Photo By Request: Public Art (Art About Town)

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."

~Aristotle 

This post is a not to our latest #PhotoByRequest subject "Public Art". A subject, which you know, I adore, which is why I chose it. Sacramento is full of public art of all kinds, and it is glorious! I can't wait to go back on vacation and spend a day just photographing the art, food, architecture, and trees. All 110,000 of them! But right now, it's all about the art. Of all the pieces I photographed, the Pop art by street artist, Norman Ayles, is my favorite. I will be doing another post soon about those pieces specifically! Those two pieces really spoke to me!

Art About Town: Sacramento

Murals

More on this piece in a different post to come at a later date.

Art About Town: Stockton

Murals and Sculpture
 
"I'm Not Surprised"

"Plant The Seed"

The Confucius Bicentennial Memorial

Art About Town: Castro Valley

Electrical Box Art

"Field Of Deer"

Autumn Leaf Of The Day...

#11 Leaf Of The Day

October 4th 2019

Sacramento, California 

Nikon

~Mood: Quiet
~Me  

Political Wishes, Hopes, And Dreams In The Age Of Trump

"If your're going to kick authority in the teeth,

 you might as we use two feet."

~Keith Richards

Keith Richards In His Own Words 

Okay, so, as I type this I am sitting in Twitter jail. Or is it, sent to my room? No jail. Definitely Jail. Or as my friend Izzy calls it. Twitmo. At first I was pretty angry that some sniveling fucking pearl clutcher decided that of all the left leaning accounts telling off California Congressman Kevin McCarthy, mine was the most offensive one, but truth is, who knows how many the melting little snowflake reported? It's not like Republicans have any backbone what so ever. But the one thing I will never be able to understand about that lot it, why don't they understand just how much of a moral victory they hand folks like me, when they get us put in Twitter jail?

 Personally, I hope it was McCarthy himself that reported me, because that would mean I got to him! Right now! While he is defending the abusive and dangerous rhetoric of a man clearly on the last legs of any sanity he might have possessed! Wouldn't that be delightfully rich? In actuality, it really doesn't matter because here I sit, all because I made a metaphorical joke about how he is punching himself in the face with his support of Trump. A man who will never show him the same loyalty, that he is showing Trump. As for Twitter, I knew that they could limit free speech on their playground, it's their private property after all, I recognize that, but who knew they could limit hopes and wishes? 

The only possible harm, in my little joke would occur, if McCarthy decided to ACTUALLY punch himself in the face! If he's stupid enough to do that, is that really my fault? But okay, I will go forward on Twitter knowing the only hopes and wishes I am allowed on Twitter, is to see a handsome prince carry off a princess on a unicorn. While the President Of The United States continues to post this...

Lies. Profanity. A blatant disregard for how anything in the world works, including the political systems of other countries, as well as our own. A thinly coded call for civil war, and more. But I can't hope Kevin McCarthy doesn't stop supporting Trump, because, I admit it, it is amusing watching, asshole after asshole, think they will be the one to, experience and enjoy, Trump's gratitude and loyalty. 

Yeah, ask Vice President Mike Pence about that right now.

There is no Autumn Leaf Of The Day in this post, but there will be one in my next post, which will be about a much nicer subject, the #PhotoByRequest project! This week, it's all about the Public Art! 

Look for that post in about an hour!

The Horror Master, Stephen King, Understands Me

"The three types of terror: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something a green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel it's breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there... "

~Stephen King

What is terror? Terror is being awakened from a deep sleep, by the sound of your home security system, alerting you that an intruder has attempted entry! That happened to me yesterday, at 7:23 AM. My phone was lit up red. My alarm system was lit up red. Both were screaming, loudly, both saying someone had tried to come in through the back door, off the living room. I couldn't function. I am not sure if it was because the sound of the alarms terrified me, or if it was because I was barely dressed. Or if it was because I had no idea what the intruder wanted. Was it an attempted robbery? An attempted rape? Someone itching to commit murder? What did they want?

I will never know the answer to that question. By the time I could function, about 3 or 4 minutes, they were gone. I never got a chance to see who they were. A man? A woman? A wacky child? A ghost? A vampire? I have no idea, which makes the whole thing a lot worse, because I will play the "whatif's" the rest of my life. Or, more realistically, at least for the rest of the time I spend in this house! What if we had never installed an alarm system? What if the back door hadn't been locked? What if I had seen them? What if the fur babies had been hurt? What if? What if? What if?

