Saber Cat

This cat's in front of the Texas Memorial Museum. We went to the opening of an excellent exhibit on evolution. Over wine and cheese, a vertebrate paleontologist was telling a climatologist that they'd been finding cold-weather species and warm-weather species right in the same layer in a recent dig. Climatologist replied that one species in retreat and one in advance could happen, did happen in the past, in periods of rapid climate change. I've lived with a climatologist for some 18 years now. Recent news on melting in the Arctic is freaking me out. See also this strange image of ice boulders in Greenland.

Canadian Takes on Green Chili Cook-Off

Canadian-born newcomer to Texas, Michael Tobis, was one of five finalists in Central Market's Hatch Green Chili Cooking Contest.

Although he never knew a green chili as a child, and he only tasted his first taco in his late 20s, he was inspired to create his "Free Totta" (or "Texas Frittata") within a couple of months of moving to Texas earlier this year. Competing with professional chefs and caterers, he did did not actually win the contest, but he held his own and was afterwards complimented by several of the celebrity judges.

The tasty recipe will be included in a new cookbook to be published later this month.

Latte Art

At Jo's on South Congress it's not just another pretty flower.

Bagging the iPhone

I figured this would be a documentary photo opportunity.

iPhone release date in Austin, Texas - 6/29/07 - see the slideshow.

Words and Pictures

I've been reading Scott McCloud's book, Understanding Comics. I've also been at my local coffee shop, practicing for my documentary photography class. When I was processing the photos a little story appeared. Take a look at this documentary fumetti (comics with photos instead of drawings). I'm really quite pleased with it.

Coffee Shop

I'm taking a documentary photography class. It's just great hearing Todd Williams talk photography. I wasn't finding time to got out & shoot, so I finally just set my alarm for 6:30a, an hour earlier than usual, and headed out to Quack's, the coffee shop close to my house. "Weet for the Laaht", Todd said a dozen times, so I did. The light really was wonderful. I saw colors I never had seen there before. I had never even noticed that the chairs were green. It's a different crowd, that time of day, not the same characters I usually see there. I also got a few shots at Jo's one afternoon a few weeks ago.

A Paper Moon (not even on paper yet actually)

I've been checking out a photo club, the Austin Shutterbugs. This month "moonrise or moonset" was the special assignment up for critique. Others in the club had had a year to get this together, but I just got here so I didn't have time to go out and shoot the moon. I had just been out shooting some Texas wildflowers, tho, so I whipped up this "night and day" composite.

The Prairie – Chicago to Austin

1100+ miles. Lots of prairie.

En route from Chicago to Joplin, as Michael was driving, I just had my little old point-and-shoot camera. It's a sport, trying to frame a shot at that speed, but I did get a few nice shots right through the window as the beautiful prairie whizzed by. (The next day, Joplin to Austin, I got my better camera, the one that Mama just gave me for Christmas, out of the suitcase. The focus was much better, but the day was cloudless and the prairie was just plain flat.)

The camera remembers better than I do how vast it is out there. It's all agriculture. That's what's so astounding. How did we ever manage that? It should be grassland, with buffalo. But it's all cropland now, and miles and miles of road and telephone poles.