We were on dog-walking duty for a few days this week, while relatives were away from home. We took Casey, the Jack Russell, to walk in Memorial Park; I took my camera for a walk too. Within a stroll of a few hundred yards I snapped both the beauty of new spring growth and the ugliness spawned by 20th century growth - and necessity.
Clicking on pics should enlarge them.
Statue of Erle P. Halliburton, founder of the giant oil & gas equipment services corporation we know as Halliburton - the roots of which are in our town. His statue sits in Memorial Park overlooking Highway 81, and "Auto Zone" - very appropriate!
A little further along the path, where it ends, is an ugly power station
And more ugly signs of "progress" and technology
Just across the highway, another park houses evidence of how our old friend coal was once put to use to power travel, via the manufacture of steam.
Clicking on pics should enlarge them.
Statue of Erle P. Halliburton, founder of the giant oil & gas equipment services corporation we know as Halliburton - the roots of which are in our town. His statue sits in Memorial Park overlooking Highway 81, and "Auto Zone" - very appropriate!
They civilize what's pretty
By puttin' up a city
Where nothin' that's
Pretty can grow....
They civilize left
They civilize right
Till nothing is left
Till nothing is right
~Alan Jay Lerner, "The First Thing You Know," Paint Your Wagon, 1969
A little further along the path, where it ends, is an ugly power station
And more ugly signs of "progress" and technology
Just across the highway, another park houses evidence of how our old friend coal was once put to use to power travel, via the manufacture of steam.
What we call progress is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance. ~Henry Havelock Ellis
Now, now. The only reason you think that substation is ugly is because of its odd location.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how circumstances can change a point of view. I have looked at so many power-delivery devices that I have come to admire them and can see the artistry in their design and the patterns they create. Believe it or not, there are prettier substations than the one you saw during your walk in the park.
Must be one of those "eye of the beholder" things.
Kaleymorris ~~~ I can see why you, especially, would think that way.
ReplyDelete:-)
Taken out of the context of this post, one might look parts of the power station into having some kind of abstract artistic merit, I guess.
I do not detract from the usefulness, necessity and value of such installations - we've needed them. Time is upon us to be moving on though.
I do wish that in the USA there were more underground power lines (as in UK and Europe).
The nasty, ugly things draped all around peaceful beautiful scenery never cease to irritate me.
My pet peeve too, T. Powerlines. Along with light pollution, why can't they gear the pole lights downwards as they have in some cities?
ReplyDeletePart of our careless culture.
Great pics though, I like the transposition.
XO
WWW
WWW ~~~ Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYes - it's an incongrous juxtaposition. ;-)
I guess that's the 'Rock Island Line' Johnny Cash sang about?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I can't share Kaleymorris's enthusiasm for electricity sub-stations, not even by renaming them 'power-delivery devices'.
The world must have been a beautiful place before we arrived and ruined it.
RJ Adams ~~~ I suppose it is the same Rock Island Line - not sure.
ReplyDeleteI agree, we haven't kept house very well for Mother Earth. But we are young and still learning.
I hope we'll be allowed to have time to do better (not holding my breath though either as to the time or the doing better.)
;-)
With your consent, Twilight, I would like to deliver a guest post on exactly this subject: Progress, What Do We Know?
ReplyDelete