm still not sure how much I'm going to like this cruise. I've been on two Caribbean cruises before (not counting the half-dozen times I deployed there in the Navy on various ops) and my favorite part of those cruises were the days at sea where I could just lay in the sun on the Lido deck and read and listen to my iPod. Don't think there will be much working on my tan on this cruise given that the temperature is supposed to be in the mid-50s. Guess I can just sit by a window and read and listen to old radio programs, though. I've got one mystery series I recently loaded onto my iPod called "Passage of the Tangmar" about a group of heirs onboard a ship steaming from Australia to Jamaica to inherit a millionaire's estate and who are slowly getting bumped off one by one before they can reach their destination. It should be cool to listen to on my cruise. Plus I have a few books set on ships or at sea that should make for good reading.

This cruise was my brother's idea. I sent my parents on an Alaskan one last year and they raved about it, so my brother decided he wanted to go on one as well and he invited me to come along. This wasn't my first choice of vacations, but he and I usually have a lot of fun when we take trips together so I figured 'what the heck.' If nothing else, it's a week away from work and an excuse to take lots of photos. As if I really needed an excuse for that.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 231/365 - Legacy of Light

Tonight I went to see the new play "Legacy of Light" at Arena Stage's substitute venue in Crystal City. This piece was specially commissioned by Arena from local playwright Karen Zacarias and is having its debut a half-block from my apartment. It's always exciting to see a brand new work, although about half the time the play turns out to be disappointing. Most new plays are more along the lines of rough drafts when they premiere and still need a fair amount of shaping and polishing.

That's not the case with "Legacy of Light." It's an absolutely brilliant, fully-realized play. The story takes place between and betwixt two sets of characters in two different centuries, Enlightenment Era France and modern New Jersey. In each setting there are four primary characters, two men and two women. The Enlightenment cast consists of historical figures such as Voltaire and pioneering female physicist Emilie du Chatelet, her daughter, and her young and impetuous lover, while the modern cast is composed of a female astrophysicist, her schoolteacher husband, and a struggling young woman and her brother.

The characters move around each other in various orbits and while initially they are confined to their own eras, as the play progresses the Enlightenment characters also appear in the modern setting. Whether these time travelers are ghosts, hallucinations, or something else is never fully addressed and surprisingly it doesn't really seem to matter. Their simultaneous existence in both the 18th and 21st centuries further reinforces two principles of physics discussed in the play: first, that energy is not destroyed but persists (an idea first put forth by Emilie herself) and second, that time is not constant but varies as energy increases (an idea which Einstein derived from Emilie's work).

The plot of the play focuses chiefly on women scientists who are simultaneously on the verge of important discoveries and the verge of motherhood, but it is not about just that any more than the dictionary is just about words beginning with the letter A. The writing is razor sharp and the play is dazzlingly smart, consciousness expanding, and utterly original. If you have a brain and a heart you'll enjoy it a great deal. If you're deficient on either count you probably won't care for it much, and more's the pity for you.

The set design is facilitative and unobtrusive and the costumes are, in the words of one of the characters, amazingly amazing. Many of the actors play two roles, one in each of the play's eras, and the peformances range from excellent to merely adequate. Interestingly, some of the dual performers are excellent in one part and merely adequate in the other. Standouts among the cast include the actresses playing Emilie and Olivia, the astrophysicist. The performers portraying the modern sister-brother pair are also quite good.

As if you couldn't tell by now, I enjoyed this play immensely and it's something I can't recommend highly enough. Beg, borrow, buy, or steal a ticket but by all means go. GO!

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 230/365 - Clean and Dry

This week's self-portrait is the latest in a series of shots where I ask the timeless question -- "hmm, what can I put my camera inside of now and turn on the self-timer?" Following in the wake of such 'classics' as "Inside the Fridge" and "Inside the Oven," I now bring you "Inside the Dryer!"

Where will my camera go next? Stay tuned and find out!

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 229/365 - Memorial Day

In memory of all who have given their lives so that others might live -- military and civilian, wartime and peacetime.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Clouds of War

This week's bonus photo from my archives is another shot I took on my trip to Philadelphia today, this time illustrating the 'war' side of the equation. This is the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62).