It's terrifying not knowing if they spent time watching the house, waiting for Alan to leave. It's a terrifying thought that I will have to spend Thursday and Friday of this week, alone in the house. Do I sleep? Can I sleep? How do I face this fear? I guess I have no real choice. I will face Thursday and Friday, and every other day, going forward, alone. Alan can't do the work on the fear for me. That's mine. I suppose I will be okay. Alan is going to run a couple errands in the middle of the day tomorrow, which will give me a chance to be in the house alone. That will be a healthy thing for me, I think. I hope. If only I could shake the feeling from this morning...

"... It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel it's breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there... ".

 What if the "nothing there" terror comes back?

Autumn Leaf Of The Day

#10 Leaf Of The Day

October 2nd 2019

Stockton, California

Nikon

~Mood: Scared

~Me

 

The Last Saturday Of Autumn

"I cannot bear to waste anything so precious

 as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."

~Nathaniel Hawthorne

October 10th 1842 

The American Notebooks

Last Saturday was beautiful. It was the final Saturday of September, and there was no way I was going to miss the beautiful clouds dotting the sky or the warm autumn sun. One thing I have come to really love about the Central Valley, is the ease of which photos of the sky can be accomplished. There are lots of cool rural roads, that provide an awesome open sky. I miss the hills in the Bay Area, but once I got used to a new system of photographing my chosen subject, I found the new way of doing things really rewarding. Last Saturday was a really good day with the camera, I was happy with the results, I found lots of leaves, and it felt good to step outside my head for a while!

Hey look... a puppy dog!

 #8 Leaf Of The Day

October 1st, 2019 

Photographed October 28th, 2019

Sacramento, California

Nikon

~Mood: Happy
~Me  :)

The Laurie Strode Of Flowers

"It looked like the world was covered

 in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon."

~Sarah Addison Allen

First Frost

This is the upper board, of an old fence, that sits in one of my favorite parks. Weeds have taken over, killing off the last of the spring and summer flowers, and there is such a autumn finality to it, that made me happy, so I photographed it. I would paint this one I think, if I ever do keep my promise to get the paint box out. A brand new clean canvas awaits, as does inspiration, so, like last year, I can't help but wonder... will this will be the year I finally do the painting? Shrug. Anyway, this pic reminds me of a ghost of a summer flower, who knows it's already dead by the hands of it's stalker, autumn, but is hiding behind the fence anyway. Maybe I will call the flower, Laurie Strode. Why Laurie Strode? Because Laurie, was scared and injured, but fought back, and I can identify with that these days. She's been my scream queen hero since I was 15. Why stop now?

I'm feeling creative. 

#8 Leaf Of The Day

September 30th 2019

Cull Canyon

Nikon

~Mood: Happy

~Me  :)

Beautiful Things Are Coming My Way

"Come, little leaves," said the wind one day, "come to the meadows with me and play. Put on your dresses of red and gold; For summer is past, and the days grow cold."

~George Cooper

Last weekend Alan and I took a drive west, to the East Bay, to check out the leaf progression. Yesterday, it was north to Sacramento! Both destinations provided a lot of beautiful leaves. It's early in autumn, but so far, all signs are pointing to a  the likelihood of a gorgeous autumn this year! I am feeling pretty optimistic! Next weekend is the official start of our vacation!

#7 Leaf of The Day

September 29th 2019

Cull Canyon

 Nikon

Mood: Encouraged

~Me  :)

 

Impeachment Bricks

"And then the sun took a step back, 

the leaves lulled themselves to sleep and Autumn was awakened."

~Raquel Franco

I took this photo on February 17th, of this year, but haven't posted it before now. I am not sure why, it's a gorgeous bird, and I was happy enough with how the photo turned out, but I just never made the effort to share it. That was a shame, I think, that bird made it through cold dark days, and it seemed really beautiful. It had an absolute right to be seen and photographed, it was doing it's part for the earth. Keeping it's promises. And what was I doing? Moping around, feeling exhausted and uninspired. Self inflicted. As the Trump impeachment bricks begin to fall, I am realizing how much energy, time, and emotion I willingly gave to a man who deserved none of it. I let myself fall into a waking depression, and wrote the script for allowing myself to wallow in it, under the guise of, there was no way to feel better until autumn came back. Which was some actual bullshit if ever there was some! Well, I am going to try my best to change things, work a little harder at moving forward with eyes fixed on the time when all this bullshit stops. Who knows, maybe when autumn says goodnight for another year, I won't just stop living again.Who knows what I have missed while it wasn't autumn? What a ridiculous waste of time.

