Sunday, August 23, 2015

Sunday Balls



I'm not in the mood to write, again. So I'll just post some pictures I took today at MacArthur Park, near downtown. They're of an art installation -- thousands of giant painted beach balls floating in the pond. You can read about the project here, since I don't feel like typing out what it's all about.

The park looks pretty dismal -- it's in a downtrodden part of town, everything is dead because of the drought, and everywhere I walked smelled like piss and pot, to tell you the truth. But the spheres were crazy and wonderful, lifting the whole place up. I had a brief fantasy about wading out into the middle of them like a despairing, dark-haired Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita, but instead rolled Sophie's wheelchair to the edge of the water, shoved the brake on and stood for a while to just watch the spheres bobbing. Sophie seemed to enjoy it as well, so that's good. My guilt in not providing enough stimulation for her was allayed at least for the hour or so that we walked around.






Reader, what did you do today?

13 comments:

  1. That is very cool. I used to work at an ad agency across the street from that park. It wasn't any better all those years ago. We moved the office to Brentwood and we were thrilled. I did learn how a homeless person changes clothes with privacy while eating my lunch at that park though. I slept all day after not sleeping a wink all night last night. Exciting day...

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  2. That is actually quite something. A great idea. It is something dreams are made of.

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  3. I love them! They remind me of those flowers that were painted on NYC taxis back in the late aughts:

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/sreed99342/1787651859/

    (I only have a super close-up photo for some reason, but the cars were covered with them.)

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    1. As for MacArthur Park: No sweet green icing? No cake left out in the rain? So disappointing.

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  4. They're lovely. We took Katie to Fort Edmonton today and then I cooked and cleaned. We had the granddaughter and her parents over for supper. I taught her about water, which is to say we splashed in the cat's water dish. A lot. Very fun.

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  5. Scott and I sat around most of the day, he laid around on his mat, until I summoned the energy to take him out for a drive. It's turning into Fall here already and a beautiful day. We drove around Lake Minnetonka and it was gorgeous, stopped in at a park there but there was a wedding going on so we kept driving. Today I start my microbiology class which will fulfill the California RN license requirement. Hopefully we will be able to move back by January.

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  6. Lovely installation. When life hands you balls...

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  7. I love those balls! And I also love your description of the park smelling of piss and pot. I mean, I'm sorry it does but it's a very good and plain description.
    I ate yesterday. And was lazy. And hung out with two of the sweetest people in the entire world.

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  8. i love thinking of you and Sophie at the water's edge taking in that exuberant color. Beautiful photos!

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  9. I could use a walk around that park right now, even if it doesn't smell great. I spent my Sunday listening to the teenagers bitch at each other about the most mundane, useless things (jelly beans, french fries, who gets the phone charger in the car) and wrestled with whether or not to take them out to the planned dinner-and-a-show we bought tickets for months ago. We ended up going, but they were snarky and rude the whole time and Bubba and I were miserable. We have learned our lesson. The next time we do a "family outing" like that for "fun," it will be when they're in their 30s and the narcissism has faded a bit. Here's to Monday being a better day, and here's to school starting this week!

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  10. I miss art. Denver was great about public art. Le sigh.

    The beach balls are so like if Willy Wonka was a surfer dude.

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  11. Piss and pot–the new smell of cities? In San Francisco they are using a special paint on walls that were heavy pissing targets. It makes the pee bounce off hard enough to splatter the pissers. They stop.

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  12. "My guilt in not providing enough stimulation for her was allayed at least for the hour or so that we walked around." i feel you, eee.

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