You have an ability to fly. Try it. Imagine what you would see. Fly over some plants. Go places you have not been. Learn to look.
Category: photography
My Dad Fought
“Six hundred fifty-five thousand Americans died in combat in the Civil War. At the time, the population of the United States was about 32 million. That means one in fifty Americans died between 1860-65—two percent of the total population. There are ten times the number of people living in the U.S. today, so that death toll would be equivalent to 6,550,000 dead in 2023. Everyone was affected by the Civil War. Everyone had loved ones who died. Everyone—in the North as well as the South….”
Major Leonard Duckman didn’t die in the war, well, he lost his mind, hair, teeth and changed (according to biased accounts), but he just may well have. He had leukemia which was probably from some agent something which they sprayed on the trees in New Guinea when they weren’t shooting up the place or bombing it. I didn’t really know him. He was always tired or in pain or under some spell. Smart. Handsome. Would have had a great legal career. Deserved better.
Perfect Pour
So, you and I aren’t bartenders whose tip depends on filling the glass, dramatically. She doesn’t use built in measurers or shot glasses. She just pours. Sometimes the martini juice reaches above the rim, held together by capillary action. And, her martinis always come with no fruit, vegetable and only a sniff of vermouth (almost bone dry). But the best thing is that I have to go to the glass for the first sip. The martini is undeliverable. Drink it where you find it.
Entering Metropolis
Once inside, I hope to find myself.
Passover Food
Usually, around Christmas, the stores abound with songs. Some of them like Silent Night or Little Town of Bethlehem refer to the birth of little baby Jesus. Some like My Favorite Things doesn’t have anything to do with childbirth or Mary or Joseph or the Three Wise men, but is considered a classic because it brings comfort and warmth.
We JEWs have our symbols, too, for the holiday of Passover. FOOD. Ah, the tears from the salt water. The burning of the throat and clogging of the nose from the horseradish. A lamb shank never to be eaten. The unleavened bread, matzoh. Apples, nuts and wine which somehow represent the bricks used to build pyramids. And for dinner, stomach clogging gefilte fish, chicken stock with matzoh balls, brisket, chicken. Plus four glasses of sweet, concord grape wine – guaranteed to hangover. Oh, did those askenazis know how to live?
Dayenu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZgDNPGZ9Sg
Grounded
So, sometimes creativity rises up and bites your brain. No need to introduce itself; it’s just there. A ginger flower stuck into a bunch of carnations as an after thought. Dwarfed them. On its own, it found a place to show its colors with friends blue and green.
Best Blood Ever
So, I went to the Cancer Doctor today. He said my blood was the best ever. I cried. He and Sharon smiled.
Rewired Brain
The more severe the hit, the longer it takes. Photog, modeling or shooting doesn’t matter. I refocused. But I still cannot avoid the pain, especially when DRUMp goes after a judge, a USDC one for that matter.
Remind me what I did, exactly – Justice and a showing that judges aren’t flower pots or sub human.
Subaru Airbag Recall
Wasted my afternoon at Subaru. Didn’t have a the part my car needed, despite sending recall notice telling me to bring the car in or a loaner car so the car could be checked out. Drove out there for nothing (40 minutes each way and gas and anxiety on the turnpike).
As I made the appointment to return on Friday, the pleasant woman at the desk revealed a tattoo (my favorite off topic subject besides actual flowers). After a compliment on her art, I asked if I could shoot it.
She noticed my little point and shoot and said she was a budding photog who did weddings and portraits with a camera her father bought her, the name of which and make she didn’t know. I was so annoyed at having to return, but nonetheless motivated to get a shot.
I only had the patience for one or two shots (no time to adjust the light), but I got the tattoo. Fixed it like the other one in LR and Color Efex.
Warhol’s Banana NOT
Help! I have fallen.
Warhol exposes mundane objects as primary subjects, such as the banana, to demonstrate the rise in mass production and distribution in the second half of the 20th century. Me, I am more interested in the banana peel as a hazardous object. Not a lot of nutritional value in a banana peel. Used to cause eaters of the fleshy center to cast them off into well trod public spaces. Donovan may have seen it as a psychedelic 🧐