City Daily Phoro Theme Day: Look Down

I had to go deep into the archives for this one. Taken from a restaurant in an upper floor of the tallest building downtown. Bridges, the Arch, the Mississippi River and Illiniois in the background.  

I have lots of pix still to post from the Pridefest Parade. They may have to wait until I run through images from tonight's destination, Clare, Michigan. It's kinda out there. All will be revealed.             

Sunset at the Qora River Mouth

Don't let the name of the Wild Coast put you under a wrong impression.  The Wild Coast isn't all rough and tumble with storms and shipwrecks.  It's also a place of beauty, untouched pieces of coastline, stunning river mouths, beautiful beaches, villages on rolling hills overlooking the sea and Nguni cattle on the beach.  I really wish I had the opportunity and time to go and visit it more often to see more of it than the two or three days I year I'm getting to do at the moment.  A month or so ago I got to spend a night at Kob Inn next to the Qora River mouth.  The first thing I did after checking in and dropping my bag in the room was to grab my camera and head for the river mouth.  What a spot! 

I headed back to the same spot a little later as the sun started flirting with the horizon...

... and although there were no clouds to paint to make a beautiful sunset...

... the one I got was stunning nevertheless. 

The Storm

Last night instead of looking at art I became part of the art.  "The Storm: A Utopian Forecast for London?"  Described by its creators as "a participatory performance that utilised a series of sculptural objects, moving image and sound to re-enact scripts from regeneration meetings and processes across London."  Some of us were the participants and others the observers, the piece finished with a lively discussion on our experience.

Tears Of Joy, Slurp Of Soda

At least that's how I interpret it. Form your own opinion.

May of may not do theme day tomorrow - I'll have to pull something from the archives. There's lots more of this material and we're on the road Friday for the holiday weekend. Off to the north woods and a part of this big country I've never seen before. Report maybe on Saturday, Sunday for sure.              

Mood of the Nation

This is rather how it feels at the moment.  A lot of repairing is badly needed.

Out

All the way, and without any reluctance. Good for them. Love the way the colors coat the street in the first photo if I do say so myself. I've got a few days' worth from the Pridefest parade.

I don't think the chap in the second one needs to advertise.

          

Room enough

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New plots are ready at my town's cemetery.
Which brings to mind the old Yiddish proverb,

As long as a man lives, the entire world is too small for him.  After death the grave is big enough. 

Azoy lang der mentsh lebt iz im di gantse velt tsu kleyn; nokhn toyt iz im der keyver genug.
 אַזוי לאַנג דער מענטש לעבט איז אים די גאַנצע וועלט צו קליין; נאָכן טויט איז אים דער קבֿר גענוג.

For ABC Wednesday, Y is for Yiddish.
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Tropical London

An East End cafe offering an alternative to rain and grey skies.

Pride

Sunday brought us the Pridefest Parade, one of the best photo opportunities of the year whether you are straight, gay or just rather undulating. Not the best shooting day for me. Got there too late to have enough time in the staging area. The weather was oppressively hot and humid. With the amount of gear I strap on myself - two camera bodies and a bag full of stuff - on a long walk, at my age I might have been near some medical trouble. It gets a little harder every year.      

Pride

A huge turnout for London Pride 2016. A minutes silence was observed in remembrance of the 49 killed in Orlando.  Politicans and showbiz were all there, and for the first time ever for pride,  the red arrows flew over Trafalgar Square.

While At The Arcade Building . . .

I ran across an acquaintance, De'Joneiero Jones, at the Fringe event. He now lives and has studio space in the Arcade Building. He is a painter and deals in art objects. We bought this beautiful Tara, a Buddhist deity, from him a few years ago. Jones wanted me to see what he has on offer these days so we went by his apartment. Some nice stuff but my house is pretty full.              

George Robert White Memorial Fountain - "The Angel"

George Robert White Memorial Fountain in the northwest corner of the Public Garden. An allegorical winged female figure atop a granite base installed in an elliptical-shaped pebble and granite fountain. The female figure holds a basket with her proper right arm outstretched and casts bread upon the waters. Two bronze cornucopias flank the central figure.

George Robert White was one of the City's foremost philanthropists who left $5 million to the city of Boston in 1922 to finance “works of public beauty and utility” throughout the City. White’s sole request was to have $50,000 of the funds set aside for the creation of a memorial in his memory. Well-known sculptor, Daniel Chester French, was commissioned to create this memorial in the Public Garden, which was completed and dedicated in 1924.

Location: Boston Public Garden at the corner of Arlington and Beacon Streets.

George Robert White Memorial Fountain

George Robert White Memorial Fountain in the northwest corner of the Public Garden. An allegorical winged female figure atop a granite base installed in an elliptical-shaped pebble and granite fountain. The female figure holds a basket with her proper right arm outstretched and casts bread upon the waters. Two bronze cornucopias flank the central figure.

George Robert White was one of the City's foremost philanthropists who left $5 million to the city of Boston in 1922 to finance “works of public beauty and utility” throughout the City. White’s sole request was to have $50,000 of the funds set aside for the creation of a memorial in his memory. Well-known sculptor, Daniel Chester French, was commissioned to create this memorial in the Public Garden, which was completed and dedicated in 1924.

Location: Boston Public Garden at the corner of Arlington and Beacon Streets.

Par Three Christina Lake

Lovely Facility .........Gorgeous Sunday In June.....Where Is Everyone?

Water Wheel in Lake Sumter Landing

Water Wheel

Water Wheel in Water Color

Ted has something brewing

I Dare You

You have to be young, strong and very supple. If I tried it would result in grievous bodily injury.

