I'm Not Sure I Know Where This Balloon Lands

There are so many things up in the air right now. School Openings, Corona Virus, Economy, Health Care, and Government Handouts that found the lawmakers leaving Washington with plenty on the table while they take their August leave. I made a T-shirt that reads: My hobby is watching Congress. There are  little eyes in some letters. It really does seem that congress does take advantage of the American people by not really doing their job.

Doing as much research as I can while the summer heat and no car has me pretty much landlocked in the house while the Corona has its way with the world. There is some good to that.  I have discovered why my Walgreens runs out of meds more often and seems to have some problems with certain merchandise that never was a problem before.

When I started ordering on line it was between me and my retail store. When I switched to  online ordering with free shipping, I found out that I was talking to Boots Alliance. Boots Alliance is the Holding Company. Now, by reason of common sense, it must be another pharmacy in the picture some where. Well, as it would end up, yes, there is one.

Boots is the largest pharmacy in Great Britian. To make a long story shorter, The leverage buyout private equity firm known as KKR or Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts, love to acquire businesses and toss the enormous debt onto one of the companies. In this case, it was Boots. Such is the case with Boots when KKR structured the deal between Boots and Walgreens with Rite Aid in the mix. Rite Aid bought out all the Lane Drugs in the Great Lakes.  I don't even want to know any more about how Rite Aid got there but it was through a buyout somewhere else. Not to mention the Eckerds (a subsidiary of J.C. Penny's ) buy out of their 1269 stores in Florida, Louisiana and Texas by CVS. Eckerds was the 4th largest pharmacy in the US at the time of the deal which also included Eckerds 1.3 Billion mail order business. The original company was worth $4.3Billion.

Yes, Rite Aid worked out a deal with Walgreens as a alternative to a merger by allowing Walgreens to purchase their 1900 stores except 8 states for a cool $4.4 billion that included 3 distribution centers.

Now, enter Amazon and Albertsons. Because of a government break up, Amazon bought on-line Pill Pak giving Rite Aid to grow its left over pickings it still owns. Albertsons is working with Amazon.com in the deal, it seems. This is, of course, old new...very old news, like two years ago.

What is even more surprising is that Blackstone and Carlyle and Bain Capital and Silver Lake Partners are all like KKR now. I can remember when KKR took Owens-Illinois, the glass maker, private and wrecked the company that was Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. A lot of the employees have less to live on today as a result. But, as they say in mid-town New York, "You'll have that from time-to-time".  Yes, you will, I guess. Yes, you will.

Some still call this American capitalization. I call it pure greed and greed never wins in the end.

What Kids Really Think T-Shirt
by sam6372

Where Its Gonna Land Is Still Up In The Air!!!

Men's Large T-shirt
by sam6372

♫♫ There Is A Song In My Head ♫♫

♪♥Charlie Puth♥♪ might be a Jersey boy, but I like his music. If I could download this song I have in my head, I'd give his record company the first chance to produce it for the ever hot music industry. My music interest goes from classical to Jazz to R&B to Hip Hop to Operatic to Classical and Classical pipe organ, of note, Widor's Tocatta, from the 5th Symphony, to English Choral. I will listen to all forms of music, period. I even like some Country!!

One of the most interesting that I cherish to this day is when Paul Winters of the Paul Winters' Consort took a trip to the Grand Canyon and boated down the Colorado River creating one of the most interesting recordings that I have ever heard. They used natural sound echo's of the canyon, bird's

An A-typical photographer

with nice cameras,though.

chirps, as Paul Winters' saxophone comes in with his typical, but not all typical, sounds with mixed sounds added on another track. There is an African drum in one piece that the beat still echos in my head some 25 years later. There is a solo with a native American as he sings in his native language and finally, a song mix in improvisational form with the great organ in St. John the Divine in New York City. It is truly, an amazing accomplishment and I can only hope that ♪♥Charlie Puth♥♪ will produce something like these two examples in his lifetime. It must be that my brain is writing a symphony is the only reason I can think of why I can't download that song at this point.

To this day, I still not only think Out of Africa was a great movie, but the song and the photographic scenes of a bi-plane flying over the terrain made my top-of-the list. The fact that music and photography work together or apart in my world is just something I like to say, I have two pocket on these pants!

320

My New Normal Contains More of the Old Than Expected.

My daily life is pretty much all electronically and has been that way for more than a decade. Yet, there were a few things that lingered. Those things that did were pretty much because I was a bit ahead of those in services that I used, and they did not, and had not, updated to the electronic age.

