my favorite halloween costume was this guy. he shaved his head and then glued his hair to his eyebrows for an excellent groundskeeper willie. people go all out here.

HALLOWEEN

yeah. a vampire and......? i don't know what i am. someone told me i was joan crawford?

a bearded belly dancer

PICTURES FROM :THE FREAK TRAIN"

here's a shot of dj and wernor herzog. dj is demonstrating his special cricket noise skill. (tha's right. my boy's got SKILLS!)

werner herzog is here!

the maker of the "grizzly man" documentary is here. he's been here since the begining of november shooting for a documentary and also getting movie footage for a film he is working on. tonight he showed up with his camera man and shot our drunken stupid human tricks/talent show at our bar. it was a pretty roudy evening. i wonder if any of it gets in his film.

dj had the camera pointed at him for about 3 minutes and was instructed to "pretend that the camera isn't here."

below is the exact explanation of his doings here. it's the "antarctica artists and writers program" grant report.

ABSTRACT

P.I.: Werner Herzog
Proposal Number: 0538072

Werner Herzog, world-renowned filmmaker, will travel to Antarctica to create a documentary film about the Antarctic landscape. The project, Antarctica: the Inner Landscape, will be based on the artists' perception that the continent's volcanic activity, geological history, evolution and survival of life, represents the inner landscape of our planet. In addition, Herzog's film will focus on the lesser-documented "strange forms of life", and the scientists who study them. The artist and his cinematographer will work at Fang Camp, Mt. Erebus, and New Harbor Field Camp to interview scientists and capture footage that will result in a poetic, feature-length film documentary on Antarctica, Antarctic Science, and Scientists working there. The film will give viewers the rare opportunity to experience Antarctica and learn about the ongoing research.
With Herzog's success as well-known and prominent documentary filmmaker, this film will likely garner a great deal of media attention. The project will culminate in a feature length film with commitments of support from Creative Differences Productions, and the Discovery Channel, which is viewed in 475 million homes throughout 160 countries. The film will also be released theatrically and on DVD. For more information about the artist and his work, visit: www.wernerherzog.com/main/index.htm.

a view of mount erebus from the runway. this is as dark as it gets during this time of year. the darkness only lasts for about 3 hours.

a portion of our runway looking at our cargo line. this is all stuff waiting to fly to field camps, south pole, or back to christ church.

beyond the line of cargo is mcmurdo.

a pretty shot of the ice runway

happy halloween from my cargo team!

so.......i'm not a janitor this year; but still, here i am with a broom?

i'm working in cargo this year. this means that i build up/tear down cargo onto these 108" x 88" airplane pallets. i get to drive loaders, 5 ton trucks, deltas, tractor sled pushers, and this little machine left over from the army (i think from the 50's?) called "the pickle." i'm loading and unloading airplanes with this cargo. i'll send more pictures of me "in action" with the cool big machines as i take them.

the equipment i'm operating in this picture is called the d-2 (the d-1 is a shovel). on the ice runway any dirt or sawdust has to be swept up. we do this because any foreign stuff left on the ice absorbes heat from the sun making big divits and holes in the ice. (a very strange feeling to go onto the sea ice to sweep)

the location i'm standing in this picture (i'm on the air strip) is where, in 2 1/2 months, the ice breaker will be churning through the ice. someone told be that the airstrip has about 6 feet of ice on it....don't know if that's true, and i'm too lazy to double check. if anyone researches and finds anything different, let me know....better yet, post a comment here!

nacreous clouds

another awesome sky show i showed up too late to see.

Nacreous clouds glow brightly with vivid iridescent colours. They are wave clouds and their undulating sheet-like forms reveal the winds and waves of the stratosphere.

These rare clouds, sometimes called mother-of-pearl clouds, are 15 - 25km (9 -16 miles) high in the stratosphere and well above tropospheric clouds. They are iridescent but higher and rarer than ordinary iridescent clouds. They occur mostly but not exclusively in polar regions and in winter at high latitudes, Scandinavia, Alaska, Northern Canada.

They shine brightly in high altitude sunlight up to two hours after ground level sunset or before dawn. Their unbelievably bright iridescent colours and slow movement relative to any lower clouds make them an unmistakable and unforgettable sight.

aurora australis

some incredible sky shows that i came too late in the season to see. one would have to get here by august to see this. (i come in october)

fata morgana

some really cool optical illusions/mirages, seen from station accross the ice shelf.

A fata morgana, italian translation of Morgan le Fay, the fairy shapeshifting half-sister of King Arthur, is a mirage, an optical phenomenon which results from a temperature inversion. Objects on the horizon, such as islands, cliffs, ships or icebergs, appear elongated and elevated, like "fairy tale castles".
In calm weather, the undisturbed interface between warm air over cold dense air near the surface of the ground may act as a refracting lens, producing an upside-down image, over which the distant direct image appears to hover. Fata Morgana are usually seen in the morning after a cold night which has resulted in the radiation of heat into space. The first mention of 'Fata Morgana' in English, in 1818, referred to such a mirage noticed in the Strait of Messina, between Calabria and Sicily. It is common in high mountain valleys, such as the San Luis Valley of Colorado where the effect is exaggerated due to the curvature of the floor of the valley canceling out the curvature of the Earth. They may be seen in Arctic seas on very still mornings, or commonly on Antarctic ice shelves.
Fata Morgana are superior mirages, which are distinct from the more common inferior mirages, which create the illusion of distant pools of water in the desert and on hot roads.
(bless you wikipedia!)

penguins

these are the penguins that i never saw last seasons. they're adelie, the species most likely to show up around station.

arts and crafts show

during november mcmurdo has it's annual arts and crafts fair. the antarctic treaty doesn't allow the sale of any goods produced outside of antarctia; however, anything made here is fair game. a lot of people will get their xmas gifts here.

these are my "badd ass skua bracelets." they're made from broken cargo straps and old boots. a great gig. i spent zero dollars on the materials, so made $18 each. i sold out, and couldn't keep up with all of the orders made afterward.

this year, i'm making plenty way ahead of time.

how many santas fit into a bus stop shelter?