Fuller Duck

12/28/2012, Fuller Craft Museum, MA

Built By The People And Dedicated To The Advancement Of...

12/31/2012, Boston First Night Celebration, Ice Sculpture

Every year at Boston's First Night celebration they have several large carved ice sculptures.

This sculpture was particularly timely since the US federal "fiscal cliff" stalemate between Republicans and Democrats was still in progress (and still is, sigh).  Before nightfall, the sculpture looked as above, seemingly showing the Republican and Democrat icons celebrating the release of doves.  The carved stone inscription on the Boston Public Library in the background seems appropriate.

12/31/2012, Boston First Night Celebration, Ice Sculpture

Revisiting the sculpture later at night, a crowd of frozen protesters has appeared, or, perhaps they were raising their arms in celebration?  Hard to say, politics can get quite chilling at times.  Many interpretations could be make of this cold piece of carved art -- that makes for good art, right?

Raven about those shoes

12/29/2012, deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Lincoln, MA

While out for a chilly bird walk before the New Year, I found that the walking birds were also wearing shoes...

here's looking at you

I took this shot in December 2011 looking up at a winter sky at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Lincoln, MA).  I love this place.   You can see a picture of the full sculpture back in 2010 on my earlier blog post.

National Medal of Science

 12/29/2011, Canon G12

A National Medal of Science on display at the MIT Museum.

2012

Canon G12, iso 160, 1/10, f3.5

I'd like to wish all my blog readers a belated Happy New Year and best wishes for good health and happiness in the new year! 

While visiting friends over the holidays I was able to attend Boston's First Night celebration New Year's Eve -- had a great time wandering town catching some great concerts and seeing some of the large carved ice sculptures like the one above.  I was really impressed with how well the MBTA subway system was working that night with the crowds -- we caught a total of 9 different subway connectons during the evening as we moved between events.

So, what to expect my blog for 2012?

• more photos, possibly taking it up a notch with some recent additions to my camera equipment
• more posts concerning "new to me" experiences - I did this a few years ago and found it very fulfilling to seek out new things -- found some favorite things I wouldn't have found otherwise.  Counting and tracking these things is a good way to encourage me to keep my eyes open for more, sorry if some of them aren't particularly interesting at times.
• links to other interesting blog posts elsewhere that I may run into from time to time
• more text, as time allows, to flush out experiences and thoughts

[new to me: attended Boston First Night #1, including an outstanding Pipe Organ Concert in Old South Church #2, First Night Procession parade #3, Parkington Sisters #4 and Mavis Staples #5 concerts at Symphony Hall, Fireworks over Boston Harbor #6 ]

room for reading, reading room

The incredible reading room at the Boston Public Library

Stata Center for Computer, Information and Intelligence Sciences @ MIT

 Back in December I had the chance to enjoy a nice winter walk around the MIT campus with a friend and finally got to see the very interesting STATA building and take some pictures.  Wow!  I'm not sure how to describe it, perhaps "a sci-fi building caught in an earthquake warped in a spacial anomaly and conceived in a Dr. Suess book"?

Lots of interesting shapes, angles, reflections

and if you look closely in some windows you'll find looking back out at you...  very appropriate for a building right out a sci-fi book...

sunlight reflections off chrome parts of the building

even have some trees scattered about

quite a few other people also gazing up at this building and taking pictures

More info on the STATA Center for Computer, Information and Intelligence Sciences here.

[Links: I've added two more of the blogs that I follow to my favorite blogs sidebar on my blog.  Tom Check of Tombo's Blog is off exploring the country again and has posted some excellent pictures of the Canyonlands and Monument Valley.  Lisa, a bird and wildlife researcher writes the Got Flycatchers? blog -- well written and interesting.]

deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum



 I had a great time visiting the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Lincoln, MA) with friends this week.   Lots of interesting modern art sculptures out playing in the snow like the two headed creature above.

Pine cone people lurking under a tree

yours truly at a forest doorway

one of the more interesting entry booths that I've seen