Austin - Capitol Grounds, Mocking Bird

Was reminded of this post upon seeing this fellow on the Capitol grounds fence.  Just a few seconds later he took off and I was able to capture him mid-flight, but it was too blurry to keep.

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Twisty Tree with Neighbor

...and as a final nod to the odd beauty of these guys, here is a photo of the twisty tree, using just a tad of bokeh as it frames its neighbor.

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Twisty Tree's Neighbor

This tree was very close by and appears to be the same species.  Took a successful 2-shot panorama, but felt this single frame looked better.

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Twisty Tree / The Day I Stole a Phone

This and the picture below show our twisted friend in a fuller perspective.  Had to do a bit of cloning in the bottom pic to remove cars and trucks that were a distraction, which is the reason the foliage appears to extend all the way to the ground:

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We live in Houston, and in Houston you have to be careful.  Unlike most small towns, where you don't have to think about pickpockets or even ever lock your car, you have to be cognizant and aware of your surroundings and who's nearby or approaching.  On the other end of the spectrum, Houston is unlike large cities in Europe, where your awareness can easily blend into paranoia because of the ubiquity of Gypsies and pickpockets that can spot naive American tourists from a mile away. (see this post about an attempt on me in Paris)  No, Houston is squarely in the middle of those extremes.

As you may have seen in previous posts, my wife Chenjean grew up in a very small town in Taiwan.  But no matter...even in big cities in Taiwan you don't have to think about pickpockets, as the country generally is a very safe place.  Thus, she is not programmed to thinking that the people around her sometimes have harmful intentions.  And because of this, I was constantly having to admonish her to hold her purse in a way that does not expose its contents to the public at large.  She had trouble taking this seriously.

One day I saw an opportunity to teach her a lesson and finally put the issue at rest.  We were in the Galleria mall with my daughter.  As Chenjean and Allison wanted to shop for clothes, I separated from them to do my electronics thing.  We agreed to meet at a designated location in about an hour.

It so happened that about fifteen minutes into our time apart we crossed paths; they were about to board a crowded escalator down to a lower level, and I slipped in unnoticed behind them.  And sure enough, as we started our descent I observed Chenjean's purse, tucked not under but behind her arm with iPhone fully in sight.  Wow...here's my chance!  As deftly and carefully as possible, I reached down, took her phone out of her purse, and slipped it into my own pocket.  On the entire ride down neither she nor my daughter were aware of my presence behind them, and at the bottom we again went our separate ways.

Aha!  When we met up again later I made sure she saw me glance at her purse, then asked where her phone was.  Oh my - no phone!  Where is my phone?!?  Tee-hee-hee...in clear and abundant victory I dramatically pulled her phone out of my pocket and gloated at a point well made.

But then something dawned on me and I turned FURIOUS!  Why?  Remember that this was a crowded escalator and - not being an experienced pickpocket - I only attempted to hide the theft from my wife and daughter, NOT the many people behind me, who DIDN'T SAY A THING!!  Surely it was observed, but NOT A SOUL SAID A WORD or reported it to security, as I was not approached later by a guard or police afterwards.  Hey, what kind of city is this??  In a way I became a victim of my own crime, as it led to disappointment in Houston as a city and in my fellow man generally.

Thus it was that I stole a phone, albeit with altruistic motives.  HOWEVER, the point made was successful, as from then on Chenjean has been much more careful in the way she holds her purse in public...

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Twisty Tree Trunk

In the mornings Chenjean and I walked from our hotel, the Hampton on 17th at Lavaca, to her training location at the Convention Center downtown.  We cut through the Capitol grounds on the way, and the first morning the trunk of this little tree was lit by dapples of sunlight glinting through the leaves of its neighbors.  I didn't have the Bigger Cahoona with me at the time, but made a mental note to come back when I could take the time to do it justice.

Over the next three days the Bigger Cahoona and I snapped 84 photos of this guy, including bracketed frames.  I wasn't happy with any of them until our third full day, when the clouds stayed around to diffuse the harsh summer sun.

The coordinates of this little gem are 30.273569N  -97.741343W.

