A City of 30,000 In The Heart of Dallas

I've known about this place for years and years. Image Creators know about places like this. Yet, while retaining the info in a back-room file in my brain, somehow, I just never got there. Until last week, that is to say. That place is Dallas' Oakland Cemetery.

Since childhood, I have played around and in old cemeteries. They do not frighten me like some. I've always respected them as a place of hallowed ground. Call that religious or call it what you will. To me, respecting the dead is still respect, which I find today is quickly becoming a lost art. Once in a while, I still see someone pull over to the side of the road when a funeral procession passes. Hats come off and all the old guard rules come into play. The younger generations today for the most part have not a clue what I am talking about. Yet, I respect their music, there body art, their piercings, their hair wear and I wonder why is it so lopsided?  There is an answer. That answer is well known. However, today, it has become a movement which started in the 1970s by a woman who's grandparents house I passed almost every day going to work for a number of years. Today, she runs a little magazine. Her most famous speech came in Philadelphia  when she proclaimed from the dais that "We Do Not Need Men" at the National Organization for Women (NOW) annual meeting.

Well, the tides are turning, sort of. Grand kids are talking to their grandparents once again about the wars that they served in as young me. And  yesterday, an article appeared in  a London newspaper that Japanese young men have proclaimed that they do not need women. Funny, because yesterday I had just posted that mom had always taught that everything in life is a trade off. And, she never payed much attention to people who rallied  women to action. Especially, the one behind the dais in Philly. She always told me that she was a traitor to her own sex. And, she was. She grew up around men who were bankers, lawyers, doctors, pharmacist, ball players, powerful men of the cloth and she fit in. I always found that funny because she was so ahead of her time in real time and as a woman. She could close a deal as well as any banker and they all knew it. They didn't tangle with her either. They respected her. So to her the Japanese young men make such a proclamation would have evoked from here that old,"see, I told you so" and I cracked out loud! And the movement is gaining steam. Paybacks can be a b***h.

Yet,  I am for equality in every arena. It's always been more about the person, not the event, nor the cause that ruffled my feathers. Or moms, for that matter. There are some pretty mean women out there today. A couple of years ago a woman wrote a book about power grabbers and those that want to hold the power. There is so much smoke still in the air from running their wheels against the pavement that the real cause that women fight for is obscured by the smoke generated from those bloats.

So while walking the 50 acres at Oakland, I stop to read headstones. These are the "Dead Sea Scrolls" of our past. One can get a meter reading of what it was like in a few short years here and there and when you put it all together, that cemetery is like a history book from the day it opened its first grave right up until it's last burial, which in this case is still going on today.

What struck me so is most of the headstones are 'average' there are a lot of the big 'ole monuments that I am accustom to seeing in places that have old and big and beautiful settings that are unusual, corporate founders and those that help powerful stations in life. Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburg,Louisville, Cincinnati, Toledo has two: Woodland and Forest, that are noted for their cemeteries. One Ohio cemetery has a stone pyramid. And I don't mean a little one. It's massive. I've been inside the private mausoleums of several industrial giants, too. Cars, automotive after markets, Attorneys of Corporations, Board of Directors, Sometimes, the list even surprises me.
Sometimes as guest. Sometimes by invitation.Every thing from 24-crypts to a single crypt in the floor and no wall crypts.
In the cemeteries greatness, they all held remain of Americans Movers and Shakers and a whole lot of  us common folk. These places are headlined in men's names and the women are beside their men, as the should. Cemeteries also practiced  this in burials, the old tradition of "as they stood in marriage". That meaning that there is a proper side for the woman to be buried next to her husband.  As They Stand In Marriage Forget about all the other garbage on the web. This is this most accurate explanation out there.

So, Oakland is overgrown. It is old. There are not any good roads in there. However, if you want to see large old mausoleums like those of industry giants, or names of Dallas' City streets on headstones that actually were people before they were streets, or old architectural statuary that is nearly as old as the cemetery itself, with lichenometry, the age can be determined. Lichens live on air and only attach to trees, stone, or rock formations while it grows.

My first trip was interesting for the history. It was a walk back in time. It forms a closer connection to the people and ways of the past that enable one to grow as they live now and into the future. I will be going back again.

The Capital Element of Architecture

Lichens grow on air, they only attach to a place where they can get that air.

I love the art work of statuary.

Cute, If You Don't Have To Clean Up The Litter.

I love creative people. I love creative things. In fact, it's kind of like my catalytic converter. But, as mom taught me many,many, years ago. Everything in life is a trade-off! You make the mess, you clean it up. That's not being creative...it's being responsible. But, in today's world, that word got left in the parking lot on the ground where someone else has to clean it up--generally, over time by mother nature herself.

