Irony and Authenticity?

 As described by ChatGPT:

This series distills humor, texture, and the poetry of the ordinary from overlooked corners of public and working spaces. Each image captures a small but telling fragment of rural and small-town America, where practical objects, functional signage, and weathered surfaces hold layers of narrative. These photographs thrive on irony and authenticity—finding visual wit in a manure pit sign, the quiet dignity of rusted hardware, and the unambiguous warning of a curbside notice. The work leans into the vernacular, preserving moments that are both mundane and culturally specific, celebrating the quiet intersections where utility, decay, and human presence meet.

They do lay it on thick, huh?  

A couple of photos from last Thursday's trip to the Illinois State Fair.  What did you expect, the Butter Cow?

an intersection of order and mess

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functional beauty in decay

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caution; not just physically, but perhaps socially or politically

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Sunliner Diner

 The family made a trip recently to Gulf Shores, AL, USA; a fun time for all.  While there we had a breakfast meal at Sunliner Diner.  I was everything I expected, great 50's vibe, great diner food, fast service.  It is a big place, and popular.  But the line moved fast, and we didn't have to spend too much time in the crazy heat waiting for a seat.  

I did sneak a couple of photos while we waited for the food to come up:

 

Just a little slice-of-life from a recent fast-food breakfast with the grandkids.  I guess you would call it documentary photography?

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Bummer....

 I saw this State Troop pull this woman over, I believe she must've been speeding.  Not gonna guess/judge, but I'm sure it's not how she wanted to spend her morning...

MOLLYS C

I posted this photo to one of the online photo sites I frequent, with the caption:  "Just a little slice-of-life. I drive by this spot about 1/month, had a little time to wander this time. I don't know why I like this sign so much, but I do. Once upon a time there was a convenience store here, but it has been an empty lot for ages."  I received a comment I especially like, enough to share here:

"I know what you mean. I think we like these seemingly ordinary things because maybe they act as reminders of happy times, or they just serve to ground us when we’re living busy lives. I get that."

That made my day.  But I'm easily amused, I guess.

 

Cell Phone Lot

 One of the more useful advancements in recent years is the airport cell phone lot.  Instead of circling the arrivals area of the airport, fighting traffic while creating more, you can pull into the cell phone lot, turn off the car and relax until your party's fight arrives.  Add in the joys of cell phones, and your party can call when they've picked up their bagage.  In this case (STL), tyhe cell phone lot is very close to the terminal for Southwest airlines, which is where we're ususally meeting people.

Good stuff. 

40

 

19,144 Songs

 Not long ago, I mentioned to somebody that my iPod had over 16,000 songs on it, and asked “Do you even listen to all of them?”

We’ll, I think so, but wasn’t really sure.  So I decided to check (looking at iTunes):

First off. As of 10/13/2023, I have 19,144 songs on the iPod.  That’s a lot more than the 16k I had thought.  That covers all genres of music.

As to if they all get listened to?  Sorting the library by “Last Played”, I determined

• Almost 1/3 of my library (31.1%) has been played in the past year.    
• Not quite 1/2 (49.7%) has been played in the last 2 years.  
• Over 2/3 (67.9%) in the past 3 years
• Over 3/4 (76.2%) in the past 4 years
• Almost 4/5 (79.6%) in the past 5 years.

I figure that’s pretty decent.  There’s a lot of songs that I have more than 1 copy 

(like greatest hits albums and album versions).  

Or songs that I acquired as part of an anthology collection (but didn’t like).  

But it does flag that I should do a little cleanup.

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Why don’t you quit leaving me alone

Or should I say "Leafing me alone"?   Just a bit of randomness that caught my eye.  

“Why don’t you quit leaving me alone” - Belmont Tench (also recorded by Roseanne Cash). 

Sorry...

 Wow...  it's been over 5 weeks since my last post.  Deep apologies to the few regular readers I might have, but it seems my muse has taken an unannounced vacation.  Over those 38 days, I've posted 14 photos over at 365project.  That's bad, but I haven't even managed to cross post those here. 

Oh well, time to kick start myself.

Here's a little something, snapped this morning with my iPhone in my back yard.  This will be (but hasn't yet) been cross-posted to my instagram account.

