The Narrative Image: Mt. Tabor

Showing posts with label Mt. Tabor. Show all posts

Sunday, June 12, 2011

TOURIST for a DAY: Portland and Environs

Mr. ‘T’ travels the world. Armed with a sophisticated, lightweight point and shoot, he documents his travels in the tradition of the best travel photographers. By that I mean, when you look at Mr. ‘T’s travel photos, they provoke a profound sense of wanderlust.

Sometimes it makes me jealous. Why am I not disciplined enough to earmark money for travel? Why don’t I go to more beautiful, exotic places? But then Mr. ‘T’ mused, “Someday I’d like to photograph Portland a bit like I was a tourist.”

That’s when I was reminded that I actually live in a beautiful, exotic place, and the only reason I don’t notice is because I see it every day. So we agreed to meet after work and try to view our city as if we were visitors.

This is what the south portion of downtown Portland looks like from a vantage point high in Big Pink, the U.S. Bancorp tower. A similar view can be attained by visiting Portland City Grill on the 30^th floor. I know this sounds stupid, but for the first time, as I looked at our city pushed to the edge of the river by the West Hills, I think I really began to understand the term, Willamette Valley. From a vantage point looking north, we could track the progress of rain clouds as they filed in from the west, and watched one briefly as it paused at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia before heading on up the gorge.

So you’d think that a city called Portland would be a land of many ports, but while we certainly have a Port of Portland that entertains ocean going vessels, we’re really named after Portland, Maine. And if a coin flip between the founding fathers of ‘Portland’ had gone the other way, we’d be called Boston.

Pioneer Courthouse square – Portland’s Living Room.

There’s a bronze sculpture (public art) of a man carrying an umbrella and hailing a taxi in Portland’s living room. Since the man with the umbrella is as still as a statue, this poorly (puzzlingly?) placed grape is actually relatively safe. On this day, I find the wing-tips the most pleasing part of the sculpture. Having practiced the process of casting bronze, I briefly consider how I would have achieved this degree of realism and reminisce about my teacher’s cast naked chicken.

One of a pair of guardian lions perches before the gate to Portland’s version of Chinatown.

Powell’s Books is a really big non-virtual bookstore. There are actually books inside that you can pick up and read. Outside is a sculpture that looks like it sprang from the mind of a troubled Dr. Seuss.

This fountain was dedicated to the memory of Stephen Skidmore in 1888 and Henry Weinhard offered to make it flow with free beer (probably for just that first day) but the city incomprehensibly declined.

Reflection of Big Pink in typical Portland puddle.

I didn’t know I needed bacon topped maple bars until a colleague brought some to work. The downtown Voodoo Doughnut location is currently closed for remodeling, but it looks like this new sign is ready to go. The last time I tried to buy a doughnut here, I had to run a gauntlet of homeless people who determined, perhaps rightly, that people who shop for decadent doughnuts must have discretionary disposable income. Either that or homeless people like voodoo doughnuts too.

Back at the beginning of 2008, Oregon was considered one of the most ‘unchurched’ states in America with 24 percent of us claiming no religious identification. This makes Oregon a ripe destination for missionaries. Some religious people might now be encouraged to discover that Oregon no longer leads the nation in this regard, but I don’t think it’s because of the efforts of evangelicals, rather, it’s just that Vermont jumped up to 34%.

It always looked to me like Portlandia should be throwing dice.

This sculpture is officially called The Quest.

But the unofficial names seem more accurate:

"Three Groins in a Fountain" (though there are two more figures on the other side)

"The Grope"

"The Quest for the Breast"

"Family Night at the YMCA"

I looked at this building and saw a building. Mr. “T” looked at this and noted Escher like qualities. So I took a second look and tried to transcend my slavish devotion to narrative and find a pleasing texture/pattern/design…

…and tried again at the Ira Keller Forecourt Fountain…

…but backslid into a narrative about catharsis by the time I encountered the Thompson Elk statue and fountain.

An iconic Benson Bubbler: Free flowing Bull Run water throughout the downtown area.

Speaking of Bull Run water, here is one of the Mt. Tabor open reservoirs that have so far not had any positive Cryptosporidium tests.

Mt. Tabor isn’t actually downtown, but it does have a nice park built on top of it even though it is an extinct (hopefully) volcano. Of course, we thought Mt. St. Helens was kind of extinct too.

