Life Recycles, But At What Cost?

 

 The original post with shots before any work done can be seen in the Archive of this blog dated April 04,2013, "The Last to go for Buckingham."
The former mail box seen below this photo, stood on the driver's side of the white pick-up truck at the end of the driveway. The street seen in the mailbox picture runs perpendicular to the truck.

The past 10-days have been a lot of discomfort for me. I have been under the weather, so-to-speak. Some of that feeling has been  a reaction to my medication. The pharmacy info sheet calls it "side-effects". I'll be nice and not mention what I call it, however. Never-the-less, the cat has been happy to have me "in-house" but she still does not like to share "her" chairs. Every now and then, I feel a paw lightly touch my back and claws begin to find the nerve endings. She's just letting me know that she is "sharing" her chair with me. I don't own a single chair in this house. I only "lease" them from the cat, don't you see?

But, I have been able to get some reading done. I've had  some enjoyable listening to some old symphonies that I haven't heard in some time. My Mahler collection is nearly complete. And, Richard Wagner -- my Lord, the man composed for the angles.

Also, I have been reviewing my complete portfolio. The one common factor that appears throughout the time line of shooting  seems to be that more and more of the images seem to be disappearing at the original shoot locations. Time causes things to change, sure, but man seems to be at the mercy of the "new age developer" that  has no interest  nor care about historic values in structures than the wrapper from a burger or a Starbucks  container that held his latte earlier in the day. The bottom-line mentality has spread to the proving grounds of bulldozers and water-tank trucks. Nothing drives home that point more than the text that I just got from long-time friend, Jamal, who just informed me that he has closed his C-store. The  post-office behind him is gone. It's now condos. The retirement village across from his side-street entrance is closing for re-development, but the kicker is that the Blockbuster store across the street was re-developed and leased by Walmart and that set the stage for Jamal's business could not last. The property under the Walmart is one of many owned by a former Dallas City Councilman, no less. 

The house is long gone. The street is nearly gone and the developer has cleared all the trees, excavated the property from one end to another and laid all the sewers and  drains and made water connections for several new homes that will now stand behind the formal Buckingham, Texas  city hall. Buckingham was annexed by the City of Garland. All that remains today is a park on the corner with a historical marker. 

The original post with shots before any work done can be seen in the Archive of this blog dated April 04,2013, "The Last to go for Buckingham."

There's A Song In The Air

We have all said it. We all complain. Over the years, I have come to learn that those that complain the least are really the one's who don't mean it as much.Yes, the first Christmas song of the season has hit the airwaves. "It's not even Halloween", I said when I heard it. Then, I saw a commercial that had a tad and a hint of the holidays in the visuals. It does seem to get earlier and earlier each year, not counting the wholesale shows that occur in July. But the real measure of how early it gets is when you start to hear the choral works from Westminster and King's and all the others in the U.K.on the radio programs. English choral works are the benchmark, after all.

In fact, it struck me so much, that I turned to my favorite classical radio station WXXI-FM in Rochester, New York to check on their live stream schedule. It seems that even the radio schedules manage somehow to wiggle in a song or two hear and there and broadcast schedules are like clockwork. No one messes with them! Ever! Why WXXI you ask? Well, maybe you don't ask but the real reason why I listen to them is because of their International Market being so close to Toronto and Ottawa and the Great Lakes with a larger audience per square mile of listeners and a great Choral college just down the block.

Yes, here's another one of my inter secrets. I love choral music. In fact, my organ teacher in college was a noted choral composer who got me interested in cantors at a Jewish Synagogue where she was organist. She taught 5 days a week, played the Saturday Services at the Temple and Sunday Services at a large Baptist Church. The woman was cast iron diverse! But, what I learned from her still controls how I play today. When I do. If any, anymore.

