Uncle TumaloTelegraphic
Posted on May 19, 2024
Time register entries
Trains gone by
Telegraphic ghosts
Meets the eye
Trestles standing firm
Sturdy with such might
Trains with loads of coal
Speeding through the night
Though they pulled up tracks
In 1964
The phantom trains still chug
And will for evermore
Green Beads
Posted on May 18, 2024
Criticism
That isn't constructive
Is hurtful
A breach of faith
A lack of trust
Yet here we are
Where we wanted to be
But all I get
Is what's wrong
With me
Green beads
My personal rosary
Pray for that which
Escapes me
Radio Runaway Train
Posted on May 17, 2024
Radio Runaway Train
Far right on your dial
Hail the Deer Leader
With his shit eating smile
In the darkest corners
At the farthest edge
Good people wait
With their solemn pledge
Uphold what's right
Hard fought and won
Then taken from them
Now will be undone
Poor Deer Leader
Ancient horned buck
Drooling and sleeping
He ran out of luck
One of the most surreal things this week was the Dear Leader releasing a neo-national anthem praising himself while our (lesser) Deer Leader had his head cocked back with his mouth agape catching flies and asleep while Michael Cohen testified. The icing on that drooling lard ass cake was several sycophants outside the court house with Deer Leader diaper dirt on their upper lips while espousing Dear Leader Style rants wearing red ties. Our Deer Leader can’t even get Insurrections or Fascism right. What a Putz!
“No one has ever done fascism the way we are doing it – (brought to you by “Brawndo – It’s What Plants Crave” . . . . )
Inspiration
Posted on May 16, 2024
Learn to breathe
Then to see
Feel the flow
That comes to thee
Waves are washing
On your shore
When it knocks
Upon your door
Knock it will
In its good time
The time is now
Its in your mind
New ideas
Are all around
Sail your ship
Don't run aground
Inspiration is a funny thing. You need mental and emotional space to let it pour in. Its a lot easier to get inspired when you are relaxed – although sometimes – tension, frustration and anger can be inspirational too – in small doses, hopefully.
Work had me zapped a bit yesterday – so I did what I do when challenged this way and tried writing a song where its an intro and verse followed by a bridge and then two more verses and and ending. I also tried playing the lead up the neck in a place I never play leads in and finally, I tried something a little different with the lap steel. Mixing things up when you feel you are uninspired has a way of pulling you up from the “inspiration abyss pit”.
Every now and then I go back to my old Flickr pages to seek inspiration. Its a great fallback:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ky6r/
Westfir
Posted on May 15, 2024
One of the coolest things I’ve noticed – especially out west – is that old lumber and mining towns – which ran until the 70’s or 80’s and then went bust – in many cases were re-born as outdoorsy travel destinations. The “bones” of these little lumber and mining towns were good – and so there was a base of operation – and then mountain bike / hike / river rafting, etc companies set up and old houses and inns sprung up from other buildings in these small towns.
The entire western part of Colorado has such towns – many due to mining. Oregon has more towns from logging and lumber, but the idea is similar. California – with its highway 49 – has many very quaint old gold rush towns. I happened to go to college in Lock Haven, PA – which was a lumber town but later Piper Aircraft started there. The college has been one of the bigger eomployers in town. Not too far away there were the coal mines and many little towns that sprung up because of that.
These industries sustained small populations – but only for a while. Its quite amazing the short span of time that these places stayed operating – usually about only 40 – 60 years or so. They did cause pollution and altered nature in bad ways – but all these years later – and with many hands volunteering to clean up rivers, lakes and streams, and some of these places have recovered. Mining seems to have been the worst though – every river in PA was polluted with mine acid – almost all from coal when I went to college there in the late 80’s.
HOWEVER – some success is very inspirational – if you Google around looking for “Pennsylvania polluted rivers” or whatnot – you will find some truly amazing stories.
I don’t fault industry – back in the day they had no idea the damage they would do – until it was too late – and of course – with the demand for coal or lumber or whatever, they pressed on. But I am glad that nature (with the help of man) has fought back and in many places healed – and now are bastions for “sustainability”.
Some places – like Westfir – are tiny but charming and naturally gorgeous.
