Nighthawks 2020
Richard
Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,967 moderator
Richard
Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,967 moderator
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Very real. As of midnight tonight, all of the restaurants are closed in Bavaria.
Please explain. What is it? Is this a photograph? You shot it? Who is David Bokeh?
This is a workover of an iconic painting from the American artist Edward Hopper
David Bokeh: https://flickr.com/photos/david_alonso/
Yes, this is the original:
The original is in the Art Institute of Chicago--I studied painting there for a while when I was a kid and spent many hours in front of that painting, fascinated by the light. which is a lot more subtle than it looks in this JPG. It's one of my favorite modern works.
And yeah, we've been on lockdown for a week now in Madrid. Not a happy time.
Thanks Richard and Sara! The painting is beautiful and yes light is superb. Spain is in trouble so hope you make it out fine, God willing!
The image pasted up top has light that is for lack of better words, "extremely dull".
On the other hand, in the stunning original work, that I am falling in love with at first sight, the people and light are making the "image" (Also the class that people had back then is showing through. They didn't use to go out in yesterday's t-shirt back then).
Either way, in the re-work, what would be the point of getting rid of 2 best elements (light and people)?
David Bokeh has some explaining to do!!
Well, I don't know David (though he lives nearby, I gather), but I think I can speculate here. Getting rid of the people is simply making the point that all the bars and restaurants an Madrid (and NYC) are closed. As for the light, I'm guessing that he started from an image that was available online, and there's a great deal of variation in the fidelity of reproduction. In my memory, the street and outside buildings were quite muted (like the first image) but the people and the yellow wall of the diner were bright.
Oh, I get it now. I have had this problem of missing the obvious forever. I never made the connection between this image and Corona Curfew at all. It makes lot more sense and actually makes the work powerful and timely. It wouldn't make sense to keep the light if the establishment is closed down. Thanks for explaining and posting. Yes indeed it is sad.
However, I am not sold on all the fear mongering and brainwashing. Virus maybe real, but at the speed it has spread, it doesn't appear normal or natural.
Also, couple of years ago 61,000 people did of common flu in US. This flu season about 12,000 have already died and by the time it is over, about 38-40 thousand would have died of common flu in US.
Last year over 1.5 million died of Tuber Culoses world wide.
Compare that to Covid deaths? Roughly 100 in US so far.
Point is that whatever they want to scare people about they can get certain reaction.
They are using this fear and paralysis to pass laws all over the world and especially in US, which would NEVER PASS if not for this kind of fear.
The give away is that the legislation was written way in advance and getting pushed through now.
Just like Patriot act was written years in advance and pushed through right after 9/11.
Things are not and never are as straight forward as they seem.
Taz: I think you may be underestimating what we are up against here. Let me describe the current situation in Madrid: We have had 9000 cases and 800 deaths so far. These numbers are doubling every three days or so. Our healthcare system (which is one of the best) is overwhelmed. We do not have enough beds, masks, tests or ventilators and the medical staff is running on empty. The docs have had to impose wartime triage criteria. The surge of acutely ill people has also negatively impacted normal delivery of care to everyone. The city has been shut down for a week now, but the spread is still exponential--basically we are about 10 days behind Italy but are following the same course. All of this happened in roughly three weeks time, and it shows no sign of slowing.
Our prayers are with you.
Ditto on prayers being with you, Richard. Before long we'll need yours.
Gallery: http://cornflakeaz.smugmug.com/
Thanks guys. Like it or not, we're all in this together. Stay safe.
I've been thinking about your post all day. Sincere best wishes for you and everyone else there.
Gallery: http://cornflakeaz.smugmug.com/
Richard...
¡Nuestras oraciones están con usted y con todos los pueblos de España!
El Gato
www.globaltrekk-photos.com
Gracias, Gato.
Richard, hope you are well. Here we are hearing Spanish Govt. acting dumb and prioritized tourism and people from Northern Italy crowded the places and spread the disease. Any truth to that?
Bullshit, from start to finsih.
