Tees -- Billboards or Windows on the Soul?

Can't resist pointing the camera at Tshirts. When possible, I sneak a shot from the back. But all too often, the big story is on the front; permission required. So I did with this performer I met over on Cortez Street one afternoon. Looks like my kind of entertainment, BTW.

The pix with this post are just a sample of the many that I've collected in the past year, sometimes in shops, more often on the street or at an outdoor event.

As befits the role of the T in modern life, there is a long article on the subject at Wikipedia, which explains: Most research mentions that the idea of the Tshirt came to the United States during World War I when US soldiers noticed the light cotton undershirts European soldiers were wearing while the US soldiers sweated in their wool uniforms. Since they were so much more comfortable, they quickly became popular among the Americans, and because of their shape like the letter "T", they were called "T-shirts"... During World War II, the Tshirt had become standard issue underwear in both the U.S. Army and the Navy. Although the Tshirt was formally underwear, soldiers often used it without a shirt covering it while doing heavy labor or while stationed in locations with a hot climate.

In the years since, the one-time undergarment has morphed into a billboard for causes and candidates. It may serve as the backdrop for personal plumage, tribal colors or a statement of life philosphy.

Or simply say "I was there" and "here's what I like."

Figuring that I might have put you into the mood for Tshirt shopping, I checked out a few sites. Cafe Press, for example, has nature, pet, mathematics and Indian themes, among others. Examples: 27 different green frog designs and, of course, the ubiquitous but decorous Kokopelli. All very commercial. All very un-commercial and thoroughly political are the art Tshirts from Chicago's Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center. Just a sample out of the 41 million hits the Google turned up with a search on Tshirt +art. Have fun!

Sorry folks -- I accidentally turned off the comment option. My fault! Do make a comment or two, if just to chide me. And thank you, Steve G. for alerting me.

She Sees Seashells...

...where ever she goes-- even in dry Arizona! Something like that. The fact is, I find them on my walks. And in people's homes (including my own.) A further fact: seashells were trade goods in these dry lands long before Arizona got its name.

This bit of folk art is hanging below a 2nd floor window overlooking one of the nearby alleys. Do take note of the mix of shells from the distant ocean with cactus bones.

The lady from the Valley who loves to garden made a little border with scallop shells the other day. Because I did almost all my shell collecting at Jacksonville Beach on Florida's Atlantic coast, I never found a single scallop shell, a major frustration. (But oh, how I loved those days following a storm, when all manner of interesting sea life was washed ashore, from jelly fish to sea urchins, not to forget the angel wings, sand dollars and, on rare occasions, a sizeable conch.)

Mom tells of how, as a young woman, she and her California crowd collected abalone from the rocks off LaJolla back in the early 20s, long before such activity became a conservation no-no. In fact, I was surprised when I travelled to New Zealand in the late 70s to find that all manner of small items -- buttons, earrings, jewelry -- were carved from abalone for the tourist trade. Our house always had a large shell on display; when Mom moved from Florida to Sun City, it was lost. I found the abalone above in a resale shop and bought it for her so that all would be right with my world!

Other material from seashells I've found locally -- these nacre beads at Koldoff's. This was to have been to be the end point of my post about seashells in my Arizona...

...then I remembered the cache of shells up on a closet shelf. My late husband had a jackdaw's eye for the interesting little items one finds in the thrift shops. Including little plastic bags of seashells. A few samples:

I suspect my grandchildren are all going to get their own little plastic bags of interesting seashells one of these days Real Soon Now! And if you'd like your own collection, I found this site with seashell wallpaper.

Road Trip #2: Over the Hills and into Prescott

Routes into and out of Prescott come in three flavors: real mountain roads suitable only to SUVs and Jeeps, paved mountain roads favored by sports car drivers and bikers, and tame highways, such as SR69 and SR89 (north only), for everybody else. Iron Springs Road from the west through the mountains into Prescott fits nicely into category 2. Today's trip starts as the road climbs up out of Skull Valley and heads into the hills.

