1205 Somewhere Street
B.J. Silberman
Another former beauty queen,
Orphaned in her prime,
Waits dressed in her daytime best.
Sunshine through the transom
Casts no memory.
Waved watercolored glass protects her secrets.
Standing outside, we can only imagine her story.
Sometimes when inspiration has taken a long vacation without having the courtesy to leave a forwarding address, my only recourse is to play and hope something turns up. In a way it’s very freeing because you can’t have expectations about the outcome when you don’t know what you’re doing. This photo is a layer of a Citrasolve scan and an image of an old table and chairs on a forgotten porch.With the dots and colors, it has a playful feel and is just right for sitting with a friend on a fall day and enjoying the atmosphere. It felt welcoming, even with a no trespassing sign.
I’m not sure we are going to have any real fall color due to the strange weather we’ve had. But it’s fall and it’s no fun if we don’t go out and jump around in the leaves. That’s how all of these photos were taken, by jumping up around, hopping on one foot and twirling the camera.They were fun to make and a surprise each time. For some readers, the images may be an acquired taste and they will prefer my “regular “photos, but being serious can be extremely overrated. To me, these feel like impressionist paintings.I’m curious to see what kind of reception they will receive. I can almost see the images printed on watercolor , rag or vellum papers. Please let me know what you think.
I’ll admit I love diner food especially when I’m on a road trip.The aroma says come in and visit. The food keeps me there. Grilled cheese, milk shakes, bacon and eggs,and meatloaf and amazing pies are too hard to resist.I think there’s an unwritten rule that road trip food adds no calories. My other reason for stopping is that I can’t resist taking photos. The stools, booths, and people just call for attention and I can’t ignore them. It’s the lure of another time and the stuff from which movies and novels are made. Maybe when I grow up , I’ll prefer four star French restaurants but it’s hard to imagine. Foie Gras versus a milk shake? No contest!
I really couldn’t resist more windows. While psychologists may have creative and involved explanations, mine is simple. I enjoy shooting windows and no one came to harm in the process.
A Saturday with an overcast sky didn’t bode well for a photo outing. Wandering along the Ghost River boardwalk was peaceful whether the sky was overcast or not. The river’s name comes from its lack of current in some places and that you lose all sense of direction because of the foliage. So while you may lose direction on the water, taking time to savor the green and silence helps me find mine. By the time we left, the rain began for real. The patterns in the water added another dimension.
Windows! I don’t think I realized how often I photograph windows. From the interior or exterior, I can’t resist an interesting window.Do I look in when I can? Of course! There’s such a story in each. Were things displayed for passersby to admire? Are some just remains , abandoned when the owners moved on? Questions and no answers, it just adds to the mystery.
Zero grams of fat .Zero carbs, protein, and fiber equals no threat to my diet, unlike the chocolate I crave on particularly stressful days. Lately my days seemed to be filled with acronyms : DEA, TVAAS, CFA, TCAP, IEP, TEAM,TCP, DEC, and IDEA. They should add HELP!!!!! Mostly they represent whatever someone with nothing to do can dream up. Being buried under tests and paperwork in a paperless system is difficult to understand for both teacher and student. There needs to be a way to decompress.For me it’s finding the humor and laughter. Sometimes I do it naturally, two pairs of glasses on my head and obviously searching for them, confusing words or losing track in the middle of a sentence…..My humor is on the dry side. Words are funny for me! George Carlin, Robin Williams, Lily Tomlin, they make me laugh.( Of course, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers and the OLD SNL circa John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner). Fortunately for me, the students I teach get my humor and even like it . They are funny in so many ways, and when we laugh together you can feel the room decompress. Whimsy and acting out lighten our load. On my desk are wind-up toys, strange items that called to me on travels, and a pair of African Dwarf frogs whose antics keep us entertained.Humor is healthy and non-fattening. Laughing until you cry can make you feel ten pounds lighter, although I admit, I haven’t laughed that hard in awhile. Probably not since my best friend and I grabbed canes in an antique mall and were doing a rendition of Singing in the Rain when we realized there were security cameras and we could end up on You Tube. Fortunately we escaped that fate. It’s not everyday in Memphis that you see Charlie Chaplin while wandering down the street, but there is humor in every day and taking an extra portion can only make us feel lighter.
Butterflies and leaves, both change dramatically and beautifully. Change can do that for us. Sometimes even the smallest changes can make differences in unexpected ways. So many of us are afraid that change will lead to places for which we don’t have direction or experience. Without a compass we remain in place. This fall, as the colors deepen and the season reveals its mysteries, maybe its time to consider taking steps in a new direction. We can recognize opportunities and dress in garments of brighter color and texture.We can become more ourselves.
The light in the forest shines on the vines as they swallow the trees whole.Beautiful, serene and a touch of the surreal. Kudzu. Growing during the night and during the day, it can cover 150,000 acres in a year. Brought to the United States from Japan for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. Admirers saw its beauty and planted it in their gardens. The U.S. Conservation Corps in the 1930’s planted it to stop erosion .It certainly worked, and more. Today across the south there are huge stands of kudzu along the roadsides. Animals can graze ,people make baskets from kudzu and some adventurous palates eat it. I like it because it makes for interesting photographs and stimulates the imagination.
Like clouds, if you look carefully you can see animals and other creatures in the kudzu. Can you find the ape and the giraffe? Enjoy! But be careful not to stand in one spot for too long!
appropriatelyfrayed 