Deep Thoughts While Walking The Freedom Trail

September 30, 2009 By

freedomtrail1

When you walk the Freedom Trail in Boston you walk around busy downtown Boston.  You’ll stop at ancient burying grounds that are just inches from the busy sidewalks.

Yesterday, I stopped by Kings Chapel burying grounds, the final resting place of many early colonists.  Mary Chilton, the first woman to step off the Mayflower, is buried here for example.

Anyway, I strolled by these stone markers and thought my usual “deep” thoughts.

I can never quite shake the odd feeling that these early settlers from the 1600′s and participants in our American Revolution are now inches away from the land of flip flops.

But, hey, maybe it’s just me.

©Pat Coakley 2009

PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

Filed Under: Boston, Deep Thoughts Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Sailing Smiling Through A Windy City

September 28, 2009 By

sailtaxiFxs

What can I say?

I was waiting to cross the street when I saw this man “sailing” down the street.

Gusts of wind had been picking up since I had left a family birthday party at a restaurant across town.

I’d been offered a ride home from my cousin who lives in my same town.

But, I declined, saying, “I like wandering around and taking photos on my way to the train station.”

I’m emailing her this picture tomorrow.  I would have gotten home earlier for sure had I hitched a ride with her.

But, who knows where I would have ended up had I hitched a ride with Sail Man as he blew by me, smiling all the way.

©Pat Coakley 2009

PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

You can view a bit of Boston Garden which I photographed just before reaching this intersection of Boylston and Berkeley streets (photographed while looking like a particularly noxious lawn ornament I might add) on my photo blog of all flowering things, Singular Sensation.

Filed Under: ART IS WHERE YOU FIND IT, Boston Tagged With: , , , ,

Talk, Listen, Sing-AFTER THE MUSEUM, THE SERIES

September 27, 2009 By

talkandsingfs

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Class?  Attention, please.

Please raise your hand if you pay a deductible on any insurance policy you have?

Can you see me?  I have two hands raised.  One for my car and home insurance policy and the other for my medical insurance (it’s called co-pay).

Ok.  So far so good.

Now, we think once again about “moral hazard”.

We know the term from attempts to manage this colossal f up in the financial global world which surfaced a year ago, September ’08.  We know now it started right here in the US of A with the greedacious creation of financial products sold world wide and immensely profitable to the chain of originators until they became unlimited, incalculable liabilities on world wide books and 11 trillion dollars disappeared from portfolios individual and corporate seemingly overnight.

The price of oil may have plummeted in this crisis, but the price of red ink?  Through the roof.

Anyhoo…moral hazard, according to Wikepedia, lists several scenarios where it can occur.   In the corporate world (with consequences far beyond the boardroom) when “upper management is shielded from the consequences of poor decision making”.  It can also occur to Joe the Plumber–I just had to rework him back into the discussion somehow.

For example, if Joe insures his truck without a deductible (I’m not even sure that’s possible but let’s say it is)  then he might not be so concerned about whether it is stolen or not since the consequences of the stolen vehicle rests primarily with the insurance company.  If he has a deductible expense, however,  then the thinking is he’ll think a little deeper about leaving his car unlocked or parking in unsafe areas.  So, a deductible in our daily insurance lives is actually a real world attempt to control reckless, moral hazardy behavior of  the plain vanilla individual people in pursuit only of  life liberty and the occasional droplet of happiness.

There will be a multiple choice surprise quiz on this sometime this week, class.

So, doesn’t it make total sense to bring the deductible to the boardrooms?  Seriously, what is takin’ them so long to figure this out?

If 500 or 1000 dollars is statistically proven to curb my risky behavior, what might a few hundred mill do to the corporate swashbuckler?

This moral hazard thing for creative thinkers (artists, scientists, inventors NOT bankers or corporate CEO’s) is a distinctly more fun concept.

What does a creative mind shielded from the risks of his or her own creativity get?

It’s called a MacArthur Genius Award.  Each year around this time of year, several folks who have been creative in some way in the past get a call from an unknown person saying they have just received $500,000 and there are no strings attached.  Do with it what you will or not they are told.  The MacArthur award cannot be rescinded or taken back.  They are not coming after you if you produce nothing or you produce the biggest f up in the artistic or scientific community known to man.  They are banking (no pun intended) that this financial windfall freedom will encourage your creativity not endanger it and that encouragement shall lead to contributions to the society as a whole one way or the other.

My take-away from this:  There is unlimited liability for a creative person only when they fail to take risks rather than the limited liability or “deductible” on any single failed artistic or scientific endeavor.

Suspended hundreds of feet in the air, the window washer in this image, for example, is spelling out my telephone number for the secret MacArthur board in the grime and grit of Boston air molecules.

Do you see it?

No?

Well,  surely, you can hear him whistling?

It’s the theme from “Bridge over the River Kwai”.

You remember…build the damn bridge then blow it up.

Genius.

