No Kings

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Tamm Avenue Overpass

Today, we chose the smaller and closer to home protest site, the Tamm Avenue highway overpass. This site offered the opportunity to cheer on most of the other protesters who were headed to the main event downtown. It was a beautiful day to exercise one’s civil rights. Walking through Forest Park on our way to the protest site, I remarked that we had not been in the park on a Saturday morning, since at least Valentine’s Day. I used to always go to the park on a Saturday. This was the third No Kings Day, but it was the first one that we participated in. On one of the preceding No Kings Days we were driving back to Monterey after visiting Mendicino. We encountered several rallies, some on overpasses too.  


Arriving at the overpass, we found a carnival like atmosphere. It was more like a party than any political action. Everyone was friendly and all were in a good mood. Most people had made their own protest signs. Many of them were quite creative. I especially liked the one Anne had made. Earlier I was having a bout of cold feet, but when I came into the computer room and saw Anne PowerPoint engineering her sign, I knew that we would be going. I’m glad we went. It was fun and also for a good cause. Afterwards, we walked across Oakland Ave. to Pat Connolly’s for lunch. Tonight, we’ll look for ourselves on TV.

Ring of Fire

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Photo by Jahanzeb Ahsan on Unsplash

Dinner and a show last night, but first Gyro. Amber Alert! Amber had some gossip, just days before the streets and parking lot outside the studio were the scene of a shootout and highspeed chase as two cars circled each other guns a blazing. Apparently, no one was hit and all that was left was a massed cop car callout. Her news and the workout she put us through were enough to lead us to dueling couch naps in the afternoon. We awoke in time for dinner and the show.

Anne had the cioppino, a seafood medley and I had the walleye. The theater was a madhouse. Two productions were being performed. There was the hot new show that is all sold out now and ours, Johnny Cash, Ring of Fire. Ring featured almost thirty of his songs strung together with the story of his life. The tunes were good. Afterwards, the cold front had arrived, driving the days record high temperatures down, down, down. Summer is over and winter is back.

HYBYCOZO

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HYBYCOZO (Hyperspace Bypass Construction Zone)

HYBYCOZO (Hyperspace Bypass Construction Zone) is a Los Angeles-based art collaborative founded by Serge Beaulieu and Yelena Filipchuk, inspired by Don Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This company will produce this summer’s show at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Patterns in Nature: The Art of HYBYCOZO. This show opens in April, and includes night viewing, when the sculptures are lit up and really shine. A video at the end of this post shows this.

All the Flowers are for Me, Anila Quayyum Agha, 2015

Last year we saw a similar artwork by a different artist that was amazing. It was displayed at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. Basically, it was a single cube suspended in the middle of an empty room. A single light at the center of this cube casts light and shadows on all surfaces of the interior of this room.

“Deep Thought” is a direct nod to the Hitchhiker’s series. It appears as a large, ornate, glowing polyhedral. This pagoda-like structure is one of the centerpieces of this year’s HYBYCOZO show. It will take the form of a triambic icosahedron. A what?! A complex 3D shape made of 60 gold laser cut steel filigree triangle panels which will cast colorful light and shadows far and wide.

Some Assembly Still Required

HYBYCOZO explores the wondrous connection between art, science, and nature through 21 intricately designed and interactive installations located throughout the Garden. The following video is a promo for HYBYCOZO that was created by the garden. It portrays what this show will look like at night, when it is all lit up.