Alternative Realities at the NRO

We begin, as we so often do, with a tweet. Jonathan McDowell @planet4589: Interesting that the NROL-44 patch description makes explicit reference to FVEY, the ‘Five Eyes’ spy alliance of US/UK/Aus/Can/NZ. Brief explainer: Jonathan McDowell is a certified Harvard x-ray astronomer who also keeps an eye on satellites in space. NROL stands for National Reconnaissance […]

The Shape of a Horse

My mother is an artist, and when she was a kid in New Mexico she’d draw horses in a Southwestern style, jaunty spring in their step and delicately curved, a bit like the art of Navajo, Acoma, or Zuni, all of which could have influenced her. The other day, I came across a couple of […]

Landscape painting

This post originally appeared in May of 2020. A few days ago, I was walking idly along a mountainside near my house when I noticed the lower branches of a ponderosa pine, heavy with bullet-sized pollen cones. Intrigued by their purplish color, I plucked one, piercing it with my thumbnail. The juice came out magenta […]

Snapshot: Petals

The petal business started years ago, when I was shaking off the petals of an over-blown peony and some little kid ran under them and got petals all over and reacted like Christmas morning, surprise and crazy joy. Kids seem to love showers of petals. The current batch of neighborhood kids also likes just the […]

Knot Person

This post originally appeared on October 5, 2020. It felt especially prescient as this clusterfuck of a year ends. May we all untangle the knots of ourselves and find ways to rise into a new and better 2021.

Penspective: what bird is this?

On some days, one thing looks like another. It’s easy to be fooled. That’s where a pen helps. Over the last couple years I’ve been taking pictures of objects that require scale to grasp. What I’ve used as reference is my pen, so I’m starting an ongoing LWON series of photographed objects using one for […]