Tipping Points

 I have spent some time recently looking through the book-length catalog of the Deco Japan exhibit which came to Albuquerque in 2012.  When I wrote about it then it seemed the best Art exhibit I had ever encountered.  It still seems so in the thoroughness in which it captured and expressed a whole cultural era.

There was a great variety of art objects in the show, all of it characterized by extraordinary craftsmanship.  What stood out for me, though, was a message that was not explicitly stated.  In the midst of enormous artistic and cultural achievement there was an undercurrent of militaristic nationalism which would cause the country and the world to veer onto a catastrophic path.  Japan's cultural influence in the 1930s and '40s could have carried the nation forward with little added effort, but the country's leadership at that moment chose territorial expansion as its strategic course.

It seems to me that we are facing a dilemma similar to that of Deco Era Japan now, and not just in the U.S.  There are many differences in the details, of course, but the consequences of the wrong decisions have exponentially expanded *.

* At Searchlight New Mexico

Fish

 When we have out of town visitors we nearly always take them to the Aquarium. It is an exceedingly nice aquarium and the fact that such an oceanic environment exists here is certainly extraordinary.

Our visit on this occasion was especially enjoyable for us as we were accompanied by two divers who had swum with the fish in their natural tropical environments.  Not only did we hear about their underwater encounters, we also got to see snippets of videos and still shots depicting the same creatures we were seeing in front of us.

Our visit was not planned ahead, but the timing turned out extremely well.  It is always a thrill to see the maintenance people going about their tasks in their wet suits.

We arrived at the aquarium about 11:00 AM, which turned out to be the time the three river otters are provided with some food and training by two handlers.  We might have watched the otters briefly and moved on to the fsh exhibits, but a very well informed staff person on the viewing platform told us to stick around to catch the daily exercise.

The very active large male was lured inside to be out of the way while the two trainers put their charges through the daily routine.  One of the females just was not interested enough in the fish snacks to leave her sunny perch.  The other, however, quickly responded to all the prompts appropriately to get the expected rewards.

America's Disgrace

 From The Guardian:

Social order in Gaza will collapse if Israel ends cooperation with UN aid

and Biden's final contribution is billions for more bombs.

Pods

 

 I find these under the trees at the west end of the park near our home.  I guess they are horse chestnuts.  I have been thinking about using them as subjects for still lifes with my film cameras.

Fragile Legality

Vibes

 

 Our neighborhood dispensary was shut down for trying to sell out-of-state weed.

Sociable

Mantis (at Wikipedia)

Real People

 I posted some street work recently on my photography blog from New York's Chinatown in the mid-'60s.  I wondered if anything of that lively community could still be found on those streets of lower Manhattan.

I haven't had an answer to that query so far, but I'm skeptical of finding a scene like this now. It seems most likely that modern counterparts of the group would all be focused on the screens of their phones and oblivious to any surrounding reality.

Rebecca Solnit expresses similar misgivings in a thoughtful essay in The Guardian:

Turns out the zombie apocalypse isn’t as fun as they said it would be –