Mississippi Hockey: someone forgot to bring the defense... and the fans

Mississippi Surge versus Columbus Cottonmouth.

February 19, 2011.

First Period.

In 1996, the Mississippi Sea Wolves of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) came to Biloxi and became the first professional hockey team based in the state. Later, the Tupelo T-Rex of the Western Pro Hockey League (WPHL) began in 1998 but folded in 2001 after some foolish management maneuvers. The Jackson Bandits joined the ECHL in 1999 and became the Sea Wolves' arch rivals. The Bandits folded in 2003 after their owner, MCI-WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers (who went to my alma mater, Mississippi College) was arrested for fudging numbers in his financial books (now it seems ironic that the team was called the 'Bandits'). The Sea Wolves were quite successful for almost a decade. They went to the playoffs five times in their first seven seasons and won roughly two thirds of all their games. In 1999 they won the championship for the ECHL after defeating the Richmond Renegades in the seventh game of a seven game series. I went to one of those championship games. The coach who lead the Sea Wolves to their championship, Bruce Boudreau, is now the head coach of the successful Washington Capitals in the NHL. In the several playoff and regular season games I attended, fans filled almost all of the 9,000+ seats. However, Hurricane Katrina devastated the coliseum and other facilities since they were across the street from the beach. The storm surge also swept away many homes that have yet to return. In the five years after Katrina, Biloxi's population has gone from 50,000 to 45,000; Gulfport's population has gone from 71,000 to 68,000 (the two towns are practically the same town). Because of the hurricane, the ECHL allowed the Sea Wolves to suspend operations from 2005 to 2007. The team returned in 2007 for two seasons, but the team was a disappointment. Again, the team suspended operations in March 2009. Within a month the ownership announced they were leaving the ECHL for the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) and would change their name to the Mississippi Surge. Two other ECHL teams, the Louisiana Ice Gators and the Pensacola Ice Flyers, also switched to the SPHL.

Contrary to what some on the gulf coast have told me, the ECHL did not fold. They remain a strong and competitive mid-level professional hockey league with 18 teams across the US and one in Canada. Along with the American Hockey League (AHL), the ECHL has close ties with the NHL so that players can easily switch between the leagues. The ECHL is generally considered just one tier lower than the AHL, which is just beneath the NHL. Comparatively, the SPHL looks like a bunch of runts. There are only 8 teams spreading from Lafayette to Knoxville. Before the 3 gulf coast teams left the ECHL, the SPHL only had 6 teams, two of which have already folded. The only reason why the SPHL might have a chance of survival in the upcoming years is because they snagged the three gulf coast teams from the ECHL. Compared to other leagues, this one is the bottom of the barrel. It is the byproduct of several other failed leagues that started not even a decade ago. I'm not so sure why the Mississippi Sea Wolves left such a good league for this one. Perhaps it's cheaper, and they couldn't sell enough tickets after Katrina. However, looking at the numbers, the population decrease in the area doesn't seem so drastic that the team wouldn't be able to remain part of a good league (Gulfport-Biloxi went from 121,000 to 113,000). Maybe the population doesn't have enough discretionary funds to buy hockey tickets after the hurricane and Great Recession, but I haven't been able to find an article that gives out details concerning ticket sales. The only article I did find said that the Mississippi Surge could only sell about 2,000 tickets per game in their first season, which put them in 6th place out of 7 teams in terms of sales. Meanwhile, the team's record was spectacular at 34-14 (8 of those losses were in overtime); they couldn't have done much better since they were ranked 1st at the end of the regular season. From what I've read, the Surge have not been very good about advertising to the gulf coast area, which has plenty of tourism with several casinos that have been rebuilt after Katrina.

The crowd cheers after the Surge score their seventh goal.

Most of the seats were empty in the game,

even though the Surge dominated all three periods.

