Verde(r)

To Show For It

Yesterday, Kathleen and I went on an adventure to find the abandoned Columbia-Portland Cement Plant, south of Zanesville. For those of you not familiar (and I pray to God no one has had to go to Zanesville), it's about 2 hours south of home.

Zanesville and the surrounding area are very unsettling. In the nearby towns, I was reminded of my time on the Obama campaign, trapped in Pennsylvania's labyrinthine mining patch towns. There's a pervasive squalor and indifference that I know all too well.

We arrived in the approximate area of the plant, not knowing its exact whereabouts, around 7:30. Sunlight was going to be an impossibility soon, but we couldn't find even a suggestion of the monolithic structure. This drove me insane. After an hour or so of frantic driving (TomTom was absolutely no help and I wanted to smash it with a hammer), asking locals for directions, and chain-smoking, we finally found something promising, but by no means likely. We followed the path for as long as it went, and I took a couple of pictures, but it was by no means a cement factory. The sun had all but set by the time we got back to the car.

We drove around looking for a while afterwards, and found out we'd been on the property of an active asphalt quarry (oops!), but couldn't find the cement plant. So we left.

And then, as we were leaving town (by the same road we used to enter), we saw it. Enormous, white silos and towers rising from the treeline. I'm not entirely sure how we missed it, but I was beside myself with disbelief. The day wasn't wasted, but I could have done without all the stress of searching on narrow, winding Appalachian roads.

I'd chalk it up as a good day, though. Kathleen and I had a great time, and I'm glad I finally got myself to go do something.

Hayley's at RFKC this week. I've been missing her since before she left, and I know it's only going to get worse as the week goes on. My thoughts are with her, and I hope it goes alright for her.

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To Show For It

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Chippewa (God Bless Ed Kelly)

"Why, Sebastian, do all of these titles have so many damn parentheses?" you may ask.
Well, astute reader, that's a very insightful question. I did it once and liked the way it looked. So I kept on keepin' on. It's somewhere between additional information and a Rocky & Bullwinkle-esque title. (Like this:

The Day I Met Your Mother
OR
Why I Am No Longer Allowed In Your House)

But that doesn't work quite the same as it does on television. Hence, parentheses.

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Fun fact: These pictures are from the first and second times I went out with my camera, but you kids haven't seen them yet. So, well, don't judge me too harshly based on them.

They're from Chippewa Lake, a nearby(ish) abandoned amusement park. The rumor's been floating around recently that it's been torn down. I'm very happy to have been able to go, especially in the winter. But I'll shut up and get to the pictures already.

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Chippewa (God Bless Ed Kelly)

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Moabite Nostalgia

Wishing I were back in the desert.

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Mishmash (Have A Nice Day)

Not quite sure what's going on here, but I think I like it?

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Mishmash (Have A Nice Day)

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello

Stumbled across a fantastic animated short today -- The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. It uses a very nontraditional -- and amazingly beautiful -- animation style which, Wikipedia tells me, is reminiscent of Wayang and The Adventures of Prince Achmed (which I now really need to track down) and was nominated for an Oscar (it lost to an animated short whose title is a pun -- take that as you will).

I've been reading a lot of Lovecraft lately and have always had a sort of guilty fascination with steampunk. And this is a really great Gothic horror story with zeppelins and dirigibles and Victorian architecture, which probably explains why I'm loving it so much. It's beautiful and fantastic and wonderful in every way.

And it's on YouTube!



(Please, for the love of God, watch it fullscreen and HQ)

Long Night (Color By Numbers)

Long Night (Color By Numbers)

Model: Jenny Ruper

Albums / January 20, 2009 (Blue and Brown)

I have a few albums sitting on Picasa doing nothing, whether because I never linked to them here or because I linked to an album that was far too large to keep anyone's attention (or far too large to be composed mostly of decent pictures). And the space on my Picasa account is dwindling a little faster than I'd like. So, over the next little while, I'll be pruning and posting/reposting these and deleting the old albums.

To begin:

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January 20, 2009 (Blue and Brown)

photos taken having erstwhile snuck up on someone

Sand Run Park, June 16

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Liberty Ave, PGH, Stanley Cup Victory (click for big)

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Going to Cedar Point with the elegant and beautiful miss Hoover tomorrow. I'm ridiculously excited about it. I genuinely can't wait until morning.

Mango

I'm not sure how any of you eat mangoes, but I start with my freshly washed mango (devoid of the produce sticker, of course) and a paring knife. I begin to slice off sections of the fruit, eating the flesh and discarding the skin, much as one eats artichoke (Disclaimer: Do not eat whole artichoke. Gross.)

I then remember the days of yore, when no one north of the equator had seen a mango. I remember the Persian shah, the Indian king, sitting in lush, ivory courtyards, waited upon by scores of servants, hand-fed mango and other jungle fruits, perhaps enjoying ice collected personally for him, brought from the ice caps of the Himalayas by long trek and arduous journey.

This is all well and good. But I am not a desert king of old. I'm some kid who, by this point, has eschewed his knife and is now plunging face first into the fruit he bought for a dollar fifty at the Giant Eagle. The mango dripping nectar like blood, it's soon on my hands, my face, down my neck. I'm ravenous. Devouring. It doesn't even matter if people are watching anymore, but if they are, the men look upon me with disdain, the women shriek, the children flee. The only purpose I have is to consume.

And so I do. Until there is in my hands nothing but the pit. And, every single time, I consider planting it, so that I may have a mango tree in my backyard. And then I realize that I live in Ohio; those don't grow here. I toss it away and go about my day.

Lovers On The Rock I & II

I haven't updated in a while. Sorry about that. It's been like a month and a half, and that's probably scared most of (the three of) you away. Here are a couple of pictures I took the other week; kind of happy accidents resulting from my horrible lens.

I started a flickr page, but I honestly like this a little better. And Yahoo owns flickr. We all know how passé and un-chic Yahoo is. So unless I for some reason fall madly in love with flickr, you kids don't get the URL. Not because I'm being crass or anything; there's nothing good there that's not here as well.

My life is sort of in a lull (maybe a rut) right now. I need a job. Between the mono and the trouble with the law, I'm having difficulty finding motivation to do anything. I'm trying to start painting. I bought everything I need to start with watercolor and started painting, but then the mono hit, and now my inspiration's gone. It feels fake and pretentious.

I just want to get all this shit figured out. I want my court date to happen. I want a job. I want no longer to have mono. I want her to stay or go. I want something close to a blank slate.

I just keep telling myself to stick it out until fall. I think that's a good way to look at it.