#6 Leaf Of The Day

September 28th 2019

Cull Canyon, California

9/21/2019

Nikon

Mood: Encouraged

~Me

 

Dancing Like Twyla's Watching

"How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. Some dance to remember, some dance to forget."

The Eagles

Hotel California

It was the last beautiful flower on the bush it was growing on. All around it, dead and dying flowers, but this one looked absolutely pristine. It was dancing in the wind like it had been choreographed by Twyla Tharp.  I had to pay it tribute. Cull Canyon park was a feast for the eyes last weekend, and I am so glad we visited. I doubt I will be visiting again for at least a couple weeks, because tomorrow I am planning to head to Sacramento to do some leaf peeping, probably near the Crocker Gallery. It's one of my favorite haunts this time of year. I am hoping to be doing a lot more museums on this vacation, but I also want to visit some federal lands and some parks, plus the leaf peeping, and the movies, and Monterey, and San Francisco and Berkeley, and movie locations, and, and, and. I have way too much planned, to fit into just 4 weeks. It looks like there might be an impeachment to hold my interest as well, so there's that! But we are talking about right now, and visiting Sacramento. It's motto is "City of Trees" and I plan to visit as many as possible before autumn is over! They have over 110,000! That's a lot of leaves, dancing around in my brain, like Twyla's watching.

 Leaf Of The Day

 #5 Leaf Of The Day

September 27th, 2019

Stockton, California 

September 21st 2019

Nikon

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

 

Wild Things (Photo By Request) And The Leaf Of The Day

"I like this place and could willingly wast my time in it."

~Shakespeare

It's Thursday, and therefore time for an all new #PhotoByRequest challenge on Twitter. This week Karen chose the topic of, "Wild Things." Here again we have another series of photos from last Saturday, only this time it is about the simple nature of the end of summer, and the last of the ugly grass type hedges growing along Castro Valley boulevard. I have no idea what it's called, because I have pretty much hated it my whole life, but the other day the hedges were casting some cool shadows, and the colors were nice against the colors in the background. Anyway, it was the last day of summer... almost... and these had gone to seed, so I decided it might just work for this week's topic!

And now... 

 Leaf Of The Day #4

Leaf Of The Day #4

September 21st, 2019

Cull Canyon

Nikon

Mood: Happy

Me :)

E Pluribus Unum

"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half have never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half."

~Gore Vidal

Screening History

Again, a there is a little autumn magic involved in my photo jaunt last Saturday. I am not kidding. I had already left the park and gone for some lunch, when I got the idea to go back and look for some afternoon shadows. When I got there, I got out of the car and began to walk. I was looking over a small slope at the natural, late afternoon shadows. As is often the case, the sun was still way to bright to be able to capture the light and dark the way I wanted to, so I got ready to leave.

As I was walking back to the car, I was looking almost straight down. I do that often, because one never know what can be found. That point was proved last Saturday when I spotted an upside down penny, with the words E. Pluribus Unum, staring straight back at me! It made me smile, and believe it or not, I hadn't seen this particular design! How that's possible, I don't know. Either I haven't been paying attention, or I just haven't come across one. Either way, as I said, it made me smile.

Tonight I am smiling for different reasons, but the penny is still relevant to my mood. You see, yesterday, Nancy Pelosi gave her formal endorsement for an official Impeachment investigation, into Donald Trump and his administration, over his involvement in possible attempts of using tax dollars to extort the Ukraine. He apparently withheld humanitarian funds, in lieu of the government of the Ukraine digging up any and all political dirt on Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden.

It's just one more action of a sick and demented human being. Frankly, I never thought any impeachment investigation would take place, despite his having confessed to obvious Obstruction of Justice, and Robert Mueller having indicated both in his report, which I read cover to cover by the way, and in his in-person testimony, that had Donald Trump not been the President of the United States, he would have been subject to criminal prosecution. Mueller declined to do so, because of Justice Department policy that indicates the opinion that a sitting president cannot be, or should not be prosecuted.

One of Trump's personal lawyers once said that he was against his client speaking directly with Robert Mueller during the investigation because Trump couldn't follow his advice about following a script. Trump likes to go off on long riffs, and consume the conversation. Not a bad strategy in the world of Real Estate perhaps, but when it comes to speaking with authorities, it's not a good idea. I am not lawyer, but even I know, less is more! It was the lawyer's contention that if Trump spoke to Mueller directly, he'd end up in an orange jumpsuit.

