Pooch On A Precarious Perch

Over a ginseng vendor's shop.

In The Lobby Yesterday

A sliver of the afternoon sun.  Reminds me of a couple of posts from years ago, titled "Apollo's Arrow" and "Apollo's Arrow II".  They were images in the sky, however.  This time the arrow is on solid ground.

Related Post 1: Apollo's Arrow

Related Post 2: Apollo's Arrow II

ANOTHER DRAGON

The latest, and perhaps the most dramatic so far, appearance of Dracovolans australocaliforniensis maximus.

Related Post: D. australocaliforniensis

Merry Christmas 2023!

 

TODAY'S FIND

On the way home from the market today, I came across this torn-off wing on the sidewalk.  Pigeon, by the looks of it.

Related Post:  Dead Bird

CONTINUING ON...

 

Unused Cloud Photo From 2017

Found while browsing old image files.

"SKY'

Photograph from a week ago.  It was just a shot of a dramatic warm sky on a cold evening, but when I  opened it up for editing yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had inadvertently included in the frame the word 하늘/haneul (sky) on that sign on the left.

I SHOULDA BEEN A RAPPER

"Qui rispetta sarà rispettato" - "Who respects, will be respected", or "Give respect to get respect".

Recently I happened to express a minority opinion on a topic online, and was roundly attacked ad hominem and insulted by a bunch of ideological faddists.

Which led me to invent a new aphorism, a mirror-image of the wise Italian proverb cited above.  And it is, ahem,

"Diss dissent, and get dissed."

😁

TRIPLE-STRENGTH TEA

Just now, I was making a cup of tea.  Usually I make a double dose, with two teabags per cup.  As I was getting ready, just for a moment I wondered what a triple-dose tea might taste like, but thought it would probably be too strong.  Anyway, I tore open the usual two paper pouches, took out the teabags and was about to throw away the pouches when I felt something in one of them.  I looked, and voila! there was an extra teabag in it.  So right now there are three teabags steeping in the cup - wild!

Seoul Stairs

 

Untitled

 

I just like leaves.

Still Another "Seen In A Seoul Alley"

 

I'm Not Easily Impressed, But

My friend S.Y. invited me to attend a special holiday event at his church.  While I'm not formally religious, I am Christianity-friendly (#1, #2, #3, maybe #4, and certainly #5) as well as Buddhism- and Judaism-friendly, so I went.  The program turned out to consist mostly of amateur singing by church members, and I have to say I was kind of bored and wishing it would be over soon -- but then this marionette lady came on, and I became thoroughly engrossed.  The main part of her act consisted of manipulating a doll to paint a picture, set to poignant music, then another doll blowing up a balloon, sitting astride it and riding it around the room.  I don't know anything about puppetry, and most likely such things have been done by others, but no matter - I certainly had never seen such puppetry before, and it was entrancing.

Dark Wings Of The Evening

 

Catastrophic Cloud

While editing this photo of a dramatic but innocent cloud

I accidentally color-inverted it, but I liked the result;  so I added some more effects, and now it looks like a nuclear bomb going off.  Cool!

Odd Coincidences

A few days ago, I checked the time on my smart phone (I don't wear a watch) and it was 3:33 PM.  The next day I checked the time, and it was 4:44 PM.  Then on the day after that, which was the day before yesterday, I checked the time:  it was 4:44 PM again..

While mulling over this little bit of cosmic concurrence, I was reminded of an incident that really was a whopper of a coincidence from the past.  Many years ago, back when the Tower Records music shop in Hollywood was still thriving, it was divided into two parts.  The larger store on the north side of Sunset Boulevard sold pop and rock CDs.  It was always bustling, full of hip and trendy young people (do check out what happened to me there one time).  The smaller building across Sunset dealt with classical music, and it sported a much more sedate and quiet atmosphere.

One day I visited the classical section with my mom.  It happened to be a rare day of heavy rain in Los Angeles, and the curbs were streaming with mini-rapids that overwhelmed the storm drains.  We entered the store, and almost immediately I noticed the wet spots on the ceiling, some of which were quite sizable;  it was obvious the building was in dire need of maintenance to fix the leaky roof.  And as I approached the counter with a question (I don't remember what it was) suddenly the ceiling cracked open exactly over me, a bucketful of rainwater poured down, and I was drenched.

As I stood frozen in shock, the clerk broke into a paroxysm of laughter, but quickly recovered and apologized -- however, not forgetting to add "...but that was so strange!"

Which I agreed with, of course.  It really was very funny, and the perfect aim and timing were amazing, like a Buster Keaton stunt.  How likely is something like that to happen in real life?  I think it would have made for a great deflating denouement after an epic slapstick action number in any number of comedy movies;  I can see it happening to Jack Lemon's character in "The Great Race", or maybe to Jonathan Winters after he singlehandedly demolishes a gas station with his bare hands in "It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world".

[The image below has nothing to do with the incident, but it seemed to kind of fit the bill in terms of random oddness encountered^]

EDIT (on December 3):  Early this morning I awoke spontaneously.  I checked the clock on the nightstand.  It was 4:44 AM.  4:44 for the third time?  It's as if it was always supposed to be 4:44 and the first 3:33 was a mistake, and now the repeated 4:44s are overdone attempts at "correction".  It reminds me of the Twilight Zone episode where astronauts who have made the first successful flight in a new spaceplane start to disappear one by one from people's memories and all records, until finally no such space flight has ever taken place.  Erased from reality, because it was not "supposed to happen".

