Banner photo. The Downtown skyline taken from The Embarcadero. If you ever have the opportunity to ramble the city sidewalks (assuming you have a city that’s handy ), look around you. No, not for muggers. Okay, yeah always keep an eye out for sketchy fellow citizens, but also keep your eyes open for the varied …
How many more lives will it take? Well that’s a damn good question. Answers? Anybody? Helloooo! To the surprise of absolutely no one, another American town has adopted the slogan “_______(fill in the town name) strong.” This time it’s Highland Park, Illinois, where, to the surprise of absolutely no one, a mass shooting occurred. In …
A few days ago my friend and fellow blogger Martin C. Fredricks IV, wrote a piece titled Declaring “Loss of Independence Day,” (click the link), in which he explains why he won’t be flying the American flag this July 4th – Independence Day. Martin writes, “We can no longer, honestly or in good conscience, celebrate …
I almost never visit a cemetery, but I can’t pass up a forsaken, decaying old graveyard or boneyard. What’s the difference you ask? Three different words that all seemingly mean the same thing. Merriam-Webster defines them all succinctly as “a burial ground.” That’s far too simple. A graveyard can be a cemetery, but a cemetery …
Banner photo. Dad having a cold one. North Africa? Italy? Hey dad. When you were a youth, did you ever wonder what kind of father you might be? You were at loose ends during most of your twenties. Did you even entertain the prospect of fatherhood? You had a lot of time to run those …
Anne Sandler hosts this week’s Lens Artists Challenge and has chosen the topic, Local Vistas. I live in Hercules, California, between a range of hills (and the rest of America) to the east and San Francisco to the west. Hercules is what you might call bland suburbia. Strip malls, tract housing and a city council’s …
While browsing through blog rolls a wave washed over me. Debbie Smythe’s One Word Sunday and the subject, “Wave.” I have hundreds of photos of waves so the most difficult part of the challenge was to cull the archives to find a handful of photos for this topic. I’ve always lived within a short drive …
Monthly Monochrome: Reviving a once a month short venture into the world of monochrome photography. (Tragic events in mid-May superseded publication of this piece) When we think of monochrome, what first comes to mind? Black and white – of course. Stands to reason since that’s what we usually see represented as monochrome. Monochrome can actually …
America touts itself as being a civilized nation. Americans boast about being pro-life and congratulate themselves on valuing children. And yet, America is killing its children. The word is filicide, and it’s defined as “the killing of one’s son or daughter.” This is America, a nation killing its own sons and daughters. America murdered nineteen …
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. The Second Amendment. Probably the most contentious twenty-seven words in the entire Constitution. I don’t hate The Second Amendment, but I don’t like it either. I don’t own …
Sometime this summer, a leaked draft opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito will be finalized and what many thought as unthinkable will shortly come to pass; Roe v Wade will be overturned. Many who support choice feel blindsided. But should we? I was exchanging texts with a friend about random things, nothing serious, …
This week’s Lens Artist Photo Challenge, hosted by Tina Schell of Travels and Trifles, is all about the Rule of Thirds, a theory of composition which divides a photo or a painting into horizontal and vertical thirds, forming a grid of nine equal segments (Picture the opening credits of The Brady Bunch or a typical …
A chapter in an occasional series of posts documenting an autumn 2021 road trip through the Midwest. This post is a continuation of the post, A Coffee Shop Morning: Chewing on Life September 23rd, 2021, driving southbound in Eastern Iowa. Off to my left is the Mississippi River and somewhere deep in the river bottom …
“It’s not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.” ~ Judy Blume I just recently finished reading Art Spiegelman’s, Maus, …
The COVID Chronicles is a series of posts relating my experiences and observations during the pandemic. I hope that this will be the final post in the series. March 12, 2022. My wife Cora and I are having lunch at Caffe Sport in San Francisco’s North Beach, the City’s Little Italy. Caffe Sport is a …
Blood and destruction shall be so in use And dreadful objects so familiar That mothers shall but smile when they behold Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war; All pity choked with custom of fell deeds: And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge, With Ate by his side come hot from hell, Shall in these …
“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” ~ Bruce Lee …
The server came to our table, and in the perky manner that must nowadays be a server’s job requirement (“My qualifications are; extensive knowledge of fine dining, friendly, attentive, hard worker and I have a saccharine, perky voice that’s guaranteed to either warm your heart or kill your appetite.”), introduced herself and chirped, “I’ll be …
January, my least favorite month, is done. January; a cold, dark, barren toothache of a month. What does January have to offer? Oh sure it marks the start of a new year, and it…it… Well I’m not sure what else it brings to the feast. Just a dismal placeholder. Something has to take up that …
The side fence blew down last month, December 15th to be exact. That’s when an atmospheric river washed over California. An atmospheric river. That’s the term that the weather boys and girls have been using when we get a lot of rain and wind off the Pacific. It’s only been a couple of years that …