One of these days

Okay, so this will never be like the film noir of Bergman but I did try.

#filmnoir #ingmarbergman #fadedmemories

The Butcher

I am trying to rebuild my life.  I was a failure.  I need change.  Forget about winning a lotto.  I will no longer rely on luck.  There is no such thing.  God Almighty is in control.  With God's help, I shall cast away my vanity.  I am at his mercy. But he is faithful.

#thebutcher #palenke #wetplate #providence #GodIsIncontrol #GodIsNotDead #HeIsNotsilent #HeisThere

Night Fwever Night Fwevuh

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man: no time to talk.  Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around since I was born.  And now it's all right, it's OK.  And you may look the other way.  We can try to understand the New York Times' effect on man.

Growing up in the 70s, there were three groups of guys around:

1. Guys who hated the Bee Gees
2. Guys who secretly liked the Bee Gees but pretended to hate them
3. Guys who got their ass kicked every day

I was all of the above.  I hated the Bee Gees because their voices were atrocious.  I secretly liked them because they wrote great songs.  And I was the guy who got kicked around for making fun of  big clumsy people.

I would have to say that I loved and hated the 70s.  It gave us Led Zep, David Bowie and the Eagles.  (Some of them gone.)  It also gave us Donna Summer,  Abba and Air Supply.  (My fave Karaoke selections.)  And who can't forget Rick Dees's Disco Duck?  And everybody then was Kung Fu fighting Fast as lighting Oh-hoh-hoh-hoah.

Is Jive Talkin' the best Bee Gees song ever?  We should probably ask John Travolta.  I heard that he came out of the closet lately.  I always suspected guys who wore pink disco jacket.  When seen under the street light, his jacket turned a shade that was so hot that it made country hicks like Ted Nugent grabbed an axe to chop it all apart.  Of course, I'm making this all up.  After all, who can remember the 70s?

#Lensbaby #streetphotography #urban #blurism #the70s #WhywehateandliketheBeeGees

They will be gone because of greed

Over two decades, Chino Hills was mostly cow space.  This farm is a stone's throw away from my house.  I used to bring my daughter here to see the cows.  She would piggy back on my shoulders and point at the cows.  Laughing out she would then say to them, "moow!"  I would cherish those moments.  Now the place is surrounded with housings and just across the street is a recreational park.  The farm is still there but it has decreased in size.  I fear that the cows will soon be gone.  The fields would be replaced with concrete and asphalt.  The native trees will all be cut down and replaced with subtropical plants.  They would make room for ugly new houses.  This is where the money would be.  This is all because of greed.

#greed #gentrification #surburbandream #vintagephoto #cowswanttohavefun

Cover for the Unsuspecting Protagonists

https://www.flickr.com/groups/2201606@N24/

This image was uploaded at Flickr over 2 years ago.  It received tepid response.  Although it has been viewed 4000 times, only 20 people favored it.  The other day, an Admin finally took notice and thought to use it for their group's cover.  Sometimes, it is just a matter of time.

Posted as Thoughts on Babes, Cakes and Candies in this blog and at Flickr.

#patience #whowantssomecandiesandcakes #candiesOrcakes

Why we love to photograph for ourselves

Big hair by Genetics.  Cool smile by Obamacare.

"There are plenty of reasons to document the world around us. We might need some evidence for an insurance claim, we might want a record of what our kids look like, right now...  But when all the day to day uses of photography are cleared off the table I think most people who take photographs for themselves do it for one overwhelming reason: social connection."  -  Kirk Tuck (Visual Science lab)

Selena Gomez and Kim Kardashian, eat your heart out.

#socialconnection #socialmedia #humannature #loverachel #canIhaveyourModelRelease

What world am I in?

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Sailors were fooling around.  Laughing at the wind.  They have been smoking what the locals call El Diablo.  Yes, the devil.  It felt like a scene from Monty Python.  Except that the locals were speaking pig kin English.  Or was that bastardized Espanol?  I can't remember what country I was in.  I asked the three dudes that night.  They all just looked away. Hipsters, I muttered.

#whatworldamIin #mannequins #urban #hipsters

Senora Pacificadora

It makes you run.  So I'll throw away your gun.

Rob: What's the story on your revolver?

Juzno:  Many moons ago, I wrote a song called "I'll Throw Away Your Gun."  I was afraid of guns.  The thought of owning one wad antithetical to my liberal worldview.  Having one at home was unsafe as I have my young daughter then.   Besides I thought that guns were for redneck hicks.  I would rather rely on my martial art training.  That was then.

Rob:  What changed?

Juzno:  Then I heard the song "I Shot the Sheriff."

