Brett Rants

Golden City

Better than the Land of Oz


Recently, spent some time wandering around the city, shall I tell you of the journey, the things I saw, the trip I made, this is an image taken at the airport of a plane at the boarding gate, I like the shot, it would have stood alone, and then, I put it through a gold filter, all the images on this page have been put through a gold filter, at which point the pictures came alive, told a story, oh, and the clouds look pretty nifty, as the tonal variations come through better

It's more than a ride on a plane, a trip through the air.

The view of the City from a boat in the bay, it was or during this batch, was the first time Id ridden a ferry boat, going across the bay, a nice shot, the kind of shot this filter was made for, clouds rolling, geometry of the city, and rolling waves

It's more than a ride on a boat, a trip across the water.

Chinatown Alley with Graffiti, yeah, thats a pretty good description, I like the food in Chinatown, dont know about the people, Im not much of a people person, so not many conversations, in the park, they played cards, a game similar to what I would call Thirteen, but with a few different rules, they went counter clockwise, playing on milk crates and cardboard boxes for a quarter a game, or whatever it was, yeah, I like Chinatown

But when you get there, when it hits, when you land, you know.

Now heres something you dont see everyday, or at least, I dont, sheltered man that I am, a placard on a public wall on the public way, requesting folks dont piss on the wall, of course they did, or had, or there would be no use for the sign, so boys will be boys and all that, down at the pier they had sea lions, I dont even know if it was mating season, but the fun was in watching the bulls clamour for real estate, bellowing, laying flat, being too heavy to move by their enemies, standing tall when alone, showing off their size, yeah, those guys would have pissed on anything if they thought the girls would dig it

After you hit that wall, things are never the same.

The next three are the same, first and last the exact same, lighter, with the one in the middle darker, clouds through a filter, the image that got me to thinking about how I could snaz them up, likely took it to see how it would look through a filter and here is the result, works for me Be Your Own God, that is what the graffiti said, you know, in one of those other other images, in one of the hundreds upon hundreds that I did not use and have already deleted, will delete just after I am done mentioning it, the graffiti implored one to be their own god, their own king, their own self, good advice, just dont know if Im ready to be taking advice from vandals just yet Our society is an interesting one, I mean, fuck it, it sucks, and then, it is great, but parts of it suck, this entry is about the dualism, the juxtaposition, I have images of the subway trains, call them BART trains rolling into the underground station, some hoodie wearing dude standing in front of a sign, it is the sign that I find interesting, some suicide prevention notice, call, we are here to help, I mean, your life will still suck, the society that is keeping you down, will keep on keeping you down, but if a few words will save you, we are here to help, oh, and we have coffee, donuts on tuesday, the problem with the image was the inclusion of another, I am getting away from human subjects, besides it wasnt that interesting, more the challenge of getting the train as it rolled in, the wind from the tunnel, the roar preceding, and the honk of the horn, calling out, in warning, probably would help, to get the timing just right

The clouds are different.

Tree in the Park in Little Italy, nothing wrong with Little Italy, Chinatown is better, Chinatown gives more bang for the buck, value for the money, Little Italy seems more chic, trendy, expensive, less dirty, less real, more of a veneer over the raw capitalism of Chinatown, true capitalism, one on one market activity, anyhow, trees looking up, across the street from that church, were that girl was bitching at that boy, who knows why, likely because she was a girl and he was a guy, fun to watch the fight, such sport, this tree dark, the middle lighter, the one on the end, dark again, the next three, basically the same, trees, leaves, looking up There was a street fair or something one weekend, like a neighborhood street closing, ten twenty blocks, maybe more, some ill defined neighborhood, stretching, who knows, block upon block from beginning to end, a few booths down in the business section, mostly non profits, nothing really interesting, for me, and then, around the corner, well, the street is closed, folks walking, oh, here in the middle a single table, a garage sale, up a hill, past more empty streets, the family biking down the middle of the road was nice, skateboards, and by the park, a flea market, dont think it was even related, tables set up, around a city block, folks selling whatever, junk, hot in the sun, talked to a guy, yeah, I talked to a guy It was hot, hotter than I expected, sweating, sunny, seeking shade, and he was selling, whatever, got to talking in the shade, talking, Im receptive, whatever you want to talk about, Ill try to dig, its what I do, and he telling, this that, bragging, bragging about how much taxes he paid, ridiculous amount, like way too many zeroes at the end, so that much in taxes, why even worry, why even care, like I pay my employees a zillion dollars, it might imply I was doing pretty good for myself, but he was bitching about the employees, or the taxes in this case, unhappy about it all, and he worked so hard, I asked him how hed done it, his secret, to having amassed so much that he needed to pay so much, and he said hard work, which is bullshit, I work hard on this page, but I wont be making zillions on it, work and pay dont correlate, they dont have to, more money in Little Italy than Chinatown, at least on the surface, but its not like the landlords work harder in Little Italy... or maybe they do, but I think it has more to do with smarter than harder, and he was claiming harder, the conversation ended about there, took it personally that I didn't believe hard work had gotten him to that spot, huh, maybe he did not know what had gotten him to that spot... or maybe he did, and hard work just sounded better, to himself, to others, who knows, I continued down the way, hadn't gotten to the end of the street closure, such a town, such a party

The trees are different.

