Gas Prices

This morning, prompted by increasing concerns about terrorism, oil prices reached a record high as the cost of a barrel of crude is a whopping $44.34. Wow, it seems shocking that a product of finite supply gets more expensive the more we use it. Now the terror alert means higher oil prices, which oddly enough means higher profits for oil companies giving them more money to give to politicians whose policies may favor the oil companies such as raising the terror alert level. As Simba once told us: "It's the circle of life."
~ Jon Stewart

Conspicuous Consumption

I took B and her best friend to look at model homes today and could not believe the deals. Everything was decorated perfectly; from the ceramic tiled floors to the paintings on the wall. And, friends, all of this could be yours. Four thousand square feet in the cultural mecca of the Inland Empire. Huge bedrooms, great rooms, granite counter-tops, his and her walk-in closets. It can't get much better than that, can it? Oh, but wait, there's more. If you look closely in the picture you'll see the real selling point. It's the view. Is it nearby Mt. Baldy? No. Is it the valley? No. Is it rolling green hills? No. It's your next-door neighbor's window! And for the low price of $900,000 it could all be yours. Don't walk, run! Southern California is calling...

If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed and if we are not willing to change, we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect.
~ Jacques Cousteau

Elevation

Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.
~ Denis Diderot

Fabric

Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.
~ Oscar Wilde

The Fan

I really don't like today's photo at all, but I have no other option so I am adding another LA photo to the end. The quote makes no sense unless you look at the title of the play it's from. :-)

My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's.
~ Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

Crescendo

Another assignment from Right Brain/Left Brain Photography is to photograph music. I didn't specifically go out trying to capture music, but this one seemed to fit.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.
~ Henry David Thoreau

The Steel Factory

One cannot walk through an assembly factory and not feel that one is in Hell.
~ W. H. Auden