A photo a day... is a blog about my musings on life and the little things I observe on a regular basis.
I might not post every day. In fact, I'm positive I won't post every day, but I would like to post at least twice a week, if not more. Photos will accompany each new post. Please, as always, feel free to comment if you have questions or if you just want to comment. Feel free to disagree. Let's keep it civil and get along is all I ask in return.
There have been a lot of baseball movies made over the years and picking a best baseball movie is subjective, at best, as everyone has their favorite. Did you like Sandlot or Pride of the Yankees? Bang the Drum Slowly comes up a lot in discussion. In my mind, I consider Bull Durham to be the best baseball movie. I really can't put my finger on it, but I think it comes as close as possible to revealing the inner workings of how professional baseball players actually tick. Pride of the Yankees was too sanitized and Sandlot does a good job at showing baseball from a kids point of view, but for my money, I could watch Bull Durham over and over again, probably because it's more than just about baseball. And because I played catcher in Little League and the star, Kevin Costner, plays the catcher in the movie didn't hurt its chances as the best baseball movie ever. It's one of the few movies where I have multiple scenes etched in my brain, perhaps because I saw it twice in the theaters. Any time I see it playing, which is infrequently unless I'm traveling and staying in a motel that has cable, I'll watch it. I really just enjoy the movie. Yes, it's definitely not a kid's movie and if you have an aversion to course language, I would advise not watching it, but I really don't think you can go wrong with seeing this movie, if you are a baseball fan. "Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep soft, wet kisses that last three days." "You're gonna have to learn your clichés. You're going to have to study them, you're gonna have to know them. They're your friends. Write this down: 'We gotta play it one day at a time.'" "This son of a bitch is throwing a two-hit shutout. He's shaking me off. You believe that shit? Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well." "Man that ball got outta here in a hurry. I mean anything travels that far ought have a damn stewardess it, don't you think?" "Yeah, I was in the show. I was in the show for 21 days once - the 21 greatest days of my life. You know, you never handle your luggage in the show, somebody else carries your bags. It was great. You hit white balls for batting practice, the ballparks are like cathedrals, the hotels all have room service, and the women all have long legs and brains." And, I'll leave you with this:
The photo is from the recreation yard at Alcatraz Island which I took a couple of weeks ago.
It's Friday and with this post I'm halfway through the Chill challenge. To be perfectly honest, I never expected to see me get this far. I have had some nice encouragement from different quarters, some bloggers and some friends of mine who have been nice enough to post something, either here or on Facebook, that has helped keep me going. So I thank you for that. Besides writing to the prompt, I've also kept in the back of my head that I wanted to tie the prompt in with different photos that I've taken. Some, I think, I've been pretty successful in tying in, while others (yesterday's post comes to mind) I don't think I've been quite as successful.
Today's prompt, the morning after, can have a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people. Yeah, that's pretty wishy washy, but it's the best I can come up with. I have to admit that every time I've seen the prompt, Maureen McGovern's song from the original Poseidon Adventure keeps running through my head. Look up the video and you'll see a pretty amazing cast in this movie. The lyrics for the first two verses, written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn speak about love getting through the night and about the journey the people in the Poseidon had to make to get out alive. There's got to be a morning after If we can hold on through the night We have a chance to find the sunshine Let's keep on looking for the light. Oh, can't you see the morning after It's waiting right outside the storm. Why don't we cross the bridge together And find a place that's safe and warm. Originally, the song's title was called, Why must there be a morning after? Either way, reading the words, or thinking about either title, I think the song takes on an entirely different meaning when juxtaposed along with the photo I've chosen to tie in to this prompt. Comments as always are welcome.
Well, I guess I'm getting a little better this month as this represents my fourth post of the month. Double last month's posts, so I'll just have to give myself a pat on the back for that and hope that I can do better next month. This month, PJ proposed the monthly challenge of Fall, so here are my entries for the theme, all taken in October.
1. Fall Flowers My neighbor down the street has an incredible front yard garden. He grows all sorts of seasonal fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Every year around this time, these flowers show up, so I call them Fall Flowers. I have no idea what kind of flowers they are and every time I'm near his house, he's never out so I can ask him what kind these are. I've been fortunate enough to photograph these a number of years in a row. Last year, I got a shot that reminded me of something out of Alice in Wonderland. This shot actually reminds me a little bit of it as well.
2. Lucy Lucy, or the lack of Lucky is a harbinger of fall. I've featured Lucy before in this blog as well in photos, but this one definitely represents fall. Lucy is a California Desert Tortoise, one that I've had a permit for ever since I got her over 10 years ago. I can't release her back into the wild, mainly because tortoises that are in the wild tend to have respiratory ailments that they could pass on to the wild species. Lucy lives in our back yard and usually is out in the early spring, summertime and early fall, but right around this time she disappears into her burrow for good and we'll not see her again until sometime next March when it warms up for good. I saw her a couple of day after I took this shot, but I'm pretty sure she's underground for good, hibernating until spring comes.
3. The lone leaf The next two shots are a couple that probably represent a traditional fall shot. I found this leaf lying on these parkway rocks and like the way it looked, with the contrast of mostly grey rocks and bright yellow color of the leaf. For the most part, our fall actually lasts a long time in Southern California. We don't really get that cold, cold snap of air that most trees need to drop their leaves. I have deciduous trees in my side yard and are still quite green and will be green for several more weeks. While we wait for some brief moments of color, further north, the leaves have all dropped and snow is starting to fall. This leaf just tells us that it's getting a little cooler here.
4. The first storm Here's another traditional "fall" type shot of colored leaves. I did not take this particularly for the leaves, but more for the storm that passed through earlier this week. The nice thing about fall here is we can have just about any kind of temperatures during the week and it will all seem perfectly normal. Earlier this week, when this storm went through, the high was a very crisp 56 degrees. I can all hear the snorts of derision over that, especially for those who live in northern climes. Anyway, this storm that moved through our area, dropped temperatures significantly, as it had been in the 80s the week before. It dropped some much needed rain and we had a light dusting of snow on the mountains at the higher elevations. This is what our weather is like in the fall. Mild, with an occasional cold front storm that will move through the area.
5. Family Fall Festival Last night, our school held its annual Family Fall Festival. This year, the various clubs on campus were also invited to participate. I advise the Photo Club on our campus, so we had a table set up where we could give information out to parents and students who were possibly interested in our club. There was a gaming truck out in the front of the school. Food and popcorn was being sold. This year, the theme was at the movies and each club decided to represent a different movie. Members from various clubs dressed up as characters from Grease, Despicable Me, Sandlot, and others. The photo club took this theme a different way and decided they wanted to be paparazzi at a movie premiere. One of my students took over 140 shots on her camera and I counted at least 7 or 8 other students all with their cameras having a good time being paparazzi. Many costumes were seen last night and I particularly liked these outfits worn by a couple of students. The Cat in the Hat would have been so proud. Well, there's my entries for this month. Please head on over to PJ's blog to see other blogger's interpretations of fall.