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Closer Shot of Tree Pattern

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Tree Pattern

Took many, many pictures of this tree, but only a few keepers resulted.  One of the biggest assets of a photographer is patience, of which there was very little as I darted here and there trying to consume the beauty of this vast property.

Speaking of patience, something we saw in Estes comes to mind.  Don't know if it's still there, but in 2011 there was a fantastic shop in town that sold photos captured in the area.  The pictures were just outstanding, all taken by the same guy who devoted his life to the art.  And as a bonus, in a lower corner of each print he wrote the story of how the picture was taken.  One was of some trees sticking up out of the snow in the morning mist.  The story told of how the guy camped out for three nights in that frozen wilderness, high up in the mountains, until just the right light hit at just the right time to get what he wanted.  Amazing, and what an amazing photograph!

To take it to another level...watch some of Sir David Attenborough's "behind the scenes" videos on how his photographers do their thing.  There you will see teams that wait for months - in one case two years - enduring considerable discomfort, and at times disease, to capture 30 seconds of a behavior not yet filmed by man.

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Arising Building

Another of an outside building looking from within the grounds of the capitol.

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Cityscape

Belonging in the cityscape category, enough of the capitol grounds was included to put it here.

I used to travel to Austin on business several times a year, and am still surprised at how many new buildings have come up since the beginning of those days (2002).  Beautiful though, and fun to capture...

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Unique Lamp with Trees

The pictures posted here from the grounds of the capitol - taken over a period of several days - will be more/less in the order captured.  There will be a few of the more iconic, postcard-ish variety (for the most part avoided), but I'd like to think some were taken of angles and perspectives not commonly seen before.

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Live Oak Branches

Gotta love these live oak trees - let them go and they'll go everywhere.  There was a sign hanging from the larger branch in the foreground warning people to stay off, which I removed.

There is a very similar tree that overhangs a sidewalk on the Texas A&M campus in College Station.  Local lore has it that it's good luck to walk underneath with your sweetheart.

Austin - Capitol Grounds, Rising Blooms

Back in June of 2019 the wife and I went for a stay in Austin.  Chenjean had some training downtown, so during the day the Bigger Cahoona and I had nothing to do but explore and play.  Over a four-day stay we focused on the capitol building and environs, as well as some time by the riverside.  Very hot, though, so tried to get as much as possible early in the day.

We'll start by posting some shots of the capitol grounds, then the exterior of the capitol building, then go inside.  The pic above is one of the first captured during the trip.

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Toy Pile with Effects

Stands to reason that, since the toy pile had a great mix of colors, I would create pictures using Found Edges (above) and Glowing Edges (below) in Photoshop.

And so ends the series on our trip to Taiwan in May of 2019.  My gosh, had no idea that it would go on for so long - 274 days, with 483 pictures posted!!  That's three quarters of the year.

Must admit that as I neared the end there were questions as to why so many, and how did it end up going on so long.  Were there really 483 blogworthy keepers? (maybe)  Am I a better photographer so am creating more keepers as a result? (don't know)  Is it because I was in a groove, and simply worked harder at making blogworthy pics out of mediocre images? (probably closer)  Whatever the reason, it's been an exercise in creativity and longevity that was fun and probably good for me.  But ultimately the hope is that someone, somewhere in the world, stumbled upon an image or story that made them smile.  If that happened just once then it's all been worthwhile.

Next stop - Austin.

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Toy Pile

Taipei has one of the most incredible underground mall systems in the world.  To walk from one line to the next will often take you through a wide hallway lined with shops that you won't find anywhere else.  These are not there for the tourist trade, either - just the Taiwanese moving about the city in their workaday lives.

Naturally the Bigger Cahoona and I had a marvelous time with these, as we took the subway somewhere most every day.  This pile of trinkets was something I couldn't resist, so covertly snapped what you see above.

Entire pile below with background removed:

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Brick Wall Effects

Found Edges, then Glowing Edges below of the photo from yesterday's post:

 

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Brick Wall with Gaussian Blur

Just a few more posts to go here.  Seeing a relatively unblemished pattern like this will get the attention of a photographer as a potential background, or something to play with in Photoshop.

