Experiences in Santa Fe

In large part this trip concerns my continuing evolution as a photographer or, as someone suggested, a digital artists, since I'm really not all that interested in conventional photography but rather extending my efforts into making images that fall somewhere outside of the boundaries of traditional photography. It has been easy to turn this blog into a travelogue and avoid dealing with issues that are complex and, more disturbing, revealing. Yet, as I posited previously, my hope for this trip is that there will be some elements of self-discovery (please excuse any unintended pretentiousness). At any rate, if this blog is to serve a serious purpose, I must start delving into my experiences in Santa Fe. I am going to do so but because I want to include images in the relevant posts, it may be necessary to defer doing so until I get back to La Crosse. I'm not really able to do what I want with images on a laptop and it will work much better when I have my imaging paraphernalia available.

Nevertheless, I do want to briefly discuss the 2 day tutorial I had with Leslie Alsheimer at The Santa Fe Digital Darkroom the first part of last week.  I will write more extensively about this remarkable experience, but for now will simply copy and paste in some comments I made to Leslie in response to her request for an evaluation:

"Be assured that I take your request for an evaluation very seriously and promise to deal with it as soon as I get home. Briefly, after my 3rd tutorial [May,2010] I wrote you that it was the best yet. Now, following the 4th one, the same comment is appropriate. In fact, I have been telling family and friends that this  may have been the best educational experience that I have ever had. As you may know, I am intrigued by the process of teaching and have spent time reading and thinking about why is so often doesn’t work and why in some situations it is so very effective. It would,  in my opinion be a good thing for an Education researcher to study your remarkable talent for teaching. I have some thoughts about it, and may (or may not) share with you."

I think that this is all I am going to say on this blog about the qualitative aspects of the experience, but will go over in some detail the things we worked on and what I learned.
Byron

Cajun Country

I stayed in Lafayette, Louisiana for 2 days. Most of my preconceptions about South West Louisiana were incredibly misinformed. I expected to find a somewhat backward, laconic, run down patch of francophone weirdness. Well, hardly. The area is bustling and seems to be doing very well indeed, much more that the parts of  the Midwest with which I am familiar. Baton Rouge appeared to be almost bursting with economic activity. I wasn't there long enough to make more discerning observations, but what I did experience makes me want to return. The weather was very much like Wisconsin in late April/ early May. To a May or June visitor to Wisconsin I always explain that the special days we have during this, our very best time of the year, is the payback we get for our suffering from November through March. Apparently in this part of the country the current gorgeous weather is the reward for the misery of the summer months-- the impression I get is that "summer" extends from May to the end of September.

A Tale of Two Cities:  Well... actually smallish towns. So called Cajun Country is fairly densely developed and except for some bilingual signage and other concessions to tourists, there isn't much that distinguishes it from anywhere else. I started in New Iberia, well known to readers of  the mystery writerJames Lee Burke who apparently is a very big deal there if the bookstore I visited is any indication. New Iberia is also the place that Tabasco Sauce comes from. In my estimation Tabasco and Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels have a lot in common-- a good thing dialed up a couple of clicks too far. Along the main street of New Iberia many of the store fronts had been nicely refurbished in what looked to me like faux French Quarter. Just what we tourists expect and thus feel like we have had the "real" Cajun small town experience. While there I didn't give it a second thought. It just seemed to be the way things should.

My route to the next place on the Cajun tour, Breaux Bridge, took me through St. Martinville, a place that I found to be unabashedly unpretentious and authentic. While New Iberia is all tarted up for the tourists this town has been left alone. Sure, it's kind of seedy and worn down, but it looks to me that like a comfortable place where people live and get on with their lives and are not on the make. Kind of like old faded worn and slightly ragged bluejeans. By the way, don't mistake my intentions when I allude to the tourists or those who create environments in order to meet their expectations. I am a tourist and I certainly don't begrudge anyone who does what is necessary to make a buck. The tourism industry: :it is what it is.
Byron

Houston

I reviewed my previous posts to see what I had covered and what I hadn't-- which represents a hell of a lot more-- and discovered that I'd talked about arriving in Houston but had not completed the story. As you could tell I was underwhelmed by the initial impression made by this megalopolis, even though, admittedly,  the sample was very limited. Deciding that I didn't want my prejudices disturbed by actual observation of real facts (ed. note: for new readers, in case you don't recognize it, this is an example of Byron's sardonic and/or self-deprecating humor), I elected  to get out of town before sunrise. Even though I started in the exurbs, it seemed like more than 50 miles of driving on traffic clogged, strip mall lined roads before encountering anything resembling open country.

What I saw of Houston brought to mind the great SciFi novel by William Gibson, Neuromancer. Gibson describes what he calls "The Sprawl", the name he gives to the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis, an endless urban strip along the Eastern Seaboard. Incidental, the book is more remembered for his creation of the word cyberspace, and, more important, the concept.

Houston has lots of devotees but I am not among them.
Byron

Earthquake in Japan

For any reader who may be wondering here is a copy  of an e-mail from Charles Annis received at 1:15am:

Mom, don’t worry about the earthquake. It looks terrible. But not in Kyoto or Osaka. I can’t reach anyone in Tokyo because the phone lines are down. But it doesn’t look too bad there either. Kaori’s mom said she felt in in the hospital, but I didn’t. We are fine. ca

Byron

Interesting Travel Factoid

I have several posts simmering on the stove-- in other words composed in my mind but needing to actually be written-- but (to continue the overdone metaphor) not ready to plate and serve. Time is running out and I have to get going if I am going to achieve today's tour goal which is to visit the towns and bayous of South Louisiana so that I may get in touch with my Cajun roots (the Jewish branch of Acadia, of course). In case it hasn't been mentioned, I'm currently in Lafayette LA which seems to be a very nice city.

