Light Headed

Musings on photography, film, music and other obsessions from photographer / filmmaker Dave Anderson

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Pine canopy on a snow day. #momentlens #slowshutter (at The Heights)

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These two. @franklininstitute (at The Franklin Institute)

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Sparta #landscape, Fall. @dbaphoto (at Sparta, Michigan)

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The most beautiful girl in the world. Maddie. #nationaldaughtersday

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This guy (at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport)

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Maddie discovers the magic of dandelions.

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The right kind of love on display in Little Rock as crowds gathered to oppose this awful piece of #stoneagelegislation. Kelli Marks of Sweet Love Bakery spoke in support and then treated the crowd to #rainbowcupcakes. Go Kelli! @sweetlovebakes #vetohb1228 #hrc #equality #freedom #arkansas (at Arkansas State Capitol)

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Cecilia charmed all of us. #kids #HeiferGuate #Guatamala #dbaphoto

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Cloudy sunset, Guatamala. #HeiferGuate #dbaphoto #Guatamala #sunset @dbaphoto

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Sierra de las Minas landscape. #dbaphoto #Guatamala #AltaVerapaz #landscape #HeiferGuate @dbaphoto

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Wilson Ronaldo Cuz, 10, climbs a tree near his family's cardamom plot on a mist-covered ridge in Sierra de las Minas in Alta Verapaz, Guatamala. #HeiferGuate #dbaphoto #Guatamala #AltaVerapaz #Cardamom @dbaphoto @jasonmwoods

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#Guatamala road scene. #HeiferGuate #dbaphoto @jasonmwoods @dbbiemv #roadtrip

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Nighttime arrival. with @jasonmwoods #Guatamala #HeiferGuate #airports @dbaphoto (at La Aurora International Airport)

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Playboy Farts, Old Friends & Reconsidered Musical Genres

When I moved down to Texas over 10 years ago I was spending time with a few folks who loved music just as much as I did but who felt I had unjustly overlooked country music as a source of great material - especially old time country. I told them they were going to have a hard time convincing me – pop country was mostly what I had come across, and I was not a fan. But a friend named Cynthia Fontenot in particular persevered and took it upon herself to burn me a few CDs. One was a collection of Hank Williams hits. I had come to appreciate Williams in a completely backwards way: from a covers record of his songs called “Hanky Panky” and recorded by an artist I had grown to loved called The The. That record, a bit of an overlooked modern classic, is a fantastic reimagining of Hank hits from a decidedly modern vantage point.

The real Hank Williams was quite a revelation as well but Cynthia really opened my eyes with a second CD of music from an artist named Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. I had never heard Wills and I loved it. Still do. I still have those CDs and while pop country seems as formulaic as every, I can still enjoy country in this minimalistic manner.

As an added bonus I later became good friends with one of Arkansas’ most wonderful people: David Stricklin, a gentle, soft-spoken and hilarious scholar/musician/general renaissance man who runs the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Soon after I got to know David I learned that his father was “Big Al” Stricklin, who turned out to have played piano in the Texas Playboys. David’s stories of the playboys playing depression era dates across the Southwest are the things movies are made of. Articles too. So it was so nice to wake up recently and see another friend looped into this web of wonderfulness with the talented and generally outstanding Maxwell George penning a quirkily hilarious web piece for the Oxford American on the the Playboys, David and the musical scale of…farts! Ha! Bravo & appreciation to all involved & check out Max’s piece here.

Moments like this just please the hell out of me.

Here’s some classic Wills for anyone who’d like to enjoy it. 

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PS: This originated as a Facebook post. David later noted that, “I admit I was a little nervous when Max said he wanted to get this family secret out there among the unsuspecting public. But he handled it with grace and warmth and turned something that could have been just silly into something very human. The picture of Bob and the band–the group that recorded the ”New San Antonio Rose,“ their biggest hit–shows Brother Al seated at the piano, third from the right. Bob is just to the left of the bass drum.”

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#Repost @cranford.co shout out to @reneerhynerco & @thewtin who suffered for these too. #worthit ・・・
Excited to share work we did last year for Oaklawn featured on @luerzersarchive. Art direction by @nancyoncedar, photos by @dbaphoto, writing and AE @rosscranford, writing and creative direction @jaycranford

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Lamp

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Detail from #HotToCold exhibition of #BIG architecture at #NationalBuildingMuseum #BjarkeIngelsGroup #Architecture (at National Building Museum)