Vonnegut-esque

I passed this the other day (didn't have a camera then.  Went back today).  I didn't know the quote or who Chuck D was, but in this age of information, it was not hard to find the quote (lyrics to Rebel Without a Pause) or the guy (part of the rap group Public Enemy).  I liked the addition of the hand and pawn piece to what otherwise would have just been some standard quote that works well as graffiti.  The graffiti itself was just some white paint for the letters and tan paper for the hands on a red brick wall behind some green plants.  I edited my shot to better reflect the mood. ...oh, and disregard the artist's inability to accurately quote the song (as interesting as one big chest game would be, I'm sure he meant chess)...

The thing about it that most made me want to get the shot was that it made me think of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.  It is very similar to a "calypso" found in his novel Cats Cradle.  Which is a great book, by the way.

          Bokonon's 53rd Calypso

Oh, a sleeping drunkard

Up in Central Park,  

And a lion-hunter  

In the jungle dark,  

And a Chinese dentist,  

And a British queen -  

All fit together  

In the same machine.  

Nice, nice, very nice;  

Nice, nice, very nice;  

Nice, nice, very nice -  

So many different people 

In the same device.

I Want To Be Beside The Seaside

I worked for the majority of the day.  I didn't have the chance to seek out something uber-special to shoot.  Luckily, my wife and I were recently at the sea.  We had grabbed a few seashells...one of which was sitting in the same room I was working in.  A quick shot with my macro extender produced this...

So soft and pretty.  

Oh.  It's the last day of national bird-feeding month.

Say goodbye to the birds.

Pigeon Away!

Kayaks, Treeffiti and the Obligatory Birds

An early morning walk along the River Lagan took us past this guy...

He looks like he's about to kayak into nothingness.

...and then past a few obligatory (since it's national bird-feeding month) birds...

A Moorhen.  These birds are nearly impossible to get a good picture of.  Not only because they hate people, but more so because at any given second, their heads are bobbing in a new direction.

A Bullfinch.  Both male and female in the first picture.  None of these shots are exceptional.  My remedy...multiple shots.

The last place our morning stroll took us to was this...

...A fallen tree that had many a political and social message carved into it.  I (may have) coined the term Treeffiti a while back..I feel this is an appropriate place to use it.  The carving on this side reads "Even the business men don't do business anymore"

This part of the trunk mentioned something about a guillotine.

and this part: "Too long not enough blood n' bones".

Spring? Maybe?

I didn't have to wear both a sweatshirt and a jacket when I went outside today.  It was wonderful.

Though I doubt the slightly warmer weather is going to stick around, I did come across these tiny little buds...hopefully for their sake the temperature keeps rising.

Here's to Spring!

Macro, Mountains and Music...also a portion of the alphabet

I purchased some macro extension tubes a few weeks ago.  They were delivered on the 9th and I immediately put them through some basic tests...so here are the results of that first day.  I will definitely be using them again soon, so look forward to a more in depth "review" of them...but for now judge them based on these photographs.

I believe the last one is a pretty little daisy bud...all closed up.  To me, though, it appears to be something else entirely.  By letting you know what I think it resembles, I will be making my age, demographic, and interests extremely apparent...unless of course you don't know what it is I'm referring to (which is probably for the best).  It's the head/mouth of a Taxxon.  You know, from the Animorphs?  K.A. Applegate and whatnot...man, I was addicted to those books as a kid.

Moving on.  It recently snowed for the first time here in Belfast.  I posted a photograph of the nearby mountain covered in snow on that momentous occasion.  Well, by Saturday just seeing it in the not so distant distance wasn't good enough.  My wife and I donned appropriate hiking attire and headed towards the snow covered mountain.  It was crazy to think that the last time we were on the mountain, we were comfortable wearing t-shirts...This time our sweatshirts and jackets were far from sufficient.    

Yesterday we were lucky enough to get to go to the annual carol service in the Great Hall of Queen's University Belfast.  It was a beautiful service with a very talented chamber choir singing some traditional and common as well as some more obscure Christmas carols.  It was interesting to hear, and try to follow along with the Irish versions of the classic ones...some of which had slightly different melodies.  

Here are some pictures of the Great Hall...

Today I came across all but one of the rest of my Urban Alphabet letters: X and Y.  Here they are...

One to go.  I might actually finish this project soon.