Here is the interesting fact for tourists. In Santa Fe I stayed in a B&B-- a nice place with a very friendly and accommodating family at an attractive price. I found the B&B through a website recommended by Mel Annis called Airbnb. Anyone who uses the Internet for buying goods and services is familiar with the customer option of rating or reviewing the vendor. Today I encountered a first: I was sent email notification that the homeowner had rated ME of all things and was sent a link to her comments. Fortunately, I did pass muster as a guest, but I must say that this is a bit eeire. Will my children be making contributions to my political dossier-- the US version of my Stassi files any time soon?
More later, preferably about more pertinent topics.
Byron

Houston

I made my way into the far northwestern suburbs of Houston well after dark last evening and with benefit of my GPS readily found lodging that meets my special need: very cheap. Entering the room was a shock; to say that it is sparse is understatement. Yet on further inspection, I found the room to be a marvel of utilitarianism. Kudos to the designer and to the Motel 6 executives who approved  and implemented the design. One brilliant decision is that there is no carpet. The carpeting in low end hotels is, in my experience, invariably filthy-- it's one of those things that I avoid thinking about as I walk about the room barefooted.

As I drove into Houston, I thought "Gee, Toto, we sure aren't in Minnesota any more". I think that I prefer the Minnesota version of Houston and plan to get out of here early this am.

As I drove west from San Antonio I encountered an abrupt change. Suddenly the ground was covered with green vegetation. A short time later I noticed a faint but definite-- and pleasing--odor of the sea in the air; and, finally, the welcome feeling of heat and humidity. All in all, I prefer the dry and dessicated ambience of West Texas however.

Recently, my friend Dr. Richard Fink compared my current travel adventure to John Steinbeck's Travels With Charlie. I read the book sometime in the early '60s and remember it as being a charming travelogue. I decided that it would make good motel reading material for my current enterprise and bought a copy yesterday. I did read the forward written by a Steinbeck scholar before passing out and it is obvious that there is a lot more to this book than I recall. Furthermore, there is probably as lot more to me now than there was almost 50 years ago. With a lifetime of experience and pondering I may be better able to mine this vein of wise thoughtful observation. I've also read abouty half of the short stories in John Updike's last book (published posthumously) My Father's Tears. So far, all of the stories that I've read feature protagonists who are approaching the end of life. The tone of the book is elegic,kind, and thoughtful.

A final note. Generally, I thoroughly edit blog entries-- probably way more that necessary, if the truth be known. It's quite time consuming and provokes some anxiety because I am so self-conscious about my writing. It is probably the main reason that I am erratic and undependable about maintianing a steady flow messages. So a new policy is herewith in effect. No editing other than spellcheck. Live with it.
Byron

Another Attempt at Blog Resuscitation

Although my Seeing America One Back Road at a Time Tour continues with some success, this blog has been an unmitigated failure. For anyone who has taken the trouble to check in and been disappointed, my apologies. And, for those who wonder, here is the brief version of what I've done since the prior entry: I drove to Glenwood Springs Co to visit with my daughter Allison and her family for a couple of days then moved on to Santa Fe NM. After a couple of days getting settled and driving around northern New Mexico I spent a week doing a workshop with Jay Maisel at the Santa Fe Photo Workshops. More driving, exploring and photographing for another weekend, followed by 2 extremely productive and entirely wonderful days with my friend and tutor Leslie Alsheimer at the Santa Fe Digital Darkroom. Since then I have been driving south through New Mexico and West Texas with a sojourn in Big Bend National Park followed by a left turn taking me east to San Antonio where I have spent the last couple of days getting organized, well fed, and cleaned up. Checkout time at my hotel is looming so I have to conclude blogging for the time being.

I am really committed to making this blog viable, at least for the during of this trip. I have actually given some thought to what I do and don't want it to be. I'm know that you will join me in hoping that this will not be a travelogue-- way to boring. OK... what I see and do can be mentioned in passing, but the main thing I would prefer to accomplish is to describe what I am thinking as I continue in my quest to see and, more important, try to gain some understanding of our vast, infinitely varied, and, in my opinion, troubled nation. And, as is always the case in solitary and prolonged trips like this, self-discovery, whether intended or not, is an important part of the quest. I'll be contemplating these things as I drive and musing about them if and when I blog. One promise: No Political Commentary.  I learned my lesson when I did the now defunct But Then Again What Do I Know blog and won't be making that mistake again. The political opinions were, for the most part fine, the abuse garnered wasn't. I hope that you won't mind that the entries are not going to be chronological. I'd rather write about what is currently on my mind and it shouldn't matter in any significant way. Finally, about photos. I am always reluctant to post images that haven't been refined in Photoshop, yet I don't have the time or inclination to do so while travelling. I'll post pictures when the text really calls for visual enhancement, but not just to show off. How will that be?

To anyone who reads this rambling collection: Thank you for your fortitude and for being patient.  With every good wish to you all,
Byron