Gleaning Facebook: Art for the People

On my morning walk this today I got out about 6:15 and walked all the way down to the old business section of Vista. Like much of southern California and America in general, Vista's late 1900s was blighted by unregulated strip development and a lack of effective zoning regulations during its growth periods of the past.

But in recent years citizens groups have pressed for more creative elements. Especially in the quaint downtown section there is lots of public art and more sensitive development, as there has been in our hometown Rome. A grassroots arts group, The Backfence Society, has been a part of that. Sarah Spinks, our son-in-law's sister is quite an artist herself and a leader in the effort to beautify Vista by cleaning up and preventing littter (Only Losers Litter!) and by encouraging public art. The Backfence folks seem a bit on the fun and quirky side. For example a bumper sticker they distribute, and which adorns the back of my daughter's Chrysler, reads "Make Vista Weird".

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Here are pictures of just a part of the public art: sculpture, murals, painted utility enclosures, artistic takes on public necessities like streetlights, bus-stops, and bike racks and more.

Rome has done some of this same sort of thing.

• Mike Burton's beautiful painting on the wall of the building next to The Foundry.

• The statue of First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson.

• The statue and surrounding plaza dedicated to Adm. Tower.

• The firefighters memorial that incorporates the archway from the Mountain City fire hall.

• the temporary "Heart" art each year.

• the temporary piano installations we had one time all around downtown.

• the Rome Knitterati installations along Broad Street

• veterans memorials at Myrtle Hill and along the river at the Forum.

• Buddy Mitchell Plaza and fountain

• Etc.

But I'd really like to see much more. My friend

Michael J. Burton

has proposed more public sculpture and murals for Rome for fifty-plus years. It's great to see us beginning to see that happen. The River Arts District is another opportunity for that sort of thing. And the proposed moving of the Confederate memorials to a more appropriate location may give an opportunity to commemorate other parts of our history in public art, such as the sit-ins on Broad and other civil rights history, the textile industry in Rome, Rome's past leaders in medicine, arts, literature, women's rights, education, etc.

Snoozing with Ruth; Running with Clem

 

A very unattractive picture of Grandshaw, but what a joy to get to hold this sweetheart.

And ain't this one another joy? Clemmie and I had so much fun chasing the waves on the shore.

Gleaning Facebook: Breakfast In Vista and Peep-eye

Clementine (with her assistant Ruth) cooked breakfast for me (and Granny) in her playhouse kitchen about 83 times this afternoon. After breakfast I was expected to get sleepy. She sang "Winnie-The-Pooh" VERY softly to help me sleep. Then when I was finally snoring she ran around the playhouse to shake me awake for another breakfast. (One must be sure to blow on the eggs and the coffee because, as she often reminds me, it's hot.) We are also expected to share bites and sips. Then another nap. Repeat.

On the other hand Ruth is still fascinated by peep-eye:

Joan Miro? Jackson Pollock? No! Clementine Carlin.

 

Hell

He says he’s a billionaire ... but refuses to show the evidence.
He says he’s a “genius”... but  hides his college grades. 
He says he’s a “businessman”... but he bankrupted 3 casinos and lost over a billion bucks in a decade.
He thinks he’s a  “playboy” ... but he  pays for sex or just grabs it.
He says doctors wonder how he knows “so much about” viruses, ... but he is contradicted often by Dr. Fauci. 
He pretends to be “leader of the free world” ... but he “fell in love” with dictator Kim Jong-un. 
He professes to be “Christian” ... but doesn’t go to church and has never needed to repent. 
He says he puts “America first” ... but he trusts Putin over American intelligence.
He says he knows “more than the generals” ... but he lost our Syrian bases to the Russians.
He calls his opponents “traitors” ... but turns a blind eye to Russian bounties on actual American soldiers. 
He calls for “unity” but calls white supremacists fine people.
He claims to be a “philanthropist” ... but he defrauded a charity. 
He says he is a “patriot” ... but used “bone spurs” to dodge the draft.
He protests he’s an “innocent man” ... but he refuses to testify and blocks others’ testimony. 
He sits behind the Resolute Desk ... but he  takes “no responsibility”. 
He promotes himself as “tough, strong” ... but spends hours a day on Twitter and wears makeup and hairspray. 
He touts his “Art of the Deal” ... but has yet to close a deal for the American people.
He brags of making America great ... but he is ranked last among presidents by most historians, is laughed at by foreign leaders, is called “a f***ing moron”, a “kindergärtner”, an “idiot”, “unhinged”, “bigot”, “dope”, “dumb as s**t”,  and more by his own cabinet members and staff.
He blasts his opponents as liars ... but is rated the least honest major public figure since the fact-checking sites have been on-line.
If you support this unAmerican, psychologically defective, criminal, low-wattage buffoon and cannot recognize that Joe Biden, a self-described imperfect man [as have been all previous leaders] has a much better chance of uniting our people and pulling us out of this morass that Trumpists have driven us into, you may want to avoid my Facebbok page and blog until November 3, or even till next January 20; you will not like what you read here. 
I will not surrender to treachery. As long as these bits of data exist in the ether of the internet it can be documented that this American stood for American values and against the racists, fascists, and Trumpists.
I love America. I revere its founding ideals, even though its founders were also imperfect men and some downright hypocritical. Read Jefferson’s opening words of the Declaration and Morris’s Preamble. I want that America restored to at least the level of realization that existed before noon on January 20, 2017. And then, please, let us begin again the ever-ongoing process of perfecting our Union. 
I have grandchildren. I do not want them consigned to the hell of Donald Trump’s America.

Visiting Mother

Septuagenarians must count themselves fortunate indeed if they still share this life with their moms. I get to visit with mine almost daily. I try hard to appreciate the privilege and to think of ways to make the visits interesting for us (Sheila and me) and her. My 97-year-old mother is one amazing woman. 

When I went off to college, she made sure I got a letter from home frequently, and she kept her letter-writing going all the way through my college and post-graduate years and into the early years of my marriage. Being me, I filed those letters away. How can you discard a mother's letter? The letters got boxed up in time with letters from other relatives, old friends, and colleagues. All were filed and packed away in closets of successive homes. Last week I retrieved one big old file box and have been reminiscing my way through it slowly. 

The letters from my mother are chocked full of references to folks and events dear and sometimes forgotten. So for the last week we have been taking a few letters over with us in the evening to read to her. They spur lots of related memories ... and questions! They include a few letters from others: David, Beth, Mama Baird, Mama Shaw, Emerye, and several from Daddy.

I'll try to share a few here or in other posts for posterity. <grin> Watch for updates.