SCOTT OF THE ANTARTIC

Last Sunday I saw a great documentary at Steve's house: a silent film documenting Scott's heartbreaking 1912 British expedition to the South Pole. 

The ship was the Terra Nova. Bad weather and unusually dense ice cost the expedition an extra 20 days during which significant amounts of coal and oil were lost.  

After landfall base camp #1 was established. The men took movies of themselves playing baseball with snowballs and chasing penguins. 

Land transport would be by dogsled, backed up by hardy Siberian ponies. Amundsen, a competing polar explorer, preferred to use dogs exclusively....a good choice, as it turned out.

The team had to wait for the weather to break before pushing inland.

Wilson, the expedition's artist, doctor, and zoologist, did this picture (above) of the setting sun.

A man was fell in a hole and was lost. Other holes and crevices devoured horses and dogs.

As they neared the Pole a second base camp was established and four men volunteered for the final push. There were no more dogs, They had to make it on foot, using nothing but their own strength to pull the sled. The weather turned hellish and every inch had to be fought for.

Eventually they made it, only to find Amundsen's Norwegian expedition had been there only a month before. Their disappointment as they gathered for this picture can only be imagined. Their faces are black from frost bite.

Was that when this picture (above) of Scott was taken?

The trip back to base camp was even more grueling than the trip to the Pole had been. A terrible blizzard made further movement impossible and a tent was pitched for the last time only eleven miles away from their target.

Captain Oates, feeling a bad leg made him a liability to the others, left the tent and was never seen again.

Eight months later, when the weather cleared, a party from the base camp found Scott and his remaining comrades dead in their tent. His journal lay beside him. Here's (above, abridged) the end of the final entry:

"Had we lived I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale....It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more....For Gods Sake look after our people."

Scott and his men were buried under ice on the site of their tent.

After seeing the Scott film the following day I watched parts of Borman's film, "Excalibur." I was particularly moved by Wagner's funeral music, the image of the Lady of the Lake and of the Valkyries who stood watch over King Arthur's body on his trip to the afterlife.

I recalled the religious language used in adversity by some of Scott's men, and the thought occurred to me that religion is not a weak man's refuge, as Nietzsche believed....... It's the comfort of brave people who attempt very, very hard things.

HILLARY EXPRESSIONS

I'm not a fan of Hillary but she has an expressive face, and I envy her for that.

The last high profile politician like that was Richard Nixon. Boy, he was a photographer's dream. He took some really funny poses.

It didn't seem to hurt with the voters, not for a while anyway.

The problem with having an expressive face is that you have trouble concealing what you're thinking. A dark thought can percolate up to the surface REALLY fast.

Any inconvenience is magnified.

Politicians have to network a lot.

Hillary's developed a networking expression...a look of Satanic delight...

...which often devolves into a glassy stare.

Haw! Maybe someone offscreen passed gas...I'm not sure.

A world class "Who, me?" expression.

Hey, I have that book!

NICE OLD HOUSES

As many readers know, I'll be moving to a small farm town in a few months and I'm having trouble finding a house that excites me. In desperation I considered taking a house that (possibly) nobody else wanted...something the local eccentric used to live in,  with a dining area in the hallway and a half-hidden kitchen. It had a weird vibe, too...like an exorcist would be required.

But scratch that. I'm too superstitious to live in something that needs an exorcist. I don't want to be dragged into Hell just because I tried to eat a piece of pie in the middle of the night.

That's not the house I was talking about above, but it's similar. This one is a lot more cheerful. Anyway, thinking about eccentric little houses in the woods got me thinking about older houses and how they frequently have more to offer than newer ones.

Now I'm thinking that a remodeled version of something old may be my best bet. I like this redo (above) of a traditional French kitchen. It has space for a large, cottage-style social table, and that's useful for more than just entertaining.  It's a staging area where you can lay out all your ingredients for a meal before cooking, all the while listening to audio books or music. Nice, eh?

BTW, I noticed that older French houses are frequently built a little bit lower than ground level. Why is that? I assume its an adaptation to the uneven level of the ground, but maybe I'm wrong. Doesn't rain water seep into a house that's below ground level?

Who wants to live in a modernist box? I can't imagine entertaining friends in a house like this (above).

But what am I talking about? Apart from relatives I won't have any friends. People where I'm going think Californians are freaks. 

CHARLES H. TRAUB: PHOTOGRAPHER

Big cities are a gift to photographers. If you have a camera you'll never run out of subjects there.

What do you think of these Manhattan photos taken by photographer Charles H. Traub in the 70s? Wow! He calls these his Lunchtime pictures.

In a big city it's tempting to take pictures of tragic subjects like public alcoholics but Taub prefers to photograph the more ordinary people who thrive there. That's the kind of subject that interests me. I like to see people enjoying the city they built for themselves.

These black and whites weren't by Taub, but I don't know who took them.
They make a powerful argument that cities should legitimize and promote whatever activity looks good in photographs...within reason, I mean.

Sometimes I like the clutter of advertising. It reminds me that one of the purposes of life is to make things that you sell to other people. The fun of commerce is that it connects you with a community of people who all compete to make life more interesting for each other.

Some areas should be zoned to allow advertising to run amuk.

Any excuse for scaffolding and cranes works for me. Seeing Portland's Steel Bridge converted me to the cause of exposed structure.

THE LATEST FASHION

The tiny house movement appears to be here to stay. Even people with money to spend want houses that are thin and cramped.

Thin exteriors could bring about a civil war in the home design industry. Minimalism still dominates interior design and that requires big, empty spaces. The only way to reconcile these two opposing philosophies is to have a house with only one big room that combines all functions. In a room like the one above you would eat off the sofa and take a shower in the planter. 

It looks like the interior faction is going to be on the losing side. That's too bad because there's been some minimalist innovations that even a maximalist like me can get behind. I kinda like interiors like the one above, though they might be better suited for offices than homes.  

The hot furniture designer now is Tom Dixon. That's his work above. He likes the digital look. I dunno. It's not my taste.

The table above might work if it could be made sturdy.

But really...flat surface table design is so...yesterday. Maybe the tables to come won't be tables at all. They'll be contrivances that make it appear that the plates and cups are floating.

Minimal dining utensils, naturally.

I notice that blob-shaped day-glow sneakers are all the rage now.

Since car design follows shoe design that means near future cars will be day-glow blobs also.

I used to think mens t-shirt fashions were here to stay, but a new formalism seems to be right around the corner.

Tight suit jackets with long sleeves will make what's in your closet obsolete.

Way above the ankle pants have been here for a while.

And women's fashions...that's a subject for another post.