#guns #NRA #revolver #HappinessIsAwarmGun #SmithAndWesson #SSR #686 #357Magnum #IllthrowAwayYourGun #GunsSaveLives #handgun #pistol #GoAheadMakeMyDay #IshotTheSheriff 

Begin

2015 was eventful.  And so we have begun a new year.  I hope 2016 would be better.  Cheers.

#HappyNewYear #BeginCup

Three Sisters in Manhattan

"Meet the New Charlie's Angels."

Macy is famous for their window displays especially during Christmas time.  This is not one of them.  Just strolling along Manhattan and I spotted this window.  I dig it. What was it that attracted me to it? I tried to analyze why it worked.  Then I see three elements.  A mannequin, a picture of a model, and a picture of an eye partly covered by the mannequin.  The windows add some textures to the entire image.  Then I thought, they could be the new Charlie's angels.  One is a cyborg, who specializes in martial art. The other is a fashion model who doesn't have many talking parts.  The third is the Mystery Woman.

This photo will not make it to the National Geographic.  But years from now, Lord willing, my future grandchildren and great grandchildren will ask me about it.  "Grandpapa, why did you take this photo?"  And I will answer, "Because I can."

#StreetPhotography #WindowDisplay #BecauseICan #TheNewCharliesAngels 

Main Street Flushing

"Are you ready for them Chinese donuts?"

They call it the Chinese Manhattan.  Downtown Flushing in Queens is where the action is.  It's crowded.  It's dirty.  It stinks.  But it makes for great street photography location.  In Mandarin, Flushing is known as "Falasheng", which is a type of walking stride when one has consumed too much alcohol.  No, just kidding.

#Queens #NewYork #Flushing #Chinatown #StreetPhotography #FlushingMainStreet #VintageLook #HollywoodLook 

Ceramic Painter and Random Quote

An artist at work at Delft.

"There is a connection between one’s life and one’s work — and yet, at the same time, there isn’t. Because, after all, art is artifice, which one tends to forget. If one could make out of one’s life one’s work, then the connection has been achieved. In a sense, I could say that I have painted my own life. I’ve painted my own life’s story in my own work — but only in a sense. I think very few people have a natural feeling for painting, and so, of course, they naturally think that the painting is an expression of the artist’s mood. But it rarely is. Very often he may be in greatest despair and be painting his happiest paintings."

- Francis Bacon

#randomquote #ceramicpainter #delft

Re-reading the Classics from Suite Judy Blue Eyes

A brief interview with a celebrity.

Juzno:  What books do you recommend to read in 2016?

Judy Collie:  First in their must-read list should be "Send in the Clowns: The Joy of Entertaining Your Dog".  It's been in the New York Times best seller for sometime now.

Juzno:  Wait.  Didn't you write that book?

Judy Collie:  Why, yes, darling.

Juzno:  What other books do you recommend?  Specifically ones you didn't write.

Judy Collie:  A lot of stuff out there are trash.  I suggest people go back to the Classics.

Juzno:  Like what?

Judy Collie:  Steinbeck's Cannery Row is a fun light one.  Ibsen's Doll House and other plays if you're into dark humor.  If you are up for something more challenging, you can try Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

Juzno:  Have you read them all?

Judy Collie:  Of course not.  I have my servants read them to me.

#ClassicBooksAreBetter #ReadingWillNotNecessarilyMakeYouSmart #

Making Sense of Urban Photography

When in Austin, do what the locals do.  Leave your bike after four drinks.

Rob:  Tell me how you took this picture.

Juzno:  For me it was important to make a picture within the framework of the environment. So it’s like there should be a natural transcendence of the urban experience of whatever it was. Not a lot of people have appreciated what I was doing. They just didn't get it.  A few of them might know what the concept is. What was I thinking when I took the picture?  What was my state of mind?  I might have been bored.  I might have thought I would have been better off intellectually engaging with the ghost of my long dead cat.  Or re-reading Dostoevsky.  Then there was that fleeting moment - a moment of inspiration that hit me.  Maybe it was the food I just ate, or the wine that was going to my head, or maybe it was the graffiti on the walls.  Whatever.  I thought that this could be something really important.  I realized in a way, within a rather limited equipment that I have at the moment, what kind of existential power one can have as a photographer when one can deliver something substantial using crappy equipment, which in this case was an iPhone on my hand.  At that precise moment, somehow I felt audacious.  You know what I mean?

Rob:  Not really.

#streetphotography #AustinTexas #soco #KeepAustinWeird #NightPhotography #ExistentialismNonesense #PhilosophicalNonesense #YouThinkThisIsArt #Dadaism