There is No Exit Strategy

It's not so much what it is, but what it is combined with when it is. I saw this on 5th ave in downtown Pittsburgh on April 3rd, 2008. The fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq was on March 20th, 2008. The facts are stated simply, you don't need to add shock and awe for it to be shocking.

Happy Anniversary
March 20
2003-2007
?

"Maybe a hundred years---would be fine with me" --Sen. John McCain

4,000 U.S. Military Dead
39,395 U.S. wounded

....what is best
Who's laughing now?

The placement on a marble building drew my attention to it. I noticed the resemblance to the iPod stickers, though, so did a little research and found this MadTV parody... it's a little predictable, but still has a good message.

The Water Is Ours

Seen in the Strip District, April 18, 2008, This stopped me in my tracks. It was one of our first warm days of Spring and the streets were alive with people on their lunch breaks. Everyone was walking or eating or smoking and generally enjoying the weather. People kept walking around me when I stopped to read this and take the picture. It was especially poignant because of the water damage, the text streaked by rain, when the topic was the right to WATER. This is what it says:

"The water is ours damnit!" In 1999, under pressure from the World Bank, the Bolivian government, sold off the water system of its 3rd largest city Cochabamba behind closed doors to multi-national investors including the Bechtel Corporation. Over night people were asked to pay 25% of their income for water including collected rainfall and backyard wells. Months of protese ensued. The country was declared under martial law but thousands took to the streets. This, combined with international activist pressure forced Bechtel to flee the country. Despite subsequent attempts to sue Bolivia for $25M in loss of "potential profit," the people of Cochabamba succeeded in defeating a corporate giant and reclaiming control of one of life's most neccessary resources.

Beauty

found: Eloise Street, North Side, Pittsburgh


the text:
Beauty
must be defined as
what we are,
or else the concept itself
is our enemy

To see beauty is
simply to learn the
private language of
meaning which is
another's life--
to recognize and
relish
what is.

Why languish in the shadows of a standard
We cannot personify and ideal we live

Highland Park is Cool (cause they have SnoCones!)

I found some interesting (and some not so interesting obviously created by seventh graders) grafitti around the resovoir at Highland Park. Nancy said I should make postcards from the pics. Here are two of my favorite.

After the picnic and another lap around the resovoir I spotted an old fashioned SnoCone vendor. I had the dollar size cone. I was so thrilled at the possibilities of combining flavors. The man said I could have as many as I wanted, but that he didn't guarantee that would taste good. I got all the flavors EXCEPT banana, grape, and cotton candy. I mentioned to them about the sweetened condensed milk they put on top of the snocones in Trinidad. He said they have some marshmallow cream sauce they like to put on. It was awesome. And didn't cost a penny extra. Oh, sweet gooey goodness. He said if he didn't make another sale he'd still be happy because I (in my ebullience) had made his day.
Here is the ARTIST who created this MASTERPIECE, along with a comparison of the Highland Park cone and the San Juan Hill, Trinidad cone.

The multi-flavored-marshmallow-cream-topped-Highland Park cone

^^Trini cone *a mixture of only TWO flavors* with sweetened condensed milk ^^