The Office Covered Bridge
Posted on May 14, 2024
The town of Westfir, Oregon was a company town – with Westfir Lumber Company building a lumber mill, a bridge over the North Fork of the Willamette River. It is about 40 miles East of Eugene, and near the town of Oakridge.
The covered bridge is the best that I’ve seen in Oregon – both in design and shape. It is freshly painted and looks very strong and had been used to connect the small town with the lumber mill.
It is the longest covered bridge in Oregon, and today, there are a couple adventure companies that operate where they will bring you out into the woods and drop you off so you can find your way back via the many wooded mountain bike and hiking trails. There are also hiking trails right out of the town park – which is the site of where the mill used to stand.
There is an old railroad track that runs over the river as well. I don’t know if trains still travel on tracks or not – it seems so remote – I’d be surprised if any still do. It also seems like it would have been a lumber railroad. Amtrak does go through Oakridge – and its where the Klamath Falls to Eugene tracks are.
There are many deciduous trees along the North Fork of the Willamette, and this means in the Fall – it has to be outrageously beautiful. We will be booking a weekend there for sure for this Fall.
The Westfir Lodge was the old lumber mill offices – but sure looks like a quaint place in a very picturesque setting.
Masquerade
Posted on May 13, 2024
Not a day goes by
With fleeting thoughts
Of the way we used to be
That time that can't be bought
Yet here we are
As we have planned
We still have time
The clock be damned
Full steam ahead
While we have steam
We'll follow our hearts
And follow our dreams
Chorus
The parties
The wine
The masquerade
Disguised as Time
I like to goof around and “make believe” that I am some serious pop song writer and some arsty fartsy photographer. I’ve always been a class clown – and I never could be someone as serious as say Michael Stipe or Natalie Merchant.
When I thought about the composition – I was influenced by Cindy Sherman and her make believe world where she is the subject and photographer. The assemblage piece – Iowa – with her hat and goggles – and my hat and strange goggles at first made me think of George Benson’s hit “This Masquerade” and then a little Pet Shop Boys also filtered in – “Always on my Mind”. Those two songs are similar – about being estranged from their lover and trying to make amends – so I decided to write a lyric about Gratitude – since I have the opposite situation – and am fully engaged and do everything with Kat and its everything in a relationship that my first marriage was not. I suppose my first wife and I were more like those two songs I mentioned – except neither one of us cared to try to make it work.
Anyway – all these thoughts had been swirling around my coconut and so I did a bit of a mash up – both lyrically as well as photographically. I decided that the real masquerade was how time is very surreal (it goes way too fast when you are having fun). I’d much rather have this problem than any alternative.
I am having a blast with the 4×5. It requires attention to detail that 35mm hand held photography doesn’t. It can be spontaneous like 35mm – but at the micro (detailed) level – not at the macro level. For example, once I got a test shot (above) where the screw in the magnifying glasses plus my eye were the only things in focus – I totally “got it” and got very excited. The other shots had all kinds of micro details that were just not “there”. They were off and none of those shots popped like this one did.
It took me hours to get 3 decent shots – but it was a lot of fun and very educational along the way.
Using my smartphone as a remote for the camera is fantastic – I can be model and photographer at the same time. I have a lot to learn, and this is one great challenge. My lens has a pretty narrow depth of field – so I might get something with a wider angle – not sure. I’m starting to like the “selective focus” aspect of it. I do understand that there are ways to get everything in focus – the “Scheimpflug Method” – so that is something I will pursue for sure.
Frames
Posted on May 11, 2024
Frames within Frames
Images on display
Never the same
From day to day
Just when you go
To paint the scene
The paint tube's stuck
A broken dream
Then you find
An arrowhead
Your dream's reborn
It never was dead
Many times in life things don’t go as planned. Your “Plan B” (hopefully you have one) turns out to be oh so much better.
The best Assemblage pieces that I have made just sort of fell together. There are days where I have gone through boxes and pile of “doo dads” and nada. Then there are other days where things fall into place – but too easily – and the end piece gets torn apart. The pieces in both of these assemblages were most likely in some other assemblage that I tore apart. When I made these I had a little plan – or guide, but then let serendipity in. That seems to be the happy medium.
I started a Instagram page – under the name uncle_tumalo – but like Facebook and Twitter – I’m just not impressed. I’ll give it a week, but might trash it if its just this barrage of videos – ones I am rarely interested in.