As an example of something that can be done with a pattern like this, below is the same picture with a Gaussian Blur generously applied at 40% opacity over a white background.  This gives it something of a parchment paper look:

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Magnet Board

Suppose there's an infinite variety of things you can do in creating magnets.  Glowing Edges of a portion of this below:

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Bead Curtain

Captured for the obvious reason, as this is a photo of a street scene through this curtain of beads.  The shopkeeper and others nearby wondered out loud (I think) what I was up to.  Being a photographer allows you to be a little strange sometimes.

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Chinese Lantern

Know I've already posted a bunch of these, but I like lanterns so here's another one...

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes; Tall, Narrow and Round

I hesitated to post this one, but decided to go ahead because it's so unique.  Very narrow and tall buildings that fit into tight spaces are somehow interesting (similar post here from Tokyo).  Did a Find Edges in Photoshop and made a bookmark.
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Speaking of bookmarks, I now have about 250 made from various trips and shoots, mostly from zoos.  These things are neat, and fun to produce - I created templates for 4-inch and 5-inch sizes.  Just as I used to look at a photo with potential for a promotional card, I now also look at what the potential is for a bookmark.  Interestingly, many have said that this is something that might actually take off and provide a return later on.  Not that I'm interesting in making money from the photos that end up on this blog, but we'll see...

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Eyeball Building

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Selfie Statue

Sign of the times...

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Pedestrian Lane

Yes, a picture of a street in the Street Scenes series.  Normally there is a bicycle lane set apart, but this is one I hadn't seen before...

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Graffiti

Anything with bright colors against a black background checks a box for me.  If it is graffiti it checks another box, as graffiti itself is very much an art form.

I've always been fascinated by the fact that graffiti is unofficially sanctioned in "artsy" places like Paris (per this post), so long as crime is not a focus of the art.  Here in Houston, while waiting for trains at a crossing, I'm impressed by the paintings inadvertently collected from all parts of the country.  Desiring to harness this creativity, some cities and non-profit organizations have implemented programs to get the kids producing graffiti to paint murals instead of on train cars and bridges, etc.

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Beef Noodle Pots

The dish that is most famously indigenous to Taiwan - as opposed to China - is beef noodle soup.  I never found anything special about it, but people there go crazy over the stuff.  And they go craziest over this one shop that supposedly serves the best in all of Taipei.  So our guide and benefactor took us here one afternoon for a late lunch.

I found it interesting, not because of the food being served but because of these unique stacked pots.  So, while everyone was either waiting for it be served or after everyone had finished lunch and were sitting around gabbing, I popped out to capture them.  It's easy to imagine seeing the exact same scene (minus the electric lights in the background) hundreds of years ago.

Slightly different angle captured below:

As it happens, standing up straight after stooping down to get these images I turned around to see a television camera, no doubt aimed at my skinny bahonkus, which itself was aimed at the street while I snapped away with the Bigger Cahoona.  They spent more than an hour interviewing patrons as they exited the restaurant, but fortunately left before we left.  Crew below...

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Junior High Mural

Passed this mural on the street one day...looks like it was on the campus of a junior high school.  The theme here embodies the still-innocent culture among the youngsters of the island.  Put something like this on the wall of the junior high in the U.S. and it would be totally defaced, if not destroyed, within a month.

And it is so, so different being in Taiwan around this relative innocence and respect on a school campus.  Remember vividly how amazed I was at some of the things I witnessed in the Houston area teaching on a jr high campus for the first time - the things kids were allowed to get away with and the tolerance of blatant disrespect were shocking.

So it is always a salve to my soul to simply be in a place where children demonstrate real respect for teachers and parents.  And where, by extension, the crime rate is so low and fear is virtually absent when walking down a street, even at night, in any part of the city.

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Signage #16 / Move to KLVI

And who can take pictures of signs without including KFC?  This guy is all over the world - a reminder of how small this planet has become.

In fact, as it seems, slowly the cultures are melding to such an extent that traveling to exotic faraway places is not so exotic any more.  Nor is it as special as it used to be.  When I was teaching in a small town of about 3,000 in the Texas Panhandle they called an assembly to hear an Indian (from India) talk about where he was from and the cultures he'd visited.  We were all excited and curious about what adventures he had to tell...then they made an announcement that it'd been called off.  But it stuck with me that this man's presence was able to fire an entire community into a frenzy of anticipation.