I'm not so sure how long this team will last in Biloxi, and it's a shame because the Sea Wolves were incredibly popular in this town before Katrina. There were a lot of people wearing the old Sea Wolves jerseys instead of the Surge ones the night I attended a game. The old banners for the successful years in the ECHL still hang in the rafters. Some of the fans were obviously excited about the game. A teenaged girl had seats next to the door which the Surge used to get on and off the ice. Before every period she was there to clap their hands as they would step onto the ice. Near her on the front row was an elderly lady who looked like a normal, docile grandmother. However, she wore a special Mardi Gras jersey for the Surge that had several signatures. She also had a collection of taunting signs to insult the visiting team. One read, "Warm up the bus." I enjoyed watching her yell at the Cottonmouths. When I used to attend Sea Wolves and Bandit games, there was a lot of entertainment on the ice between periods. During this Surge game the entertainment felt flat even though it was just as good if not better than what I had seen in the past. I think it felt flat because the coliseum was empty with less than 2,000 fans and more than 6,000 empty seats. A local high school band played a few songs; a local aspiring country music singer performed; a relay team raced to bike around the ice rink but kept falling. Finally, fans who bought pucks for $1 each tossed them onto the ice toward a helmet. If someone could get their puck into the helmet, he or she would win a bunch of money, but no one got even close. It was a cool stunt because fans across the coliseum were tossing red pucks over our heads. The game itself was a bloodbath where neither team bothered to play defense, but the Surge got ahead early and were leading 3-1 by the end of the first period. Eventually, the Surge had plenty of room for error as they were ahead 5-2, but then they got sloppy. They had an unnecessary penalty when too many players got on the ice, and the Cottonmouths scored during the penalty. It became obvious that the Surge couldn't let up on the Cottonmouths because the tides could change quickly in this high-scoring game. In the end, the Surge won 7-4.

If the Surge can survive a couple more years while the Mississippi Gulf Coast recovers from Katrina and the Great Recession, ticket sales should increase. All the ingredients are there for a successful hockey franchise, especially since there had been one here before a hurricane decided we didn't need it anymore. For now the ticket prices seem reasonable at only $12 with great discounts for larger groups. If the owners couldn't sell enough tickets to be part of the expensive ECHL, then they made the right decision to move to the SPHL for a few years so that the team and community could recover. A sloppy hockey team is better than no hockey team because reentering the market after years of closed doors would be next to impossible. Tupelo may face that problem if they ever try to bring back their T-Rex. However, I don't think staying in the SPHL would be a good idea unless the league dramatically improves with better talent and more teams. It would probably be better for the Surge to move up into a better league. Maybe they could join the Central Hockey League (CHL), which has teams in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and elsewhere. Until there's a chance to move, I think some adjustments should be made. First, the team should aggressively market itself in the community as the post-Katrina recovery team. Just as the New Orleans Saints have become a symbol of resilience after the natural disaster, this hockey team could do the same for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The owners should go to churches and schools with deals. They should bring in a local band to play on the ice after the game. Second, the owners should stop trying to sell tickets in the 'nose-bleed' sections. Putting fans up there makes the room feel even more empty. Instead, put everyone in the lower section so that it feels like there's more of a crowd. There'll be more excitement in the air and not the current spacious, empty boredom. Fans would like this energy and would be more likely to return. Thus, ticket sales would increase so that there would eventually be more people to fill the upper sections.

Mississippi Mardi Gras

Because I had some trouble with the state of Mississippi's DMV bureaucracy, I had to fly back to the Gulf Coast briefly to take care of some stuff in person. While there, my cousin Katlyn was in a Mardi Gras parade in downtown Ocean Springs. While growing up in Vicksburg, Mardi Gras wasn't a very big deal. Yes, lots of people would go to New Orleans, and we would usually have a king cake with a small plastic baby stuffed inside. However, there were no parades or days off from school. I've never been to a proper Mardi Gras parade with bead-throwing and tons of floats. On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, they celebrate Mardi Gras a lot more. My mom and I didn't plan on staying for the whole parade but went mostly to see my cousin march with her high school band.

This small coastal town of Ocean Springs (population 17,000) was unusually warm and sunny with a high around 75º F (24º C), so there was a particularly large crowd. For a town of this size, the parade was rather large, much larger than anything I had seen in Vicksburg. Perhaps that's because most of the parades I've seen in Vicksburg only involved the high school organizations like bands, cheerleaders, and sports teams. This parade included tons of floats from local businesses and politicians. Some were more impressive than others. The crowd did show the whole spectrum of the small town's demographics. Many families had cookouts on their trucks' tailgates next to the main road. The most surprising aspect for me to see was all the public drinking in broad daylight at a family parade. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised at all, but many young adults, specifically young men, were throwing back multiple cans of beer. Usually, I'd expect a city ordinance against this kind of public drinking, especially in the last state to legalize alcohol sales after prohibition. This wasn't even the evening parade, which happens later this month. Maybe there was a special exception for this parade.

