Ice Show
Fire and Ice. It’s hard to put on a winter festival with ice in 61-degree weather. It’s a bald face attempt to bring foot traffic to downtown. Commerce. Business. Money. To be sure someone benefited. Someone paid. People came. They saw, they ate, they purchased. We arrived on the second day; the melt had begun. Ice sculpting is temperature dependent. Five Olympic rings were only two in the late afternoon. More telling was the makeshift ice rink that used white plastic instead of ice. Hey, there’s no refrigeration, just a lot of good intention.
This show was in early February. Yesterday, February 21 was 72 here. No, nope, there ain’t no global warming. The last time it was this warm in NYC was back in the 1930’s. Um, yup, the hundred year heat spell….
Antiques
What’s antique? Technically, it’s more than one hundred years old? Loosely, it’s anything that’s old. Oh boy! The photograph is black and white with some colorization. Your parents? Hey, it’s for sale. $18. Sad? Oh yeah! All of the family has passed on? I find it sad that this picture is for sale and there is no one left to care. I once saw and entire family album of black and white photos for sale in Camden, Maine. I suppose the family is all gone. It haunts me still.
And? WWF wrestling Santa? Oh my! Is that old? Not too much is around that doesn’t have a twist? Some good, some bad. Bad taste?
Sanitize
Whoa! 60 ounces? Nearly half a gallon? Do you really need one? More than one? Bathe in the stuff, and your kids too. I’m laughing…well sort of horrified. Sure, no one wants disease. It will prevent the flu? Hmmm? Here’s something to keep in mind. Staphylococcus bacteria was treatable with penicillin group antibiotics until the bacteria evolved and became resistant. That would be MRSA – methicillin resistant staph aureus. And we are about to run out of our alternative antibiotics that can kill this one. Bacteria adapt. Viruses do too. It’s why colds and flu keep changing and no single vaccine is effective. You might like them to go extinct. But it’s not happening. Sanitizer is something that is a mixed blessing. We are growing resistant microbes as we spread sanitizer around. There’s no simple answer. Sanitize? Sure, no one wants to be sick. Don’t sanitize? A reckoning? We have MRSA. This won’t be the last.
Ah! Just the next day:
The Solution for Skin Ailments Could Be Right Under Your Nose – New York Times By FERRIS JABRJUNE 26, 2017
It touts bacteria and other microbes that live on your skin that are symbiotic to health and skin.
Thaddeus
It’s not a popular name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaddeus
Thaddeus (Greek Θαδδαῖος, Thaddaios, from Aramaic תדי, Taddai / Aday) is a male given name. It means a heart or courageous heart. As of the 1990 Census, ‘Thaddeus‘ was the 611th most popular male name in the United States, while ‘Thad’, its diminutive version, was the 846th most popular.
I recall the name. I recall Thaddeus Potgalki. I have misspelled it. He was a hippie in my high school class. Mid 1960’s – duh! He had a beard before I had arm hair. I recall my chemistry teacher Mr. Schindler slowly savor his name as he pronounced it. He next appears in my memory in my high school English class when he gave a thundering delivery of a poetic piece. He was destined for drama as I was for science and medicine. I hope he did well.
Covered
Well…what a nice segue! (see yesterday). Back in October I posted the picture of an old building and its old signs that would soon be covered up forever. Now it is/has been… The old signs will not likely be seen again. Maybe a hundred years on, it will be repurposed and we might see beneath the veneer again. It’s another instance where I got a picture that will not be available to be recreated again. Different place, different time. No one spoke up. The signs were covered up without fanfare. It happens all the time. History is lost…but not forgotten.
Subway – Art
This was an eyesore series of buildings seen from the elevated subway by millions. The owner let the abandoned building stand (decades) waiting for the value to be more and then enough to be of value to develop. He just didn’t care about his abandoned buildings enough to maintain any semblance of care. Graffiti covered the buildings and reached legendary status. Then the fight began.
