……………………………………….(Ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on January 14, 2022)

 

Here’s the second half of 2021’s “Best of” output (the first half is here: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=13592) and here’s the explanation from that post:

As you may know, I started doing these bi-annually last year because it’s WAY too big a job to do once a year. It’s not that I take SO many wonderful pictures – it’s just that I take a LOT of pictures (almost 6,000 from January through June) and it’s quite time-consuming to go through them all, pick out what I like, watermark them individually (no batch-watermarking – every watermark has to be placed in different parts of each image), run them all through a file-size-reducing program, write everything up and post the pictures sequentially. It takes about a week to complete.

Posts like these help explain the blog’s name. I still write a good number of music-related posts, but I AIN’T JUST MUSIC.

That said, it’s time to prove it.

NOTE: But before I do, I just found a folder with some first-half-of-2021 images that were supposed to be posted, but never were, so let’s get that out of the way.

Two from Teaneck:

 

Three from Main St, Hackensack:

 

Two images from just off Main St (click to enlarge):

 

Since their customers depend on bus schedules, shouldn’t a bus terminal have accurate clocks? You can see what time I took the picture:

Eh………it’s only a couple of hours off.

 

Front and rear views of this under-construction building:

 

It may not look like it, but the metadata says that these two shots were taken only 8 minutes apart:

 

The tall buildings are in Manhattan, the crane is in Hackensack and the vehicular traffic is between them on Route 80:

 

So much for the leftovers………….

 

To make things a little easier this time around, the sequence will be by month instead of month and day.

 

JULY

As usual, most of this post’s pictures were taken from home. There’s just SO much to see from here that I’m still seeing new things to shoot every day. How many people can say that after living in one place for more than 33 years?

A little locational background: I’m the 7th-floor tenant in a 6-story apartment building (separate unit on the roof) that occupies the NW corner of a square block in Hackensack. My LR window faces what’s behind the building, including a municipal parking lot that takes up over 50% of that block……………not very exciting-sounding, but you’d be surprised what I can capture from here with my camera.

Here’s that newly-redone lot during some rain (click to enlarge):

 

I can also see Manhattan 10-12 miles ESE from me from 59th St down to the World Trade Center, the Pulaski Skyway that runs from Jersey City to Newark 15 miles south of me, the Watchung Mountains 10-15 miles west of me, the Ramapo Mountains in New York State 15 miles north of me and the top of the George Washington Bridge 7 miles east of me (but only when the leaves are down).

Seven floors up is high enough to see all that, but close enough to see the faces of the people walking around the neighborhood. Can’t do that in a high-rise.

I took this picture combo from my LR. I saw a drone flying around the parking lot near the building on the SE corner (upper right) of the block. I had no idea why it was there or who was controlling it until a few minutes later when I looked closer to my building and saw some Svengali levitating it with his hands:

You don’t see that every day.

 

Hackensack’s July 4 fireworks were cancelled (again), but you KNOW that doesn’t stop some people from shooting off their own, as someone did about a block-and-a-half away:

 

There were a bunch of lesser displays in the parking lot and I found this in the lot the next morning:

 

While out on a walk on the Hackensack River Walkway, I encountered this:

Geez – couldn’t they just put up a simple barricade if they didn’t want us to walk there?

 

I saw this guy near the Walkway:

 

I was stopped at a traffic light when I saw and shot this:

It looked bad initially, but it was probably just hot paving tar.

 

Recent self-explanatory housewear:

 

These were my parents’ heavy copper bookends:

 

Sunshots through windows:

 

Visitor on my LR window:

 

This sequence took place on a day when the new lights for the renovated parking lot were being installed:

 

And a week later:

 

 

WHEELS – lots of these (besides cars) since the lot was re-done………July’s haul:

 

This was just laying on the new lot surface – 7 floors down:

 

Bike-jacking in progress:

 

That must an awfully heavy store circular to require a shopping cart:

 

Multi-tasker:

 

Father-daughter collision course? (I’m just making stuff up):

 

Daredevil kid:

 

Aren’t you supposed to be riding these things?

 

My watermark gets noticed:

 

Bringing up the rear:

 

 

PEOPLE

 

Oops!

 

Working on the lot renovation:

 

Traffic light destruction and theft right in front of a cop!

 

How about some shade for the kids?

 

Two red guesses why this is a very contented baby………..

 

Peeping Tom!

 

WHAT is she wearing?

 

Tug of war:

 

No………top to bottom, no:

 

She could get her purse picked and never know it:

 

Folding the laundry:

 

Is Dad offering a bribe to unhappy kid?

 

Adoring eyes………..

