Heading up to visit family and friends in and around Fort Worth tomorrow, for a week or so. I’m hoping that getting out of Houston for a while will not only provide some interesting new things to shoot and blog but also refresh the eye, which is having a hard time seeing new things here.
At the very least it’s a break.
But since I don’t much want to do “word only” stuff,
Meowy Christmas.
Lock and load… stay warm.
Dia de los Muertos festivities at the Children’s Museum of Houston feature a variety of activities for younger Houstonians and an exhibition of some traditional Mexican dancing by members of Ballet Folklorico “Las Americas” including this upbeat piece from, I’m told, somewhere in Chiapas.
Normally when a zombie smiles at you at this range, it’s way PAST time to be getting VERY nervous, but as it turned out, these were actually very friendly folks, especially what with being dead and all. On the other hand, zombies reputedly like brains for dinner, so news photographers probably aren’t really all that great as zombie chow.
(Cold comfort, perhaps, but under the circumstances, being surrounded by zombies and fresh out of flamethrower fuel, I’ll take what I can get.)
And this nice young lady, when she’s not wandering the street looking for dinner, is actually a mortician-in-training. Honest. You can’t make this stuff up.
Okay. I spend a LOT of my time – probably too much, honestly – looking at photos made by other people. (I should be out making them myself, but sometimes the inertia gets me…)
As a result, it’s harder to catch my eye than you might think, and right up until this morning it’d been a couple of years since anything REALLY snapped my head around.
Until now.
Not surprisingly, it’s Nachtwey.
The presentation that got me is here…
Nachtweys Wish: Awareness of XDR-TB – The Big Picture – Boston.com
The bigger picture (figuratively) is the XDR-TB site itself. Smaller pictures, and flash, but more pix and serious information.
I’ll have more about Nachtwey and the TED prize, under which auspices the XDRTB work went forth, later this afternoon or tomorrow on my word-herding blog… but I want to do my homework and make sure I’ve got the backgrounders right. (also I have to go shoot some pictures myself now…)
Contemplative Cat. With wild paint job.
Robert O’Brien, of Thiro USA, Newington, Connecticut, snaps in a fuse on a Sharpstown area circuit. O’Brien, 1750+ miles from home, was just one of thousands of repairmen, linemen, disaster recovery crews, and volunteers of all flavors who came to Houston to help us recover from our recent unwelcome and ill-mannered visitor.
Lots of thanks to all of you; maybe you can come back and see us under better circumstances sometime. We’d like that. (Don’t come in August or September, though. The weather’s usually unpleasant.)
And with eyes like this, well, a dog’s life can be pretty good, all things considered.
I have to admit that Travis didn’t really seem just terribly thrilled when I caused him to be dragged out into a Houston September with a fur coat on, but he got over it quickly and was quite a good sport about the whole insanity.
I still think I owe him a few Travvy treats before the account’s balanced… but maybe that’s just the eyes. I think I’m being manipulated. (It’s Working.)
Poor suffering puppy...
(In the interests of helping a good cause, which I like to do when I can, I’ll plug Travis’s favorite charity, Golden Beginnings Golden Retriever Rescue, who seem to have had a lot to do with getting Travis and his companion in canine crime Pecos into their current VERY happy forever home. If you like goldens, or dogs, check these folks out. If you absolutely HATE dogs, check them out anyway… a good Golden might change your mind. )
(insert photo HERE)
Okay… PHOTO I can handle.
Krystal Hardwick of Houston having fun onstage at the Brazilian Arts Foundation’s Samba on The Plaza party at Jones Plaza. A fine time was had by all, unless they weren’t trying.
Yesterday…. and tomorrow?