Getting Wild At The Oakland Museum

Antelope, Mountain Lions, Elk, right in downtown Oakland, California - bring it. Stuffed and mounted, of course.

Here's a group of fine mountain lions, proud of their recent kill, a mule deer. Pay attention!

Chipmunk, making the rounds. Blooming flower amongst the elk legs.

It's not all fauna, let's give some props to the native redwood tree, the giraffe of the forest.

Antelope views. All good. A marmot viewing.

Cacti, with a small side of a bighorn sheep. 

Bad Images Of Good Cats From Wild Cat Adventure In Northern California

It's hard to get a cat to do what you want, right? Sit, pose, stay still. Where's the fun in capturing the essence of a beautiful beast when you can snag a rump instead. Bring on the felines.

Wild Cat Adventure has about 16 cats, separated in cages around the rural property. The operation does environmental outreach to schools and communities and now, post-Covid, offers little tours of home base.

What's up, snow leopard? Just hanging out?  Oof.

Cheetah views.

The fish cat, doing what it does best.

Another cheetah? No, duh, a serval. A Canadian lynx, waking up.  

Who's really in a cage, the panther (or mountain lion) wants to know.

The 2022 Tashkent Flower Festival

Way back in May, Tashkent threw a fancy flower festival. Imagine a bunch of the Rose Bowl parade floats exploded on a plaza in front of the National Library.

In come the crowds. "What's more important, holding my baby or my mobile phone?" A real Sophie's choice.

Flowers on everything. Spoiler: fake flowers on everything. Big displays of traditional things like the symbol of Uzbekistan and a giant cart.

It's all about the Instagram. Is it an old car exploding with pink flowers if you're not in it?

More fun with figures. A giant tea pot and cup and Bugs Bunny makes a topiary appearance.

Gorgeous cherry blossoms anytime, fake flowers can provide.

The Eerie Beauty Of Yangiobod

Yangiobod is generally a weekend market, in full bloom when the casual sellers are everywhere, hawking what they've dug up since the last time they spread their treasures/junk. It's also open during the week, mostly the permanent stalls that sell tools and parts, new clothes and supplies.

The sleepy places of Yangiobod, waiting for the next weekend, have their own, quiet beauty.

The fish aquarium supply area.

An outside section. Open, sparse. A clothing stall closed for the week. A good space to stow your watermelon.

Antique store.

Grim and dirty, the auto parts area. Fancy a green door? Old TVs, no home.

Many sellers just store their stuff for the week. Here's an entrance to one of the cave-like areas.

Furniture, waiting for some butts. Another storage area, you get a cage.

Back outside, no action, at least until the next Saturday.

The Amazing Yangiobod Market

Think of your standard flea market and multiply it by 10. Or 50. Just make it huge. Plop it down in a dusty area by some railroad tracks, have it sprawl in and out and around a set of musty, dark warehouses. Sell everything, mostly used. Tools, clothes, auto parts, restaurant equipment. Some of your vendors have regular stalls, shops, areas. 

Many of your vendors are weekend junk collectors with a blanket of their finest products. Which means, they cleaned out some old lady's apartment a few days earlier. Score!

A pause before the dive.

The range of products. A regular stall, specializing in bolts, etc.. and a typical table of a someone's junk. Or treasures.

Young patriot. She helps her grandfather at his camera, telescope stall.

Old Soviet era stuff is around. "Who's bust can I interest you in today?" Moving off the cult of past personality, a suitcase filled with family snapshots.

Oh boy. One of the more interesting rooms, a musty-looking and -smelling place, filled with old art. Let's just call it the Salon of Yangiobod.

Back outside, another typical spread, a real random mix of stuff. "I need a meat grinder, a suitcase and a long brown coat and I don't have a lot of time." Whew! Not everything is inanimate. There's a pet/live animal section. You choose whether it's a pet or dinner, no judgement.

The lonely plant seller.

Monument To Cosmonauts In Tashkent

Did you know that Uzbekistan played an important role in the development of the Soviet space program? True! Do you know any names of famous Uzbeks in that program? No!

No matter. There's a nice monument to Uzbekistan's contribution to the space program, a two-sided, bronze sculpture with a mix of archetypes related to space. And the heavy of the Russian program, not an Uzbek, Yuri Gagarin. Mix and match.

One side of the monument.

There's a depiction of a designer, a cosmonaut and a lab guy. A regular Soviet rub a dub dub.

The other side of the monument. The figures are less about the space program and more about the universal progress of life. Probably famed Uzbek Silk Road era astronomer Ulugh Beg on the left, generic, but loving, mother with child on the right. Who's topless. The mother, not the child. Unless naked is also topless.

At the top of both sides of the monument, men floating. Again, a bit universal, a bit, er, spacey.

In front of the monument and getting his own pedestal, strong pioneer, Yuri Gagarin.

The Music Collector Younus Rajabiy

Younus Rajabiy was kind of the Harry Smith of Uzbekistan, a musician, composer and, most of all, a collector of heritage music. He played the ney (flute) and dutar (a two string lute) and published a five volume opus on Uzbek music in 1959. His house in Tashkent is now a museum and teaching center.

Portrait of the Master. "That was a nice note, I need to write it down."

Stuffed living room. Dining room turned into a musical museum.

The Master's desk.

A little bit of a personal look, Rajabiy's doodles. Record records.

There's one diorama, kind of a funky, folky look at what playing the dutar out in the wilderness way back when might have looked like.