The Day the Party Died

Yesterday John Kasich tendered his withdrawal from the Republican Presidential Nomination race. This followed Ted Cruz’s withdrawal on Tuesday in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the Indiana primaries. I think the best was to sum up the aftermath of the GOP debacle this year is pictorially, although one particular verse to Don McLean’s classic, American Pie, also springs to mind, albeit with one word changed…

“Oh, and there we were all in one place

A generation lost in space

With no time left to start again

So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick

Jack Flash sat on a candlestick

‘Cause fire is the devil’s only friend

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage

My hands were clenched in fists of rage

No angel born in Hell

Could break that Satan’s spell

And as the flames climbed high into the night

To light the sacrificial rite

I saw Satan laughing with delight

The day the Party died.”

~Richard

May 5, 2016 1

Haiku: May the Fourth

~ Haiku: May the 4th ~

Distant galaxy

Where villains and lovers fight

Here, strong the Force is.

160504_GalaxyM81 — Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

~Richard

… someone had to do it 🙂

May 4, 2016 3

Poppy

~ Poppy ~

Poppy is no Angel,

for every 20 minutes*

a Lover succumbs

to her overpowering charms.

Rendered Breathless forever

as they dream of other places;

some chose an Escape from reality,

while for others it was a mistake.

Either way, Finality.

For them, and seventy others

the new Dawn tomorrow

will rise unseen.

Other Eyes will be moist

as they look on and ask, Why?

Why did Poppy do this to my child,

my lover, my friend?

Why did She lead them so far

down the road to Despair

and what did she offer

that Ensnared them so?

*source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6450a3.htm

~Richard

May 3, 2016 1

52 Week Challenge: Week 18

WEEK 18: Artistic: Texture – The artistic inspiration this week is texture. You should almost be able to feel the image.

When you look around you, there are just so many textures to choose from, so many in fact that it becomes difficult to decide what to do. For this assignment I was going to use a metallic texture but then switched to a stone texture instead. This is from a wall tile at my place of work.

160502_Texture

The rough lines remind me of the grooves on a record for some reason. I wonder what sound it would make if it could play?

~Richard

May 2, 2016 0

Grace

The Sunday Sermon – well not really. Traditionally, today is the day of the big Sunday Dinner as we used to call it when I was child. Usually around 2pm or so (after the pub closed), it was an opportunity for the family to get together once a week around the dinner table and eat an unnecessarily large feast – which we all enjoyed thoroughly.

I do not come from a religious family, but having moved to Pennsylvania I am now surrounded by those so afflicted and who insist on “saying grace” before getting down to the hard work of scoffing every single meal and, these days, throwing away a significant amount of uneaten food afterwards.

So, as I am having one of my “down” days, brought on by the rainfall, I offer my perspective. I am not expecting this to be popular.

~ Grace ~

Thank you, O unseen one for showing us Favor

Providing your bounty as something to Savour

As we feast on this Meal we praise our good Luck

That you care for US greatly as you don’t give a Fuck…

For those Others abroad in places far Flung

That are ruled by the Heathen and governed by Gun

But though many there Praise you, it seems not Enough

To calm Your huge ego so I guess that it’s Tough

For millions of Believers have only a Diet

Of promise of Heaven and so dare not to Riot

Against the Controls that are put into Place

To continue this Construct that plagues Human Race

So thanks once again, God, for sharing your Grace

And I’ll try not to Think of a starving child’s Face

Or ponder or question your Omnipotence

As I go through this daily Rite of pretence.

~Richard

May 1, 2016 9

Rinse, lather, repeat…

It’s 90 days since I wrote this post on the political flavor of the the US presidential election and I have to admit I failed in my aim and have become angry and demoralized. I will even add bewildered to that collection of emotions. The whole political process now appears to be some type of sordid game show, except that the fate of a nation and its standing in the world is in jeopardy.

All I can say at this juncture is that hate solves nothing…

~Richard

April 30, 2016 0

Urban Landscape Redux

Yesterdays’ post as part of the 52 week challenge also produced a second shot (if you’ll pardon the pun) as I was walking back down the stairs from the 6th floor.

Friday is meant to be my philosophy day, and it certainly made me think and get a different perspective on this quiet(ish) county town. I thought it was a bit too negative for my weekly challenge shot, but after a day I thought what the heck…

~Richard

April 29, 2016 1

52 Week Challenge: Week 17

WEEK 17: Landscape: Urbanscape – Most Landscapes are wide open spaces of natural beauty… this week find the beauty of the urbanscape/cityscape.

