The Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay Florida

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay Florida

February 20, 2010 by Kevin Dayhoff

Click here for a larger image of the top photo (b): http://twitpic.com/14m8i3 or here: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/403853631/sunshine-skyway-bridge-in-tampa-bay-fla-b1of2top

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Two photos of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay Florida, as viewed from the Manatee County shore rest area. Photographed February 20, 2010 by Kevin Dayhoff

The five-and-a-half mile, $244 million structure which spans from Terra Ceia - Bradenton in Manatee County to St. Petersburg, Florida is the world's longest cable-stayed concrete bridge. The roadway is built to provide clearance of 190 feet above the water where the bridge spans the shipping channel.

It was opened to traffic on April 20, 1987 and is a part of the I-275 - US 19 road network.

A previous bridge, which stood in approximately the same position in the bay, was built in 1954, was partially destroyed in the morning of May 9, 1980, when a freighter, the “Summit Venture,” collided with the bridge resulting in 35 people losing their lives.

Unfortunately, the magnificent structure has also attracted personal tragedies. As many as 127 persons have jumped to their death from the bridge according to a St. Petersburg Times newspaper article by Jamie Jones, published October 6, 2003: “Skyway safeguards don't deter jumpers - At least 10 people have jumped already this year, despite crisis phones and 24-hour patrols.” What a paradox that such a beautiful structure would be used for something so unpleasant.

According to a report by Jose Garcia, "The Skyway Bridge - Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow,” for the Florida Department of Transportation, the bridge rates Travel Channel’s No. 3 of “Top 10 Bridges.”

It is not to be missed…

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[20100220 sdosmked Sunshine Skyway] 20100220 SunshineSkywayBridge (2)b - http://twitpic.com/14m8i3 or here: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/403853631/sunshine-skyway-bridge-in-tampa-bay-fla-b1of2top; 20100220 SunshineSkywayBridge (2)d - http://twitpic.com/14n8uw ore here: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/404044333/sunshine-skyway-bridge-tampa-bay-fla-d2of2bottom

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2010/02/sunshine-skyway-bridge-in-tampa-bay.html

Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay Fla b1of2top Feb 20, 2010 - Kevin Dayhoff http://tinyurl.com/ybmf7sy http://twitpic.com/14m8i3 http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/403853631/sunshine-skyway-bridge-in-tampa-bay-fla-b1of2top

Sunshine Skyway Bridge Tampa Bay Fla d2of2bottom Feb 20, 2010 - Kevin Dayhoff http://tinyurl.com/ybmf7sy http://twitpic.com/14n8uw http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/404044333/sunshine-skyway-bridge-tampa-bay-fla-d2of2bottom

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Thanksgiving in Color-Graphemic gustatory Synesthesia

“Color-Graphemic gustatory Synesthesia” by Kevin Dayhoff November 24, 2009

http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/2009/11/thanksgiving-in-color-graphemic.html http://tinyurl.com/yz5rp5b

Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/ra315 or here: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/260481081/color-graphemic-gustatory-synesthesia-by-kevin http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/2009/11/color-graphemic-gustatory-synesthesia.html http://tinyurl.com/y8stz35

The Thanksgiving holiday is always a mixed-up mashed-up confusion of words, colors, music, and taste. It’s an arrhythmic cacophony chromaticism of atonal colors…

The holiday started several days early as I devoured each word in Hindi at an Indian restaurant. I savored each morsel until they exploded into an arrhythmic cacophony chromaticism of atonal colors.

Vivid colors follow me everywhere – especially at Thanksgiving. I often try to photograph them. They are relatively easy to find.

At times, I feel stalked by them with a hurtling relentlessness. A regular paparazzi, if you will. But the sonorities of colors are my friends. Often they will phase-shift back into words that splash forth into music.

However, loud noises reduce everything into jarring spikes of stark gray tones, white noise and irrational cymbals - and I become worried. “I want the friendly colors back,” I plead.

