Everyone else is making so much noise our own fake news is lost in the shuffle.
Category: URBAN
CHASING CONCRETE
Making simple a mandate but forgetting that eventually someone is going to have to change bulbs 35 feet up…
Urban Autumn
I am ready
to say goodbye
to fall finery
and let the frost
of winter
kiss the dead and decaying
goodnight
Think on your Feet
In these days where much seems orchestrated, improvisation should be a welcomed part of our required skill set.
Gimme Shelter
Hope the roof on this baby wasn’t built by the same contractor who installed the one on the Olympic Stadium 
I really wish local government would get with the program and accept that not all tourists to our fair city are francophone: Such a great PS installation should at least be bilingual and then everyone could go home and say they saw the world’s largest 
and not wonder what that was all about.
Vic Modus Operandi
He treated her like vinyl
fell in love at first sight
with the bold colour
and sleek lines
hot and cold
against
the story of his skin
then left
no motive
roadside
Going Nuts
Walking a lovely tree-lined avenue can be a dangerous proposition these days. The squirrels have no appetite for these thorny projectiles and perch high in the branches laughing while pedestrians jump at narrow misses. The ravens, however, are thrilled and gather to pick through the debris for choice bits: those they cannot crack in their bills are dropped from a height to shatter against the sidewalks. I suspect they choose their moments.
Ladies in Red
The trees here have finally decided to give up their summer brights for a more suitable autumn wardrobe. Even Nature likes a make-over once in a while…
Post No Bills
Everybody has something to say, not everyone wants to hear it…
Illuminating the Underground
Shoot off into space and never have your feet leave the pavement.
Black and White and Grey all Over
Life is what you make of it.
“Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail” – John Donne, 1633
Urban Archeology
I’ve passed over this piece of sidewalk graffiti more times than I can count and each time I have wondered about the circumstances of its making. And no, the image isn’t reversed as the “words” scrawled into the concrete would suggest. What do they say and to whom? The whole reminds me of ancient Roman graffiti – but one doubts it will last as long…
Changing Viewpoints
How long has this been there?
Right Now: Still NSFWinter
Trying to dig myself out of unending winter…
Travel theme: Above
modern ivory towers
⩧
Get on top of the entries in Where’s my backpack?’s challenge
Travel theme: Above
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Empty – Week 2
having not played enough as children,
city officials create “recreational” installation in downtown core
All the action must have been on another street. Just a typical Saturday morning in the middle of town but there wasn’t even the blur of movement. It was as if, for just one moment, everyone had decided to sleep in, roll over, put it off, get just another five minutes before cramming in their weekend errands. That’s just the way we like it and one of the reasons we’re craving a return to the core of the city.
Someone artsy, and definitely with connections to the adjoining culture museum, thought that it would be a brilliant idea to squeeze in a little play-space between some of the office towers. Accessible to the office drones for their smoke-breaks or to unwrap some fast-food during a too short 1/2 hour lunch, it seems contrived rather than spontaneous, synthetic and linear despite the half-hearted use of organic shapes. We couldn’t find that little white plastic sheet defining the area’s use but imagine it might have said something like
“So and So’s work discards the traditional to become the site of poetic transformation. Stopping to encounter each work, the viewer is obliged to reimagine the nature of the the city and its change from a passive to an active space.”
Yep. A bit barren that particular morning, we did like the orange astroturf carpet circles….
“How does empty look to you?” – the glass half-filled, a bathtub drained, a look that’s lost or filled with pain, crumbs of cake, that last bite, big blue skies over a big blue lake – We would love to see your vision…
For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this fortnight’s challenge can be found here. Need more info or want to browse past themes? Have a look at HOW DOES THIS WORK.
D words
D is for Door
within or without
Diminished by time
Darkened by Doubt
rattled, avoided
closed or awoken
the last sound heard
like a soft word spoken
Decrepit, Delightful
Distant or near
Divulged and Defended
passed through
Disappear
⫒
Distill the entries in Frizztext’s A-Z Challenge: D words.
Travel Theme: Simplify
sand, sea, sky, sun
simple
∞
Get down to the basics in the entries of
Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Simplify.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Zigzag
suspicions were
that lost mail
floated away
to some dun-coloured bin
in the far recesses
of an alternate universe
post office
now we know
it zigzags
straight
to the alleys
to become bright
decoration
for marauders
of all kinds
⋛
Go up and down the entries in the Weekly Photo Challenge: Zigzag.
Travel Theme: Meeting Places
north, south, east, west
coming from
or going to
we are usually on our way
to meet someone
do something
be somewhere
sometime
⨒
Make contact in the entries of Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Meeting Places.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Fire or Season of Summer
it must have seemed a good idea at the time:
keep the jollity flowing well into the new year
until crisp as tinder
where but a breath
sends needles spiralling to the floor
like lost good will
fanning the flames of disaster
the task at hand is well nigh
forsooth, ’tis christmas in july
♨︎
Heat things up with the entries of
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Fire or Season of Summer.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Relic
poor george has seen better days
≏
Remember what has gone before in the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Relic.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Circles and Curves
i tawt i taw a puddy tat:
sufferin’ succotash!
⦿
Cruise around the entries of
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Circles and Curves.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrast
the city screams
for distinction
while bentleys and bicycles
battle for supremacy
high-priced whores and hipsters
haggle over who will win
the race, the game
the housing crunch
in a soulless search
to leave their stamp
on the door
in a town
where everyone is an artist
≑
Make disparate parts whole in the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrast.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Between
in the flood
Between
old and new
past and present
happy and sad
memory
like love
knows no bounds
≑
See both sides in the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Between.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Extra, Extra
Metro musicians pick their venues for traffic and acoustics:
Hope that wasn’t a lucky pick…
☑︎
Look very closely into the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Extra, Extra.
Travel Theme: Cities
monuments in the old port attract tourists on even the greyest days
♜
Discover a new part of town in the entries of
Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Cities.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Water
dog days of summer cured by a dip and a drink
♆
Immerse yourself in the entries of
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Water.
Travel Theme: Metal
steel jerry-rigging in the underpasses don’t exactly inspire confidence
∏
Get close to the elements in the entries of
Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Metal.
Weekly Photo Challenge: On the Move
we rush and run
the rain a wolf
chasing scared rabbits
back into warm burrows
⇔
Get going to the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: On the Move.
ACROSS THE BORED 