Showing posts with label buildings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label buildings. Show all posts

Saturday, March 5, 2022

HERE/THERE (Berkeley/Oakland)

 

 

 

 
HERE
 
 
 
THERE
 
 
 
 
What was the use of my having come from Oakland 
it was not natural to have come from there 
yes write about if I like or anything if I like but not there,
there is no there there
 
Gertrude Stein
in Everybody's Autobioraphy, 1937
 

 
 
An Ambulation
in Oakland
on Mardi Gras
 
 
 
African-American Art Tour
 
 

 
 
Looking up at edifice & facade
on a walk uptown
A delivery of Clutter
to the comic book store
 
 

 
 Speaks to a bygone way of life
 
 

 
I find an amenable bench
in Latham Square
 
 

 
Facing me a doleful mural
It sort of grew on me 
I prefer primitive to slick
 
 

 
I tend to prefer crude to slick
The BettiOno Foundation
honoring deep-pockets Yoko Ono 
and Betty-Davis funktress
& muse of Bitches Brew
recently deceased

 
 


 
Skeptical Youth
 
 

 
 Warning
don't get it in your eye
You'll regret it
 

 
Paradox
of Androgyny
 
 


Almost home
Broadway and 10th


 
 An outdoor gallery
nice but I miss the supermarket
that was there
 

 
 Shrine to Betty Davis
"he was a big freak"
 she sang of maybe Miles
 
 
 
 1 March 2022
 
 
 
 
 
Ash Wednesday 
 
 

 
 Give it up for Lent
 

 
 
Keep a clean nose
 
 
 
 
Blessings on Lou Reed 
Famous Monster of Filmland
would have been 80 today
 
 
 

2 March 2022 



Strawberry Creek 
Campus Tour

 
 

 
Stoned again
Just come from the Apothecarium






 
I'm not the only one enjoying
the moist greenery creekside
 

 
 Not really a great torrent for early March
We are having some light rain today
oddly enough


 
Looking back
a difficult habit to break
 


Untrimmed
we glide back toward Nature
 
 


Study plant with an unusual flower


 
Irrepressible life


 
 
 
 Redwoods gather by the river



 
 Creeks speak
 

 
Minimal gardening will suffice
 


 
 Ivy will climb the redwood
with infinite patience
regardless 



 
 Creek Alley
Looking back 
 
 

 
 All I see 
astonishes me
 
 

 
 Down the old oaken pathway
toward town
 


 
Physiology 
is my major
 
 
 
 With a minor in 
Cultural Morphology
 
 


There was crow activity 
but it didn't concern me
Swooped away before capture
 
 
 
 
 Merrily 
we welcome in the Spring



 
 True to my 
Lovecraftian roots





Brining it all back home
some nice HOUSEPLANT
from Berkeley


 
 
 
 First Friday in Lent
 

 
First Station of the Cross
 
Made damn sure that Pilot
washed his hands and sealed is fate
 

 
The Bishop's Seat
facing a throne of my own 

 

 
Here I am 
I always am
 
 

 
 Making the scene
as one must
 
 


 Crucifix in Antiquity

 
 
 
XP
marks the spot
Center aisle to the altar
 

 
Holy Water Closet
RAY among The Most High
 
 

 
Each is given his path
In the Book of Rules
 
 
 


 
 Outside the Cathedral
a multitude of gulls
park on the waters of a gusty day
 
 

 


4 March 2022

 

 

 



Monday, December 27, 2021

Orbiting the Center


 

 

Urban Yuletide
Psycho-geography
of Oakland Center

 

 

 
 
The most Christmas sound heard today
Bells tolling from the old time tower 




 
From 8th to 18th and back
on an aleatory quest for rolling papers 



 
An eye open for Holiday eye-candy
 
 

 
City Center somber & deserted
 

 
Corporate Christmas 
predominates
 
 
 
 
Incandescent empty space
 
 
 
 
Pandemic measures drag on
 
 
 
Line for vaccinations on Xmas Eve
 
 

 
Not to be too macabre about it
 
 

 
Squad car blinking
outside an eldritch hotel
Must be Santa
 
 

 
Mural on the windowless back wall of a building
no doubt were another edifice once stood 
It used to be of a white knight first-responder
I suppose it changes periodically
 


 Front of the same groovy building
like many of them-- occupied by lawyers


 
Street tree sky clouds chandelier window 



 Land of ice and even snow

 
Blade runners
 

 
 People's Republic of Oakland


 
 The Sharks
local mob 
 

 
Mural of extravagant hands
 

 
Screen memory
 

 
 
Weird world in here 



 
 Weird through and through
inside and out
 
 



 
Boarded-up theater
 

 
That's Oakland for you
 

 
In my naivete
I await a renaissance
 
 
 

 
This wasn't always Stinky...
Must have changed hands 



 
Here's a humble soul showing good cheer
 
 

 
 A swanky uptown tavern
 
 
 

 
A delightful and dainty display 
Must be a jewelry store or some such
 
 

 
Nothing says Noel
like a study pair of cruel shoes
 

 
 It's a refined dildo and porn emporium
Well I'll be
 

 
 It's a spiritual thing--
yoga and yabyum
yoni and lingam
the whole jewel in the lotus
 
 
 
 
 


So Ray comes full circle
Scored 3 packs of my preferred rolling papers
gave a guy spare change
Smoked along my route
And finished my last block home
in a brief cloudburst






24 December 2021