Phoneography Challenge: My Neighborhood

Welcome to CAMPy WASHINGTON, where humor is a matter of civic pride.

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Here’s George Washington, all dolled up to keep watch over the fine citizens of this urban neighborhood. He’s attended by Cincinnati’s famous flying pigs and a docile cow.  

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The purple gorilla and old-timey robot aren’t just mural stars: they have real life counterparts, statues that are an integral part of our local identity. 

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George is ready for his close-up.

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The mural sits right off the highway, and is visible to random people filling their tanks at two gas stations. Although it doubtless makes them smile, its real importance is in brightening the lives of local residents who spend their days looking at manufacturing warehouses and crumbling 19th century brick buildings. In a neighborhood so far off the radar as to lack even the condescending appellation “up and coming”, public art really does make a difference.

Inspiration Board-9th March 2013

Today my muses are spread so far across the map that there really is no map. Yay for eclectic inspiration. Enjoy!

I cannot get enough of John Grant’s new song, Pale Green Ghosts. It is the soundtrack for my packed writing weekend.

Daily Diversion #105: Here Are Some Delicious Photos For You to Look at Whilst I Work on a Short Story

I have reached the frenzied, delectable stage of writing my current short story. All of you writers know what I am talking about: that blissful point where everything-plot, characterization, language, action-clicks into place. When it all begins to make cohesive, beautiful sense. That is where I am at today, dear readers. It feels good, but it is also time-consuming. I will be back tomorrow with several posts. Until then, feel free to let your gaze wander over, and your mind reflect on, the charms of this little gallery. I’ve had a tasty and sociable few weeks, wouldn’t you agree?

“Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.”-Henry David Thoreau

The Transcendental Louisa May Alcott Died 125 Years Ago Today

Louisa May Alcott died on 6 March 1888. Here she is, at the quarter-century mark, looking utterly captivating.

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott

QUOTE: “Do the things you know, and you shall learn the truth you need to know.”

SOME WORKS: Hospital Sketches; Little Women; Little Men; Eight Cousins; Under the Lilacs.

A KEEPSAKE:

Louisa May Alcott Quote Typography Print at Jane and Company Design

Louisa May Alcott Quote Typography Print at Jane and Company Design. $20.00

The Dead Writers Round-Up: March 4th-8th

  • William Carlos Williams died on 3/4/1963. “It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” (Poems; Spring and All; Journey to Love; Paterson)
  • Frank Norris was born on 3/5/1870. “I never truckled; I never took off the hat to Fashion and held it out for pennies. By God, I told them the truth.” (McTeague; The Octopus: A Story of California; The Pit)
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born on 3/6/1806. “Who so loves believes the impossible.” (Casa Guidi Windows; Aurora Leigh; Last Poems)
  • Artemus Ward died on 3/6/1867. “It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us in trouble. It’s the things we know that ain’t so.” (Artemus Ward His Panorama; Artemus Ward in London)
  • Pearl S. Buck died on 3/6/1973. “Hunger makes a thief of any man.” (The Good Earth; Peony; The Big Wave)
  • Stevie Smith died on 3/7/1971. “All poetry has to do is to make a strong communication. All the poet has to do is listen. The poet is not an important fellow. There will also be another poet.” (Novel on Yellow Paper; This Englishwoman; Not Waving But Drowning; Scorpion and Other Poems)
  • Kenneth Grahame was born on 3/8/1859. “After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.” (The Golden Age; Dream Days; The Wind in the Willows)
  • Sherwood Anderson died on 3/8/1941. “I am a lover and have not found my thing to love.” (Many Marriages; Winesburg, Ohio; The Triumph of the Egg: A Book of Impressions From American Life in Tales and Poems)

 

Daily Diversion #104: Lazy Sunday

The frozen sky spits out a combination pack of snowflakes: huge, miniscule, fat, puffy, wispy, deflated. Something for everyone, except me. I am ready for spring; curmudgeonly winter with his ridiculous whims needs to go away. Back to yesterday, or last week. Back to when he was wanted, appreciated, welcomed.

Snowy day, snowy day.

Snowy day, snowy day.

I have no energy, just a belly full of decadent food and a gaping need for a long, warm nap.

Creme Brulee French Toast

Creme Brulee French Toast.

Goodnight, all. I’ll write tomorrow.

 

Henry James, Once a Dapper Young Man, Died 97 Years Ago Today

Henry James died on 28 February 1916. He wasn’t always a humourless looking middle-aged man. Briefly, a long time ago, he was a humourless looking yet dapper young man.

Young Henry James

Young Henry James

QUOTE: “It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.”

SOME WORKS: Roderick Hudson; Washington Square; The Portrait of a Lady; The Bostonians; What Maisie Knew; The Wings of the Dove; The Golden Bowl; Daisy Miller; The Aspern Papers; The Turn of the Screw.

A KEEPSAKE:

Daisy Miller by Henry James at Free Parking

Daisy Miller by Henry James at Free Parking. $10.00

Daily Diversion #102: Writers Need Relaxation, Even if it is Forced Upon Us

My Internet connection decided to play hooky this afternoon. It went away, leaving an onslaught of cold rain in its place. I ignored them both, sliding into a hot bath fragrant with salt, book in hand. It wasn’t a waste, but a swirling respite. A challenge. A challenge to be calm, if only for a few moments.

Bath time

Bath time

Daily Diversion #101: The Genius of Water Runs Dry in Winter

The Tyler Davidson Fountain, aka The Genius of Water. Fountain Square, Cincinnati, Ohio.

“An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.”-James Whistler

 

The Splendiferously Bearded Writers Social Club: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  • Name: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  • DOB: 02/27/1807
  • Member Since: 1863
  • Status: Charter member
  • Important Role: Manning the punch bowl at club functions.
  • Hobbies: Reading Latin; translating Dante; writing poetry; styling his luxurious white beard into tiny braids.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1868

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1868