RE-EDIT  (on December 23):  Late afternoon yesterday I was coming home from a photo junket.  I got off the subway, got on the shuttle that would take me home, and checked the time -- 4:44 again!  What is this, a 'straggler', late by 20 days?  What the heck.

Charles Fort would be proud.  He who once humorously suggested that when a rain of fish falls, perhaps it's in response to people's fear of famine, and when "blood" rains down it's because there are thoughts of war and violence, etc.

1. If a cosmic mind exists, it may well be the mind of an idiot.

2. If a cosmic mind exists, must it be sane? (thank you, Damon Knight)

That Glove

Six months later, it's still there on top of the awning.  It hasn't moved at all through all the rains and winds.  It is, however, looking rather the worse for wear.  The color's almost completely faded.  It's a little saddening to see the gradual deterioration of something that, at the beginning, looked like something out of a tale told by the brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen.  Or -- maybe the story is still being told, and the ending is yet long in coming.

Related post: "I Found A Glove"

Another Urban Fossil

The fossil of a possible proto-canine mysteriously appears in a crosswalk.

Untitled III

The edge of the Pacific Ocean, taken many years back, from the Santa Monica bluff trail.

I miss it.

Better Choose Carefully

"Love At Sunset"?

or

"The Sun Setting On This Love"?

or

"The BacksideOther Kind Of Love"?

The Moon And Jupiter

It was so bright I thought it must be Venus, till I found out different.  Wow!

 

Halloween in Seoul

Halloween has been making steady inroad into South Korean culture over the last couple of decades.  So far though, progress has been slow and it's still pretty much a niche phenomenon, with selective adoption.  For example, you won't see children dressing up in cute/scary costumes and going trick-or-treating, and I doubt that particular Hallowe'en custom will ever make landfall here;  at least in part because when half the country's population lives in impersonal, industrially-built giant apartment complexes with coded entrance, it's just not the same as going from door to door begging for candy from familiar neighbors.

While there still is plenty of dressing-up, it's mostly for young adults, with beer and street food instead of candy.  Think of it as a kind of open-air ballo in maschera.  And here are three of the best costumes I saw in the Hongdae neighborhood, which is a major young people's hangout in Seoul.

Medieval physician in plague mask, carrying a coffin at the ready:

Creepy ghost girl with a No face on the back of her head.  I wonder if she was wearing an identical mask in front...

And of course, the Great Equalizer:

My Hearts

Here's the one I used to squeeze in my fist while donating blood at the Red Cross.  I was a regular donor for years and actually received a 4-gallon badge.  Then I was diagnosed with Pernicious Anemia.  No more donating blood.

And here's the one I made to be inserted into my painting "First Fool" (check it out here).  It came out oddly sexual-looking, but when you think about it, who doesn't have sex on their mind/heart?

Itsy Bitsy Spidey

(Watch full screen)

Blue Cod? Green Halibut?

It's clearly yet another one of those "wizards' lairs" -- one of the many that seem to dot the less-frequented alleyways and back streets of Seoul -- but one with a knowing difference;  that dark doorway at the bottom of the stairs, appropriately spooky and sinister, looks to be the obvious means of gaining access to the mysterious realms beyond;  however, its very obviousness makes me suspect it's actually a ruse, a false lead designed to distract the curious away from the real entrance -- that oddly chopped off-looking "tunnel" above it.

Now for the left turn:  for the life of me I could not recall the snappier, harder-hitting term for 'false lead' that I knew existed.  I wracked my brains all last night, trying to remember, to no avail.  Then this morning I just happened to take down my copy of Charles Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained by Damon Knight, opened it at random, and there it was -- "...red herring".

As Below, So Above II

It has been my experience that, sometimes, when you visit a new and strange neighborhood, the clouds over the neighborhood may also be new and strange.

But He Can't Take Them Home

"Shopping Man" sculpture at Arario Gallery.  Only after I got close did I realize there are no straps on those shopping bags.  All those nice expensive goods and no way to carry them.  Is this some twisted reference to the torment of Tantalus?

An Angel And A Devil

Not saying which is which, though -- I could be wrong.

The Cult Of The Kawaii

This food delivery rider "gets" CUTE.

One More "Seen In A Seoul Alley"

 

Fancy Lunch

Yesterday I was invited to the home of S.Y., who is a distant relative who lives close by (see what I did there?^).  Besides myself there were three other guests, so including S.Y. and his wife it was six for lunch.  Well, it turned out he had rustled up an elaborate seven-course meal (not counting dessert) -- with a printed menu -- with wine for each course, and he'd prepared it all himself (his wife was a lovely hostess but she is not obsessively into gourmet cooking like he is;  in fact I wouldn't be at all surprised if he'd asked her to keep out of 'his' kitchen while he was working on his gourmet project).  I just wish I'd remembered to take more photos, because all the courses were not just tasty, but gorgeous to look at, as well.  And as the other guests were leaving I was asked to stay behind to enjoy the company and conversation and sample some more of his wine.  I ended up staying past midnight and came home still feeling tipsy.  What an unusual and interesting day for this semi-recluse!

Like A Waking Dream

Early morning drive from back when I was still working for L.A. County.  A strangely dreamy-looking sky overlooking some very down-to-earth traffic made for a rather surreal juxtaposition.