English choral composers like John Rudder or Stephen Cleobury, Director of Music, King's College, Cambridge, England,  have made their mark on both new and traditional choral works, but it is at Christmas time that even my heart seems to respond well to the beauty of sound as it echos in the high vaults of English Cathedrals. And, besides where else can you bring together choral works and great organ installations into such splendid mixtures?With the audio technology today, you don't even have to be in the cathedral to sense the sound within those walls. Since I don't fly anymore, because of  my bionic implant, listening to an HD-CD is probably more comfortable than the riggers of travel anyway.

Last year, with the bad weather here in Dallas, the Christmas Parade was skipped.  I try to support the Christmas Parade in downtown Dallas because the charity is one of the best. It made me think of the former J.L.Hudson parade down Woodward  Avenue in Detroit. As a kid, I grew up watcing the Cotton Bowl Parade and the Hudson Parade on television every year. I have seen both in the cold. Now, it's just a matter of choice. Do I want to get out in the crowd or just flip on the tuner and listen to music? The choice gets easier every year! But the spirit of the holidays  will always go with me beyond the grief and the sorrow. Music has been my crutch to lean on and get me through the holidays year after year now.

96-Days 'til Christmas

Bonnie Parker

At least once a year, I try to visit the graves of the down-trodden and forgotten. Call it what you will. In fact, the Good Book says that we should visit the graves of the dearly departed. The term dearly could mean family. It could mean friends. It could also mean the down-trodden and forgotten. There are a couple of graves that I visit at the National Cemetery, too. It takes some effort, sure. But, people turn out by the tens of hundreds to visit Elvis' grave at Graceland, or JFK's grave at Arlington. Jim Tipton of Find-A-Grave fame, made a hobby of visiting celebrated individuals at their graves. Ancerstry.com had been linking to his site for years before finally buying the site. In Dallas, there are several that fall into two groups. Those on the Shady side of the street and those on the Sunny side of the street. I visit both because I do not judge anyone. True, I might express displeasure with their viewpoints, but as a person, to judge is not in my cupboard. So going to the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald, or Bonnie Parker or any other is a way to spend an afternoon in the summer. I have a personal connection through mom as to why I visit the grave of movie star, Greer Garson and while in that cemetery, I go see Mickey. To me growing up, he was Mr. Baseball. He still is.  

Yesterday, I was  checking up on the progress of the US Geological Surveys Ft. Worth Field Office's installation progress of radar measuring devices over waterways. I had taken pictures earlier in the summer of one of their new devices and had talked with their Public Information person in Austin. After looking at the pictures, the PI person ask if I would withhold  one image until such time as the Field Office had completed the installation. Naturally, I'm going to comply with her wishes.She explained to me what they were waiting on to complete the installation and in my original image, there was a bare wire that had not and could not be completed at the time the unit was placed. Once that wire is connected, then I am free to release the images as stock.

 That also means going back and retaking the image again. So, since there are two more units in the works, I'll wait until they are all complete and then go  out and shoot all three. There are no stock images of these new devices anywhere. Therefore, not only do I not want to reveal the locations at the request of the USGS office, I don't want the competition shooting them either! So, I go on a faux-shoot and just observe the progress. But, on the way back from any shoot, I try to fulfill my penitence and visit a few graves of forgotten and down-trodden souls.

 Yesterday, it was the grave of Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde fame. Clyde's grave was a bit closer to where I was  but you can't get into the cemetery because it is posted and locked. There are those that have done so but my images go untouched by the devil of soft wear that is called photo shop, I don't shoot images on posted property either.

If I am invited, that's one thing and I carry releases with me. Or, if on common property that can be shot from a street or public place, I shoot until the cows come home. While trying to respect the fact that graves are family related and sensitive, weighing those images in the general public interest in a good way is permitted. It's only when in the name of "news" that  you try to put someone down in bad light using the media, that colors the waters of photo journalism and related forms. That's why the tabloids have so much trouble.

