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"The simple truth is that you can understand a town. You can know and love and hate it/ You can blame it, resent it, and nothing changes. In the end, you just another part of it."

~Brenna Yovanoff

I got nostalgic about Berkeley yesterday, so I thought I would post a photo. I took this one back in January. It's just a street, Telegraph avenue, and the outside of a shop, Rasputin s Music, but it's one of my favorite streets and one of my favorite shops in all of Berkeley. Berkeley is a beautiful place. It's weird sometimes. It has a rich history. It's architecturally beautiful. And like all towns...  it's just home.

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Machines... In Color And Black And White

"We have too many cellphones. We've got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now."

~Ray Bradbury

Recently, I got the rare opportunity to visit a machine graveyard. No Joke. There were more dead machines, and parts, and parts of machines, and just useless objects than I could hardly believe. And it wasn't even a machine bone yard, it was just useless stuff someone was storing. But as big an eyesore as it was, it was also  candy for my photographers eyes, so I snapped off a few pictures. I liked what I saw through the camera more than what I saw using just my eyes. It's always amazing to me how things change with new eyes, in this case the eyes I use while I practice my photography. Now, for some deep contemplation...

Cell phones?

The Internet?

Vending Machines?

Vending Machines...
The one I have used the longest would be the vending machine. It has provided me quick nourishment and quenched many a thirst. Could I do without one? Yeah... but there is something so wonderfully simplistic about them that I think I would be sad if they ever went the way of the best ideas like the Automat. 

I have always wanted to eat at an Automat, but not just any Automat, one circa 1955, and located in Manhattan. You know, like Doris Day! LOL. But alas, except for the occasional one here and there, they are gone now, replaced by Fast Food establishments. But still, there is just something so cool about the concept. And if you look at the original pictures of them, they were styled all in that beautiful Art Deco design. So lovely.

Cell phones...
I think I might use my cell phone less often than my computer. But what I love most about my cell phone is the fact that if I am away from my computer, I can access the Internet through it. The Internet has become a household tool, just as important, if not more than, a vacuum or a toaster. But my cell phone can connect me to my husband and friends instantaneously. I love being able to send text messages. I feel safer walking to my car at night with my cell phone near. In fact, I don't know how I lived most of my life without it!

The Internet...
The Internet is my door to the whole world. I have it for shopping, I am a bargain hunter, and the Internet has saved me a ton of money over the years! I have it for friends... some of my favorite people, who I wouldn't have met otherwise, live comfortably in a box on my desk! I have it for fun, like for following the Wise Words Of Dylan McDermott! A nice man who also lives comfortably in a box on my desk! LOL :) And sometimes in my phone, and once in a while in my Galaxy Tablet.

He is my current celebrity crush, but more to the point, someone I found out is really quite nice. If not for the Internet I think I might have assumed he was like a lot of other celebrities. Unreachable. Snobbish. Full of themselves. Now kind of I think of him as a sort of friend, and I look forward to what he has to say. I always get a smile when he favorites something I have said. It's always going to feel good to feel appreciated even on a small level. Right? So the Internet is fun, but it is also where I am able to express my creativity, and be able to share it instantaneously, and take care of day to day chores like bill paying.

So, if one of these things had to be gone for good, I guess I would say the vending machine would be least missed. But that is not the same as saying it doesn't still currently have it's place. I like just grabbing something on the run, using pocket change. Shrug. Maybe it's just me, doing my best to keep one foot back in the stone age, you know, 1980. That was the year I graduated high school, and now it seems more like a million years ago. Time flies. We have to make the most of it, but don't fear the future.



Mood: Reflective

~Me :)

Art About Town: San Francisco... "Caruso's Dream" By Artists Brian Goggin And Dorka Keehn

"Caruso's Dream" By Artists Brian Goggin And Dorka Keehn

"If we, citizens, do not support our artist, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams."

~Yann Martel, Life Of Pi

 

I did these photographs at the end of February, a couple days after the art piece was unveiled to  the public. I wanted to attend the fun, but unfortunately Alan had to work, so we came to see it as soon as we could. It's called, "Caruso's Dream," and is by the same artist who created one of my absolute favorite public art pieces in the city... "Defenestration." "Caruso's Dream" consists of 13 steel and glass pianos, which hang from the front of an apartment building between Mission and Market streets. 

An amazing nod to the brilliance of Caruso, and a big bite of San Francisco history, in this case, the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906! It is stunning to see in the daytime hours, but takes on a whole different feel at night when it is illuminated and the lights "move through these fragile forms working with the sound of Enrico Caruso's voice." I haven't had a chance to experience the art at night, I am hoping to get by soon to do so. I love pieces like this one that reference not just art, but history and the thrill of being creatively human.

Here is a short video where the artists talk about "Caruso's Dream."
(Laughing Squid)

 
"Defenestration" By Artist Brian Goggin

Mood: Inspired

~Me :)

To Dream A Garden

"To dream a garden and then to plant it is an act of independence and even defiance to the greater world."

~Felder Rushing



I just had to post two more photos from the garden. I have been photographing it, for the first time this spring, just over the last couple days. It was time! Everything has bloomed for the first time this season, and over all it's healthy and off to a pretty good start! There is no sign of winter damage, and no signs... knock wood... of aphids! Gosh I hope I didn't just jinx myself just then! You know how it is, you say something positive out loud, and before you know it, it comes back to haunt you!

 But I have it covered I think. This week I plan to do a heavy cinnamon sprinkle in the garden, which will discourage the ants, which discourages the aphids. Gardening is all a matter of timing... luck... sunshine... rain... and love. My garden is a labor of love. Hopefully years after I am gone, someone will rent this little cottage of mine, and really love and appreciate the beauty of the roses, the lavender and Paul the Japanese Maple.

:)

Mood: Happy

~Me :)