Several months ago, I started a project that focuses on  issues like this. It started around Earth Day a couple of years ago and got put on the back burner. Kinda. Sorta. May be so. But, it didn't take much time to have the project surface again and I went tearing through the deep plastic drawer where I jot down ideals.( I'm a back of the envelope kind of guy with a more modern approach. Jotting down on the back of an envelope envelope  wasn't enough room, so I pulled the trusty pair of scissors out of the pencil holder and cut along the sides and did a reverse fold to the envelope. Voila! now, I have two complete #10-size envelopes of white space. Perfect! You run out of space, just flip it over and start page two. Problem solved. Sorta. Kinda. May be.)

New signs like this are showing up at more and more weddings on the Rock.

This sign also had a partner with just a green arrow pointing-Two for the price of one! How thoughtful if you are not the one picking them up afterwards.

This lady made my day. Creative Mind at the max with good taste! Now that's a deal at half the price and I bet she even picks up afterwards, too. I like that most of all, especially when it relates to the project that I am working on currently.

The project has now grown and gotten much bigger than I had ever anticipated. In fact, some of it has become environmental posters that are getting a lot of action of late. One of the reasons why the project has grown is because of the material. The second reason is that I do not delete any images. Period. I keep the ones that my be out of focus a bit, a lot, or totally abstract. That's the creative side to me. I can use  anyone of the "Rule of Thirds" nine blocks to make product, clip art, or what ever else can be fitted into the new software that is amazing. Sure, it takes storage but the cloud is cheap. At the moment anyway.

So, with winter coming on (like today. It's cold. I had to turn on the heat for the first time this season yesterday. I was hoping to get another 10 days out of the month. It's a game TXU and I play each month. And for the record, on the energy dashboard, I'm on the left side of the see-saw teeter-totter. That's the side that is  most efficient of like residencies. I'm no where near the pivot point, much less on the right hand side.  Any who, what better time to start pulling out the old notes and organizing into some framework for the project. So, with the cardio plumber and the cardio electrician out of the way for another six to eight months, I won't be sitting behind the laptop all that much, but should we get lucky and have some really nice days, I'll still be able to get my cardio walks in. My test numbers were so good this visit, the doc said that he will cut back on a couple of my meds. I'm crossing my fingers.

Just so I'm not rambling all over the page here, here is some shots to bring home the winning run! Speaking of baseball... I met a woman about my age who has decorated her yard with Christmas ornaments hanging from her trees on string.  It's the most creative job that I've seen yet. She," played baseball in high school and college and still have a pretty good arm," she said. Who needs a Co2 charge to shoot a string up over tree branches with an arm like that! Obviously, she doesn't. She said they guys in the neighborhood affectionately call her, "the ball lady". She has been decorating for the past 18 years like this.

Birds Picnic At The Lake, Too!

These images come about more about knowing where to find them and when they like to eat more than anything else. Like us, they are also creatures of habit.

Don't forget to click on the image to open up the view 

Lunch Is Served.

The dark at the left is a fork in a tree. I shot between the forks. If they don't see you moving around, they are more likely to stay put and let you shoot more. There are a couple of squirrels below that has its attention at the moment.

More Imagery

A little Yellow

A little Red

Equals a splash of orange for a blue sail boat!

More Color Shots

The past two days have been absolutely delightful. The comfort index when you add the humidity and the dew point together and the number is below 115, then you are in absolute delight territory. Yesterday, the total was 102. I went out yesterday because I thought that I had heard the weather service say rain today, but after checking again, the next two days will be good before the killing wind and cold rain take down a lot of the leaves this weekend.

So, probably, if I feel well enough to get out before my trip to the vampire on Thursday so that the cardio plumber can have his lab reports on time and the cardio electrician can check my battery while there, I just might go looking for some holiday decorations, too. The guys who hang lights have been working for a month or more already in the Park Cities and North Dallas. Personally, I'm happy with TXU telling me that I am 56% more economical than the average home of like characteristics. I have long known that Edison bills are a scam anyway. I carefully watch my useage and compete with TXU for prize money at the end of the month. The prize, a lower electric bill and I keep the money!!  It comes to mind that my billing cycle this December is for 34 days. Five days longer than the past two months. Why on earth do the electric utilities extend their billing cycle in the one month when people with families are trying to live, put food on the table and buy their kids Christmas gifts? It makes no logical sense at all. You cannot even justify that regardless of how you try. It's just plain greed and arrogance. The Public Utilities Commission will generally site with the utility in a case like that.