Bonnie Parker was a girl that had a good heart. She lived in a time when the Wild had not totally been removed from the "Wild West" by time. It was the first modern era of the Wild West with Prohibition and real gangsters like Thomas "Lonnie" Licavoli, and Al Capone. It was a time when making a name for yourself was recorded with the old flash-type cameras, daily newspapers running headlines with one and two inch block type; the bigger the type, the bigger the story. And the villains made their fame with the clothes still on. My, how things have changed. And it's still as political today as it was then; even more today, I would say.

Since my last visit there, the care at Crown Hill has gone down. The mausoleum is showing its age on the outside. The grass had not been cut. The grounds were dry and cracked and Bonnie's grave was without grass. Still, the grave echoed a message through the inscription on the headstone that rang of an inter- character. Bonnie Parker was a good person at heart.

Bonnie Parker 1910-1934
"As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew, 
So this old world is made brighter by the lives of folks like you."

DART Does It Again -- 4 Months Ahead of Schedule.

Texans should be proud of their state government projects. Especially, the transportation sectors. The Dallas High 5 Project was about a 7-year project and finished a year early. The LBJ-I35 remake was another multi-year project and it is nearly finished and still running ahead of schedule. But, the still amazing project of connecting DFW International Airport to the DART Rail System, already the largest light rail system in the country, finished 4-months early with Inaugural Service direct to Terminal A at DFW International that began on August 18th, just two weeks ago today.

I rode the Blue line from LBJ-Central on TI Boulevard to the west end station in downtown Dallas where I got off to catch the Orange Line to DFW. I could have ridden the Orange line from LBJ-Central and not had to change trains, but I am a people watcher and I like the hustle-bustle of downtown, the sounds, the smells, the muted train whistle. Generally, a crowd of people like to talk, but the train stations are different. People are in their own little worlds with their ear buds in their ears.  It seems every one has them. Except me. I use a pair at home when the cat sleeps and I want to listen to a pod cast or catch an episode of Comedy Central. But when I am out shooting, the last thing I want is to have wires hanging from my ear canals.Besides, waiting for the train to arrive at LBJ-Central or waiting for the same train downtown for DFW is elementary. In fact, it gives me 10-15 minutes of people watching and breaks up the train ride.

After catching the Orange Line it was just another train ride until after the stop at the Beltline station. I had ridden Orange line that far once before after the Beltline station opened. Although it is located on DFW International Airport property, the connection route on to Terminal A is about a 4-mile run through scrub brush until it comes out at the connector to 114 Carpenter Freeway and Royal Lane briefly before turning south and heading on the east side of the traffic cross-overs  and the bridge taxiway from Terminal A to runways 18L and 18R. Runways 17L,17C and 17R are located east of the Dart tracks. There is also two cross-wind runways; one on the far east and one on the far west edges of the airport.  The connection switch to the future Cotton Belt Line is already in place and ready to go. Let's all hope the money can be found and construction begins earlier than expected finishing earlier than the completion date in the future, once the future construction begins. I ask the question if there was any shuttle service to Founder's Plaza where watching the big heavys come in on 18R is done but there is not one currently. That is the one bad part of service to DFW. Riding the Dart to DFW to watch the planes from Founder's Plaza cannot be done via Dart.

Pulling into the new Terminal A station was exciting. Finally, getting to DFW without the parking and doing it with no-stress travel, it was easy to see why anyone would ever want to drive to DFW again unless you were picking up a rental car, but you can have those delivered to your hotel, so that problem is also eliminated. It just makes sense to ride the DART! It's a no-brainer.

I was talking to a TSA

Walkway from DART train platform to Terminal A-14 entry

Inspector that was on the platform talking with people as he was doing his check-list of how the service was going on Inaugural Day. He stated to  me that inside Terminal A, "you can get a drink and a candy bar at the newsstands, but if you want real food, you must go through security". It makes sense. So those of you that want to ride the DART to DFW just to test it out, it's a fun trip and you can get a candy bar and a cold drink before you catch your ride back to where ever you got on board. The TSA Inspector was nice but still doing his job. 

Terminal A Platform at DFW International Airport.