Through the Looking Glass

At the beach, in the park, or even in the alley behind the abandoned warehouse, step through the looking glass. You never know what you might see!

Looking Glass

Looking Glass

Salt Flat

Salt Flat

Salt Pond

Salt Pond

Vent Angel

Vent Angel

Beauty and the Blight

Much of modern American commercial architecture is a study in faceless anonymity once you remove the trademark pasted on the front. Some might say it is a blight upon the landscape.

But look again and see how the light hits the surface, the details of decay, the geometric composition of shapes and colors. One can find interest and beauty amid the blight, all of which says something about who we are.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Reflection (Oncology Radiation Clinic)

Reflection (Oncology Radiation Clinic)

Traces of the Past

Traces of the Past

The Mall at University Town Center

A new enclosed shopping mall has been built here in Sarasota. All over the country malls are struggling, being re-purposed or abandoned. But here a new one just opened. It is big. It is new. It is filled with things from other places.

They call it “University Town Center”. It is near University Parkway, and in the center of a very large parking lot, so perhaps that counts. There are some other big-box stores and their parking lots nearby, but no real town. This is the suburban fringe.

At the grand entrance just past the valet parking, one is dwarfed by the glass “foyer” containing a water feature and a group of indoor palm “trees”. High expectations for an upscale experience are tempered only by the dressed up, but ordinary, chain restaurants flanking either side.

High Expectations

High Expectations

Whether or not the mall will be a financial success remains to be seen. However, it is unlikely to ever serve as an authentic “town center”. Very little about it is authentic, from the conditioned and freshened air, to the indoor palms, the furniture that discourages rather than encourages interaction, and the piped in music and other sounds designed to create the illusion of excitement and anticipation. It is a monument to creating and fulfilling desires for things — not for creating any sense of community.

With only a few exceptions, the stores and the goods being sold here are the same as in dozens or even thousands of other locations across the country. Nothing, not even the air is authentically from this place. It doesn’t even smell like Florida. One could be anywhere.

But the parking lot was full and people were shopping. This mall is an artifact of our time. The sameness of corporate-led consumerism is becoming a defining characteristic of American life in the 21st century. But will there be a groundswell of those who eventually turn away from the siren song in search of the personal, the authentic, and community?

Dangle the Carrot

Dangle the Carrot

Missing Pieces

Missing Pieces

Family Life

Family Life

Alone Together

Alone Together

Caged

Caged

Quiet Spot

Quiet Spot

PINK is Alive

PINK is Alive

An Interesting Couple

An Interesting Couple

An Interesting Couple

Butter Pecan

Butter Pecan

Ring Through Her Nose

Ring Through Her Nose

"The Scream"

“The Scream”

Muzzle in the Grass Meltdown

Muzzle in the Grass Meltdown

Remains to Remind Us

Fort Desoto sits on Mullet Key, guarding the entrance to Tampa Bay in Florida. Mullet Key and several other low lying keys are now Fort Desoto County Park visited for its fishing, camping, and miles of sandy beaches, in addition to its history.

The fort itself was built in response to the Spanish American War of 1898 to defend Tampa Bay from intruders. While the war ended in 1898, the fort was not completed until 1906. It never really served its military purpose, sitting largely unused throughout World War I. Several of its large mortars were even disassembled and shipped to San Diego in 1917.

The Fort’s remains stand amid the natural beauty of the seashore and these uninhabited islands. They are a reminder that more than a century ago the fear of war and invasion led to great waste — just as it does today.

Shallow Pool

Shallow Pool

A Big Gun Sat Here

A Big Gun Sat Here

"Data Booth" (aka Machine Gun Nest)

“Data Booth” (aka Machine Gun Nest)

Iron Curtain

Iron Curtain

Pearly Gates?

The Salvation Army has built a new building in an older part of town. It is large with a rather blank and bland facade — looking like a light industrial building with a steeple.

The Salvation Army bills it as a worship center. They are clear that it is not where they provide desperately needed services to their poor and homeless clients. That is in a different part of town. Wandering around, I saw these two doors and wondered if either of them were the “pearly gates” one hears so much about. Surely one of these churches must have them.

Pearly Gates?

Pearly Gates?

Pearly Door

Pearly Door

Shipping News

Do you ever think about the thousands of ships sailing the sea? The visuals from these two small container ports — and a bit of the ocean in between them — are as interesting as the statistics about this hidden industry.

For example, did you know that there are over 100,000 ships plying the oceans of the world carrying nearly everything we consume — much of it in “boxes” or containers? While only 6,000 of those ships are container vessels, some of them are so large they can each carry up to 15,000 twenty foot containers, the equivalent of 746 million bananas!

With revenues of many billions of dollars, this industry is mostly hidden, international in scope, in some ways without nationality or rules, and a significant cause of particulate air pollution and pollution of the seas. You can read about these facts and more and gain your own impressions of modern day shipping in Ninety Percent of Everything, by Rose George. She says she hopes her book can help cure our “sea blindness.”

Whether you read the book or not, don’t be blind to the sea, and to the people who bring your stuff to you from the far corners of the earth. Shipping is an integral part of the modern, global economy.

Containers with Navigation Aid

Containers with Navigation Aid

Boxes of Stuff

Boxes of Stuff

Boxes On Board

Boxes On Board

Oil Delivery

Oil Delivery

Keeping Watch

Keeping Watch

Crane for Boxes

Crane for Boxes

Fender and Dock

Fender and Dock

Palm Avenue Perspectives

Palm Avenue is one of the more attractive streets in downtown Sarasota. It is lined with art galleries, boutiques and restaurants, palm trees (many of which will soon be removed), historic buildings (some of which will be removed to make way for another high rise for the affluent), and even a large verdant grassy patch (soon to be dug up and covered over with a hotel).

Even after these changes, Palm Avenue will still be attractive — and probably even more comfortable for some. But it will also be different, and so will the rest of the city. With every change, the benefits of the change are trumpeted — and the losses and questions papered over with glossy brochures. These “Perspectives on Palm Avenue” ask whether we are building the kind of city we want.

The Other Side of the Brochure

The Other Side of the Brochure

Palm Avenue Home for the Cars

Palm Avenue Home for the Cars

Life Repeats Itself

Life Repeats Itself

Who Owns the Water?

Who Owns the Water?

It’s All in How You See It

It’s easy to not notice… to not notice the lens with which we view the world. It’s especially easy when rushing through the day, not even noticing the world!

Sunrise at Celery Fields

Sunrise at Celery Fields

Bulge

Bulge

Window Well

Window Well

Upon Closer Inspection

Upon Closer Inspection

Behind the Facades

It’s always worth a look behind the facades to see what’s happening in the alley. These images all came from a one-block section of alley in the heart of downtown Sarasota, Florida. In addition to the now-defunct “Golden Apple” dinner theater, they show the backsides of a few of the city’s finer restaurants, a brand new parking ramp, and some graffiti on the back wall of the Opera House, where they often sing in Italian. Of course, there was much more to see there, too.

So next time you want to get to know a town, spend some time in the alleys.

l'Hiver a Monte Carlo

l’Hiver a Monte Carlo

One Flag?

One Flag?

The Weight of Concrete

The Weight of Concrete

The Man Behind the Blue Tarp

The Man Behind the Blue Tarp

Door to the Other Side

Door to the Other Side

Laundry Production

Laundry Production

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