Today’s dawn pictured above. Things are getting breezy as of this afternoon [pictured below], but nothing too crazy yet. The sky was sunny and clear for most of the morning, however things have started to cloud over now. Suprisingly, there’s been very little rain so far — I suspect that’ll change though. And soon.

I’ll edit this entry when I’ve got some pictures of stuff really blowin’ around.

Friday 7:50pm edit: Ike has produced some glorious evening skies:

Saturday 8:30am edit: Finally the flickering power has settled enough for an entry. It seems we’re some of the lucky few to have it — over 2.5 million do not at the moment. Ike really got rolling here around 3am, and I attempted some long exposure shots in the dark, hoping to catch the whipping trees and rain. Between transformers blowing, flashes of lightning, and the sulphurous glow of the then-remaining streetlamps, the image is eerie.

The last of the eyewall eventually came sluggishly screaming past shortly after sunrise. One hundred mile per hour wind gusts made outdoor photography unwise, but I did risk a bit by pressing myself to a rattling upper storey window for a shot of the outside world. I would’ve tried for a more dramatic shot, since this one doesn’t really capture the awesome sideways-ness of the trees [being between gusts it seems], but an ominous cracking sound prompted me to rethink the merits of being downstairs.

Saturday 10:26am edit — Well for me it’s a harsh loss, but it certainly pales in comparison to some — my laptop is apparently dead. For now, I’m left working on mom’s dinosaur of a machine. It’s not optimal, but it’ll do.

Saturday 10:05pm edit: Through determined fussing with the computer, and with an epiphany brought on by a rejuvenating catnap, I managed to bring the laptop back to life by ripping the battery out of the back of it and blistering it with a creative string of profanity. I highly recommend this procedure for all recalcitrant bits of technology. That being said, I’m awfully tired after some intensive post-Ike cleaning up. I didn’t have much time to snap new shots of the destruction, and even if I had, the atmosphere was so sodden I would’ve probably had to’ve resorted to blistering the camera with profanity to bring it back to life.

And now I’m off to sleep in the silence, which seems so strange.

So I decided to go poke Ike in the eye. Luckily enough, Mom lives in prime storm country.

The drive down was adventuresome — people were palpably frantic, and even normally quiet backroads were jammed with the desperate. Cattle trucks, hay haulers, and minivans stuffed to the gills with supplies were commonplace. Driver courtesy, however, was not.

I plan to document as much of the hurricane as possible, and although my blog might not have up-to-the-minute coverage of the events, I hope that I at least get some interesting shots to post later. I spent yesterday snapping photos of anything I could think of; merely to have a frame of reference for “before and after” shots of possible havoc wreaking.

Mom’s lush array of fragile, tropical flowers seemed likely candidates for immediate annihilation by Ike’s winds, so I snapped a few shots of the “floral chorus”.

Of course, a stormy-ish sky shot:

Things should get *really* interesting by this afternoon.

More from me later — it’s time to batten down the hatches!

I know I’m beyond tardy in posting these, but better late than never, eh? These are a selection of photographs I took during the trip home from West Virginia. Yes, many of them are heavily photoshopped — some are not. Why? Because I found the originals to be exceptionally boring.

That, and it rained almost the entire time.

Well, I made it all the way to the wilds of West Virginia and returned home safely.

Pictured above: the 44 foot wall at the Della Brown Taylor Gallery. From left to right — Snowbird, Red Crow, Black Apple, Homesick, Bird Circus, October Trio, and Crow Bar.

I have over 500 photographs to sort through, so while this entry is short, rest assured others will be longer and photo-filled!

Again, many thanks to Professor Brent Thomas and the rest of the WVSU crew for all their help with the show.

As promised, albeit a bit late, there are now 6 prints for purchase in the brand spankin’ly new photography section of Solocrow’s Online Artables, including the dapper little fellow above.

Click here to get your fix.

Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

I’m back on native soil [such as it is]. I haven’t made my usual round of public appearances, instead preferring an intensive period of power introversion. My typical post-touring move.

Oh, and the extreme case of food poisoning helped with The Avoidance of All Things Public.

In any event, I’m supposed to be rewriting my artist’s statement for an upcoming solo show, but I’m here procrastinating instead. Notice a trend, anyone?

For the curious, I thought I’d offer the following press release. Just to clear a few things up, of course.

1. No, I did not get married.

2. Yes, my birthday involved drinking and half naked sweaty vikings and drums. Iceland is like Vegas. I’ll say no more on the subject.

3. Yes, I wound up playing the ukulele on a remote island capital [Tórshavn] in a restaurant called Rio Bravo of all things.

4. No, I did not catch anything on fire.

5. Yes, there was a Wild and Crazy Icelandic guy decked out in a powder blue leisure suit that queried, “You be my woman? I have money” three nights in a row.

6. No, I didn’t accept his offer.

7. No, I didn’t make it to the phallological museum to check out the whale weiners on display. Sorry, Melis.

8. Yes, the sun never set while I was there.

That is all. For now.

I’m exhausted and have a great case of my usual airport ebola. I feel like someone stuck all my nerve endings on the outside of my body and then decided to sandblast them just for shits and giggles. Ought to make navigating my way to JFK exceptionally interesting. Time for me to crawl gingerly out of bed here, take more overpriced international ibuprofen, and to see if I can’t manage to cram some pickled fish down my throat [with coffee of course] for a late breakfast.

Although I wish I could just stay in bed and peek out at the world like this seagull.

Yes, they have them even here in the Faroes. I caught this one yesterday on Mykines. The islands are very beautiful, and it looks like I’ll hafta get off my ass and finally install that photo gallery to do this round of photographs justice.

I’ll also set up some new products for Solocrow’s Online Artables once I get some free time [and a slightly speedier connection!]

Here’s a pointy Faroese rock:

Okay, I’m too busy to keep resizing these things; besides they’re more interesting as larger images. Back to Iceland tomorrow, and then into JFK on Saturday. Someone do me a favor and hunt up a good image gallery for WordPress. Thanks.

That’s right folks, it’s time for yet another sojourn to the frosty wilds of my ancestors [Iceland, to be more specific]. Today I should be packing — tomorrow, I should be leaving. I bet I decide to multitask tomorrow. *screams silently into the aether*

More wailing, gnashing of teeth, and updates to follow my procrastination progress later.

[Oh, and that's a photo I took last year in Thingvellir].