odd chopper rat

a painting in the style of  ?B.K. Taylor's "odd rods"? c. 1970

parking lot wall of a motorcycle shop on Cleveland's Lorain Avenue

bird in a tree

pretty flamingos

one dozen pink flamingos

"On our block, all of the guys call her flamingo...When she walks by, she brightens up the neighbourhood"

In 1958, from Massachusetts, there came the first migration of plastic flamingos to the front lawns of America. The designer was Don Featherstone, for many years his signature was molded into the bird's butt. There are people who are quite happy to see them, and others have them as the epitome of kitsch and poor aesthetics, but look at some lauded modern and contemporary art and how can you be upset with lawn flamingos? 

Now, they were designed in pairs, and they had a pair of thin metal legs. Supra, the flock is all standing on one leg, and their heads are resting against bodies; they sort of look like some plant, or cotton candy on a stick. The old joke asks, "What for do flamingos stand with one leg tucked up?" Well, if both were up, they would fall down.

It's all happening at the zoo

koalas

zoo greenhouse

On a wall above steps that lead from the greenhouse to the pond is sculpted thistle. It looks like more of Roosevelt's New Deal America.

cleveland zoo elephant

 duck tape elephant

elephant in training 

 Un elefante se balanceaba sobre la tela de una araña.

The Cleveland Zoo now has five elephants: four cows, Moshi, Martika, Shenga, and Kallie, and one bull, Willy. Recently, they rebuilt the Pachyderm Building. Years ago, the building also housed rhinos (now a separate bldg.), giraffes (same story), hippo (they still have a very aged one in geriatric seclusion), honey bees (gone), tapirs (gone), and warthogs (gone). Now, the other occupants are mole rats. Landscaping has allowed more outside enclosure for these large animals. In the last several years, the trend has been for more elaborate surroundings with less species. The old building had two beautiful colored terra cotta sculptures (1956-2008) by recently deceased local centenarian, Viktor Schreckengost *1906, 2008†. One was of mastodons, and the other mammoths. The sculptures were to reappear on the outside entrance of the zoo in 2010, they have not. The Elephant Crossing exhibit opened in 2011, three (Jo, Moshi and Martika) of the elephants had stayed in Columbus during the interim. Elephants are appealing.

It's true! It's true!

It's true! It's true! ... A law was made a distant moon ago ...there's a legal limit ...That's how conditions are  ...Those are the legal laws  ...That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory  ... For one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.   

When i was child many years ago, the male voices of pure aural authority and beauty were Richard Burton, Richard Kiley and Alexander Scourby. Burton and Kiley starred as the main actors in two gloriously heroic musical plays. Burton was King Arthur in Camelot, and Kiley was Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. Alexander Scourby read the King James Bible.      

The quality of a voice may be accidental to the man bearing that voice. The voice of Burton was mesmerising. It is difficult to not believe that the man had a deep soul.

When hearing the voices of Robert Frost, Franklin Roosevelt too, one hears something magnificent. I can not read his poems, or his speeches without simultaneously hearing their voices when i read their words, i repeat their cadences.

Hear me, heathens and wizards and serpents of sin ...virtue shall triumph at last!

 I am I, Don Quixote ...My destiny calls and I go
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To-day is Saint George's Day.

Parma's new Metropark

currently proposed opening 21 June 2013

Yesterday was the warmest day in over six months, over 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and windy. The West Creek Watershed is finishing development as Cuyahoga's newest jewel in its Emerald necklace of parks. My nephew and me were among the very few of the park's visitors. As atmospherically a pleasant day in this belated spring, it was easy roaming about. There are spots that should prove very good towards bird sightings. We saw a few birds distantly, only one handsome wood duck acutely. My nephew was very eager to point out deer tracks, and scat. Being mid-day, the deer made themselves invisible.

Little pools were newly made to relocate croaking frogs a few hundred feet. When croaking, these fellows made a loud hum reminiscent of electrical transformers.

A six feet storm drain with video consoles is ready to present to visitors. The exhibits give a heavy influence in the protection of the local environment, giving lessons in the effects of small streams, and storm flooding.

The displays are installed, but not finalised.

 a path through the trees is ready

A new path towards the education building is demarcated, new bridges were complete. A sign was still on site announcing a Fall 2012 opening.

  landscaping is in the final hours of preparation

doors front and center

St Ann's Cleveland Heights

Plato would cruise in a '57 Chevy

In Plato's theory of forms, the objects of the physical world about us, are not 'truly real'. There are perfect forms, that are ideal and unchanging, in the metaphysical world. That which we see, we recognise of being like the ideal as a shadow is like the object cast it. So, a picture of something would be like an imitation of a model of the ideal. So, everything that is in our solid world as an archetype in the perfect world. Of course, some examples are closer to perfect than others.

People refer to Plato's chair, and 'chairness'. There are things more interesting than chairs. At one time, America loved cars. The forms, the colors, the contrasts were beautiful. I have mentioned one of Plato's Buicks. But, Plato's car is a matador red 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air sport coupe with a India ivory hard top.

Times are hard. On Broadway, near Harvard, in Cleveland Ohio, there is a used car lot with a faded car sign. It has been there, what? thirty years? more?  Here is an imitation, of an imitation, of a shadow that may be Plato's car.

choir openings

evangelisation through choir practice, St. Wendelin Cleveland Ohio

South Euclid Library

A former mansion eventually became a library, now the Cuyahoga county system wants to vacate for a yet to be built building. It was a 1920s Tudor-Norman chateau, built for a milk company and bank owner. The bank failed. It is a lovely place, but management is not interested in loveliness.

beat flag

What is the nature of patriotic devotion?

eggs

last season of Eggshelland Lyndhurst Ohio