Out Wandering Around...

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Yesterday afternoon I was out wandering around
I set out specifically to go photograph a poster of a clown
Seen the day before on the way to work
For if not photographed, things like this tend to disappear... forever
A red traffic light in a small town had forced me to stop
Right next to the clown, with time to see it out the side window
With time to make a mental note to return with the camera soon
And somehow despite all the distractions of the ensuing day
On the way home I remembered, so yesterday on waking up I went
Out to wander around, to photograph a clown
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Sometimes I wonder whether a given photo is better in black and white . . . what do you think ?
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Here is the full scene as seen along a local road . . .
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On the way back home from the clown town, I couldn't resist the temptation to stop at a nearby cemetery, which I've stopped in before, but I wanted to take another look. As is almost always the case when going back to a place already visited, I saw details there yesterday that I hadn't noticed before; a few of them follow here.
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A decorative ceramic cross from years ago, decorations made these days seem decidedly lacking in heart and soul when compared to the crafts of yesterday.
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For some reason these fake plastic flowers really grabbed me . . .
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This next one made me think of Bob Dylan's "Everything is Broken" . . .
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If you've been following these pages for any length of time, you may recall seeing some other fading faces from graveyard photographs. Old photographs like this one that were printed on a ceramic oval, and then which have faded over the years in the sun and rain and frost and fog, never fail to captivate me entirely, to entrance, to enchant, and to inspire me to take the photograph, so as to remember this face before it is entirely gone. Will my photographs also fade away into oblivion one day ?
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To quote from the Dylan song mentioned above :
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"Broken cutters, broken saws
Broken buckles, broken laws
Broken bodies, broken bones
Broken voices on broken phones
Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin'
Everything is broken"
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More plastic flowers. We live in an increasingly plastic world. Even some cemetery memories are left in plastic.
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Rust eats away slowly but surely . . .
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Even angels are not left untouched by rust . . ..

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Flowers, real and plastic alike, end up in the detritus bin. I always liked that word : "detritus". I wonder what detritus I will leave behind when I go, before I too end up in the detritus bin ? A pile of photographs, a few poems, an echo of a song played on an acoustic guitar ? .


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Footnote added to this post Tuesday night : ... my gut instinct to go back quickly on Sunday and do the above photos of the clown poster with hip hop rappers coming out of his head was justified, as when I went by this afternoon on the way to work, the rapper poster had already been torn off to make room for a new ad poster for the Club, leaving the clown with half his head torn off. After taking this photo on my cell phone I tore off the rest of the remaining clown face, brought it home as a souvenir of this post. It just goes to show, you should always photograph something when you see it if you think it is worth a photo, because it may not be there tomorrow.
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Beware of the Monster . . .

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In the summertime in France, there are a few small circus operations that criss-cross the land, setting up their tents for a few days at a time here and there, putting on their shows under the big top, doing their best to amaze and entertain mainly small children, whose parents probably saw such events as children, and who want to pass on and share those memories with their own offspring.
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I have to admit, I have quite mixed feelings about circuses. I hate to see animals that should by all rights be wild, in cages. Usually in fairly squalid conditions. Tigers should be roaming dark jungles, not pacing a cage. Camels should be out in a desert somewhere, not in northern France tied to a stake in the ground. Zebras should be out on the African plains, worrying perhaps about lions, but not behind bars in a circus.
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On the other hand, were it not for zoos and circuses, many children might never see some of these large animals which are not native to their country. I'm not sure if that small redeeming value can justify such spectacles, but there is not much I could do to change these things, even if I wanted to. Surreptitiously setting the animals free around here would be crueler than letting them continue their caged existence, they would either become roadkill or be hunted down and caught again, or killed if not caught.
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It was the elephant here that caught my eye as I was driving to work the other day, I made a mental note to return with camera in hand . . . (Lydia, if you see this, note the "Lydia" on the trailer here . . .)
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Their camel was calling out, "Step up, step up, come one, come all !!", while showing off his strong set of teeth !
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Lions were roaring . . . silently . . .
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These two were holding a little secret meeting, maybe plotting their escape ?
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There were some amazing beasts to be seen. Would not want to get gored by this fellow . . . Shucks, if they turned him loose in the streets of Pamplona, he could skewer a whole shishkabob of runners on those long horns of his . . .
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All manner of creatures, great and small, were to be found there . . . even a goat.
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Tired of pacing the cage, he toppled over, one paw raised, even in sleep not forgetting the heavy gauge wire of the cage . . .
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But the most surprising sight that afternoon was the zebra, who after tiring of browsing the sparse grass, decided to chomp on a tasty looking green tee shirt that stepped a bit too close. The boy squealed with shock, and the zebra let go. The message on the boy's shirt seemed perfectly appropriate : "Beware of the Monster" !
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Self Portrait . . .

