To prepare my laptop and camera gear for the Shakespeare Cruise, I spent hours importing and deleting footage from the camera, a Canon HG10. I've been procrastinating this task for months, not wanting to decide what to keep and what to toss. Since the HG10 records to an internal hard disc, you don't have easy, automatic archival of footage that MiniDV tapes provide. Whine, whine, grump, grump.
To get to the point, I'm throwing together some photos and video from trips and events earlier this year into a few movies. The link below is a slide show of our trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, at the end of May. After a photo-safari week in Granada, Nicaragua with pal JohnG to visit his sweetheart Marcia (we stayed at her house in Granada), the three of us flew to Leon, then hired a driver to take us to San Miguel, a two-hour drive, where Robin and friends Elizabeth and Boris were waiting for us to arrive (having arrived there a couple of days earlier).
Several years ago, Robin spent a week there with Elizabeth (a regular haunt of hers). It was my first visit, and it was everything I'd imagined a quaint, Mexican, mountain village from a hundred years ago would be like (including a Starbucks located on the corner of the Plaza, with free Wi-Fi access. Yes!)
San Miguel de Allende
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Sidney Supper 2008, The Movie
If you missed the 4-hour event in Santa Fe, New Mexico, here's the seven-minute movie version.
Click on the text link above, or click on the photo below.
Click on the text link above, or click on the photo below.
Monday, October 27, 2008
What Things We Have Seen Done At The Mermaid!
The Mermaid Tavern on Sweet Swan Lane was the site of this year's Sidney Supper event, an annual birthday celebration organized by the Mary Sidney Society for Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. The event marked her 447th birthday. Just in case you don't know who Mary Sidney is, she's an Elizabethan woman who has fascinating, impressive, and documented connections (revealed by Robin in her book, Sweet Swan of Avon: Did A Woman Write Shakespeare) to the works attributed to the man named William Shakespeare.
As Ben Jonson (a contemporary of both Mary Sidney and Shakespeare, and the self-proclaimed poet laureate of England) said, "What things we have seen done at the Mermaid!" Of course, he was referring to the Mermaid Tavern on the corner of Friday and Bread Streets in London 400-something years ago, but it's a sentiment that is being taken seriously by a growing number of Mary Sidney devotees today. And then there's always the fact that when word gets out there's a party at Robin's house (The Mermaid Tavern), lots of people show up because they know it's not going to be your usual get-together.
Somewhere between 30 and 40 cars parked along the road, along the driveway, and in the parking area next to the house. At least 60 people attended, perhaps more. I ran a shuttle service with the SwanMobile (shown below) for people that didn't want to walk the 192.5 yards (yep, I measured it in Google Earth).
There was mirth and merriment aplenty. I will posteth a short video on the morrow.
As valet, I greet guests when they arrive at Sweet Swan Lane.
The SwanMobile.
Some of the guests listen to Robin. Others are outside on the patio (the door on the right). And still others are behind the camera.
Ceryn, youngest member and Student Liaison of The Mary Sidney Society, greets guests in the Mermaid Tavern's Great Hall (ha).
Laura and Anna lead the guests in a sing-along of Brush Up Your Shakespeare.
Some of the previously mentioned mirth and merriment.
Robin, Main Mistress of Mirth and Merriment
(as most of you already know).
As Ben Jonson (a contemporary of both Mary Sidney and Shakespeare, and the self-proclaimed poet laureate of England) said, "What things we have seen done at the Mermaid!" Of course, he was referring to the Mermaid Tavern on the corner of Friday and Bread Streets in London 400-something years ago, but it's a sentiment that is being taken seriously by a growing number of Mary Sidney devotees today. And then there's always the fact that when word gets out there's a party at Robin's house (The Mermaid Tavern), lots of people show up because they know it's not going to be your usual get-together.
Somewhere between 30 and 40 cars parked along the road, along the driveway, and in the parking area next to the house. At least 60 people attended, perhaps more. I ran a shuttle service with the SwanMobile (shown below) for people that didn't want to walk the 192.5 yards (yep, I measured it in Google Earth).
There was mirth and merriment aplenty. I will posteth a short video on the morrow.
As valet, I greet guests when they arrive at Sweet Swan Lane.
The SwanMobile.
Some of the guests listen to Robin. Others are outside on the patio (the door on the right). And still others are behind the camera.