Sometimes you can get pretty nice views of Portland from the top of Mt. Tabor. But honestly, I can’t say it’s a big tourist destination.

Rocky Butte - same deal as Mt. Tabor. A small shield volcano - but this one is situated closer to the Columbia and provides views of the airport, interstate 205 disappearing into Washington, and interstate 84 pointing east toward the Columbia Gorge.

The Vista House. An Iconic stop on the old scenic highway.

There are a lot of scenic waterfalls and hiking trails in the Columbia Gorge and it has proven to be very popular with tourists. Many of these features appear on The Narrative Image’s Hike Directory Page (see the tabs at the top of the page)

But it is also interesting to stop and tour Bonneville Dam to see how we continue to search for the balance between satisfying our need for energy with the obvious need to preserve the very resource we are plundering.

There was evening, and there was morning – another day?

Sunday, January 4, 2009

I'M AN OPTIMIST, DAMN IT!

The other day at work, a colleague described me as a pessimist (I remember thinking, “No good can come from this!)

Turns out, there’s some people who see the glass as half full, some who see it as half empty, and then evidently there’s my case where not only is the glass completely empty…the faucet isn’t working either.

But my immediate response was to deny it. I tried to argue that I’m among the first to look for the humor in particular situations. It was then I learned that gallows humor, “…finding irony or comedy in serious matters such as death,” is kind of an acquired taste.

But – but – I stuttered, what about my constant search for and appreciation of creation’s beauty as documented in these blog entries? Doesn’t that reflect some small measure of optimism?

Even as I said it, I completely expected that it wouldn’t save me from a futile life as a cynical pathetic wallflower. So I thought I’d take another stab at inspirational, perhaps even optimistic ‘free verse’ to exercise my atrophied optimism gland.

Detail - View from Mt. Tabor looking West - 12-06-08

god’s finger
traces a golden lining
round advancing arctic clouds
that, come to think of it,
look like a giant scar across a vulnerable sky
a scar just like the ones I scraped
across my bursting heart
ten crimson scars gouged deeply with my long dirty fingernails
tearing ventricles asunder
instead of giving it to her
so she could do it

View from Mt. Tabor looking West - 12-06-08

How about that one? Did you read the part about the golden lining? That’s got to be way better than a silver lining.

Lumber yard - S.E. Portland - 12-20-08

searching, searching
stinging ice pellets
driven by hostile winds
redden my cheeks – the only parts exposed
from the shelter of my new high tech jacket
a loving gift from my sister
who worries about my safety during hikes…
cold frozen paw sticking out of the drift
i hope that’s not her cat I lost yesterday

Residential light display - E. Portland - 12-21-08

wow!
trudging through snow drifts
suddenly transported to the happiest place on earth
winter Disney wonder world!
days of creative labor
a prefect gird of light bespeaks painstaking attention to detail
a free gift to the neighborhood…
or maybe not so free.
wheels in the electric meter spin insanely
old people down the block in an ice cold house
slowly freeze because of the blackout
salmon perish in the shadow of multiple hydro-electric dams

Merry Christmas

Neighborhood tavern - E. Portland - 12-21-08

the Neighborhood tavern – a warm oasis in the storm
where alcohol fosters a rich sense of community
and everybody knows your name
where you can drink until you can’t remember your problems
and boy does that feel good
i think I’ll have another
but outside, every minute passing,
the drifting snow is piling higher
no! It didn’t stop snowing
no! The landlord didn’t stop asking for his rent
no! You’re not getting any younger
that’s right.
you’re not getting any younger

Mt. Tabor Park - 12-22-08

we walked through a wardrobe
and found this beautiful mystical place behind a rack of coats.
we’ll meet at this lamp-post later
we’ve heard tell of a magnificent Christ-like lion
he’s supposed to be friendly I guess
maybe that’s Him roaring somewhere behind us
and the sound of lips smacking
wet enthusiastic licking
sudden quiet
hey, where’s Lucy?

Mt. Tabor Park - 12-22-08

maybe my future lies around this peaceful corner
some serial killer dressed like a white nose clown

Detail -View West from the top of Mt. Tabor - 12-22-08

there must be
over a hundred thousand people down there
starting lives
laughing and loving
caring
beginning careers
really Living
reaching goals
making memories
entering History

…but not me.

