relationships # 10

Les 3 Brasseurs sidewalk cafe ~ Rue St. Paul Est - Old Montreal, CA • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 488-91 ~ all is right in the hockey world (for now)

musée de l'érable ~ Old Montreal, CA • click to embiggen
In and around the Bell Centre ~ Montreal, CA • click to embiggenYesterday, after a morning picture assignment, the wife and I donned our Pittsburgh Penguin apparel and headed north to the Canadian border. The border security person was kind enough to grant us entry into Canada with wry smile accompanied by an apology explaining that, as a loyal Canadian, he could not wish us "Bonne Chance." We thought that was fair enough.

Once in Montreal, we headed for our familiar spot - Old Montreal - where we spent a relaxing afternoon walking around a bit and then sitting at the sidewalk cafe at Les 3 Brasseurs drinking some beer and eating one of their homemade Flamms and double beer-batter dipped onion rings.

All of this was made quite interesting and rather enjoyable because, with our Penguin apparel, we could not have attracted any more attention even if we had walked around naked. More police perhaps, but not attention. Friendly conversations were had with all manner of Québécois. The same held true at the game itself where it would be no exaggeration to state that the wife and I were counted amongst a very very small group of Penguin fans that could not have numbered more than 50-75. To say that we stood out amongst the 22,000 Montreal fans is huge understatement.

In any event, the game was a closely contest affair with a 0-0 score into the 3rd period. At 1:16 of the third period, the Pens scored and then managed to keep a lid on the Habs until they nailed the lid shut with an empty net goal with 15 seconds remaining in the game.

Update on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 04:12PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment 1a.: Don asked: "What's a Flamm?"

my response: A Flamm - in Alsatian a flammekueche, in German a Flammkuchen, in French a tarte flambée - a cross between a crepe and a pizza originating in Alsace, France.

A Flamm is composed of thin bread dough rolled out in a circle or a rectangle, which is covered with crème fraîche - a soured cream which is thicker and less sour than traditional sour cream. Some recipes call for 1/2 crème fraîche and 1/2 fromage blanc (a cheese).

In any case, toppings can be just about anything you wish.

A Flamm is baked in a wood-fired oven, usually in a space where the embers are cleared just enough in order to place the Flamm. Consequently, the edges of the Flamm are burned by the flames - hence the name of this baking method, "flammekueche", which means "baked in the flames".

Featured Comment 1b.: Don stated: "...sounds like a good time, even though I am a Ranger fan."

my question: "What's a Ranger fan?"

civilized ku # 487 ~ life 'n art / art 'n life

The joy of eating ~ Old Montreal, CA. • click to embiggenAnother fine example of pick an aperture and be there.

civilized ku # 486 ~ go Pens

Dirty window • click to embiggenThe wife and I are off to Montreal for tonight's Montreal Canadians vs Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup Playoff game. I might actually have time before the game to make some pictures.

Photographs that transcend but do not deny their literal situation appeal to me. ~ Sam Abell

civilized ku # 485 ~ eye see nothing / closed

Highway embankment • click to embiggenIn hockey parlance, the phrase "cherry picker" is used in a rather derisive manner to describe a player who is a one-way player who simply waits for a pass near center ice in the hopes of getting a breakaway instead of helping on defense. He’s a no talent cherry picker who gets all his scoring chances by waiting outside the defensive zone play for a breakaway. In non-sport parlance, a cherry picker could be someone who specializing in plucking low-hanging fruit - to pick a target that is easy to achieve - as in, pick the low-hanging fruit first by identifying the most obvious opportunities.

I mention these concepts because, in response to my statement - re: I can't help feeling that there is a rather direct connection between the addiction to making / viewing pretty pictures and the eye-see-nothing aversion to seeing the real-world mess that constitutes so much of everyday life, it has been suggested that many pretty picture makers, in the opinion of Tom Frost, have been / are "staunch conservationists, who very much recognized the mess we have created, and who worked tirelessly throughout (their) life to help ameliorate that mess."

In Tom's opinion, one such picture maker is Robert Glenn Ketchum.

IMO, Ketchum is a picture making cherry picker who specializes in plucking low-hanging fruit*.

CAVEAT: To be certain, there can be no doubt that RGK has had an impact on things environmentalism / conservationism. However ...

... virtually all of his work in that area has been that of trying to protect / trying to create set-asides along the lines of the National Park mindset - a mindset that was suppose to create and foster in the minds of all the John Q. Publics an appreciation for the natural world which would lead to a conservation consciousness that would save the planet.

Well, as is evidenced by looking at our world with eyes wide open, that mindset has created some very spectacular set asides but it has done little or nothing towards creating a meaningful conservation consciousness that would save the planet. In fact, IMO and that of many others, the set-aside, national park mindset has worked against the fostering of the very conservation consciousness that it was supposed to create.

At its root, the set-aside concept promotes the idea that only the grand and spectacular part of the natural world is worthy of getting all worked up over. All the rest is just fodder for human economic development and exploitation. That little pocket wetland / habitat that stands in the way of the ever-expanding machine of progress? Fuck it. Who cares. Hell, who'll even notice when it's gone?

It should be said that I am quite willing to grant that some people have been motivated by pretty pictures of the natural world to try to save some "little pockets" of it that ain't so grand and glorious. But, the simple, undeniable reality is that battle has been overlooked and overshadowed by the battle to save/protect/create the grand and glorious set-asides. And, IMO, a rather large part of that unfortunate dichotomy / disparity of consciousness and effort has to be put squarely at the feet of the pretty picture crowd - both those who create it and those who worship it.

*simply stated, it doesn't take a picture making genius / creative thinker to travel to grand and glorious far away places and make pretty pictures of pretty landscapes. As a mater of fact, IMO, it doesn't get any easier than that. Kinda like shooting fish in a barrel, or, say, plucking low-hanging fruit.

civilized ku # 484 ~ eye see nothing / closed

No Parking ~ I90 • State St. exit • Erie, PA • click to embiggen

civilized ku # 483 ~ a lollypop in one hand and a camera in the other

Griddle goo • click to embiggen

Many photographers live in a dream world of beautiful backgrounds. It wouldn’t hurt them to get a taste of reality to wake them up. Anyone who looks for life can find it… and they don’t need to photograph ashcans. The average camera fan reminds me of Pollyanna, with a lollypop in one hand and a camera in the other. ~ Weegee