Then again, on any given day, I rather enjoy reading the cross-eyed cartoons of Pablo Picasso and listening to the random dribbles of Jackson Pollock that drift in and out of my daily consciousness.

It is always fun to see and explore the relationship between abstract art, the daily colors, and music.

Old notes reveal that “Wassily Kandinsky once attended a performance of the grandfather of abstract music, composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951,) in 1911.

Monsieur Kandinsky later wrote to Monsieur Schoenberg and said:

“Please excuse me for simply writing to you without having the pleasure of knowing you personally. I have just heard your concert here and it has given me real pleasure. You do not know me, of course - that is, my works - since I do not exhibit much in general, and have exhibited in Vienna only briefly once and that was years ago.

“However, what we are striving for and our whole manner of thought and feeling have so much in common that I feel completely justified in expressing my empathy. In your works, you have realized what I, albeit in uncertain form, have so greatly longed for in music.”

We’ll explore more on that at another time.

Meanwhile, several days later I found myself traveling in the country to attend a family Thanksgiving dinner; an event which is always told in a southern gothic manner; full of fascinating family stories that often involve aspects of unexplained historical events, enigmatic dialogue, and inexplicable characters.


On the way I find myself at Paper Mill Road, MD Route 145, bridge crossing over the Gunpowder Falls at Loch Raven Reservoir. (Click here for a larger image of the bridges at Paper Mill Road: http://twitpic.com/r74zx or here: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/259790373/paper-mill-rd-bridges-span-gunpowder-falls-loch http://tinyurl.com/yhhkb3n)

The new – December 2000 – steel arch bridge juxtaposed side-by-side with the historic old 1922 rare arch truss bridge is the perfect metaphor for the occasion, especially since a tragic family accident with a bridge in the mid-1940s, is part of the family folklore.

One published account relates that the 1922 bridge is “one of a limited number of examples of steel bridges modeled after the Hell’s Gate Arch in New York City…”

It always reminds me of forty years ago in the late summer of 1967 when we first learned from “Mama” that the nice young preacher, Brother Taylor “said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge. And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”

I first heard the song, “Ode to Billy Joe” by Bobbie Gentry on WCAO on the AM dial of the car radio. It was in this time period that I became firmly hooked on the existential - “Southern Gothic” genre of storytelling. To refresh your memory, the song can be found on the web at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc.

Of course you remember “Ode to Billy Joe.” Who can forget: It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day… And mama hollered at the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet." And then she said she got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge. Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”

Yes, the Paper Mill Bridge is located in Baltimore County, MD. Ms. Gentry’s tale took place in “Carroll County.”

Ms. Gentry has to this day remained circumspect about the haunting and mysterious tale of Mr. MacAllister, but one thing we have learned is that the “Carroll County” she is referring to in the song is “Carroll County Mississippi.” Come to find out, there are approximately 13 places in the United States called “Carroll County.”

Thanksgiving always make me think of southern gothic storytelling – and Jimi Hendrix, who was born on November 27, 1942.

Other examples of authors of the Southern gothic genre of writing include William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Truman Capote, and Harper Lee. Tennessee Williams is said to have described the genre as stories that reflect “an intuition of an underlying dreadfulness in modern experience.”

As for Thanksgiving itself; instead of reading a Thanksgiving story, you eat it and enjoy the colors.

Fortunately much of Thanksgiving is written by the American composer Aaron Copland (Nov. 14, 1900 – Dec. 2, 1990 and painted by Norman Rockwell (Feb. 3, 1894 —Nov. 8, 1978.)

It was Mr. Copeland who actually won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for Appalachian Spring. Nothing says Thanksgiving dinner better than Mr. Copeland’s ballets Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942) and Appalachian Spring (1944, Fanfare for the Common Man (1943) and the music for the films Our Town (1940.)

