I vaguely remember when, a few years ago, one of my neighbors created this lawn art over the course of several days. Chainsaw comes to mind as main tool, but my recollection is sketchy. Until shooting the Featured Image, though, I didn’t understand that a massive, magnificent tree reached skyward several stories above the roof. Google Street View reveals what was.
The stump sculpture has aged quite nicely, baked in the San Diego sun.
Is the timing deliberate or coincidental? March 11 will be the last day that California school students will may be required to wear face masks. On that date two years earlier, the World Health Organization declared SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 a pandemic. Shall we just call the crisis over, with lifting of the order that compels kids to cover up?
Update, next day: On the morning news, officials from the San Diego school district held firm to masks—meaning students and staff will be compelled to continue wearing them. Reasoning: True that the governor has relaxed rules, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers the county to be high risk and the organization’s guidance supersedes that from the state.
Let me be the first to (sarcastically) thank the oligarchs—whether they be the Russian ruling class or one-percent of people holding the most wealth—for rushing to grub as much money as possible from we whom they regard as chattel. The invasion of Ukraine, and the West’s (ah-hum) finger-wagging recriminating sanctions, couldn’t possibly have disrupted the flow of oil yet. But why wait, when profits are to be had and war is a convenient excuse for puffing them.
Yesterday, regular, unleaded gasoline sold for $4.46 a gallon at all three of my San Diego neighborhood’s three economy filling stations. That’s cash price; credit costs more. As you can see from the Featured Image, price is now $4.70. That shocker greeted my wife and I this morning when we stopped to top off the tank.
Roaming The Boulevard, carrying Leica Q2 Monochrom, on Super Bowl Sunday, I stopped to take photos of brewery patrons and Red Fox Restaurant. But I botched the street shot of El Cajon and Texas, which attempted salvage is the close-cropped Featured Image. Vitals, aperture and shutter speed manually set: f/2, ISO 2000, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 5:51 p.m. PST, Feb. 13, 2022.
The sun set 17 minutes earlier but that intersection is below the horizon, making for a darker dusk and opportunity to spotlight the camera’s lowlight capabilities, which benefit from there being no color overlay on the full-frame sensor.
For Presidents’ Day 2022, we celebrate with a slice of history. This morning, my wife watched a local TV news story about the John F. Kennedy photo hanging on the outside wall of Rudford’s Restaurant. A high school student shot the portrait as the president’s motorcade passed by the diner on June 6, 1963. I don’t know which early morning news station, and no search results lead me to the source.
In response, Annie and I walked from University Heights to North Park to investigate—and, sure enough, the massively enlarged photo adorns side of the building along Kansas Street. Rudford’s faces El Cajon Blvd, which is where Kennedy rode past 59 years ago.
Who other than perhaps researchers at a Chinese lab could have predicted the global lockdown to combat SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19. Surely, owners of the Red Fox Steak House couldn’t guess when the restaurant and piano bar—long a fixture within the iconic Lafayette Hotel—lost its lease. Like its crafty namesake animal, the eatery cunningly chose to make a new home directly across El Cajon Blvd in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood.
But building and opening anew during California’s Coronavirus crackdown, when the governor ordered citizens to stay home and prohibited indoor dining, clearly proved challenging. In January 2021, I shared with you a photo of the then unfinished construction with banner “Opening early Fall 2020”. As you can see from the Featured Image, the place is still outfoxed by the virus—even as mandated restrictions relax. Will we ever eat medium-rare amidst the ambience of live music? I really wonder.
D you recall that scene from movie Poltergeist where the dude picks apart his face? I feel kind of the same way about the Featured Image, captured today using Leica Q2. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/400 sec, 28mm; 1:09 p.m. PST.
Looked at from a different gruesome perspective, how is self-cannibalism an effective way to sell pizza? You tell me. The mural is on the same side of building as yesterday’s two slices but closer to the street and behind a temporary fence; the new eatery isn’t yet open for business—but soon, presumably.
Do you remember this mural from the abandoned Twisted Taps? The building art is gone—replaced by what you see in the Featured Image. I see something disturbingly dystopian about the pizza slices, representing the new restaurant taking up residence. The drawing style immediately makes me think of something out of Invader Zim.
Also appears to be missing, and I will need to walk over to Louisiana Street and El Cajon Blvd in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood to confirm: The tree behind the building, visible in the photo from August 2021. Is it really gone, or is the slightly closer perspective enough to hide the towering thing?
After the August 2021 clearcutting of their backyard habit and sale of the property two months later, I assumed that kitties Mimi and daughter Sweet Pea would make their home elsewhere—particularly in the outdoor space provided by the woman who cared for them. But as grass, plants, shrubs, and trees regrew, the Maine Coons clung to the territory where they had lived for the better part of a decade. Mimi unexpectedly posed for me on Jan. 2, 2022. Vitals for the Featured Image, captured using iPhone 13 Pro: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/126 sec, 77mm; 11:17 a.m. PST.
I saw one or the other longhair in the yard several times a week, last month; now, likely no longer. Looks like the new owners won’t raise the house to build a massive multi-unit structure on the massive lot—increasingly commonplace for San Diego real estate. Instead, renovation is underway, and it is structurally extensive. Debris and building materials currently occupy portions of the backyard where roamed the cats. The foundation is being massively reconstructed, which surely is sign the house will remain.
For reasons only guessed and not remembered, on July 16, 2010, I stopped at one of the University Heights overlooks and pointed Leica X1 at Mission Valley below. The view is much changed 12 years later, as apartment and condominium construction has transformed the horizon.
Dramatically more development is ongoing and the number of projects increasing. In autumn 2019, San Diego City Council approved a plan to add 50,000 more residents to Mission Valley by 2050, bolstered by the building of even more high density housing.
On the same day the 2022 Olympics opened, February 4, I passed by something appropriate and timely: discarded pair of thirtytwo brand snowboarding boots. Their abandonment, along the North Avenue alley in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood, could be a metaphor for what’s being chucked away in Beijing right now: fair competitive spirit, human dignity, and truthfulness. It’s all humiliating.
Let me count the ways: Humiliating that, because of surveillance, athletes were instructed to bring burner phones to China—and, for their own safety, not to publicly criticize the host nation. Humiliating that China presented as propaganda a token Uyghur during the opening ceremony; what genocide? Humiliating that Russian President Vladimir Putin joined Chinese President Xi Jinping, while Western nations, including the United States, chose not to send diplomatic delegations. Humiliating that Chinese officials dragged away a Dutch reporter during a live broadcast. Humiliating that athletes quarantined for positive SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 are mentally and physically impaired by poor food quality and living conditions. Humiliating, and convenient, that some foreign gold medal contenders test Coronavirus positive and can’t compete. Humiliating that most NBC Sports commentators and hosts are broadcasting from the United States rather than China.
The massive redevelopment of my San Diego locale advances so briskly that today’s cute business or residence is tomorrow’s demolition. In December 2021, while walking along the University Heights side of Park Blvd, I saw that vintage clothier Frock You! had closed. Strangely. On the door was an eviction notice from the county sheriff, while clothes and debris littered the business’ (uncharacteristically exposed) outdoor shopping area, which had attracted a cadre of the homeless. The adjacent businesses were shuttered, too, suggesting a soon-to-be teardown before the build up of something new.
Fast forward to this afternoon and my first venture that way in more than six weeks. A fence cordons off the former strip of shops and what had been a beautiful home converted into several residences—the Featured Image and companion. The exposed kitchen appliances piqued my interest enough to pull out iPhone 13 Pro and point it through one of the spaces among the chain-links.