February 15, 2012

---

Well, as some of you may know, my camera - a beloved Olympus D-620L - along with my entire camera bag was stolen. I was robbed in SOWA in the South End, which can be a rough neighborhood with thieves, drug dealers, prostitutes, addicts, sex offenders and the insane. Plus the artists, cops, art dealers, yuppies and loft-living lawyers. That was the start to my new year. I'd had that camera since 1999, the first affordable (a grand or so over ten years ago) digital SLR that came on the market. That camera had heart. How could I ever replace it?

Anyway, so now I'm cameraless, for the first time since I began photographing. But I'm looking around. I've always wanted a Leica M. That was Cartier Bresson's camera, of course. The M9 is digital, $10,000 with a lens or two.

Walking around seeing pictures and making notes, taking word pictures.

There's a woman who I see almost every day, sometimes several times, in the vicinity of the Prudential Center or Copley Place. I think she's an Indian from the Andes, but I'm not sure. She has a large face topped with a thick thatch of matted brown hair and slightly slanting eyes. She dresses in thick, warm-looking layers of yellow, red and blue ponchos under which she carries two bulging white cotton bags. She's always hatless and wears sockless sandals in every weather. Her legs are like tree trunks.

She often does a little dance standing in place, swaying and stepping from side to side, sometimes smiling, and falls to sleep standing up, eyes closed, head thrown slightly back, never losing her balance, eyes suddenly snapping open as if out of a distant dream. Sometimes I see her eating at Shaw's supermarket when I'm shopping.

Speaking of which, what is it with Whole Foods and their wretched prepared foods commanding premium prices? Their steam table offerings are awful - they can't even make a decent American Chop Suey - and the over-priced prefab refrigerated sandwiches (who wants a cold sandwich anyway?) and deli items are DOA.


Image ... Map mural (detail) on a traffic signal control box. Across from the Stony Brook T station in Jamaica Plain.

November 20, 2011

---

I'm pleased to announce - once again - the return of Roofscape - the online magazine of outdoor urban living. The 'Great Recession' took its toll on us, as it has on all too many, but we survived - and we're back, a little battered, but hopefully better than ever.

The relaunch will be on January 1, 2012, that day being the original launch of the magazine in 2000 at Boston's 'First Night' festivities. The name has changed slightly from Roofscape Magazine, to simply Roofscape. The new Roofscape will start off as twice-monthly email magazine, released on the first and fifteenth. The next step will be to develop for the Barnes and Noble Nook, the Apple iPad and the Amazon Kindle (in that order). Following that, we'll develop a full subscription website version of the magazine.

To start off, we'll be re-releasing articles, images and features, often revised and updated, published over the past decade. These will mingle with increasing amounts of fresh content.

Join us! We're looking for investors and advertisers interested in helping us build a successful media brand. We're also searching for the best writers, photographers, artists and tech talent out there with a passion for the urban outdoors. Get in touch ... roofscape@gmail.com.

Thought for the day ...
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Robert Kennedy

Image ... Mural on a utility box by the Stoney Brook 'T' station.

November 11, 2010

---

Quote of the Day
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson

Image ... Utility box near the Stony Brook T station, Jamaica Plain.

March 30, 2010

---

cafeRa describes this picture as follows. WordLingo, my online translator, couldn't even begin to parse it. So here goes.

森美術館の アイ.ウェイウェイ展、驚いてばかり。あんなにおもしろい展覧会は久しぶりでした。北京オリンピックの鳥の巣を設計した一人でもある、中国人の現代アート。11月8日まで。いつてないひとは、ぜひ、

More rain from another lashing nor'easter. Perfect for indoor projects. Working in Jamaica Plain at the Brewery Complex for the Boston Pretzel Bakery. Today we're (or maybe just me) building a wagon with old fashioned wooden wagon wheels. I've built some strange stuff in my time. And right there too. The space, now subdivided maybe four or five times, used to be the scene shop of the Opera Company of Boston where I worked as a builder, pattern maker (my specialty), painter, stagehand (at the Orpheum Theatre downtown) and general all around dog's body. I got to stand offstage in the wings with Beverly Sills night after night then watch her sing from a few feet away. My favorite of her roles was Juliet with Tatiana Troyanos playing Romeo. She was about three times as big as he, I mean she.

Whittier in Snowbound has a line, if I remember correctly, about the tremendous 'privacy of the storm'. This isn't snow, thank god or we'd be up to our tits in it, but there's some sort of similar feeling. And it's rather nice. Lying in bed safe and snug, anway, watching the roaring beast through the windows. Until you have to go out in it.

Image ... Bicycles, Bejing.

March 27, 2010

---

Programmed the Sunday Gospel Set. This set, #42 (amazingly), is mostly urban contemporary, code words for black, current and commercial; fusing R&B, funk, soul and hip-hop elements in a powerful blend. Yolanada Adams in, Kirk Franklin out and a spectrum of testifying in between.

The photograph above is of a mural painted on a utility (traffic light, I think) box in Jamaica Plain. It's a map of the nearby streets, with no names or symbols used. Overlaid are the shifting shadows of bare winter tree branches. To me it's a totally satisfying work of art. See another, maybe even better, view of the mural in the March 19 journal entry below. That image will be on the April 15 Roofscape cover, so you'll also get a sneak peak.



Image ... Mural by Elizebeth Nicholson and Hilary Alder. On a utility box at Lamartine and Boylston Streets, Jamaica Plain across from the Stony Brook T Station.

March 19, 2010

---

Pete and I are working on a project at The Brewery complex in JP. It's a dense warren of various thriving small businesses located in the old Haffenreffer Brewery on Amory Street near the Stony Brook T stop. The area used to be the center of the German immigrant community in Boston and there were five breweries close by, of which Haffenreffer was the largest, along with other homey amenities of Germanic life - musical societies, social clubs, schools, etc.

The brand no longer exists, or at least not here, replaced by Sam Adams Beer, The Jamaica Plain School of Dance, Ula's Cafe, Bikes Not Bombs, Mike's Gym, Boston Pretzel Bakery, Milky Way Cafe, Bella Luna, etc. - 50 businesses in all employing 250 people. It's a really pleasant place with constant coming and going and Ula's is always packed. Good pea soup, almost as good as Charlie's. And the sun is out, spring is here. Smiling, relaxed faces everywhere after this rough winter.

Image ... Mural by Elizebeth Nicholson and Hilary Alder. On a utility box at Lamartine and Boylston Streets, Jamaica Plain across from the Stony Brook T Station.