Heart Home

Home 

seems to be

my theme this month.....

found this 

to 

be 

interesting....

the

"home theme",

seems to be popping up all over...

This time 

it is a new magazine,

online that is,

interactive graphics and all!

"Heart Home"

comes from the U.K....

as does this image....

smiles.

Homeland.....

Don't know if you have watched it yet....

I wouldn't have, except for the strange neighbors...

January,

I posted about a bunch of strangers that invaded my 

neighborhood.

If you need a memory jolt,

or just some info on this...

check it out HERE.....
and HERE...
and finally, HERE

One day,
 the trucks arrived....
and the catering tents.....
and the lighting guys....
and then,
 an influx of people of all sorts
(see previous posts for photos)

Then,
strange things started happening.....
my nosey neighbors became silent.....
silence seemed to permeate even the daylight hours...
followed by hours of heightened expected sounds...
then,
the night "lit up wildly"....

What's it all about Alfie?

The filming of the new series,
HOMELAND
that's what...
right here in river city, oops,
 make that my hometown...

Claire Danes
stars as an "on the edge" CIA agent intent on
making up for lost time.....10 years worth....
ambitious, and very intense.

I recorded the first two episodes.
I am not a network TV viewer.....
Neilson rating would hate me....
I watch stuff that most people don't even know exists on TV....

But,
I am also an avid reader of John Le Carre.
I watch old episodes of "The Avengers" that come in the mail.
I believe that Tom Clancy just might be a genius...

So,
when I found that this hoopla
was about a spy series on Showtime
I became open-minded to the idea of something I view
as "network"...

I've not been disappointed.
It is pretty intense.
I have been impressed with Ms. Danes
and I have long felt that
Mandy Patinkin was one of the most interesting
actors of my generation.

But what keeps me on the edge of my seat,
honestly,
is seeing images of places I know well....

Of course, the living room that Claire sits in
monitoring her "suspect" is familiar, it's my
neighbor's living room.
Painted slightly different,
and furnished with props,
but still,
I certainly recognize the door to the storage room outback,
I have one too...

But,
 then there is the scene
that they filmed to depict the exterior of her home,
HA!
I know that brick and wrought iron exterior!
I sold those condos in 1980!
HA!
I know that exterior scene with the whole family in front of a building,
that is the old terminal building at the airport!
I was a Flight Attendant for Piedmont Airlines in 1981, and saw that building
quite a bit...
HA!
I know that house that the "suspect" lives in!
If you go out my back door and walk about 1/4 mile, you will be in the backyard of
that house....
HA!
(last one, I promise)
I know that park, where the "suspect" meets the wife of his comrade!
I have gone to the fall "Festival in the Park" there since I was in grade school.

What fun!
I must have stopped the action 2 dozen times....
I now wish that all TV shows were filmed in my town,
my neighborhood.
I haven't enjoyed watching a show this much since
"Dallas"....but that's a whole different story.

I love the idea of recognizing these places,
sort of an interactive TV show, if you will....
Boy,
I am having fun!
smiles

I think I have noticed a trend...

It seems that 

"realism" is out the door with yesterdays newspaper...

(sorry to all suffering periodicals!)

What I mean by realism is; 

photojournalism,

documentation,

recording factual information.....

I know, I know.....

I am so "yesterday"...

passe'....

old-fashioned...

out of touch....

OLD!

I can't help that,

but what I have spent most of my career in photography

attempting to do, is no longer popular, apparently.....

Have you noticed all the photo-trickery?

Over exposed,

out of focus,

or

serious color saturation?

All of it, done on the computer in 

Photoshop, Aperture, or the like....

Interesting, but is it anything like reality?

I use iPhoto and Aperture,

I have used Photoshop Elements on previous computers.

I like all and both..

It makes producing a quality image for my customers so much more 

well, efficient.

Also, I love to be able to switch easily from color to B/W.

I am seriously grateful to have the power to eliminate the stray dog, person, car, or

"you name it" from the background of "on-location" shoots.

Sometimes though,

I like the messiness of film shooting...

it was more intensive, but at the same time,

when I recorded what I saw as the perfect image.....

I knew, I had earned it.

What do you think?

smiles

Ooops...sorry....momentary technical malfunctions...

Well, I created two,

and wanted you to help me choose....

Here we go....
what do you think?
Is it too much?

My sweetie and I have sort of silly sense of humor anyway...

But...
maybe I should ask his opinion before I order....
think?

smiles...

Stationery card

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This Christmas Card? or.....

We Believe Christmas Card

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What at trip!

I finally feel as though I am truly 

back home in my own world....

Laundry finished...

fires put out....

all the moles "whacked"....

and 

I 

can 

breathe...

My sweetie and I went to London,

with side trips to 

Windsor,

Bath,

Stonehenge,

and 

Paris...

unbelievable.

This is how the trip started...

many hours of this;

and him...

and this....

and them....

Then we arrived....

at 7am local, not time to go to bed,

like our bodies wanted to...

so, we napped for a couple of hours and 

then, forced ourselves to wake just long enough to

catch a bus.....tour bus that is, 

pretty cool,

movin' stars...

(with apologies to Beverly Hillbillys' fans)

when we finally jumped

(limped, actually)

off the bus, we were on Oxford Street.

Shopping mecca for many....

and weird things in the windows,

like this shoe fashioned from pot-lids...

And this enormous sculpture of a horse's 

head...

Then, there is the story of how the 

"world traveler", namely me, was 

so absent minded that she forgot that 

unwritten rule;

"Never wear new shoes the first day of a trip!"

Rubbed the skin right off my heels,

and could hardly walk,

until I bought some 

fancy British flip flops.

I am sure they probably have a much more 

sophisticated name for them,

but whatever...

they worked, and saved my vacation!

Can you believe he took a photo of my feet?

Love these buses, they hand out free plastic

ponchos if it sprinkles..

Late in the day,

(5pm was all we could handle)

we walked to a local pub.

"The Grazing Goat"

for dinner.

Ground floor (what we would call 1st floor)

there was a lively bar crowd,

but we were not lively at that point and 

hiked up the stairs to the 

dining room....

which was light and airy,

and decorated like 

Restoration Hardware

had come in and created a showroom...

The food was good, creative

and filling...

that's really all we wanted.

And so ends the first day of our travels....

smiles.