2023 Miscellany #10

linden tree, past peak, seen through a window

This series of three were taken after 8p.m. on June 25th.

Dark clouds quickly moved in looking ominous.

eventually, after sunset, some 18 drops

I-90 June 28th

smogula on Scranton Road, Cleveland Flats

There are some 490 forest fires in Canada, and a heat inversion in the industrial middle west. At one point Wednesday evening, Canton Ohio's Air Quality Index was 329. That was the highest in the US that day. 300 is supposed to be hazardous, but each country can gauge their own indexes any way they wish, Some censor readings are averaged, and what are the measurements? There was a damp bonfire smell to-day, and some people had irritated mucus membranes.

new mural by Isaiah Williams (StarBeing) celebrating Cleveland Metroparks

Giraffes are neat, the favorite zoo animal by many.

New mural being painted on East 30th, near Payne in Cleveland.  Suphitsara Buttra Coleman.

small sidewalk art in University Circle Cleveland

Where Main Avenue intersects with West 9th there are three painted words, "River, City, Lake".

Rubber Bowl is now gone

 

2017 visit    2020 visit  The bare hill is where the Rubber Bowl was.

There was a concrete wall holding back the hill. Rubber Bowl was inscribed upon it. Beyond the trees is a street. I read that the wall is still there behind the dirt.

part of the artificial turf (carpet)

This was a complex of structures. The rubble was part of the stadium. Immediately next to the stadium is Derby Downs, home of the Soap Box Derby. From this spot one can see aeroplanes take off, and land at Akron Fulton Airport. One can see the Goodyear Airdock for blimps. There are baseball diamonds, and a skate park. A little beyond the airfield is the former Guggenheim Airship Institute.

Kenmore Boulevard

Kenmore was a separate village from 1908 to 1929, when then it became a neighbourhood of Akron. A few years ago, a number of Kenmore murals were painted to revive community spirit.

Spiderman sculpture outside a comic book shop

Johnny Cash in the window of another store

old painted wall sign for pop

good looking store sign

17th Street Southwest sign pole mostly perpendicular

public art concerning television

Kenmore Masonic Lodge

___________________

Postscriptum: we will not mention the Kenwood pooper, who made national news a few years ago.

taking it to the kerb

To-morrow is trash day, and some neighbours bring it onto the tree lawn early (same lawn, it is spread out, so there is room in between for more maybe).

duck tape sculptures

We are colored by our understanding, and experiences.  Approaching from a distance, this was reminiscent of gold fleur-de-lis on a blue field. The Duck Tape Festival had a name change this year. Last year, there was a small parade; this year there was no parade. Covid is over, and this year's edition is smaller than the ones pre-covid.  They did have a good crop of sculptures from the University of Cincinnati, and Art Academy of Cincinnati. Everything else there was less of, and it is not public knowledge of why the reduction. Of course, i am not interested in the window, and gutter replacement booths that are endemic to these affairs.

The most popular sculpture was this tractor. Child after child went to sit behind the wheel. I think, this is the first year these sculptures were interactive. Some were set up to be played with.

I think, i liked this one the most. While i was there, two little girls sat in the boat and played with the fries. The theme, this year, was things seen at a fair. The greater majority were great. Some were made to be posed with, others were active as games, and two were to be pretend drivers.

A demolition derby car looked more like a race car. Some of the details were almost intricate. This tires's lettering looked real, and the use of the duck tape with label as a hub was cute. That said, a few had too much detail, as in too many components. They were made well, but were distracting instead of unifying the art piece.

a food vendor's tip jar

The detail of the hammer blow test of strength was sharp, and it advertised the product well.

A monument to Templeton the Rat of Charlotte's Web, has the rodent stuffed and gorged from eating fair food. A web reads, "Some Rat".

Argos looks on at a ball toss game.

2023 Miscellany #9

Well, Parma High is still standing. Here is the ornament on the theatre building. Some people want the building to remain. Just as an aside, i do not believe what the superintendent says. Management speaks in order to control behaviour, and to accomplish what they want without regard to other parties. In this case, several failed tax levies may be part of the answer.

Collinwood had an Italian Pentecostal Church at one time. The building is now with Black on Black Crime Inc.  Most of this stained glass window has been painted over.

Severely trimmed tree on Oberlin's campus, man & greyhounds show scale.

Someone had a sense of humour, and officialdom either does not know, or is accepting.

Anubis, jackal or greyhound headed god?, University Circle preparation tent for the June parade 

A unified Egypt was more than three millennia old before the Romans came. In that time, many animals were worshipped as gods, and sure greyhounds were.

Setting sun shot June 7, between Chinese Cultural Garden and Cleveland Art Museum. Camera turned the sky black. Small branches holding the sun in place. This was a day when the Canadian smoke was a factor. Camera likes to focus on the foreground, there was more detail to the sun, but a person with better optical gear could have gotten it; i still find it interesting.

Why do this to Betty Boop?

A house in South Collinwood on Whitcomb, nearly sixty years ago, i thought it was the most interesting house in the neighbourhood. Since then, it has gotten some new windows, and currently some excavation is going on, but not visible in foto. House next door, and weed tree on tree lawn distract from the view.

