At the Moment of Transition

Open Windows & Doors

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This is courting night for the Amish up on the ridge. These young ladies are probably walking to meet other youth on this warm spring evening.

[note: from my discussion with local Amish friends, their culture and ideology prohibit posing for photography. Candid images of Amish life, where the face is de-emphasized are acceptable] 

tether

Layers of Burden

gaze at the dead

She said, 'I don't want to be burried, but if I was, I woudn't mind being burried...  here."

Atop a wooded hill in the tiny town of Chaseburg, Wisconsin, across from an old school on an adjacent hill, a near-abandoned cemetery guards the bones... while we mill about in reverence and gratitude.

Headstone at Sunset

Bluebird

Swamp @ Dusk

Gears

A Walk In the Rain

Talisay, Philippines

We were visiting my 95 year old grandmother in the town my father grew up in, Talisay, Philippines, filming a documentary about our experience.

My Dad, brother and I went for a stroll in the quiet streets.  A sudden downpour forced us under an overhang of a general store.  Inside, without planning it we each selected umbrellas, matched to our attire and our moods... and walked home.

best friends

Eyeball

Bridge Out

I've driven past for twenty years, but somehow never noticed....a decaying bridge over the Kickapoo, now leading into a field, with a sign warning ‘Road Closed'.  Adorned with holes and curved metal, blessed with a symphony of river notes below, in the spotlight of sun... she is a lonely beauty.

Forks

Pumpjack

The pump jack benith an old decaying windmill... a farm, rumor has it, was swept away by a flood decades ago...  eerily, only ruins surround us now....

My companion playfully works it's hard, metal arm... and to our great delight, water cometh, from old wells of washed away worlds.

No Stop Til Dock

Train Bridge

Horses at Sunset

Sibby

Mothers

wonder

Prehistoric

A landmark near my home of Viroqua, Wisconsin USA.

100 Million years ago, this was all an undersea mountain range. As the waters gradually receded, the peaks were exposed and weathered. However, because this part of Southwest Wisconsin has never been glaciated during the three previous ice ages... we walk among the remnants of life aquatic. How grand.

[nice place to be when the next ice ages dawns!]

Bale & Parting Sky

Jesus

Be blessed

Tony

with this I do thee absorb thine ripple of soul that does become thine one wisdom  one  -tony macasaet (me)   Ripple Capacitor   Green Fest in Chicago... I huge success, while in Viroqua our annual International Faire at the Viroqua Public Market... also a smash! At Green Fest, we sampled about 2000 spoonfuls of our Sibby's Organic Ice Cream, and ran out of ice cream by 1pm! Over the fest days we received affirmation for no less than six proposed new flavors / product lines we are aggressively working on. At the Viroqua Public Market - one of the best single sales days to date!  World music, dance and words from start to close. Saturday night, we attended the opening night of 'Butterfly", a club next to the Funky Buddha Lounge (and owned by the same dude).  it was a Green Show after-party, and many of the organic entrepreneur players were in attendance... a fantastic assortment of folks.  Then, I got a text from my Chicago brother-in-arm Alberto... come to this party on Western... "you never seen anything like this" he stated boldly.  A description that could not be ignored.  Suffice it to say, though we were quit innocent, the party deteriorated into cop cars, threatening glass bottle wielding thugs and other delightful unpleasantness, lol.  And, perhaps a personal grand finale for me... after the party was disbanded, the 'band' I was kicked out of and I took the illogical 2am ghetto side street sojourn to the interiors of the Chicago Westsyyyyde to the old practice space.  There it was, where one of the most monumental experiences of my life took place... a brief 10 minutes that would change my life, make me question all that I am and hope to be... One of the new members of Alberto's band is a psychotically skilled rock drummer.... I learned he was incapable, through some physical aberration I surmised, to play at any volume other than deafening, eat bleeding, tympanic membrane tearing volume!  About 4am, it happened...  the event that forever altered me.... As John Hiatt wrote... I turned a Vibralux up to ten--henn-hah-hen-hen! With a drummer trying to kill me with sound waves, for this first time in my life I played an electric guitar on maximum volume.. it was a fast tempo dark punk-rock affair.  There was literally a moment, where I distinctly recall thinking it was a trick of some sort... it sounded that bad-ass...  a cruel prank perhaps, like a kid's toy guitar that plays something grand to even random attempts at strumming.  it was not until I closed my eyes, and carefully tuned to the music assaulting my fragile inner ear fibrils... this was coming from me, and that Vibralux turned up to ten. spent ripple capacitor BW   thorn & renew   coin of 1863   Cardinal and Bud     snow robin   Viroqua Jailbreak   The now nearly-abandoned historic Vernon County Jail, in Viroqua, Wisconsin USA... the county courthouse is behind. The shot was taken from across the city park on a rock formation peak.  We battled fierce winds and headed the siren song.... At this imposing pinnacle sits the patient Viroqua Time Capsule...  "not to be opened until... 2046" ...It's also were, legend holds, a beautiful maiden soared to her death, morning her forbidden love. A Pause in Her Meadow     Red & Green       paucity of self           April Ice     Vulture           Renew what hast been lost   Horizontal Ice       Water Crossing   The turkey vultures circled overhead menacingly as if our demise was imminent.  To the disappoint of their appetites the hike proceeded with only serene camaraderie amongst our eclectic trio.... past the moss and ice, serpinginous waters, verdant ferns and dead elms... we selected the horse trail at the fork... the early spring lull allowing us passage through the normally impassable.  But we didn't anticipate the mandatory water crossing miles into the sojourn.  The grand fallen tree carved by the river, a sculpted bridge deposited there for us wary explorers.   Drenched     Astride the lateral divide     Hawks Overhead     Bonsai   bifurcate     New Salsa   Fernando     Bread Puppets     Converse with Gesture     Dog Tears   As you may know we are shooting a documentary film about our crazy little town, Viroqua, in the mystic, unglaciated lands of SW Wisconsin USA.  Last year we filmed the "last farmer in Viroqua" segment.... during the shoot the farmer's dog lumbered about.  We all noticed how morose he appeared.  The farmer shared that he used to be the best cattle dog he'd ever seen.  He would proudly keep the cows in line, and after many years clearly came to love each animal in the herd.  As things go in our land of industrialized animal exploitation, the farmer eventually could no longer make money from the cattle and they were sold off en mass.... the entire herd was likely slaughtered soon after.  One day all his friends were suddenly gone and probably all dead. To this day, the sad dog wanders about, looking to the pastures for his beloved herd.    Layers of Solar Rays   Invade Ol' Truck       Dance into the Molten   do you see the dancers?   By God Be Blessed tony