Carriage House

See also Light In August

Saxophone Solo - Carnegie Hall Feb 21, 1963

Not my photos. A week ago some guy was going on an on about John Coltrane, so I went to the library and got John Coltrane & Thelonious Monk at Carnegie Hall and Dave Brubeck Quartet at Carnegie Hall. I listened to John Coltrane & Thelonious Monk and of course Monk was very good and Coltrane did a respectable job but it seemed like Coltrane was just filling the slot, the saxophone man, it was Monk's show.

Then I listened to a recording which I have heard probably a thousand times "Blue Rondo a la Turk" Paul Desmond at Carnegie Hall February 21, 1963. I wore out two copies of this album in the early 60s before I got a tape deck. I am not a Paul Desmond fan really, but this solo is perfect, brilliant, flawless virtuosity ...

OK, it is absurd to compare Coltrane with Desmond. They didn't even play the same instrument. Desmond was a clarinet player who converted to alto sax and hated playing a tenor but did it early on to make money. Desmond played the alto as if it were a clarinet, spending most of his time very high up. He played a full octave above the altos designed range. Although he quoted frequently from Bird, Stan Getz ... his style was so distinctive that it didn't fit into any identifiable contemporary school.

I was a Brubeck fan and when Desmond was playing with Brubeck I liked what he did most of the time. His other work with Jim Hall and numerous others was good but not the same as his work with Brubeck. I had two of his Jim Hall collaborations Take Ten and Bosa Antigua. They were OK, but didn't listen to them much.

Late Summer

See also Two Windows and Box Fan and Two Windows with Flags

Pipeline

Attic Window

Laundromat

Awning

This was shot in Seattle standing on the waterfront and looking back toward town under the Alaskan Way Viaduct. What caught my eye was the light playing over the wall. It was a long shot, 300mm which I have long considered the ideal focal length for 35mm photography.

The Wall

This wall is in a small parking lot just across First Avenue from Pioneer Square in Seattle. Forty years ago this was the location of Ellroy's Ice Cream Parlor which offered a monstrous dish called the Pioneer Square Sunday. If anyone was willing and able to single handedly consume one these the event was recorded with a photograph permanently displayed on the wall. The elapsed time for consumption was also recorded, typically several hours.

Across the Parking lot from Ellroy's was The Penthouse, a jazz club that featured big name artists. My favorite groups didn't play there. Brubeck and MJQ who preferred concert halls to clubs. Thelonious Monk, Herbie Man, Paul Horn, Stan Getz, Jerry Mulligan and a host of others did gigs at The Penthouse. You had to be 21 years old to get in and by the time I was legal age The Penthouse was no more.

Dead White European Feminists

OK, not all really European, one is English, two Americans and a German. Why is Virginia Woolf on top? Because she wrote To The Lighthouse, which is arguably the greatest work of art in the English language of the 20th century. The photo of Gertrude Stein in front of her portrait painted by Picasso is the kindest photo of her I could find. Leni Riefenstahl and Ann Morrow Lindbergh probably don't make it into most textbooks on Feminism because they were not from the left bank.

Cross Wires

Black Light

Pigeons

Dark Door

White Door - Red Brick

Sunday Morning

The faded blue denim looks good against all the old brick. I figured this guy was probably a Mariners fan who arrived early for the game and decided to catch a few rays in a quite spot near the stadium. This shot was taken one block south of SkidRoad (Yesler) just west of Post Alley. The street wasn't busy, I was shooting standing in the middle of the street and from the alley. I stood off zoomed out to 300mm to keep from being intrusive. He knew I was shooting but didn't seem to give a damn.

Loading Dock

Ductwork

Light In August

I spent about half an hour and fifty exposures on this. The sun was coming in and out of the clouds with the light changing dramatically all the time so I moved around and kept changing the exposure and bracketing over and under.

Moto Guzzi

For some reason this shot reminds me of the opening scene from the classic film Lawrence of Arabia. This shot was taken from above looking down on an ally north of Pike Place just below First Ave in Seattle. The opening frames of Lawrence of Arabia show a motorcycle shot from above, a somewhat steeper angle but the effect is similar.

T.E. Lawrence didn't ride a Moto Guzzi on the day of his accident he was riding a Brough Superior.

Two Seats