Hello again, readers!

I realize I haven’t updated this blog in forever, and I have good excuses for that. The main ones are work, mononucleosis, and work again, in that order. I’m actually still kinda under the weather and tired out easy, which gives me a good excuse to stay at home and work on music instead of this blog.

In the meantime, though, Chelsea and I spent a little bit of time yesterday enjoying the solstice parade in the quirky Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. I brought my camera with me, but I didn’t really think of the outing in photographic terms – I wanted to enjoy the parade, and enjoy being out and about without stressing myself and my body too much.

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Exif Data For The Selected Image
Camera Make	OM Digital Solutions
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Lens Model	Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-100mm f/4 IS PRO
Focal Length	47mm
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The parade bills itself as a kaleidoscope of human expression, and that is absolutely true. It was a joyful, joyful event, with people being absolutely psyched to welcome summer, and with a great variety of body paint, costumes, and floats. Written words are banned per the wishes of the Fremont Art Council. Creativity and expression rule the day.

The first portion of the parade, or perhaps the pre-parade consisted of a great variety of cyclists, many of whom were nude.

So, yes I caution that many of the photos in this post include nudity. Please take that into account and continue reading!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you probably know that I’ve been participating in 52 Frames, a creative exercise consisting of weekly photography challenges. There are 52 weeks in a year, hence the name.

I started doing this in January 2021, and I managed to continue doing it for 114 weeks straight, a little over 26 months. And then I missed some…

The amount of energy I’ve had to devote to blog posts this month is… low.

And there were good reasons for it, like having 16 unexpected visitors (❤) or spending a weekend walking up and down some hills.

So let’s get into it!

Alright, we’re back with the fourth annual Eurovision First Impressions post, taking a look at each entry into the Eurovision Song Competition for this year.

This year we have entrants from 37 countries, fewer than recent years. Bulgaria, Montenegro, and North Macedonia all withdrew citing financial constraints, which is a pity because they are all countries I am enthusiastic about seeing in the competition. (And yes, they are countries that have delivered some top tier bangers.)

My expectations are somewhat diminished, as I have foreknowledge that many of the entrants are singing primarily in English (possibly in a greater proportion than previous years), and because I have on good authority that there are a lot of rock songs in here.

Do I want Eurovision to rock?

Most certainly not.

Joining me for this endeavor is Chelsea, who you may recall from last year’s post, or from being mentioned all the time on this site.

Chelsea’s pal Brit, who has never watched any Eurovision anything ever, is also in town and her commentary enriches this post.

Together, we listened to all 37 songs for the first time, and I did my best to jot down the comments and conversation. And so, dear reader, we hope that you’ll enjoy our takes.

By the barometer of “I think I have seasonal affective disorder, and I deeply, deeply, deeply long for the sun to come out”, February has been a shockingly lovely month. There have simply been more sunny days than I would have imagined, even if its end has been marked with frigid temperatures and dustings of snow.

Fortunately, I’ve had other reasons to be loving this month, though it has not been without its frustrations.

Read on to hear about how quickly this short month has gone by!

For whatever reason (probably my long dormant desire to be an academic), I’ve decided to write lil reviews of stuff I’ve read and stick them on my blog.

And so now, as promised, I give you, dear reader, my impressions of a diverse set of books I read later 2022. Yippee!

The five books under discussion cover geographies from Sweden, to Alberta, to Harlem, and topics from street portrait photography, to international geopolitics, to insanity. Perhaps one of them will pique your interest.

Sometimes timing is everything.

Wintertime visitors to Franklin Falls need to be aware of a few things when they plan their visit. In particular it would be ideal to time a visit around three things: avalanche risk (undesirable and potentially fatal), freezing temperatures (desirable), and crowds (probably undesirable but not fatal).

Provided you time it right, and you are equipped with microspikes or similar, the hike to Franklin Falls is easy, fun, and rewarding.