The Blizzard...

Photo by Marion Post Wolcott

BEAUTY: Clothing--Dolce and Gabbana Alta Sartoria 2021

Since its inception in 2015, Dolce and Gabbana's Alta Sartoria line has been presenting some haute-haute couture pieces in exquisite locations like Florence, Sicily, and now Venice. Last week, the 2021 Alta Sartoria menswear portion was presented at the Venice Arsenale (the usual location for the Biennale) on a floating mirrored walkway. Of course the clothing was exquisite--many or most one-of-a-kind pieces--but the most striking thing about this presentation was the hail storm that pelted the models and celebrity/billionaire crowd in attendance with hefty marble-sized chunks of ice toward the end of the show!

Featuring clothing that referenced this ancient floating city and its local arts, garments paid homage to the mosaic work of the Basilica di San Marco, the architecture of the Doge's Palace, Murano glass (shirts were made of Murano glass beads, and models sported chandelier earrings of the fabled material!), and the sumptuous silks (some printed with views of Piazza San Marco) and brocades that have been associated with this magical city for centuries. There was even a mind-boggling shirt made of feathers and gold gilding.

https://us.dolcegabbana.com/

"Transient 2" by Dustin Farrell

After his previous film "Transient" (seen here), Dustin Farrell is back with a second installment of amazing views of super storms and lightning strikes. It's a bit awe-inspiring.

"Here is my second rendition of storm chasing with a Phantom Flex 4K. The best shots from two years of storm chasing jammed into 3.5 minutes.

Stats: 35K miles traveled, 30 terabytes of hard drive space, 300 hours editing/coloring, 3 speeding tickets

Technical info: The Phantom Flex4K is a camera that must be post triggered while shooting high speed. This works out well for capturing lightning because the camera is always recording and rewriting to internal ram. As soon as a bolt appears in my view finder I trigger the camera to save what has been stored in the ram. Shooting at high frame rates requires a lot of light. Therefore, I mostly used my Zeiss Otus 28, 55, and 85mm lenses wide open at f1.4."

http://dfvc.com/

"Transient" by Dustin Farrell

Filmed by Dustin Farrell, "Transient" is an arresting, slow motion study of lightning.

"'Transient' is a compilation of the best shots from my storm chasing adventures of summer 2017. Most of the lightning footage was captured in uncompressed raw at 1000 frames per second with our Phantom Flex4K. This summer I chased for over 30 days and traveled 20K miles. My respect and admiration for storm chasers became even stronger this year. This is one of the most difficult projects I have ever attempted in my career. On several occasions I found myself uncomfortable either mentally or physically. Chasing storms with a Phantom Flex4K is stressful even when things are going well. There were at least 10 days where I returned home with my tail between my legs and nothing to show after a ten hour chase and 500 miles. There were also a couple of days that I drove home with an ear to ear smile that lasted for hours. Most of the lightning was captured in my home state of Arizona. I also spent a week in the Great Plains chasing with Chad Cowan. It was during this time that I captured a time-lapse of the massive super-cell shown twice in Transient. For some reason that damn super-cell refused to spit out a proper bolt.

Lightning is like a snowflake. Every bolt is different. I learned that lightning varies greatly in speed. There are some incredible looking bolts that I captured that didn't make the cut because even at 1000fps they only lasted for one frame during playback. I also captured some lightning that appear computer generated it lasted so long on the screen."

http://dfvc.com/

It's Raining

We've had quite a season of rain here in Northern California. Our near-decade long drought is over officially over but there have been mud slides and floods...and it's still raining...

We've got 5-10 years...

IMPORTANT VIEWING.

David Roberts is a staff writer at Grist.org. In "Climate Change is Simple" recorded on April 16, 2012 at TEDxTheEvergreenStateCollege, he describes the causes and effects of climate change in blunt, plain terms.

Is it too late?

Things To Come

"This week, our nation has anxiously watched as Hurricane Sandy lashed the East Coast and caused widespread damage--affecting millions. Now more than ever, our neighbors need our help. Please consider donating or volunteering for your local aid organizations. The images of Sandy’s flooding brought back memories of a similar--albeit smaller scale-- event in Nashville just two years ago. There, unprecedented rainfall caused widespread flooding, wreaking havoc and submerging sections of my hometown. For me, the Nashville flood was a milestone. For many, Hurricane Sandy may prove to be a similar event: a time when the climate crisis—which is often sequestered to the far reaches of our everyday awareness became a reality. Sandy was also affected by other symptoms of the climate crisis. As the hurricane approached the East Coast, it gathered strength from abnormally warm coastal waters. At the same time, Sandy's storm surge was worsened by a century of sea level rise. Scientists tell us that if we do not reduce our emissions, these problems will only grow worse. Hurricane Sandy is a disturbing sign of things to come. We must heed this warning and act quickly to solve the climate crisis. Dirty energy makes dirty weather."
--Al Gore, writing on his personal blog.

Is "the jury still out" now? How much more proof do we need?

Today's Forecast: Clear and Sunny

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I wish. We've had a cold, gray spring here in California...