Cindy Sherman – Fabrications
Posted on May 11, 2024
If we only
Could be who we want
Do what we feel
Visit old haunts
Turn back the clock
Start over again
Drink an espresso
At Cafe LaSeine
Sometimes we ask
What is our guide?
Where is our compass?
Where did it hide?
We are what we think
Freedom is ours
You have to look up
To count lucky stars
There is a photographer / artist whom I’ve always loved – Cindy Sherman. She created a new genre in the 80’s where she dressed up and modeled for her really superb photographs that evokes thoughts and emotions in a very unique way. Her genius is that when you look at her various photographs – you want to believe she is whom she is trying to portray. I often think when I am photographing still life’s and assemblage pieces – or virtual assemblage pieces that these are all “fabrications”. Cindy Sherman makes photographs that are “human assemblages”. She even flirts with time periods that I love – the 20’s and Man Ray, film noir, and many other time periods. In fact – her “fabrications” take on a life of their own – they become one step and level above just emulating some time period, person, place or thing.
Today is the first day I had the time to really get into the Cambo 4×5 with Fujifilm GFX-50s digital back. I’m using the Fujifilm black and white film “Acros” film simulation with green filter.
Focusing a 4×5 is not just moving the film plane forward and back. There are tilts up and down and swings right and left. I leave the GFX-50s on Manual focus and tweak the aperture and ISO for best effect.
Doing 4×5 photography is much more of a process than using a small point and shoot. I suppose you can say that something like my Lumix LX100ii offers the ultimate in flexibility and spontaneity, and the 4×5 is the opposite – more planning and thought is required. When I have done some self portraits that require lights and a tripod – even with the smaller 35mm cameras, that’s when these types of photography converge.
I’m just starting my new Cambo 4×5 with digital back journey this week. Its very exciting – and another “tool” in my photography toolbag.
The Ghost in the Machine
Posted on May 10, 2024
I am
The ghost
That haunts the machine
I stalk
I walk
I talk
I dream
All these years
Grinding gears
Sometimes shedding tears
Built me up
Filled my cup
Dined and supped
On new ideas
What's old is new
It comes around
Old acquaintances
Be not forgot
Never rot
Hit the spot
Ricochet
In the early 90’s – about the time my first son was born, I was taking photography classes at CCSF (County College of San Francisco) and also at the Harvey Milk Rec Center. They were fantastic – the SF Bay Area is filled with so many artists who have super credentials but who have never “made it big”. Their “day job” defaulted to teaching – and the competition even for that default career was fierce. The quality of art teaching even at a community college or rec center in the SF Bay Area was superb.
Non of this surprises me. My computer science teachers at CCM – Community College of Morris were head and heels better than my professors at Lock Haven State College. The teachers at CCM were all working in the industry and so their thoughts and ideas were less textbook – and more real world.
OK – enough reminiscing – but getting back into 4×5 photography with this new (old) Cambo 45N and Rodenstock Caltar 210mm lens plus Fujifilm GFX-50s has my spine tingling. Its a ricochet or boomerang of 1991 or so – but now so much better. As much as I loved the idea of 4×5 way back then – it wasn’t at all practical. It was novel – and I loved developing sheet film in my dark room – and loading the sheet film holders with 4×5 film in a light tight bag – but after all that set up – I usually was plagued with serious Creative Blocks. I had invested so much time in the technical aspect of photography that I had little energy – or mental relaxation left to dream of interesting subject matter or compositions. It was actually stressful – the enemy of creativity.
The GFX-50s digital back removes the worst part of having creative blocks, but it was kind of funny – yesterday I worried about whether my tripod and head are strong enough to hold the 4×5 and digital back – which weigh about 15 pounds. I also worried whether or not I should keep the camera on the tripod – or move it to a table after shooting – so that there is no way I could have a crash or accident.
Today I relaxed enough to let in a new idea – and it was right in front of my face. I built this sort of “art bureau” from rag tag parts – and its an assemblage unto itself – but a “working assemblage”. Its kind of like an old post office with mail slots. Its also like an altar that is below one of my all time favorite assemblages.
So – my new idea is an old one – use the 4×5 to document my “Atelier” and “Tiny Desk Studio”. It just so happens that the light from outside is finally streaming in – and so the room is ripe for such photography.
Uncle Tumalo 