New Museum of Afro-Futurism

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black Baby Jesus

 

 

 

 

 Street view

 

 Afro-Fururist museum 

consists of display window galleries

available from periperal sidewalks

at all times of day or night

 

 

 

 

Vodoun past resurfaces in
Future New Orleans 
as envisioned in Oakland

 

 

Papa Legbot

 

 

 

 

The Future is Black

Madame Marie Laveau

late of Bourbon Street

 Jumping Jack Flash

on Congo Square

 

 

 I've never seen anyone inside

It seems to be more of a ritual interior

by nature

 

 

 

The Future of

Street Fashion

 

 

 

 

Mammie Loa

 

 

 

Joyful noisey

 

 

 

 

So far-out she's gone

 

 

 

Into the Afro-Future

 

 

It's not a game 

 

 

 

Played with toys 

 

 

Well, not just a game

played with toys

 

 

 

Afro-Futurism 

it's a thing

 

 

 

 

 

 

24 December 2021

 

 

 

 

Allhallowtide I: Parades Gone By

 

 

 

Allhallowtide 2021

Chapter One

 

 

 booo!

 

 

 

Eleven AM seemed too early for The Pumpkin Parade on Piedmont 
but I beat it over there shortly after 1PM while the costumed revelers still milled about

The stores handed out trick or treats and an infectious ebullient mood prevailed

 

My first year of formal attendance
Yet Piedmont Avenue holds forty years of haunted adventure for me
There was a notable pumpkin patch in a lot vacant the rest of the year 
and the Avenue always ended in a vast 19th Century marvel: 

Mountain View Cemetery

Free eye candy for all

A real doll

ok

 

 

 A cad

 

 

 

 

 The luxury of halloween

 

 

 

 Ironic and self-aware

 

Costume shop

Too muchness prevailed

 

 

I ventured onto church property

to refresh my herbal enchantment

to sit and smoke a bit

 

 

  

 

As I reentered the sidewalk I walked into

an over-the-top comedy sketch

They handed me a treat pack with no candy 

instead were items like toothpaste and brush

 

 

Welcome to Toon Town 

with a toothy smile

 

 

 

 I crossed over rather hastily 

to an old shop 

which sells curios and books

 

 

 

 I was late on the draw for this wizened wizard

I suspect his boots were his costume's raison d'etre

Captured here just a hint of their fabulous pointedness

 

 

 

 

Like wow

 

 

Deadheads Never Die 

 

 

 Dan-mask as stoned as we natty

 

 

 

None too happy

 

 

 

Specters cherish Silver Dollars

 

 

The bookstore occupies the corner
of this quaint cul-de-sac

Almost rented an apartment near here 

We were turned down because we were married

and the landlord didn't want any children

 

 

A caution around every corner

 

 

 

 

At the Golden Scorpion

 

 

 

 

A basin of free candy 

proffered by a Symbolic Snake

 

 

 

The whole district seems enthralled

by the symbolic, the heraldic, the masonic

and the occult

 

 

Come one and all 
to the halloween carnival

 

 

 Now these two dames were proud to display their finery

Bet they worked on those costumes

on spinster nocturnes

 

 

 

Off they bustle

down the avenue

 

 

 

Salut, mon petit Chavallier 

 

 

Friendly holiday couple

Most people like to ave their photo taken

to have their outfits admired

 

 

Well I'm totally wired

 

 

 

 

That represents the first 25% of RAY's photo journal

for this busy, cloudy and yet festive day.

Future posts will follow on from this point

Stay tuned, si vous plait

30 October 2021

Oakland Babylon

in progress

 

 

 

Roll up

 the dark carnival that never ends

it just moves the police tape

 

In broad daylight

in a Broadway crosswalk

 

Super sexy heroes

 

Revelers

All smiles

 

Despite the attention of a

verbalizing African American man

overenthusiastic over

the voluptuous ladies

 

 

As they sweep past 

One wearing a décolleté gown

The other a see-through body stocking

that's all behind her

Not everyone is so

extravagantly dressed

for what I think is

Comic Con 2018

Motorcycle cops underscore

 a heavy police presence

a few blocks from police headquarters

Someone may have called the cops

about Black men wearing masks

(Nice kids actually)

And there is...



A Black sports idol on every pole,
The cops are abundant
because tonight's basketball
is to be a very big game
won by the local heroes
and the party is on ninth after it

 

This guy was great

middle-aged mad scientist

but I couldn't get a 

full frontal exposure

 

 

Based I think on

odd comics or something

I admit I don't get

 

 

Queen Bee

of her peer group 

 

Next Day

Comic Con is winding

down with a private sidewalk party

Here anybody making money

can just inconvenience the public

 

 Early exits

leave you wanting more

What will you miss?

 

 

Time to cross the line

that separates us

from make-believe

 

 They'll always be next year

until there isn't

see you then

 

 Next comes

Burger Boogaloo

 

 

Hosted by John Waters

 the least repressed

the most anarchistic

Catholic saint ever was

 

 

Eldritch Punk and New Wave acts

turn up for a pogo and a hamburger

every year in Mosswood park

 

Sign on BART elevator

at Rockridge

Yes it's come to this

Talk about the truth of

Devolution

Then the elevator door opened

 

Over the incessant traffic

I manage to avoid

Mount Tamalpais hovers

over a urban copse

 

There's another one

of these dumbos

saluting the Oakland As

 

Down at Jack London Square

 

I had just seen this same truck

near my pad

figure it deserves a portrait

 

 Meanwhile it's ethnic
war all the time
Video gaming addiction
has been judged a mental illness

Nevertheless
 

Every once in a while
one may meet
an elegant lady

 

 

 

June 2016