Walt Whitman

Deanna Campbell just posted onto Soundcloud the song Walt Whitman that she recorded with her old band that was first called Second Skin and then Violet Strange. This song was released on the album Stray when they were know as Violet Strange but I always think of them as Second Skin. This song was, I think the last song on the album, and she included the hidden track, Across America, in this post.

Walt Whitman by DeannaLynnCampbell

Consistency

Home Runs per season by Hank Aaron


Hits per Season by Hank Aaron

Fun with Camera Apps

One of the first things I did when I got my new smart phone was to download the photography app called Vignette. It's a pretty powerful tool and below are some of the fun things I've done with it so far.

I love the feature that allows you to take photos that look like faded prints. You can choose which color emphasize. This one of Kevin's bachelor party at Whiskey River at the Epicentre in downtown Charlotte is faded to red. Quick review of Whiskey River: It's a club, it plays loud music.


My favorite setting so far is platinotype. This setting mimics the old platinum print photographs from the middle to late 1800s. It will make anything look cool.


Platinotype of the fairway of the 4th hole at Renaissance Golf Course in Charlotte.


Platinotype night shot of downtown Charlotte


The setting called Technicolor recreates the old film style.


The Oversaturate setting.


I'm really pleased with how this panning shot in Oversaturate came out.


This is another faded print style, this time faded to emphasize green. Depending on the setting picking the right color to fade to makes a big difference.

Terry Labonte and Earnhardt at Bristol

The one race you always hear about is the race at Bristol where Earnhardt wrecked Terry Labonte on the last lap and went on to win. I like this ending better. Earnhardt wrecked Labonte here in 1995 also but with a different result.

The All Star Race

It's hard for me to admit but I was disappointed by Saturday's NASCAR All Star race. It wasn't a bad race like you consistently get at restrictor plate races. It was merely a good race. At the All Star race good racin' just isn't good enough. We have come to expect fireworks, partly because this race has given us fireworks in the past and partly because NASCAR's marketing promises us the fireworks every year. But sometimes you just don't get it. Carl Edwards drove off during the final ten lap segment on Saturday night, no one wrecked behind him to bring the field together and that was all she wrote. It wasn't a bad race but it wasn't spectacular and when the All Star isn't spectacular it's disappointing.

Get off me, you bastard!

Southern 500 at Darlington, SC

Another May has come around and this weekend I met Jeff down at Darlington for the Southern 500.

Jeff noticed the people across from us at our campground were having hard time inflating an air mattress. He suggested I loan them my air pump. I did and shortly after one of the guys gave us a mason jar full of moonshine. The jar had cherries in it and it was delicious. We took it easy on the 'shine but we definitely gave it a go.


We took a trek over to the souvenir area to people watch and browse the offerings. We lucked into witnessing a couple of driver autograph sessions.

Joey Logano


Kurt Busch


Hey look! Vince Neil was there!


These guys perfectly demonstrate the respect that the average fan has for Danica Patrick



People watching at Darlington is the best.








This guy was flipping off Jeff Gordon every time Gordon drove by


Fun with shutter speed (Turn 4)


Fun with shutter speed (Turn 3)


I'm pretty happy with this panning shot of Mark Martin



Kurt Busch had a rough night and his car displayed an excellent example of the Darlington Strip


It's hard to catch wrecking at night from the stands but this late wreck on the front stretch that caused the postrace altercation between Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick turned out OK. That is Clint Bowyer bouncing off the inner wall and you can see Kevin Harvic spinning up in turn one.


Here is the run in between Harvick and Busch. We had a great view from our seats in turn four and, as you can hear, the crowd loved it (including me).


Heck of a job by first-time winner Regan Smith on that last restart. He drove his ass off and did not back into that first win. Well done. It's not often you get to seen a driver get his first win and see an altercation that has the potential to become iconic on the same night. Darlington is a wonderful place.

Today's Pro-Am at Quail Hollow

I'll write more about it later but I thought I would share this picture of Phil Mickelson's second shot out of the first cut of rough on the 18th hole. He is using a fairway iron, I think, and he's around 200 yards from the elevated green. He absolutely smoked this ball and put it on the left side of the green. It was a stunning golf shot. Several spectators around me made "holy gee whitaker" sounds after he smote the ball.