Articles by Dennis E. Powell

Dennis E. Powell is crackpot-at-large at Open for Business. Powell was a reporter in New York and elsewhere before moving to Ohio, where he has (mostly) recovered. You can reach him at dep@drippingwithirony.com.

You are viewing page 32 of 36.
Nov 30, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: A Tiny Camera Can Make Big Pictures and Do It Well

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 8:13 PM

Having been raised as a photographer, I’ve always felt a little vulnerable if I didn’t have a camera on my person. For years I carried a Nikon or Leica film camera with me pretty much wherever I went, often as not along with a big camera bag made by Jim Domke, all crammed full of spare camera bodies and lenses and film and a few filters and more film and a strobe (which is what we used to call electronic flashguns). I didn’t need to go to the gym.

link | Post a Comment
Nov 20, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: On Winter Nights, When the Universe Becomes Visible

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 5:11 AM

One of the best things about winter — yes, there are some — is how clear the sky gets at night.

link | Post a Comment
Nov 13, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: The Hills Are Alive With Not-So-Cute Cartoon Animals

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 6:33 AM

Disney it ain’t. I think you know what I mean: all those lovely Walt Disney cartoon movies, in which the birds flutter lovingly around the sky, and the fawns gambol in the meadows, the butterflies flit about like ballerinas, and the ever-so-cute bunnies and squirrels and chipmunks scurry — the word probably was invented to describe cartoon rodents and lagomorphs — nearby.

link | comments: 1
Nov 08, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: The Supernatural Aspects of Computer Parts Justify a Big Collection

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 4:07 AM

My little scribbling this week comes to you from a 20-year-old, pristinely restored Northgate OmniKey keyboard. Back when the crust of the Earth was cooling and computing was young, the Northgate company was one of many upstarts that made very good personal computers. What set them apart, though, were their keyboards. They had a pleasant, clicky feel that many users loved. Northgate sold their keyboards separately, but apparently few people then bought their computers, too, so they went out of business. This made having a Northgate keyboard even cooler.

link | Post a Comment
Oct 30, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: The Change of Seasons Reminds Us We Need to Change Our Spirits, Too

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 4:51 AM

It was the first gray, windy, wintry day, a day that could be in November or February. Such days can chill one to the bone, physically but spiritually, too.

link | Post a Comment
Oct 23, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: Woodland Isolation Leads to Affection for Odd Foreign Television Show

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 6:36 AM

Out here in the woods, if you’re going to watch television chances are you’ll get it via a satellite dish.
This has its annoyances — the “local” stations the satellite company chooses are in West Virginia, for instance. I wonder what television news covered there before they had meth lab explosions to lead the newscasts, but never mind. There’s no television at all when it is raining.

link | Post a Comment
Oct 11, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: I’m in a New York State of Mind, But Recovery is Certain

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 4:27 AM

Sitting on a back porch in upstate New York, having coffee and enjoying a beautiful morning, it is as if I’m on a different planet.

link | Post a Comment
Oct 01, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: Well, I Think She was a Real Folksinger, Anyway

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 5:08 AM

The story has it that Townes Van Zandt, the folksinger, was asked how many kinds of music there are. “Two,” was his reply.

Asked to name them, he said, “The blues and Zip-a-dee-doo-dah.”

link | Post a Comment
Sep 20, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: Autumn Moves In, Pushing Away the Summer that Wasn't

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 3:59 AM

Pity the poor person who doesn’t live in or near a college town. Autumn arrives and all that changes is the weather. In a college town, there is an air of excitement. The energy level increases. It’s exactly the opposite of the normal order of things, where spring is the time of rebirth. For a college town, it is the fall when everything, yes, springs back to life.

link | Post a Comment
Sep 03, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: The Dust Around Here Proves that Nature Abhors a Vacuum

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 3:38 PM

As a public service, I would like to let everyone know that the source of all dust in the universe is apparently somewhere near me.

link | Post a Comment
You are viewing page 32 of 36.