The city of Philadelphia has an amazing mural arts program. According to their website,
For 30 years, Mural Arts has united artists and communities through a collaborative process, rooted in the traditions of mural-making, to create art that transforms public spaces and individual lives. Mural Arts engages communities in 50–100 public art projects each year, and maintains its growing collection through a restoration initiative. Core Mural Arts programs such as Art Education, Restorative Justice, and Porch Light yield unique, project-based learning opportunities for thousands of youth and adults.
Recently, we took a road trip that included Philadelphia.
The William E. Small Bridge. It crosses the French River in northern Ontario. It was also built by volunteers: The French River Snow Voyageurs Snowmobile Club in 2005.
It also happens to be the largest snowmobile bridge in the world. Pretty awesome, eh?
I was down at the New Amsterdam
staring at this yellow-haired girl
Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation
with this black-haired flamenco dancer
She dances while his father plays guitar
She’s suddenly beautiful
We all want something beautiful
I wish I was beautiful
So come dance this silence down through the morning
Cut up, Maria! Show me some of them Spanish dances
Pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones
Believe in me
Help me believe in anything
I want to be someone who believes
Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales
Stare at the beautiful women
“She’s looking at you. Ah, no, no, she’s looking at me.”
Smiling in the bright lights
Coming through in stereo
When everybody loves you, you can never be lonely
I will paint my picture
Paint myself in blue and red and black and gray
All of the beautiful colors are very very meaningful
Gray is my favorite color
I felt so symbolic yesterday
If I knew Picasso
I would buy myself a gray guitar and play
When everybody loves me, I will never be lonely
I want to be a lion
Everybody wants to pass as cats
We all want to be big big stars, but we got different
reasons for that
Believe in me because I don’t believe in anything
and I want to be someone to believe
Mr. Jones and me stumbling through the barrio
Yeah we stare at the beautiful women
“She’s perfect for you, Man, there’s got to be
somebody for me.”
I want to be Bob Dylan
Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more
funky
When everybody loves you, son, that’s just about as
funky as you can be
Mr. Jones and me staring at the video
when I look at the television, I want to see me staring
right back at me
We all want to be big stars, but we don’t know why
and we don’t know how
But when everybody loves me, I’m going to be just
about as happy as I can be
My friends at Microsoft Canada loaned me a Windows 8 Nokia Lumia 1020 for my recent trip to Spain and Morocco. For me, this device has the best phone camera in the market.
More importantly, it has always-on GPS. As a Canadian, I feel screwed by our carriers not giving us an affordable way to stay connected, through our mobile phone, with the internet and social media. While in Spain and Morocco I relied heavily on WiFi (pronounced “wee-fee” in many places). But the Lumia’s built-in GPS helped us navigate throughout Spain and Morocco.
Thank you Microsoft Canada for the device. NOTE: I was not paid by Microsoft nor are they a client of mine. Neither am I a professional photographer. The photos I take are for my own personal and family use.
Here are some photos I took with the 41 MP camera:
In May 2015 our family went to Paris, Spain and Marrakech. We were given by Panasonic Canada a Lumix DMC-TS5 to enable us to capture memories of our trip. I would like to thank them for their generosity and kindness. Panasonic did not pay me nor are they a client of mine at work. NOTE: I am NOT a professional photographer. All of my photos are for my enjoyment and my family’s.
Here are a few photos from our trip. All photos here are courtesy of the Lumix DMC-TS5.
