Daylight savings (robbing Peter to pay Paul)

These first evenings after daylight savings time ends are always disorienting. When you’re used to leaving work under an orange, twilight sky, the abrupt shift to stepping out into darkness is too jarring to make sense of.

For example, my first reaction to seeing this activity outside my building Monday night?

Why is there a FOOD TRUCK in the middle of the street?????

In the unfamiliar after-work darkness, my image processing glitched, translating all the individual elements of this scene—the truck, the street, the “awning,” and the “customers” lined up at the window—into my wildly incorrect gestalt conclusion.

A few minutes later I stopped at a red light on Juneau immediately north of Fiserv Forum. Again, the darkness changed how things presented themselves to me.

Although I drive past here all the time, I really noticed the odd (whimsical?) nighttime colors tonight, especially the purple and orange. The purple makes sense, as it’s one of the colors associated with the arena’s Milwaukee Bucks, but I don’t know the story (if there is one) behind the choice of orange for Fiserv Forum’s signs, both here on the ground (for photo ops) and up flat on the roof (for viewing from the air).

Anyway, it all looked so different and new in the darkness that I felt compelled to take a photo. And now, also, to share 😄

By the way, my post’s title refers to that sleight-of-hand con whereby we “save” daylight for summer by stealing it from winter and leaving us with the long, bitter cold darkness that constitutes life in Wisconsin, November through April.

A bit overly dramatic but completely justified whining! We had a few inches of snow on Halloween, more snow yesterday, and temperatures in the twenties today.

Poor us😩😂

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And the sun came out . . .

Very windy rain showers hit Milwaukee around mid-day today. I took this series of photos from my office window after returning from a couple of meetings around three o’clock.

For some reason the title of a favorite picture book of my younger daughter’s popped into my head. The Rain Came Down is a charming, beautifully structured and illustrated story, highly recommended if you have children in your life around ages 3 to 5, maybe even up to 7 years old. The story introduces various people in a city going about their business and then losing their tempers when a sudden squall hits. Finally, as the sun comes out, they calm down and make nice with each other, bringing equilibrium and equanimity to the still-dripping disorder.

Obviously my little “picture book” blog post today shows only the downpour’s happy ending, so I titled it accordingly 🙂

Posted in Books and reading, Life, Milwaukee, Photography | Tagged | 1 Comment

BMO Tower name goes up

The name was going up on the new BMO Tower in downtown Milwaukee when I took this photo Friday afternoon.

I love all the construction going on around Milwaukee. This city has always felt like the biggest small town in America to me, and I don’t want that to change. On the other hand, I’ve also always believed that things are either growing or dying and that there is no true stasis. Construction equals growth to me, therefore “life,” and a signal that the city going in the right direction. (Because “dying” would be going in the wrong direction 😂)

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What one ponders during meetings

Well, not all the time, of course. But one’s gaze does tend to wander when certain people talk. And if it’s a sunny day, certain areas of brightness and shadow outside the windows do tend to capture one’s attention, especially if the horizontal black lines of the window shades so nicely complement the vertically aligned composition of said areas of light and shadow . . . .

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“Found Object” — the overhead light in my office

I just noticed that the light fixture on my office ceiling is kind of interesting. I’ve been here twelve years, so how did I not see it before today? Answer: sometimes things don’t register until they’re viewed from an unusual angle. Not until I was putting in eyedrops just now (allergies, windy autumn day) did I realize how cool that light looks when you really LOOK at it. Just thought I’d “share the magic” with you😃

First . . . the light itself.

Then a closeup . . .

And another closeup from a slightly different angle (very slightly), which then registered the colors differently.

The pink and gold area (lavender and green in the photo above) reminds me of beading on a 1920s handbag, but it’s actually a metal grid, like a screen but less “fine,” covering the flourescent bulbs.

Fooling around with images is quick and easy fun, right? Now back to work.

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Gorgeous October sunset!

Taken tonight as I was leaving my office. I wanted to shoot a panorama so you could see the beautiful glow of all that orange light reflected and reflected again off of office building windows and down onto the streets and the MGIC grassy mall area and trees.

But there were several people around and the light was about to change AND a professor from the other side of campus, whom I never get to see anymore, was leaving work, too. So we walked to the parking garage together and had a really nice catch-up conversation.

Still, though, I am seriously regretting the shot that got away!

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Mid-century wall and windows – getting closer to getting it right

This wall of windows at Milwaukee Area Technical College has caught my eye for a long time. Not sure why, but the starkness of the pattern appeals to me.

Previous photos, like the one below taken through my car window last year at the traffic light on 6th Street looking west on Highland, didn’t capture what I “saw.” In this photo, snapped with my phone on the way home from work, the angle and distance from the the wall itself caused the image to portray it inaccurately, not at all the way I saw it, if that makes sense.

I finally managed to geta better picture (below) last week when I was stopped at the traffic light on Highland facing east into 6th Street, right across from Fiserv Forum. But I felt this photo had too many distractions, like the light pole, the shadow, and most of all the different shades/types of bricks.

It’s funny how the hazy late-afternoon sunlight in last year’s color version made the brick in that older photo less attractive than it is in the picture I took a week ago in bright morning sunlight. But in this closer-up version, I don’t like the weird, patchy switch to that other shade of brick. It’s as if they decided to close up a former doorway and replace it with a wall and window. I’m sure there’s some history there.

So . . . sigh. Although using an editing filter to change the photo to black and white solves the brick problem, I really liked last week’s color version better. If only the wall itself could have looked better, I’d have gotten a much nicer photo!

#blamethesubject 🙂

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A “jaw-droppingly” creative television ad

The “Golden Age” of television advertising” (think “Mad Men”) is generally considered to be the 1960s through sometime in the 1980s. TV commercials were often extremely creative and fun to watch.

Like this clever VW commercial from the very early 1970s.

And this ad from the very early 1980s. Gotta love those headphones with their wires leading to (I assume) a Sony Walkman.

And this snooty ad for snooty mustard 🙂

And this fabulous spot for really tough luggage.

Not to mention, as long as we’re rambling through the neighborhood of travel-related advertising, this classic ad for Hertz Rent-A-Car.

These Hertz ads eventually went a little too nuts, with O.J. hurtling (and hurdling 🙂 ) over various obstacles. But, on the other hand, you certainly got the message: If you’re in a big hurry at the airport, go with Hertz!

Anyway, most television commercials today are boring and/or annoying (my opinion). So when I saw this ad during the 10:00 news on television last night, I liked it so much I actually went looking for it online.

 

Kudos to General Motors and whoever is responsible for either creating this ad in-house or hiring the outside talent that produced it. The GMC Sierra tailgate itself is pretty cool, but the ad telling us about it is pure magic!

Posted in Creativity, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Red Light, Rainy Night

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Lex Allen’s “love letter” to Milwaukee

If you live in Milwaukee, you’ve probably already seen this joyful music video. If you haven’t, you’ll fall in love with both Lex Allen and the city they showcase so beautifully. The song is “Let Go.” Enjoy! 🙂

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