The Ghost of the General Assembly

The Doomsday Seed Bank which is dug into Platåberget Mountain which is near the village of Longyearbyen, Svalbard** off the coast of Norway added three new seeds this last week.  A mold-resistant bean, a German pink tomato and a wild strawberry plucked from the flanks of a Russian volcano (Russia has volcano's?) .  I HOPE they have dandelions and quack grass seeds.

The reason you need those two seeds is in case of a natural OR man made disaster happens which kills all the plant life on earth, one of the most important things will be to build up industry again and  one way would be to put dandelions and quack grass everywhere so company's like Trugreen will be able to lead the way to recovery. There first job will be to kill all the dandelions and quack grass and you know THAT ain't going to happen. 

** I'm pretty sure they picked a place with so many letters so no one can actually pronounce it. No one can  ask directions when looking for the place. 
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koobaddog - I have something for you but your email address in your book seems to be written in some American dialect I can not understand to perhaps some Scandinavian country's language. HOWEVER - I see the book you let me borrow is actually Chuck Chvala's book as he has his mug shot plastered on the back. Maybe I'll contact him.

ANYWAY - koobaddog is a tour guide at the Wisconsin Capitol and she had some interesting talking points when she was looking at my images.

One was the ghost of the Assembly Chamber.  SO, I had to go back and look for myself and take some photos.  What I had forgotten ALREADY was that I could spend a lifetime in that building taking images of all the unseen art that is hidden in shadows so . . my work is not done.

I have to find a REAL place to exhibit this project . . . before I'm dead.

So after work I went to the Assembly Chamber and set up shop (before I forget,  koobaddog, you will have to show me how I can get in the balcony. From the main floor there is a glare on the  mural, I need to be upstairs). Also, think how my canvas works would be with some written information next to it explaining the details and interesting facts.  People would just soak that up!!

This is what the mural looks like from about the middle of the Assembly.

NOTE - you will see some dots - those are not dust. I have been told those are happy spirits from the past that float around. Although you will hear some "techno" people say they are shadows from the diaphragm in the lens caused by the bright skylight because each dot has 6 sides!  Yea - good one, if it was only that easy we would have all the answers!  Move along!    

While I was taking this shot which takes about 3 minutes and 5 separate images I was looking around and noticed the Eagles in the corners. They are in darker shade and the contrast between the sky light and the Eagles are huge and a  real problem.  To me they look like they are covering their privates like in soccer.   I knew Eagles did not play soccer in Wisconsin way back when those things were designed so I had to look into the birds when I was finished with the mural. And why do eagles have wings AND arms.

So now that I had the entire mural I had to go deeper to get the ghost.  As I was setting up for the ghost shot a tour of name tagged suits came in and I THINK the tour guide was an Assembly person because she said  "this is where I sit"  (and I took all my stuff off her chair).

So they all started looking for the ghost and I helped out and pointed.  It seems that once the mural was finish someone said "we need a Badger in the mural".  I'm sure this pleased Edwin Blashfield  who was probably THRILLED and said like " Well LA DE FREAKING DAA!   I will gladly put a freaking badger in the freaking mural and I am so glad you thought of this once I was freaking finished".

HOWEVER - because he or somebody had ADD and everything has to be symmetrical in the Capitol something has to vanish.  So a Civil War hero was painted over and replaced with a short-legged, heavy-set omnivore of the weasel family. And all the politicians were happy because there was another weasel in the Assembly.

HOWEVER - in 1970ish a varnish was put on the mural and it was turning yellow so in 1988 they worked on taking the varnish off and in doing so . . . . . .the Civil war dude started to appear.

You can see his hat and a little of his face on the left knee just above the badger.

The Ghost of the Assembly Chamber

I then turned around and took some quick shots of one of the Soccer Eagles to see why he was covering his privates and it seems perhaps it's just the way he looms from 30 feet below him.  I don't know, seems strange.

All I know is that I have a lot more work to do in the Capitol.

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I received an email yesterday from a former friend telling me that perhaps I should not blog if the only thing I can talk about are the RED HOT MILWAUKEE BUCKS!!   He suggested perhaps Toe Fungus would be more entertaining.

Even though he is now a FORMER friend I do appreciate requests because I know many people probably want to know all about toe fungus!  Of course I know toe fungus as Dermatophytic onychomycosis which is what everyone in the Melotte clan calls it when we are sitting around the supper table talking about it. 

Did you know that 8% of the population has Dermatophytic onychomycosis?  Perhaps one of the doctors that read the blog can pipe in this fascinating conversation.

As I was doing my deep research on this common problem . . . I just got grossed out.

For more information visit your local library.  The easiest way to get rid of toe fungus is to just rip out your toenail and be done with it.

Have a great day
Rod

A Snirt for your Thoughts!

According to United States House Committee on Agriculture, General Farm Bill of 1985: Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, page 924- Snirt, a mixture of snow and dirt is the term popularly applied to the windrows of dirt along the roads during a winter.