New York Times 2/12/18 – Judge awards 21 graffiti artists $6.7 million judgment for destroyed graffiti art. The owner/developer destroyed their art on his buildings. I can see (pun) the arguments from both sides. Isn’t graffiti unwanted art? As in, we see it on the subway cars and the MTA cleans it off. (I took these images from a subway car.) This stuff has collected upon the buildings over the years. The buildings were abandoned and awaiting development. The art is on someone else’s property and was done without permission. There is an act – VARA – Visual Artists Rights Act. Yup! There is! Oh boy. ‘Nuff said!
The story? Mine? I saw these (buildings/art) long after I rode the subway with any frequency. I got these images on the way back (not going to) from an event in Queens. It was August 2010 and it was with my trusty Nikon D200. My digital files are scattered/organized. The database is lost among backup hard drives. Voila! First, I had to look through my database. The key word – subway. I would not have listed it as “5Pointz.” Then cull the index word. I’ve taken pictures on at least two occasions. Once would do it for my purpose of finding an image. It’s art that’s gone now. I remember the controversy about destroying it. It was fun to see from the train. It was placed illegally upon someone’s wall. It became legendary. The owner repurposed the wall. The art is gone. It’s worth $6.7 million. It was there long enough to be considered valuable art.
Silvercup? This is a bread factory sign overlooking the Queensborough Bridge. As a kid we drove to Manhattan via this bridge. Each time we passed you could inhale the wondrously enticing smells emanating from the plant as fresh bread was baking 24/7. The place is a movie studio now. The sign has been preserved. It’s right next to 5Pointz. Signs are covered/developed/destroyed all the time. The argument here is/was a true conundrum.
Hey! I got an image that’s (art) gone now! I found it in my archive in short order. Sadly, I knew I had the image and it was indexed in a way that only I know. Shortly no one will be able to access this stuff without looking frame by frame. That would be 200, 000 plus (>300k) images. Nope. …it ain’t happening. Hey?! Are my images valuable? Nope. History.
Jet Trails
I live at a cross road. Morning skies are always interesting. Count ‘em. Too numerous to count. I’m in the middle of tbings, but not really. I liken it to living on a golf course and not playing a single round. I’m ok with it. I don’t mind not having to battle TSA and crowded planes and baggage claim and… Sure, I’ll fly again. Meanwhile, I enjoy the myriad of jet trails that cross my skies. Of course, as a kid (8 or so) I used to run from under planes passing overhead with the belief that I did not want to be there if someone overhead flushed the toilet.
My Violin
Found in an antique store… So, this is a story from my high school senior year. We used to joke about the Mafia. Guys with violin cases were in the movies “rubbing out” their victims when they pulled a Thompson machine gun from the case to “do in” their victims. To be honest I don’t think the drum ammo clip would fit in the case. But, joke about it, we did. And, for my birthday that year, Andy, my long lost best friend, got me a violin case. We solemnly walked the subway all day back and forth to Stuyvesant High. Anyone who would admire my prowess in playing the violin would be ceremoniously shot with the super soaker machine gun squirt gun within. Oh boy! We had a lot of laughs over that. It was the late sixties. I hardly think any law officials/bystanders would pass this as innocent high school humor in this day. Laugh or cry, you decide. I just had a laugh when I opened the case to find it empty in this antique store.
Arches
To see the “arches;” it was on my bucket list. Half hearted. But yup! We got to the park about an hour before dusk. Right at sunset we arrived in the parking lot nearest to “Delicate arch.” It’s the emblematic arch on all the photos. You can hike (too late and too chilly) or you can get a view a short walk from the parking lot. It was a long telephoto lens shot. I was disappointed not to get closer. Oh well. But then… looking at the shot, it seems I did come away with an image. And I got the sunset glow. Well, ok! You take what you can get. It was better in retrospect. Decent!
The other quintessential image is balanced rock. It is solid and not reinforced as the strata might suggest. The minerals that leached through the rock gives it a stratified look. To me it looks like they used concrete reinforcement. But no. At some point it will fall over. Everything changes over time. Hey! I saw it before it keeled over. Yay!