On the right up the hillside are the remains of the old route. There's an easy access to the old road for hiking a couple of miles and a number of curves further at the point where the Contreras Road takes off.

A short, almost straight piece of highway...

...giving way to "curves and mountain grades." Note that thus far, we've been travelling through chaparral.

Just before entering the pines, the road passes the Iron Springs community, at this point a posh enclave in the forest. Houses here are built on leased land. At one time, the old Santa Fe route stopped at Iron Springs on its way into Prescott. My mom recalls the weekend warriors who sent their families up to their mountain cabins for the summer, while they sweated down in Phoenix Monday through Friday.

Passing over the 6000 elevation point, where the pines start, coming from the west. On the east and north facing mountain sides, the ponderosas belt starts some 800-1,000 feet lower.

One of the many unpleasant results of our drought -- dead pines, killed by the bark beetle infestation.

The sun comes out -- after an overcast beginning to the afternoon.

As the road heads down into the Prescott basin, Thumb Butte is prominent to the south.
This curve opened a view to the east northeast: Lonesome Valley, the Dells and even a glimpse of Watson Lake. The Black Hills are in the distance beyond Lonesome Valley.

Further down and there's Prescott ahead. It's been a beautiful, smooth mountain drive.

With an ignominious finale: the current project that is to widen Iron Springs inside the city limits.

Note: For a video trip over Mingus into Jerome, visit hikenbike.com. Rich is a long-time blogger who recently parked his Airstream over at Point of Rocks in the Dells.

Easter Parade, 2007-Style

Easter is upon us. I've seen four different Easter-themed flags around town today. For example, the jolly rabbit at JBs, above.

There was also this curious sign at the cash register as I paid for my breakfast. I wonder 1) just how big is the world's largest Easter bunny and 2) who certifies that this particular animal fits the billing. Spoil sport, that's what I am.

This afternoon, when I called on Mom over at Las Fuentes, she was with a group who had been coloring Easter eggs.

Here's some of their product!

And look at the dye all over Mom's hands.

The house of holiday lights has been decorated for Easter for a good week or so.

This was part of the promotional decor at the CVS pharmacy.

Plenty of seasonal merchandise, including chocolate bunnies. After all these years, I suppose they comprise a tradition of sorts. As a kid, I preferred my chocolate rabbits to be hollow. Don't know why, since a filled one adds up to a lot more candy. Maybe it's because the nougat filling diluted the sheer chocolate-ness of the hollow form.

They also had bean bag peeps...

...and, wonder of wonders, one item that rather diffidently brought up the subject of why Easter. It set me to thinking about this totally Disneyfied holiday. Chicks. Colored eggs. Bunnies. Is that all there is? I'm not a religious person, but Easter, after all, has major historic significance. It is the high point of the year for most Christian congregations. A pity to see it so trivialized.

Seasonal note: There have been a surprising number of referrals from The Google to my post about the Shrine of St. Joseph. The shrine must receive many visitors at this time of year.

A Date Shared...

Well, not that kind of date. Besides, I was a bit young for this hunk out of history. Sigh. Why Clark Gable? No, not nostalgia. Really. Fact is I got tagged. By Mr. Avus, he of the handmade Roman-style daggers. The idea is to come up with:

#1. Two famous people who share your birthday, which is February 1. Would you believe Clark Gable? New Yorker satirist S.J. Perlman? I'll add Boris Yeltsin and operetta composer Victor Herbert for good measure.

#2. One famous person who died on my birthday. Let's do that one much better. There's Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, she of Frankenstein ... comic Buster Keaton ... Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.

