I post my first set of photos on Flickr...for the Songbird

With many, many profuse thanks to autographedcat for the loan of his digital camera and to sffilk for helping me get the pictures I took off of it and onto a CD for transfer, I am pleased to announce my first-ever upload of photos to Flickr. They are of the 21st annual Southeastern Flower Show, just held last weekend at the Georgia World Congress Center here, and are a Valentine's Day present to my Songbird singing_phoenix...but y'all are more than welcome to enjoy and comment on them too. (Some are hideously out of focus, I know; I didn't stand stlll long enough after pushing the button for the autofocus to work properly before moving on to the next one. Apologies for the fuzzy view on these.)

SP has long enjoyed both seeing and growing flowers; I know she misses her back-porch garden in the old Philadelphia apartment we once shared, and going to the similar flower show that city holds around the same time each year. In the five years we spent together in Atlanta, I believe we went to the SE Flower Show at least four times. Since she couldn't be there this year owing to little bits of real life like a job in Africa, I thought she'd appreciate being able to catch a glimpse virtually from Nairobi.

For those who have never seen this sort of show in person, it's way more than just a bunch of rows of boxes with potted plants. Some of these elaborate displays must take weeks to get hauled in and set up for just five days' display on that concrete show floor...and let's not even talk about how long is needed to actually grow all the very real flowers, grass, bushes and even small trees brought in for them. And there's a whole artistic section with competitions in home décor, sculpture, photography and table settings, a marketplace with dozens of booths selling everything you can possibly imagine might be associated with landscaping, gardening, decorating and anything else that can be done with plants. Oh, and did I mention the gift shop, the live-demo stages, the auction of incredibly expensive trips, spa treatments and other prizes? And the preview party the night before? It's a freakin' major production, people.

Anyhow, the whole 158-shot set is here for your and her perusal. I have tried to recall as much of the details of each picture as possible, but some are generically labeled because I was too lazy to take notes.

In Memoriam: Roy Richard Scheider, 1932-2008

It is my sad duty to report that actor Roy Scheider, who left a commanding presence on TV series and films from Law & Order: Criminal Intent to Jaws, from Blue Thunder to SeaQuest DSV, has died at 75 years of age. He passed away today in a Little Rock, AR hospital of what appears to have been multiple myeloma; NewsVine has details here. He follows Robert Shaw (1927-1978) as the 2nd principal cast member of Jaws to be lost to us.

Roy's was one of my favorite faces to see in a movie; that weathered, craggy mug and raspy voice could make even a colossal turkey like 2010: The Year We Make Contact watchable. He was a poor man's Kirk Douglas (which is by no means meant to denigrate either him or Kirk in the least) who made every role he took and every scene he did—even when it was only a guest role—his own.

What's your favorite Scheider movie or TV appearance? Probably his best film perf for my money was All That Jazz, where he had the lead in a kinetic, fictionalized autobiography of choreographer/director Bob Fosse, acting (and even dancing!) alongside no less than Ben Vereen, Jessica Lange and Ann Reinking. (Oddly enough, I'd just mentioned that movie to autographedcat at last night's housefilk chez March-Wynne.) For TV, I think I liked his pulling a Hannibal Lecter as a long-imprisoned serial killer advising police in L&O:CI a couple years back.