There weren't many people who seemed to be my age, though. Then again, many of the people my age here are married with at least one child. More than once I saw a couple younger than me pushing a baby stroller along the street. It's odd seeing so many young married couples, especially since I've spent so much time with people who refuse to think about marriage before they turn 30. I didn't grow up here, so I didn't know anybody. I'm not sure if most of the people I saw, such as the young couples, had grown up here their whole lives or if they had moved here from somewhere else. I would assume that if I had grown up in Ocean Springs and had gone to high school here I would have known a lot more people. As it was, I was an outsider observing everyone else.

I'm a bit disappointed with my photographs. My sun shield broke while I was in Scotland, and I haven't taken the time to buy a new one. Thus, many of my photographs had an unwanted glare. Using iPhoto, I had to go adjust the lighting in several of the photographs. Maybe the glare adds a special feel to the photographs. I also had trouble with the lighting and shadows. When I stood on the south side of the street, everyone was lost in the trees' shadows. When I stood on the north side of the street, I was shooting into the sun so that my subjects weren't as well lit as I would have hoped. Oh, well.

Police motorcycles at the front of the parade.

Air Force color guard from Keesler Air Force Base.

Katlyn marching with her high school band.

Katlyn again.

Police officers picking up beads at the end of

the parade in front of the high school.

You may be asking yourself, "Is that a float dedicated

specifically to a port-a-john company?" Yes. It is.

The video is a bit shaky since I was holding it in one hand

and shooting photographs with my other hand.

Chuck Music Discovery

Last year while in St Andrews, I co-hosted and co-produced a radio show called "TV Killed the Radio Star" with my friend and classmate, Gillian. In the fall of 2009 I was a guest on the show, but then the next semester I was on the show every week. The entire show was dedicated to songs that have been played on tv shows, which has become more of a phenomenon over the past several years with shows like Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs playing trendy songs. Because I contributed roughly half of the songs each week, I began to pay closer attention to the music on shows and commercials. It's a really great way to find new music. Some shows like Chuck play at least three or so new songs each week, so I began to watch Chuck while still in Scotland so that I could get some good material for the radio show. I discovered Bon Iver this way.

The show is a comedy about a normal guy in Burbank, CA who works as a computer salesman/repairer at the 'Buy More.' His old college roommate sends him a computer file, the "Intersect," that allows spies to download information quickly into their brains. Traitor spies are trying to steal the Intersect, so Chuck's old roommate destroys all the other software and trusts Chuck to take care of the information now in his brain. Because this normal guy in a dead-end job has such an important national security device, a team of spies goes to Burbank to protect him. The rest of the shows are about their missions and the romance between Chuck and his handler, Sarah. I stopped watching last summer while in the middle of Season 2 because I got sick of one of the story lines: Chuck was losing the girl to a super cool British spy. I didn't get back into the show until a few weeks ago when I just happened to catch a few minutes on tv. Now I'm just about caught up. I love how the characters have developed and matured over the past two seasons, and Season 3 was freaking awesome. There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not the show would come back for a fifth season; the show is still on the air this season because Jay Leno screwed over NBC so that they couldn't develop new shows. However, Chuck does have better ratings than all the other shows on NBC's Monday nights, and it is incredibly cheap to produce compared to most other shows. Also, NBC has extended it for this season, which could be a good sign. All of this reminds me of Scrubs, which was always on the brink of cancelation since its ratings were never very good, but it kept coming back year after year because it had a loyal fan base. I do hope that Chuck lasts now that Chuck's character has developed and become much more interesting. I'd love to see where the new subplots and new relationships go from here.

Watching the show has made me miss having a weekly radio show and picking new music to play each week. In this blog post I've embedded some music from Chuck that I would play if I still had TV Killed the Radio Star.

Local Natives- "Airplanes"

I absolutely loathe the first few seconds of the song, but the rest of the song is so spectacular that it more than makes up for those first annoying seconds. In fact, those first few seconds have grown on me. The song is played in Season 2, Episode 15 (Chuck Versus the Beefcake) after Chuck 'breaks up' with Sarah (they were never dating; it was just their cover for why she was always around him). At this point the viewer begins to see how much Sarah really does care about Chuck even though she tries not to let her emotions get in the way of her job. While the song is playing, it seems too late for him to get her back because another character has made a move on her.

