photographs of abandoned places #23

 garment factory

 "Seven hundred fussy tailors"

The clothing business that became Richman Brothers moved to Cleveland in 1879, from Portsmouth Ohio. In 1916, a large factory was built, and expanded in 1924, and in 1927. It was a superlative enterprise for a long time. At one time, or another, it was the biggest garment factory in the country, with the most employees, with the most retail stores. They began with men's suits. They also mail ordered to customers. They were nationally recognised as a stellar employer in a 1939 Time article, in which workers received benefits that many (perhaps most) Americans do not to-day. After the brothers left the company, management was not so warm. They resisted unionisation, and wages were kept low. The end began when they were bought by Woolworth's in 1969, who closed them down in 1992.

 not the way i got in

 the north side, the blue tile has retained its color; the sunny south's faded

light through a skylight, i find a good image

A group of young photographers, some from elsewhere came to see abandoned Cleveland. This was one of their stops. One was a Local#58 Detroit electrician, one was from Dayton, another was from New York. I found photographers, who have taken many shoots of abandoned places, posting fotos recently. They were pleased, and had thought there was no entry. Last night, i found a foto of the pinball machines taken in 2015. One of the photographers, i met to-day, said that was the time frame when he had been there previously. To-day, i found a foto by a very well known local photographer, who took fotos in 2013. In his foto, the pinball machines were partially disassembled. Someone else is fotographed with an assembled machine in 2012. In 2009 a Chinese investor bought the building, and nothing has developed.

 Many ping pong balls were left over from a previous photographer.

Some people find places to leave rubbish. When do they scout places? Sometimes one thinks the place has not have had people in years. Home re-modelers search, and find dumping sites. One heap had a bath tub, and many one gallon paint cans. Several tires were outside on a sidewalk.

Am not sure at which height is the best in perspective, this is from the 6th floor. The steeple is St. Paul (Croat). Left, below center, is another church building.

 St. Vitus (Slovene)

 Immaculate Conception (Irish)

Kurentovanje

This year's Cleveland's Slovene pre-Lenten carnival parade began noon Saturday.

The launching and dressing area was in the new St. Martin of Porres High School. Their mascot is a lion.

Kozorog, the Slovene for Alpine ibex, is a national symbol.

A girl from St. Mary Slovenian school had a basket of krofi. Concerning ethnicity, or lack thereof, to-morrow a parish is scheduled to have a paczki Sunday, another donut Sunday, Slovenes have krofi.

Krampus is an Austrian demon figure that represents paganism in the Austrian Alps. The Carinthian region had been Slovene, and there is a mixed population.

This Saturday before Lent, the oldest Slovene neighborhood in Cleveland had a parade. Some well behaved dogs from he city kennel asked to be adopted. Here is 'Plinko':

In cartoons the little cute monster can be surprisingly dangerous.

A whippersnapper leads some Kurenti.

The Kurent is the mythological creature that chases away winter before Lent. This is the feathered variety, his head has wings. The red appendage is his tongue. 
click and see: 2013, 2014, 2014a, 2016, 2017, 2018,

2020 Miscellany #1

Teddy bear toe pads of Karma the Greyhound

 

Sometime in the recent past, Sims Park Euclid became enlightened and stopped the prohibition of dogs. Duke here is pulling his man on a one wheeled skateboard. 2/2/2020

An idiot with a business, and a sign, wants to broadcast his petty stupidity. Spelling is often suspect. Repukes hate Pelosi because she is effective (she also is right), and the cultists repeat the mantra. What about Trump has anything to do with your father's Democratic Party [ok, the racism before the 1960s: and perhaps your grandfather's party, if he was in Italy or Germany in the 1930s]?  [foto 10 February]

Suburban Symphony Orchestra, Beachwood 16 February 2020

cultural appropriation, or Oscars too white

Other than Othello, there should only be white actors in Shakespeare plays. How ridiculous is there to have a black Romeo, or Juliet in Verona? Why does not someone complain about "cultural appropriation"? In truth, the profession of acting is to display yourself as someone else. Many historians believe there were no female actors in Shakespeare's plays, in his lifetime. Since then, there has been Shakespeare performances with all female casts. That is acting.

To-day is Oscars night. Some of the arguments used are not honest. I have read, a new Macbeth is to be filmed with Denzel Washington. Washington is a fine actor, he has played some great rôles, and he has won two Academy Award Oscars. Why should he not play the mediæval Scot?

When Kevin Kostner played Robin Hood, Morgan Freeman had a major rôle in the movie. His character escaped from a Moslem prison in Jerusalem with Robin. That was stretching the legend.

Hollywood is run for the desire of profits. Unsavory business has a long history. Only so many good movies are made each year, and their subjects are not evenly distributed. Fair practices are not universal, but to expect a certain number of nomination, and award picks is demanding a quota. There may be a year which has three black women nominated for leading actress, and they may all have given great performances, but black population of the United States is not 60%, it is not even 20%.

In recent years, many American films with American rôles have been played by non-American actors. When the actor is interviewed, people are surprised with the accent they speak with. Ruth Negga played a Virginian woman in Loving, and was nominated in 2016; she is Ethiopian and Irish. Lupita Nyong'o is a Kenyan, and acted in 12 Years a Slave, and was nominated in 2013. Naomie Harris was born in Jamaica, and grew up in London and was nominated in 2016 for Moonlight. Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor was born in London to Nigerians, he was also nominated for 12 Years a Slave. Cynthia Erivo, another black Londoner, is nominated for to-night's Oscar as Harriet. Then there is Marianne Jean-Baptiste, another black actress born of émigré parents in London nominated for Secrets & Lies in 1996 playing a Londoner. Charlise Theron, a white South African, has been nominated for to-night, and twice before, winning once.

