Read a book.

I'll say this more than once: Facebook is lovely and Facebook is grand. It helps me meet strangers and keep up with people that I didn't know that I missed.

It's nothing like a book.

The printed word is right up there with the electric light and indoor plumbing. It civilizes us and keeps us from misery.

A good book, put together with thought and care and, yes, a scattering of words that perhaps we don't know? That book ennobles us.

It asks us to care enough to push through the difficult parts.

It feeds our imaginations.

It gives us something clever to say.

It makes our brains a little bit bigger.

And, I hope, it does the same for our hearts.

Conversations on Facebook are mostly disposable. The same goes, doubly, for exchanges on Twitter. Most news published online is barely coherent -- just enough to get the point across. And if we're lucky, that Wikipedia article gets all its facts straight.

If the Internet is all you read, then almost certainly you're a little bit dim.

Please. For the sake of your mind. For the sake of your soul. For the sake of conversation, if for no other thing:

Read a book.

Sprawl of Blot

 

It spreads across the sky and I like its shape.

Gold Fish

 

Koi are carp. Goldfish are carp. But koi are not goldfish.

Baby Sunflower says "Shana Tova Umetukah"

 

May you have a good and sweet year.

Big City

 

Four days ago, a fire broke out at Danken Auto Parts. I took a lot of pictures. This is one.

During the main part of the crisis, the Police and Fire Departments closed Fourth Avenue in both directions, with perhaps fifty emergency vehicles in attendance. I asked a firefighter if this was typical. He said that because of the danger of collapse in the building, and because there were accelerants present, they weren't taking any chances.

(While "the FDNY said the fire was placed under control at 3:17pm," there was at least one fire truck, ladder extended, parked in front of the building until daybreak the following day.)

Oxygenation System

 

Another view of the Gowanus Canal: the temporary oxygenation system that will help reduce odors during sewage overflows.

Just an Airplane

 

Sometimes, an airplane is just an airplane.

Heavy Head

 

Mature sunflower head, more than half the seeds eaten. Gowanus.

Water In Two States

 

A water tower atop public housing in Gowanus, and the clouds behind it.

The tower appears five minutes into a short film I made.

Water towers help tall buildings in New York maintain water pressure.

This article explains it all.

Water exists in many states of matter.

For example, we know water as a solid, a liquid or a vapor.

Clouds aren't water vapor, however.

They're suspended droplets of water. Or sometimes, very small ice crystals.

It was very humid when I took this picture.

Not that you can see that.

Order Happening Now

 

What does he see?

I took this picture holding the camera at my hip as I walked by. I had no idea what I'd get. Nor what he saw.

Perfect and Good: Enemies

Dans ses écrits, un sàge Italien
Dit que le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.
(Voltaire)

I didn't focus the lens properly when I took this picture. I should have had a tripod. I should have posted it earlier in the day.

Oh, I try to do Better. All the time. But Good makes me happy, too.

Vine on a Wire

There's a metaphor here, if I had time to unpack it.

Instead, I have been working on a short play for The Shelter's Sunday writing-acting-directing workshops.

Why do people talk about unpacking metaphors? Are metaphors like suitcases?

I oughtn't to ask such silly questions.

Wakes

 

A picture of the Massachusetts coastline, taken from the window of a Cape Air Cessna 402, on July 30th, 2011.

The twin piston-engine Cessna 402 seats between six and ten people. Cape Air has the largest fleet (sixty four planes), which they operate in the Caribbean and the U.S. (Thanks, Wikipedia article!)

I haven't counted the number of boats in this picture.

Gowanus Cat

On a walk in Gowanus, just after sunset and with the sky still bright, I came upon a Caterpillar 980G front-end loader parked in the Ferrara Brothers lot.

There are a surprising number of videos of these particular beasts in operation, naturally shot by men; I guess we're still six-year-old boys at heart.

For example, this video of an owner and operator trying out his new 980G. I love the sinuous way the machine moves.

And then, there's this video of a Cat driver freestylin'.

That's right. I just linked to some cute Cat videos.

Enjoy.

Odd Flower

Is this decorative broccoli? A spray of mutant violets? A little help here, please.

After Irene

 

I suppose you could find a metaphor in this picture. But it also shows the sunset sky of the evening that after that hurricane passed.

I am posting this picture because it is pretty.

 

It's a lotus blossom.

This picture reminds me of the moment when I saw the thing.

Coney Dog

 

Coney sauce--that is, chili.
Grated cheese.
A stripe of mustard.
A few raw onions.
And a chocolate shake with syrup drizzled down the inside of the glass.

Heaven.

Photo Day 31: No Flower

 

I can't tell you exactly why I like this picture so much.

It's just leaves and sky, after all.

Photo Day 30: Texture and Color

 

COR-TEN steel is a specific kind of weathering steel, and has a combination of chromium, silicon, phosphorus, manganese, copper, nickle and sometimes vanadium added to the iron and carbon that make up most steel alloys. Over a period of wetting and drying cycles, the alloy develops a tough patina that both gives it a distinctive texture and color and protects it from further oxidation. US Steel developed Cor-Ten in the 1930's, primarily for use in railway coal wagons.

Flies have always been with us. I have no idea if they normally contain vanadium, nor do I know the variety of fly that appears in this picture, resting for a moment on sculpture in Frederik Meijer Gardens.