I'd like to thank koobadog for coming to my building and explaining some thing s about my prints! Some pretty fascinating subjects and I would urge all of you that if you have not taken a tour of the Wisconsin State Capitol you really should.

When I was on our 6th floor putting up my prints up a woman with a British accent came up and was marveling at my work and said that more people should pay attention to our Capitol. She said "In Europe you have to pay to tour a building as beautiful as our State Capitol".

Now there are more things I must photogize and in the next few days you might see "The Ghost of the General Assembly"

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You can tell with the photo on the top of this blog that I'm a little desperate for things to photograph.  I've sunken to taking shots of black garbage snow!

This is not the best time for taking images so when this happens I start to play around and "practice" techniques and ideas just to see what works, what does not, what sucks and what's "cool".

The next few images actually look better 20x30 (I assume) and are not meant to be small but . . . very few of you have 30 inch computer screens.  But - I'm putting them out there any who.

Day lilies from my Clay Garden

Tulips from the Capitol

much prettier then snirt
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It seems the earthquake in Chili shifted a few things including the Falkland Islands by 10 feet so expect your GPS units to be a little screwy when you drive there. 
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I'm sort of laughing at the Brewers in Arizona.  Seems our weather the last few days is better then in Arizona!  That played in 43 degree and spitting rain yesterday!

And lastly - how about those Milwaukee Bucks!  Winning 10 of last 11 and beating Boston last night and solid for the Playoff's!

I have nothing else!

Rod

Use it or lose it.

A coworker made the comment that his Prius has more computing power then the Apollo Space Capsule. I mentioned that he probably did not need to use his slide ruler that much in his car but then I started to think about using a slide ruler while driving . . . .are there any laws against this? Maybe someone should get a bill in congress forbidding the use of a slide ruler while driving.
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They say you never learn if you never make a mistake. I say this is rubbish because if you never make a mistake . . what's the problem. Just don't make a mistake.  That saying only comes from people that make mistakes to make them feel better.  I mention this because obviously the producers of the OSCARS have never made a mistake. I know this because people who have practiced and have a life long commitment to making mistakes . . such as I,  have a lot of practice at either covering up, said mistake, of making excuses that are plausible.

So when during the death part of the awards where they show all the movie people that passed away they forgot a few pretty big time people. Farrah Fawcett (19 movies) who was in 19 movies, Bee Arther who was in a few movies that were nominated for Oscars and Henery Gibson who was the leading man in "Nashville".

So their excuse was "we ran out of time". WHAT!! YOU RAN OUT OF TIME?   Do you mean that James Tayor's song was two minutes and thirty seconds so some one could not make the cut?  Was that it? OR maybe you were afraid the show would go to long by that extra 15 seconds? Yea -I understand THAT one.

Why not a 'WOW WE FORGOT" and apologize. Micheal Jackson was recognized for his seven movie (notice the tepid applause). I'm pretty sure if it was a time thing you could have dropped Jackson an no one would have noticed.

Fawcett AGAIN got screwed by Jackson.  Not only does Jackson die on the same exact day Farrah dies, taking away Farrahs death thunder, but then HE get's mentioned and she gets NOTHING!   

sigh!

Speaking of movies! Alice in Wonderland!! HOLY CRAP!! Johnny Depp!! YOU ARE A GOD for Disney. Largest IMAX opening weekend of all time CRUSHING AVATAR. The largest March opening EVER for regular movies. It made 30 million MORE then most forecasts! Alice was the 6th biggest opening weekend of all time and Johnny now owns the three biggest movies in Disney history.

The movie itself was attended by 55% female with 54% under 25 and received an A- from those people. Over all only 9% hated the movie while 55% gave it an "A" and 25% a "B".

One big thing was this gave the industry faith in 3D technology.

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I took my mom to the new DOC yesterday and we came away with her feeling pretty good. All of her ailments were from the fact that she is getting old. NOT some scary problems like her old Doctor had her believing. The old Doc would keep saying things like "let's go in and look around" type stuff. The new Doc says things like, "you are getting up there in age and while there are problems they are not life threatening". She came away feeling MUCH better.

The main thing was to keep moving and keep getting exercise. When older people break a hip the the real problems come from the fact that they are laid up in bed and THAT speeds up everything.  KEEP MOVING!  Use it or lose it.

So I tool all the chairs out of my moms home.

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Madison/Columbus now is in the top 10 for most amount of consecutive days with snow on the ground. We are now 7th at 97 days. We can probably get to 6th beating 1971 if we make it to tomorrow but then it gets tough. To get the 5th we have to get to Monday and that ain't going to happen.

Look at this massive storm heading our way!

 Do ya like all the fog?  You do realize that when you enter fog you are shifting realities a little. Fog is caused my a shift  in reality streams.  Things in your life are just a little different then when you entered the fog.  You enter fog and your life is heading in one direction and you exit and it is just a little different.  You might not even notice any chance but . . .it's there.

Yea - most people think it is humid warm air over cold ground but come one.  It's a Space/Time warp for sure.
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Have a great Tuesday
Rod