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Here In Oakland

Art & Life


   


Under here.

April 8, 2012

Without Wincing
Sunday. Up without the alarm having gotten to bed after ten. Not much after ten, but after ten, a Netflix movie getting better and more interesting as I was watching it and pulling me through to the end. Other than the Chronicle arriving late, the morning has gone well. A decent breakfast at the usual place, a group of four African American women all dressed in white entering to have breakfast together. Ah, right! Easter Sunday! Even the dim bulbs amongst us are eventually clued in.

Still, another clear sky, the sun coming up and bright and shiny, a nice day ahead. So far the various pieces and parts seem to be getting along, nothing too obvious or sneaky to make me think there's something more to come in say another hour, some bifurcation of existence waiting for me in the wings. We're feeling pretty good, but saying such reminds me of how many times I've said this in the past, but we're more than hopeful. No sake last night, none on the horizon, so I indeed suspect there's a good day ahead.

What do people do on an Easter Sunday other than dress up and go to church? Easter egg hunts? An Easter parade along Union Street in San Francisco, although getting there wouldn't be much fun. Too far from BART so more buses would be involved, buses I'd have to look up: which one, where does it go and when? Complicated stuff anymore, enough to make me bail.

Doesn't take much to make you bail.

Probably not the way the West was won.

Later. Lets see, it's early, it's chilly outside, why not lie down and take a nap (see if we can take a nap) since we got to bed a little late last night? Wham (a small wham) and it's well over an hour later, up now thinking of a walk, feeling much better than I did after that hour's nap yesterday morning I'd say. Hooray. Remembering how the eyes went out on a walkabout after yesterday's nap. Still, it's a bright outside. A walk is in order, check out the Easter Lake Merritt noon parade (and have some lunch).

Later still. I got lucky with one or two photographs of Western Grebes while carrying a camera with a mid-length telephoto lens. You always think “why didn't I bring something that would have gotten me in closer”, forgetting the weight and size of a larger lens. You don't bring along a monster when just out walking on your way to lunch. Purpose is needed. Hup! It is.

Anyway, a walk over to the morning café for ice cream and a cupcake, the waitress bringing me two scoops of ice cream and two cupcakes, more than I was wanting or needing, charging me just for the coffee. I'm tipping more than the check these days and still coming out ahead on the transactions. But again, a sit out in the sun, taking it easy, before walking back to the apartment, no double vision this, no crappy that, not too much complaining. Another bird shot walking back, another one where I wish I'd been closer, but again no complaints, the Fates have been kind on an Easter Sunday afternoon.

I was hailed briefly by a fellow walking along the lake with a camera, asking if I could take his picture, handing me the same model Nikon that I was carrying, saying he suspected I didn't need any instruction to take the shot. I didn't have the wits about me to carry on the conversation - two photographers can always find time to go back and forth on their photography - he mentioning he was in from Baltimore and I saying I was in (pointing) from just up the hill. Ah well. Maybe my idea of clear headed and quick on the uptake is everyone else's idea of fuzzy.

It's approaching three. If I pick up the guitar I'll have a good day of practice, if I don't, I won't. So we'll see.

Evening. A not bad evening. Not enough time on the guitar, but enough to qualify. I watched the end of a Korean movie on a Netflix DVD, strange in ways that are more culturally oriented than not, cinematic comments on a Korean modern day culture that I'm seeing, but not really understanding. A second movie afterward, not unlike the first, the same mindless anger in the protagonists but again with a couple of turns that made it somewhat unique. Such are my adventures with Netflix. Too many foreign films maybe, although I don't seem to do any better with the local product.

You seem to watch them, though. Not nearly as many as you once did, true, but you haven't given up.

The Hunger Games is the current big deal at the moment and is playing down at the Grand Lake theater, but I've had no interest in spending the time to see it. Given the nature of its hype and the number of tickets it's sold, I suspect it's probably pretty good, so maybe when it's released on DVD. Could be just me, stubborn as a mule about trivial this and trivial that as we age. Then again, maybe it's always been like this: stubborn with blinders. Who knows? Not I.

But what the hell, a decent evening, feeling ever better. No creatures creeping in from the Id - always a good sign - to bed now that it's after ten.

You said you'd get to bed before ten!

I say a great many things, often without wincing.

This one was taken yesterday along Grand by the Lakeview branch library with a Nikon D2X mounted with a 180mm f 2.8 Nikkor AF lens.


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