Over the years, I have become much more enamored with Southern gothic storytelling, which is frequently more creative – and often more disturbing in the manner it which it peels away the layers of a community or society; yet does not tell a reader what to think, but causes them to think.

More often than not, the tale is told by way of dialogue as with “Ode to Billy Joe” where the story in the song creates many more questions than answers and this invites a ‘participation’ on the part of listener. Moreover, often you never get a firm grasp on the primary narrator.

Just as with Thanksgiving stories, the song’s plot makes known several themes. The first of which is obvious in that just like many popular Thanksgiving holiday stories, it reveals a snapshot of life in a particular period in history.

But it is the other prominent theme that is particularly disturbing as it peels away the layers of indifference that contemporary society shows towards our fellow human beings – or in the case of “Ode to Billy Joe,” the loss of life.

It is at this point that the narrator of this story from “Ode to Billy Joe” says: “Child, what's happened to your appetite? I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite,” and changes your channel back to the reality of the Thanksgiving dinner table.

You smile knowingly without giving away any of the plot and in the words of Jamie Kelly, “spare a thought for the millions of sweet potatoes, cut down in their prime.”

Over the years Thanksgiving has become synonymous with color-graphemic gustatory synesthesia. This piece is best read with the colors orange and beige and accompanied by the music of pumpkin pie with a whipped cream topping.

[20091124 colorgraphemic synesthesia]
20091124 Thanksgiving in Color-Graphemic gustatory Synesthesia Annual Thanksgiving, Art Artists Culture, Dayhoff Art, Dayhoff Daily Photoblog, Dayhoff photos, Dayhoff photos bridges, Dayhoff writing essays

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The bridges at Paper Mill Road

The bridges at Paper Mill Road, MD Route 145, which span the Gunpowder Falls at Loch Raven Reservoir in Baltimore County, MD. The new – December 2000 – steel arch bridge juxtaposed side-by-side with the historic old 1922 rare arch truss bridge is the perfect metaphor.

November 26, 2009 by Kevin Dayhoff

Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/r74zx or here: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/259790373/paper-mill-rd-bridges-span-gunpowder-falls-loch

[20091126 The bridges at Paper Mill Road] Dayhoff Daily Photoblog, Dayhoff photos, Dayhoff photos bridges

Paper Mill Rd bridges span Gunpowder Falls Loch Raven Res Baltimore Co MD #photos http://tinyurl.com/yhhkb3n http://twitpic.com/r74zx

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Covered bridge at Valley Forge

Covered bridge at Valley Forge

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The yellow leaves of late fall are all that remain of the woodland foliage the day after Veteran’s Day; but they shine brightly on the one-lane covered bridge, built in 1865, that spans Valley Creek in Valley Forge National Historical Park, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Photo by Kevin Dayhoff November 12, 2009

20091112 covered bridge Valley Forge

Covered bridge at Valley Forge Pennsylvania Kevin Dayhoff 12Nov09

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2009/11/covered-bridge-at-valley-forge.html http://tinyurl.com/yhhvy8y

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Covered bridge at Valley Forge Pennsylvania Kevin Dayhoff 12Nov09 http://tinyurl.com/yhhvy8y #photo http://twitpic.com/pgoig

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Susquehanna River bridge

“Susquehanna River bridge” in Maryland October 10, 2009 by Kevin Dayhoff

Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/ouyti or here: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/237823804/susquehanna-river-bridge-in-md-10oct09-kevin

November 10, 2009 UpDate - correction: My wife tells me that this picture – and the bridges – was taken in Pennsylvania. Oops. I told her it should have been in Maryland. Oh, nevermind. Whatever.

[20091010 Susquehanna River bridge]

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“Susquehanna River bridge” in MD 10Oct09 - Kevin Dayhoff http://tinyurl.com/ykok8gr #photo #art http://twitpic.com/ouyti

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20070624 On the road Delaware River Bridge

On the road Delaware River Bridge

June 24^th, 2007

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