Joey Says Relax

"Cats Are Connoisseurs Of Comfort."

~James Herriot

~James Herriot's, Cat Stories

 I have already posted this photo to Twitter, so if you have seen it I apologize for the repeat. I just figured that it deserved to be seen. Joey is such a cuddly, sweet, funny little cat, and I couldn't be happier that he came our way. He is very nearly integrated into the family, by October he will finally be able to spend the night out with the family, as opposed to being put in his room at bedtime.

Dylan no longer hisses at Joey when he walks by.

Hendrix no longer hisses at Joey when I pet him.

We are a family.

And our three boys help Alan and I cope a little better with this crazy world.

Joey Says "Relax"

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Art About Town: Foster City... "On The Wing" By Artist Bob Bennett

"The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time.

Always listen to the art."

~Junot Diaz

"On The Wing" By Artist Bob Bennett

Leo J. Ryan Memorial Park

Foster City, California

Photographed February 2nd, 2006

Public art is my refuge, and maybe one of the great loves of my life.

I am planning on photographing a lot of it during the remaining part of summer.

Fair warning... Ellipsis is going to be a bit art heavy!

:)

Mood: Quiet But Content

~Me :)

Art About Town: San Francisco, "Apples" By Gustav Kraitz and Ulla Kraitz

"There must always be two kinds of art: escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep, and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love."

~W.H. Auden

Another from the archives, but never before posted, "Apples" by artist Gustav Kraitz. It sits in the sculpture garden at the DeYoung Museum, in Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco. The DeYoung is my favorite of the San Francisco museums, although I do love the Legion of Honor as well! Oh my, art is my refuge, and I find myself needing more and more of it. I hope to get out with the camera this next week. I have located a few more from the Hearts In San Francisco series, and there is a new film scheduled to be shot in the city mid-week. 

Ant Man, which will star Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas. I can't even imagine how surreal it would be to actually run into Michael Douglas on a street in San Francisco, after growing up watching him starring as Inspector Steve Keller, on The Streets of San Francisco! LOL. How fun would that be? Maybe I should try to locate as many different types of art as I can find along my travels next week. 

Yeah... climbing into the art sounds like Heaven.

Good idea methinks.

It's a plan.

Mood: Quiet but Okay.

~Me :)

Lion's Mane Jellyfish

 

"I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, 

where we can talk freely and build our castles by the sea."

~Bram Stoker, Dracula

These beauties are called Lion's Mane jellyfish. I love their wild color! I could have stood all day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, just watching them dance around in their little blue world, all day! I think on that day there were maybe 10 different displays of different kinds and colors of jellyfish, but I kept coming back to these! Somewhere, buried deep in the archives, there is a short video I did on that day, I will post it sometime if I can find it! Anyway, I am thinking about jellyfish because we have been experiencing an unusual amount of jellyfish washing ashore all along the California coastline. Most recently, Ocean Beach in San Francisco, saw thousands of Velella velella jellyfish finding their way onto the beach. They are a gorgeous blue, which almost looks like glass, rather than a sea creature! I am wanting to try to get over to the coast early next week to maybe photograph them. You see, unlike most other jellyfish, the Velella velella don't have stingers! 

Wish me luck on my journey, it seems like my mind is going in so many directions lately, and we are getting to the point of the year when I feel at my most restless, so my focus could completely change by then. Plus, there are several other possible photo ops in the city next week, any one of that would make my inner photographer happy! The is some filming being done at Union Square on Monday and Tuesday for the new Paul Rudd film, Ant Man, and I have a list of some public art that I have been meaning to track down for the longest time. When I am feeling emotional, like I have this past week, I find that climbing into art makes it all seem easier to take. I sure need that about now... a coping mechanism. I just want to float about like an orange jellyfish, happy and content in my own little world, riding on a soft blue wave.

Trying to keep from beaching myself.

Mood: Quiet

~Me

Into The Mystic

"... hark, now hear the sailors cry, 

smell the sea, and feel the sky

let your soul and spirit fly,

into the mystic..."

~Van Morrison

"Into The Mystic"

I took this photo off the Marin County coast, near the Headlands, back in February. It had been a good day with the camera, but the day was coming to an end. I was tired from the workout of capturing the beauty around me, saved forever in a tiny SD card. Knowing I can put that card in my computer, and feel once again the first time I saw a scene, makes me amazingly happy! On this day, it was one mystical, magical moment after another. The sea became silver, and it looked like little diamonds shimmering. The color scene that was in front of me a few minutes began to look gray. It gives the area around it a timelessness. I love when the sun is shining, and I can still capture what appears to be a black and white photo. For me, it's a little bit of Heaven. It always reminds me that seeing things in color isn't always the way you will see them, but it's okay to be black and white or gray under the right circumstances.

