a circuitous Music Monday by way of another So Cal post

magnolia pods

beautiful horsetail (an ancient plant, reproduces by spores like ferns do) hedges landscaped into a rock-and-water garden in front of a (multi) million-dollar ocean-front home

jade hedges; rosemary hedges; bougainvillea spilling out over garages and porches and clay-tile roofs; hummingbirds; shore birds; harbor seals; cormorants and the white streaks of their excrement all over the rocky cliffs on the beaches in La Jolla; the black-crowned night heron fishing off of the ropes at the Maritime Museum; the beautiful black-and-white spotted feather with a bright-orange rachis that I brought home with me but still haven’t identified (anybody?)

ship’s ropes

I got all fancy-schmancy and used the digital switch-over function for b & w, something to which I’ve always been quite resistant. With my old Retina camera, b & w was de rigeur, but with digital, it always feels like cheating. What is wrong with me? Am I so pretentious that only 35mm b & w photography is good enough? Yeesh.

dummies in the ship museum (who still uses these guys? CREEPY and his hand looks bloodied!)

same dragon, different angle:

You know I’ve said I think boy pee has a stronger odor than girl pee, due to the testosterone and all. That was before I visited one of the San Diego airport’s women’s bathrooms at 9 pm on a Saturday and one of the Atlanta airport’s women’s bathrooms at 6 am on a Sunday. These loos smelled very strongly of pee, BOY pee. YIKES!!! Maybe our hormones are equal to and/or greater than theirs? (I’m baiting you, you know).

if this were a b & w photo, you might be confused as to who should use this john

They may talk big in the South about manners and all, but let me tell you, they don’t seem to know how to clean a bathroom.

Today’s song has nothing to do with So Cal except that our pal George sort of half-played it for us and we sort of half-sang along (as if we could it at all because the Feelies don’t really sing their lyrics, they sort of mumble them)

In Coronado, an uber-white, wealthy (or just wanna-be wealthy, for the clueless tourists?), tacky, less-cultured-than-La Jolla (if that’s even possible), gazillions-of-SUVs type community, there are a few places on the sidewalks and at the curbs where quarters are glued to the pavement, I kid you not.

First, it’s illegal (not to mention un-American) to deface American coins. How is it that in one of the most Republican counties in the US, this is allowed?

Second, it’s cruel. What, Coronado, you have so much money, you sit around on your xeriscaped patios watching the lowly plebians try to pick up quarters all day? What about the little barefoot ragamuffin getting run over in the street as he tries to pick up that coin he needs to buy a can of beans for his family’s supper? Have you no mercy?

So, Coronado Beach, keep your money glued to the sidewalks. We don’t need your stinkin’ quarters.

Look what this little New England street urchin found, not glued to the sidewalk:

Look what I saw when I came home:

I know this is not a great photo, but at least I didn’t make it b & w, right? I never saw a sunset like this in So Cal. Chalk one up for New England!

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dead flowers, not?

I have wanted to do a post about Dead Flowers‘ songs FOREVER. As I sat to do it tonight, it became so boring. I’ve thought about this topic and these songs for over a year and here I am, bored.

That’s the killer. The no voice. It’s the killer of Improv and it’s the killer of poetry. Hell, let’s call it the Killer of Love while we’re at it. No. No. No. Don’t do it. Don’t write the line. Don’t wake in the middle of the night with that image, that fish that eats your side, that river that is dammed up with golden leaves, ice forming at the edges.

But I think I’m going with it anyway, because, let’s face it, this is not a poem. This is not Improv. This is not lovemaking and in those cases, I’d find the yes, I would do it. I would grab my pen by the throat and stab the paper. Only this blog is my paper right now. These songs are in my head and they are on youtube and it’s all pretty foolish, what with everything getting pulled eventually due to copyright clauses. See how the voices come?

I’ll give you one okay? If you are paying attention, why not come back over here with at least one other of the 4 I had in mind. Let’s compare notes.

I love this song so much. They stole everything anyway, but this has their unique twist on it. The golden age of the Stones. I love singing harmony right alongside when I’m driving in my car with it at

TURN IT UP REAL LOUD volume

back when Mick was pretty. Man did I love it when Mick was pretty.

See how I’ve even turned any day of the week into Music Monday? That’s a lot of yessing.

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Thankful Thursday–the night time is not the right time to elaborate on happy things

I thought I would skip Thankful Thursday today due to the late hour. It’s after 11pm and I’m beat.

However, I have to print out the week’s NY Times crosswords, so I may as well get down to it.

Grateful that someone picked up my kid this morning to take her to school, so I didn’t have to drive at 8:15.

Grateful for the bright orange poppy that opened in the front perennial bed this morning. I took a bunch of photos of the flowers in my garden this morning, due to the fact of not having to drive my kid to school, walking around like a crazy person in my nightgown with a yellow zippered sweatshirt over top. I don’t think I’m crazy and I don’t think I look crazy, but I know what most people think when someone walks around in broad daylight in pajamas. I grew up in a household where pajamas were an acceptable form of day wear, and I’ve never seen fit to break the pattern.

Grateful for crossword puzzles.

Crossword puzzles put me to sleep. They have for years. They are my nightcap. The only stress they cause is when I am without one for long. I can almost practice complete detachment from crossword puzzles aside from the actual ironic fact that I need to have one in my possession on any given night of the week. Peace, man, peace. Crossword puzzles are like peace in my soul.

I could post a jpeg of a crossword puzzle from google images right here, but I’m not gonna. Or a jpeg of a carpool sign. Don’t think I didn’t look, because I did.

Another thing I love?  Carpools and carpooling. Like crazy, like crazy with a yellow hooded-sweatshirt that zips up the front.

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