View West from the top of Mt. Tabor - 12-22-08

my beloved Portland
digs out of its snowy blanket
the snow covered ground reflects the city lights
back into the air and illuminates the clouds
unusually bright night
i suppose in effect
much like distinctive mushroom clouds
from detonating hydrogen bombs

it just takes one suitcase nuke

Top of Mt. Tabor - 12-25-07

Monday, January 7, 2008

My Favorite Images From 2007

Yep, the following retrospective of some of my favorite images and excerpts from the first full year of The Narrative Image pretty much means I didn’t manage to take any new pictures this week.

Snow Day – Mt. Tabor Park - January 16, 2007

“But snow days reveal that we like and need each other too. In many cases, just a few hours of freedom from work and the consequential forced isolation in a house or apartment results in the rare release of our inner children. Wide eyed and innocent again, kids of all ages bundle up and join together to play like dogs or otters in what seems to be a pure white blanket of redemption.”

Peace Rally & March - South Park Blocks, Downtown Portland - March 18, 2007

Over 10,000 concerned Oregonians marched in the streets of Portland to constructively express their opposition to the war. The following day, conservative media hosts chose to focus on the radical activities of a few black-clad, masked and anonymous anarchists who attempted to impose their agenda of chaos over the wishes of the march’s 90 co-sponsoring organizations. To witness the incredible disconnect between an event and the way it was covered by the media was to learn why it is so important to preserve independent news sources.

Painted Hills - Close to Mitchell, OR - May 25, 2007

“standing on a cusp of time
forwards and backwards bending out of sight
making as much sense as
a calendar to a mayfly”

Fishing for shad – Willamette River near Oregon City – June 14, 2007

“The flash of silver, the splash of their tails and the play of line all contribute to a sense of excitement and … familiarity… and perhaps some small consolation that I am at least, with the help of my friends, able to out-think shad.”

Water Rich - East Zigzag Mt. Approach to Burnt Lake - June 23, 2007

From early June to the middle of August, I seemed to be able to experience spring over and over again as more and more hiking options opened up at higher altitudes.

Mt. Hood Panorama – View from Bald Mountain – July 1, 2007

The sun’s slow migration to higher latitudes gradually encouraged Mt. Hood to push aside its winter blankets…

Avalanche Lilly – McNeil Point Trail, Mt. Hood Wilderness – July 4, 2007

…so long stifled wildflowers might burst into bloom like fireworks…

Location, Location, Location. - McNeil Point Trail, Mt. Hood Wilderness – July 4, 2007

…and trickles of ice-water might bring abundant life to a landscape born of fire.

Pointy Plants – Smith & Bybee Lakes – August 9, 2007

By August, back in the Willamette Valley, the exuberance of early spring has long been waning and plant life begins to bow to the unrelenting summer sun. I’ve seen dandelions wither and twist like this in response to certain poisons, and I suspect a similar influence here. I know this is not a technically proficient photograph, yet the graceful, perhaps choreographed curves and postures of the thistle bring to mind a melancholic ballet of death or a wistful longing for life.

Shadows – Under the Fremont Bridge, Portland, OR – October 28, 2007

The cycle of the seasons may be the inspiration underlying our stories of life after death. In this accidental image of shadows cast by the long rays of a retreating sun, the presence of birds is implied, but not anywhere confirmed.

Night Birds Under a Full Moon – Seaside, OR – November 23, 2007

An icy wind blows inland off the ocean and two gulls hunker down for an uneasy night, one keeping an eye on the progress of the waves, and one pondering the activities of a colossal two legged primate with a tripod. They seem to be power napping at best. By morning they will look cold and gray and even a little bit stiff, but their associates will have been joining them through the night and by sunrise, they will, as part of a great chorus, squawk and squeal together in a ritual to greet another day.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

MT. TABOR - A TIME-TRAVEL HIKE

My apartment sits at the base of an extinct volcano…at least I hope so. With luck, the tectonic plate that Oregon rides upon has migrated far enough to carry Portland past the molten magma furnace that fueled Mt. Tabor in the distant past. If you weren’t looking for it, you might not recognize that a small amphitheatre and basketball court are built in the throat of a cinder cone.

The following images are arranged in geographical order. The images begin at the public stairwell at the north entrance to Mt. Tabor Park. The route will follow the stairs up to the top of Mt. Tabor, then over the top towards the south. From there, the path will meander down and to the west, stopping to visit each of Mt. Tabor’s reservoirs in order of altitude. While the route through space will be orderly and sequential, the path through time will be random and perhaps jarring.