Time In A Bottle

 

We recently visited my wife's sister's family just outside Cleveland.  We had a really nice visit which included hanging out on their rooftop patio, watching the sunset and catching up on our lives.  I snagged this photo of a water bottle, and ice bucket.  Simple little still life, I quite like it.

There's a different version I especially like over at my 365project, check it out!

Counting Cameras

 So....  I was browsing around on 365project on a Saturday morning, which is not uncommon for me.  In the course of my wandering, I was looking at the Popular Cameras page, which lists the most used cameras on 365 Project in the last 30 days".

It would be nice if it had links to specific photos, but I guess they're still working on that.  Anyway, it's still  interesting.  A couple of things I notice:

• My Fujifim X-T3 didn't make the Top 50. Its predecessor, the X-T2, was the only Fujifilm on the list, at #34.  Not too surprising, though.  I had never thought about Fujifilm until I attended a session with Karen Hutton in November 2018.  She shoots Fufifilm (or was shooting), and was kind enough to chat with me about the brand after her session.  That kicked in my "I got a Nikon Camera" door, and after some more digging, I made the switch.  I haven't looked back.
• Phones made up 14 of the 50 spots, almost all of them iPhones.  It would be interesting to see the trend here, I suspect phone cameras are continuing to grow.  Besides the convenience factor, the quality has gotten really great.  Roughly 1/3 of the images I've uploaded to my 365project in 2020 are from my iPhone.  
• In the long standing Nikon vs Canon battle, Nikon gets an edge here.  Nikon took 14 of the Top 50 spots, vs Canon with 10.  In terms of photos, Nikon represented 26% of the images from the Top 50 Cameras, Canon 19%.  Nikon placed higher (5 and 6), but Canon had more in the Top 10 (3 vs 2).  Of course, I'll always have a soft spot for Nikon, they were my brand from 1982 through 2018.

Of course, this is all just navel gazing, but I couldn't resist.

Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking....

So...  I've just had a birthday.  A milestone birthday.   Seems like yesterday I was turning 40, now I'm 1/2 again older.  According to Social Security Administration, my life expectancy is another 21.58 years.  WHO says 23.32.years.  Either way, it doesn't seem like that long.  Guess I need to start a bucket list, and start checking things off!

So here's  a song:

Old Man

Street View

Randomness....
I decided to check out Street View and see all of the places I've lived...  almost 60 years, 9 locations.  And all of them still show up in street view!  Here's what I found:

#1 Charleston WV

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#2 Charleston, WV.

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#3 Pittsburgh, PA (Squirrel Hill)

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#4 Pittsburgh (O'Hara Twp)

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#5 Duke University (East Campus)

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#6 Duke University (Central Campus

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#7 Silver Spring MD

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#8-Silver Spring, MD

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#9 - Glen Carbon, IL

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These street view photos were between a few months old and 13 years, so there's no guarantee that all the dwellings are still there.  In fact, I know that the Central Campus apartment (#6) was torn down last fall....  But those buildings are all at least 30 years old, and pretty sure #3 was built in 1920!  It is interesting that they all look pretty much the same as when I lived there.  Maybe a coat of paint, or new siding, or needs paint...  but no dramatic changes.

Granted, most of the photos don't really show the residence so well, but that's how street view works.

Still, a fun (for me) walk down memory lane.

Rhino 248

A stack of pallets...
Still filling in some stuff that's been hanging in my unprocessed "bucket" for a while...

I drooped my wife at one of the local quilt shops (this was before quarantine).  I didn't feel like going in that day, so I drove around the back of the plaza.  And found this stack of pallets.  bingo!

What Can It Possibly Mean??

Looking at the stats function in Blogger today, interesting to see:


Where does my traffic come from?  Over the past month, looking at this blog, top 10 sources:

United States 38%

Sweden 27%

France 16%

United Arab Emirates 4%

Portugal 3%

Russia 2%

Ukraine 2%

Unknown Region 2%

Germany 1%

Egypt 1%

I would've expected it to be almost all USA, with a smattering of English speaking countries.  But it's not!  In fact, a rather eclectic mix, Quite a bit of Europe (47%), no Far East, Australia, or South America...  