 

I have no idea what made him laugh (my watermark placement?):

 

It sure ain’t the beach, but it looks relaxing:

 

I’m trying to think of a comment that excludes the word “three”:

 

 

MULTIPLES

 

For the most part, this is an extension of the PEOPLE category.

 

(From a block away): A front-loading dumpster dumper…………..check out the bottom of the dumpster:

We’ll see this dumpster again.

 

I’ve photographed this woman before, walking around the lot and yelling into her phone while gesturing wildly, usually after church services on Sunday:

Just found the videos of her I shot in June and July (shaky, but crazy – crank up the volume): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhdpNxez6aQ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nwEtUq41L8

 

I don’t know for sure if it’s the same guy top and bottom, but it’s the same building (and the same build) and he wears the cap the same way:

Dunno what the container is for, but these were taken exactly two weeks apart on a Friday (garbage day?).

 

Dribble-rolling down the street:

 

Just 3 random guys crossing the lot………..the first one’s getting rained on, the middle one should probably be in the WHEELS section (but he only has one) and the third guy’s telling his friends about the other two guys:

 

These were taken 3 minutes apart. The bottom substance looks more like mercury than water:

 

Coming and going? Nah – I just flipped one of them:

 

I kind of knew what the second shot would be when I took the first one (click to enlarge, but don’t show his mother):

 

You CAN show her this much-safer-looking trilogy:

 

We saw this girl earlier. Dad’s gonna have big headaches when she hits her teens:

 

I had never seen this hairdo strolling through the lot before (or after), so I had to get two shots of it:

Looks like a LOT of work!

 

 

AUGUST

 

On the far edge of the newly-reopened parking lot, these two were found intertwining. It’s anyone’s guess how long the gestation period will be or how many Cone-a Colas will result:

 

Two days later, art flourished in Space #13 in the near edge of the lot just below my window:

Who said parking lots are dull?

 

I have no idea what was going on at the Middle School, a block-and-a-half away, but it certainly was photoworthy:

 

Way to go, Yusuf! (whatever it was you did):

 

Oh, look! Dead protein!

 

 

WEATHER/SKY

 

These two images were taken looking east from my LR:

 

This was taken looking west from my kitchen:

 

Shot from my south-facing back room:

 

 

PEOPLE

 

New meaning for “two-fisted drinker”:

I’ll bet he has two of these at home:

 

It’s probably best to not have identifiable faces in this one:

 

I hope those are headphones and not fluffy earmuffs (especially in August):

 

 

 

MULTIPLES

 

I occasionally see this casual gentleman on Sunday mornings when he attends services at the church to my south (First Presbyterian Church of Hackensack):

 

Two very different people going in two very different directions:

 

I didn’t know whether to salute or take these pix:

 

Plantains (and a small fruit salad…………..I think):

 

Family paddleball in church parking lot (and I REALLY needed to cover up Mom a bit):

 

Cool-looking car:

 

I occasionally see people taking pictures of the beautiful white steeple of the First Presbyterian Church next door. From this guy’s angle, there must have also been a sunset in his frame:

 

Looks like a lot of bedding was replaced at the apartment building on the SE corner of the block (it’s owned by the County to temporarily house homeless families):

 

Here’s a job no one’s ever heard of before: telephone pole measurer (aren’t they all a standardized size?):

 

Same day – very different phone guys (does the guy on the right have a phablet?):

 

I hope she didn’t forget it:

 

Weird way to hide your identity………BTW, this is the same building where that guy had the large, empty cylindrical containers. Maybe they should get together:

 

 

This is sad. I’ve featured these colorfully dressed church ladies before, but never saw one get into a vehicle and sit down with a baby on her back…………..that poor crushed kid!

 

 

SEPTEMBER

 

 

Let’s start September off with a bang…………or three:

I couldn’t figure out why fireworks were going off in September (with the World Trade Center behind them). I called various local towns south of me and found out the reason: they were the final event for Little Ferry Family Fun Day (Little Ferry, NJ, is just south of Hackensack).

 

On one of my photo walks on both sides of the Hackensack River in Hackensack and Bogota, I shot a couple of historic buildings: the First Reformed Church (known as the Church on the Green), which is across the street from the Bergen County Courthouse:

This is not a commonly-seen angle. For all you locals, I shot this from behind the Ice House in Hackensack.

 

For good measure, I also shot these cormorants from the same location.

 

From Olsen Park on the Bogota side of the river, I was able to shoot the Courthouse, the church and the USS Ling – a WWII submarine that’s been docked here since the ‘70s (but won’t be here much longer…………more on that when it happens):

 

This was also taken in Olsen Park:

There’ll be a couple more shots from this walk later in this post.