Mood: Inspired

~Me :)

Art About Town: San Francisco... "Always Hope."

"Be still, sad heart! And cease repining;

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;

Thy fate is the common fate of all,

Into each life some rain must fall"

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Complete Works Of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Okay, still a little tender, but doing better... just not enough to get out with the camera. Someone was a bad kitty (cough...DYLAN) and meowed LOUDLY after Alan left for work this morning, which made my attempt at sleeping nearly impossible. Good LORD that cat hates to see Alan leave for work! The naughty kitty finally came to his sense around 8:30 AM. By then I was exhausted... again... so I caught a couple more hours sleep before baby cat Joey woke me so I could give him a big bowl of crunchy cereal for cats, also know as, Purina Cat Chow Indoor Formula.

So, it was a day of cleaning, feeling sad, and tip-toeing through my archives. In an effort to help myself out of the funk I have been in, I have been revisiting some of my favorite photography subjects from years past. A big help in times like this are the photos I have done of Bay Area public art exhibits. One of my very favorite being the, San Francisco General Hospital, Hearts In San Francisco project!

Each year since 2004, the hospital puts out a call to local artists to design different themed hearts, which are then put on display throughout San Francisco. The hearts are eventually auctioned off, with the proceeds going to fund programs at at the hospital. It is their mission to... "... provide life-saving care to anyone in need, regardless of ability to pay." What public art project could be more life affirming and heart warming than that?

Here are two of my very favorite...

"I Left My Heart And Shoes In San Francisco"

2007

"America's Greatest City By The Bay"

2004

Designed By Tony Bennett

The call for artists to submit their heart designs for 2015 closed on August 1st, 2014, and the designs that are chosen will go on display throughout the city next February, just in time for Valentine's Day, and American Heart month! Excellent... I am already looking forward to putting on a lovely red outfit, to help promote Women's Heart Awareness, grabbing my hubby Alan and taking him for a heart friendly mean, before we go in search of the Hearts Of San Francisco!

It's A Plan!

Mood: Encouraged! Inspired! And Getting Better All The Time!

 "Always Hope"

~Me :)

To visit the official website, and see the galleries from past years click here.

It Was A Walk In The Park...

"A lone walker is both present and detached, more than an audience but less than a participant. Walking assuages or legitimizes this alienation."

~ Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History Of Walking

Is it really only Thursday? It's been a very long week so far, oh it was the usual number of days, but it has had a god-awful... I don't know... darkness to it. There is nothing more depressing than a beautiful summer day that carries the weight of grief as a companion. Yes, I took Robin William's death hard, I am, in truth, devastated. I have some very personal reasons for that, and as such I will probably never share why, but believe me the grief I feel right now is deep, but I will be okay because I know, this to shall pass! Cold? Perhaps! True nonetheless. The loss itself, however, will haunt everyone who loved him forever. That's what suicide does.

Forgive me, I had no intention of getting this into things. I guess I am just sharing about how dark I feel at the moment. It's the same darkness I felt a few months back when our friend "J" took his own life, in the middle of a cool, dark, mid-spring night. No sign was shown by him that day, it was business as usual, and yet within a few short hours he was gone. Just gone. And the rest of us were left with little information about why he made that decision. I have come to the conclusion that truth is... it was none of our business! So, when that fact finally sinks in, it both simultaneously heals you, and drives a stake through your heart. 

Nice!

Thanks friend!

What choice do I have now? The same I had a few months ago. None. So yesterday, I decided to take Alan's advice, and grab a cold drink at Starbucks, and head out with the camera! Alan reminded me that when I grieve, I tend to see things I photograph differently. My perspective is, or seems to be, finer tuned. He reminded me that I took some of my best photographs after the death of my friend Pam, and again after the death of my Elvis. I don't know if I took any photos yesterday that would qualify as "some of my best" but I made the effort. And what did I find through the tainted eyes of grief? Autumn is beginning to kick summer out on it's treacherous ass! 

 "But then fall comes, kicking summer out on it's treacherous ass as it 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 fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he had done since last he saw you."

~Stephen King

I am glad I made the effort. At first it didn't sound like a good idea. I was tired, and really just wanted to nap, but moving forward has to start somewhere, right? Starting at the end of summer seems fitting somehow. The old wound for my friend, and the new one for Robin Williams are two separate spaces that need time, space, and in the end, letting go of. 

"The scariest moment is always just before you start."

~Stephen King

Mood: Quiet But Okay

~Me

Goodnight, Lauren Bacall

 

"You can't start worrying about what's going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what's happening now."

~Lauren Bacall

Rest In Peace Beautiful One!

~Me 

Oh Captain, My Captain...

I will miss you! 

God is a tough audience, but I know you will do your best!

Rest In Peace

~Me

One Photo, Two Versions...

 

"Weeds are plants too, once you get to know them."