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 228/365 - Art and War

I Amtrak'd it up to Philadelphia this morning for a day trip to tour the battleship USS New Jersey and check out the Cezanne exhibit going on at the Museum of Art. It was an interesting juxtaposition of the power of destruction and the power of creation, not to mention the machina and the deus.

When you think about it, creation and destruction aren't opposites as much as they are different points along the same continuum. They're both forms of affected change, ways of altering the world either through addition or subtraction. That being said, art generally doesn't kill or maim anyone -- so the world could do with much more of the former and considerably less of the latter.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 227/365 - Everybody Into the Pool

The pool at my apartment complex (along with pools all across the country, I'm sure) opened today. I swam a few laps, laid in the sun, read my book, took notice of the bikinis, and in general had a very indolent and enjoyable start to the day.

Now it's time to clean my apartment and do some grocery shopping. Ugh. Being an adult (chronologically speaking, anyhow) certainly has it's downsides. However, now that the pool is open I can go back to inventing reasons to telecommute, which means I'll be getting paid to conduct legal reviews whilst sitting 'round the pool. That's even better than practicing law on the couch.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 226/365 - Tartuffe

I hadn't been to see a play in a while, so tonight I decided to catch Journeyman Theater's production of Moliere's "Tartuffe" at the Church Street Theater. I'd never seen or read any of Moliere's work before so I wasn't sure what to expect, although I was aware that "Tartuffe" was generally considered his masterpiece. The play was originally staged in 1664 and caused an almost instant uproar, with the Archbishop of Paris threatening to excommunicate anyone who saw, acted in, or read it. To engender a reaction like that, you know it has to be good.

The titular Tartuffe is a scheming huckster posing as a pious nobleman who claims to have bankrupted himself through acts of charity. He insinuates himself into the good graces and household of Orgon, a wealthy landowner who is awed and obsessed by Tartuffe's apparent righteous fervor and selflessness. When Orgon's family tries to tell him that Tartuffe is a lying hypocrite who censoriously denounces everything enjoyable or pleasant as sinful and wicked while secretly indulging in his own appetites, he rebuffs their criticism as being driven by envy and takes their "persecution" of Tartuffe as further evidence of his righteousness.

In short order, Tartuffe convinces Orgon to disinherit and exile his son, break his daughter's engagement, and provide Tartuffe with the deed to his entire estate, his daughter's hand in marriage, and possession of a box of incriminating letters. It is only when Orgon catches Tartuffe attempting to despoil his wife in Act II that he finally sees the sanctimonious mountebank for what he is. When he throws the rascal out, Tartuffe goes to court to obtain an eviction order against Orgon and turns the box of letters over to the king, who sends an officer to arrest and imprison the duped landowner.

Will wickedness triumph? Will Tartuffe's treachery be rewarded with wife and wealth? I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, in case you want to brave the threat of excommunication and see or read it for yourself. The play is very good, although the fact that it is written entirely in rhyming couplets does take some getting used to. The character of Tartuffe is the theater's most thoroughgoing scoundrel this side of Iago and the play's skewering of self-righteous hypocrites who denounce in public that in which they delight in private remains as timely today as it was 445 years ago.

Journeyman Theater's production does justice to Moliere's writing. The set, although minimal, is effective. The costumes are good and although the actors stumble over some of their lines, the performances are all quite good as well. In particular, the actress portraying the sharp-tongued servant girl Dorine who attempts to bully some sense into a family of senseless fools stands out among the cast.

Really, the only off note associated with this production is the fact that the Church Street Theater lacks air conditioning or other meaningful ventilation and, as such, the atmosphere can be pretty stifling. Apart from that, this production gets solid marks all across its report card.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 225/365 - Zombies!

I've been thinking about buying this book for a while now. Given that I have a Y chromosome, I've never read any of Jane Austen's stuff. I thought I should probably read the original before I read the spoof, but then I figured when am I ever going to read the straight version? So screw it, bring on the zombies!

