RANT and RECOVERY

Recycling Real-Estate

(note this building is not yet abandoned)
"Sergey Federovich Pankratov was born in the early 1920's (1921 or 1922) and became associate professor in the Department of Philosophy of the.Moscow Institute of Instrument Engineering. When people asked him about his profession he would say that he was a philosopher. In 1964, when he was in his early forties, he acquired an ordinary wooden house in the small community of Kuznetsy, a neigbourhood in the city of Pavlovsky Posad in the Moscow region. A year later he got permission to rebuild the property into a stone house. So in 1965 Pankratov began to rebuild the house. The project would take 16 years, due to the special building style and the various specific elements and decorations he added."
(see Outsider Environments link)

I'm looking into abandoned masterpieces of architecture, empty shells that once had visions of a different future. They often come cheap. Sometimes, the government in question is grateful to get the property off their books, and will offer tax considerations to sweeten the sale. Some countries even have land and buildings they'll pay you to take on.

"Waste not - Want not"
Jus' Sayin'
(see Outsider Environments link
~*~


Vanishing New York

"The loss of old buildings and small businesses, the homogenization from suburban chains and condo boxes, is more than an aesthetic loss. It is damaging us psychologically and physically."
(see  Vanishing New York Link)
~*~

Moody Days
Moody days of rapidly shifting weather thrust me
back and forth from extreme to extreme,
with rest-stops at the in-between,
flowing on a slipstream.
 ~*~


Resistance and Release
with Pema Chodron
(one hour)

https://youtu.be/kF08OgM3Ofs
(see Zen Mind Beginners Mind link)
~*~


Rejoice
"We Are the Ones We Are Waiting For"
by Fred Arcoleo
(six minutes)

https://youtu.be/xF1V7v8lPjo
~*~


Links

Recycling Real-Estate
https://outsider-environments.blogspot.com/2017/05/sergey-federovich-pankratov-crystal.html

Vanishing New York
http://vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2017/05/lenox-lounge-demolished.html

Zen Mind Beginners Mind
by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
http://www.shambhala.com/zen-mind-beginner-s-mind.html 

 

SEPTET OF DAYS

SUNDAY
Little Teddy Sending Bear Hugs-thinking Kind Thoughts.
There's comfort in compassion when big tragedies arrive.

~*~

TUESDAY
Tripped off to the High line for Stargazing
The night was cool and bright. Thanks to the NY Astronomers club volunteers sharing their telescopes, I saw Saturn as a tiny white oval with a single ring.

Wandered among stargazers lounging on beach chairs along paths where summer plants are coming into bloom:

Echinacea

 Forgot the name

 Astilbe

Life size sculpture called "Sleepwalker".  Various people posed with him for selfies.  To me it looked like violation, and I had an interesting conversation with two older men also waiting in line.  They agreed, and we talked a bit about how nakedness make us uncomfortable, nervous.  We three identified with the vulnerability.
Read what the sculptor says:
(link at the end)

A cool-Jazz trio serenaded at one end, and a disco DJ at the other where a film was in process with mostly men dancing.  Emerging near Christopher street I headed back North along 10th Avenue where many stores are closed or closing. 

Then a brief sweet encounter with a beautiful drag queen on her way to an event, her costume of cleverly draped stiff cellophane was worn over shorts and top, and she was quite happy to pose.  I didn't ask her name and she didn't offer it.
(Anonymous)

~*~

WEDNESDAY

After a Zazen at the Zendo,
I headed West on 23rd Street.

Walking leisurely until the sun set, then

caught the bus back East to home.

~*~

THURSDAY
Mask at the Opera Thrift

The hand of a metal plated Buddha on display

 

A homeless man napping on 21st Street

~*~

FRIDAY
Unwell, but bumbled through the day doing chores, getting my notice to the post office to hold mail while I'm away for a week in Massachusetts
(Clover and Ialanthus in neglected street tub)

Cooked and froze all foods that might spoil.
(Potato, cumin and coriander in broth)

 Did some hand laundry and pre-soaked sheets and towels. 
Now ready for a trip to the laundromat.

On the advice of a trusted wise-friend, I tuned in to this Omega session with a favorite teacher, Pema Chodron and found it most helpful.

https://youtu.be/YwTSWG64rZE
~*~

SATURDAY
7
The number of notes in the traditional Western diatonic scale (major or minor), there are seven musicians in a septet or a septuor, and today is the seventh day.
(Read about the many meanings ascribed to it)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_%28number%29
 ~*~

LINKS
"Sleepwalker"
 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/controversial-sleepwalker-sculpture-high-line-403190