~A.A. Milne

A little over 10 years ago, I spotted this in a yard in Berkeley. I was just out doing errands, and looking for a parking place. The parking sucks in Berkeley, but sometimes I am thankful for that irritation because you can happen upon the most interesting things on your travels around town, and your quests for a parking place.

I don't know why, but I LOVE this planter/yard ornament! The first time around the block I saw it, and it just struck a cord. The second time around the block, I got a better look, and kinda felt a weird draw to it! The third time around, I gave up, parked the car, and got my camera out. I tried to be discreet, and not make the homeowner nervous, but I knew I couldn't go home that day, without photographing it! 

I am still not sure why I find it so intriguing, but I do!

I just do!

Version #2

 What do you think?

In color or Sepia?

Mood: Creative

~Me :)

Photography In Black And White

 

"The Friendship Embrace"

March 21st, 2007

San Francisco, California

"When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls."

~Ted Grant

I took this photo back in March of 2007. I haven't posted it before because, as a rule, I feel like it would be improper to steal one's moments. I do take the pictures, obviously, but usually it is for my own education about doing spontaneous photography. When I do a photo like this one, nine out of ten times I am a passenger in a car, and an opportunity will present itself. Like this one did! I have always liked this picture, because the gentleman in the photo knew I was taking the photo, and seemed quite okay with it... flattered almost!

But I never posted it until today.

I think it deserves to be seen.

Mood: Creative

~Me :)

Round Robin Challenge: Where'd You Get Those Eyes?

Autumn Me (Selfie) 2006

"The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter... ofthen and unconscience but still a faithful interpreter... the eye."

~Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

RRC: Where'd You Get Those Eyes?

Eyes? I suggested an eye challenge? Yeah, I think I did! I just wonder why I chose eyes? I hate doing selfies... HATE THEM. But I have done a few, and thankfully Karen said we can think outside the box when it comes to the challenge topic, so here are some of my favorite eyes. Most of the photos have been posted before, but there are some that while photographed a while ago, haven't been posted before. 

Enjoy!

Where'd You Get Those Eyes?

Elvis 2006

                                                  Elvis And The Boy Next Door 2008

A Scan Of My Left Eye
                2009

                                                               Hendrix Kitty 2010

The Whistling Tree
    Autumn 2012

                                                       Baby Dylan November 2008

The Ostrich
  June 2005

                                                              The Kitty Next Door
                                                                          2007

And with that last photo, we come to the end of my gallery of EYES! :) 

Now that you have seen my gallery, why not check out what every one else came up with? To be redirected to the official Round Robin blog, just click the link at the top of this post. That is where you will find the links to everyone's blogs, and all the information you need to play along!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Here's An Epiphany...

"Poets have been mysteriously silent on cheese."

~G. K. Chesterton

As the Fibromyalgia rages on, I am posting yet another archived photograph, but never before seen, of one of my favorite things ever... CHEESE. And what's the epiphany? Well, I took this photo back in 2005, and nine years later, I still LOVE CHEESE! 


Now excuse me, while I try to will feeling back into my fingers. Stupid Fibromyalgia.

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

I'm In A Purple Mood

 "Weeds are nature's graffiti"

~Janice Maeditere














I seem to be in a purple mood. I am not sure why... just am. Anyway, while I know that this is basically and invasive weed, I have always admired the Purple or Plume Thistle. I love the green and purple contrast. If it wasn't so irritating, it would be lovely to have around. Shrug. I think I will just appreciate it for it's beauty, and forget about the irritating part!

~Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Pink

"Stop counting crayons, just draw pictures."

~RuPaul

Good advice! Sometimes it's just as simple as that!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

About 3 Seconds Long

"It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you watch them on a screen."

~Anthony Burgess

Okay, so filming is underway in San Francisco, for the newest in the "Terminator" series, Terminator 5: Genesis. It officially began last night at around 10:00 P.M. and was due to film through the wee hours. I am not there, of course, but hopefully I will be able to make it over to San Francisco one day this week, with my camera by my side, to capture some of the behind the scenes fun! Or at least what Craft Services has available for the cast to munch on! 

Watching a movie being filmed is a little like watching paint dry. I have learned that whether there is a snack table for extras or not, always bring your own food. Both times I was promised food in exchange for being an extra in a film, I found that what we were told would be available was a striking overstatement. BYOF! Now, if you are merely watching the filming for the sake of having some fun and getting some behind the scenes photos, you tend to have more options, and there are usually several open restaurants in the general neighborhood that you can duck into. Still, I prefer to eat before I go, or eat after I am finished with my photo taking. But that's a personal choice. When I went to watch Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine, my blood sugar was out of control, all I had was some water and still my BG was over 200. Stress is stress... even the good kind!