But now it's available to the masses, and nobody is impressed with world travel.  The thrill of going to a place like Taiwan and seeing signs like this has become humdrum.  But to me it's still interesting, and I'll continue to snap and post...
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[continued from yesterday's post; series started 05/09]
So all of that happened at KTRM/KIEL.  I was getting restless, though, and sought a change in the routine.  Like all DJ's did in the day, I used the equipment in the production studio to cut some air checks to interview in other places.

The logical place for me to try my luck was KLVI - logical for me because they also played country music and logical for them because they were in need of an all-night DJ on weekends, which was my forte at the time.  I got the job, and if KTRM was a step up from KOBS, then KLVI was an even higher wrung on the broadcasting ladder.  The reasons for this were that:  a) it was more powerful, therefore attracted a much wider listening audience...I got requests from as far east as Cameron, Louisiana and south from Corpus Christi;  and b) there were some more interesting and well-known personalities that worked there, including Al Caldwell, who had just been hired on from KAYC, and Gordon Baxter, famous for his stories and authority-tweaking personality on the air.  It was an interesting place to work, but being a bigger business lacked the homey, cozy feel at KTRM.

One of the most unique things I found at KLVI upon starting was that it had a stand-up board.  There was a tall stool there, but the DJ's were encouraged to do all of their announcing standing up, because it supposedly made us sound better.  That could well have been the case...I felt that my voice and projection at the mic were better there, but that could have been partly due to more advanced equipment that enhanced the sound of everyone's voice.

As an aside, it's amazing to me that Al Caldwell is still there at KLVI, some 43 years after my time there (this being written in 2020).  He is so good at what he does, and I still tune in to his show at times on our way to work in Houston.  It's just a pleasure to see - or in this case listen to - someone who is doing what he was born to do on this earth, no matter the field.

So on that happy note I'll end the series on my radio days, for now.

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Signage #15 / Interviewing Donald Morris

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[continued from yesterday's post; series stared 05/09]
By far the most interesting thing I did while working at KTRM, however, was an interview I did for the news department with a man named Donald Morris.  I did not work for the news department, but saw Mr. Morris on TV one day in Beaumont and got the idea that he'd be interesting to talk to.  So I asked Kevin Brennan if it would be interesting to him as well, and he said that if I got the interview he'd do something with it.  After a few phone calls arrangements were made to meet at his office in the Houston Post building.

Trouble was, that meeting was scheduled during a school day, and I was still a senior at BCP at the time.  Of course no one would have given me permission to do such a thing on school time, so we had to skip.  I say "we" because I invited a friend of mine named Bill McKeon to tag along for the ride.  The interview was set right in the middle of the day and I knew that if things went smoothly we could make it over there and back without upsetting the routine.  The night before this little excursion I went to the station and picked up the taping equipment, getting a few pointers from Kevin.  Then I called Bill and things were good to go.

It went without a hitch.  I drove my dad's Cougar to the school and picked Bill up at a predetermined location right after he got off the bus.  We got on Interstate 10 and skedaddled out of Beaumont before first period was even under way.  Finding the Post building on the Southwest Freeway was no problem, and before we knew it we were on the elevator, microphones and tape machine in tow.

Mr. Morris was indeed a very interesting person.  At the time he was writing a column for the paper, but had served in the CIA and written a book which was made into a movie (All Hands on Deck), among other things.  He appeared totally at ease with us - or at least was successful in making us greenhorns feel at ease with him - and provided many laughs and anecdotes.  In a little more than an hour we wrapped it up and said good-bye.  By stroke of luck we arrived back at the school just as the buses were loading, so Bill simply got right on as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.  The interview was edited into a weekly Perspective program that aired either the next or the following Saturday, I forget which.

I still have a copy of that program, but unfortunately up in the Texas panhandle I had a girlfriend that was a bit of a flake, and upon finding the cassette plugged it into a machine and started recording a love note.  So the beginning was erased, but a majority of the interview remains intact.