At 14, I had my first checking account. It was because I had a rather large paper route that covered a full city of 1500. My thinking was that if you were going to get a part-time job, you might as well go for the one that paid the most money. Never thinking that it would follow me into adulthood and into the age of "golden years" as some would still think of "old" people not being active. It came to mind this week as I watched the funeral coach carrying the remains to the late Congressman, John Lewis travel through the streets of Washington from the Joint Base Andrews. I watched the tour make several key stops, like the Supreme Court, Martin Luther King's monument, The Black Lives Matter memorial and finally to the East side of the U.S. Capital.

Watching the photographers running to get that perfect shot; stand on a ladder leaning against a building so wires did not get into the shot. And also give a better angle for the image. It's only been two years since I stopped doing Live News Feeds. Doing those feeds had nothing to do with my health, rather they just became something that took up more time out of the day. Editor's photo calls had you basically stop doing what you were doing and go get that shot at the House of Blues Bartender's Competition or such things. In short, my first awareness of AP or UPI news hounds first hand, came my freshman year in college when the oldest university west of the Appalachian Mountains was the party school that made all the Look Magazines, and others of the time, cover pages regularly. My one room mate's father was the publisher of a towns newspaper.There was a sit-in at the town's square at college and all those M2 flashbulbs going off shook my roommate to the core. He just knew that when those photos hit the wire, his father would see him in the middle of the sit-in. He was right. His father was rather angry with him.

Years later, I sat in his father's office as I passed through the town and talked to his dad for a while. I ask him if he remembered that picture and his quick answer was," you bet I do." Later, I meet several other AP reporters and photographers that remained dear to me until they passed. The other ones, which taught me so much, was one of the several writers of the Nancy Drew Mysteries. Milly and I talked almost daily for a number of years. She was the city desk editor of a major newspaper in the Great Lakes area. There were a lot of staff reporters and those with specialty columns as their by-lines. They have all since retired and I only see one in the headlines from time- to- time. The point is, I do miss the Live News Feeds that were shot over the years, but I don't miss that deadline stuff.

Today I ended writing checks. The first time in 60 years. Each month writing one check and then paying all my other bills electronically, did kind of irk me. But, it did bring a part of my old normal into play and how it had been over those years. It made me think of 'ole Dodrill, the AP reporter and photographer friend. Not, having to re-order checks again is an old normal routine that is gone. Even my prescriptions come by DHL now, rather than me going over to Walgreen's to pick them up. My groceries now come to my door. The old normal is still a part of my new normal, just in a different way. Now, when I think of, or see photographers chasing political, Hollywood, sports figures, I will think, "I did that once."

Even this shot is a thing of the past. It was traveling to Houston where the hashtag has

a place on a downtown building on the Gulf. It was pure luck to have been at the same place the driver stopped to eat lunch. That's why I wanted the Maggie 1 in the shot. That's proof it was in Dallas.

I've always embraced change, never being afraid of it. Change makes progress overall and that's my way of thinking on being progressive. I'd rather be here than to fear change.

Change does seem to come more frequently today. It also seems that there isn't the attention paid to detail today than in the old normal. Which, in this case, beings itself into my new normal. Tell me it isn't so!

Stock Photography Is Me Happy

A long time ago I learned that the first rule of photography is: shoot what you like! It is the key to everything. So when I decided that urban photography was what made me happiest, that first rule came to mind every time I went out (which lately isn't that much). Never-the-less, it still applies to the few times that I have been able to get out.

Before my hospital stays took me into downtime, there really wasn't enough time in a day to go out and shoot, then edit, then submit to agencies. Now, being home bound for the last month, I have been going through my archives of images that I just never got around to submitting. Having said that, my total on line images has begun to show up in my workday.

The old adage that one should take time to stop and smell the roses, became for me, take time to see what you have been shooting. The stock business money isn't even a factor. I do log every sale to see the images that are making their way out into the business world, homes, offices, and board rooms. The places were I have seen my images is amazing to me. Having a picture sell is what brings me joy--not the money that it generates. It's a numbers game, for sure, but you can't focus on that. Your focus has to be on the image that your eye caught or something so unusual that it makes you gasp. That's why I relied on my shoot wheel so much over the years. If you don't plan to follow up on project, you miss the next one entirely. Things change!

Having said that, I still shoot a lot of images that give me direction for things in the future. Those images are not worth deleting because they become to you much like the greens book do for the pro golfers that they keep in their hind pocket. Notice that they look at it before ever hole. It's a guide for them as those shots that will never get published are for a photographer. Sure, it takes up space but it's like a travel journal or notes that you keep about customer likes etc.,etc. It becomes your journal of what makes a good shot in almost every situation.

Even something as simple as a bike sale can lead to something else within the sale or the location.

The Art Linkletter House Party Is Etched in Memory

"Arthur Gordon really knows how to make his reader fall in love with life . . . without being preachy, pompous or pedantic. His word pictures are fresh and sparkling; his personalized stories are heart-touching; his sudden shafts or poignant observation are illuminating. I read it with such a sensation of relief and happiness that I cannot recall anything in recent days to make me feel so good all over."