This time around the celebrity is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who really doesn't due much for me! Not a fan! I used to be, then he became the governor of California and frankly, he put so many families in so much pain, based on his bone-headed decisions I couldn't even watch his films for a long time. I don't think about how hard things got for us, it's a waste of time now, but I haven't completely forgotten those times either. That would be difficult to almost impossible. But California is on it's way to healing, and it's a much brighter future, so let the filming on the next big blockbuster begin! I wish the film luck! And I am very happy for San Francisco! We need more filming to be done here! Apparently it's pretty easier to work here, because one onlooker described the scene being filmed in the Mission district as only being 3 seconds long! LOL. Sounds about how... ahem... filming with Schwarzenegger would be. I can only imagine, but the mind does reel!

Quiet 

Rolling

1 2 3

And Scene!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

The Hour Of Pearl

Point Montara
March 3rd, 2005
 
"It is the hour of pearl... the interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself."

~John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

This photograph is from the archives, but has never been previously posted, so technically it's new! 


Right?

Why didn't I post this photo back in 2005? I am learning a lot about myself by tip-toeing through the archives. I think I passed on posting this subtle sunset, in favor of the sunset that came a few minutes later, and was much more intense in color. I think early on in my digital photography I concentrated too much time on the dramatic. I am taking note of that, we will see what this autumn brings. I am not sure I know how to do subtle in autumn! LOL. We'll see!

Mood: Inspired

~Me :)

Art About Town: Santa Rosa... A Joe Cool Summer (2007) Archived

"I think I have discovered the secret of life, you just hang around until you get used to it."

~Charles Schulz

One of my favorite memories of chasing down public art, happened in the summer of 2007, you see, that was the Joe Cool Summer in Santa Rosa, California! That summer Snoopy statues, each with a different theme, dotted the town, and Alan and followed the pup around town, with the help of map that indicated each uniquely themed Snoopy could be found. It was a lovely way to get to know Santa Rosa, the town in which Charles Schulz lived, and where the Charles Schulz Museum is located! 2007 was the third year that Santa Rosa exhibited the Peanuts art, the two previous years featured the main man Charlie Brown, and the second year was completely devoted to Woodstock. I need to do a search through my archives to see if I can come up with the photos I took from the earlier series, but for now we have Snoopy to enjoy. I always loved Snoopy!

A Joe Cool Summer 
Santa Rosa,California
2007

Classic Joe Cool

Beagle Ridge

Asnoopbis

Cool Reflections

Cool The World

Coolest Conservationist

Impressionist Joe

Joe Brakeman

Joe Masterpiece

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem

 Pucker Up Sweetie

Shakespeare Snoopy

World Famous Novelist












Alan and I had an amazing time that day. And to think, it was August 2nd 2007, so just about seven years to the day! I think it might be time to revisit Santa Rosa! It's less than two hours from Berkeley, and that makes it just about perfect for a day outing with the camera and the hubby! 

Note: I only posted a partial list of Snoopy sculptures, to see the full gallery from the summer of 2007 click here.

Sounds like a plan! :)

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

The Strength Of Observation

"It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way, so we must dig and delve unceasingly."

~Claude Monet

I have spent the last week or so digging deep into my archives, trying to get photos moved to the new computer. I should have saved the images to either a portable storage device, or online cloud, but I procrastinate a bit, so now I find myself tasked with going through files going all the way back to 2003, to make decisions about what to store, what to keep on a flash drive, and what to store in one of the older computers I keep for just that... storing files.

It's quite a task, I have a lot of images to file, but it's a lot of fun too! I have been smiling a lot the last few days as I reminisce about my kitty Elvis... gosh I miss him... and all the flowers and interesting places I have been in the last decade! I have come across photos, and memories, I hadn't considered in years! I think tip-toeing through the archives more often! Sometimes one forgets just how happy they really are, and how happy they have been!

Life is good!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Art About Town: Berkeley, Addison Street Poetry Panels... "A Textbook Of Poetry, 21 By Jack Spicer

"There is something about poetry beyond prose logic, there is mystery in it, not to be explained but admired."

~Edward Young

A Textbook Of Poetry, 21
By Jack Spicer

Hold to the future. With firm hands. The future of each afterlife, of each ghost, of each word that is about to be mentioned.

Don't say put beauty in here for the past, on account of the past.
On account of the past nothing has happened.

Stick to the new. With glue, paste it there continually what God and man created. Your fingers catch at the edge of what you are pasting.

You have left the boy's club where the past matters. The future of your words matters. That future is continually in the past.

That pathology leads to new paths and pathfinding. All the way down past the future. The words go swimming past you as if they were blue fish.

I love the Addison Street Poetry Panels and visit when I can. They inspire me, and calm my nerves, and remind me that even in the toughest time, there is truth and beauty just around the corner! Addison Street is a very special place on this earth.