Box

Maybe I did get just one little thing for myself on the trip to Russia.

A black lacquered, hand-painted, papier mache box

featuring the Church of Dimitry on Blood in Uglich.

Jack Again

Originally a corporate lawyer in Boston, Jack finished his career as
general counsel of the country's biggest electric utility company.

Jack needed something to do when he retired.  So, he started taking photographs and
putting them on a blog.  Today that silly little blog is four years old.

When Jack started the blog, he had very good reasons for protecting his anonymity.  

So he only showed the top of his head.  Later, a big honking camera hid his face.
  

Like so many other things these days, Jack can no longer remember those very good reasons.

Jack

Jack is a retiree who spends as much time in Elizabeth Park in the summertime as I do.  

With that bright red shirt, I posed him against the reddest roses I could find.

Next time in the park, I hope he wears pink.
There are more pink roses.

Independence Day

In 1968 Abbie Hoffman was arrested and 

subsequently convicted of wearing a shirt
with the design of an American flag.  

(His conviction was eventually overturned.) 

Now, American flag shirts are 
everywhere.

Happy Independence Day
to my fellow Americans.  

Our political discourse has gone
in the wrong direction 

in so many ways.

But at least we no longer jail people 

for wearing American flag clothing.

A White Rose to Honor Andrew J. Stern

The footprints of the two World Trade Center buildings now hold memorial fountains,
each about an acre in size, with waterfalls cascading down 30 feet into the pools.  

Bronze panels with the names of the nearly 3,000 victims ring the pools.

Some visitors place white roses to honor a victim.
R.I.P. Andrew J. Stern.

September 11 Memorial Museum

While in New York City last weekend for a wedding, I visited the 9/11 museum.  It is a "must see."

The museum is full of disturbing artifacts from that horrible day.  Rooms full of

photos, displays and videos illustrate the events in NYC, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.

But, what the museum does best is to bring home the important understanding that

nearly 3,000 innocent, living humans were destroyed on that day.

YoungOldManWomanTallShortBlackWhiteHispanicAsianNativebornImmigrant.

Real people.  Sons of grieving parents.  Wives of devastated husbands.  Parents of sad children.

A central room has a photograph of each victim on the four outside walls, with

locator kiosks and an interior room where room-size audio-visual remembrances of 

the victims can be displayed.  Photography is not permitted inside the room.

This is a case in which I think a photography prohibition is an appropriate and respectful measure.

I thought a wide angle photograph from outside the room would help to illustrate

what you would find there, without violating the privacy of victims' families.

Go there if you can. 

Celebrating Summer

"Celebrating Summer" is the July theme for City Daily Photo bloggers.