Mark W Tiedemann

Category: Whimsy

  • A Moment of Stepping Back and Considering Something Else

    Politics is generally like that old joke about wrasslin’ pigs.  More, it’s like walking into the middle of a bar fight and asking “Who started this?” and expecting a useful answer.  One may be available, but not from the participants.  At least, not likely.

    The only viable stance to take is to ask yourself, What is it you hope to gain from who you back?  And then, how likely is it you’ll get it from the one you’re backing?  Detailed analysis of outcomes are problematic while the punches and beer bottles are being thrown. Conclusions from that must wait till after the fight is over and the cleaning up begins.  They will be useful, just not right now.

    With that in mind, I have a lot of other things to do this week, so I’m stepping back and doing them.  I leave you therefore with a new photograph.  Or rather an old photograph redone in my new photoshop, etc etc, for something (one hopes) more on the noncontroversial side of life.

    Redwood Nook, 2013 Redwood Paradise, 2013Okay, two images.  I lied.  Enjoy ’em anyway.

  • A Couple of Scenes From Dallas, On the Occasion of Our Recent Visit

    I may talk about the tragedy later.  I had a couple of conversations, saw a few things, felt a great deal, but I need to process it.  In the meantime, since we went there for something entirely joyful, let me stick with that for now.

    Daniel Kost is Donna’s nephew, the youngest of two brothers.  He’s an engineer, an artist, a good guy and a fine human.  He’s been living in Dallas practically since he got his degree, so we don’t get to see him much.  So when it transpired that he was getting married, naturally we had to attend.

    The ceremony, though modified because of a sudden rainstorm, was beautiful.

    Here they are, Dan and Ana:

    Dan & Ana dance, 2016 Oh, and yes, Dan is tall. Six eleven and a skosh.  Which makes Ana…well, taller than me.

    The wedding was held in the Texas Discovery Gardens, which boasts a marvelous butterfly house.  Of course I had to take a walk through it, and…

    Butterfly, Dallas, 2016No, it’s not the only picture I shot, but give me time.  (I have no idea what kind of winged beauty that is, but…)

    Earlier in the day, we went to the Dallas Museum of Art, which is in (wait for it!) the Art District.  They had an Irving Penn retrospective on.  I’d never seen any of Penn’s work “in the flesh” before and it did not disappoint.  While going through it, we came on a class. The instructor was giving the kids a primer in photography and she was very good.  “When was the last time you took a picture? What did you take it with?” (Unsurprisingly, most of them had taken one with their phones.) She then showed them a range of different cameras.

    Class at Museum, Dallas 2016The day after we arrived in Dallas, which was Thursday evening, we took a trip to Garland and the Stetson outlet store.  So I am newly be-hatted as well.

    IMG_20160708_120953064IMG_20160708_120353058

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Anyway, to end with where I began, another photograph of the newly-wed couple.  Clearly they seem merely tolerant of each other and who knows how long this will last.

    Dan & Ana, July 2016

  • New Toy

    A pause in the somewhat draining labor of watching the global political landscape turn itself into a Cubist exercise in sharp lines the never quite match up.  I bit the bullet and got the new Photoshop.  I have a lot of learning to do, but as is my wont I dove right in.  Sample of first efforts.

    Classic Blue (1)

  • Placeholder

    Working on fiction and just…working…so for now, enjoy.

    Swirls Around Stone, June 2016

     

     

  • Nature’s Flags

    For the day at hand, no polemic, no politics, no studied responses. Just…these…

    Japanese Maple Leaves, May 2016Larkspur, May 2016Larkspur 2, enhanced May 2016

  • April Morning

    I went outside this morning and found one of those scintillant ‘scapes after a rain that seem to just glow.  So, since it’s time for new images anyway…

    Whiote Iris and Raindrops, April 2016Violet Iris, april 2016White Iris, morning, april 2016

  • 21st Century Noodling

    So, yeah, I finally broke down and got a cell phone.  No, you can’t have the number.  A variety of things necessitated this move.  It’s a necessity, not a toy.

    But one should always be aware of how such things can be retasked as toys.  For instance, I now have a camera with me pretty much all the time.  Below are a pair of pics from the new phone.  Enjoy.

     

    Blossoms, March 27, 2016 Fence and Tree, March, 2016

  • Duck and Cover

    Ducks Under Quay, February 2016

  • Wandering On A Thursday Morning

     

    Feeling a bit abstracted and commentative this morning.  Politics is depressing and energizing at the same time, did you ever notice that?  The devouring of the corpus publius…

    So photographs.

    La Policia, b&w February 2016

    Pavement & Puddle, February 2016Wandering the streets, trying to fit what was with what is, seeing the skeleton of what you used to know beneath the layered detritus of the now.  I see the same things but they no longer register the same way.  Is this, perhaps, nostalgia, intense homesickness, nosta—homecoming—algia—pain?

    The past is there, but I am not.  I can only note what it once was, testify where it had been, validate the now because the scaffolding of then holds it up.

    Or maybe I’m just tired.

    We are a pattern-anticipating sensate creature.  Where the patterns mean nothing we can oblige the emptiness by bringing our own meanings and applying them.  It’s as pleasant a pasttime as any other, until we begin believing our own significations to the detriment of the previous occupants.  Even knowing the traps, we can’t help it.  We want to, and sometimes we do, but more often we just think we do. Know, that is.  The inability to accept the process leads to tight spaces with no room to maneuver. Squeezes our expectations all out of true.

    Crossed Trees, February 2016

     

    The patterns persist even when the desires change.  If we appreciated them for what they are and resisted the urge to impose our own hungers on them, we might find what we need and feel better about it in the process.

    But what do I know?  I’m just a science fiction writer who takes pictures.

    Hope you have a fine day.

  • Time For A New Picture

    Because it’s the end of January and I have too much fiction to do right now to take the time for another long post about anything, so…

    Garage Windows, b&w 2015Besides, I haven’t done one in a while.