Saturday, May 16, 2015

Weekend at Greenbriar State Park

Nancy and I went to Greenbriar State Park in West Virginia last weekend. WV has an amazing state park system with remarkably beautiful cabins, many of which were built by the CCC during the 1930's.

Below are excerpts of some things I wrote and a few pix of some things we saw. Your comments and feedback, as ever, are welcome and valued.

To begin, the view from our front porch:


Which I then posterized:


Sitting on the front porch, working on my Atternen Juez Talen, I wrote this revery on theodicy (translated back into Old English):

Piled and compiled the evidence
That God has cast this world from His heart

And left this beast, flesh and blood
That once was His body, eyes and hands,

To thrash in the muck, to blindly thrash;
To build on the sands of our violent shores,
Stormy drunk and full of ourselves,
Till the tides have undermined our works,
Till the waves have eroded the genome of us.
God washing His hands, shakes them thrice,
Says a blessing, dries them, and we are gone.

(No, I have not lost hope or faith, but surely we must look, and see, and consider such things as we critique ourselves.)


This is our living room. Here's the opposite view taken from that corner chair...


The creek behind our cabin:


I spent a fair amount of time revising a story I've been working on. Here's the opening paragraph as it now stands, two revisions beyond what I wrote in Greenbrier...

Darkness
How long will it take for this night to pass? The danger is palpable and I feel helpless and exposed. I’m afraid to move for fear of being heard. I try to penetrate the darkness but I think I’ve gone blind. I try to penetrate the confusion but anxiety is wailing in my ears. Is that the panting of an animal or my own breathing?
Perhaps I am dreaming. I try to wake but I don’t know how.


Down the road we found a pristine and prosperous little village, Lewisburg. It's a lovely place nestled in among the WV hills, standing in stark contrast to Caldwell, just 3 miles away, which, best as we could tell, was made up of 4 junk yards and a bar. Here's a little art installation in a gallery and a log cabin. The objects in the installation are about 4 feet long!




Zoey had a great time too. Here she is strolling with Nancy...


Here's a later scene in my story. Originally I talked Heisenberg and the psychology of his uncertainty principle. But Cal felt it was too cold and intellectual. So I scrubbed it a few times and this is how it turned out...

Formless. A last vestige before my own nothingness. Blown by voiceless winds. Washed away by rivers I cannot feel. I am a fragmenting atom. An uncertain thing. Uncertain of where I am. Of how I got here. Of where I’m going. I’m not even certain if I am. Or if I have ever been. Each moment is a separate reality.  Each act of observation. Each thought. Changes everything.
If only I could.
Stop.
Thinking.


And here are a few pix of some hikes we took...






Saturday, May 02, 2015

A stroll in the Grand Central neighborhood

Nancy and I took the train to NYC early this week for meetings, and to do some work and research. We stayed at 3rd Avenue 42nd Street. I had about 2 hours to myself right after we arrived, so I decided to walk over to one of my favorite buildings, the Chrysler Building, one of NYC's unsung (or at least less sung) architectural wonders. But everywhere I looked I saw little architectural wonders. Here's a collection of some of them, all found in a few block radius from Grand Central, and easily walked in an hour or less.

Reflection

Wells Fargo entrance

Building above Wells Fargo

Another reflection of the building above the Wells Fargo

Chrysler - elevator door and red Morocco marble

Chrysler - wall sconce

Chrysler - ceiling mural

Chrysler - more ceiling mural

Chrysler - another elevator

Chrysler - more ceiling mural

Chrysler - and still more ceiling mural

Chrysler - wall panel

Facade detail, #1

Inside Grand Central

Grand Central chandelier

Grand Central, ceiling

Grand Central, wall sconce

Grand Central, ticket window

Facade detail, #2

Facade detail, #3

Facade detail, #4

Facade detail, #5

plaque in the sidewalk, celebrating NYC architecture; there were dozens of these plaques

another plaque in the sidewalk

an elegant little garden

a park on Park

church

a religious fellow and his secular brother

Facade detail, #6

Facade detail, #7

Facade detail, #7, shopped a bit

Facade detail, #8

Facade detail, #9

Facade detail, #10

Facade details, #9 & 10

Facade detail, #11

Facade detail, #12

Facade detail, #13
That's all, fokes.