A different kind of Flora…

No, I’m not raving about the amazing cocktails at the swanky Art Deco inspired Flora, again.  This is something different.

I know it’s not exactly Art. Unless you happen to view them as God’s Art.  I don’t personally subscribe to that belief, but I want to share a handful of the beauties the sun has recently coaxed forth in, what-is-soon-to-be, my new front yard. That’s right folks… I’m movin’ to the country!

Not really. Just a few exits down the freeway, and a little bit up the hill, and actually, not for a few months. But still in Oaktown, of course.

After a decade of sidewalk gardening and a parking space filled with potted cacti, I am incredibly excited to get my hands in some real earth. In fact, I’ll be writing a weekly column on Oakland Local about growing your own food, and my first post is up now. Please check it out if you’re green-thumbed like me…

oxalis flowers, oxalis weed, oxalis nightmare

This first one (above) is Oxalis. Considered a weed, and a nightmarishly difficult one to deal with at that, its flowers are really kind of pretty. I can appreciate them for now. But they should be forewarned… I will be diggin’ all those darned little bulbs up!

fuscia clustered flowers

I have no idea what this one is.  Looks like a nice snack for a hummingbird.  Anyone?

poppies, orange poppies

Good ol’ California Poppies!

prosperity, white plum blossoms

And this last one isn’t actually growing in the yard, but rather was a branch given to me by the proprietor of my new favorite soon-to-be-local store… Fernseed. Friends and I walked by after getting lunch at one of the two fantastic taquerias close by, and Christine gave us the full run-down on her incredible store… basically art gallery meets furniture store, with a driving mission of reuse & sustainability. I don’t want to say too much now, because I want to do a full post when I have some pictures. But to give you an idea, she gave three random strangers she just met, each a gorgeous blossoming plum tree branch to take home… tokens for prosperity. I love this woman! And I love her store. Stay tuned for a full post soon…

Kill Your Television?

A couple more wheat pastes… These two were directly next to each other in West Oakland, but I’m not clear if they were produced by the same artist, or are supposed to relate to each other in some way. Maybe you’re supposed to practice a little mindful meditation after you’ve turned off the tube.

Whatever the case, they’re both pretty interesting…

television statistics, kill your television, television violence

Here is the text again (reformatted by me for ease of reading)…

  • 99 percent of American households possess at least one television.
  • There are 2.24 TV sets in the average U.S. household.
  • 66 percent of U.S. homes contain three or more TV sets.
  • The average TV is on for 6 hours, 47 minutes per day.
  • 66 percent of Americans watch television while eating.
  • The American population watches 250 billion hours worth of TV annually.
  • The value of that time assuming a wage of $5/hour: $1.25 trillion.
  • 56 percent of Americans pay for cable.
  • 49 percent of Americans say they watch too much television.
  • The average American child watches 1,680 minutes of TV per week.
  • 70 percent of day care centers utilize the television in their facilities.
  • 54 percent of children ages 4-6 chose watching television instead of spending time with their parents.
  • The average American youth spends 1500 hours watching television annually.
  • The average American youth spends 900 hours in school annually.
  • U.S. children are exposed to 8000 acts of violence on the television by the time they finish elementary school.
  • The number of violent acts seen on television by the age of 18: 200,000.
  • 79 percent of Americans believe TV violence helps precipitate real life mayhem.
  • 20,000 thirty-second commercials are seen by the average child.
  • The average 65 year old views 2 million or more commercials.
  • 53.8 percent of news stories are devoted to advertising crime, disaster, and war.
  • ?? percent is devoted to public service announcements.

A few comments…

When I was a kid I watched a lot of television. Too much television.  My family was probably quite representative of some of these statistics.  I watched Spiderman cartoons before school in the morning.  I watched Scooby Doo, The Brady Bunch, Bugs Bunny, and The Little Rascals after school.  We watched the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite every night during dinner, our plates perched on TV trays positioned in front of the living room couch.  We watched prime time TV most evenings.  I remember Wednesdays were Eight is Enough.  Fridays were The Love Boat and Fantasy Island.  Lame, I know. 

But it wasn’t all lame. There were some great shows, and certainly some that exposed me to characters and experiences I would know little about, living in white-middle-class suburbia – like The Jeffersons, Welcome Back Kotter, Good Times, and The White Shadow.  I loved these shows.

And television wasn’t nearly as violent as it is today.  The most violent shows I can think of were Starsky & Hutch and Charlie’s Angels, both rather tame by today’s standards. You could even argue the Angels were empowering for us young girls – to see those women kickin’ ass, takin’ names, and always baggin’ the bad guys. 

Could we have been spending our time more productively? Certainly.

But at this point in my life (and actually for most of my adulthood), I watch fewer than 5 hours of television a week… sometimes none at all.  Not bad for a kid raised on the boob tube.

I suppose you could argue that I’ll never know what untapped potential in myself was squelched due to an overdose of 70’s sitcoms.  But I’m ok with that.  In spite of it all, I think I turned out pretty well. 

I’m not saying I don’t agree with the larger message of the piece. I agree we’d all be a lot better off if folks spent a bit more time engaging in more interactive pursuits. I’m just sayin’, it’s not all bad.

buddha, doghead buddha, west oakland wheat paste

And now… I think I’ll get off this computer and do a little yoga…

Namaste.

SSS

Some short posts this week… busy busy busy.

People loved the first one of these, found just across the border in Berkeley (Time’ll Tell). This one’s just across the border too, in Emeryville though, and mostly gone now. I shot it awhile ago, but sadly only after somebody already ripped a chunk of it off.

What do you think it said?

broke, sss, time'll tell, giant buffalo wheatpaste

A giant wheatpaste cut to shape, it seems to be a reproduction done in a few large pieces from a smaller, quite detailed drawing. Pretty cool, eh?

Hoping to fine one in Oaktown-proper one of these days… (hint hint)

Magical Mosaic

While I was tooling around downtown to shoot all the gorgeous historic buildings for my Art Deco series, I came across this incredible mosaic installed over what was once, presumably, a rather plain door front on Broadway (2141).  It’s stunning.

mosaic on broadway, oakland mosaic art

It’s hard to see in the photo above, but there are words embedded in the trunk of the tree as it curves around the doorway… they read “Awakening Imagination for Transformation.”

nature motif mosaic, mosaic art, tree with hawk mosaic

mosaic art on broadway, butterfly mosaic, flowers mosaic, oakland mosaic art

mosaic art, nature motif mosaic, mosaic doorway on broadway

It was unclear to me what the business was… there’s a psychic next door to the left; the doorway itself has signs for a notary. I googled the address and came up with the University of Creation Spirituality. I’m not sure if this college still exists at this location, but this is clearly the origin of the mosaic as the detail in tile below reads “UCS 2002.” Other than that, I see no artist’s signature for this amazing creation.

oakland mosaic art, mosaic doorway broadway oakland