Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Well-Fed Squirrels at the Ballard Locks

Here are a few shots that I took while out at the Ballard Locks on a rather uncharacteristically sunny Seattle day. Not much happening, other than the ceremonious squirrel feeding that takes place every day. The weekends are a little less squirrel friendly, as this is the time when Seattlites typically walk their dogs!






Some New, Some Old....





Thursday, January 29, 2009

I Don't Like Mondays


Allow me to share a little interesting tidbit from my day. Nothing terribly profound, but it may be interesting to those of you with a fascination for the morbid.

Lately, I have been listening to Tori Amos' album, "Strange Little Girls", which features a song called "I don't like Mondays". I never really looked into who wrote the original, but today I found out that it was Bob Geldof, who was first known to me as the actor who played Pink in Pink Floyd's the Wall.

It was while listening to NPR on my way to teach chess at an elementary school in Redmond, that a rebroadcast of a report of the 1979 Cleveland Elementary School shooting was played. Today just happened to be the 30th anniversary of a massacre perpetrated by 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer. The school was across the street from Spencer's house, from which she fired the shots. She used a rifle that she had recently been given for Christmas by her father.

The next event will tie this all together. During the shooting, a San Diego Tribune journalist, Steven Weegan, looked in the phone book to see if he could find the closest house and maybe get an interview with an eyewitness. He dialed the number and a young girl answered the phone. When he asker her where she thought the shooting was coming from she gave her address and told him she was the one doing the shooting. Weegan began asking her questions and when he asked the obvious question, "Why?"

She responded with "I dont like Monday's, do you like Monday's?"

Geldof was in Georgia at the time and saw the report come over the Telex machine. What stuck in his mind was the four word response. He went to his hotel room and wrote a song that eventually hit number 1 in the UK.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

John Updike Dies at 76


Txt from CNN.com

Author John Updike, regarded as one of the greatest and most prolific writers in modern American letters, died Tuesday, his publicist said. He was 76.

John Hoyer Updike was born March 18, 1932, in Reading, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Shillington. From an early age he took to reading and writing, and earned a full scholarship to Harvard, where he headed the Harvard Lampoon. Upon graduation, he accepted a one-year fellowship to Oxford University in England. By the time he was 23, he had been offered a position at The New Yorker, which was to become his literary home over the next 50-plus years.

Updike's first novel, "The Poorhouse Fair," came out in 1959. The next year, in "Rabbit, Run," he introduced Angstrom, who was to become one of the most famous characters in American fiction.

When introduced, Rabbit is a man fleeing his pregnant wife, the songs on the car radio reflecting both the era and his life. Over the course of the "Rabbit" books, the character would routinely infuriate his spouse, mistresses and offspring, try to make things right, and never quite succeed.

His attitude didn't help. "Men are all heart and women are all body. I don't know who has the brains. God maybe," the character said in "Rabbit, Run."

"Rabbit, Run" was successful, as were Updike's other '60s books, including "The Centaur" (1963), which featured a teacher much like Updike's father, and the short story collection "The Music School" (1966). But it was "Couples" that made Updike a household name. The book, about a group of spouses engaging in the sexual revolution in suburban Massachusetts, became a No. 1 best-seller.

Updike's interests ranged widely. He wrote about an African state in "The Coup" (1978). He discussed the relationship between science and religion in "Roger's Version" (1986). He revisited "Hamlet" in "Gertrude and Claudius" (2000). And he created a group of promiscuous witches in "The Witches of Eastwick" (1984), which became a hit movie in 1987 starring Jack Nicholson as the devil.

Though Updike's work routinely sold well, he was painfully aware of the decline of what's come to be called "literary fiction." In a 2000 interview with Salon, he lamented its difficulties.

"When I was a boy, the best-selling books were often the books that were on your piano teacher's shelf. I mean, Steinbeck, Hemingway, some Faulkner. Faulkner actually had, considering how hard he is to read and how drastic the experiments are, quite a middle-class readership," he said. "But certainly someone like Steinbeck was a best-seller as well as a Nobel Prize-winning author of high intent. You don't feel that now."

Updike's most recent novel, "The Widows of Eastwick," came out in 2008. A collection of stories, "My Father's Tears and Other Stories," is due out later this year

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Five Shots of People I Know and Love!

Here are a few pics from my recent past that I have just rediscovered!!!! I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed shooting them.



Chandelle and Sheldon out front of the grand opening of Monster Clothing in Ballard.



Brandee, dancing in broad daylight in front of the Chai House. Also in Ballard!



Chandelle with my 24-105mm, captured with my 11mm Tamron. She is so beautiful on so many levels.



Chavon, doing the hula out front of the Chai House. I swear I live at that joint.


And last, but not least, Katie, playfully mocking the bikini model photo shoot in the background. Taken at Alki beach in West Seattle.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Floral Prints for Sale!!!

Contact -- ausdertraumphotography@gmail.com for details and a list of more photos.

Prices:

8x10 -- $15
10x12 -- $20
16x20 -- $35

Prices do not include shipping.







Sunday, January 4, 2009

Yesterday, in downtown Seattle, more than 500 people gathered to protest the Israeli attacks on the Gaza strip. The attacks which have killed more than 400 people, have culminated in an Israeli invasion of the Gaza strip. I was on my way to a portrait shoot when I drove past them and decided to stop and snap a few shots. It was a very emotionally charged experience and as they chanted "Free, Free Palestine," in unison, you could feel the collective energy. I hope you enjoy the pics.





Friday, January 2, 2009

Last Saturday at the Skylark in West Seattle

Here are some shots of the Freetown and Julia Massey from last Saturday!!!