Attention-Loving Pigeon

Entr'acte

Careful - fly too high, and you'll hit the sky

Faux Five

I was asked if I knew how to make a paper hat.  I knew how to fold a particular kind of hat, but the querier was thinking of a different kind.  I looked up origami sources online and found something that seemed close, but to me the basket-like shape suggested a container for small loose objects more than headwear.  So I learned how to make the hat -- which I now thought of as a box -- and fiddled with it a little until I came up with this further refined version.  It's very practical, just as I expected it would be -- I actually used it as a bowl for some M&M's before taking these shots.  But then, while absently looking at it I suddenly realized I had been thinking of it as a five-sided box, when it is, of course, four-sided.  How about that.

*For size comparison, this is what you get from a standard letter-size sheet.

An Aristotelian Divide

Playing With The Moon

Airship Over Downtown

A cool, a wistful and a humorous dirigible

Related posts:  Damp Sunday;  Random Floating Objects;  Marooned In The Sky;  A Fork In The Flight Path

What I Did To The Sun Today

Usually I treat the Sun with respect, referring to him as the Titan, and also as Helios and Hyperion, according him the dignity that is his due as a pre-Olympian god -- except when I don't (e.g. The Sun's Braids; and The Eye Laser-Beams of Hyperion).  However, an artist reserves the right to treat anything as a 'mere' compositional element.  Today, that is what I did with the Sun.

The result is an image that strikes me as starkly handsome and slightly humorous, one that makes me think of those tinny old homemade 'cigar-box guitars' with just a few strings stretched over'em.  Which is fine, since I love Mississippi Delta Blues.

*Here is a photo of a bunch of old cigar box guitars (thank you, Wikipedia):

Sunken Sun

A FAVORITE FEAR, RE-REIFIED

As much as possible, I prefer to stay in the background and let my pictures speak for themselves.  In this instance though, I'll append a small explanation, because this post addresses something specific;  one of my oldest and most fundamental fears:  that of the darkness at the ocean bottom, made all the more frightening for being lit-up in small part -- imagine the crew of a wrecked vessel, seeing this forlorn view just outside a porthole by the weak light of a dying battery --  just so you can see how the darkness stretches forever on all sides.  To me it seems like living, creeping entropy, the absence of all cheer and expectation.  Like being buried forever.  Like being permanently suspended in the moment before winking out for the last time.

Midday Sun

Tree Kissing Man... Or Mutant Zombie Tree Sucking Man's Brains?

Humoresque

Dream Monster

Many years ago, I had a dream in which I was trying to hide from this demonic creature.  It had a huge eye where its head should have been, and in its belly it had a huge mouth that opened directly into its stomach.

According to my therapist, everything in a dream is the dreamer in disguise -- which means the monster must have been me, too.  Its defining characteristics were seeing and eating.  Seeing+Eating.  SeeEat.  Or as the Mad Hatter said, "I eat what I see".  Seeing food and snatching it up -- the essence of the process of life.  Animals live by sensing and swallowing edibles in the environment. So, in that dream monster I saw myself reduced to the most fundamental terms.  Why was I hiding from it/myself?

More Good Eats!

From last weekend's lunch with Mom -- short ribs and pork belly, grilled Korean style with mushrooms, onion, chili peppers and garlic.  Oh my lord I can still hear the sizzle :P

Night Sun V

Related post:  Night Sun IV

Unnamed

I didn't want to title this post 'Untitled'.  For one thing, that might suggest I did not have any definite feelings evoked by this image, which is not true -- I did experience strong feelings;  however, I could not explain why those feelings were triggered by it -- hence I did not feel justified in using the word for that emotion in the title.  'Unnamed', to my mind, at least implies that I merely could not find just the right word for it.

Wildfire I

Fires in the wooded areas around L.A. are regular occurrences every summer.  Yesterday there was one in the hills close to the Getty Center Museum.

 

Shadow Play

(Man + stop sign) + zoom blur = harpooned fish

Synchronistic Event #21

It's been a longish while since the last post of this kind, so I was glad when this happened today.  It feels like I'm right with the Tao again^

Last Wednesday there was a big celebration at work in honor of the outfit's 100-year anniversary.  I had been asked to document the proceedings with my camera, and so with my usual enthusiasm for such undertakings I ended up taking 255 photos.  I spent several evenings culling and editing them and adding funny captions to some.  The photos were then uploaded to a website for viewing by the whole staff.

