Where is This? #5 shiny red

OK Claronauts, another quiz for you.  Where is this curvy-straight-curvy part of c-don?  If you think you know, drop a comment.  Last week's quiz and answer are here.  Good luck! 

gas-ex

The corrosive forces of NOVA claim another victim.

say your prayers

Fallout shelter sign on the side of a church (not that either would probably help much in a nuclear event).  I got to wondering about these signs and found a few interesting sites.  Turns out, this sign is out of code!  "In awarding the contract for design of the sign ... the services of a psychologist be obtained to recommend a visual symbol that could be easily identified and remembered. The sign had to meet the psychological requirements of simplicity, easy identification, retention and arresting color combination .... The color combination, yellow and black, is considered as the most easily identified attention getter by psychologists in the graphic arts industry."

puff...and stuff

OK, it's only the puff, but I couldn't help myself.  Close up of a dandy lion.  Who spells it that way?  Fer serius....

hey chief!

When I take pictures, I put my headphones on and basically ignore humans as much as possible.  I distinctly remember that I was listening to Andrew W.K. as I shot this painted oil drum at one of the many constructions sites in the area.  As I clicked, I slowly became aware of a noise that sounded like angry shouts; turning my head, I saw six bulky, b'construction-hatted, frownie workers straining under the weight of a heavy metal plate, all of them yelling at me to "get the f&^% out of the way, Chief!"

dark post

Seeing as how I've likely passed on (see yesterday's post) today's picture is literally and metaphorically titled.

hard points, soft drops

Continuing with my theme--of late--of rainy weather pictures and/or drops of various liquids, here's another.  I'm actually out of state right now, and the blogger robot has (hopefully) automatically posted this post for me.  In the off chance that I've died in a plane crash or something and this is now a morbidly sad post, please continue to check my blog tomorrow when I'll have another post-from-the-dead edition of Close-up-Clarendon for you.  Yours truly, Zombie AG.

Where Is This? #4 bird of prey

OK Clarendiners, time for another Friday quiz. If you think you know where this is, drop a comment. Last week's answer is here.  Good luck!


[One week later....]  OK, nice guesses, but no luck this week.  The answer is that it's the eagle on this no-name building across the street from the Papa Johns and around the corner from the Java Shack (and right down the street from the Clarendon Alliance).  Good luck next week!

nanerpuss

So, I buy all of this fruit every time I go to the grocery store, and then my bananasorangesapples inevitably end up rotting on the living-room table.  I thought I'd get some value out of my purchase this week by at least having fun photographing them.  I just hope potassium isn't a vital part of a healthy diet....

Knob McKnobathon

My favorite part is--if you click on the image to enlarge it--you can see a little guy in the lower right-hand corner that, apparently, has a huge nose. Odd.

kitschos los muertes

Some wonderfully kitschie trinkets in the window of "Fragrance World" next to O'Sullivans--most of these are somehow attached to a hookah of sorts; and you'd probably have to be smoking something rather strong to actually think these are a tasteful addition to your home decor....

sap drop

Sap slowly, slowly, slowly dripping down the open wound of a recently cut branch.  As I zoomed in from only inches away, I had a brief moment of horror when I thought I got sap on my lens.  I vote that "Getting sap on your lens" should have a double meaning in our society of some sort....  

UT!

Danger sign on a electrical plant's fence.  This was difficult to take as I was holding the camera with one hand and using the other to shield my various organs from cancer waves.  

play it again sam

 Staying home alone a few Saturday evenings ago, I was going a little stir crazy and decided to take a few pics around the house, in near total dark.  As I laid down on the dusty, dog-hair strewn floor adjusting my aperture, I thought "wow, I have no life...."  But then my roommate came home and we had a dance party! {And by dance party I mean we watched The Office [and by my roommate, I mean my mom].}  OK, none of that really happened, but it was dark and I was bored.

Where is This? #3

Alright Clarendinos, time for another quiz.  The first (and easier) question is "what is this," and the second (more challenging) question is "where is this?"  Post your answers in the comments--next Friday I'll share the answers.  The answer to last Friday's quiz is now in that post.

star india

A muddied gas cover after two days of rain. The best pictures are always during or after bad weather.  There's a metaphor for life here somewhere; somebody write a haiku....

amp amp: how egalitarian....

I'm always struck by how fair this sounds, even if that means there aren't always spots available.  I spend a lot of time thinking about economics and free markets, and this is one of the ideas that resonates most with my ex-liberal self: the idea that there should be equality of treatment, not equality of outcome.

spirograph

Spiral patterns in the bottom of a coffee mug from years of spoon stirring makes me reminiscent of the spirographs cog-and-wheel drawings I used to do while camping in the Kansas woods.

