Columbia South Carolina Twice in One Month

and I had only been once since 1992!

I found this photograph of Ansel Adams on the net taken in 1980, photographer unidentified. Right now, I mean right now in this space and time as I sit here typing I am supposed to be riding up Mill Creek Road near Old Fort NC for the first of three climbs up through the forest to the top of Mt. Mitchell with friends. As much as I wish I were there, I further realize that often it is not about me, my wants, my desires, my needs, my fears or my control and that my responsibilities to both St. Lissa & Ms. Arcen come first. I have been on Alpha Increment Air Alert(must be ready to assume full parental controls within 30mins of notification) to be solo parent since Friday when St. Lissa's first client started with the beginnings of child birth. The baby has not arrived yet but after over hearing the phone convo at around about 0100hrs this morning I suspect that he or she will toonday.

Yesterday Botzie and his 2 kids scooped Ms. Arcen and I in his 40plus mile to the gallon Honda Civic that has over 400,000miles on it, for real. I have had the privilege to ride in this car may times including a middle of the night dash to NYC, various local trips and that time that I was out in Colorado and Wyoming with my road bike. The car is amazing but then again so is its owner.

We headed down I-77 south on the 90 mile transfer to the Columbia Museum of Art for the last day of the Ansel Adams forty seven print Gallery showing. We arrived under a gray cloud covered rainy sky that seemed to separate and show higher up blue the further down Main Street we drove.

The museum was packed and after we were issued our free tickets we decided to head to the upstairs gallery first in hopes that the queue would dissipate a bit. Just as we started across the floor for the marble stair case a live choir acapella version of Amazing Grace began from above. We walked up and towards the familiar chorus that sounded unlike any version I had ever heard. It was not bag pipes, jazzy, familiar or pop. The throat vibrations and heart of voice literally sounded as if it were coming out of a cotton field a hundred and fifty years ago. I was drawn to and away from it at the same time. That saved a wretch like me. By the singers dressed in black through the glass doors the beautiful pure sound in unison behind me. On a table immediately inside the first hall were several marble hand carved busts of nose-less heads from 350AD to 50AD. The paintings in the hall were big and some dated as far back as the 17th Century. We walked around the upper floors for a bit and let the imagery and art take us back in time. There was a large painting made in 1650 by Guido Cagnacci of David Holding the Head of Goliath that I found the most interesting. Cagnacci's use of light on the subject seemed intensely real and now.

8 x 10 View Camera

I read yesterday in a book on the way down to Columbia that this picture Ansel Adams made in 1927 of Half dome was a 5 second exposure at F22. Back downstairs with a few minutes of wait time we found ourselves inside the first of two large rooms that held the 47 print collection. I have seen several Ansel Adams prints before but never this many in such close proximity displayed at eye level. As Jeff noted the obvious there was not enough light on the images based on how Ansel Adams would have printed them to be shown. However I did feel the power of his work in this collection from the center of the room. There were many prints hanging that I had never seen before, even in his books. One of those unseen by me before was a striking image of a Buddhist Burial site in Maui Hawaii. Way off in the distance, maybe 2 or 3 miles was a black and white rainbow arching over the white washed tomb stones in the foreground. Spanish Mexican America woman in New Mexico, 1937 was another image that I had never seen. I associate most of Adams' work with landscape and subject matter that contains no man/woman or man made objects. It was interesting to see various works of his so different than the standard commercial fare.

Columbia South Carolina is not only the State Capital but apparently it is the Wig Retail Mecca of the south eastern United States. I saw no less than six Wig Stores in three blocks and if you look closely you will see three of those stores on this one block alone, two of them side by side. Columbia boasts being dog friendly... Hey, I mean hay...