Hispanic Fest - 2007

Great time this afternoon and it's still going on. Maybe the rain will either stay light or diminish as we go into the evening. Things were picking up when I left around 3 p.m. from volunteering. Guess where? The beer tent! Great food there too if you want to go there and pick up something for dinner.

More Beach Pictures - "The Nocturne Series"

With the coming of the Halloween season, I thought that taking some nighttime pictures at the beach and posting them here would be appropriate. It turns out that they spookier than expected. While there are no mysterious "orbs" in the pictures, it wouldn't surprise me if future visits with the camera at night would reveal some. There are more examples here of the structure's numerous wrinkles and cracks. A history of repairs that makes one think that there may be more glue than structure left to this building.

These pictures were taken at 9 p.m. on a Thursday night. There were no families clamoring to get a choice parking space by the beach. There were no more than a half a dozen people there - some skateboarders (is that allowed?) No one seemed to mind. That is no one. It just came to me - what a missed opportunity to enjoy the beach environment when the sun isn't out. We do have a 24 hour clock and shouldn't we be using this gem of the City to the fullest extent - through all hours of the day and night (we can shut things down after 2 a.m ., of course). And, when the pier is finished, there will be more traffic than represented here, to be sure.

Now, think about a nice restaurant that serves an evening meal. Think about someone having their Quinceanera in the ballroom. There is room for that here, at this time of night, that would not interfere with the regular day traffic.

And anything that is built there would have to abide by turtle lighting standards enforced through the State of Florida, what is wrong with this picture. Why not have John G's stay open and serve dinner in the new casino building?

No storefronts open at 9 p.m. - not even NYPD Pizza.

Granted. This is an unflattering view of the building, but it was hard to find a flattering one.

Hmmm. And the City comes down hard on electrical inspections?

A repair made years ago to one of the columns supporting the second floor above the public walkway.

What can you say? This will be sure to be included in the new report the City is having prepared on the condition of the building.

Darkness - Lord Byron

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went--and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light:
And they did live by watchfires--and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings--the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed,
And men were gathered round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other's face;
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch:
A fearful hope was all the world contain'd;
Forests were set on fire--but hour by hour
They fell and faded--and the crackling trunks
Extinguish'd with a crash--and all was black.
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smiled;
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again
With curses cast them down upon the dust,
And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd,
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd
And twined themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless--they were slain for food.
And War, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again;--a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left;
All earth was but one thought--and that was death,
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails--men
Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were devoured,
Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept
The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan,
And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answered not with a caress--he died.
The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things
For an unholy usage; they raked up,
And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other's aspects--saw, and shriek'd, and died--
Even of their mutual hideousness they died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
Famine had written Fiend. The world was void,
The populous and the powerful--was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless--
A lump of death--a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirred within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp'd
They slept on the abyss without a surge--
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon their mistress had expir'd before;
The winds were withered in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need
Of aid from them--She was the Universe.

Lake Worth Beach in the darkness.

A ghostly looking scaffold - home to our lifeguards during the day.

I wonder what Mr. Lockhart's spirit thinks about all this?

Rusty tears from a tired building.

For a more inspiring set of nocturnal pictures, visit the gallery of nighttime pictures by clicking here.

Look who dropped by...

None other than the "Daytime" Citizen Observer Patrol and capable volunteers Walter Baker and Mary Lindsey. Jim Stafford and I will be going out tomorrow night for a while. Nice to see you guys and thanks for dropping off my key!

We Love Lake Worth PAC Used Paid Petitioners

See the We Love Lake Worth PAC 3rd quarter report which shows out-of-town paid petitioners were used in their signature gathering efforts. Sarasota?? See third page - click to see larger image.


Remember, this PAC was formed for the purpose of overturning the future land use and zoning change at the beach. The City has sued for a declaratory judgment to determine whether or not putting the items on the ballot would violate State law. No word on the status of that lawsuit, or the other one filed by McNamara and McCauley related to the length of the lease to Greater Bay.

Victory Fund Friend

You might remember that I went to Houston last year for a Victory Fund campaign training session. When we split into groups, one of the people that I was fortunate to get to know a little better was Lynn Schulman. She was kind enough to send me a copy of an invitation to her fund raiser coming up in early November. I'll share it with you here. There are a couple of interesting items on it that we really should consider including in our disclosure forms, as it turns out.

She's running for a seat on the New York City Council:



Note the disclaimer on the return receipt: "I understand that state law requires that a contribution be in my name and be from my own funds. I hereby affirm that this contribution is being made from my personal funds, is not being reimbursed in any manner, and is not being made as a loan."

Hmmmm. Sounds like a good idea to me! It's also apparent they have some sort of public money being leveraged by private donations.

Something you might enjoy...

This is something that Google has come out with recently. It's a player that allows you to witness all of the various images, in somewhat real time, that are being uploaded from around the world on blogs like this. It's fun to visit there and just watch the large variety of images go by. How long you sit and watch is your decision. In someways I think of it as collective world consciousness as it represents what is on a large number of minds at any one time.

Nothing mandatory by any means, but something that might amuse at the least. You might even see some of my images go by. I wonder what other people think of Lake Worth City Commission agendas and such flickering on their screens?

Click here to see. You can adjust the speed of the images (I find it too fast to absorb when I first open it up) and click on the "More Info" link and that will show you more information regarding the individual blogs.