 

Today is one of the best photo ops of the year in The Lou, the Pridefest Parade. But there are thunderstorms in the forecast. Hope it works out.            

Ready, Steady, Build!

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If I had to operate any of this heavy machinery in the hot dusty desert, by the end of the day I'd feel as if I had been under the steamroller.

I don't know how the operators, who are usually Bedouin, work all day with no food or drink now during the month of Ramadan.

But the new neighborhood in our town has to get built.

And work goes on, winter and summer.
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So What Now?

London, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union, the regions want out and they got their way.  Those that led the campaign have also made it clear in the aftermath that they have no idea what now.  Unhappiness with government policy has translated in to blaming the EU.  Two fingers up to the establishment (which is what most exit supporters are saying they were doing) has resulted in an outcome that has surprised most people.  Younger people are horrified that their future now looks even bleaker.  Whatever your views one thing is certain, the next few years look pretty grim.

Dancin' Fool

So titled because the whole thing reminds me of this. 

A composite of the tap dancer. I sat and watched a long time. He didn't slow down. He never broke rhythm (and they were complex).  His eyes were  often closed, as if he had tapped himself into a trance. What's going on is a little clearer if you click to a larger version of the picture although his act is wilder if has more than a square meter to dance on. Someone, at least, can tap his way to bliss.            

Pick Your Art

Okay, mix and match. The woman in the center was doing some kind of free form posing or dancing or whatever you want to call it on a tarpaulin covered with fresh paint. Her body became part of the canvas. Didn't do much for me. The one on the right is daubing super-bright color on a canvas, something of an abstract expressionist style. I don't feel capable of judging this kind of art but I know when I like it (and I like Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko and Franz Kline).

The man on the left is something else. We saw him at the 2015 fringe and I wish I had a note of his name. He is a tap dancer but more than just that. He is something extraordinary and seemed to be in a trance. I'd like to do a whole post about him and I got a lot of pix. All I need is a chance to edit. So little time, so much to do.          

Roadtrip gems - The sun setting in the Karoo

Road tripping bring you the possibility of many memorable things. Beautiful destinations, interesting people, scrumptious food, fascinating places and, in this case, a beautiful Karoo Heartland sunset.  Although it was probably still another hour before sunset, the sun heading for the distant mountains through hazy skies made for a sight beautiful enough to make me pull over on my drive to Cradock. 

 This is why I go nowhere without my camera. 

Diva

Across the room from yesterday's pictures this mezzo was letting it fly. She was what some opera reviewers call a force of nature. (You get the point.) I'm sorry that I didn't get her name.

It doesn't come naturally for Westerners to sing over didgeridoo improvisations. The two artists mostly went their own ways but it somehow worked together.

George Washington

Statue of George Washington in the Public Garden viewed from Arlington Street.

The Stone Couple

A formidable pair I spotted in London Fields.

Roll With It

One of the rooms at the Artist Salon had two men doing something between freestyle and break dancing, a big-voiced singer performing a range from opera to jazz standards, and Michael Hagmeier, a didgeridoo virtuoso who blew me away at last year's Fringe. 

The three artistic units were, um, loosely coordinated, with Hagmeier providing the foundation for all. The dancers were all fluid, hard to capture in the dim light and simply beautiful.

           

X-ing out your enemy

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(Give the photo a click or two to read the text.)

My word of the week for ABC Wednesday is  XENOPHOBIA.

(zěn'ə-fō'bē-ə, zē'nə-) Fear and contempt of strangers or foreign peoples.

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In ancient Egypt the custom was to inscribe on a figurine the name of your enemy and appropriate curses. 

Then in an ancient ritual the figurine was smashed and the curses were activated, in the belief that this would break the enemy's power.

One such clay figurine bears on its chest the name Rusulimum (Jerusalem) and names of other enemy Canaanite cities.

I myself almost "fainted" when I first saw this display at Jerusalem's Tower of David Museum!

What an idea! 

Talk about the power of words . . . Talk about hatred of foreign peoples . . . !

Can you imagine ever doing such a thing? 

(BTW, "thing" and "word" are both expressed in Hebrew by the word davar. In the old days, a word was not just a sound you heard. No. A word was a thing in itself, having its own existence, carrying power. And if you know a person's name, you have power over him; you call out his name and he stops and turns around.)

The clay figurine is a copy of the original, courtesy of the Royal Museum of Art and History, Brussels.

The execration (!) text is from Egypt, 19th to 18th century BCE.

execration
1382, from Latin execrationem, noun of action from execrari "to hate, curse," from ex- "out" + sacrare "to devote to holiness or to destruction, consecrate," from sacer "sacred"

1. the act of execrating
2. a curse or imprecation: "The execrations of the prophet terrified the sinful multitude."
3. the object execrated; a thing held in abomination

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See also "execration" in Jeremiah's strong words: Jer. 42:18:

18“For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as My anger and fury were poured out on Jerusalem’s residents,  so will My fury pour out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing, scorn,  execration, and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’ 19The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah: ‘Don’t go to Egypt.’ Know for certain that I have warned you today!

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Shalom, dear blog readers, and blessings be upon you.

 

(Linking to ABC Wednesday.)

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A Stilted House

A house in Cedar Key must be built high enough to withstand the surge of water from hurricane force winds. That generally means it must be 12 feet above ground as that's the high-level watermark in Cedar Key. A stilted house like this allows the water to run under the house and hopefully leave the structure with little or no damage.