On a recent trip to Orvieto, Rome, Venice, and Bologna, I noticed that lions work hard holding up buildings, showing scrolls, and spitting water in fountains. Most of these creatures look unhappy, resentful, embarrassed, sad, anxious, or resigned to duty that they never dreamed would be theirs for eternity. Here are some photos of the kings of the jungle in their reduced circumstances. I added captions that expressed what they might be thinking. If they weren’t made of stone.
For other Italian photos, some lovely, some bizarre, please see my album on flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHskBveufg
Oh crap, it must be four stories to the ground. That’s a long way, even for a cat with wings. (Basilica, Orvieto)Get me down from here so I can eat some more Christians. (Rome)It’s my job to spit water all day. Sigh. (Piazza del Popolo, Rome)I’m a hunting trophy from the 19th century. Bite me. (Museum of Natural History, Venice)Yeah I got a black eye. You should see the other guy. (Salute Basilica, Venice)Oy oi oi, I’m not even Catholic. (Salute Basilica, Venice)If these wings worked, I could fly away. (Venice)It was worse before they put up the pigeon spikes. (Bologna)This is not the worst job in Bologna. Really.If I could get down from here, I’d show you who’s king of the forest.You wonder why I look demented? I have to spout water all day. (Rome)My brother over there is demented. I just need a cigar. (Rome)I just think of it as puking on you. (Rome)Where’s my incisor? (Rome)Ack. (Rome)No, I’m fine. Really. Yep. Really. Happy lion. More meds, please. (Rome)
Two-story air-filled white rabbits are decorating Capitalism Central—an area near the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan. Oh the metaphors you could draw from that, but instead, here are some photos of the seven giant bunnies. The art installation is called Intrude, by Amanda Parer. It is at the Brookfield Center—formerly The World Financial Center—on the Hudson River for just a week.
Click on an image to enlarge it, and you can scroll through them all and see the captions.
Inside the glass building that used to be called the World Financial Center and is now Brookfield Center, a massive rabbit competes for size with the giant palm trees.
Outside on the plaza by the Hudson, as the sun set, the rabbits began to glow.
Giant rabbit at sunset
As night fell, the rabbits glowed.
Rabbit and the Hudson River looking at New Jersey. On the left is the Colgate neon clock across the river.
Steve brought his rabbit, Walt Whitman (named that because he likes leaves of grass). Walt also likes sculpture. And rabbits, even though he’s actually a hare.
Walt and Steve
Steve took this.
Steve’s photo of Walt and big buddy.
Steve’s photo of Walt and another buddy.
I saw this great girl leaping around, and asked her to do a bunny hop with Walt. Her name is Arva.
Arva leaps.
Steve captured another jumper.
Walt and I were diverted by this forest of wallpaper.
On the bike ride home around the Battery, Steve and I stopped at the new fish-themed carousel. This is a close up. Another time I’ll post a picture that makes more sense. Meantime, it’s about the shapes.
As we came back to our Lower East Side on our own East River, we saw these fireworks. The Statue of Liberty is at left with the colorful smoke swirling around her.
Perry, 57, had been living on the streets of Portland, Oregon, for 26 or 27 years, he told me when my cousin Antonia introduced me in October 2015. A few years ago, he appropriated a big empty lot owned by a small apartment complex in the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood. There he tends plants, builds sculptures out of found objects, and takes care of a cat. Click on a photo to enlarge it and to scroll through the photos and read more about Perry.
Perry grew up in Portland.
The owners of the lot let him be.
Perry rescued this cat from a dumpster when it was a kitten. “She follows me around. She’s 11.”
He’s made neat rows of the wild blackberry brambles. His arms are covered with scratches.
He doesn’t want to live inside.
He makes sculptures from things he finds.
He shows off his system for straining the rocks out of the dirt for his gardening.
Perry bikes around with a tarp-covered trailer picking up discarded objects for the garden.
“I recycle everything.”
When a building was torn down next door, Perry spent two weeks pulling nails out of the lumber so he could re-use it.
This gate Perry is building from some of his street finds.
Perry has a wide circle of friends–gardeners, schoolchildren, and other homeless people.
Close Up and Far away 