Author: WmX

I stumbled off the track to success in 1968, started chasing shadows that summer. Since then, In addition to farm-laborer and newspaper photographer my occupational incarnations include dishwasher, janitor, retail photo clerk, plumber, HVAC repairman, auto mechanic, CAT scan technologist, computer worker and politico (whatever it takes to buy a camera.) I am on the road to understanding black and white photography.

Quiscalus quiscula

grackle
The grackle can also mimic the sounds of other birds or even humans, though not as precisely as the mockingbird, which is known to share its habitat in the Southeastern United States.–Wikipedia
Opportunistic omnivors. Like us.

what is in a name?

global warming
In 1980, Dominion Resources, Inc., was incorporated as the holding company for VEPCO. For us ratepayers on the ground Virginia Electric and Power Company became Dominion.


transporting fracked gas
Dominion came through the Woolen Mills recently, whacking trees. Line maintenance. They provide the power that I post by here. But what is the price of the power?


North Anna, James
Is it possible for a monopoly to be true to its place of origin? To care about cultural and natural resources? To care about the environment? Here recently, the corporation has been in the news, often. From the outside they’ve been acting more like the Dominator than the Virginian. Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Transmission lines over the James River. New nuclear facility on a faultline.


political clout
Yesterday, people from across Virginia came to speak to the dominator. To date, there is little indication that Dominion has ears.

words are wind

Market Street plan
Meetings I remember. Huge category. This the meeting that laid out improvements to Market Street east of Meade Avenue. Plantings, stormwater BMPs, profile changes. I’d been canvassing residents of the street the day before (9/7/2008), encouraging their attendance at the meeting. Charles said he wasn’t coming, a waste of time: “the City will never do this for us, it’s all about the money, the river will rise up and wash us away.” I tried to persuade him, encouraging him to be more sanguine.
Hey Charles! You were right. The improvements weren’t forthcoming.

railroaded

Marchant Street closed
For 150 years, people have walked from the President’s house to Woolen Mills Road (E Market) via Marchant Street. Earlier this month the street was cut off, severing the connection between the northern and southern portions of the Woolen Mills Neighborhood, without process, without advance notice. Hey Woolen Mills Neighborhood!
It sucks to be you.
30 x1028 px box

funerary practice

Futenma
Much custom involved with how to treat the dead. I can’t read hiragana. Found out months later the sign reads:
“If you trash garbage here, you are sentenced to five years’ penal servitude or
pay a fine of ten million yen under the law.
Moushi Hanashiro Family”


Arlington Cemetery
There are no signs in Arlington dictating behavior. We were dressed down by grave police for our behavior. The self appointed monitor accused us of being disrespectful. On the contrary, this is how we honor our dead.

in praise of the dead

snag in Cook forest
Standing dead trees are an important resource for the living.

But a dead tree, contrary to popular perception, has a plus side. Called a snag, it plays host to a variety of insects, fungi, spiders, and other small native creatures of the woodland; a variety of mammals, including flying and gray squirrels, raccoons, and others; and, surprisingly, about eight-five species of birds in North America. In a forest, at least, maturity and deadwood are relative terms.–Robert Halma, “The Lehigh Valley: A Natural and Environmental History”

 
Excellent article on dead trees, see: “Praise the Dead: The Ecological Values of Dead Trees” by George Wuerthner