A lovely egg dish

A very nice egg dish from brunch at Knife and Fork several weeks ago. If you are, as I am, a fan of these ridiculous little animated GIFs, you will probably enjoy looking at this GIF festival from Art Basel Miami.

Many Menorahs

At Ben and Cedar's on Saturday night it was noted that while one menorah is very nice, many menorahs is even better.

Happy Hanukkah, y'all

By request at open mic night in Spruce Pine. 

With top hat and lamby

With his top hat, his microphone, and, finally, with his lamby, Jeff Goodman prodded, cajoled, and entertained a lively crowd at the Arthur Morgan School auction and helped raise thousands of dollars for the AMS scholarship fund (not to mention the upcoming AMS zipline!).

Turkey Trot

Grandmaster Raskin explaining the potential hazards of leaf-covered roots and rocks to the assembled company just before the annual Celo Inn Pre-Prandial Turkey Trot (an informal 5K run/walk).

And off they go to boogaloo down Hannah Branch.

Carol Henry's grandson Caleb McMahon showed off his beautiful new Bach trombone in the Celo Inn parking lot when it was all over.

Luca through the pinhole

My friend Betsy and I taught a pinhole camera workshop for some Mitchell High School art students. My grandson Luca came by to visit and was good enough to sit still for 5 seconds while I made this picture of him. The craziness behind him is the Northlight building at Penland School. The camera was made from a tin can, so the film plane was curved rather than flat, which is why there's so much extreme distortion.

The Blacks, always the Blacks

The snowcapped Blacks from Blue Rock Road during the insane sunset on the evening of October 31.

Here's the picture Tal Galton took near his house around the same time.

 And here's a jaunty cloud over Celo Knob a few days later, seen from Penland.

Autumn Leaves

Patricia Palmer has been been making these beautiful pictures of fall leaves, and she sent some over to share.

Jacks of the Lantern

For the tenth year in a row, Phillip Mitchell and family plus a bunch of pumpkin carving volunteers made magic on the bridge by displaying 100 Jack 'O Lanterns. Word of this phenomenon has spread and there was a steady stream of cars. Here's a selection.

Pacman and ghost.

Mari carved the characters for fall, winter, spring, and summer.

Warning! Zombie! Run!

Excellent black spider.

Fantastic.

Spectacular.

Classic.

What I learned in Philly

I was in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago taking a workshop in making audio slideshows. The workshop was sponsored by the Center for Digital Storytelling. I made this short piece about an experience I had teaching at Penland. 

Micarniville

There's going to be a carnival in Micaville this weekend. A small carnival by the looks of it. I have no idea what to expect, but I will report back.

Tal points the way

Tal pointing at something, somewhere between Upper Browns Creek and Celo Nob on another ridiculously beautiful October day.

Sunlight, yellow leaves--lovely on a golden afternoon.

Philly sk8er

I loved the look of this kid who sat opposite from me on the train when I was in Philadelphia last week. On the back of his phone, it said, in letters that looked like they were written in White-Out,

LIVE
SK8
DIE

Rural Academy Theater in Burnsville Town Square

Last night,  a beautiful horse-drawn wagon came to rest in the Burnsville Town square. In the chill of the evening, with an enthusiastic crowd drawing close for warmth and a good view, seven spirited and quirky performers transported us with old-world traveling-show technology-critique lantern-lit bicycle-powered silent-movie live-music tuba-flute-fiddle happiness.

Bubbles and Goldenrod

New Bouncy Bridge

After 15 years of service, the old bouncy bridge over Little White Oak Creek on the path from the soccer field to AMS needed to be replaced.  Yesterday, 40 people, including many AMS students and staff, helped move three 35 foot locust logs into position, cut out the old bridge, and install new decking.

Gib lends Eric a hand as he installs a pulley on a tree in Silver Cove to pull out the first log.

AMS students, staff and friends carry a log to the creek.

Gib and Randy contemplate engineering choices.

Logs are rolled into place.

Brian and Emmet look on.

The crew stays late to nail down the decking.

Fall!

Jeff juggling at the beach

This is an animation, so you may need to wait a minute for it to load. It's worth clicking on to see it bigger (which will also work with any other picture on the blog).

Occupy Hardees?

So, does this reflect the influence of the the Occupy movement?

Viva La Evolucion

A sun gold bloody mary with rainbow chard swizzle stick: the drink of the people.

On the great plains of Micaville

Teepees going up for this weekend's pow-wow at the old Taylor Togs plant.

Who'd a thunk it?

Democracy Now host Amy Goodman signing books at Appalachian Java just after giving a high-energy presentation at the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival. In Burnsville!

sun at the top of the Blacks: evening August 9, morning August 10

This is how good...

This is how good the food was at Knife and Fork last night. My friend Chris said he'd never drunk from a plate at a restaurant before, but he didn't want to waste the tasty pool of loveliness on his plate. I got Wendy to come over and encourage him. She told him it was the highest form of praise.

Carl jams

Carl jams with some guests at the always-great Peverall summer party.

Tone drum hands.

Bowling ball pendulums, again

Many of you probably remember Jeff's pendulum wave project from this winter. If not, you can catch up here. The first version was a temporary construction behind the soccer field, but this summer Jeff made a permanent installation at his house. A few people got together to help him set it up.

Here's Polly attaching the bowling balls. 

Here's the finished project in action. After it was set up, Jeff had the idea of putting little clappers on the bottom of each bowling ball and then putting a pot or a vase or a piece of metal or something that makes a sound when struck underneath each ball. So now when you release pendulums you get a little percussion piece that changes as the pendulum wave goes through its cycle.