invaders are coming

president orange wingnut is sending armed troops to the Mexican border to stop the migrant invaders, meanwhile in Parma Ohio.

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this is the 1,500th post on this web journal

2018 Miscellany #12

Several of the following pictures, i have posted on facebook. I prefer this social media platform, but few people i know will see it here, a few might see it on the one formerly named. Several practices of facebook turn me off. Besides, here i can form my foto essays as i wish. Facebook discourages reading.

 Sailing at Whiskey Island, Cleveland

What is going on here? This mite-a-shooda-been on the Hallowe'en post. It is John Niedzialek in a top hat holding Casimir, his weather predicting cat on February 2nd. 

Students at Willson Elementary painted the rain barrels at St. Casimir. There have been freezing nights, and winter is either coming or is here. The rain barrels were full, so to prevent possible popsicles cracking the barrels, they were emptied.

 

 Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries. E. 45th & Superior. Cleveland. October 22nd.

 [click]
"NETWORK’s Nuns on the Bus are on the road again — for the first time in two years — to hold members of Congress accountable for their votes on the 2017 Tax Bill and the many attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The Nuns on the Bus “On the Road to Mar-a-Lago” tour includes 54 events in 21 states over the course of 27 days. The tour launched with a rally in Los Angeles on Monday, October 8 and will end at Mar-a-Lago in Florida with a “Fiesta for the Common Good” on Friday, November 2.

Our Goal: To tell the truth about the Republican Tax Law and hold elected officials accountable for their votes. We know that this tax policy hurts our communities while giving handouts to the wealthiest in our nation. Nuns on the Bus are encouraging voters to focus electoral energy on reasonable revenue for responsible programs ahead of the 2018 midterms."

Light fixtures are all of the same size, viewed from the choir loft of St. Casimir Cleveland.

multi-branched lighting fixture, 1 of 2 in the choir loft

 a car vending machine, as seen from a speeding car

Cassius is an odd wolf. He and Captain were raised as good Catholic hounds. Cassius has often snorkled his food, sometimes there is shrapnel, and often he leaves a very small bit, sometimes one pellet of kibble, sort of like a Buddhist offering.

Well, even people who like music like to poke fun at certain instruments. How often do you see a banjo player in black tie? I heard the Cleveland Bluegrass Orchestra play, for the first time. They played for an hour, it seemed less. 'Shenandoah' could have been played longer, it was beautiful.

Spooky? Scary?

 in Cleveland Heights some are waiting [only east side foto]

Hallowe'en is an excuse for theatre. Yes, there is also the religious background, but in the USA, that is not up front. In Meso-America, the Day of the Dead celebrations are more enveloping. There is the trick-or-treat side. It is an opportunity for children to engage in whimsy, fantasy, and play. What blend of story? Happy, or Fearful? 

When i was a child in the distant, primordial past, one scary, scary thing was the Laughing Lady motorised statue at Euclid Beach amusement park. Hallowe'en stuff was not scary.

At one time 'horror' films had literary feel to them, including famous monsters: Headless Horseman, Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde, Frankenstein, Dracula, and random ghosts, witches, spiders, snakes, rats, mummies, werewolves. Then there were hokey science fiction monsters of a post nuclear world, and crazy scientists creating monsters (sometimes by accident). Then came the crap we have now: blood thirsty, demented torturers and killers.

 far west Cleveland near the lake

When there were kids dressing in kindergarten, three of the boys were in skeleton costumes. That was the neatest costume, i thought. And it was very appropriate. The lawn beneath the sign had skeletons, one was a horse.

 

 Parma

The two ladders, on the right, have skeletons scaling. Two other skeletons were holding a battering ram. The door is open, so the mailman can have access.

In Lakewood, Madison Avenue has scarecrows. Some are just humourous. Mister Potatohead has a crow on his left arm. One scarecrow needs a Zimmer frame to walk.

Also in Lakewood, there was the Spooky Pooch Parade Saturday. Y'no, when they define the animal as 'pooch', it is not that frightening. I asked her, the doggie's name, and she may have said 'Milo'. I asked other people too, and i forget whom was whom. There was at least one other Milo. His scarecrow hat looks like a bishop's hat.

Wizard of Oz costumes are not rare choices. The smaller winged monkeys are, maybe, Milo and Dottie.

 Of course, there are unadorned dogs. Cassius meets Jenny and Joplin.

This event gets children and their parents to dress up on a family theme, often with tiny dogs. Forrest Gump, Shark Week, Ghostbusters, Gilligan's Island, 101 Dalmatians were television and movie themes. This family went ancient, pagan, Greek: Hades, Persephone [with pomegranate], Cerberus, and a random demon. Another family were Vikings.

 A very happy looking Potterite.

 Chinese delegation, the pearl in the dragon's mouth is a canine.

There was a teevee show, the Sinclairs. One of the jokes was that the baby would refer to his parents as 'Mama', and 'Not the Mama'. These two parents would play to fuss about the hatchling. They were animated, posed for pictures, and very popular with fellow parade marchers.

Venom leading Spiderman

Visits to see glass in two churches

Well, i have tried to see the inside of Amasa Stone Chapel on Case Western's campus before. To-day, the door opened. Karen was in the building and allowed me in. Case has two late Victorian Gothic style churches on campus. One the music department uses, and the other has student uses, and weddings. There are no religious services. The Stone Chapel has much clear beautiful leaded windows, and this huge multi-scene five lintel window. 