Ceryn, youngest member and Student Liaison of The Mary Sidney Society, greets guests in the Mermaid Tavern's Great Hall (ha).
Laura and Anna lead the guests in a sing-along of Brush Up Your Shakespeare.
Some of the previously mentioned mirth and merriment.
Robin, Main Mistress of Mirth and Merriment
(as most of you already know).
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Testing one two three
I'm in the process of knocking the dust off various blogging tools that have been in the woodshed for a while. Robin and I leave for the Shakespeare At Sea Cruise November 6, so I'm testing some features that I might want to use while at sea. Such as publishing a nice photo album quickly (Internet access is expensive in the middle of the Caribbean).
Testing one two three (images from Kauai)...
Applying a Conceptual Gaussian Blur to Painting and Graphic Art
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777—1885) was a German mathematician genius who contributed to many fields, including optics. Gaussian functions are still used in many fields, including state of the art computer image processing.
Photoshop users are familiar with a feature called Gaussian Blur with which you create and control a smooth blur of an image. I'm currently working on a series of images in which the traditional line between painting and graphics are blurred. One example is shown below.
Is it a painting or is it graphic design?
Both. It's also a wild beach rooster from Kauai, Hawaii.
In poster form, the image looks like this (above). Or, when printed on canvas, the dark border, containing Shakespeare quotes, wraps around the side of the stretcher bars, creating a finished, unframed effect.
Quote on the left side of the image (above):
"I have heard the cock, that's the trumpet to the morn."
Horatio tells Hamlet that the day has started with a "fearful summons."
Quote on the right side:
"What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, at one fell swoop?"
In the play Macbeth, Macduff grieves that Macbeth has had all his children, and his wife, their mother (their dam) killed.
Below: close-up details of the image.
Photoshop users are familiar with a feature called Gaussian Blur with which you create and control a smooth blur of an image. I'm currently working on a series of images in which the traditional line between painting and graphics are blurred. One example is shown below.
Is it a painting or is it graphic design?
Both. It's also a wild beach rooster from Kauai, Hawaii.
In poster form, the image looks like this (above). Or, when printed on canvas, the dark border, containing Shakespeare quotes, wraps around the side of the stretcher bars, creating a finished, unframed effect.
Quote on the left side of the image (above):
"I have heard the cock, that's the trumpet to the morn."
Horatio tells Hamlet that the day has started with a "fearful summons."
Quote on the right side:
"What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, at one fell swoop?"
In the play Macbeth, Macduff grieves that Macbeth has had all his children, and his wife, their mother (their dam) killed.
Below: close-up details of the image.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Preparing for The Shakespeare At Sea Cruise
While Robin works on the presentations that she's preparing for the Shakespeare At Cruise, I'm practicing Life Boat drills with some volunteers. When I sound an alert, everyone meets at the back door for emergency instructions.
Certain volunteers are responsible for gathering essential survival items, such as rubber balls and towels. Others are just instructed to pay attention.
Certain volunteers are responsible for gathering essential survival items, such as rubber balls and towels. Others are just instructed to pay attention.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Philadelphia Thrills and Adventure
One of our trips this past October took us to Philadelphia, where Robin had been invited to give a Mac design presentation. We met some extremely nice and inspirational people (Maria and David to mention just two), and very much enjoyed seeing some of this historic and interesting city.
Our next scheduled stop on this same trip was to be in Wilton, Connecticut. Online, while still in Santa Fe, we bought Amtrak tickets from Philly to Bridgeport, CT, where we could grab a regional train to Norwalk, a town very close to Wilton. The 30th Street Amtrak station in Philadelphia is surprisingly nice. Fabulous, actually. A large food court offers lots of different food choices, and there's a nice variety of shops in the terminal.
Just being in the Philly Amtrak station gave me the feeling that our trip was going to be full of thrills and action.
Our next scheduled stop on this same trip was to be in Wilton, Connecticut. Online, while still in Santa Fe, we bought Amtrak tickets from Philly to Bridgeport, CT, where we could grab a regional train to Norwalk, a town very close to Wilton. The 30th Street Amtrak station in Philadelphia is surprisingly nice. Fabulous, actually. A large food court offers lots of different food choices, and there's a nice variety of shops in the terminal.
Just being in the Philly Amtrak station gave me the feeling that our trip was going to be full of thrills and action.
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