Pagan dreams

Pagan dreams
Originally uploaded by Faria.

My farewell to Not A Cornfield. Over the past few months, I watched a cornfield grow in downtown LA. I remember when the corn crops towered over my head, and I walked in a sea of green. Then it turned to pure gold, and I watched it being harvested and hung on the fence. Row upon row of colorful corn against the Metro Goldline train tracks.

Then I returned to find a mystic ring of enormous curios in the middle of the now-empty field, with the corn husks peeking out at me from the top. I stood in the middle of the ring and whispered a silent prayer to the Corn Goddess. I ran my fingers over the rough textures of each curio, one by one, and tested its strength in my hands. I felt the warm sun on my back, and a light breeze in my hair. My absolution was complete.

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Tom Joad gazes into the future

Tom Joad gazes into the future
Originally uploaded by Faria.

A satellite image of this area in downtown Los Angeles from Flickr geotagging is here.

This is the final phase of the Not A Cornfield Project. I remember when this area was a junky lot, but over the past few months I witnessed its transformation from toxic wasteland to agricultural park.

I imagine that this path could lead you to the ghost of Tom Joad or to the urban jungle in which we live.

LA Public transit : Crayola crisis

LA Public transit : Crayola crisis
Originally uploaded by Faria.

As if public transit in Los Angeles didnt have enough problems already, now they're facing a Crayola crisis.

The LA Times has an absurd but amusing story about MTA's conundrum in using colors to designate their railway routes: MTA squabbles over Hue-Mongous Decision

"There's the Red Line, Blue Line, Green Line, Orange Line and Gold Line. Now officials who are planning a light-rail transit line along Exposition Boulevard need a color for it that riders will remember and route mapmakers can illustrate."


This is two photos combined. The foreground is the Union Station structure/monument near Alameda St. The background is newly decorated CalStateLA busway station. Then I messed around with the colors to create the railway lines.
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In 1990, the 22-mile Blue Line opened to take us down to Long Beach. It was LA's first modern light rail line.

In 1993, the first segment of the Red Line opened. A year later, a second route was added that takes us down Wilshire Blvd, but abruptly drops us off at Wilshire/Western even though we want to go further west!

In 1995, the Green Line opened. It runs East/West from from El Segundo to Norwalk and near to LAX. I have never been on this line.

In 2003: The Gold Line was opened to take us to Pasadena from Union Station.
It's travelling speed leaves something to be desired, but I use it frequently.

In 20??: The Aqua Line opens, to extend the Wilshire route of the Red Line all the way to the sea.

Silence

Silence
Originally uploaded by Faria.

I will be the waves and you will be a strange shore.
I will be a slash of blue, and you will be a streak of gray.
I will be the sound, and you will be the silence

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end,
Each changing place with that which goes before
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

A memory.

Desert Water

Desert Water
Originally uploaded by Faria.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars - on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

~Robert Frost

The colors were inspired by Dolly's artwork

Part IV of my Water Power series about our insatiable thirst for water out in our cadillac desert.

The Temple

The Temple
Originally uploaded by Faria.

His darkest thoughts took the form of Arach and left the temple of his mind.

Every last drop of hatred in his soul converged, coalesced and crystallized into a form with 6 legs.

And then it walked away.

He saw it exit through his window, but did not say goodbye. He knew it would return, bigger and more powerful than before, ready to enter his mind again and take control of him once more.

The Pre-Cog

The Pre-Cog
Originally uploaded by Faria.

Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane.
-- Philip K. Dick

Photo of a statue near the Los Angeles Public Library, tweaked with Picasa and fd's flickrtoys.

It reminded me of the precog from Minority Report (a Spielberg adaption of Philip K. Dick's novel).

TicTacToe in the sky

TicTacToe in the sky
Originally uploaded by Faria.

Saturday March 4th 2006.

Walking down Vine Street towards Sunset Blvd, I spotted an airplane leaving snowy, white trails in the sky. I took 2 separate shots and combined them with the multi-exposure tool to create a celestial TicTacToe.

I had gone to see the Oscars Red Carpet at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and witness the hustle & bustle of busy preparation for the big day. But this ended being my most interesting photo of the pack.