 That has always been apparent to me, and now even more. Trump couldn't shut up on that phone call with the President of the Ukraine, and he's in trouble. While this incident probably won't end up with him in an orange jumpsuit, it will make him especially vulnerable to prosecution on any crimes he may have committed both before and after he took office. He can't stop his bitchy whiny tweeting, he can't stop committing, at least illegally adjacent crimes, and he cannot understand what America is about. I'd feel sorry for him if... nah fuck it... there is NO circumstance that could make me feel sorry for him. And because he is now, today, acting like a cornered animal, I won't feel safe until he is no longer president.

One thing, according to lore...

find a penny pick it up, 

all day long you'll have good luck.

... but is it a bad idea to pick up an upside down penny? You know I am a big believer in curses. Especially money related curses. So, did I just jinx everything?

Penny Luck

#3 Leaf Of The Day

September 25th, 2019

Photographed September 21st, 2019

Cull Canyon

Nikon 

Mood: Quiet

~Me

 

Do You Remember The 21st Night Of September

"Do you remember the 21st night of September?

Love was changin' the minds of pretenders

While chasing the clouds away

Our hearts were ringing

In the key that our souls were singing

As we danced in the night

Remember how the stars stole the night away."

Earth, Wind And Fire

"September"

Isn't she pretty? It just so happens I spotted this pretty lady this past Saturday, September 21st, while out doing some leaf peeping, and picking up some take-out from my favorite Italian deli, in Castro Valley. She was standing in the window of the DeJa Blue hair salon, which is a few doors down from Lucca's deli. She made me smile. Yellow and purple are beautiful autumn colors, and on that late summer day, and it seemed to me that she was ready to party! 

Was the party in honor of the end of summer, or the beginning of autumn? Who Knows? All I knew was, I was sure that after closing time, she would come to life like the mannequins in Xanadu did, and party! All my favorite things, in one shot, coming together organically. Music. Strange and surprising photo opportunities, and of course, it was September 21st, so how do I not think of, Earth Wind and Fire, and that awesome song? Now, let's not forget that I also had with me my favorite sandwich! The magic was already beginning!

Leaf Of The Day #2

September 24th, 2019

Photographed September 21st, 2019

Cull Canyon

Nikon

~Mood: Happy

~Me :)

 

 

The Ethereal Corrective... Welcome To Autumn 2019

"But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since he saw you."

~Stephen King

Salem's Lot

It's here, and all is right with the world. We no it isn't. And I imagine things will be getting a lot worse, before they get any better, just like out of a horror novel, but it's a strange kind of okay, because today it's autumn again. The Equinox. A day that seems to me, to always feel a little more special than other days. I don't know if it's relief that comes from just knowing the painful heat is about to end, or if it's knowing another year has been handed it's official walking papers, but something, always, feels profoundly different to me. More so than if it was a simple matter of one season turning into the next. I swear I can feel the moment it happens. The moment autumn is born into another year! Hopefully there will be something magical that will happen, to lessen the despair the world is feeling. Maybe the slant of light, or ethereal corrective, will shut Trump's mouth for one afternoon, who knows? But even if that doesn't happen, it's still the first day of autumn, and all is right in that world.

And if it's the first day of autumn, it's time for the Leaf Of The Day project to begin again. It wouldn't be autumn for me without that day every year! And so it begins...

Autumn Leaf Of The Day

2019

#1 Leaf Of The Day

September 23rd 2019

Cull Canyon

Nikon

Mood: Happy

~Me  :)

 

Werewolf? Therewolf!

"The doctor once told me I feel too much.

 I said, so does god, that's why you can see the

 Grand Canyon from the moon."

~Andrea Gibson

After having missed photographing the full moons for several months, for several reasons, I decided to photograph last night's full moon. It was a full moon, on Friday the 13th. I couldn't pass that up. There are a lot of facts about this full moon, but the most interesting one, at least to me, is that it's a Harvest Moon that was 14% smaller than other Harvest moons. There is a perfectly good reason for it, but I'm not going to do your homework for you, you will just have to click the link below to find out why. Stuff is weird. Or it's normal. I don't know which any more. Anyway, be on the lookout for werewolves. No kidding, do it!

Read why here > Five Harvest Moon Facts

Mood: Tired
 ~ Me