For this monthly prompt from Kate at The Squirrel Chase, the idea is pick a photo you want to play with and process it using three different methods. Okay, let’s start with the original, which I took of wispy clouds on the sky near my home.
All processed photos were made using apps available for the iPhone or iPad at Apple’s App Store. Also, all images, including the original, were resized (shrunk) to make them quicker to load (and to take up less space in my WordPress media folder).
OriginalProcessed using the Glazed app.Processed using the Prisma app.Processed using the Distressed FX app.
The idea behind Who Won the Week is to give you the opportunity to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.
This week I’m going personal and local for my Who Won the Week winner. Before moving to the East Bay in early 2020, my wife and I used to live about three blocks north of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. It was an easy walk to the park and to the main thoroughfare through the park, John F. Kennedy Drive (pictured in red, below). It runs from the east side of the park all the way west to the Pacific Ocean. We’d walk our dog there and would often ride our bikes across the park to the ocean beaches.
So this week’s Who Won the Week winner is the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which, on Tuesday, in a 7-4 vote, backed legislation from the mayor that bans cars in perpetuity on 1.5 miles of JFK Drive. Since JFK Drive was temporarily closed to vehicles two years ago due to the pandemic, it has become a highly popular destination for walkers, runners, and bicyclists.
Even though we no longer live three blocks from Golden Gate Park, we can easily load our ebikes onto the bike rack of our electric car, drive across the Bay Bridge, and enjoy a vehicle-free day of cycling in Golden Gate Park and along the Pacific Ocean. Yay!
If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.
What about you? Who (or what) do you think won the week?
It’s time once again for E.M. Kingston’s The Sunday Ramble. Her prompt is based upon a certain topic about which she asks five questions. We are invited to ramble on about that topic however we wish. Today’s topic is “Random Questions to Trigger Imagination.”
1. If people get a purple heart for bravery, what do the other colors of hearts mean?
Red: wounded in battle
Blue: depression
Green: jealousy
Yellow: cowardice
2. If you were given $5 Million to open a small museum, what kind of museum would you create?
The Museum of Bad Investments.
3. If you could build a themed hotel, what would the theme be and what would it look like?
It would be a hotel for dogs and might look something like the picture below, which I found on Pinterest.
4. What would the adult version of an ice cream truck sell, look like, and play for its song?
Sell: cannabis Look like: see below Song: Brewer & Shipley “One Toke Over the Line”
5. What animal would be the cutest if it was down-sized to the size of a cat?
Brian, aka Bushboy, posted his monthly Last on the Card prompt, where he asks us to…
Post the last photo from your camera’s SD card or the last photo from your phone taken in April.
No editing — who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like, or the subject matter didn’t cooperate?
No explanations needed — just the photo will do.
Create a pingback to Brian’s post or link in the comments.
Tag “The Last Photo.”
So here’s the last photo I took on my iPhone in April.
This is a photo I took yesterday afternoon. I was standing at the basin of a manmade, recirculating waterfall in our backyard. I love the sound of the water as it cascades down the rocks.
Please note: yes, we are in the middle of a drought where I live, but because this is a pondless waterfall, where the water is continuously recycling through a pump mechanism, it doesn’t waste water.
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams is focusing on a suggestion from Paula of Light Motifs II regarding attire, specifically Suit, Pants, Dress, or Shirt. I decided to go with the Chris de Burgh’s song, “Lady in Red.”
“Lady in Red” was a written and recorded by British-Irish singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh. It was released in June 1986 as the second single from the album Into the Light. The song was a huge worldwide hit, going to number 1 in 25 different countries. De Burgh was never able to duplicate the success of this song, but he developed a loyal following in Europe, where there was modest but lasting demand for his music. In the U.S., the song peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. His only other song to reach the Top-40 was with his 1982 song “Don’t Pay The Ferryman.”
De Burgh started writing this song about his wife Diane, after an argument, but he was having a hard time finishing it. Part of the problem was that he needed a title. He didn’t want to use “The Way You Look Tonight,” because there there was already a song with that name. As de Burgh tells it, five months later he saw Diane wearing a red dress across a crowded nightclub, which gave him the idea for the title.
In the U.K., “Lady In Red” became a huge part of the cultural landscape, with listeners divided over whether it was the sweetest love song ever written or a pile of excessively sentimental musical mush. I’m with this latter group. I thought that Eric Clapton’s 1976 song, “Wonderful Tonight,” was a far superior song capturing much the same sentiment as de Burgh’s song, but in a more intimate, less mushy way.
I’m including a video of Clapton’s song at the bottom of this post and I’d be interested in hearing which of these two songs you like better.
Here are the lyrics to “Lady In Red.”
I've never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight, I've never seen you shine so bright, I've never seen so many men ask you if you wanted to dance, They're looking for a little romance, given half a chance, And I have never seen that dress you're wearing, Or the highlights in your hair that catch your eyes, I have been blind;
The lady in red is dancing with me, cheek to cheek, There's nobody here, it's just you and me, It's where I want to be, But I hardly know this beauty by my side, I'll never forget the way you look tonight;
I've never seen you looking so gorgeous as you did tonight, I've never seen you shine so bright, you were amazing, I've never seen so many people want to be there by your side, And when you turned to me and smiled, it took my breath away, And I have never had such a feeling, Such a feeling of complete and utter love, as I do tonight;
The lady in red is dancing with me, cheek to cheek, There's nobody here, it's just you and me, It's where I want to be, But I hardly know this beauty by my side, I'll never forget the way you look tonight;
I never will forget the way you look tonight. The lady in red, the lady in red, The lady in red, my lady in red,
This, That, and the Other 