Post Card from San Francisco

This is definitely not one of my most artistic photos. In fact, it is almost a snapshot. I took this photo on my first visit to AT&T Park last July to see the Giants beat the San Diego Padres. It is a beautiful stadium in a fabulous location right on The Bay…and it is a great place to see a game.

As I write this on 7/14/13, just wanted to let you know that I will be back at this ballpark one week from today. It’s a day game this time with the Giants facing the Boston Red Sox in an inter-league game.

So, as you might guess, I am headed north to the Bay Area…this time to housesit (and dog sit) for a month for my close friends the Millers. They are off to Hawaii again, this time to housesit for one of their friends. I suggested we simplify things and I go to Hawaii to housesit, but they didn’t buy it. Can’t blame them. It’s OK, I am going back home where I was born and raised. You know that famous Tony Bennett song, “I Left my Heart in San Francisco”…well in my case it’s true.

The Giants game will not be my only sporting event while in the City…besides buying me a Giants ticket, the Millers also bought me a ticket to the opening day of the NFL season…49ers hosting the visiting Green Bay Packers. It’s the final year that the 49ers will play at Candlestick Park. Next year, the Niners will be ensconced at their brand new stadium in Santa Clara.

I was there that first year in 1960 when Candlestick opened its gates. For a long time, only the Giants played there…the 49ers were still at the old Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park (I went to several games there also when I lived in the Bay Area.) In 1972, they moved to Candlestick and the park was remodeled to accommodate a football field.

Do I have fond memories of Candlestick? Yes and no. I went to many baseball and football games over the years. I saw great players, many in their respective Hall of Fames now. I celebrated my 40th birthday there, thanks to some good friends, with a tailgate party followed by an Eagles/49er game featuring Joe Montana and other greats of 49er history. I could go on and on with memories, but I won’t. Maybe later.

But, Candlestick was a miserable place to see a ball game of any sport. They could not pick a worse place in the Bay Area to build a ballpark. The wind would come through in the late afternoon and you would just freeze to death. I once went to a Giants doubleheader game. In the first game, I could not take enough clothes off…for the second game, I didn’t have enough clothes to put on. It was freezing! It was better after they remodeled for football, but it still can be a miserable place. So I won’t miss that.

One of the worst parts is the traffic getting in and out of the park. I once went to a Giants game with 4,000 people and it took an hour to get on the freeway. A few months later, I went to the AFL Championship football game across the Bay in Oakland. Stadium was full, and after the game it took five minutes to get on the freeway. Go figure.

For this upcoming 49er game, I will take BART in to SF, then get on an express Muni bus direct to Candlestick. Maybe the driver will have to fight the traffic, but I won’t. Besides, game parking at Candlestick is $30. Forget it!

For the Giants game, I can take BART to the Embarcadero Station, and from there take an express trolley direct to AT&T Park. They got that all figured out.

So what will happen to Candlestick? It will be imploded right after the last 49er game of the 2013 season. Many long-time San Franciscans say it should never have been built in the first place. But that is a story for another day.

As for this blog, it will continue while I travel the Bay Area. After all, I have a new laptop and a new camera, so you will be hearing from me…just maybe a little more sporadically. Go Giants!!! Go Niners!!!

Postcard from London

Westminster Abbey may be the most amazing historical sites in all of Great Britain. It is nearly 1,000 years old and has been the center of English spirituality for nearly that long.

Inside you will find the tombs of most of the famous people in British history. From Winston Churchill to Isaac Newton to Laurence Olivier, to most of the kings and queens who ruled over this land. I remember taking a walk through rear of the church where many of the royalty of English history are interred in amazing sarcophagi . I was struck by the irony of Queen Elizabeth I interred next to her arch enemy Mary, Queen of Scots. It was Elizabeth who ordered Mary’s beheading. 

Many of the memorials to the greats of British history are just that…memorial plaques and statues. The people themselves are buried someplace else. But many are indeed buried here.