I like a lot of chick flicks but I've never gotten into chick lit, either contemporary or classic. (Hopefully my use of the term 'chick' here doesn't offend anyone. I don't mean it to be condescending. I just use it as the female equivalent of dude.) Never read Austen or whoever it was that wrote the "Litte Women" books. I have toyed with the idea of reading "Bridget Jones Diary" though. That sounded like it could be pretty entertaining. I've always had a secret urge to read the Nancy Drew books, too. One of these days I'm going to break down and order them off Amazon.

I did have to read "Wuthering Heights" in college once and hated it. Everyone in that book was annoying. I just wanted to kick them all in the shins and tell them to get over it already. Now that was a book that could have seriously used a few zombies. Or at least a vampire.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 224/365 - Driving Me to Drink

The Nats dropped their seventh straight game tonight in a 2-1 loss to the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates and their record now stands at 11-28. It's looking like another 100+ loss season is in store for them (and thus, by extension, for me). Fannnnnnnnntastic.

I went to the game but I had to leave after the fifth inning with the score knotted at 1 because my allergies were making me miserable. Like an idiot, I forgot to take any allergy medicine to work with me today. I had gotten pretty lucky thus far this spring with my hayfever, but today it caught up to me. I must have sneezed a dozen times just on the short walk from the ballpark to the Metro. With the way my eyes were puffy and red and watery and my nose was running I must have looked as though I'd been bawling. The way the Nats are playing is certainly enough to make a grown man cry.

As you can see from the photo, I always take a book on baseball to the ballpark with me. Usually it's a book on DC baseball history. There are a surprising number of them out there. There are even a couple DC baseball novels. I like to read before the game starts and then in between innings. I'm also one of those nerd boys who brings a portable radio to the ballpark with him to listen to the broadcast of the game. Yeah, I'm cool like that.

I got home tonight in time to catch the ninth inning and hear the Nats let the Pirates score the go-ahead run and then fail to even things up in their half of the final frame. I turned off the radio, fixed myself a rather stout bloody mary, and put on some Billie Holiday. It's good to remember at times like this that even the blues can be beautiful.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 223/365 - Push the Button

All day long I kept trying to think of something cool and reflective I could use for shooting this week's self-portrait and I kept coming up empty. Then, on the way over to the Sports Pub to grab some dinner while the photos I took at my nieces' wedding uploaded, I saw this crossing signal button and had a 'eureka!' moment. Done!

And in the spirit of this shot, here are a couple of 'push the button' songs I like. One is a guilty pleasure and the other is just badass:

By the Sugababes

By the Chemical Brothers and Q-Tip

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 222/365 - Winging My Way Home

Flew home from my niece's wedding in Houston today. This shot was taken inside one of the American Airlines terminals at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. My day started with me at my sister's lake house sitting on the dock looking out over the water and ended with me sitting at my computer going through the 600+ photos I took over the course of the weekend.

Being a wedding photographer must be a great gig. I realize there would be a fair amount of stress and craziness involved, but weddings are so super-saturated with love and joy that it seems you'd have a permatan of happiness if that was your regular work environment. Now I think I have a second fallback option after pastry chef if the lawyer thing goes kablooey. It's good to have options, even if they only get used for daydreaming purposes.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Love in the Early Morning Light

In honor of my niece's wedding today, this week's bonus photo from my archives is a shot I took on my trip to Venice last February. When I left my hotel first thing in the morning on the second day of my trip, there was an elderly couple walking up the narrow lane ahead of me hand-in-hand.

Love is still love, regardless of what age you happen to be.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 221/365 - Hitched

Today my niece Chrissy and her fiance David got hitched. The bride wore rhinestone-studded flip flops, the groom wore Chuck Taylor All-Stars, and by the end of the evening everyone wore a smile. It was the first outdoor wedding I've attended and thankfully the weather cooperated. It was held at Briscoe Manor just outside Houston, Texas. The lakeside ceremony was short but sweet, which left us plenty of time for eating and drinking.

The wedding colors were black, yellow, and brown, the flowers were sunflowers, there was an open bar, there were two cakes, there was an ice cream bar, there were few tears, much laughter, good music, and there was a lot of love and happiness -- the two most important ingredients of any wedding. Congratulations Chrissy and David!

(Taken with my Nikon D90)