This quote shocked me more than anything because it came from none other than the iconic author of "Kids Say The Darndest Things."  Mr. Art Linkletter wrote this in time before Fleming H. Revell Company published in 1974, Author Gordon's book, "A Touch of Wonder ".  The quote appears on the back cover.

I have always loved life. Gordon's book came to me from a dear friend years ago. Gordon said, " A Book to Help People Stay in Love with Life. " It's one of those books were you can read chapter 6 first if you choose and read the other chapters at your own choosing. Yet, the entire book has organization to it that fits like a  jigsaw puzzle. In the past.

I have a few post about this book. It never gets old and finding new though in its pages seem to always fit the time period that is current.

No refreshments being served at this counter this season!

Since 1991, this book has been at the ready at my desk. It has become tattered and some pages have dog ears. The margins are marked and the chapter headings have  notes to myself. It won't be the last time that I pull it down from it's handy spot. After all these years, finding Art Linkletter's quote on the back page was indeed a shocker for me. I just never imagined that  I would  discover that Art Linkletter and I have such like thoughts about life.

Now Officially A Walker, It's Time For Some Gum Shoe Research

When the tow company carried my car off to that place where 'total loss' cars go, I became an official walker---walking to the bus stop to get to the train station. Sometimes, I have to transfer to another bus if I am away from the core of the city.

If the truth be known, I have wanted to walk the downtown streets with my cameras for sometime. Once in a while I would find a parking spot for a quick shot here and there but to walk the triangle and get some of the choice relics, you have to be on foot. Having said that, with all the building and expansions down town, the changes have been enormous. Some things have changed so much that the difference between the old and the new is now "the norm" with no signs of the old.

A new five acre park in Deep Ellum, on the historic streets that are known by the railroad bridge they go under at downtown's Dealey Plaza. Going the other direction they spread out and become Commerce, Main and Elm, but on the east end of downtown that borders on Deep Ellum (TX) It has been given the go ahead green light for construction. Only yards from Uber's new digs where the vertiport plans are unfolding. For those that are not sure what a vertiport might be, it's a kind of airport but limited to only aircraft that takes off vertically, like a helicopter (car) maybe. The Kay Bailey Hutichson Convention has an amazing vertiport on its core roof top.

Deep Ellum has undergone a modernization. The music venue is now sporting more places to eat and drink in addition to more shops to browse and it's first high rise residents tower.  All these spots are easy to get to by train.with Deep Ellum's two train stations.

Nearly 20 years ago, I spent 6-months in Deep Ellum doing a project for a Fortune 500 company. On any given Monday morning I could tell you exactly where a broken beer bottle lay. Meeting the President of the Deep Ellum Association and later, the Board of the Deep Ellum Foundation, was an honor in such a rich history of music that made Deep Ellum what it was as a music venue. Blind Lemon; the former Coco-Cola Dallas Offices has historic markers that can be found in Deep Ellum. Rudolph's Meat Market has been on Elm since 1895 and has been selling true butcher shop quality for nearly 123 years.

So, there is plenty of room for more gum shoe research. Who knows what I will find this go around.

A mural painted in Deep Ellum. Paint has always been a thing in Deep Ellum as the old tunnels were painted every year by artist and then there was the old school bus.

In Deep Ellum, there is a sign that reminds visitors that Deep Ellum was an unincorporated city at one point on the east end of downtown Dallas.

DFW's Southwest Quadrant Line-up and Wait Area is Once Again Clean of AA Planes.

When American Airlines first began storing planes at DFW, one area that could be seen from a live cam was the Southwest area of the line-up and wait area. Today, there were none stored in the area. As most of you know, the departing time is the moment your plane is pushed back for the gate. Forget the fact that it will talk 5-10 minutes to taxi from Terminal D (International Terminal) to the line-up and wait area. Then, you could be as much as 14 in line to take off. In the airport's defense, that time can vary depending on the type of plane that will be talking off. You don't line up a regional jet behind a 777 or a 787 and expect the time to be only a couple of minutes. The wake turbulence from the larger planes have separation times tagged to them. And you better hope that if a A380 is in the mix, that there is an open runway parallel to the west side runways. Construction is underway for new taxiways and lighting and a the new peripheral taxiways for both the 17's on the east side.The 18's  are on the west side where Founders Plaza is located.           

With that said, it's good to see more planes arriving and departing at the International Terminal again.

Top image: Picture being inside a bubble. Well, with these, you can be. Just be careful not to go down a hill.!!!

Bottom image: Is shimmers of a new pool that was late in opening last year due to construction delays and now the Covid-19 has shortened this season.