Pub
What do you do for dinner when no one is hungry but it’s a long way to breakfast tomorrow morning? Brew pub. I’m spending a lot of time in them lately. Ha! I don’t drink. But we had a pleasant repast and ended the day warm and toasty. (It snowed 5 inches overnight.) It’s not bad. The last of the football games were in progress. (We were out west.) The atmosphere is laid back. No one spoke politics. It was indeed a splendid respite. Hmmm? SLC (Salt Lake) is Mormon. No alcohol, coke (coca cola) or tobacco? Not here. It was a safe bet to guess everyone was not Mormon in this pub?
Cape Cod Revisited
Okay, this post would/should follow the post of Feb 14. I got ahead/behind myself. And I remember Ginny’s admonishment. “More people.” But I’m behind on going into the/my archives. Soon…she jokes there are pictures decades old that she is still waiting to see.
When I took these slides they were quintessential images for me. They were framed by my (then) father in law and remained on display for many decades. Pictures fade. I printed and framed these slides many years ago. The dunes faded to a monotone. The house (print) has faded to near ghostly. Kodak paper – it fades with exposure to light over time. Unfortunately, I (Kodak) printed in a format they had at the time – 8X12. It’s an odd sized print. Fortunately, there is someone who will print it. I can frame it again. My darkroom (no more) went with the last several moves. I Photoshop now. Luckily, my index system allowed me to find the (digitized) images in about five minutes. Amazing. The slides were taken back in 1981. Would you believe the house is gone? It was in a park/preserve and the house has since gone away. I visited decades later and discovered that this circumstance can never be again. I was sort of shocked that I could not return and that things change. I don’t know why I was surprised. I returned to the spot and the picture (house) was gone? I could never recreate the atmospheric conditions. So, why was I shocked? At least I got the slides. They are all stored away at the moment. Luckily, I digitized them. Crazy. I found the files/slides in a few minutes. ? Yeah, I did it with my database. There are too many images (>400k) to just cull. Lightroom would never be able to save me. Over the years, first on index cards, then Microsoft Works, and now Excel. My file system allowed me to track down the appropriate image in minutes. Neat! I wish I had digitized a few friendships too.
License Plate
I have been accused of taking pictures of nothing. No particular value. Nothing that anyone else will ever see. Why do you take it? What’s the purpose? Use? Then again, why have a vanity license plate? It’s awfully easy to remember your plate? And then again? Why take a picture of it? Why post it? Street photography, you are allowed to shoot anything in public as it is considered public domain. That would include people. Privacy? Talk to the Russians. Oh my?! I’ve been all over the map today. Stick to the message – BeHappi.
Tabernacle
We got a tour from three missionary women. They explained all about Mormonism. I had lots of questions. They gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon and a Christmas ornament. They did not try to convert me. But they encouraged me to seek answers. I’m not much of a joiner. The original tabernacle organ is in a much smaller space. The acoustics are so good you can discern the sound of a pin dropping. It’s pretty amazing engineering and architecture. And because it was near Christmas the grounds were lit spectacularly. Snow fell and the pavement reflected making things magical.
We got into the chapel. We were inside the “tabernacle.” Yes, you drop a pin and it can be heard dropping in the back of the tabernacle. Amazing? Yes! The temple? You can’t go in unless you are a “member” in good standing. That leaves me out. I was happy enough to see it from the outside.
Choir
Serendipity! Again. We arrived in Salt Lake on Sunday. You can attend the broadcast service for free. You just need to be quiet and respectful. It’s a live broadcast around the world to “millions.” So they say. I have no reason to doubt. The choir members may stay for 20 years. There are two musical directors. The orchestra and all choir are volunteers. The production is elaborate and every bit as complex as an NFL game – multiple cameras and vantage points on the big screen. We got to hear the whole thing and then the undressed rehearsal that followed.The great hall has a capacity for 21,000. I guess about 2000 were present with us. It was not a bad turnout for a grey gloomy stormy day in December.
