Comida Tipica Mexicana

Seeing Red


That's a red taqueria.

Building a Better Tomorrow


I'm fond of taking pictures of things in our daily life that could be out of a 70s science fiction movie.

The Daily Planet


Detail of a recently placed sculpture in front of the San Jose Tech Museum

Cultural Diversity in Pasadena


Bada Bing Bada Boom


Best Bagels in town, but sadly this location is going the way of the bulldozer

Wheat... lots of wheat... fields of wheat... a tremendous amount of wheat...




Don't know why, but these fields of poppies and then this image with all the people walking across the top of the hill, first made me think of Bergman's the Seventh Seal, and by extension, Woody Allen's Love and Death (from which the title of this post comes). A hilarious romp through Russian literature and Swedish filmmaking, back when Woody was funny.

Sonja: Judgment of any system, or a priori relationship or phenomenon exists in an irrational, or metaphysical, or at least epistemological contradiction to an abstract empirical concept such as being, or to be, or to occur in the thing itself, or of the thing itself.

Boris: Yes, I've said that many times.

There are no second acts in American lives.
~F. Scott Fitzgerald


This picture, taken in Oldtown Pasadena, reminded me of this quotation,

But above the grey land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic--their retinas are over one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many painless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.

The Great Gatsby

More Pretty Pictures


I have to admit finding these shots of the poppy fields challenging. While it is fairly easy with decent exposure to create colorful postcards, finding compositional elements to make these shots interesting is more difficult. The options are macro shots and close-ups of flowers, finding little elements like a pathway (as in this shot) or some other man-made object, adding people to the shots, or observing patterns in the flow of the blossoms on the hills.

I attempted all of these with varying levels of success.

Not a Poppy


I've got more poppy pictures, but I needed a break from all of that pretty orange and green and blue. This ought to do it.

Mutant Poppy

Artist and Poppy Fields


From this weekend's trip to Southern California.

Jurassic Technology

I have returned from Los Angeles, land of locusts, images to follow. Excursions included a trip to the Antelope Valley poppy fields, where most of my picture taking was done, and generally tooling around Old Pasadena, shooting store fronts and signage. Took in the readymades exhibit at the Norton Simon. Duchamp and Schwitters together again at last.

Later in the trip, I visited some of my old haunts in West Hollywood. Be sure to try the Enchildas Howard at El Coyote. El Coyote has been on Beverly Blvd. as long as I can remember, and has an odd connection to the Manson family.

Later I was introduced to the The Museum Of Jurassic Technology. An ongoing art project located on Venice Blvd. in Culver City. A hard place to describe.

I'll be back later with pictures. Post processing awaits.

Bucky


Could it be the next Buckminster Fuller?

I'll be in LA for the next few days, communing with assorted chums and enjoying some wining, dining, noshing and photographing.

Stay tuned...

dali.ppt

Slate.com provides a slideshow presentation, reassessing the life and works of Salvador Dali. Entitled Artist or kitsch-meister?, Slate's art critic Lee Siegel, definitely comes down on the side of artist. While Dali's later life as self promoter and caricature, often overshadow the importance of his earlier work, he remains an important figure in 20^th century visual arts. The presentation glosses over his collaboration with Buñuel, but alas, not everyone is as obsessed with the work of Don Luis as myself.

Heaven on Rye



This is just down the road from where I grew up. And in later years where I spent many an after hours night, noshing corned beef and sipping cream soda. I'll be visiting the southland this weekend, and a visit to Canter's is required.

Category: Photos

False Memory Syndrome


I took this photo some time back. The people in it aren't real, they are some kind of cardboard cutout advertisment. I honestly couldn't tell you anymore, what in the picture was real, what was a reflection, and what was a photo of a photo.

How very post-modern of me.

Category: Photos

Excuse Me While I Pierce the Sky


Moscone Center, San Francisco

Category: Photos

Lost Highway

Lost Highway
(Hank Williams)

I'm a rollin' stone all alone and lost
For a life of sin i have paid the cost
When i walk by all the people say
Just another guy on the lost highway

Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine
And a woman's lies makes a life like mine
All the day we met, i went astray
I started rolling down this lost highway

I was just a lad, nearly twenty two
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you
And now i'm lost, too late to pray
Lord i paid a cost, on the lost highway

Now boy's don't start to ramblin' round
On this road of sin are you sorrow bound
Take my advice or you'll curse the day
You started rollin' down that lost highway
Lost highway

Category: Photos

Fun and Games

Lot's of entertaining stuff for the list addicted among us at About Last Night recently.

Terry Teachout reviews the AFI's list of the top 100 American Films, and cops to the 30 he has not gotten around to. There were actually none that I hadn't seen at least a portion of, but I will admit to 4 that I can't remember having ever seen in their entirety.

ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)
MODERN TIMES (1936)

Our Girl then shares her list of the first five movie quotes that pop into your head? Must be from different movies. Here's mine.

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in." (Godfather 3)
"Hitler... there was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in ONE afternoon! TWO coats!" (The Producers)
"I want you to hold it between your knees." (Five Easy Pieces)
"Plastics." (The Graduate)
"I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one." (Apocalypse Now)

Lastly, Terry shares, Ten Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't. Also a fun game, but it would take me longer than I have to come up with them, and several might be things I'd rather not fess up to.

Deep Fried Twinkies


Fremont Street, Las Vegas

Category: Photos

Clouds (Real and Otherwise)


Lonely wisps in Utah desert


Mural in Reno

Category: Photos

Go West, Young Man

Blogger, writer, musician, Ken Layne has yet another project, Highways West. A blog on traveling the highways and byways of the Western US, and he has a most useful blogroll of travel links along his sidebar.

I myself made much use of 395.com (which sadly seems to be off line at the moment) a couple of years ago when planning a trip along the Eastern Sierra. Should you plan a trip to the less traveled side of the Sierras, let me recommend, Bodie, Bishop (where parts of the noir classic Out of the Past take place, Lone Pine, Mono Lake, Mammoth, and a stop at Manzanar.


The ghost town of Bodie, California