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

 

 

 

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