Have you wondered? How many pipes in a pipe organ? Well, one has 16,000 pipes. Wow! They (pipes) can be added as you go. So, start with a few hundred and add on. Of course the ones you see are like the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The rest (of the pipes) are hidden behind. They even have three organist concerts in which six hands can play all at the same time. To qualify an applicant needs a Phd, to have “audience pleasing performance” skill, and… to be a Mormon. Nope, not me…
The temple at night? Spectacular! Superlative even more so because of the Christmas lights. Thank goodness Mormons believe in Christmas too.
Where were you?
It’s not a good photo. I could improve it with means. I’m not bothering. It’s okay. It’s about the story. 2014. No. 2015. Was it? Gee time passes quickly. Valentine’s Day. Get it? Don’t try. I’m being obtuse. However… we were in this same restaurant again recently. I think it’s the second time for me (in this restaurant). It’s not Valentine’s. But I am there again with the same folks; yes,… and with my very significant other. The last time it was on the eve of our buying a house in Delaware. Prior to that, I had never even been in Delaware. And the topper? I was asked, “So how do you like the neighborhood?” just as I was driving in Delaware for the first time. Oh brother! You can’t make this stuff up. So, it was nice to have a steak once again. Meanwhile, my companion has gone vegetarian since then. She ate the risotto.
London Bridge
I’ve been here before. Once. No. Here! It’s in Lake Havasu, AZ. The McCullough chainsaw owner bought and paid for the bridge to be brought over (from London) and reconstructed it (in Arizona). It’s silly. But we were passing through… Don’t jump! Duh! There’s a lot of hard concrete before the bridge goes out over water. I used to take care of kids every summer who jumped into empty pools in NYC. Yeah, “Duh!” to them too. I don’t remember the English telephone booth the last time I was here. I guess there is not too much need in London for them either. Why was I in Lake Havasu for the second time? Once was enough? Go figure.
Yes, don’t jump in the (shallow) water too.
Cliff
Hardly. Rock climbing doesn’t require Everest. When I was younger I’m pretty sure I could have climbed. No longer. No stretch. And bones break when you fall. Ah! But I would have liked… then I found my vertical limit. It shrinks as you get older. I was short of breath just walking around in Denver. Oh well, I’ll not be climbing Everest. I’m ok with that.
Wind Farm
I guess it’s pretty windy through this corridor. It looks like this might be the original test area. We saw windmills of different technologies and ages. They lined up geometrically and randomly. They were definitely unlike the plains states of Kansas and Colorado. There was more sense of purpose and urgency in the distribution and crowding.
Ah! We snapped a pic just as a hitchhiker passed. It was nice timing. We could not have done it if we’d planned. Serendipity. Spooky?
I have to think that California is ahead of the curve and has been forward thinking enough to have what appears to be early and late model windmills working side by side. It’s renewable and after the initial investment, it’s sustaining and clean. They are also not known to be a health hazard. Clean coal? – an oxymoron.
Cavatina
It’s a roundabout story that began in Jeddah a few years back. I was sitting in a Chinese restaurant – Chopsticks. The background music track played Cavatina. I knew this song?! Of course, it was a movie sound track? I think? Siri can’t help me. She could if I played the music into my iPhone. But my “humming” the melody came up empty. Aha?! Hum it and send it to others – a PhD music professor in Ohio, or his wife an accomplished musician in her own right. Nope. No dice. Clueless! (they probably won’t see this post.)
Fast forward a few years….I’m at the local library for a classical guitar concert. Yeah, really! What do old people do in the middle of the afternoon? And this was on Peter Fletcher’s program – with explanation. The Deer Hunter! – 1979 – Meryl Streep, Robrert DiNiro, Christopher Walken. Sad haunting! Viet Nam era. What I remembered of the plot was Russian roulette and that one of the stars kills himself when his luck ran out (doesn’t it always?).
For such a beautiful tune, it’s a gruesome plot twist. To recall all of this now… it’s a full circle completed. I’m not sure I really am happy to know. Look up the song at least. You might be haunted too.