It is true that discrimination and favoritism has been rife to-day, and throughout American history, but every action and moment is not to be put to its account. The Oscars is not a good battleground for this argument.

Romney stands up

“I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am. [long pause gathering composure] The grave question the Constitution task senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme, so egregious, that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes, he did.”

Well, i saw Romney’s speech yesterday. He was sincere. He was correct, that he would be attacked by the Republican cult. [teevee news cut to Washington, Caligula was speaking; i listened for 28 minutes, and then went to the kitchen to chop vegetables].

Back to Mitt:  Trump attacked him in the White House, and earlier in the day at a National Prayer breakfast. He attacked religion, and Romney, and Pelosi. Clearly, Trump does not understand religion, other than the worship of himself. Well Romney is a Mormon. The concept of  “God” in Mormonism is different from that of Christianity; but Romney fears and respects his God*. Romney also mentioned his conscience...Trump is guilty.

Now, i have a friend who calls commentary over the internet ‘chatter’. I read a little last night from Mormons displeased that Romney mentioned God. One listed the other Mormon senators, and asked whether Romney’s faith was different than theirs. Well, yes, surely. Another was worried that evangelical Protestants would attack Mormonism. If the worship of Trump is part of evangelical Protestantism, fie upon it.

Perhaps, this was Romney’s “white horse” moment. There is a supposed prophecy, that when the Constitution hangs by a thread, a Mormon will save the country. There is a belief that the Constitution is divinely inspired.

Adam Schiff, in his closing arguments, Monday asked, “Is there one among you who will say: ‘Enough’?”  Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney did vote ‘guilty’ on the first of two articles of impeachment, Wednesday. Earlier in the day, in his senate office, he was interviewed, “They will note merely that I was among the senators who determined that what the president did was wrong, grievously wrong.”.

“I have found, in business in particular but also in politics, that when something is in your personal best interests, the ability of the mind to rationalize that that’s the right thing is really quite extraordinary. I have seen it in others, and I have seen it in myself.”. He is already being vilified by his party, and their followers. Romney had been the Republican candidate for president in 2012.

Trump junior, who is as quick as his sire to use twitter for grievance and threat, did so within the hour. Sometimes the apple does not fall far, but it soon rots. His father, attacked Romney at a National Prayer Breakfast [sic] to-day [as i wrote above]. Later in the East Room of the Executive Mansion, he did a reprise. He pointed at how great the other Utah senator was. Listening to Caligula ramble, lie, self-aggrandise, self-pity, insult...It became, again, readily apparent that Section IV of the 25th Amendment on presidential succession should be invoked. It would have half of the cabinet to declare Trump as unable to complete the duties of the office. It will not, since thy are all sycophants.
 _______________________________
*Last night, Stephen Colbert spoke on Romney; about faith in God, and oath taking. Colbert quoted from Robert Bolt's, “A Man for all Seasons”, a play about St. Thomas More. Thomas is speaking to his daughter:
“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then — he needn't hope to find himself again.” — Sir Thomas More, Act II

Schadenfreude

„Freude! Freude!”, Beethoven's words before he brings on Schiller's,‘Ode to Joy’.  The Germans gave us the word, ‘Schadenfreude’; the glee in the suffering of another. Sometimes this is cruelty, or envy; other times it is karmic justice, «what goes around, comes around.» I remember hearing, and reading, old men saying i want to live long enough to see my enemies die; or wishing that their enemies suffer greatly

Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians wrote, «Be not deceived, God is not mocked.  For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting.   And in doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we shall reap, not failing.»

The Roman historian, Cornelius Tacitus wrote, «This I hold to be the chief office of history, to rescue virtuous actions from the oblivion to which a want of records would consign them, and that men should feel a dread of being considered infamous in the opinions of posterity, from their depraved expressions and base actions.»

Here in America, for a long generation, we have had a coalition of evil men poison the nation. They have poisoned it by the worship and pursuit of mammon. They have poisoned the nation politically, and socially. They have poisoned the world physically, and the people in it. 

Yesterday, news came that lung cancer has Rush Limbaugh — Karma struck. He was the first radio mouthfoamer, and from that foamy spew more scum grew. That scum poisoned the nation, it was on top of the swamps. That poisoned Petri dish allowed Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump to gain political prominence. The poison was part hate, but mostly lies, lies in all formations.

From his filthy lungs, fœtid wind hit the airwaves poisoning America. He attacked science, like cigarette lawyers did about smoking not causing lung cancer. He mocked the genocide American Indians endured, by equating the deaths caused by the tobacco they gave to society. He did this while sucking on phallic cigars. O, the poetic irony, the karma of lung cancer.

Limbaugh mocked and rejoiced over others' maladies, diseases, cancers, and deaths. The ugly buzzards have come home to roost, and feed over his bloated carcass. Now, there are many on the ‘left’ , and those with tender spiritual, and religious, and moral scruples that in this moment say, ‘nothing ill’. But remember, acknowledge what he said of others.

Cancer is horrible and painful. He should not rush off and die, but savor the exquisite pain as long as possible, including the use of every technical and medical procedure and device. Since he believes that medical care is not a right, but a purchase, let him choose to spend his money.