You would think that it is quite easy to get an urban landscape, but this week I was fairly rushed and the weather wasn’t the best, with a few days of drizzle and grey skies. Anyhow I eventually ventured out this morning, taking a 30 minute diversion before work, with the intention of getting some street shots and, moment of inspiration, some shots from the top of the parking garage, six floors up, in the center of town.

I was strolling purposefully up the stairs when I was overtaken by a “bit of a Martin Parr moment” as I call them, and decided that an internal urban landscape would fit the bill nicely. I love the huge swathe of grey concrete, the light glinting off a single parked truck in the distance and just a small splash of color of the elevators on the periphery.

Please let me know what you think!

160428_Urban

~Richard

April 28, 2016 1

Horrified and Humbled by Humanity in the same day

Yesterday Donald Trump “swept to victory” in the five US States he was contesting in his race to become the Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. The previous day he was in my town, at the university, preaching to his followers and proselytizing to others. I didn’t attend but a friend made a passing visit and said it was an unbearable atmosphere.

Over the last few months The Donald has managed to rile up a nation, spouting negativity and hatred for his fellow human beings in a way that we haven’t seen since the rallies of the National Socialists in post-Great War Germany. And worryingly he seems to go from strength to strength. We are living in frightening times and I shudder at the consequences for the nation and the entire World should we, as a people, be hoodwinked into falling into this self-obsessed, narcissistic trap, like angry wasps lured to a sticky end by a honey-filled mason jar. No good can come of anything that is so driven by unthinking hate and lack of long term vision.

The same day I was reminded by another friend, of Ukrainian descent, that this week is the 30th anniversary of the appalling Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Dreadful as this event was – its effects are still being felt today – it was also a time of unbelievable acts of self-sacrifice for the bigger cause. Although there were many, many stories and images of great heroics, the one that stood out to me was the story of Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov and Boris Baranov. These three heroes volunteered to undertake a suicide mission in order to dive into radioactive water and open a stuck valve thus preventing an explosion and escape of radioactive steam which would have affected millions of people and a huge swathe of countryside. They all died excruciating deaths within a few days and their bodies were so toxic they were buried in lead coffins that were soldered shut.

160427-Heroes_AlexeiAnanenko_ValeriBezpalov — Alexei Ananenko and Valeri Bezpalov (I could not find an image of Boris Baranov) *[image rights unknown, used for editorial purposes and out of respect!]*

It is stories of such selfless bravery and heroism, of individuals faced with dire decisions that have no personal upside that give me hope for humanity, where self-preservation is cast aside for the good of fellow humankind.

As I struggle to comprehend a time of insane, spittle-filled rhetoric and bombastic sound-bites from the person who wants to rule over me I make but one comment:

He is not worthy to represent The People.

~ Richard

April 27, 2016 4

Inspirational – hardly

Today I was in a colleague’s office and saw the following inspirational wording inscribed in white text (mixed fonts obviously) on a black square:

“Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss you’ll land in the stars.”

Me being me, I couldn’t help but add in my mind: “eventually… as a corpse.” which somewhat devalues the wording, but then that’s the way it is with me 😉

Then I started thinking about the value of this as an inspirational business quote. Surely, if the target is the moon, then missing it would be abject failure. Also, considering our nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.24 light years distant (40,113,000,000,000 km) it would be a bloody long time before we’d reach a single one.

So, a quick analysis suggests it’s hardly inspiring at all really, and I am guessing it was not on the walls of NASA Mission Control during the Apollo Program!

Anyhow, I got to thinking about what useful inspirational quote I could develop for the day and I decided on the following adaptation of a well-known cliché, as it still appears meaningful, yet lofty without losing its practical value:

“IF a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing adequately”*

* and I would add that there’s a big emphasis on the word IF at the beginning of this statement that is usually ignored in the original!

~Richard

April 26, 2016 0

Author: ReevePhotos

The Day the Party Died

Haiku: May the Fourth

~ Haiku: May the 4th ~

… someone had to do it 🙂

Poppy

~ Poppy ~

52 Week Challenge: Week 18

Grace

~ Grace ~

Rinse, lather, repeat…

Urban Landscape Redux

52 Week Challenge: Week 17

Horrified and Humbled by Humanity in the same day

Inspirational – hardly

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~ Haiku: May the 4th ~

… someone had to do it 🙂

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~ Poppy ~

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~ Grace ~

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