Ubiquitous

Looking like some odd portrait for a family

of circus acrobats, these chairs are stacked in a backyard

on Indy's Old Northside neighborhood.

The neighborhood is made up of numerous homes

in various stages of restoration, renewal,

and remodeling.

These pictures were taken Wednesday evening

as I walked a couple blocks from 

the bus stop to the Indiana Landmarks Center.

At one corner, a contractor who obviously

 took pride in his work, had embedded

a small plaque in a sidewalk he had installed.

While I couldn't find information

related to the sidewalks in this neighborhood,

Mr. Foster was responsible for the

construction of sidewalks, about a half

mile away, in July of 1893.

Here, nearly 125 years later, the quality

of the man's work is still apparent

in that it is still in use.

Delineations

After a thunderstorm, I went outside for a walk.

The rain had presented me with a drawing,

a subtle gray composition on the heaved sidewalk

where straight and scribbly intersected

to balance each other.

Sidewalk Shots

The weather Thursday evening was hot and muggy, 

too heavy with moisture to not rain.

When I left the Natatorium, the clouds had finally

broken down, releasing the moisture 

 in great splotches of rain.

The storm stopped as I walked to the bus stop,

during which I found these pictures.

Temperatures were so warm that the rain had already 

begun to evaporate from the sidewalks.

Here Be Dragons, er, Dragonflies

It's been a long while since I've seen a dragonfly.

They were always my tiny companions

when I was fishing off the side of the boat,

green ones, blue ones, and little fiery-red ones.

With their big heads, they reminded me 

of helmeted helicopter pilots.

This one, however, nearly smacked me in the head 

this morning as I walked to the store. 

I looked in my dragonfly book 

but couldn't find one like him in the pictures,

so I can't say what kind of dragonfly he be, 

but I bet he's not from "uncharted territory." 

Sidewalk of Smiles and Stars

On Sunday night in Los Angeles, the year's Academy Awards 

will be handed out to the hard-working people who are

employed in the motion picture industry. In addition to the

actors and actresses who form the front line of our 

consciousness, are scores of people who go unrecognized

by most of us, but who may be among the joyful

few to receive one of the golden statuettes.

While their frozen smiles will not likely make the morning news, 

and their stars will not be embedded into the sidewalk outside Grauman's

Chinese Theater, their pride will not be felt any less, 

nor their achievements diminished.

Here's to the folks who surround the stars, who get the film

onto the screen for the rest of the world to enjoy. 

Concrete Ideas

On my way Wednesday to meet some friends for lunch,

I just about fell into this bit of sidewalk work. 

Damn, I love it when the concrete contractors do all the 

drawing for me, leaving wonderful compositions

like this, just waiting to be photographed.  

The sidewalks are formed of subtle shades of gray, 

with marks, textures and patterns set off by 

formed aluminum and black rubber accents.

The workmen had made an entire series of drawings

in the sidewalk, of which I was able to capture a few. 

I fairly danced the rest of the way to lunch; 

whoda thought concrete finishers were artistic geniuses?