Saturday, August 4, 2007

Post Hoc



Without knowing why, I like these images enough to post them. This was discovered in a grassy sward in Stevens Park, just beyond the Museum of Natural History, a notional, upscale neighborhood on the east side of Santa Barbara. The second image, the hanging pinatas, caught my eye on the volatile, rapidly emerging Milpas Street segment of Santa Barbara, by all accounts a working class neighborhood with a number of restaurants, including the estimable Altamirano, barber shops and hair salons in the front rooms of residences, the inexplicably popular Super Rica Tacqueria, several sporting goods shops with prom inent displays of soccer equipment, and two groceries, the largest of which, Scolari's, is close to the variety store where the hanging pinatas are displayed thusly. Unfortunately, there is also an emporium where one might secure quick cash 'till payday, at exorbitant interest rates, a KFC, a Jack-in-the Box, and a Goodyear tire and auto of the sort that gives auto repair emporia a dubious name. Nevertheless. It is Milpas Street, resisting change like a states' rights conservative in election year. There are pinatas and Mexican beer, and if you ask politely at the panederia in the small strip mall at De la Guerra, they will sell you some of the damndest wonderful tamales para llevar, which you could then transport with such Pacifico or Carta Blanca to a nearby park and watch life turn into a party. Yes, I know; there are such streets everywhere, even in Solvang. The ethnicity changes, the cooking tastes and smells transmogrify, but the vibe remains constant. You simply have to know where to look.

I was going to stop with that last paragraph, but as I was spell-checking, it came to me that I liked this image, too, and so I decided what the hell, why not? And so here it is:

2 comments:

Lori Witzel said...

Oh, coolness!

The first pic is so deadpan funny -- "Clean Out of What?" I wondered.

And to close with another pic as, uhm, a-peeling -- well, what a treat!

We have pinata places around here too, but I've never been able to catch the strange magic in them to my satisfaction. You've done better than I; your basket-looking pinatas remind me of some phantasmagoric jellyfish.

Kelli Anne said...

I like this last picture a lot. I once made a shoe out of dried orange peels for an art assignment when I was living in Italy. It never really worked out.
All of your photos are wonderful.