I decided to see what the results were for my other blog:  Happenstance, which focuses on Black and White photos.  The top 10 sources over the last month:

United Kingdom 37%

Netherlands 23%

United States 18%

Germany 12%

Unknown Region 4%

Sweden 2%

Ukraine 2%

Russia 1%

Portugal 0.4%

France 0.4%

Pretty shocking (to me) that USA came in 3rd, at only 18%.  UK leads the pack at 37%, while not making Top 10 for LSquared.  A whopping 75% from Europe.  And again, nothing from Far East, Australia, or South America... 

I have no clue at all what it could possibly mean.

Another interesting thing:  Going back several years, LSquared has been more popular than Happenstance.  Until recently.  Looking at 6 month total page views, Happenstance overtook LSquared starting last April (2019) and opened up a rather notable lead.

Again, no clue what it means.  But since this is all for fun, and I don't generate any income from it*, it doesn't really matter.

* - you'll notice that there are ads on LSquared, but I've never accumulated enough clicks to earn a payout.  Frankly, I should figure out how to turn them off...

World's Largets Catsup Bottole

It has been a while since I posted an image of this Collinsville Landmark, but I know it is not a first.

Anyway, this is the Brooks Catsup bottle, towering above the former "manufacturing" site of Brooks Catsup.  A certified "Roadside Attraction", with its own web site. They used to have their own festival, but it ended 2017.

Of course, all of this just brings up the sticky subject of Catsup vs Ketchup.  Given that I grew up in Pittsburgh, home of H.J.Heinz, it will always be Ketchup to me.

Screened

We finally got shades installed at our new office.  They do a great job keeping the morning glare at a reasonable level...

Been Away For A While

So, I've been out of town for a week...  but I'm back now.  With lots and lots of photos to plow through.  So posting should pick up....  hopefully...

Anyway, here's a random shot from the front end of the trip:

A little abstraction, just a close up of a light fixture in a hotel hallway in Greenfield, Indiana.  Taken on my iPhone, processed using snapseed ap...

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Here's another, from a couple of days earlier, from a different hotel, in a different city (New Albany, OH).  Also taken on my iPhone, also processed using snapseed ap...

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And another one, from July 2018, form yet another hotel, in yet another city (Cannonsburg, PA).  Also, also,  taken on my iPhone, and processed using snapseed ap...  This one was in the room....

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And going back to September 2017, I'm pretty sure this was Frankfort, KY.  Back in the hallway.  Still iPhone, still snapseed:

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Anyway, I'm sure you get the point.

What We're Going To Do Right Here Is Go Back..... Way Back... Back Into Time

"What we're gonna do right here is go back, way back, back into time.

When the only people that existed were troglodytes...
Cave men, cave women, Neanderthal, troglodytes. 

Let's take the average cave man at home, listening to his stereo.
Sometimes he'd get up, try to do his thing.
He'd begin to move, something like this,
"Dance...dance"..

Troglodyte (Cave Man) - Jimmy Castor Bunch 

Number 6 on the Billboard Chart in 1972 (#4 on the R&B Chart)

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But that's not what I came here to talk about...

I was looking at the Blogger page and see that I've been doing this little gig since August of 2004.  Coming up on 14 years.  There's been no fame, and certainly not any fortune, but it has been a mostly fun experience.  Looking at the stats page, I see a bit over 190,000 "pageviews all time history", but the associated graph only goes back to May 2010.  That would be an average of about 65 page views a day.  Which is pathetic until compared with 13.6 page views per day last month.  Ah well, it keeps me out of trouble...  kind of.

 Sadly, I used my ISP for image hosting for the first 4 years or so, so the early years have no photos.  And for some reason (probably because there were no images) I started deleting posts a while back, so the fist couple of months are gone.  Anyway, thought I'd post a few "throwbacks" to what I was posting in June of previous years.  But then most of the early posts didn't have anything meaningful, except broken photo links.

June 8 2011 did include a "Music Birthdays" post.  You can check that one out here.  And a "This Day In Music" discussing the Top 40 for 6/8/1968.  Again, see it here.

June 8, 2012 included a music post, about Pat Benatar....

In June 2014 (June 10th) I posted a rant on public transportation that is still interesting (to me at least).

Anyway, there's not really a "so what?" here, just a little diversion.  An interesting diversion, I hope.