The Abbey has witnessed coronations, weddings and funerals. Most recently, it was here that Prince Charles and Prince William were married…and was the site of Princess Diana’s funeral.

High above the west entrance of the church are 10 statues of 20th century martyrs. The four you see here are Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, and Dietrich Bonheoffer. All were killed for their faith and what they believed.

Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. While educated in Britain, she married into the Russian Royal Family and became deeply involved in the Russian Orthodox Church. She eventually sold all of her expensive possessions to help the impoverished, with a special emphasis on women. To make a long story short, she was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks and was executed the day after the Czar and his family were killed.

The story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is well know to all of us, so I won’t repeat it here. I will say that it wasn’t until I read about these statues that I learned that it was Dr. King. Frankly, I don’t think it looks much like him.

Oscar Romero’s legacy is tied to El Salvador. Romero committed himself to the poor and the persecuted of El Salvador. As the brutal governmental regime sent death squads out into the countryside, he documented their atrocities…and in 1979, presented volumes of information to the Pope. He was murdered in 1980 in his church while celebrating mass.

Finally, the legacy of Dietrich Bonheoffer is tied to Nazi Germany. He was and ardent opponent of Hitler and his Nazi regime. He actually escaped to Britain and later America, only to return to Germany just before the outbreak of the war. He felt that a victory of Nazism in Europe would destroy Christian civilization. Again to shorten the story, Bonheoffer was eventually put into a concentration camp and executed a few days before Germany’s surrender.

I have linked each of their names to a short history of their lives on the Westminster Abbey Web site. They are all very interesting to read and one can’t help but admire their courage against injustice.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

Postcard from the University of Arizona

Before you ask, I have no idea of the name of these plants. All I know is they are beautiful and a joy to photograph.  I love how the cactus almost seems to spin. Every time I look at this image, I swear I can almost see it going around in a circle. What a great optical illusion.

These plants are located near the Bio Research Building on the north side of the University of Arizona campus. If you have not visited this campus, you don’t where that is. But trust me, if you ever visit Tucson, make a point of visiting this beautiful campus. But be aware, it is quite large, so plan to spend a few hours here.

In past blogs, I have shown you some of the beautiful architecture around the campus. I have even shown a handful of flower photos from here. But, let me tell you, the colorful landscaping around the campus is something to behold all year round…one of the advantages of living in Tucson.

They do a special job planting beautiful flowers, not only from the desert, but flowers you see in gardens all over the world. There is a special garden located in the center of the campus that features only desert flora including trees and large cacti. They even have a large, but rare Organ Pipe Cactus.

But the flower beds all over campus offer a variety of beautiful surprises. There are actually two schools on campus that specialize in flowers and landscaping: the School of Architectural Landscaping and the School of Plant Sciences. There is also a herbarium located in historic Herring Hall. There you will find over 400,000 specimens of herbs and related plants from Arizona and Mexico.

By the way, if you ever head down this way, there is a walking tour map available with details of all the plants you will see on the tour. So come down and see just how beautiful the university campus is.

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com

Postcard from the Cascades

Sunrise

O rising Sun, so fair and gay,
What are you bringing me, I pray,
Of sorrow or of joy to-day?

You look as if you meant to please,
Reclining in your gorgeous ease
Behind the bare-branched apple-trees.

The world is rich and bright, as though
The pillows where your head is low
Had lit the fields of driven snow.

The hoar-frost on the window turns
Into a wood of giant ferns
Where some great conflagration burns.

And all my children comes again
As lightsome and as free from stain
As those frost-pictures on the pane.

I would that I could mount on high
And meet you, Sun--that you and I
Had to ourselves the whole wide sky.

But here my poor soul has to stay,
So tell me, rising Sun, I pray,
What are you bringing me to-day?

What shall this busy brain have thought,
What shall these hands and feet have wrought,
What sorrows shall the hours have brought,

Before thy brilliant course is run,
Before this new-born day is done,
Before you set, O rising Sun?

Frederick George Scott

Photo by JR Corkrum

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com