This afternoon I was checking out the pictures at the website while listening to South Korean singer Baek AhYeon singing her beautiful debut single 'Sad Song', casually clicking past both my photos and others' uploads, and just as she went "Nŏ, nŏ, nŏ" in my ear this image popped up.

Santa Monica Lizard

The very one referred to eight posts ago.

 

 

Related post:  Reminiscing

Not A Trick Photo

Nevertheless, this image made me do a double-take.

Dog Head Cloud

OMINOUS OMEN?

An omen, no doubt about that.  This surely would have driven ancient soothsayers into a state of consternation.  Whether it was an auspicious omen or an inauspicious one, that wasn't so certain.  I thought about all sorts of dog-related imagery and expressions to see if any would provide a clue to interpreting it, such as 'The dogs of war', 'Let sleeping dogs lie', 'Hour between dog and wolf' -- even "Release the hounds!" -- but couldn't make up my mind.

But then, close examination showed that the dog had its tongue out, which I took to be a positive sign since it probably indicates a peaceable and engaging mood.  If the heavens were sending a message, it seems to be at the very least one of reassurance.  It might even be a personal one, since the Dog is my Zodiac animal (by the Asian 'Zodiac', not the Western one).

Moon Pole

Related post:  Moon Tower

A Mismatched Dog

HETEROCHROMIA IN A DOG SEEN AT THE MARKET
OR, "MASTER PO, IS THAT YOU IN THERE?"

(I know -- Master Po had cataracts, not blue eyes;  and he probably didn't commit enough sinful acts to merit being reincarnated as a dog)

A Non-Accidental Accidental Convergence

Sort of related to the subject of the last post, but even more subtle.

Nothing Might Not Be A Non-Accident By Design

MORE RANDOM ORDER

A doubly interesting picture -- a cloud is cut through by a con-trail, whose shape and angle are echoed by the corrugated roof directly below.  It's just the kind of image that might well cause a crazier person than me to conclude that there really is some grand, universal  principle, whereby everything is connected to everything else in a subtle way.

Related posts:  As Below, So Above; A Legend Re-Enacted

Broccoli Girl

Some people are born with a head for numbers;  others are able to play the piano as soon as they're old enough to sit up straight.  And this random little girl I encountered at the local market is proof that some people are born knowing how to court the camera.

Untitled #1

Didn't know what to name this, not because I couldn't think of a title, but because there were too many possibilities.  A Running Monkey;  a Tetrapus (or an injured starfish before it's had a chance to regenerate the missing arm);  a Swastika...

Actually, my favorite candidate was God's Banana Peel, but I didn't want to impose my own vision on others' imagination, so Untitled it is.

Pet Peeve

THE REAL REASON I CANNOT BE KING

Today (well, yesterday now) I drove out to Santa Monica to make a purchase and to see what was happening at Bergamot Station (an enclave of art galleries).  I also took a little stroll down to the path along the edge of the cliff over the beach, where I met a little lizard sunning himself (he deserves a separate post).  I started driving back a little past 4:00 PM, and by the time I got back to my downtown loft it was nearly 7:00 PM.  Granted, that was extreme even by L.A. standards, but not by a whole lot.  And there were enough encounters along the way with inconsiderate, incompetent and plain dangerous drivers to convince me that there are too many people on the road that should not be driving at all.

The late George Carlin said it's no wonder there are so many traffic accidents;  the roads are full of maniacs and idiots -- the maniacs being whoever drove faster than George Carlin, and the idiots being whoever drove slower than George Carlin.  I realize I, too, am being rather subjective here, as I'm not always all that courteous or so wonderfully competent myself (I've long since unburdened myself of the suspicion that I may be a fairly good or useful person in general), but it seems to me the quality of drivers around me has been eroding noticeably every year.

Yes, I'm an angry person.  That's why I cannot and must not be King.  I would be sentencing people to death left and right every day.