From WISH-TV morning news. We’re going to do another interview about my “Big Things” photography, on June 29th. This time we’re going to film first and they’ll put it all together and broadcast it, and they’ll go grab shots of some of my favorite stuff around the city. I have to decide which Big Thing I should do the interview near, though, and it has to be in Indianapolis. Check out all the sites I have, and let me know what you think I should pick in a comment.
It’s been a couple of weeks, but I finally got my pictures edited from our Big Things photography trip to Louisville, Kentucky. I love this city! In a lot of ways it’s more sophisticated that Indianapolis. Much better arts. Their historic areas are huge and much better preserved than in Indianapolis, and their downtown is in way better shape than here. There seems to be a lot more to do there, too.
And I’d like to point out that one of the many things that I adore about my wonderful girlfriend is that she’s willing to jump into my “big things” photos to show perspective. Check out the cute picture of her inside the giant baseball glove.
Stephanie and I took a trip to Louisville this weekend to take some Big Things pictures. On Saturday, we visited the giant Colgate clock, the giant bat at Louisville Slugger Museum (another giant bat at the costume shop down the street) and a huge coffee pot at the Lynn’s Paradise Cafe.
We also went to the Louisville Zoo to see Gorilla Forest, the huge exhibit of gorillas. The zoo is really huge and very pretty and the weather was perfect for a visit. Gorillas are cool.
Once we got back Saturday night, I discovered I’d left my cell phone at the restaurant, so we drove back down yesterday to retrieve it. We ate again at the Paradise Cafe, which has really cool decor and a neat gift shop. We took pictures of a giant stone statue of hands, too. On the way back, we started brainstorming creating an art car, which Stephanie wants to do, with my help. We have a very fun idea. Also, I want to make a dining room table. It sounds silly, but we have a fun idea for one.
I like Louisville; it’s very pretty.
So I found out today that the article that Nuvo Newsweekly is doing on my Big Things Photo collections will be a cover article. I have to go in for an additional photo shoot this evening and the article will run in the January 5th issue.
This weekend my grandparents and Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Gerald came from Iowa to visit my family, and they came to see my house on Saturday morning. I got to show off everything I’ve done so far, and stuff I plan to do in the near future.
On Sunday Stephanie and I went to my dads for Christmas presents and Christmas brunch at the country club, which was very nice.
I’m being interviewed by a reporter from Nuvo tonight about my “Big Things” Photo Galleries, so in honor of the occasion, I’ve added tons of photos to the galleries. I’d been behind in adding things for awhile, even though I’ve been taking photos constantly over the last year. Now all my new pics are added, with the exception of some photos that my friend Eric took for me in Minnesota. I have to research exactly where they’re located before I throw them into the mix.
There are a handful of new photos in the Indianapolis section, some of them updates of things I already had and some are new inflatables I spotted. There are a lot of new photos in the “Indiana and Beyond” section, because I took a few day trips and also added things I photographed on the way to my grandmother’s house last year.
I have a brand new tracking system at home now, too, with an Indiana map on my office wall with all the new big things marked that I need to locate.
Virginia county tries to remove giant fiberglass pig from Barbecue business because it’s tacky and makes the area look bad. Sadly, story doesn’t include a picture of the pig.
I drove to my grandmother’s house in Brighton, Iowa on Wednesday last week. Brighton is in south eastern Iowa, an hour north and west of Burlington. My younger brother Gary went with me, and he was very cool to ride with because he’s interesting and funny, despite the constant backseat driving. 🙂 He’s twenty-five, single and a Wabash graduate, BTW, in case you know any single girls. We stopped in Peoria, Illinois on the way to get photos of the Uniroyal Gal. We stayed at the Super 8 Motel in Washington, Iowa, which is about 13 miles north of Brighton, because Brighton doesn’t actually have a motel. It’s rather small.
Uniroyal Gal, Peoria, Ill
My three other brothers all drove also; Todd and Paul drove their new trucks, too. Paul hit a deer on the way, unfortunately, and damaged the front of his truck, which I just realized I should have taken a picture of, but didn’t.
On Thursday, we all stayed around Grandma’s and ate dinner, then opened Christmas presents. All the male relatives got gag underwear, which they tried on over their pants for a photo. My grandmother gave us beautiful plates that she hand-painted herself, which will I will be hanging in my dining room.
On Friday, we went to the Amana Colonies to eat at the Ox Yoke Inn and to shop. The Amana Colonies were formed in 1854 by a german religious order who bought 18,000 acres of land in Iowa. They aren’t Amish, although there is a large Amish settlement nearby in Kalona, Iowa. Kalona is where we stop to get cheese curds every year. I bought a lot of great things this year at the Amana Colonies, including wine and beer for New Years Eve.
On Saturday we stopped at my aunt Rosemary’s farm for cinnamon rolls and coffee (recipe for the rolls will be posted soon!) and then started the six hour drive home.
A refrigerator sized limestone rock, 40 feet high in a tree. This 1,000 pound wonder sways with the wind way up in an oak tree in the Yellow Wood state forest in southern Indiana. Did it rise with the tree’s growth? Artistic vandals? No one knows… A great excuse for a walk in the woods.
At that time, there wasn’t a photo of it on the site, so I was going to get one myself. I wandered around in the woods following the directions for several hours and ran across several hunters and horseback riders, but I never found the rock.
I have asked others that live there in Bloomington about this, and it turns out many have seen it. How something that large could have got there is unknown to me (my guess is a tornado). I had my GPS and recorded the location: GPS N 39*12.604, W 086*22.314.
Update: Mystery author Terence Faherty published a short story called “No Mystery” based on the rock in the tree in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in April 2011 and in a short story collection called Tales of the Star Republic. In the story he gives the most plausible explanation of how the rocks got up in the tree. I won’t spoil the answer for you; you should read it for yourself.
