Casa Blanca

At the south end of Scott Circle in Washington DC is 16th Street.

If you had a telescope, and could hold it very steady, you could see whatever was off in the distance at the end of the 1600 block of any intersecting street. Say, Pennsylvania Avenue.

If you look closely, you'll see a statue of Andrew Jackson on horseback in front of the White House. Spin around 180° and there's the statue of Scott in Scott Circle, also on horseback.

Scott Circle

I'm in DC for a short stay this week, and staying in a different part of town. My hotel's along Scott Circle, a place I've driven through several times while captive in the back of a taxi or shuttle van. There's an impressive statue of mounted General Winfield Scott in the center of the roundabout, with other statues of unrelated figures on the west and east. A couple of buildings here on the circle are the embassies of Australia and the Philippines.

Ready For My Close Up

I got in trouble seeing some old friends the other day — I hadn't put up any recent pictures of the kids.

Remember that bright red toothpaste called Close Up that always had people kissing in the commercial? Do they still make that?

Might As Well Jump

The kids rediscovered Claire's old crib mattress in the basement and remembered it made a great sled for the carpeted stairs. Malcolm and Carter got on together and did some tobogganing.

When they finished, Claire decided it also worked well as a pad for her daring jumps onto her knees from a high step. Someday when she becomes a stunt double in Hollywood, you'll know where she got her start.

I have 58 pictures of her jumping off the stairs, and I did not photograph every jump she made. This kind of energy displacement is what Joanie's up against every day.

Berkshires

The drive three hours east from Albany to Boston crosses through the Berkshire Mountains in lovely western Massachusetts. Local resident James Taylor mentions the Berkshires in his song Sweet Baby James.

This is a hilltop just a little west of the where the Appalachian Trail crosses I-90. I pulled over on the way home to try to capture the detail in the layers of bare branches. The hilltop came out of the camera as a solid gray mass, but I used a technique in this month's Popular Photography to expand the range of shades in the trees.

Colonial Inn

Last week I had an overnight trip to Boston. Usually I stay in a place from a major hotel chain, but for this trip the group I was presenting to set up reservations at the Colonial Inn in Concord, Mass. The place has been in operation since 1716, so the floor squeaks with every step, but it was a fine place to stay.

When I checked in there was music coming from the tavern in the back, so I wandered over with my luggage to find an eight-piece traditional jazz band playing, Jimmy Mazzy and the Last Minutemen. Jimmy's on banjo and sings like Louis Armstrong, and the band included clarinet, trombone, cornet, concertina, drums, grandma on the piano, and a bassist playing a stick with a drapery cord on it.

There was no cover charge, but it looked to me you had to be over 70 to get in.

Here's a song they did, I quite enjoyed them.

Help Wanted: Partridge With Bum Nose

Pear trees are in bloom this week and are glorious to behold.

But have you ever smelled one? Go whiff for yourself, you'll see what I mean. It's like a portable john.

Good thing birds don't have noses.

The Driskill

The Driskill is a beautiful and historic hotel I visited a few years ago, it's one of the top five nicest places I've ever stayed at.

It's all about Texas history, and the room decor features ancient maps and documents of Texas history. It's already gorgeous with the marble and stained glass and the furry cowhide chairs ... but then they have cookies and milk at night, which puts them over the top.

The centerpiece of the glowing copper ceiling common area is a sculpture called Widow Maker. The cowboy in front has his boot caught in a stirrup and is being dragged to his death by his horse; meanwhile his companion is in desperate chase, trying to kill the horse to save his friend's life.

Night Rider

On the way back to my hotel in Austin one night I found some biker dudes practicing tricks in a parking garage. One kid had a high-end video camera and was recording the action.

As I came up with my big SLR another kid next to the videographer (he must have also been on camera crew) asked me what f-stop I could get out of my lens. It was a test — to see if I knew what I was doing. I told him it was f/1.8 and that I could shoot 6 fps. I was accepted.

Sixth Street

Downtown Austin has a lot going on at night between the restaurants, bars and bands, especially on Sixth Street. You can play pool (I lost five games straight to my former work friend), take in some bands, people watch, get a tattoo, have a tattoo removed, etc.

Walking through on a Thursday night I found at least four places with live music spilling out into the street, and here are a couple recordings of the scene there. If you like 12-bar blues, this is the place for you.

Austin Harmonica

Austin Slow Guitar

Yellow Story

More Texas roadside wildflowers. What you see here is an idyllic scene of spring. But all I remember from this shoot is I really had to go to the bathroom. Bad.

I worked fast, packed up and found a restroom at a pizza place. And that's where I found the patch of bluebonnets and cactus together.

Indian Paintbrush

Another wildflower sighting from my Austin trip. This one was on the median of the highway, so I had to be covert. I ran across one side when the traffic thinned out, then dropped to the ground ... there was a hill blocking the view on one side, but I'm sure people going the other way saw me out there laying on my big white hotel towel.

It's probably not illegal to pick these, but I'm guessing it's frowned upon to lay in the highway median.