A look at clouds from all sides now...

          I almost never truly sleep on airplanes, but I always try to get the window seat, both for scenery purposes, and in case I want to lean my head against the window and surrender to that white-noise lullaby of the plane hum and sort of doze with my eyes open. I did that on the plane when I was returning from the RWA conference in Atlanta. Our flight left at 6 a.m., and I was so tired by then I wasn’t fit for much more than slack-jawed gazing at the clouds as we passed them.  Every now and then we’d pass these neat rows of little asymmetrical white puffs, and to my tired eyes, they looked like the skyline of a distant city surrounded by a bay (the bay being the blue of the sky). A sort of…aerial San Francisco or New York.

         It occurred to me later (when I was capable of coherent thought again) that the only time I really look at clouds anymore is when I’m on an airplane. San Francisco skies tend to either be blindingly blue and clear, as sea breezes scour them clean, or they're hazy or solid white with fog. And when you stop to really think about it, clouds are positively astounding, by virtue of their variety and beauty and their sheer...well, oddity. I mean...think about it. They're these enormous, misshapen, vaporous things that float above our heads and have a tendency to turn colors.

         I recently stumbled across an article about a cloud expert, in fact. Who knew there was such a niche? I’m a pushover for anyone who’s wry, and there’s this guy in England named Gavin Pretor-Pinney, whose book The Cloudspotter's Guide has become an unexpected bestseller there, and he’s got wry—that very English sort of wry—down. Have you heard of him? I love his story: a friend of his knew of his expertise on clouds and invited him to speak on the subject at a literary festival, and Pretor-Pinney was afraid no one would show up for his talk, so he called it "the inaugural lecture of the Cloud Appreciation Society." Well… not only did people fill the room—they wanted to join his society. Which...um…didn’t exactly exist.

         So he invented it.

        And once the society had actual members—they now have thousands—they kept asking him to recommend books on clouds…and apparently there weren't any, really. So Preter-Pinney wrote one. Twenty-eight rejections later he was published, and voila! A bestseller!

         The Cloud Appreciation society's credo is both slightly whimsical and downright poetic in ways—they think clouds are "the most egalitarian of nature’s displays, since everyone can have a fantastic view of them” and they pledge to “fight the sun fascists and their obsessions with 'blue-sky thinking.”

          I love the Cloud Appreciation Society's website, because it’s a combination of all my favorite things: philosophy and beauty and whimsy and science and nature. There’s information on all the kinds of clouds there are, including a description of rare and beautiful but exceptionally dangerous clouds called nacreous clouds. There’s a cloud discussion forum, and a Cloud of the Month (September’s cloud is the Altocumulus, which apparently “often takes the form of smooth rounded masses that look like a tray of bread rolls.”) And there are tons of gorgeous, gorgeous photos of clouds.

         My favorite page is the gallery of photos of clouds that look like things, like the one of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, or a sprite on horseback, or an enormous cloud heart over Italy, or the face of Bob Marley, or a skeleton. It’s all spectacularly beautiful and marvelously weird and strangely soothing. If it’s been a while since you’ve simply gazed up in awe, I thought you might enjoy looking at it, and enjoy rediscovering clouds in general. Just don't rediscover them while you're driving your car, OK? Keep your eyes on the road.
       Are you a cloud watcher? Do you have a favorite kind of cloud? (In an instance of great minds thinking alike, my friend Megan Crane has a beautiful photo of clouds on her blog this week, too—a Los Angeles sunset).

And whatever you do, don’t forget to watch the season premier of "House" tonight!!!

Comments

[Lareign]

I remember when I was younger, and it would storm, and I would be so afraid of tornadoes. I would look at the clouds, and be scared. My grandparents live in Oklahoma, which is probably even more Tornado Alley than Texas, and there was an underground storm cellar we had to go to a few times. I remember my grandfather would sit at the entrance to the cellar and watch the sky, watch the clouds. He knows a ton of stuff about weather and just nature in general. And my mom, or someone, told me once I didn't have to worry, that things wouldn't be too bad, unless the clouds were green. Which I've only seen a few times.

