Happy New Year!

May it be a darn sight better than the last one.

Monochrome Weekly: Woods in Winter

See the world in black and white: The Monochrome Weekly.

Shadow Shots: Angels Among Us

This one is from the campus of Ball State University. The statue is called Beneficence, by Daniel Chester French, the same artist who sculpted the seated Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Her right hand is extended in welcome to new students, and in her left she holds the treasures of education.

It is said that if you stand before "Big Benny" and kiss your true love, her wings will flap - but only if everyone's eyes are closed.



For more shadow shots, stop by at Harriet's place:

A Little Means a Lot

There are so many topics this time of year, and so little time. With just a few minutes to spare, this is the one I most want to share:

The Modest Needs Foundation.

It's an award-winning charity where donors can give just $10 or $20 to someone with a temporary need. You can choose the person you donate to - an out of work teacher who needs help with the rent, someone who can't afford a pair of glasses ... real people who just need a hand. (Requests are vetted by the organization.)

Check out the website at http://www.modestneeds.org.

Even a little goes a long way toward making life a lot better for ordinary people who aren't helped by traditional services, but who nevertheless deserve a break.

Geminid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

If you're blessed with a clear sky tonight, step outside some time between 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM and look up. There's nothing like a shower of falling stars to bring a little wonder into your life.

* P.S. December 16: I missed the peak night due to cloud cover, but I saw a great meteor this morning around 5:15 AM. It lasted so long - almost three seconds - and had such a long tail I wasn't sure at first what it was. Best. Sighting. Ever.

It's nice to know you're all star gazers too.

P.P.S :Ed, they're good luck! Remember the old Perry Como song? "Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, never let it fade away... " (Man. I am so frickin' old.)

Burning the Clocks

THE DEATH OF TIME...

"As the solstice comes, time slows down and stops. This is the ebb time, the limbo between years and worlds. In this slack tide of the hourglass the impossible happens. The pendulum stops and we need all our energy to start it moving again.

"A stately cavalcade leads us and our lanterns to the beach. A mourning party plays deep dark drums as they beat out the ending of time. The lanterns are loaded and taken to the great pyre.

"Once we burn our hopes and fears the heat of the fire brings up the new sun, the pendulum starts, the clocks tick and all is saved. The silence is broken by the cheers and music of the new solar year." -- Same Sky



This, my friends, is Solstice done right. It's Burning the Clocks, a new tradition in Brighton, UK. The event is a fabulous brew of theater, art, music, myth, and magic sponsored by the community arts group Same Sky.

Participants create personal clock lanterns of paper and willow, each imbued with the hopes and dreams of its maker. They range from simple pyramids to elaborate sculptures of great size and ethereal beauty.

On Solstice night, the lanterns are lit and carried to the sea in a festival procession through the streets. Costumed dancers, music and drums accompany the journey from the dark streets to the waiting pyre. There, the lanterns are all given to the fire in one mighty blaze that celebrates the return of the light.

Here is the website link: Burning the Clocks. I highly recommend exploring the gallery, the videos, and the 2005 "Vocal Explosion" Soundtrack.

Here's another video that really shows off the lanterns and performers. Sadly, it has been stripped of its audio, but it's still wonderful to watch: Burning of the Clocks Part 2.

I wonder if we could pull this off in Indiana...

Bad Cows. Bad.

There's a guy out there tonight who is in trouble with the law because his cows are licking the neighbor's house. Yep. Licking a house. Licked off a window and a gutter, and probably left a lot of icky cow spit on the siding.

You just never know what the day will bring, do ya?

Shadow Shots: Moon Shadows

Tuesday's full moon inspired my first effort at photography using only moonlight. It was a glowing night, filled with strange, pale light and long, deep shadows. It was a perfectly magical experience but, like magic, it was impossible to capture.


For more shadowy shots, stop by at Harriet's place:

That Pesky Time Warp Thing

This is actually old news, but it's so cool I had to share, just in case you missed it.

You know the new Large Hadron Collider, the one that some thought might create a black hole that would eat the planet? Well, things have gotten even stranger.

A pair of well-respected physicists recently published papers suggesting that the machine may be sabotaged by (buckle up, kids) its own future.

I won't even pretend to understand this well enough to explain it, but it has to do with the quest for the Higgs Boson, A.K.A. "The God Particle" and the possibility that it may not want to be found. Which would be a real bummer, since that's the purpose of the whole thing.

For the details, click this link to The Telegraph article.

Stuff like this just makes my day.