Need'em Need'em, Got'em Got'em

---

Some movie references in this one. Recognize the title from "Little Monsters"?

If you have not seen the movie "Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels", you should. At the end, the least-bad guys have the imbecile of the bunch throw out the last remaining evidence that links them to a serious series of crimes. The imbecile throws the evidence over a bridge, but it manages to get caught on a ledge. At this time, the rest of the guys figure out that the evidence is worth loads of money and try to ring the other dude. The movie ends with the dude leaning precariously over the bridge, holding onto a phone pole with one hand to keep him from falling; his other hand has the evidence and is about to push it off the bridge for good; and the phone is ringing in his mouth. Does he throw the evidence or pull himself back up to answer the phone? We never know.

Today I was on the phone with Paul discussing why our system is not sending data back to UNH. I hung up to save phone card minutes and allow him to pull up some pictures. When I called him back I heard the phone pick up, but could not hear anything he said. I tried a couple more times, but the same thing happened, so I decided to go out to Willy Field and do what we had discussed up to that point.

Little did I know that while I was trying to call Paul back, he had connected to the system and was receiving data like nobody's business. Around the same time I got on the shuttle to Willy Field he sent me an e-mail telling me not to touch anything.

Once at Willy Field, I work for five minutes and realize that I don't know what I was doing, so tried Paul on the phone one last time and the same thing happens: I call, he picks up, I hear nothing. So this time I just give him the low-down and hang up. Meanwhile, Paul on the other end yelling at me not to do anything. So here is Paul with an image of me: a screw driver in one hand about to take things apart, and my backpack in the other hand about to call it quits and come back tomorrow.

What do I do? I take things apart and fiddle with them.

Luckily things are still working now.

---

Photos

Sky River
The clouds were low and thin today, and as they blew over the mountain ridges, the tip of Mt. Erebus cut a streak in them. The clouds themselves remove shadows from the ground, so the foothills looked like blank white walls except for where the river, which poured into a delta and finally an ocean of sky, illuminated the water-carved glacier ridges.

Carp Shop
where the MAAG happens.
And where I got some 4x4's for the riometer.

2 String Guitar
Made by a couple of guys in a couple of hours

Not Sure...
The RA, Jason, made this. Some blacklight stuff with highlighters to draw with and a fish-tank bedroom with a fake fish that bobbed up and down.

Neat-o
Thought this was neat. Hanging cones of ice dripping into a tin pan of water.

Comics
published in the local paper

Comments

[gurgur]

????
What's the story on the art pieces? Where are they? Are they made by researches at your base? Are there more of them? Are you going to make something to add to the collection?

[argallnaut]

free lance
Each piece was done by one or more idividuals here at McMurdo. Anyone who wanted to submit something could. NSF has grant money for artists to come down here, and I have met a couple of the ones here now, but none of them submitted anything for MAAG. The art show was just a one night thing. There is no permanent gallery. It was more of a social gathering than anything. The slogan was "Show us your sh*t". The night started with the art show, beers, and food, led to some poi spinning, and ended with live music, more drinking, and dancing. Pretty much any job you can think of is available here (the place has to be self-sufficient because of its isolation), so the pieces came from all sorts of different people. There were more than what I took pictures of, but all are gone now, to who knows where.