Month: September 2015

Old friend Tracy, who works at Elkhorn Media Group, brings our attention to this piece:

Read Vijith Assar’s “An Interactive Guide to Ambiguous Grammar” in this McSweeney’s piece to see how meaning can be easily distorted and even lost:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-interactive-guide-to-ambiguous-grammar

(My apologies if this seems redundant, as I already made some friends aware of this a few days ago.)

Map the Syrian civilian population outflows with the interactive graphics here:

http://qz.com/498808/follow-the-flow-of-syrian-civilians-from-the-middle-east-to-western-europe/

Scattered about amid the bushes and trees we find all manner of VW camping rigs and their owners and families.  Only a drone could provide a photographic vantage point to take it all in with a single sweep (and, in fact, did during last year’s reunion).  People were just arriving and setting up camp today, and many more are expected throughout the weekend.  Mostly from Oregon, Washington and Idaho, but I have been told that previous events have seen attendees from all across the country, and some cross international borders.  

During my brief visit today, I met a number of folks in various walks of life with stories to tell about their travels and their vehicles.  A couple of portraits were grabbed along the way.

Today we venture across the valley to Catherine Creek, where the Wet Westies — a VW camping enthusiast group — gather for their 19th annual weekend at the State Park.  

Learn about Wet Westies (co-founded by JamesA, an engineer and former German car tuner, whose hot-rod VW camper has appeared in these posts before, and who has been a co-conspirator in things ranging from computers to Porsches and beyond) by clicking here.

Another tedious visit to my doctor, where we have to endure the almost-unreadable collection of magazines (however, this time Kim managed to find an acceptably recent issue of Time), the almost-unbearable display of dozens of Thomas Kinkade reproductions, and just the wait itself.  This is where an occasional  infliction of pain is almost a welcome distraction.  And it is the setting that inspires my new project and its Internet domain name, banalphotos.com.