@Stumblebum
Taz, I've been giving a lot of though to your above question. I'm sorry to hear that so much misinformation gets spread, but one can certainly understand the need to try to comprehend the situation and wanting to put a pat and easy answer on things.
FWIW here's my perspective - as one who reads/watches the local and national press (in Germany) daily and also the US, British and other international press fairly regularly and travels within Germany and the rest of Europe several times a year.
The beginning of the occurence of the virus here in Europe coincided with a couple of things - the ski season and winter holidays and Carnival season. In the early stages I don't think anyone took things quite seriously enough, whether it was the tourist industry which was set to lose its collective shirts or those of us who live in terminally grey countries who wanted to make that winter escape to the sun. So people went on their vacations and some of them spread stuff around one way or the other. In beginning to mid-February it wasn't all so crystal clear as we see things today - hindsight is always 20:20 as they say. It also seems that a championship soccer game that was played on Feb. 19 where Valencia, Spain played against Bergamo in northern Italy in front of 40,000 Italian and Spanish fans played a large role in the spread of the virus.
An aspect that I've often read and and observed for myself is that the cultures of Italy and Spain are much more sociable and gregarious than others - certainly much more than in Germany. There it's the norm for people to kiss each other on the cheeks in greeting and the personal distance when carrying on a conversation is often less than what we're used to. I have a feeling that it took a while for people to go against their natures and change their behavior. I know it's been difficult here - Germans are a culture of hand-shakers on greeting and more than once (before lockdown) I caught myself taking my hand back when greeting friends or acquaintances. And don't forget, in most countries in Europe - certainly in the cities, there is a much higher population concentration - more people per square mile, less single family dwellings, than in many parts of the US.
Another defining factor is certainly each country's emergency response and health-care system. While we all have socialized medicine (yippee!!!!) most of which is pretty excellent, I think that the health systems of Italy and Spain have taken more of an economic hit over the past years of economic crisis so that parts of the system are not as well-equipped as they should be. I'm not sure if it's true in Italy and Spain but here in Germany there's been a shortage of health care workers for several years and now they are feeling the strain even more. Thrown into the mix is the fact that each country had a different theory about testing for the virus or perhaps different amounts of tests available. One fact I've read is that in Spain and Italy people were (are?) getting tested much later in the progress of the illness (less access to testing) as opposed to here in Germany, where testing seems to be readily available and they test early. This could be one of the reasons why the death toll is mysteriously low (as yet?) here, as well as the fact that in Germany the most-infected group is people between 35-59 who perhaps have a better recovery chance.
So that's my 2 cents worth. Perhaps it helps a little to understand a different perspective on things.
Everyone, take care of yourselves. And Moderators, thanks for tolerating this non-photo-oriented post.
Cheers, Sara
In California, we've been in shelter in place for a week& a half
It's not so bad, we're allowed out a "little" but I believe it's the prudent thing to do...
Is it hurting financially?... yes. Our boutique hotel had 100% cancellations & we're vacant...
Let's hope we'll get thru this soon...
Best to all & be safe...
Thanks kindly Sara for dropping the knowledge. Yeah, Trump did one great thing, cut out the travel early. However, people here are STILL not taking it seriously. I think we are expected to become the epicenter of pandemic now.
May God help us all!
Sara...
Thank you for your straight-up, clear delivery of the situation from your unique perspective.
I have plans to be in Germany in July...I hope that I will still be able to go. Time, conditions and circumstances will tell.
Sara, wishing you and yours and to everyone here, continued strong spirits and good health.
El Gato
www.globaltrekk-photos.com
@El Gato , thanks for your kind words. We are fortunate to live on the edge of the city forest so are able to get out for many sanity-saving walks and bike rides. We're also continuing to plan our July biking vacation to Brittany - planning is a good distraction, whether the trip takes place or not.
If your planned journey does take place and you'd like any tips about things to see or do here in Bavaria, feel free to drop a line.
Stay well!
"If your planned journey does take place and you'd like any tips about things to see or do here in Bavaria, feel free to drop a line."
Thanks Sara, I will do that. I appreciate it!!
El Gato
www.globaltrekk-photos.com