Frightened Rabbit- "Swim Until You Can't See Land"

I wish I had known about Frightened Rabbit, a Scottish band from a town southeast of Edinburgh, while I was still over there. It's not that I would have had time to go see them in concert, but I could have at least said I listened to Scottish music. Anyhow, this song plays in Season 3, Episode 10 (Chuck Versus the Tic-Tac) when a couple characters have been given opportunities to leave Burbank and away from Chuck. The 'General' has just offered Sarah a promotion that would move her to DC. Elli has been thinking about moving to Africa to work for Doctors without Borders, and she is finally telling Chuck that she is moving. At this point she and her husband have either lived in the same apartment as Chuck or in the same building. One of the reasons why her husband, Devon (aka- Captain Awesome), wants to move to Africa is to get away from the danger Chuck's life as a spy brings around the family, but Elli doesn't know that.

The Naked and Famous- "Young Blood"

Isn't this an awesome name for a band? This song comes in one of the best episodes in the series, Season 4, Episode 13 (Chuck Versus the Push Mix). This episode could have been the last in the series because NBC only ordered 13 shows when they brought Chuck back for another season, but the season will go on until episode 22 or so. In the episodes leading up to this one, a lot of the plots move very quickly just in case the show had to end sooner rather than later. This episode ties up several loose ends. I haven't seen any of the subsequent episodes yet, but I would assume that they will have more spy action/comedy than romance and other drama now that some of the subplots have settled. The last 10 minutes of this episode are freaking spectacular and just keep getting better and better with each passing minute. The final screen shot is photography genius. It's in the closing shots that this song plays. I won't give any more details just in case my readers actually want to watch the show. However, I will say that the crew uses the same hospital in this episode that Scrubs used for Sacred Heart, which used to be a real hospital before Scrubs began filming in the building. It's actually kinda cool that Chuck used this set because the actress who plays Elli, Sarah Lancaster, made a couple appearances in Scrubs as 'Lisa the Gift Shop Girl.' JD tried to date her, but that blew up in his face. Years later he realized that she was still working in the hospital. He thought she had died, but she had only gotten married. He stopped noticing her when she put a wedding ring on. He was really confused and said, "I bought flowers for your funeral." "I know. You bought them from me." "That must have been awkward."

Ben's Chili Bowl: it's very nice that you don't charge Obama, but I'm pretty sure he can afford a chili dog

Located on U Street near Howard University in DC, Ben's Chili Bowl opened in August 1958 and became famous for chili dogs, especially for their massive chili half-smoke. Ben Ali, a Caribbean immigrant who studied dentistry at Howard, opened the restaurant in what had been DC's first silent movie theatre. At the time DC was still a segregated city so that U Street was known as "Black Broadway," and famous musicians like Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole would eat at Ben's Chili Bowl whenever they performed at the various clubs on U Street. During the 1968 riots that followed Martin Luther King's assassination, activists and others devastated the neighborhood around the restaurant, but the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee asked Ben Ali to keep his restaurant open during the riots, and the government gave him permission to stay open past the established curfew. Therefore, police officers and firemen along with activists ate here while the government tried to restore order. After the riots residents fled the devastated neighborhood for the suburbs throughout the 70s and 80s. This area became renowned for crime, but the restaurant remained. After crime reduction and the completion of the nearby Metro Green Line station in the early 90s, the neighborhood rebounded along with the restaurant. Nowadays, Ben's Chili Bowl is famous because Ben Cosby and Barack Obama like to eat here. In fact, Cosby took his future wife on dates here before they got married. A sign by the register says that Cosby and the Obama family do not have to pay for their food here. In the back room where I ate with a friend, several photographs cover the walls of numerous celebrities and politicians who had eaten here. Since this place is an African-American landmark, I was not surprised to see photographs of Roland Martin and Michael Wilbon eating chili dogs. However, I was most surprised to see Nicolas Sarkozy eating here.

Grill by the front door.

We had to wait outside for a while

because the line was so long.

Heart attack covered in cheese.

Afternoon in the Museum

After spending an hour or so in the Freer Gallery, my friend and I decided to walk across the Mall to another free Smithsonian museum, the National Museum of Natural History, for a couple more hours until my cousin could meet up with us. Though natural history museums are not necessarily my favorite, this one seemed like the typical touristy thing I needed to do while in DC. With over 7.4 million visitors each year, it is the most popular museum on the Mall. As I walked through the front door, I realized that at least 4 million of those visitors must be under 12 years old. I couldn't hardly walk four feet without knocking over a kid. They were going bonkers looking at dinosaur bones. I'm never sure what to think when I see huge display of dinosaur bones because I know that many times those displays don't have real bones but instead have replicas or casts of bones. Since this museum has one of the largest collection of fossils and bones, I would think that this place might actually have displays with mostly real dinosaur bones, but I couldn't find a plaque that confirmed my hunch.

