Friday, January 11, 2008

Bare Feet On Gravel



Do kids still run barefeet all spring and summer. When I was young, I remember running without shoes, on sharp gray gravel, with the speed of the summer breeze. I never thought about it at the time, I just had somewhere to go and I needed to get there fast.

In those days, the idea of slowing life down was not in my mind. The sharp, cutting edge of gravel certainly was not a road block. Gravel was there for my benefit, to keep me from sinking in the warm, gooey mud deposited by the tributaries of the Mississippi River. It was placed there, not to slow me down, but to assist my free flight to nowhere.

I never see kids running barefoot anymore. If this loss of toughened feet is a cultural phenomenon, it certainly parallels the arrival of fattening fast food, the greasy burger in one hand and the joy stick in another, of the latest generation.

I think barefeet on gravel needs a comeback, running freely, if not on gravel, running furiously on dirt roads and green meadows, through cow pastures and on river banks, but certainly far removed from concrete, ashen city streets with $200 sneakers over $2 socks.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Sunrise to Snowflake

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ©GREG HOWELL, ICONSERVATION



The morning trumpets her arrival with the most glorious sunrise, rich in hues of red, orange, pink, and deep blue. As the sun rises over the Catskill Mountains, the sky spins a cotton candy white, then soft gray, as popsicle snowflakes begin falling gently to the earth. This is a wonderful start to the New Year, and a reminder of my original intention for this blog.

While originally a private journal for a book project, over time I have become fascinated with icons of all types, the grand, religious, as well as the small, everyday symbols that provoke special meaning to those who witness it.

While the focus of this blog is a digital journal for my research about the 1000 Great Cultural Events of Television History, I will focus regularly, not just on pop culture and the television revoloution, but icons big and small, more aptly said, the preservation and conservation of the galaxies iconography. And what better place to start than sunrise to snowfall.