Longhorns

Longhorn cattle are very well named.

I saw five steers in a pasture Wednesday, They are owned by a man with a very large greenhouse business.

They immigrated to America with Columbus.  After 1700 some became feral in Mejico's Tejas territory.  They are a vigorous animal, that take heat well, can live off of scrub pasture, have little disease, and can handle drought well.  A century ago they were near extinction, and the US Forest Service gathered a herd in 1927.  By the 1960s they rose in popularity.

The steers have longer horns than bulls.

From where the cattle graze, the Kipton water tower is visible. Kipton is a very small village near the college town of Oberlin Ohio.

Who knows where the time goes?

"Who knows where the time goes?"—Sandy Denny 1967
Berea O., yesterday 1.57 p.m.

I've heard this sung by the composer (Sandy Denny), and when she was with The Strawbs, and Fairport Convention. I have heard Kate Wolf, Eva Cassidy, and Nanci Griffith sing this. Their time is gone, they have all died. I have also heard Judy Collins, and Kate Rusby sing this, and they are still singing. The song is beautiful, and all those women sang it well. It is a slow, melodic, thoughtful. I can not remember who i heard sing it first. This type of folk music i listened to through most of my time in college. Have always enjoyed this sweet, pensive melancholy.

 

Across the evening sky,
all the birds are leaving,
But how can they know,
it's time for them to go?
Before the winter fire,
I will still be dreaming,
I have no thought of time.

For who knows,
where the time goes?
Who knows,
where the time goes?

Sad, deserted shore,
your fickle friends are leaving,
Ah, but then you know,
it's time for them to go,
But I will still be here,
I have no thought of leaving,
I do not count the time.

For who knows,
where the time goes?
Who knows,
where the time goes?

And I am not alone,
while my love is near me,
I know it will be so,
until it's time to go,
So come the storms of winter,
and then the birds in spring again,
I have no fear of time.

For who knows,
how my love grows?
And who knows,
where the time goes?

America's smoke

I have had a recent e-mail exchange with an old college friend. He is having a successful career as a professor in South Asia. I will share part of our exchange:

Me: It hasn't, but it is to a lesser degree. We have had two hazy days, a few days of colorful sunsets. This afternoon, and evening there is a smell of wood smoke in the air. …Well, on another subject—Trump has been indicted, on what looks to be 7 federal charges dealing with the Espionage Act 1917. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Florida Tuesday.

He:  Good to know the Canadian haze is not a problem. Since you mentioned Trump, the other haze might become the more worrisome. He represents a growing populist population which, by the time the election nomination season gets over, will be too strong for any moderate Republican to contain. And I'll tell you frankly, Joe Biden is too weak (I almost used 'inept'), to face what might become a tidal wave in 15 months. Democrats face a vicious cycle of moving from 'bad' to 'worse' when the country needs their leadership the most. Stepping down might be the greatest gift Joe Biden can give his country. Inexperienced others can step in now, get their bruises, but there is still time to both mend and lead.

Me: There are NO moderate Republicans, none, not even close. There are only ultra conservatives, fascists, and those crazier than outhouse rats.  The Republican Party is both a demonic clown show, and a criminal cult.

He: That bad? Then tell me, why is the Democratic party not capitalizing on this, or is it also coming apart at the seams? I still sense a deepening political haze.

Me: Well, the politics of it, there are what is called progressives, and they try. But, there are countervailing pressures. In America, money is king and it has many devotees. All the major media loves money, so no member of it will go all out to attack Republicans/fascism, and support democracy.

There is a matrix for the anti-democratic side. Franklin Roosevelt used the term economic royalists, and their claws are everywhere. Corporate media has pushed both sides coverage, which means bullshit is on par with reality. And capitalism, and greed will not go undefended. Now, the electoral system is very un-democratic, and political campaigns calculate for that. Starting with the election of Kennedy, and then through Johnson, and Nixon the Republican Party has become the white people's party. I have to look at the figures to confirm it, okay i will. I did a quick internet check. The last Democrat that won the white vote was Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and partly because they saw that Goldwater was nuts. Gore, and Hillary Clinton won the popular vote; the electoral college and in the former the Supreme Court, and the latter Putin, facebook, and the electoral college gave the election to the Republican Party. The Democrats need white votes, and electoral votes, and they will play to that.

Now, since Goldwater the Repukes are crazier, and more vicious continually.  Nixon was a crook, Reagan was living in a fantasized world with dementia, Bush the first was an ultra establishment Republican (read a crook that would never be punished), Bush the second was an idiot, and Trump was all that.

Now to add in the shit soup are Gingrich and the evangelical protestants. Gingrich was and is a hyper-partisan liar who wanted, and still does, to be a despot. The evangelicals when they voted were the southern white vote, then Falwell and Robertson made them hyper Repukes for Reagan and they also expanded in number (now there seems to be a contraction).

Also some of the progressive outliers are so much in love with their beyond mainstream want list that they really piss off people, who are just looking for a reason to be against Democrats. This is gold for the Repukes.