and this time in (better, different) focus

... the penstemon and some (other) poppies, redux.  It was raining this morning, so everything was pleasantly soaked, and that's why, too, there's a faint haze over the bottom picture, as though it's a Russian painting (or an early Klimt) from around 1895.

 

garden, again

Some experiments in focus: the poppies and the garden path - and yes, some bits of each are in focus, which is a bit like me, today.  It's a Saturday: you'd think that I wouldn't be spending much of it doing USC admin, but alas ... On the other hand, it was indeed a beautiful day, albeit with big clouds suggesting the rain that's supposedly coming in, and so it was very tempting  to keep wandering around the flowers and admiring them ...

 

polished

I've been feeling bad about my father's silver tankard for a while: it's been looking very tarnished.  This was the tankard out of which he drank his beer every night: it's got one big dent in it, and various little ones.  I hate to think what falls off the outside table or garage bench it may have suffered during its life.  Or perhaps these blemishes happened much earlier: this was my maternal great-grandfather's tankard, judging by the WB initials on it: William Barber.  I suspect it was a retirement gift when he stepped down from the Midland Railway Police.  He kept his truncheon: I have that, in case of ... well, in case I meet the person who tried to extract 317.07 from Autozone this evening, using my credit card number, even though my card was snugly in my possession.  An Autozone in Marrero, Louisiana.  Since I made a reservation on line yesterday for something next week in New Orleans, I don't think that one has to be brains galore to work that one out.

Anyway, luckily I had already done the obvious thing, and bought some silver polish.

 

early summer

We have an early pot-full of strawberries ripening nicely - not that I'm going to wait until they're all ready, because I know what happens: one of the raccoons that lollops through the yard will snack on them, and that will be that.  They taste so very good - like, you know, strawberries are meant to taste - that it's impossible not to help oneself as they ripen.  I know how raccoons must feel.

Also - the early summer light (or polluted haze - take your pick) was particularly good today.  Yes, I know it's still early April; yes, I know it's due to rain at the weekend, but there was much to be grateful for outside today.

 

signs

... from the ride home: two sets of big neon signs in the sky.  On the left, the easy ones: a pair advertising the Asbury Apartments, built overlooking MacArthur Park (then called Westlake Park), and super-luxury when they opened in 1925: they even had an elevator that went down all the way to the parking garage, and were electrified throughout.  They were originally to have been called the San Jacinto Dwellings: were they renamed after Asbury Park, New Jersey?  The 1939 WPA Guide to Los Angeles - my favorite reading material on the city's history at that time - is no help.

You can rent one right now!  There's actually rather a nice looking studio apartment, just $1,590 a month for all 600 square feet of it (and for the privilege of navigating the MacArthur Park area at night).  Oddly, there's no mention of the garage in the details.

But what actually intrigues me is the Storage sign - intrigues me, because unlike the Asbury outfit, I can't find any reference to it online.  When does that date from?  $20 is impossibly cheap now, but would have been reasonable ... when?  The lettering looks as though it, too, belongs to the 1920s or 30s, when I would have thought that was hugely expensive for a storage unit.  Has it, too, been renovated, like the Asbury signs, by LUMEN, LA's project that expands into the Living Urban Museum of Electric and Neon Signs?  Of course, it might be easier to think this one through exploration ...

 

I want the part where ...

This billboard has been giving me such pleasure on my drive to work for the last month or so.  It's now beginning to fade, so it may not be long for this world - but each day I pass it I think: so, how would I end this sentence today?  Here's a gap for you to fill in today's fantasy ... 

["you don't have to buy anything for dinner - we're going out"; "I've bought tickets to ... no, I'm not saying - just bring your passport"; "the semester is going to end three weeks early" ...]

But actually, I think what I'd really like to hear is - this billboard's going to have a different thought-provocation each week this year: just something that will get one thinking - how would I answer that?

[and yes: I know this billboard is probably a music promotion: this is a phrase from Hilary Duff's song "Roomates," that came out at the beginning of the year - maybe the end of last, and is about a relationship that's already ending: "only want the beginning, I don't want the end/Want the part where you say, 'Goddamn'/ Back of the dive bar, giving you head" - but still: that doesn't stop my conjecturing ... And any case, it might not be: "Mature" was the song that got all the attention on luck...or something]

 

working from home

I didn't have to go in to USC today - which isn't to say that I wasn't doing nose-to-tail USC work, of one kind or another.  But with Alice on a plane to DC and therefore with a very quiet house (cats notwithstanding), it seemed like a day, for once, where I could read/do admin in the garden (and carry on curating and culling that shoe collection, to be sure).  And it was wonderful - however much I claim to enjoy heading in to work and sequestering myself in my office, it's indisputably more comfortable here.