As another aside, very recently (I'm writing this in May of 2020) I saw a TV report on Channel 2 here in Houston.  The story was about a police officer in Sour Lake, a small town just outside of Beaumont, who was assaulted very badly by a suspect at a convenience store there.  When they named the officer as "William McKeon" I knew right away it was Bill.  I was not surprised that he'd chosen such a service-oriented career, and that the community loved him, as the story reported, for his approachability and sense of humor, which I remembered about him well.

I hadn't communicated with him since we wrote back and forth during my first year of college at SFA, but the connection was still there as if no time had passed at all.  A couple of weeks after the incident, when he stabilized but still in a coma, I drove to Beaumont to see him at the hospital.  I'd written a letter to him reminding him of some of the good times and adventures we had, and included a card for this blog in case it might help while away the long hours in the hospital should he come out of the coma (they weren't even sure he was going to live at that point).  The lady that was at his bedside at the time said that he could hear even though he couldn't respond, and suggested that I read the letter out loud to him...that the memories might help snap something into place.

For the love of God I could not, fairly breaking down right in front of this stranger, seeing Bill laid out like he was.  I could do nothing but stammer a good-bye and leave with my own thoughts and grief.  The reports now are that, after some six months, he is recovering, but has to learn to do everything all over again, including speak.  Maybe he'll be able to read our story in this post one day and reminisce on his road to recovery.  God willing...

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Signage #14 / Fringe Benefits

Very, very clever.  Probably the neatest sign of all...
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[continued from yesterday's post; series started 05/09]
My job at KTRM benefited me at high school in two ways.  One was that it got a bully off my back.  I was a senior at the time, and in marine science class this redneck took to picking on me.  I mean I was really intimidated, and he enjoyed intimidating me.  But when he found out I was a country DJ I invited him out to the station, and the next Saturday night he watched me do part of my show.  From then on we were buddies.

The other benefit involved the weather report.  In that same marine science class we had a teacher that gave a bonus question every Monday, which was always to write down the weather report.  I had the distinct advantage of being the one to actually broadcast that report straight from the wires the whole night before.  Admittedly, though, I was often too exhausted from staying up all night to even remember what it was.

And speaking of that exhaustion - have you ever slept with your eyes wide open?  It's the strangest feeling, and it happened to me during physics class on one of those Mondays.  It was first period.  The teacher was talking and suddenly it was all quiet.  I "came to" to discover that he and the entire class had observed that I was sitting there with eyes open, asleep.  It was quite embarrassing.

Taiwan - Taipei Street Scenes, Signage #13 / Don at KTRM

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[continued from yesterday's post; series started 05/09]
Another very interesting person that worked with us at KTRM was a guy named Don.  Actually he worked the all-nighter at KIEL, operating that huge machine that I mentioned before; he cued the large reels and made sure the carts were in place before the next commercial or announcement was due to air.  We got to know each other because I did the all-nighter at KTRM and we'd bump into each other quite a bit.

And I mean that literally - Don was legally blind, even with his glasses on.  He had memorized all of the switches and controls on "Big Bertha", and could even handle most emergencies, including miscues, tape breaks, and dead air.

Don really left an impression on me.  He was an older man - I'd estimate in his late 40's at the time.  And very, very kind, which went along with the fact that he was a deeply religious man who practiced his faith.  One time I asked him what he was going to do for New Year's Eve.  Being a young punk I was looking for an answer involving some party, but he told me he was going to attend a church service.  I was a little taken aback because I didn't know people went to church on New Year's Eve, and because he answered in a nanosecond, as if to say Of course I'm going to church.  Long afterwards I attended a few of those services myself, and think about him whenever the opportunity comes to attend church on New Year's Eve.  He was a great man.

I'm not sure what Don's background was in radio, but it went a ways back and he must have been fairly well-known; he used to tell me with beaming pride how, once at the Astrodome in Houston, he had the honor of introducing Johnny Cash at a performance.  That's one thing...but the fact that the crowd of who-knows-how-many-thousands gave him, Don, a standing ovation that rivaled what Cash received later was most telling of all.

God bless you, Don.


My friend Don

In spite of being legally blind, Don was able to operate the sophisticated equipment that aired KIEL, which played classical music 24/7.