Move me to the sun

[sovay]

For obvious reasons there has been a lot of Sondheim in my head lately, so I was leaning on the back of the couch watching the dusk fall over the roofs of our street, singing "Take Me to the World," when I realized I had attracted a passerby, an older man in a denim jacket and a matching blue surgical mask carrying some home improvement paraphernalia. I finished singing and he nodded his head and moved on. It was nice.

My father came by earlier this afternoon and we walked around my neighborhood for an hour, checking on the developments of spring and the ever-mystifying progress of the GLX. We still had to duck a couple of maskless people, but they were in the minority. It's a Somerville ordinance now.



All the blossoms of its generation have fallen. The weeping cherry's going nowhere.



Audrey Tulip yearns hungrily.



My father asked if I could read the ivy-swarmed ghost sign. The ivy has been making sure that I can't.



The construction site that is just barely still the School Street Bridge.



The rotary drill rig just looked incredibly zoomorphic all of a sudden.



I loved the textures and colors.



Does anyone recognize this graffito? It looked like a heraldic phoenix to me.



The Japanese maple has no time for pastels.

Have some Yiddish plague songs.

Comments

[asakiyume]

What a wonderful assortment! I love your graffito, your maple, audrey tulip, the scary rusted pipe, the ivy obscured ghost lettering--the cherries, everything!

[sovay]

I love your graffito, your maple, audrey tulip, the scary rusted pipe, the ivy obscured ghost lettering--the cherries, everything!

Thank you!

[gwynnega]

When you were singing the Sondheim, it was like you and the passerby were briefly living in a musical!

That Japanese maple is beautiful.

[sovay]

When you were singing the Sondheim, it was like you and the passerby were briefly living in a musical!

I like that!

That Japanese maple is beautiful.

I'm going to have to see what it does in the fall.

[rosefox]

An eagle holding arrows is very old American symbolism, perhaps acquired from the Scots. I haven't seen it rendered that way before.

[sovay]

An eagle holding arrows is very old American symbolism, perhaps acquired from the Scots. I haven't seen it rendered that way before.

Thanks! I read it originally as an eagle variant (which meant that I came home and tried to make sure it wasn't nativist-fascist graffiti), but I couldn't find anything with the crossed arrows rather than the arrows in one claw, olive branch in the other. The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania flag in your link looks much closer. The surrounding fires really do make me read it as a phoenix, though.

[rosefox]

I still feel like I've seen something like this before, but I'm not finding it. I turned up a lot of very questionable references to two crossed arrows meaning friendship in "Native American symbolism" (but no specific tribe, and no actual historical references) and that's about it.

EDIT: Your phoenix has an Italian cousin.

[sovay]

EDIT: Your phoenix has an Italian cousin.

This is becoming positively obscure!

[rosefox]

I'm probably putting way too much thought into what the artist just thought was a pretty picture!

[sovay]

I'm probably putting way too much thought into what the artist just thought was a pretty picture!

I'm enjoying it!

[radiantfracture]

Please tell me a story about Audrey Tulip please

[sovay]

Please tell me a story about Audrey Tulip please

I will try!

[thisbluespirit]

I love how you pull out all these small things on your walk - it's a kind of magic in itself.

[sovay]

I love how you pull out all these small things on your walk - it's a kind of magic in itself.

Thank you.

[cmcmck]

Yiddish plague songs!

And I've been digging out all the plague related material in our CD collection.

Know what?

There's quite a lot.

What that says about us I'm not quite sure other than one of us studies the period of the Black Death and the other than of the great 17th century plagues.........

[sovay]

What that says about us I'm not quite sure other than one of us studies the period of the Black Death and the other than of the great 17th century plagues.........

That does sound like it could account for it. [edit] Are you going to make a plague playlist?

[strange_complex]

Could the first line of the ghost sign say 'SHERATON'? That's what I see, anyway.

I think I can make out the sequence PHO at the left end of the second line, too, which made me try to resolve it as 'photographer' or 'photography'. But I can't really see the rest, and there's also what may be an H before the PHO, which rather throws that theory.

[sovay]

Could the first line of the ghost sign say 'SHERATON'? That's what I see, anyway.

That makes a lot of sense! I could make out the first four letters, but I got hung up on the A. Thank you.

But I can't really see the rest, and there's also what may be an H before the PHO, which rather throws that theory.

It's something about upholstery. I can't make out the rest of the second line at all from my photograph and may well go back to see if it's clearer from a different angle or just rust.

[strange_complex]

Oh yes - you're absolutely right about the upholstery (or -ing?). So I had that string of letters right, but couldn't think of a word in which they would form the 2nd, 3rd and 4th letters, rather than the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. It's totally clear now you say, though.

[sovay]

upholstery (or -ing?)

That's part of what I want to see if I can read in person! And then even if it's the latter, it feels like there's too much space left in the sign for there not to be a few more letters, if only just some kind of business abbreviation.

spatch and I (and a_reasonable_man, who found this great photo from the 1920's or '30's when the Knights of Malta Hall, which is what that sign is on the side of, housed the Fisher Business College) have started looking for listings of businesses on the site, but so far none of the readily accessible maps have gone far enough up in time.

Thank you for doing epigraphy on my ghost sign.

[selkie]

So much nature! It’s beautiful if you like that kind of thing.
I’m just glad you got time with your father.

I surprised myself by knowing most of the Evening Primrose lyrics during the concert; Child was horrified and may not have realized I could serviceably carry a tune. Also, I should have specified that my strong feelings re “Finishing the Hat” are that no one but Mandy Patinkin really needs to sing “Finishing the Hat.” I recognize my wishes are sometimes thwarted. Feh.

[sovay]

So much nature! It’s beautiful if you like that kind of thing.

I do! I miss the sea. I'm trying to figure out if there are safe routes I can walk to water.

I’m just glad you got time with your father.

Thank you. It was really good to see him.

I surprised myself by knowing most of the Evening Primrose lyrics during the concert; Child was horrified and may not have realized I could serviceably carry a tune.

They were there for your bat mitzvah! What's their excuse?

(I think that's wonderful.)

Also, I should have specified that my strong feelings re “Finishing the Hat” are that no one but Mandy Patinkin really needs to sing “Finishing the Hat.”

At least Mandy Patinkin was there, singing. (I had an emotional reaction to Chip Zien singing "No More.")