The Death Of Amateur Politics, Pandemics And Punditry

 

"On a withered branch 

A crow has alighted: Nightfall in autumn."

 

~Matsu Basho 

I didn't do as much photography as I wanted to on this vacation. So much was working against me. Two days of furlough money being deducted from Alan's paycheck, meant we had less money to spend. Covid-19 meant that we couldn't go to restaurants, not even Denny's, without making reservations way in advance, due to restrictions on how many can be served, and who knows if we would have felt like it when the time arrived. Covid-19 also derailed a lot of small traditions, like walking into somewhere like Old Navy or Ross and purchasing a t-shirt for the upcoming season. No movie theaters open. No comedy clubs. Nothing fun was open downtown, like ghost and zombie haunts. Life just didn't exist this vacation, and now it's almost over, and my life feels like it is being eaten alive, waiting for the results of the election. I pray that a year from now we will all be back to living. I swear, as soon as Joe Biden is sworn in, I am officially retired from amateur political punditry. With any luck, so will other people!

 

Make. It. Stop.

Just someone, please, call the fucking election already. 

~Carly

Stockton, California

November 7th 2020

#PhotoByRequest "Final Resting Places" In Autumn

"Autumn colors remind us we are all one dancing in the wind."

~Lorin Morgan-Richards

This week's #PhotoByRequest subject is "Final Resting Places." I have collected quiet a few different photos of cemeteries over the years, but I want to expand it over this next year. Hopefully next vacation, next October, we will be able to get over to Colma, to the cemetery that Harold and Maude was filmed in, and perhaps the cemetery in Oakland that is the last resting peace of the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short. But for now, this post contains a few new, and some previously posted. And in one case, not a cemetery, but rather a small rock garden, in front of the home used in Mrs. Doubtfire, in San Francisco, at the base of a beautiful tree, kindly set aside for fans of Robin Williams, such as myself, to remember the man. He was cremated, so we can't visit his grave, so this little space allows us to say, hello and thank you, to a really great artist. Damn I miss him. I will always miss him, but I will also be forever grateful too. Sigh. And every now and again I visit that rock garden, and bring a couple army men, he liked army men. Anyway, on to the photos. 

The Autumn Leaf Of The Day

#60 Leaf Of The Day

November 21st 2019

Nevada City, California

Nikon

~Mood: Quiet

~Me  

Walking With Autumn Thoughts

"There's something to walking with autumnal thoughts through the evening fog. One likes to compose poems at a time like that."

~Hermann Hesse

 Demian. Die Geschgichte von emil Sinclairs Jugend

More from my visit to the Stockton Rural Cemetery last month. The leaves were still reluctant to show their colors, well, most of them anyway, but across the way, in the very far corner there was a beautiful tree in full autumn bloom. It was gorgeous! Isn't it strange when one tree out of many seems to think for itself? Oh I know, it has more to do with the amount of sun, and moisture and all, but it's nice to imagine that they have the will to shine and it be about determination, rather than natural order. Shrug. I have no idea how things work, I just live on this planet.

#50 Leaf Of The Day

November 11th 2019

Photographed October 10th 2019

Berkeley, California

Nikon

~Mood: Quiet

~Me  

Art About Town: San Francisco... "Untitled Sphere" And "Hermes And Dionysos: A Momument To Analysis"

"Untitled Sphere"
By Fritz Koenig
333 Battery St.
San Francisco, California
September 4th, 2013

"Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art."

~Neil Gaiman

I have to say upfront... I LOVE these two sculptures! They have kind of become like old friends in a way! You see, when Alan and I are in the downtown area of San Francisco, and we know we are going home by way of the Bay Bridge, we usually drive past both sculptures on our way to the bridge. No matter how the day has gone, or the week for that matter, I always know that on my way home, I will get to see these two sculptures, and I will have a chance to contemplate the artist's inspiration. I love public art. I love sculpture, but not all pieces I see speak to me, but these two do! There is just something about seeing both of them that makes my day better.

Fritz Koenig, is was the artist behind the famous "Untitled Sphere" that once stood in the plaza between the World Trade Center Twin Towers in Manhattan. The sculpture was heavily damaged on that horrible day, 9/11, but it wasn't completely destroyed. Today it stands, in it's current state, damaged, but resilient, in Manhattan's Battery Park. I kinda appreciate that! Although I wish it had been returned to it's original space, and was a part of the official 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero. One day, if I am ever lucky enough to cross Manhattan off my Bucket List, I want to see the WTC sphere for myself. It's a monument of strength, of rising from the ashes, damaged, but not broken.

Art heals.

Like an old friends, that you know so well, and fully understand with words getting in the way!


"Hermes And Dionysos: Monument To Analysis"
By Arman
411 Sansome Street
San Francisco, California
September 4th, 2013

"We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams."

~Albert Einstein

Mood: Happy

~Me :)