Showing posts with label downtown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label downtown. Show all posts

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
 
 
 

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Xmas Junkie

 

 


 
 Corporate Xmas Lobby
 
 
 

 
 Convention Center
 

 
 
 

 
Outdoors alone at ten
in Oakland
 

 
 
 
 


 O facade of joy
O secular stars

 

 


 A secretive little bar
bartender looked lonely and bored
 

 

 

 

30 November 2021

 

 

 

 

 
Port of Oakland at Yuletide
 
 

 
Autumn draws to a close
 



 Carols around a decorated but not yet lit tree
Sadly someone set it aflame 
early Monday morn

 

 
 
 

 
Old Black Santa

 
Frosty
always cool
 

 

Everybody love Xmas

Chicken waffles and syrup is acquired taste

 

At Crooked Cider
widows went moderne




 
 
 
 

 
Looters spoilt Xmas
Boards went up at a pot store next door
 
 
 

 
 
Ritual matchstick mound

 

 4 December 2021

 

 

 


Sunday, July 4, 2021

The Vicinity


 

 


 One becomes fairly shock-proof

 

 

 


 Actually heaven in is your mind

 

 

Like a wheel inside a wheel



Flowers dispel the dreary bits



Lutheran spook house



I don't think it's actual boys



Sidewalk on my bifurcated street



I'm sort of a big shot hereabouts




Artifacts exposed



Anachronistic Tribune Tower clock

 


Future ruins await their doom



 
 
The Flower Market district



Laughing it off behind riot boards




Get your Guinness to go, cocoon thyself



Annapurna restaurant has vivid curries for take-away



 
 
If you need company get some pumpkins



The year dims, hope dims not

 


 The Future seems relentless

 

 

The past cannot be long preserved




Who doesn't love a puppy?






June 2020 - 31 December 2021