Saturday, September 29, 2012

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Pre-Svalbard, I'm taking advantage of my open travel window to see some things that aren't strictly Arctic-related, and have been visiting the UK for the past week and a half.

Funny thing, though; the more I look around, the more my focus recenters on the poles. When was my brain replaced with a compass needle, always pointing north? 






 

Last week, I attended the UK Antarctic Science Conference--a bit presumptuous given that I am neither from the UK, involved with the Antarctic, nor a scientist. No one seemed to mind; and while I suspect I understood far less than the average registrant in attendance, I learned a great deal.




It happened that the current exhibition at the Polar Museum (pictured in the first two photos above, and yoked with the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge) was some of the work of David Smith, who among many other things, had spent some time at the Halley Research Station (in Antarctica). His lithographs struck me particularly.




I'm in London as of last night, and will spend the next week here in the city, visiting what I anticipate will be less-polarific art venues, before heading to Oslo on the 24th.
 

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

So I leave the states (first for the UK, then Norway, then international territory) on Saturday morning.

But before that, I've got a chance to talk about the trip (along with co-ArcticCircle-resident Christy Georg) at SPREAD 3.0, an event in Santa Fe.





SPREAD is a "micro-granting initiative"--a sort of fund-raising dinner where several finalists (in this case, seven) give presentations about their projects, and everyone in attendance at the dinner (some 250 people who have all paid cash for a ticket in advance) gets a vote for who gets the monies to support their idea. You can check out all the finalists and their projects here.

Tickets to the dinner are on sale to non-SITE-members tomorrow--Thursday the 6th--in Albuquerque at Acequia Booksellers (4019 Fourth Street) from 5-6 pm (I'll be there to help with that effort, which I'm happy about, as it's one of my favorite places to spend time anyway), and then afterwards to Santa Fe folks from 6-7.

And the event itself is Friday night...just half a planetary revolution before I get on a plane!