{"id":2977,"date":"2012-10-29T23:55:46","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T07:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/?p=2977"},"modified":"2024-07-29T11:56:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T19:56:19","slug":"2977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/?p=2977","title":{"rendered":"Water and tunnels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/hurriplane.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"432\" alt=\"[IMAGE] incoming\" \/><\/p>\n<p><font color=#4F4E81>&#8230;click to listen:<\/font><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"\/RealAudio\/Below_clip2.mp3\" style=\"text-decoration:none\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/Belowpg1.html\" style=\"text-decoration:none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/moregn.jpg\"\/><font color=#4F4E81>&#8230;about the music<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n<p><i><font color=#346513>Mood. Altering.<\/font><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"none\" data-via=\"alex_shapiro\">Tweet<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to the above photo from Detroit&#8217;s airport, hurricane-grounded planes (aka, <em>hurriplanes<\/em>) were inundated with high, wind-driven water from the eastern seaboard all the way to Michigan. I was fortunate to be able to escape New England a day earlier than planned, but rather than arrive as hoped in Seattle, I made it only to this lovely fountain as that bitch Sandy followed on our tailpipe, shaking her fist and walloping my pals on the East coast.<\/p>\n<p>This is normally a blog about the wonders of nature. When a storm hits I&#8217;m the first to share the eye-wetness report from the front lines, as I did from  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sREQ9s61b3Q&#038;list=UU7Li05o71P3MyEdv-2a9KVQ&#038;index=5&#038;feature=plcp\" style=\"text-decoration:none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b> the north edge of San Juan Island in 2010<\/b><\/a> and from  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZwGHzm2y1Mk&#038;list=UU7Li05o71P3MyEdv-2a9KVQ&#038;index=3&#038;feature=plcp\" style=\"text-decoration:none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>the same isle&#8217;s southern edge almost one year ago, <\/b><\/a>  on a memorable, nervous-giggle-infused Thanksgiving Day, 2011.  Yes, you will find action-adventure movie entertainment of the highest order within these links. Make some popcorn. Take your Dramamine.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the cold, drenched and battered reporters we see on CNN and the Weather or Not Channel, I much prefer to do my investigative journalism from the cozy <em>interior<\/em> of a structure that&#8217;s about to wash away, rather than from the <em>exterior<\/em> of one. Then again, those masochistic reporters get paid a lot more than I do. Meaning, they&#8217;re paid. To stand out there and be miserable. I have yet to figure out a way to get someone to pay me to stand in my house and ponder when the roof will finally give way under the 70+ MPH winds seen in my home-brew near-disaster pix. Then again, no one ever put a gun to my head to make me live in such an extremely exposed and \u00c3\u00bcber geo-meteoro-logically dramatic locale in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>Artists are a little bit crazy. Ok, yes, I&#8217;ve just admitted it. After watching my videos above, you may agree.<\/p>\n<p>Last night I had an encounter with something wonderful that was not of mother nature, but of <em>human<\/em> nature. It was man- (or, woman-, I dunno) made. It made me feel good. So of course, I want to share it with you. Since almost everything I post here is a reflection of all the great things in my daily life that would make anyone feel good. Okay, &#8216;cept for those amazing shots of the  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/?p=1159\" style=\"text-decoration:none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>harbor seal eating a Giant Pacific Octopus. <\/b><\/a>  No one in that scenario really felt <em>good<\/em> at the moment, although I&#8217;d say the seal was in a better mood overall.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/dtw1.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"277\" alt=\"[IMAGE] airport art\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I strongly dislike the majority of public art I&#8217;ve seen in U.S. cities. My pissy gripes on the subject are worthy of an entirely separate posting, and I promise I&#8217;ll spare you my whining. So it was a particularly unexpected joy the first time I found myself in the Detroit Metro Airport, which treats travelers to at least two mood-uplifting, grin-inducing (grinducing) socio-artistic interactions on a physical plane. Before they get onto one. Or, after they&#8217;ve left one (when we deplane, I guess that means we become the dearly departed? Or maybe that&#8217;s just after the cabin doors have closed and the wheels are racing down the runway). Ah, the many planes of existence.<\/p>\n<p>I have since returned a few more times to DTW, and though I can&#8217;t figure out why the initials aren&#8217;t DMA, I don&#8217;t care as long as I get to play with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6pLhoeOxk5M\" style=\"text-decoration:none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>the fountain <\/b><\/a>  and wander through  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WLsYCSi9syo\" style=\"text-decoration:none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>the light tunnel. <\/b><\/a> <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/dtw2.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"285\" alt=\"[IMAGE] airport art\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I much prefer non-stop flights, but if I have to connect I love doing it in Detroit. That&#8217;s where, no matter how weary, hungry, cranky, or achy I may be (the rest of my entourage of seven dwarfs are: woozy, punchy, and needadrinky), I suddenly turn into a little kid, totally charmed and endlessly bemused by DTW&#8217;s grinducing and ultra-groovy tunnel of shifting color love. The experience is very much like being inside of a lava lamp. If that&#8217;s your kinda thing. I admit it&#8217;s my idea of a good time, but hey, so is standing in front of 30-foot windows during a violent storm, steadying a tiny video camera. As I said, artists are a little bit crazy.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/dtw3.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" alt=\"[IMAGE] airport art\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Dragging rollaboards attached like stubborn polyps, flyers must pass through this enclosed moving walkway tube in order to be digested thoroughly and deposited into the main terminal. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/dtw4.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" alt=\"[IMAGE] airport art\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Usually when I find myself here, I&#8217;m high-tailing it over to another, very distant gate, and have no time to luxuriate in fine art. But the hurricane turned my plans into a Motor City sleepover, which meant I had all the time I desired to stand and admire, after finding a safe spot to avoid obstructing the path of hurrying passengers and risk being trampled in the name of cultural and artistic immersion.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/dtw5.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" alt=\"[IMAGE] airport art\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Oh, how I love this&#8230; all my favorite gem colors in one place. I think the etchings on the [plexi]glass are of sea creatures&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/dtw6.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" alt=\"[IMAGE] airport art\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The installation includes a shifting soundtrack, too, some of which I love until it turns into a b-movie cue with cheesy synth sounds pretending to be a string section. I mean, really, people: there&#8217;s no need for Bad Synth in 2012 when we have endless access to Good Synth. But regardless, the overall effect is wonderful. If this doesn&#8217;t alter one&#8217;s whacked travel consciousness and de-stress them into a smiling heap of boarding pass bliss, I dunno what will.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/dtwend.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" alt=\"[IMAGE] airport art\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The subway, train and car tunnels of my home town of Manhattan and its environs are flooded tonight. It&#8217;s a complete mess that has disrupted the lives of millions, and will take a long time to repair. Meanwhile, each day and night at the Detroit Metro Airport, someone is experiencing the visceral offerings of flooding water and a long tunnel in a very different, and exceptionally beautiful way. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/fountain.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"254\" alt=\"[IMAGE] airport art\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230;click to listen: &#8230;about the music Mood. Altering. Tweet According to the above photo from Detroit&#8217;s airport, hurricane-grounded planes (aka, hurriplanes) were inundated with high, wind-driven water from the eastern seaboard all the way to Michigan. I was fortunate to be able to escape New England a day earlier than planned, but rather than arrive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2977"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4404,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2977\/revisions\/4404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}