©Pat Coakley 2009

PHOTOGRAPHY CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

EARLIER POSTS IN SERIES:

ONE

TWO

The growing season has not come to an end on Singular Sensation, my photoblog about flower photography.  I just posted Rule #25: “For God’s sake, take the batteries out of your flash.”

Filed Under: After the Museum, Artists, Boston, Creativity Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Bike in the City-After the Museum, The Series

September 26, 2009 By

bikeincitys

Words fail me on moral hazard and creativity just now–in fact, words fail me on about every topic today, so I just put some letters of the alphabet into the image and called it a day.

This series can be read about HERE.

©Pat Coakley 2009

PHOTOGRAPHY CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

Filed Under: After the Museum Tagged With: , , , , ,

It ain’t just Bingo, Gladys.

September 24, 2009 By

parfum

Oh, I needed this.  And, I don’t mean a spritz of Sex in the City perfume that had just been gifted to this volunteer at my local senior center.

I was there taking photos of all the activities at the center in order to make a slide show for their website.  I was told this was the Arts and Crafts room.

“Tuesday’s the day”, the woman in the background told me.  That is the day when the room is filled with all sorts of seniors doing a variety of crafts.  I should come back then, she said.

Ok, I’ll come back for sure but let me tell you one thing, ladies.  I don’t think the Tuesday people are going to have any more fun than the Thursday people, including the photographer.

I photographed chair aerobics, men playing pool, one 81 year old woman (she told me her age, I didn’t ask) singing a song as she stretched out on her couch like a cat.  The song was from “Mary Poppins”  and the two other ladies sitting on opposite couches, said, “She starts singing on the bus over here!”.

I photographed a table of gamblers who quickly told me they didn’t play for money, and a woman who had just returned to the center on this day after a full knee replacement.  She was glad to be back, she said.  She usually teaches seniors how to use the computer.  Oh, yes, I photographed the computer room and one woman described her schedule of activities to me and I’d say the only  rival may be Rahm Emmanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff.

I needed this today as earlier in the day I was fussing about a knee of my own, kevtching about not being able to go for long walks because of it, seeing the future knee replacement down the line, hip, you name it, I was catastrophizing all body parts failing simultaneously and needing to be replaced and having to get special controls for my new car so the brake and accelerator are no longer foot pedals.

O, I’d drive myself crazy if I wasn’t so used to me.

I’m going back again tomorrow to the senior center to photograph a party.  It begins at 10:30 AM and is over by 12:30 PM.

I have to tell you…these are my kind of party hours and this is before the full body part replacement surgeries.

©Pat Coakley 2009

PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

Filed Under: Aging, SENIOR CENTER Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

After the Museum, The Series-Mack in the City & Moral Hazard. Huh?

September 21, 2009 By

mackinthecity

(Oh, yeah, this is a series if I ever saw one.)

I’ve been going to art museums for years.  I came to it not by habits of exposure in childhood but as an adult in need of a country of origin.

The biographical details are not important  because we all arrive at the same spot in our own way.

Ever stood in the same intersection in your life with exactly the same choices of straight ahead, left, right, or turn around, and just stood there, suspending all choices, until you invented a new choice?

Yep, me, too.

But, only after I’ve gone to an art museum.

Each day I’m going to post another decision in my attempt to wrestle free of moral hazard.  Oh, c’mon, you’ve heard of it.  Much used word during the decisions made a year ago by Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke.  Wikepedia says this about moral hazard:

“Moral hazard is the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk.“

So, this series is going to be about artists and creativity, insulated from risk, behaving differently than they would behave if they were fully exposed to risk, and each ‘decision’ I post shall be not the “right” or “wrong” decision but simply a decision.

Just in case, you are listening– Damen und Herren at Freddie and Fannie Mac, AIG, Bear Stearns, AIG, Wachovia Bank, and so many damn others……DO NOT DO THIS ANYMORE!!  This is for artists not bankers.

The world economies can’t survive another immoral hazard from you folks.

©Pat Coakley 2009

PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

#1-After the Museum, The Series: Suburban in the City (Before I knew it was a series)

Filed Under: After the Museum, Art, THE SERIES Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Suburban in the City

September 20, 2009 By

citydriving1z

“Damian Ortega is known for taking things apart and putting them back together again.”

That’s what it says on the website of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston about his exhibit “Do It Yourself” which opened on Friday with me first in line.

Go look at the slide show provided on the website but I’m not sure anything but seeing it shall convey the wonder and humor (yes, humor, I’m telling you– I laughed out loud) artist.  I don’t believe anyone in recent memory has required presence as much as Mr. Ortega.

All I can tell you is this.

On my walk back to the train station, I stood in the median strip taking shots of Boston from across Fort Point Channel, purposely underexposing and overexposing, and absolutely, positively shaking the camera as I pressed the shutter. If I could jump with any degree of grace, I’d have jumped up and down while pressing the shutter.

Once home, I stole another image of this black Suburban I’d taken on my walk to the museum and put it all  back together again into this image.  I call it “Before and After”.

Ah.

Feels good–this putting things back together thing.