This might be sacrilege and un-American, but I wasn't overly impressed with the museum. Yes, it was huge with tons of stuff to look at. However, many of the displays and decor had a dated feel, as if the museum hasn't been renovated in the past couple decades. Even the elevator felt old and as if it was about to fall apart. It's kinda hard to put my finger on exactly what didn't feel right, but it just felt as though the museum needs a fresh coat of paint and some other renovations. I'm sure millions of tourists each year will put wear on the infrastructure. I would compare it to the Houston's natural history museum, which I went to in the summer of 2009. Obviously, this museum doesn't have as much stuff as the one in DC, but it is much nicer. All the oil and natural gas money from huge corporations for the different exhibition halls probably doesn't hurt. For instance, the mineral exhibit in Houston was at least 10 times better than the one in DC. The dark halls in Houston with carefully lighted cases made the minerals sparkle. For some people the mineral collection might be the most boring part of the museum, but the displays in Houston made the collection incredibly beautiful. DC's exhibition hall for the minerals felt like a narrow hotel lobby with sloppily-lit cases.

Elephant in the central rotunda.

T-Rex in the Dinosaur Hall.

This animal's horns would shed off every year.

A timeline showing when major ecological events occurred.

Each line represents 10 million years.

The Hope Diamond.

This 45.52-carat diamond from India is the world's

most famous diamond and is renowned for its deep

blue color and flawless clarity.

The coolest part of the museum was a temporary exhibit called Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake. Whereas the rest of the museum has a dated feel, this exhibit was much newer and nicer, even if it was tucked away in the back corner of the building. The displays show how forensic scientists look at bones in order to solve crimes. It reminded me of what I've seen on various tv crime shows, especially Bones. The first part of the exhibit shows bones and skulls from recent victims, but most of the exhibit shows the bones of early inhabitants of the Chesapeake Bay colonies. So there was a mix of history and anthropology. I would go back to the museum just to spend some more time looking at these bones.

Example of facial reconstruction.

Edentulous (toothless) skull. The 73-year old

male wore dentures and had resorption

(wasting) of the tooth sockets.

Gunshot wound in cranium with entrance in

the mid-frontal and exit wound in the right

occipital, each with five radiating fractures.

Skull with shotgun pellets embedded in bone

(healed antemortem trauma).

Skeleton of a 14 to 15 year old male with a small arrow-point

found in the grave. The skeleton was part of a grave in Jamestown

at the fort and was buried in 1607. His right collarbone was broken

near the time of death, likely during an attack. Irregular positioning of

the right arm reflects this injury and hasty placement of the body

in the grave. The arrow-point was not embedded in the femur but

would have been lodged in the tissue of his left leg. His feet and

legs remained together, once held in place by a loose shroud.

Dr. Grover Krantz, a professor of physical anthropology

at Washington State University, left his remains and those

of his beloved 160-pound Irish wolfhound, Clyde, to the

National Museum of Natural History. After his death in 2002

his remains were taken to the University of Tennessee's

Anthropology Research Facility, where scientists conducted

many kinds of skeletal research, including studies of

soft-tissue decay rates- information that is essential in

forensic cases for accurately estimating time of death.

In 2003, Grover and Clyde were brought to the museum so that

their skeletons could be used in teaching. Posed here as in life,

their skeletons help scientists teach human and nonhuman

skeletal anatomy in relation to biomechanical function.

Freer Gallery: beware of fighting peacocks

I'm trying to be better about going into DC to do some of the more touristy stuff, especially since many of the museums are free. I haven't yet written out my 'bucket list,' but several friends have contributed some ideas. Since I had spent the week sending out about a score of job applications, I decided to spend my Saturday sightseeing as a break. A friend met me on the Mall, and we went to the Freer Gallery. I had never heard of this museum, which is the national museum for Asian art. Specifically, there is art from the Mediterranean, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Muslim world. There are collections of Korean pottery, Buddhist statues, Persian manuscripts, and ancient Egyptian sculptures. The gallery began in the 1920s when Charles Lang Freer, a Detroit railroad tycoon, donated his collection to the US government along with funds to construct a building to house the collection. This museum was the first Smithsonian museum dedicated to the fine arts.

