sustainable humor

sunflower graveyard

this afternoon i drove out to adobe farms at 3:30 p.m. i always pass it on my way to work at that time of day and have noticed that the light was particularly beautiful then. also the birds are migrating in great clouds. from the road you can see the sea of marigolds beside the wide field dotted with pumpkins that were never chosen. ancient tractors are parked here and there, and beautiful rusted equipment once used for harvesting. a cloud of birds blew over me and the only sound it made was so well integrated with the air that it was more of a sensation than a sound. as i wandered along through the field i startled a jackrabbit out of the marigolds and wished my camera was better so i could zoom in on him and capture him, if only on film.
after the squash field, i came upon a quadrant of corn, and it wasn't until i passed that that i discovered, with a devilish and bedazzled sense of childlike delight and wonder, the sunflower graveyard.

the day-to-day life of albert hastings

it's all about his handwriting.




























































this beautiful project has been done by kay deveney, who took photographs of bert in his home. she writes:

"This work is sited where Bert’s autobiographical vision, based in life experience and feeling, meets the new eye of a stranger. Together our visions and versions of his day-to-day experience sit side by side to create a new tale. At the end of this project Bert and I, of course, maintain our individual perspectives, but I think we are richer, too, for being informed by one another. I know I am."

thanks simply photo.

popular does not equal safe

the presence of poisonous chemicals in cosmetics is nothing new. the elizabethan ideal of beauty was acheived by whitening women's faces and bosoms with ceruse, which consisted of vinegar and powdered lead. as it ate away the skin, thicker and thicker applications were required. in spite of its drawbacks, the use of ceruse remained popular for 300 years.

i think this internship is getting to me.

aren't there better things to do?

Scientists breed world’s first mentally ill mouse

loved verses unloved

i've been so busy with work i haven't had time for my favorite flickr pastime of photo pairing. so tonight i made these small assemblages of loved and unloved chairs.

you can see them on my photostream with the proper links to the photographers.

time passes

i drive by the old niven nursery in larkspur on my way to work. the delapidated, decaying greenhouses and the teeming life of the weeds and wildflowers that have taken over the property compel me to no end. they remind me of the "time passes" chapter in "to the lighthouse."

i had to take these pictures through the chain link fence that surrounds the property. i tried to find out more about the original nursery but my google searches only led me to hard-to-decipher city proposals to develop the land sometime soon.

i was trying to figure out why i feel so drawn to this space. and i was thinking of how strange my relationship to marin county is. it is the place where i was born, and it is the place where i now work. my connection to it as a place in the interim has been zilch. and of all the places in marin, i find this abandoned nursery the place to which i have the most connection.

if i had to imagine my childhood as a physical structure, the broken down greenhouse might be just the thing. through which i bloomed late and anyway.