Pictures of Buildings & People

People of Walmart. . .dot com

Before viewing this site, perhaps you should blow your nose, go to bathroom, etc. Relieve yourself of any extraneous fluids, bile, etc. Because you may laugh so hard, you may soil yourself. And it is not, repeat, it is not mockery. Granted, the captions are high snark, but the photographs are what they are. If people want to go about in public like this, so be it. Street photography at it's finest, in America's newest Main Street; the aisles of Walmart. There are over 50 pages at peopleofwalmart.com, but persevere! Have at it! Push on! You will be rewarded for your efforts by some the most hysterically nightmarish visions of the human condition I've seen as of late. Felliniesque may be an understatement.

great obit double header

New York, New York : two characters depart-one I'm familiar with, the other not. Richard Merkin, apparently a style and artistic anachronologist ne' plus ultra. w o w Doing retro with finesse and accuracy before it was 'popular'. And then, whip out that turntable and listen to It's to late, there's no one left I even want to imitate from Jim Carroll's Catholic Boy. Talk about junk n punk n grit New York in the 80s. . he's dead too, apparent heart attack. OK, gotta dig up that vinyl and dump it to a hard drive. . . why is it that the NYT obit section is one of the first things I read in the AM?

Legitmating Violence

Just in time for more Town Halls leading up to the next election cycle. What's old is new again, courtesy Rogue Classicism. If you're in the NYC area, sign up now !

L.A. fires . . .

Where's, like where's Jim Morrison, now that we really need his kind of ballads? Moving along - my son is in L.A. laboring in the digital media vineyards. The fires were 15 miles from their converted ware house/ loft. Hoo Boy!  He totally pranked me: I call :wussup: he sez, gotta go, building's on fire :: I sez yr sh+++++ me :: he sez, I am. They set up a camera to try and get some time lapse fire/smoke/cloud action. If you are morbidly curious (and I know you are) go to the L.A. Times readers picture gallery. . .even some arty B & W ones !

can I post something medical, like?

In regards to Minnesota news of all sorts, I've been gravitating towards MinnPost as of late. And besides all the political angst, the health beat has been great. Susan Perry reported two intriguing, and I do mean intriguing stories. One, a basic how do they do it, write up on a recent study on waiters and memory! And taking multiple drink orders, without writing them down ! Yes, how do they do they do it? Of course, it works based on old, old principles. It is indeed the answer to one of life's great mysteries. Two, but wait, there's more! Another hunch of mine, confirmed! Guess what? Kids with pretend companions have stronger narrative skills ! hah!

history mystory history

A week or so ago, I was at my neighbor's patio - he had his sons burning old checks - air quality issues aside, he had a few caustic remarks to make : OK kids, there it all is, all the dough I spent on you guys. . .I just recently shredded a box of checks, which at the bottom, the beginning, was the entry we all made from San Francisco to Stillwater - and it was a kind of history going up in strands in front of me - it was a strange combo of warm/fuzzy, sobering, depressing. There must be a good German word for it. Here are the items in a nutshell, a trail of checks :  Milk Man - who delivered pies, french toast and ice cream, water delivery, 
old health insurance (cost as much 10 years back - covered way more), previous insurance companies, last gasp shot at NABET union membership, the kids Drs.- the practice that disappeared with all records from San Francisco and childhood immunizations and etc - bummer! , previous opticians, old + original town drug store and many other local stores since demised, old office supply place, like downtown!, old school family vacations, old school video outlet at local supermarket in location when we first moved into town, green houses, now retired landscapers, various non-profits (here and San Francisco, especially kids old pre-school, Laurel HIll and Raphael House, geared towards kids and families) along with GreenPeace, NRDC, Tibetan Aid Project, SEVA, Doctors Without Borders, etc, kids book clubs at school lots, school activities Stone Bridge lots, Oak Park School (the starter school), piano lessons with Mrs. Janet Pritchard lots, dance school, karate school, Girl Scouts, Cub and Boy Scouts, youth baseball, baby sitters, retired dentists, defunct groovy indie record stores on Nicollet Mall (shout out to the ghost of Let It Be Records), departed restaurants, Cecils best deli in St. Paul, maybe the whole metro, Guardian Weekly the real paper one and defunct groovy malcontent magazines, along with Harpers, Acrcheology, Veggie Times, etc , old Food Co-op  at the original location lots, previous iteration of power company, previous iteration of phone company, previous iteration of cable company, missing then replaced check to IRS eeeesh, gardening magazines, remodeling-reno projects, first ever cleaners, old credit card companies, including old ones based in Niagra Falls!, old Sears card, Dayton’s, long gone regional department store - a pity, old hairdresser that my daughter went to, old closing statements from our move from San Francisco - Wells Fargo Bank & Coast Federal Savings, closing accounts to Pacific Bell, P, G & E (Pacific Gas and Electric), motel costs at first move to Stillwater, oriental carpet costs to furnish ye olde house  (boy that will never happen again), lawyers, political contributions for dead politicians (Paul Wellstone), MPR, old feed and tack store downtown, Fleet Farm, Cub Foods / local supermarket, first sushi bar in St. Paul - when we thought it was great - good bye to all that!

like bees, IN MY HEAD

I just plain go googy over urban agriculture - it's a superb 'let's get real' antidote to the whaddya mean it's not in the bill of rights that gas should be 50 cents a gallon? mentality. Living in a demi wild life refuge around my house, made by Wendy over the past few years - I think bees are a great idea, but then again what about the children, they may be allergic. . .I should just take a deep breath and re-read The English Encourage Urban Beekeeping.

Hiroshima: a suitcase, rain, pictures

This is the eyes rolled backed up in your head, fall on the floor, photo archival story of our times. I'm waiting for the digital, non-material version of this story - but I'm not holding my breath. No details, as I'm making it a surprise. As usual, thanks to Design Observer.

What IS this ? . . . Overland with the Overlander

Do people keep telling you to get over it? Well with this brute, you could easily oblige them, as they sit helplessly in their itty car. When our intrepid St. Paul correspondent (i.e. my brother) sent me these images, I thought someone must be filming another low-budget post-apocolyptic movie in St. Paul (not too much of a stretch in some places there, he said so snarkily). But it's some good folks who are indeed going Over Land big time and traveling the globe. So check out the story with Leone and Jan Vorster. And of course, there's lots more pictures.

Trompe L'oeil - writ large !

What to do, what to do - with that slovenly, oh so dreary garage door in your neighborhood or housing estate. Wait, large scale commercial graphics for the every man, to the rescue! You have to see this! Thanks to Roddles for the tip! Oh please, I shudder to think when someone tries to do a large scale porn image with this. . . can we just keep it a door to another world and not another orifice?