Spanning the Globe

A dearly demented friend introduced me to the thrill of TerraServer yesterday. Since then, I've enjoyed several hours exploring with this online source for aerial photos. I've haven't exactly spanned the globe, but I've traveled I-35 from Guthrie to Edmond, Oklahoma, gone over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house, and checked whether people in India could view the junk on my back patio. If you have zero bucks in your travel budget, try surfing around on this site!

Most of the aerial photos are in black and white, or more properly, in different values on the grayscale. You can also check the topographic maps for the same location. This can be made into a game of The Earth is Flat, but it is flattest in _______________. Try pitting Levelland, TX against Ouray, CO, or Lubbock, TX against Hot Springs, Arkansas. By the way, Hot Springs was the home of K-GUS radio, with" fifty thousand Sparkling watts of clear power" a long time ago. I am honored to work with a former drive-time DJ from K-GUS.

The voices of Curt Gowdy and Jim McKay were constants in my 1960's childhood, but they did not carry the same gravitas as the voice of Walter Cronkite. "Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport. The thrill of victory; and the agony of defeat. The human drama of athletic competition. . . ." was a powerful media impact on my generation, right up there with the spinning plates on Ed Sullivan, if not a Gemini countdown.

As I look at aerial photos of crop circles near Grant and Imperial, Nebraska, I see spinning plates, but also quilt blocks made by of several generations of women living in white houses during the Dust Bowl era. Looking at the photos of the De Soto Bend National Wildlife Refuge where the Missouri River repeatedly jumped its banks and changed course, I see Diebenkorn and Thiebald paintings. My grandma's house was on a corner lot. From her big, shady porch I can follow the diagonal walk to the intersection, then look at the lake formed by damming the mud bottom creek where we used to wade.... Visit the quarry lakes near Fremont to see some lovely lace. Follow a river down the "agony of defeat" slalom.

Several years back I found a paperback called Desert Skin at a used book shop. The book by Thomas Miller has grayscale photos of the Colorado Plateau just itching to be studied and painted by young students. Every time I use the pages from the book, now mounted and laminated, the students gain a greater understanding of shading and value, and of the patterns created by natural forces on the surface of our planet. The tempera paintings are always frame-worthy.