It’s the opposite hillside, about a mile and a half away. I wanted to show you the context, so I went to Google Street View (naturally). Here’s where I parked for my last-ditch attempt to see a condor:

Just for funsies, though, let’s pan around and look down the road in the Street View image from that spot:

Huh. There’s a dark speck in the sky up there.

The Street View car was driving in that direction; let’s continue down the road and see if we can get a better view:

It’s a big soaring bird. It’s not a Red-tail, not a TUVU, doesn’t look right for an eagle… At this point just by the process of elimination there aren’t many choices left.

Well okay then. That flight silhouette pretty much nails it.

The Google Street View car drove past a California Condor.

At this point the bird was circling north as the Street View car continued south. I figured that was probably going to be the best shot, but kept “driving” while following the bird, now behind the car, and wouldn’t you know it, the bird circled back along the road, now following the car:

I think the Street View car slowed down, either for the upcoming curve or maybe because they noticed the bird? No way to tell, but check it out:

Even if they weren’t aware of it before, I bet the shadow of a 9-foot wingspan going right past them caught their attention.

If you zoom in you can even see the white wing linings:

I vaguely remembered hearing about Street View birders, so I googled and found an article where Sarah Toner talked about the FB group where they share sightings. She mentioned that her favorite find was a California Condor, basically right by where she’d seen the bird IRL. I didn’t try to verify because #NeverFacebook, but I have to think this is the bird she was talking about.

Reposted from https://lies.tumblr.com/post/190398775036.

I was playing around in the Street View interface to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I knew they had a lot of Sargents, but I walked into that room and it was like that clip of Bowman’s last transmission from 2010:

My God. It’s full of Sargents.

And not just Sargents, but important Sargents, like Lady with a Rose, Madam X, and Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes. And three more huge, awesome portraits. All in one room.

It’s totally not like being there. But it’s also not like just looking at photos of the paintings online. Because I know that that room exists. A room open to the public. A room people are in right now.

A room I could be in.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1hPIyWk.

bagarres:

fun fact: you can explore museums on google street view 

I’d seen this mentioned, but never actually tried it out. So I did, and one of the first museums I noticed that they had was the Getty in L.A.:

And I thought I recognized the large painting in the thumbnail, so I clicked through, and yeah! They chose to start the Street View tour in front of that Winterhalter painting with the crazy-awesome silk moire patterns that I geeked out about after my visit there:

And then I started getting really excited, because I was pretty sure that the portrait that started my whole Sargent obsession was on the other side of that wall, hanging in the next room behind the Winterhalter. So I hurried through the doorway and turned around and…

Aw, nuts. That’s the painting, of Thérèse, Countess Clary Aldringen, but apparently they didn’t secure the rights from its current owners, the Greif family, so it’s blurred out in Street View.

So I had to go back and stare at the images of it that I posted after my visit.

I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Looking at images of it on the computer is looking at images of it on the computer. To really feel that rush I probably need to make a trip back to the Getty and see it in person.

But I’m definitely going to spend more time doing the art museum tours in Street View. It has at least a taste of that in-person excitement.

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1dLlqW6.