Birthday Bay Crossing I: Return to San Francisco

 

 

 

San Francisco Ferry leaving Oakland
My first visit in a year and a half

an unprecedented span of time in 42 years

 

The military you always have with you

 

 

 

 

Water wall

An admirable ship repair facility

on the Alameda side

 

 

 Our great thriving Port

Greedy self-interest demands 

a colossal new baseball stadium here

 

 

 

 Onward

 

 

 

 

 Why mess up a good thing?

Did I mention I live a mile from here?

 

 

 Whither o America?

 

 

 

 

 The recent replacement span

of the Bay Bridge

 

 

 

 Yerba buena?

Si Senior, Mucho

 

 

 

 Lifting off 

Vintage span of the Bay Bridge

 

 

 

 Always a thrill sailing under it

 

 

 

 

 

 Into the North Bay

 

 

 

 

 Mount Tamalpais and the Summer fog

 

 

 

Land ho!

 

 The City formally known as San Francisco

 

 

The way we came

 

 

 

Seems now so far away

 

 

 

 

Made land by 11:10 AM

 

 

 

1930s bridge-builders and the new San Francisco

 

An old San Francisco waterfront hotel

what stories it could surely tell
 

 

 

 

 My bridge survey will resume

on yonder protruding pedestrian pier

 featuring

 Maritime history in painted tiles

As I always say

the military is never far away

Patrolling our thinking

28 July 2021

Postcards for Democracy (The DEVO VOTE)

 

 

 

Postcards For Democracy

 

 

 

These were for a Mail Art project 
by composer and DEVO founder
the inimitable Mark Mothersbaugh

The obvious intent was to encourage voting by mail

in the November 2020 US election

during the Pandemic, and in the face of GOP voter suppression

RAY Man sent three entries commended by Mark 

who added the first one to his page 

A comprehensive on-line exhibition is planned

Only have these images front and verso 

(a side and b-side) 
to post, Card #3 not available

1.

Meet the People

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.

 

I Voted By Mail

 

 

 

 

November 2020

A Walk Down Memory Lane in Berkeley

 

 

 

 

 

Walking in Berkeley today

Mindful of the sacred

A storied liquor store along my way

 

Where every great tree 
is familiar to me

This is an historic aerial view of Iceland
a beloved ice-skating rink

Residents pleaded with the City to save it
but the forces of capitalism won out

Here's how it looks today

 

How it once looked

in it's Overlook Hotel era

Here's how it looks today
There's the scoreboard
read it and weep if so inclined

 A vast sporting goods emporium

Yeah we're out there having fun
In the warm California sun

High-endish pricewise

On the Frisbe spectrum

 

Sometimes I get the feeling everybody else in California 

is having more fun than I am

Paddle boards offer a strenuous work-out
while you seem to stand on the water

For many years a sprawling open green lawn 
available to all -- Now a manicured baseball field
 used by only a few for brief periods of time

All that's left of the public lawn
I reclined in the grass a moment myself

Time to re-walk a mile in my moccasins

The object of my quest?
a new hiking bag an early birthday gift to myself
and a cool cotton pocket T-shirt

Could have used a new surfboard too
but I resisted the impulse buy

  22 July 2021

Flower Balm

 

 

 

 

 

A bed of mandalas

 

 

Toward the heart of the Park 

where the dahlias are in bloom

In rows of hovering colors

 

 

Red dahlias for your delectation

A dahlia speaks

My flowering bench in contentment

As usual I imported my own flowers 
from Elsewhere California

Jawbreaker Indica 35%THC

Like my bosom blossom buddies the bees

Flower freaks know where it's at
Rose Runtz hybrid 27%THC

 

 

My garden-fed awareness widens

 

 

 

 

 

Summer moves through the green trees

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nova expression

 

 

Something to make us all happy

Dahlias originate in Meso-America 

 

A distant cousin to daisy and chrysanthemum

Clouds turn phantasmal

in ocean breezes

 

 

Fond farewell at four o'clock

 

 

 

A look back at the wind

the sky's casual calligragraphy

Lakeside Park  18 July 2021