January 31, 2007 by OrientSee.

This is a night shot of where I work. It’s a real human building. It doesn’t intimidate you with its size. There’s a clock tower which is there for people to look at and of course, that draws your eye to the building beneath the clock. This building wants to talk to you. There are ornaments and a variety of architectural elements. There’s no vast desert of flat and dimensionless space. There’s details that you notice right away and others that you will see only after much observing. The surface is stone and stucco and red tile and full of shifting shadows. It’s not a beautiful building but it is worth looking at.

Ciao!

-Jorge

Posted in Daily | No Comments »

January 30, 2007 by OrientSee.

I’ve been looking at the sky more lately. It’s been interesting to realize how much the moon is around during the day. I actually look at the moonrise and moonset times in the paper now and on the web weather sites that I visit.  This version of the moon is framed by an I.M. Pei building named William James Hall. It is remarkably bland and totally out of harmony with the other buildings around it. The other part of the frame is a roof ornament on Augustus Busch Hall where I work. Built in 1912 and designed by a German architect, it is out of context as well but it is a charming building with very human proportions. So here is the moon surrounded by bland on one side and charm on the other. I am so glad that the I. M. Pei enthusiasm has gone away.

Ciao!

-Jorge

Posted in Daily | 1 Comment »

January 29, 2007 by OrientSee.

That’s a lion. Actually it’s the shadow of a lion. Really it’s the shadow of a bronze lion.
There is a courtyard where I work. This is a bronze lion celebrating a 12th century German Duke who apparently was “The Lion”. He killed better and more often than the other petty feudal lords of his time and was therefore more successful. He had more land. The irony is that the original back in Germany was destroyed in World War II. Karma is a powerful force but it does work slowly sometimes. My hope is that W gets his due much faster than Duke Robert the Lion.

Ciao!

-Jorge

Posted in Daily | No Comments »

January 28, 2007 by OrientSee.

The reeds are Phragmites communis. Foxtails blowing in the wind which are silver when first grown. These are the reeds that kept the baby Moses afloat down the Nile. Behind the reeds are the ever present tanks. I live near the sea and a marsh but I also live near a major tank farm. Gasoline, fuel oil and jet fuel all next to Chelsea Creek and next to the drumlin that I live on. Side by side, reeds and tanks. There is a certain massive solemnity to the tanks but there is also real unease. Each tank is surrounded by a retaining wall and there are water and foam cannon aimed at each. We’ve never seen a fire or an explosion but it could happen. It is unsettling, especially when you see how many are clustered here on the banks of the creek. It’s not northern Jersey or Gary Indiana but it is not pretty.

Ciao!

-Jorge

Posted in Daily | No Comments »

January 27, 2007 by OrientSee.

Sunrise is always a treat here. You can’t avoid seeing it. Open the refrigerator door and the window beckons. Sometimes it’s a snowy egret or a 747. Waves crash up on the sea wall at Short Beach and break over the telephone wires. Storms batter  the windows and the house rocks with the blasts. Occasionally a vision assaults you with its intensity. That happened this morning. Bleery eyed and scarcely conscious, I walked past the kitchen and did a double take. This is what I saw. Life can be so good when you get to enjoy this kind of view.

Ciao!

-Jorge

Posted in Daily | 1 Comment »

January 26, 2007 by OrientSee.

Beware Plant Gone Wild! This is our Christmas Cactus ( Schlumbergera hybrid ) . It has been dull of late. and there were no buds for this Christmas. We have had an irregular relationship with this plant over the years. Some years - no blooms. Some years a few non-showy flowers. Once before it went nuts. A week after Christmas, it woke up. Someone obviously fed it plant hormones and now it’s showing off its goodies. Plant Gone Wild. The lushness is even more lurid because this morning it was 3 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Cold and barren 8 inches beyond that window. 8 inches the other way and the jungle invades our living room.

Ciao!

-Jorge

Posted in Daily | 1 Comment »

January 25, 2007 by OrientSee.

La Bella Luna!  It’s been a while what with the cloudy weather and the moon phases since I caught sight of the silver lady. Tonight we are getting an old fashioned bout of real January weather. These clear skies at twilight promise lots of radiation cooling and strong northwest winds. It is going to feel good to be really cold. I do have some bear blood in me. I relish this kind of weather.

Ciao!

Jorge

Posted in Daily | No Comments »

January 24, 2007 by OrientSee.

Not very impressive. It’s about context. This is the sky out behind the building where I work. It is also January 24. It is 4:54 pm. Now is it getting clearer? That’s right. It is the first time that the day has lasted this long since October. It means that winter is starting to end regardless of what the groundhog will say. It means that the skunks are passionately pursuing each other. Warmer longer days are coming and that’s just great.

Ciao!

-Jorge

Posted in Daily | No Comments »

January 23, 2007 by OrientSee.

Think you’re cold? How about him?

We got our first real snow of the season and precious little of it. Barely enough fell to justify shoveling it off the sidewalk. It did fall though and it managed to cover up the cold dirty landscape. The high winds of the last few days have been blowing trash everywhere. Plastic bags ornament the trees like cheap Christmas ornaments and there’s paper everywhere. Our wonderful climate gives us this gift of cheap foundation makeup to cover over all the obvious faults. This time of year we really need it. The big problem is that there’s not enough to make a good snowball without too much work.

Ciao!

-Jorge

Posted in Daily | No Comments »

January 22, 2007 by OrientSee.

This sums up today in one image. A cold bare day best spent inside. Winter at its strongest. Not a blizzard or an ice storm but an empty rawness. Even dressed warmly, you know that this is the sort of day closest to death. Yep, a real grim day when the cold has the heart of the world in its grip. But I had my coffee and the heat came up. Still there was that shiver.

Ciao!

-Jorge

Posted in Daily | No Comments »