I recall in the primary elections someone asking me how I would vote this year. Frankly, I let them know that if you are an incumbent, you would not be getting my vote. Then, in early voting, I'm coming out of the polling place and a young candidate walks up to me right at the polling limit that is designed for separation of candidates and voters going into the polling place and says, "Hi, wanna take a picture with me?" I said, "NO". The young candidate then said, "Why not?"  I replied, "Because I don't like you." It must have been the first time that the guy ever got a direct answer to anything because it was obvious that my answer had shook him to the core. Quickly, he regained some equalizing sense long enough to put his foot in his mouth more solid by saying to me, "Don't you like my brown skin?" For him to go there with me was not only a validation of why I didn't like him, but a clear view of where his arrogance and center of perception was focused for me to not like him in the first place. Long ago, my parents taught me that when you make a little incision on the skin, we all look alike inside and the only thing that separates us generally, is what we do with our brains and how we treat our fellow humans and animals. It is really a simple thing to master. Hate is an evil tool and far to many people have used that tool in the past and are using that same tool today.

So, some of you are wondering how I went from comfort zone readings to utility scams to a young political candidate who immediately sees people by race rather than as human beings. It really is not that far off base. Weather comes and goes. It changes when seasons change because of the sun's angle on our planet and holidays are when the scam artist come out. The elections come spring and fall for the most part if some special election does not gets slid into the works along the way. But, all-in-all, we are like an old 8-track that just keeps playing over and over. I've come to realize that there is probably a few more dimensions in the universe than the know about and that a parallel universe is not so far fetched when you stop to really examine nature close up. Photography does that in a way. It allows you to see things, but it also allows you to see things differently in a different light (pardon the pun).

Thinking as I walk sometimes, I wonder how I got so old so fast. It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting in a senior history class in high school when the news started coming in over the PA system in the class rooms without comment about the JFK's death. That was 53 years ago last week.

 I  also remember Neville, the most exciting college professor that I ever had. He had made a career out of doing translations on the works of Shelley. When he went back to his London flat during the summers, he would write to me. He had the most amazing cards that he used. They were copies of actual paintings that hung in his families country estates. I had a collect of them that I cherished. They were lost to a divorce. But, most of all, they taught me, like my parents, about people and that made a very successful life for me. So in my mind when I am out creating imagery, there will be more than one vision going on in my head. Neville's cards, mom and dad, a more youthful me and then I spot an image that for me, will bring all those things together. There has actually been a more subtle change in my work this past year and overall, I am very happy with what has been produced.

Those who follow my work from a artist viewpoint notice. What more can I ever wish for than for someone to admire my imagery and actually "get it". Now, that is a WOW factor. Here are a few more WOW factors from yesterday and the day before.

Don't forget to click on the image to enlarge all three.

What must he be thinking?

Reminds me of a sandy beach along the Grand Strand.

Iraj is a photographer from Houston. I could not resist. We all had a good laugh later.

 There will be more posted yet, today.

Color Peaking Has Started

The colors in North Texas are beginning to peak, finally.

This guy is one of the old bird. He has a large metal band  on, but it's not 92 that comes year after year. This guy has a 4 but could not see the second number.

Serendipitous Finds in Wing Heaven

Many years ago, I met a man who owned an aircraft parts business. I was like a kid in a candy store when I got to walk through the facility. Anything aircraft is just one of those things that sends my nervous system into a WOW mode. Watching balloon's  envelopes being cold inflated does the same thing and when they are cold inflated enough to switch to the hot air being pumped into the envelope from the burners so that they can then stand up-right is where my spine shivering stops and I have to go to work taking pictures.

Old planes, old trains still have that WOW factor for me. While growing up, my dad knew a lot of WOW factor guys and we would go out along a country road or along the fence row of a field where crop duster pilots made there bi-wing planes do amazing things. Talk about guys that had ice running in their blood. When it came to fear and the crop dusters that I grew up watching, those guys were icy  boys.

This past weekend, trying to find the best area where planes going into Love Field put down their landing gears has been a challenge for sometime. Generally, there is about one area on the final where this happens. For Love, it's after they start their turn into their final. I'm getting close, but I'm not totally there yet to get the full sequence of a 737 from door opening to the wing strut gears beginning their fold-down. Of course, most of the 737s don't have doors covering those wheels, but the arms just comedown and lock. The front nose wheel is a double door. Never-the-less, I'm driving to the last place where I got close to getting the image that I need but I went a couple of streets over from where I was before. I pulled over and got my camera out of the bag and was changing lens when I glanced up to see that I wasn't in any one's way when that WOW factor kicked in and chills hit my neck nerve causing me to shiver with excitement. I had accidentally happened onto one of those out-of-the-way places that operate one of  those amazing businesses. After that find, I packed away the camera and headed for the home and barn as a happy camper! My day had been made complete. This is what I found.

Wing Heaven

I bet they know where to get a pair of wings! But the old crop duster that I grew up watching was also yellow.