Curious
Curiosity killed the cat. Ha! I heard that as a kid. It didn’t take – as in – I never paid attention. But indeed, my cats like to get into everything. Sometimes they have to work at it. They can slide open the bathroom door, a neat trick. And then, they can slide open the shower door, a neat trick too. There is always a caveat. One of the cats who favors dripping shower water also throws up whenever he drinks it. Great! Now I was cleaning out my dresser. Huh? Not me, I’m a pack rat. But yes, I got motivated. And yes, you have to be a curious cat to jump into the drawer. Later on, this same? cat got locked into the storage closet. Yes, I got her out later when I went looking. Yup, she slipped behind her mistress and hid away. And yes, I am on to her and did not wait too long to seek her hide.
No sooner did I post the above, I found this in the archive stack. Same cat? Who knows? I can’t tell the sisters apart unless I see them fully or I feel their fur. There are tells, but, it ain’t easy. Hide away, little one.
Charlie
Relatives are hard to keep track of. Or not. But for me, yes. Yes, I’ve noticed that I don’t always write in complete sentences. Miss Digman, please accept my apologies. She taught me sentence diagramming in eighth grade. What I know about writing a sentence came from her. She was a matronly buxom woman of no nonsense who scared the knowledge right into me. I know the difference between a gerund and a split infinitive because of her.
Sorry. I digressed. The story is long and I’ll be short. Ha. Charlie is a cousin. He was an uncle’s nephew adopted as a child in China and brought to NJ. He drifted back to Taiwan. He later had a couple kids and they live on the west coast. Ooops. The story got long… I managed to get Dave and Charlie to meet by contacting Alice, who arranged a hook up. Alice is my cousin, Charlie’s sister. Do not ask exactly how Dave’s related to Cahrlie. In China everyone calls anyone older – “Uncle.” Say, “Uncle.”
Super Blood Blue Moon
So, on the heels of my last post is the picture I missed. I slept through it. Hung over. It was the State of the Union address last night. A blue moon is the second full moon of the same month. A super moon is when the moon is closest to the earth. The blood moon is when you have a lunar eclipse. Damn! A trifecta. Missed it. Double D.
The very next night… well I saw the full moon which is still blue and super. Yes, it doesn’t look blue. Duh! It’s just the terminology. I got off a shot. See the power lines. Not good but a shot, a place holder if you will. The darn camera does its own thing. I try to get what I want. Sometimes it gives me what it will. We bargain and I come away with shots. Some good some bad and some less bad.
And thank you Ginny, she reminded me. Of course, Dave was in the air and saw it all, lucky kid. Me? I slept – fitfully/blissfully through it when it all happened the day before. Now I was in a shopping mall…
One A Day
Not vitamins…
I try to take a picture every day. Yes, with a real camera. I pretty much follow my life this way. Lately, it’s rare for me not to pull out my camera wherever we are. Ah! Restaurants! Yup, I take pics of restaurants and the food. Goofy? Probably. Then again, I miss plenty too. I also get ribbed about taking pictures that my friends never see. (They don’t follow blogs, I guess)
We get really great sunrise sunset pictures in Delaware. The clouds change constantly. It’s spectacular most times when there are clouds in the sky. This morning is a case in point. Spectacular. One more? I can’t help myself. Yup, I took a few. Timing is everything. The peak sunrise color only lasts moments. Yes, you have to be up at that hour. Earlier in my life that would never be. I liked to sleep late into daylight. Not now. Hmmm, I don’t have a guilty conscience. Do I?
California Dreamin’
Comin’ an’ goin.’ The California freeways are famous for their complexity. At night the lights seem to stretch into infinity. And in the light of day it seems that the stacked byways are just waiting for the next earthquake. We hit traffic 50 miles out heading into LA at rush hour. It was hours of bumper to bumper getting into the far corner of Los Angeles. Getting out was easy. I think they were glad to see us go. No traffic. Ha!
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