In the Catholic churches in Cleveland such windows are rare, and i can not think of one to compare. This is a beautiful window, but hard to take gather all in at once. Starting at the bottom row, there are three stories. The two on the left are the Resurrection scene, on Easter, of Mary Magdalene seeing the risen Jesus. The next panel is an allegory of Faith, Hope, and Charity. The two on the right are the angel Gabriel hailing Mary at the Annunciation. The next horizontal layer is that of four men with Biblical quotations. The central section is the  crucifixions on Calvary. The top section has tracery, and angels with banners, and the instruments of crucifixion.

This is a Kempe window. Ah, but which one? Charles Eamer Kempe (*1837- 1907☨) had important commissions throughout England, and his studio continued till the Great Depression. Marjorie Boyce Kemp (*1886-1975☨) was a Scottish window maker. This chapel was begun in 1909, so this great window probably came from the English studio. Amasa Stone was a Presbyterian, and railroad tycoon, his two daughters had the church built in his memory.

This is a very crowded crucifixion. Jesus, Dismas, and Gestas are being executed in front of a large and very well dressed Roman crowd. SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus, The Roman Senate and People) is clearly seen on three banners, and one staff.

I want to see all the interesting and important stained glass in the area. For Cleveland, and the county, the last two churches i thought/knew of were the two i saw to-day.  The second one i entered was Fairmount Presbyterian, Cleveland Heights.

Sometimes there is a maker's mark on one window of a set. I found it on the first window i looked at, it was the last window in the set. All the scenes were from the New Testament. Only one was from the Acts of the Apostles. Saul (later Paul) is blinded and thrown off his horse (not mentioned in the account), and falls to the ground on the road to Damascus. In the bottom right, it reads Joep Nicolas 1941 Rambusch NYC. He was the third generation, of now five, Dutch glass artists. He refused to exhibit for Göring, and left Holland and Europe. From 1939 to 1958 he lived in America, and made windows for twenty-two churches. The windows he made for this church were in Life magazine. They were his first commission in America.

2018 Miscellany #11

St. Casimir has instituted measures to decrease rainwater runoff. One of them is a set of six rain barrels, and they have been decorated by some students at neighboring Willson Elementary, with their teacher Adam Nunnari.

By the end of September the school year begins, and a week has been designated as 'Banned Books Week'. Here is a bookstore display.

Dino Sinclair of Lorain

 A white farm duck has joined wild mallards on Lake Erie.

October is harvest and sale season for pumpkins, perhaps future jack-o-lanterns.

It is no longer summer, and Edgewater Beach Cleveland were a fishing ground for this bald eagle.

Bayou Benny’s Liberal Lagniappe

I was falling asleep when this aired. Its scene was funny, but i was not getting the lines. I turned the teevee off, and went to bed. I saw some chatter on the internets about it, and then watched it. Now, people were complaining about how horrid the accents were. Y'no, it takes time to practice and learn. With some study, it can be polished on up. Some comments were in the mode: i find this insulting, but funny.  There is Cajun French, and Cajun English in south-central-west Louisiana. It has always been isolated, and not many people are familiar with it. Much of the rest of Louisiana looks down upon it. New Orleans French and English is not the same as Cajun; and northern Louisiana is not even slightly Francophilic.

Now there were the standard Republican comments: "Saturday Night has not been funny for a long time", "the show is too political", "the show should stay away from politics", "Saturday Night Liberal". Bullshit and butt hurt. Saturday Night Live has always had the 'fake news' behind the anchor desk. That has always poked fun at politics. The opening bit is usually current events, and often political. The trouble now is the 'fake comedic news' is more real than official news. 

The trouble for Republicans is that for something to be funny, it has to start with being true. It has to have reality reference, or it is nonsense. The truly unfunny skits are those that are nonsense, often with  risqué features. There was some tendency to push these bits toward the end of the show. What passes for Republican humour is usually mean, or absurd. They are stung by humour from reality. They feel mocked, and if having power they would forbid it, and now they are upset that they cannot yet do so. Humour under the Third Reich was that way. Another stupid comment is along the lines: "no one watches Saturday Night, and it was awful". Well, it has been on NBC since October 11, 1975; and it would not be on if it did not make them satisfactory profit. Also, if someone says, no one watches Saturday Night, and it was awful"; do they not contradict themselves?

Benny was played by Beck Bennett. Now, again reading the comments, people complained he was imitating "Colonel" Harlan Sanders. Sanders had white hair, glasses, was old, and wore a different type of tie. Benny looks a lot more like Tennessee Williams. People complain, and they do not know what they are talking about.

 "We angrier den a box of ghosts what been trapped in dat dare box by a witch!"
The supposed programme sponsor is Antifa.

Benny's unnamed, and silent, best friend graduated cum laude from Tulane University. Alligators anthromorphised are funny, they are like story tale dragons. Another local is a chili pepper with sun glasses. Two guests to the round table were Taylor Swift, and Seth Meyers. I would like to see this skit return and continue, mon chèr.

tower time progression

Some forty years ago, Cleveland City Water Department erected a 94 foot, 400,000 gallon surge tank. It is on W. 45th and Detroit Road, and is part of the Garrett Morgan Water plant. [foto: May 7th 2013]

September 9th 2018. Like so many things, maintenance is not done. City grime, and i presume, moss.

 September 11th

 September 12th

September 14th

  September 15th. Curtain is up.

  September 25th. A rain drop was on the lens.

  September 28th Curtain is back

 September 30th

 October 2nd

October 2nd The muralist is a Spaniard making his home in Athens Greece. He uses the name 'Sam3'. His inspiration for this project is the philosopher, Heraclitus (*c. 535 – c. 475 b.C.☨). Heraclitus believed change is constant. He makes references to the flowing river, "No man ever steps in the same river twice". Alan Giberson of Cleveland is also painting.

 October 5th

 October 6th. On the Greek theme, maybe even Olympic, it looks like a naked man or two running.

 October 10th

To-day