#3. Three major events in history that occurred on my birthday. An auspicious day it was indeed. The first portion of the OED was published in 1884 -- definitions all the way up to a-n-t. On that date in 1902, the Empress Tzu-hsi forbade binding women's feet. The first-ever session of the US Supreme Court sat on 2/1/1790, and Elizabeth I signed Mary Stuart's death warrant Feb. 1, 1587. I know, that's four, but it was impossible to choose any to drop.

#4. A holiday. I went searching, I did. I cuddled up with The Google big time. What did I find out? February 1 is not only Robinson Crusoe Day but it is also Bubble Gum Day. Worldwide, I presume.

Thank you Mr. Avus for a good change of pace. Not only that, but I located some neat sites. For example, brainyhistory.com and the illustrated American memory page of the Library of Congress, not to forget history.com (the History Channel's site). Having these sites pointed out will make matters far easier for the four I'm about to tag in turn: OmegaMom, the LazyArtist, Ms. Karen down in Scottsdale and Mr. Cat-alyst. Go to it, guys!

Test Driving the Optical Zoom...

...and the image stabilization mechanism. The latter is truly cool. If your subjects weave and bob in the little viewing screen as mine do, you'll love IS. Zoomed in on the wind vane (above), which was spinning around and didn't realize that the camera stopped it til I got home and down loaded. Ditto for the mountain scenes below.

Here's a comparison of the standard lens position and the full optical zoom (12x) -- Badger or P-Mountain, as seen from my roof. In the picture above, you can barely make out the "P"; I'll grant it is a better picture, however. The mountain is about 3-1/2 to 4 miles away. Lo and behold there is a road up the side of that mountain I'd never seen before (below) plus a cell phone tower installation.

The Prescott Resort/Casino on the local Yavapai Indian rez about 2-1/2 miles away, as seen from the house; it is on a hilltop the other side of town.

Forsythia in the middle of an oak jungle. Neat the way the long lens compressed the perspective. I'm bearing in mind that my husband's best flower shots were all taken with telephoto lenses.

And finally -- a bird shot that could have been good if only 1) the towhee had lifted his head, 2) that piece of grass that is barely visible as a blur hadn't been there and 3) the camera had been set to record a 6 megapixel image instead of 2. Distance to the bird, about 15-18 feet. But, wow -- I'm lucky to have got this close to any bird at all! The critter is called a rufous-sided towhee; we always called them rummages because the field guide said that they rummaged among the leaves for their food.

Other comments on the camera after two days: the glass is not the equal to a good SLR telephoto -- a color fringe shows up on close inspection when you take extreme telephoto shots up to 8x10 size. But then, this is a light-weight point-and-shoot compromise that I think I'll find very satisfying.

Test Drive 1--Low Light

Hokay. I gave the new camera a test drive this afternoon. A walk down Grove to the CVS pharmacy and then a taxi to Mom's place. My first discovery: I wasn't Seeing as many pictures as I usually do. Too busy attending to the camera, its many buttons and new positions for old, familiar functions.

The pictures here were taken in Mom's little one-room apartment at the assisted living center. Basically a test of a comparatively low lighting situation. The room faces north and no lamp was turned on. I cropped in on the dog sculpt (above); it's a hand-me-down from my great aunt Bird. Obviously, those are bird dogs.

This is an old, fading hand-tinted photo blow-up of my Phoenix grandparents shortly after they were married. In Dakota, on their 40-acre homestead. A second look will reveal that it was shot as a gag. The shack (a structure was a requirement for homesteading) was obviously too small for any kitchen doings; they also had a house in town.

Assorted drawings and greetings from great-grandchillens and a great-niece, adorning the fridge. In the hallway, away from the window light.

But this picture is the real test. The plate and cup were in the window and totally dark in contrast with the bright outside; the closer I focused in on them, the better the color and detail. I don't think I could have done this with my trusty little Sony, certainly not on automatic. The roos, by the way, are from my Aussie bro.

And here's the lady who wants to see me enjoying some of my inheritance while she is still living. Thanks, Mom, for my new toys. BTW, would you believe that Mom's 104?