One of my favorite exhibits in the museum was the Islamic art, which is near the front entrance. Even from a few feet away, the ornate Arabic calligraphy on many of the sculptures and manuscripts look like complex yet meaningless decorations. However, when closer to the calligraphy, the Arabic letters become much more apparent. If I read Arabic, the art would probably have been even cooler. Below are a couple photographs of 'mihrabs,' which are plaques in mosques that point towards Mecca. The calligraphy on the first one tells about the construction of the mosque in 12th century Iran. The mosque was part of a shrine complex dedicated to Imam Riza, the eighth imam according to the Shia tradition. This imam died in 818 AD. The shrine is one of the holiest sites in Islam.

Mihrab from 14th century Iran.

This panel is only one part of a larger mural,

which has a verse of the Koran (sura 11, verse 114):

"In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, perform

prayer morning and evening and in the watches of the night.

Behold, good works drive away evil."

Japanese ritual mask from around the 18th century.

The mask represents a demon and was was used in an

exorcism ritual performed on the night of New Year's Eve.

The mask's eyes may have covered with a metal gilt

in order to create a fearsome appearance.

My friend with whom I went to the Freer was most excited about seeing the Peacock Room, and my cousin seemed excited that I had seen this room after I went. Apparently, this old dining room is important. I had never heard of it. Originally, it was the dining room in Frederick Richard Leyland's London home. The architect, Thomas Jeckyll, designed the room in order to display Leyland's collection of Chinese porcelain. There was also a Whistler painting, The Princes from the Land of Porcelain. Jeckyll became ill before finishing the project, so Whistler continued the work. However, he made some alterations such as retouching the red leather on the wall with a softer yellow paint. As he made a few more alterations, he became bolder and covered the ceiling with squares of imitation gold leaf and patterns of peacock feathers. He also painted several peacocks on the shutters. Word got out. Whistler began to host visitors and the press in the room, which was rather bold since it wasn't even his house. The behavior started a quarrel between the painter and Leyland. During this fight Whistler covered the expensive red leather on the wall opposite the painting with a blue paint depicting fighting peacocks. The angry bird has silver throat feathers to symbolize the ruffled shirts Leyland wore. The other peacock, symbolizing Whistler, was more peaceful and crowned with a silver crest feather in reference to his hair.

Wall with Whistler's painting.

Collection of Chinese ceramics.

The angry peacock depicting Leyland.

Jade axe with carved dragons from China.

The ceremonial objects in this case came from

around 1200 to 1300 BC and were

tools and weapons that displayed the owner's power.

It's difficult to know the purpose of this

rare axe because none of the Chinese objects

in this collection have been scientifically examined.

The axe is in four pieces, and the serrated jade blade

would indicate that the blade is not original.

Traces of wood inside the handle suggest it

was longer with other pieces that are now missing.

Chinese ceremonial jade harvesting blade from 2000 to 1700 BC.

This object is one of the largest ancient Chinese jades in the world.

Too large and heavy to have been practical, it had been a display piece

It has an abstract geometric form and a line of precisely

placed holes that had no practical purpose but were copied from

humbler stone knives in order to enhance the design.

Though it appears very large today, the blade was originally

much larger and probably broke soon after it was made.

In the lower right-hand corner is a carved face, which was not original.

Celebrating the birthday with night photography at Lincoln's "temple"

For my birthday my aunt and uncle took me into DC to have dinner at Capital City Brewing Company, where they gave me a 'terrible towel' I could twirl during the Super Bowl. Afterwards, we took the short drive to the Lincoln Memorial so that my uncle and I could do some photography. Unlike my previous trips into DC at night, I brought my tripod with me so that I could take better photographs with longer exposures. This allowed me to shoot at an ISO of 200 instead of 800 so that I could get more detail in the photos. Of course, one of my favorite hobbies is photography, so it was pretty cool to photograph this monument, even if other tourists kept stepping in front of my camera.

I stood for quite a while trying to get a photograph

of the whole monument because people kept standing

directly in front of Lincoln. They probably had no

idea that I was waiting for them to move.

In this photograph I gave up waiting for the people

to step out of my view of Lincoln. Instead, I

went ahead and made them part of my composition.

View of the Mall with the Lincoln Memorial's columns.

During Christmas my brother-in-law was baffled that I had been to DC but hadn't been to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Of course, I've been looking for work in DC and haven't been doing a lot of sight-seeing. I can't apply to 200+ jobs unless I'm dedicating most of my time to writing cover letters and finding new job postings. Still, because he had been so insistent that I see this Memorial, I took the short walk along the Mall so that I could at least say I've been there. I'm actually surprised that my photographs here turned out so well since there was so little light I could use. Some of my photographs needed 20 to 30 second exposures.

[Images Deleted: see http://peregrinatorphoto.blogspot.com/]