But there's still something about the sky, before or during a storm, that awes me. Maybe it all goes back to hiding in my grandparents'cobwebbed-covered storm cellar in Oklahoma.

And oh, I saw Little Miss Sunshine with some friends Friday. It did come to the town I work in about 20 minutes away. It was lovely. The first scene, where she's watching the pageant? The yearning in that moment nearly made me cry.

[Haven Rich]

Julie, I could get lost in the clouds...meaning by actually watching them lol. Not only the clouds in my head, those don't count. I really like to paint clouds as well...the way they merge with other colors at sunset, beautiful! The clouds, not my paintings.

This past spring, my mom took me and my sister to the grand canyon and it's amazing up there for one. But the clouds had a way of making new things appear right before your eyes as they slid over the landscape. They truly are natures wonder.

[Julie Anne Long]

Yeah, girls, I've realized I've missed seeing clouds! For starters, I spend so much time in my office these days, and though my view is nice—a little green yard with flowers and trees, and patches of sky—there's no real drama in the sky, and I seriously can't recall the last time I saw a sunset (the sun sets on the other side of the house. LOL.) When it's foggy, as I've whined before on this blog, the sky looks exactly the same from morning until night—It could be 2:30 p.m right now, but it could also be 7 in the morning or dinnertime. It's impossible to tell. I can only imagine how beautiful clouds over the Grand Canyon would be...

But I love a sky before a storm, and the the way the light ricochets off clouds in the aftermath of it...and how clouds are basically indicators of the mood of the sky. I think it's wonderful how your grandpa knows so much about the weather, Lareign, and I've heard about the perils of green clouds. :) It's nice to stop and just marvel now and again. And in a way, I'm glad we humans haven't really learned how to control the weather...forces us to learn how to work with nature, in a way. :)

Glad you had a chance to see Little Miss Sunshine, too, Lareign! That opening scene—the one you mention—was brilliant, because it set the stage for the whole tone of the movie. I really did love that movie. Had lots of levels, and makes you think and feel as well as laugh. That's all I ask from a movie, really. :)

[Sherrie Holmes]

Julie, thank you for the link to the Cloud Appreciation Society page, and especially for mentioning The Cloudspotter's Guide. I carpool to my writer's critique group every Thursday with a fellow cloud lover, and we often ooh and ahh at pretty clouds on the way to group. She won't let me pay for gas, so I ordered The Cloudspotter's Guide for her as a thank you gift. I'm delighted I discovered this book from your blog.

[Julie Anne Long]

Sherrie, I'm so glad I could help you find a gift! I hope you guys enjoy it together—and I hope you don't drive off the road while you're admiring the pretty clouds!! You'll say it's Julie Anne Long's fault! LOL. Seriously, though, I like to picture the two of you finding inspiration in the clouds on the way to your critique group.

Today in my neighborhood we had still more fog—not ONE tiny bit of sun—so lately it's been a bit like living perpetually inside a cloud. Gotta tell you, I think I would much rather admire a cloud from the outside than from the inside. LOL. I'm praying for our usual wonderful warm San Francisco September to arrive!!

[Nicole]

I've posted a few cloud pictures on my blog before. The second link is my favorite. It just look unreal outside.

http://bloghappy.blogspot.com/2006/06/more-clouds.html
http://bloghappy.blogspot.com/2006/06/strange-clouds.html

Thanks for the link to the cloud site, I'd been to it before, but had lost the link.

[Julie Anne Long]

Wow, Nicole, those are GORGEOUS photos! I particularly love that second link...very odd, how those clouds are sort of *draped* across the sky like folds of white satin. They're so dense and creamy-looking! I've never seen anything like that around here. Thanks for sharing them!