hurry up and wait

Our first stop was the Columbia International Festival, where Alix's daughter Hunter had entered an umbrella contest. I'd never heard of umbrella contests before, but apparently the kids all decorate matching umbrellas according to a theme or topic. The theme of this contest was "unity," and we noticed with interest that the umbrellas all followed two basic models: 1. international friendship or 2. USA patriotism. It seems to me that the first interpretation makes more sense at an international festival, but I can see how kids would think of the word "unity" solely in terms of national pride, especially considering recent events and the current political climate.

Hunter's umbrella was really cute. She had painted each panel with scenes from different cultures and the words "I love you" in different languages. I was especially charmed by her Egyptian scene, with a man, a woman in a burqua, and a crocodile. (I'm not sure if Egyptian women wear the burqua, but why quibble with a 7 year old's artistic expression?) Another umbrella I liked very much had a woman wearing Carmen Miranda headgear under the Brazilian flag, with the world's angriest parrot flying right at her.

Georg and I were sorry that Hunter and her sister Logan weren't able to join us at the parade, but Alix assured us that the girls would have been bored by all the waiting. It's true that there were long stretches of inactivity before and after the parade; at all these events "hurry up and wait" seems to be the inescapable order of the day. I can see how that would have been hard for young children to take.

In any case, after checking out the umbrellas we stopped to buy bottled water -- an essential parade supply -- and then headed for the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. I must say, it was really nice having a native of the region in the car with us. Even though she'd never been to the museum before, Alix provided excellent directions and we got there in no time.

As instructed, we backed into the first available spot, between the heaven and hell car, which I had seen in Houston, and a painted car I hadn't seen before. Georg and Alix went to check out the other cars and take pictures, while I spent a few minutes setting up the bubble machine and the inflatable fish.

A woman and her daughter came over while I was plugging in the bubble machine, so I turned it on for her. The little girl's response was phenomenal. She jumped up like someone had switched her on, dancing and jumping in the bubbles. It was amazing! I ran to get my camera out of the car, but alas she had stopped dancing by the time it was warmed up. Next time I'll know to have the camera ready at all times during events like this.

Georg and Alix came back and helped set up the inflatable fish. We had some concern about how well they would stay up -- they're tied to short stakes, which are attached to magnets. The problem is that the fish are so bulky and the magnets not too strong, so they tip over in any kind of breeze. We agreed to take them down for the caravan to the parade site, and put them up again for the parade itself.

With the car all set up, we were free to go check out the other cars. I saw a few that I had seen from Houston -- the heaven and hell car, a teal car with strange little plaster nipples all over it, which now had a surfboard theme on the roof, the van with sculptures made of recycled plastic buckets, another van with a sort of adobe look, plus some others which I will remember when I look at my photos. Also we saw Dragonfly's turtle car, and Bill Stevenson's Vanagon. The van was towing Whimsy, his painted 1958 Citroen. I was thrilled to finally see Whimsy in person.

Another thrill was Holey Merca-toyed, Tom Stuto's art car. It's a Mercury with holes cut into it, and toys inserted into the holes (thus the name). It also has a checkerboard pattern painted on the hood, and a beaded mosaic on the trunk and sides. I had heard much about this car and seen lots of photos on Tom's web site. But what I hadn't realized from the photos was how precise and well-planned the car is. Every bead looked like it had been placed exactly where it ought to be.

I also got to meet Theresa, who drives the fairy car and was dressed in a fairy costume with wings. The fairy car is painted on the outside, and had a little fairy village on the dashboard. It was so cute!

I really grooved on this one car with big metal black-and-white spirals all over it. There were little doodads tucked in and around all over the spirals, including lots of hula dancer dolls on top. When I walked by, a woman was crouched on the ground next to the car, doing something with a lime green iBook and a bunch of little wireless devices.

I found out later that the car was a school project and the wireless devices were "crickets," or small computers. The laptop was running an interactive program that allowed spectators to press buttons and levers on the car and make things happen. For example, one button made Hawaiian music play and the hula dancers spin around. There were little buttons marked "PRESS" all over the car; each one did something different. How cool is that?

I think the star of the parade was the bottle car. It was completely covered with glass bottles, mostly blue but other colors as well, in an amazing, intricate pattern. The car was riding so low that Georg guessed the glass must have weighed over a thousand pounds. Several of the local drivers told me they had been working on the car non-stop in the days leading up to the parade. What an achievement.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the glass car, but Georg took lots so I'll be able to post pictures of it anyway. I had a new camera that I was trying out that weekend: a Nikon 995. What I had before was basically a snapshot camera. It had very little user control, but was very easy to use. That suited me fine and since it was digital, I found myself taking tons more photos than I ever did before. I'm always on the computer anyway, so downloading photos and fooling with them in Photoshop seemed infinitely more convenient than having film developed.

Anyway, I've been wanting to get more serious about photography so I bought the Nikon a few weeks ago. It's a much better camera, but of course that means it's harder to use. I've been reading the manual but I still have no idea how to deal with all the manual settings. I don't even really know what terms like "exposure" and "aperture" mean. I had signed up for a class in digital photography at the arts center, but alas it was canceled due to low enrollment. So I bought a book instead.

I think the book will greatly help me understand what the manual settings mean, and when & how to use them. It also explained why the Nikon tended to produce blurry photos when it was overcast. Apparently when the light is dim, the camera automatically uses a slower speed to try and get a better picture. So shaky hands are much more likely to cause blurring. My old camera didn't have that problem because it wasn't so sophisticated.

With the book's advice I was able to get much better pictures this time. When the sky was overcast (as it was for most of the morning) I used the traditional viewfinder instead of the LCD display. That way the camera would be pressed against my face, which is steadier than holding it at arm's length. Also the book suggested breathing in, exhaling, then holding my breath while taking the picture. My photos came out really crisp, so I think these two bits of advice helped a lot.

Okay, well I see that I've only just started describing Saturday's events, but I've written an awful lot for one entry. So I'm going to stop now, and continue later with the caravan and the parade. Oh, and perhaps the most exciting moment for me: my car battery dying, minutes before we rolled!