©Pat Coakley 2009

PHOTOGRAPHY CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

Filed Under: Art, ART IS WHERE YOU FIND IT, Artists Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

A Year Ago My Pretties

September 18, 2009 By

imbackFTs2

I’m back.

Driving a new car with a wider windshield but still taking out of focus photographs from behind the wheel.

Back thinking more about images as narrative than the art of the negotiating a car deal.

And, this one, taken this morning (actually four images) has the story arc of this past year.

The blinding white light reportedly seen just before or right after death is there and that’s what precisely a year ago I felt I was seeing.

Not my physical death, although it felt physical at times, but the steady demise of this nation’s fiscal muscle as well as mine.

A year ago, I wrote a post about my Sky is Fallin’ friend, Jim, whose eulogy I gave in 2005.  The economic crisis that began in September of ’08 was a moment (as it turned out, months of moments) when I needed my friend to put the pieces of the sky back where it belonged.

Now, a year later, on the same day, September 16, 2009, I have bought a new car.

What happened?  I wasn’t buying bottled water, never mind a new car, a year ago.

Essentially, I went to the school of  ‘Take Control of What You Can’ on a yellow school bus in three notorious areas of volatility: creativity, finances and health.  My exposure to volatility in all areas still exists but is more in line with my age and height, risk tolerance, and in the case of my creativity, in line with my talents.  Sounds simple but oh baby what a wild ride on this yellow bus careening through the streets.

A ride that was filled with dizzy, vertiginous, rolling, month after month of sickening hairpin turns but I earned my degree and learned I can survive, albeit still slightly out of focus, by my own wits and creativity– every day, rain or shine, snow or sleet and ice–and, in so doing, can be my own sky is fallin’ friend.

This past week of real world car shopping transformed me from a woman who felt like bursting into tears upon entering the showroom, to the one who negotiated a respectable deal (Thanks to niece, Alice, and her suggestion of buying the Consumer Reports New Car Buying Guide) but don’t get me wrong.  The dealer still made money on the car but at least I didn’t go, “Oh, I love THAT one!”, pointing to a cherry tomato red Toyota RAV4, and immediately write the check.

I’d personally like to thank Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and that cast of world financial advisers and leaders who had to make very unpopular decisions, and I’m sure unthinkable decisions, starting a year ago, to prevent this economy and economies world wide, from totally melting down and settling my inner rattling cage to manageable levels.  The economy isn’t “fixed” but at least I’m not hiding six months of living expenses in my volumes of W.B Yeats letters and poetry instead of a potentially failing bank or money market account, as I did at one point last October.

My gratitude extends out to my weekly Weight Watchers meeting attendees, as well, who sometimes make me laugh out loud (e.g.: last week, a woman who apparently drives a great deal and who has lost 70 lbs, gave the group this tip,  “Just throw the wrappers (of candy bars, snacks, crackers) on the car floor and add up the points at the end of the day) as we get healthier and to those blogging and real world friends who take the time to comment on my creativity, day after day, week after week.

But, just so you know–I still don’t buy bottled water.  I get my 6-8 glasses a day straight from the tap.

©Pat Coakley 2009

PHOTOGRAPHY CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

Filed Under: BEHIND THE WHEEL SERIES, Deep Thoughts, Financial World Crisis, Weight Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hyperfocus vs Canon’s Autofocus

September 16, 2009 By

beaversunrisecs

Who knew?

Car shopping and making art require the same part of my brain: the ability to hyperfocus.  I cannot do them both at the same time.

Add to the mix a Canon camera and its well known subpar “autofocus” setting and I am in real trouble.

I managed this morning to go by the local pond at sunrise but I had to take 30 shots before one was in focus via the manual focus.   I’m not kidding.  This is a bad weakness in this camera if the operator is also preoccupied with real world decisions.

I may need a viewfinder magnifier if this real world siege continues much longer.

©Pat Coakley 2009

PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

Filed Under: Canon, Car Shopping, Cars Tagged With: , , ,

The Art of Decay and Promotion: Car Shopping

September 14, 2009 By

conecarshshs

Hands up, people!  Way in the air so I can count each of you.

How many would like an 8X10 of this cone flower which has seen better days?

Don’t be shy, I’m here to let you know that I don’t do business that “old” traditional way.  I don’t try to put lipstick on a pig to coin that oft used phrase.

It is what it is: a cone flower that is decayed and exhausted.  But, not as decayed and exhausted as that black blurred one on the right.

See, that fly on the left?  Signs of life, right?  At least, interest.  There might be some nourishment still remaining.

In fact, this may be my new self portrait.

I’m the fly and I am car shopping.

Remember “Out of Africa”, the movie?  When Redford and Streep were in the vehicle that broke down right in the middle of a herd of wild animals?  What did Streep’s character do?

She yelled, “Shoo!”

I’m going into another car dealer today and when they (and I do mean “they”) approach,  I’m yelling, “Shoo!”

It’s my new negotiation tactic that I’m sure the Donald would admire.

It is better than bursting into tears, isn’t it?

Stay tuned.

Filed Under: Car Shopping Tagged With: , , , , , ,
«Older Posts