Austin Bluebonnets

This might well be my favorite time of year in Austin when the bluebonnets are in bloom. These are just a couple of photos from the neighborhood.

Imagine an entire hillside along the freeway covered in these! It's spectacular.

King Of The World

Collard Blossom

The collard greens are getting ready to spit seeds which unfortunately means all that attractive leafy vegetation now tastes like cardboard. We should be able to gather plenty of seeds for the fall crop.

First Rose of 2012

Lemon Futures

Prickly, Dangly and Squiggly

After nearly a week of doing battle with the flu, I finally felt like getting out today to see what's going on around the ranch

Purple Prickly Pear

Ball Moss

Red Yucca

I Just Can't Shake My Frustration

Melissa at Shakesville has this post up today with photos of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a visit to China, including this one (via Getty Images) which caught my attention.

When I first started reading Melissa's post, I felt a swell of pleasure, pride, and emotion at seeing Secretary of State Clinton meeting with women activists in China. And I will confess to having a few seconds where I wished she was President Hillary Clinton. Perhaps these photos would have been of Secretary of State Obama while President Clinton was home in the US getting some shit done!

It was a lovely fantasy. Then I clicked below the fold and was astonished by the change of direction, and I suppose the post title, Today in Trailblazing and Misogyny: Photos of the Day, should have given me a clue. I was about to be shaken from my trailblazing fantasy.

The "misogyny" springs from this Getty Image:

Yes, I shit you not. But then, maybe my definition of misogyny is outside the norm.

Thus begins Melissa's rant.

Aside from invoking other memorable "Look—disembodied ladyfeetz!" images like this one, are you fucking kidding me with the phallic boom mic inserted between two women's lower halves?!

[...]

I don't for a moment believe that there wasn't a single person along the path from photographer to photo editor to publisher, at either photo agency, who didn't notice the unfortunate implications of the above image.

Yeah, it's a "little thing," but it is the pervasive, ubiquitous, inescapable "little stuff" that creates the foundation of a sexist culture on which the big stuff is dependent for its survival. It's the little things, the constant drumbeat of inequality and objectification, that inure us to increasingly horrible acts and attitudes toward women.

As Melissa accurately points out elsewhere in her post, the Getty photographers do seem to have a "thing" for photographing boom mics. Maybe it's a weird fetish. Maybe it's an inside joke, or a bizarre tradition, within photographic circles. Who knows.

I, with my little pea-sized manbrain and insufficiently feminist credentials, am clearly unable to discern the blatant conspiracy at work here to reinforce the sexist foundations of our culture, simply because I only see a nothing-to-write-home-about photograph of a boom mic with blurry ladypartz in the background. And it's not like someone staged the photo in order to have the boom mic appear to be shoved up in some asshole's crotch! (Gee, thanks for that one, Getty!)

Rather than walk away from that post with a President Clinton fantasy, and a momentary positive feel-good distraction from all the truly heinous shit going on in the world right now, I left feeling anger. It was not anger directed at any perceived or real misogyny, but anger at the blatant attempt to manipulate me into agreeing with a premise and to accept that as a fact without question, while my dumb mangut tells me it is a crock of reeking feces.

And in questioning the validity of Melissa's assumptions about such boom mic photography being representative of misogynistic foundations, I am therefore, by default, incapable of seeing the reality. I think the expectation is that I should be having an "oh wow" moment: Of course it's misogyny at work. How could I not have seen it? And then of course I should accept that I have so much more to learn from my great teacher. I should throw my teacher some praise and support, and maybe a few bucks.

It's a damn good thing my commenting privileges were revoked at that blog many months ago. If they hadn't been, they would be today. Because I do question Melissa's points, as do others, I would be disregarded as a concern troll. And I'm still being far nicer than some have been.

I guess that's what I get for going below the fold. I should have just wallowed in my Clinton-as-President fantasy, admired her for representing the United States so well while overseas, and moved on along, blissfully ignorant of boom mic photography and the dark evil undercurrents thereof.