- + 0 1 2 GO!

You would think that I, having taken this picture, would remember what machine this is.  Fortunately, I can't, which led me to brainstorm a list of possible devices that I would like to see in Clarendon.  A time machine.  An industrial Whopper Hopper.  A starbucks-into-anything-else converter.  A large crane (oh wait...).  A dude-brah eliminator.  What would you like to see?

barbed wire love

OK, not really barbed wire, but the rusty fence and flowers gives that vibe. Despite the mistitle, there's a bonus at the end of this post for my punk rock friends.

tubie tube stack

A stack of tube piping next to "the church at Clarendon"--each plastic pipe is about 15' long. As I crouched down to take this shot, I kept falling backwards--WiiFit informs me that my core is weak and I have the body of a 54 year old (I'm half that, actually), and that's why I can't balance or hula hoop well. These kinda look like hula hoops if you squint.

Where Is This? #2

Alright Clarendiners, quiz time again--where is this? (I think this is a hard one--you'll have to put on your detective hat (an/or monocle)). If you think you know the answer, leave a comment. Last week's answer is here.

[One week later....]  The answer to this week's quiz is the "9/11 Mural."  The picture above is of the "11" on the blue bricks.  Tricky....  Below are a few more pics, and here's a full view from someone's Flickr page.  Good luck next week!

ghost plane

Long-exposure shot on an airplane at night. Yes, yes.... This isn't a "close-up shot" and it's not "in Clarendon" (well, I shot it from across the potomac, so the airplane might have been somewhat above C-don) but I like it nonetheless.

fake-bake tans and magnolia trees

Magnolia trees are kinda like overly tanned twenty-somethings; yeh, it looks ~kinda~ hot now, but you're going to look like a leather bag by the time you're thirty. It's just not worth it. The trees look ~kinda~ pretty for like two days, then the yard is covered in decaying, brown petals for a month.

drinking (apple juice) and driving

There were applejacks strewn everywhere, milk draining into the gutter. Horrible....

beads?!....oh, bees....

An ill-fated bumble bee crossed my path yesterday, so I stood next to a children's park lookin' kinda creepy for about 15 minutes ostensibly (to an observer in the park) spinning in circles and pointing my lens in the general direction of the children. It kept returning to the same spot, so I just crouched down and stayed still. At first I tried to let the camera auto focus, but it was too slow so I switched to manual and tried to eyeball it, clicking as many frames as I could. These final two were my last pics. As I crouched down for the last--and closest--shot below, a robin swooped down, about 5 inches from my lens, and CAUGHT the bee midair from out my frame. I must have missed it by a split second. [sad face (sad that I missed the pic, not that the bee died. Calm down, hippies, it's just a bee...).]

perspective reminder

Yesterday I found myself complaining about how it "was hot out." Then, I remembered that is has been cold or rainy for four months, and mentally open-palm slapped myself. So, here's a reminder to help have a positive perspective, especially when it hits 90+ with redic humidity (and the slanting lines of the shadows provide a nice double meaning). Bonus: this type of pole is called a "u-channel post"--who knew?! You're welcome, vocab dorks.

Clarendon, 2110

B&W of a Clarendon power line entangled with a vine, taken after the robot wars of 2091. OK, that was kinda dorky...

I enjoy a nice perambulation with my pipe once a week (which is what you have to call a "walk" if you're enjoying a fine tobacco pipe) and often pause at this power line. I love how the twisted fibers of the unthinking plant mirror the twisted braids of the man-made steel (vice versa?).

plants in love

I went for a walk the other week after our 5-day Rainfest of Lame and got a lot of fun shots of raindrops, puddles and one dead squirrel (I'm still debating whether to post one of the close ups I got there--probably uncouth).

These petals are obviously holding hands and in love. Possibly enjoying the first dry day together in awhile; possibly gently, sadly consoling each other after witnessing the gruesome death of their squirrel neighbor. Hard to tell.

Where Is This? #1

OK Clarendinians, a quiz for you. What is this a picture of?

I've had this 'ol bloggie going for about two months now, and have realized (1) I kinda like posting to it every day and (2) that with only photos and no text it's basically a glorified Flickr page. So, I've decided to start adding a little color commentary to make it more interesting for the 2 people I know who actually look at this thing. High five.

[One week later, I've posted the answer]. No one got this one, but it's the painted sign in the parking lot to the left of Whitlow's on Wilson. Good luck next week!