Morning, Morning

 In which the Flaneur looks out of his window

Each day each of awakens

In our private cell,

or not

Back alley and graffiti row 

Parked across Eighth street

 What make of car is it anyway?

It's such a dynamic neighborhood
Different walks of life can co-exist here
Every day you get to see both ends
of the social screw

Another car parked too close
Burst into flames,
Quel dommage

 

Uptown Oakland sportsmanship

Note: CLEVELAND SUCKS! placard

Still on display on Broadway
  A year after Cleveland team's defeat by our local Warriors

 Time
Centrifugal force and barometric pressure
 Compel me back inside the window
of my cell

January 2016

Curiosity Shop

Another yesterday

In the life of the Berkeley Flaneur 

in exile

 The good old boardwalk

The Port of Oakland

Sunnier milder weather over I

 I always capture this building

because I like it

First time with smart phone cam

 Ronan Worship

Monday March 21st

$15 - 8:00pm

People on the bus

 Top hen goose loonie--new meds?

Extreme clown make-up not in evidence today

As we passed the cathedral I made the sign of the cross

Said a little prayer with my eyes closed,

When I opened them she did a contemptuous mockery of me

 Well, here's looking at you, Kid

I exited singing, 

"Which side are you on?"

While I was taking this shot
A young head-banger emerged from the hidden door
Of the mat-black Oakland Metro Opera House
As he went back in I said
"Behave yourself now,"
We both laughed

 This sweet harmless lady is also somewhat challenged,

She is an artist as well,

Seemingly every day she creates a new bonnet

Out of shiny appropriations,

Flamboyant and extravagant,

Every day is an Easter parade

 What are the Oakland cops up to at night?

They watch a big-screen TV, third floor right,

Warriors games, I can even see the free throw results,

Last night they were watching TMZ

The room you don't want to visit

Is right upstairs

With the shade tightly drawn shut

26 January 2016

The Playing Fields of Berkeley

 

Look who's playing

At the Elmwood Theater    

Weekend wanderings in a Wintry town

 A dream of daily life

Transformed

 Paranoia prevails 

The Playhouse on Ashby

(drive-by archive)

 Scattered showers headed for Berkeley High

 Home of the weaponized wasps

It's all in California,

United States of America

 Saturday was a day

Filled with striking cloudscapes

 It's not hard to see the score,

Draw conclusions on the wall

The sporting life

 Interesting trees on MLK

 Interesting walk Sunday

 On Berkeley's sedate Southside

In 1905 an entomologist built this redwood house

Still a hospitable refuge for bugs

 Look who's here

Ha-ha,

It's Rumpledforeskin

A vacant lot on McKinley street
Dry earth become bottom land,

The rains of El Nino

23-25 January 2016

A Day of Turbulent Crows

Bookworms read this...

The Flaneur is nagged by the strangeness 

of an afternoon in December

It all occurred in the vicinity of The Children's Fairyland

A True Story

 The first real cold snap happened,

Lakeside park was nearly devoid of the usual foot traffic

 In the main it was just myself

And an abundance of birds

 Geese fed happily in the new green grass

They seemed to mind the cold not one bit

 The gulls on the other hand hunkered down,

Puffed up their feathers against the persistent North wind

Chilly but very peaceful,

Scattered sea birds floated serenely

 I began to notice that many of the trees were

Filled with armies of crows

And they were all becoming more and more restles

Was it due to my having come near?

 I looked back with mild alarm,

They had taken the sky over the old bandstand

Out of the density of an evergreen copse,

They began to rise

 

 They poured into the sky over Lake Merritt

 

More and more where they came from,

 An endless flow,

 And the sky darkened as a result
Dark energy was afoot
Antigravitational
I felt like I could be swept up
Into the cold air vortex of the crows

  I waited for a calm in their storm

Sheltering under some oaks

On the periphery of the Children's kingdom

 The I followed along the barbed wire fence

In stealth lest I attract the crows crossing 

The firmament of  Fairyland

Another day's adventure at the estuary

I was glad to escape from its skies

Menacing and fantastic

December 2015