It is an event which has rendered me with little desire to visit that blog again. And the irony is that the post didn't even come with a trigger warning.

Bullshit!

A cast away from Creatures of Habitat.

Beauty in the Water Cube

I love the Olympics and I can't help myself. This is beautiful.

Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images

And if you were curious as to why the swimmers go shower off immediately after emerging from the pool, here's an answer.

Theories have ranged from 'to get the chlorine off' to 'they want to have fun' -- seriously, that last one is a direct quote from NBC's diving analyst, Cynthia Potter. Neither are the reason.

Divers shower in between each dive to keep their muscles warm after getting out of the pool. The temperature of the pool water and the air are usually different (the pool is usually around 80 degrees, with the air temperature between 68 and 72 degrees). This difference can cause muscle tightness. To combat this, divers warm up in either the showers or a hot tub.

And while we're on the subject of hot water action, Angelos has one to upstage Janet Jackson.

My Little Red Camera

I have to say I bought this thing on a whim. And I wasn't sure I was going to keep it. But after taking 80+ photos today I am sold. This is a dandy little device, despite being made in China. (Well, I bought it at Wal-Mart; what do you fucking expect?)

The video quality is the same at the photos as best I can tell from eyeballing it. That certainly was not true with my old camera. It's pocket size and easily transportable.

That alone breathes new life into this blog.

And the other one. Soon to be married in California.

The West Virginia Primary (yawn!)

And Photo of the Day:

Photo credit: Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

And Question of the Day: Why is Hillary not sitting at the table behind her?

Big surprise. Hillary has won WV. And the pundits were suggesting the fact that West Virginia is over 90% white as a probable cause. Ummm, no. That does not explain the huge margins of victory Obama enjoyed in many western states with large white majorities.

Try again.

It starts with the letter R.

Thank God we have Oregon, South Dakota and Montana coming up to prove me correct.

Whites are not, by default, white-ist.

Praise the Lord. Emphasis on "He."

Where Is My New York Times???

If your job is delivering newspapers, perhaps it's not a good idea to get smashed on New Year's Eve.

I'm just sayin'.

2008: Hong Kong

I Worship The Giant Sperm Wad In The Sky

Maybe the post title says it all. I was outside last night, probably intoxicated (OK, very intoxicated) and txrad was taking pictures of the nearly-full moon just prior to the Winter Solstice, and this was one of the images on my camera this morning.

The Solstice arrived with a vengeance today, bringing a very nice day, but uncomfortably gusty winds, and probably a freeze tonight.

Every Picture Tells A Story, Don't It?

This makes me very glad I'm not flying during the holidays. This is the scene from O'Hare in Chicago. One airport. One day. One moment. I'm sure it replayed many times in every airport.

God, we Americans have a lot of stuff!

And let's not forget a pair of security tips:

•Remember, food items are subject to screening. Pumpkin pie (which has a gel-like consistency) and fruitcakes (which are very dense) are allowed, but may require extra screening.

•Dress the part. You'll have to take off your shoes, coats and any bulky sweaters and sweatshirts before screening.

So what exactly does extra screening of a pumpkin pie entail?

And the second one should probably read: "UNdress the part."

Save time, fly naked.

Photo of the Day Whenever

From zombietime, current leader in the 2007 Weblog Awards' Best Photo Blog.

I saw the results after I voted for Confessions of a Pioneer Woman and decided to check out the leader.

These awards sure are interesting....

I'm in 3rd place right now, by the way.

Polls close November 8.

A Scene From Kona Ranch

Another reason I don't mow the yard. This was the beautiful sight which awaited us when we got home from work one day recently after a wind and rain.

Austin Sunrise

One of the things I miss about growing up on a farm in Arkansas were the awesome sunrises and sunsets. This morning I caught one worthy of capture.