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PS This was just before he spat at me . . . but don't you just love his black mascara ?
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When Zebras Roam In My Dreams . . .

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Last Sunday morning, just after posting the piece about Karine Arnou's lovely zebra painting under the title of Blue Zebra Moons, la Grenouille and I went out for a walk through the village. Imagine my total stupefaction when I found myself face to face with a real live zebra, a realio, trulio, zebrio zebra. Zebras are not native to this region of northern France . . . but the circus was in town ! Which only happens once in a blue moon . . .

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So, for your ultimate zebra viewing pleasure, you get the front view, the side view . . .
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And the rear view . . .
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There were even painted portraits of zebras (not as nice as Karine's though) . . .
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And not only zebras, but llamas and camels too ! A menagerie . . .
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Send in the clowns ! (quoth Switters !)
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After leaving the circus, and walking quite a way up the road, in an unexpected place we stumbled upon an ancient and beautiful automobile, from back in the far-gone days when things were actually built to last. Now I know from experience that there are one or two experts on old automobiles out there, so I'm going to give you three details of the car we saw, to see if these are enough clues for anyone to identify the beast . . .
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A tail light gleaming like hard candy . . .
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And finally a tailpipe like the paw of some strange animal . . . a chrome covered ostrich maybe ?

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Return to the Circus . . .

And to finish for tonight on a lighter note, here are a few more shots from the circus, if one can call it that, a couple of weekends ago . . .
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Sliding out of the sky to a checkerboard landing . . .
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The ticket man waiteth and smoketh . . .
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And if you look carefully here, by the broken glass, crumpled coffee cup, and cigarettes, you may just be able to see a little hidden magic . . .
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Circus (Continued) . . .

As mentionned below, the circus was in town today, replete with a sorts of colorful characters, like this plaster (or is "plastered" more likely) parrot. . .
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And there were flying blue elephants that made my head spin. . .
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And for a minute there I thought I was even seeing the dreaded pink elephant. . . am going to have to stop drinking so much in the afternoon, it is obviously doing me no good at all. . .
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The Circus Is In Town . . .

While out and about this afternoon, I ran smack into a big clown face. As is sometimes the case with clowns, it was hard to say with any certainty whether he was really all that friendly. Or not. I couldn't decide whether the white strip at the lower right of his mouth was supposed to represent a cigarette dangling there. If so, this would be a fairly shady clown indeed, but then, clowns are often a bit ambiguous. . .
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There was a good reason for the clown being there . . . the circus was in town . . .
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Clown Eclipse . . .

Spotted a circus sign on the way to work today, well, yesterday now, and the first thought that crossed my mind as I drove by was : "Wow, a partial eclipse of a clown !" Have I gone totally stark raving bonkers ? Or am I just a sucker for primary colors ? Sunday is a good day to head to the circus. . . right ? Anybody care to join me ???

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Circus In Town !

Faded and weather worn remains of public posters are sometimes a source of miraculous visions from the back of beyond. This decrepit decaying poster held magic for me. . . clowns ! zebras ! the circus is in town ! (photographed in July 1999 near Cahors, France)

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The Joker

I don't know about you, but the circus poster posted earlier below, of which this is a small detail, just hits me right in the solar plexus with its beautiful artwork and colors... helped out by a little sun and wind and rain of course.

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Ephemeral Posters

This poster was right next to the other one just below here, same day, August 2008. This one didn't last long either. I love the leopard and the rich colors...

IL CIRCO ROMANTICO

Somewhere in the distant mists of earlier postings below, in one titled "A Day In the Life", I put up a photo taken that day, just a couple of weeks ago, of my favorite poster place, and said I would get around to posting a picture from the first time I photographed this place last summer, on 3 August. This is one of the greatest circus posters I've ever seen... I love the clown riding the gaping-mouthed hippo, while a lovely lady sails along in a gondola, against a turquoise backdrop. Beautiful, but it didn't last long... like everything else good in life...