February 21, 2008
Dancing with the stars
…listen
…about the musicWaltzing across the sky.
What? You gotta problem with this gorgeous photo of tonight’s lunar eclipse? Huh? You can’t tell that’s what… What? Oh… what this is? Really?
Hey, those clear, glowing astronomy pix are everywhere. Look in any newspaper, there ya go, Perfect Eclipse Photo. Anyone can post a professional quality eclipse photo these days. But here in Kelpville, I provide my readers with something a little more… uh… unique.
Artistic, even.
The Interpretive Dance of the Eclipse,
(as seen through the hands of a composer who should cut down on her caffeine intake)
waltzing with the star Regulus (dressed in blue)
and that faaaaabulous ringed orb, Saturn (lower left, in a demure buttercup yellow).
My camera doesn’t have a tripod. We dun need no steenkin’ tripod! It has a… bipod. Two legs. Human. Guess that makes it a biped. Actually, I think that I took tonight’s particular ever-hopeful-idiot-newbie shot while resting the camera on the top of Charles’s very nice head as we sat in the middle of a spectacular open expanse on the south end of the island. We looked rather like something out of Cirque du Soleil but with noticeably more clothes. This was the same spot from which I took that Baker pic below. I would describe it as a place with a 360 degree view, but frankly, I could say that about my bathroom if I spun around in it, so maybe that’s not as impressive a statement as I intended.
If I told you where this spot was, I’d have to shoot you. Rather, my neighbors would shoot me, ‘cos they all want to keep the magic of this island a big secret. And who can blame them? They like it that mainlanders think we have the crap weather of Seattle and a tough time procuring even the most basic medical supplies like aspirin (for when you’ve spun in your bathroom too long). Yup, it’s all true. Oh, and indoor plumbing and electricity are hard to come by. But who needs power when you can light up the sky with interpretive dance!
For some reason I am reminded of the etymology for lunacy…
Doug Palmer said,
February 21, 2008 @ 8:51 am
Multiple parallel themes, variations of each other, this is the soul of harmony, the definition of counterpoint. Your camera is more than shaky, it’s baroque.
P.S.
Taking pictures of it is nowhere as loony as trying to go there.
Glenn Buttkus said,
February 28, 2008 @ 7:20 am
Coming in much after the fact, still I have a reaction to your levity and largess. Listening to your music, WaltzforParkerWilson 1:37 put me into a fey fetching mood, and suddenly some of the worst poetry imaginable popped into my head. I now proudly share it with you and the all the little Kelphistos; and the big ones too.
DANCE OF THE SKY CADET
Wine and caffeine,
jazz and open air;
pointing my hungry lens
who knows where.
Hey,
there was another ecclipse
in Kelpville,
and I shot it,
shaky
and Paul Klee-like;
something unique,
amorphus and expressionistic,
with Regulus blue
for a hat,
and Saturn yellow
for a spat.
For right there
in the SJ secret
garden,
Charles presented
a warm platform
of kopf
for my Konica.
I clung to him
like chilled ivy,
wrapping
my loose apendages
around his
crooks and crannies
for support;
creating something
clothed yet
part Cirque
part Sutra.
I clicked my way
into infamy;
creating
an icon
for the ages,
or just a curiousity
so very rare,
no one shall encounter
its like
again–
and so we say
our hosannas
and enjoy
the view.
Glenn Buttkus 2008
Now isn’t that the silliest poem you have read this week?
Glenn Buttkus said,
February 28, 2008 @ 8:23 am
Heck, I just popped the poem into Word to run off a personal copy and realized I had misspelled amorphous, appendage, and eclipse among other words. Spell check and the blue pencil please! Oh well, it makes the poem even sillier, and that is OK too.
Glenn