Hippies are a dying breed, of course, so are The Beats, and don't even get me started about those kooks from the 1850s, theyve finally seen the light, or all went away, with this lock Ill mention the island prison, it is a sort of nice shot, island prison in decay, far background, and in the foreground a pier, falling apart, concrete in decay, with the trash can, I like the trash can, but the idea worked better than the picture, here, No Hippies, No Exceptions, only here, in other places they dont split the unwashed masses into so many groups, you call them hippies, Ill call them bums

And some doors are closed

This was the treasuring building, mint, some goverment edifice, empty, boarded, up, not so much boarded up, see that hole in the door, where the handle should have gone, a simple hole, could see all the way in, into empty rooms, past empty halls, to a framed picture at the end of it all, would have liked to have a better camera to get a picture of that, or just imagine it, looking through the peep hole, past the empty room, not dirty, not dusty, but not clean, and at the end, against he far wall, real far wall, a picture, it probably would tell a story, thats the start to a movie right there, fall into the picture, tell a story, but outside on the steps, this is as far as I got

Maybe forever...

Three images, mostly the same, same goverment mint, bank, whatever, steps looking up, one on the right is the same as this, the one on the left, only flipped horizontally, the one in the middle has a different tonal accent, pillars are a bit lighter, but other than that, the outlines the same, I like the look, gives it a bit of electricity, havent read the words on the page in a while, the main text, but yeah, doors, thats what this is about, doors opening, markets opening, the outpouring of hearts and souls, if I have anything against the market, it is this, this writing has value or it does not, and if it has value, it should be encourage, a free market not so much, and if it not of value, then I fail to see the value in others, not clear, universal, if for them, then me, if for me, then them, all for one and one for all, either we are together or we are alone, and the trend is clearly towards the solitary victor, lying to themselves and the rest about how much more they have done, but it is not what they did, but what they made others do, and the others would have done so much more if giving the free reign to do as they would, thus ends my confessions in the comments I seldom reread or edit my comments, they probably are not clear, maybe I should talk about comments, I dont think the average reads them, I mean, the average does not read anything of mine, but the average does not read them, maybe a cult following one day, but more likely the robots, a bit extra, free hand, free mind, as it flows, this makes sense to me, and I can almost crank it out faster than I can talk, especially after one accounts for the errors, the missing not, the non double negative, the mispoking, the following alone, never going back, letting the error take where it will, this is the same building, goverment mint, two guys, maybe three were smoking in the parking lot, mostly empty, middle of the city, unbelievable rent, and this place is empty, thousands going to waste, a cafe across the street, nice, trendy, I am neither a coffee or pastry type guy, I am also cheap, not made of the millions, no one paying me the millions, but when I do, I suppose I would have bought something at the cafe, or at the one before, going down the street, bite here, bite there, whatever, had a sandwich during my outings, heres a thing, a nice sandwich, but if I were really rich, about halfway through, I likely would have stopped and looked for something better, maybe ice cream, Im sure I would get fat Same mint, in another picture, at the top of the hill, island prison is in the distance, down the hill, center of street, across the water, someone has made that shot into a postcard, I was not overly happy, not enough island, maybe I need to crop the street out, yeah, so I did, I mean, I played, cropping works better, but let us cut our losses, it is the landmark that works, not my photograph, too much confusion in the background, island prison blending into distant hill, you dont know what I am talking about, you never do, I am using this space to talk about the images that did not make the cut, are not used on this page, but are part of the mind set, walking through the city, up and down streets, I was doing this for weeks, take the train in, all day walk, walk here, walk there, with the mind flowing where it will, a website to commorate at the end, this, filled with pictures, and along the way, there are the ones that just did not make it, on the edge, but not included, reviewing them here, among other things, dumping the mind

But other doors will open.

This was a wonderful hotel lobby, walking by, looking in, doorman welcomes me in, you want to look around, so I did, wonderful, majestic, spent an hour or so, sitting in this chair, walking this way, walking that, if I have a white male privellage, it is in being welcomed into such places, and over time feeling welcome in such places, ah, now, if I were rich, this is where I would have had my tea or milk or soda, I am more of a milk guy, I mean, drinking something sounds like the thing, scotch, whiskey, but I dont want it, something cool, though, a nice glass of milk, that is what I really want, so cheap at the corner store, as cheap as a soda, the world is a funny place

Revealing a world of undreamt decadence and wealth...

Stacks of records, so little shown, so many records, stacks upon stacks, stacks in front of the stacks, behind the stacks, walls of stacks, who knows who they were for, one could hardly be trying to sell them, could not even see them, but maybe for preservation, that is more what I think it was about, I am recognizing this more in others, more in myself, the capturing of the moment, the time, someday the web will be gone, feels like it will last forever, but it wont, it will be gone, and those of us who have spent day after day, well, maybe we will move on, before ranting, I had something else, will I have after, or will I spend my days trying to sweep up, even now, the pile of words is too large to maintain, and my code, ah, little things, they go wrong, worked once, but not now, why not now, and without the due dilligence, it slowly fades away, if it doesnt work, it isnt used, if it doesnt make money, it isnt of value and becomes a cost, landfill, records, no way these are earning their keep, unless one wants to interpret them as advertising

Along with an abundance of the simple pleasures in life.

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