Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Bloated Excess, 33 1/3
Now that the economic ordure has hit the fan big time, my friend the unfinished McMansion probably has more company. Well begun may indeed be half done, but that doesn't mean the second half gets done on the same schedule as the first.
I paused the other day on my way to work, noting that not only has some additional brickwork been done, covering up the Tyvek, but there were a couple of guys up on the roof, cleaning two years of leaves out of the gutters. I suppose the sound, earth-friendly position to take is that the stupid shell is now sunk cost, and it would be better to have somebody live in it than let it crumble.
Aesthetically, on the other hand, crumbling has some attractions.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Those Snows of Yesteryear? Found 'em
Actually, this shopping mall mountain probably does have at its deepest core snow from last December, so technically I guess the snows of yesteryear are in there 
somewhere, under the snows of 2009 year to date, and all the road dirt and miscellaneous other inclusions such as the garbage bag to left of center.
It actually has a sort of goofy majesty, especially in the setting sun.
somewhere, under the snows of 2009 year to date, and all the road dirt and miscellaneous other inclusions such as the garbage bag to left of center.It actually has a sort of goofy majesty, especially in the setting sun.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Recovered Statuary Memory
There was a story today about the recovery in Osaka of a statue of Colonel Sanders (of fried chicken fame) that had been tossed into a river by celebrating Hanshin Tigers baseball fans who saw a resemblance to one of their players.
Now that's odd enough on its own merits to get some repeat airplay, but it also reminded me of a mysterious piece of Japanese public art that I saw a few years ago in Nagoya (I believe):
outside the railroad station there is this lifesized statue of a three legged seeing eye dog. I asked the colleague I was with if he knew anything about that, but all he could think of was the famous (as these things go) statue of the faithful dog in Tokyo who waited at the station for his/her commuter master, who unfortunately had died downtown.
On three legged seeing eye dogs he had nothing. And neither do I, to this day, although apparently there is a subculture of three legged dog afficionados that I may try to tap into.
Now that's odd enough on its own merits to get some repeat airplay, but it also reminded me of a mysterious piece of Japanese public art that I saw a few years ago in Nagoya (I believe):
outside the railroad station there is this lifesized statue of a three legged seeing eye dog. I asked the colleague I was with if he knew anything about that, but all he could think of was the famous (as these things go) statue of the faithful dog in Tokyo who waited at the station for his/her commuter master, who unfortunately had died downtown.On three legged seeing eye dogs he had nothing. And neither do I, to this day, although apparently there is a subculture of three legged dog afficionados that I may try to tap into.