 

From my LR, this Hackensack crane appears to have designs on the Empire State Building:

 

I’m not sure if this is another shot of that cool car we saw last month (those pix appear to be more copper-colored):

 

Sloppy work:

 

Out with the old sidewalk:

 

Hackensack River from the Hackensack campus of Fairleigh Dickenson University:

For all you locals, the bridge in the distance is the Anderson St Bridge (if you’re from Hackensack) or the Cedar Lane Bridge (if you’re from Teaneck).

 

20th Anniversary of September 11:

 

Boy meets girl:

 

Sun reflecting off The Modern 2 in Fort Lee:

 

Don’t get too close to those cell antennas:

 

Shield the kiddies’ eyes:

 

Back-to-back (a variation of the previous image?):

 

From my kitchen:

 

Shouldn’t this be a place for Busch Beer?

 

It looks wrong, so it felt right to shoot it:

 

Yep – those are my bedroom windows and my big LR window on top:

 

Something was seriously wrong with this mouse. I took this from almost point-blank range. It just stood there, occasionally tilted sideways and if I tapped the ground in front of him, he’d stumble around in a half-circle:

 

 

PEOPLE

 

Just people out for a walk:

 

Look at this poor little guy, snared in his sister’s foot-vise:

 

Baske-soccer ball?

 

A ring? A beer tab?

 

Pure elegance, from her shades to her untied sneaker:

 

What’s the problem, guys? It’s a Sunday and it says on the screen that there’s no charge on Sundays:

 

What – only one case?

 

Man in/on Black:

 

FIGHT! (I have no idea what’s going on here):

 

Cute selfie (I like the headphones):

 

Our daredevil bike friend is back:

 

Now this is a real cutie!

 

……….and this is not:

 

Aw…………they have their names on their shirts:

 

 

MULTIPLES

 

This is the back of a medical facility and I think she’s a nurse, so I’m guessing she has to hide her smoking:

 

I mentioned earlier that there’d be more shots from the Hackensack River area photo walk, so……………….

 

Here are 3 photos taken from 2 towns of 1 egret. The first 2 were taken from Hackensack and the 3rd one was taken from Bogota, on the other side of the Hackensack River:

 

This is about a block west of the bridge over the river, where a huge residential structure is being built on what used to be a parking lot that sat between the east- and westbound lanes of this road. For some reason, there’s a convex mirror on a pole that some photographer on the westbound side is trying to make believe he’s having fun with (click it):

 

Two more cuties?

 

I can’t tell if he’s talking into something or picking into something:

 

Child emulates Dad:

 

It looks like the kid is being doused by Mom, but he’s on the other side of the photo divide:

 

Showdown!

 

Possible hostage situation with the doll:

 

Not looks I would pursue when I grow up:

 

Coming and going (2 photos – an almost perfect meld, but one of the stripes doesn’t line up):

 

Possible scenario: biker father/geezer waits for daughter/babe, she arrives and tells him what’s what, he reverses cap and slithers away with his bike between his legs:

Got a better one? I’m all ears.

 

Buttz and Feetz:

 

……..’n Sleevz

 

Giant STOP:

 

Awwwwwww……………

 

Men with weapons:

 

Along for the ride:

 

Speculation:

(in case he becomes a famous track star one day)

 

The Daredevil Kid rides 2 scooters at the same time!

 

Red light, yellow light, green light:

 

 

TWO PANOS, ONE STITCH

 

(“PANOS”, as in “panoramic shots” – “STITCH” as in “photo stitch”)

Click all of them to enlarge.

They’re sort of the same thing, but the PANOs – which is an iPhone camera setting – are much more fun and a lot quicker/easier to do.

 

Back to the Hackensack River area walk: This first one is what you see when you cross the river into Hackensack (or at least it was in early September, 2021). This was taken on the same westbound lane as the convex mirror trilogy (but a lot closer to the river)

 

This was taken behind the Ice House rink and shows (l to r) Olsen Park in Bogota, the Susquehanna Railroad tracks crossing the river from Bogota and some Bogota industry:

 

It’s not easy to see, but there are a second set of tracks that are very different just past the first ones you see, but don’t make it into Hackensack (but they did at one time). In April 2011, I took a picture of the two sets of tracks from the Bogota side:

Those are trolley tracks! (The trolleys stopped running here in 1938)

And if you look REALLY closely at the PANO, you can see the same egret I showed earlier.

 

 

STITCH

 

Photostitching is just taking multiple side-by-side pictures and hoping they line up when you put them in a photostitch program. There’s a lot of guesswork (and a lot of disappointment), but it’s what I’ve always used to get super-wide images (until I got into PANO shots less than a year ago.

I only use photostitching now when the subject is distant because I can’t zoom in much on the iPhone.

Here’s all of Manhattan from 59th St down to the World Trade Center – something I can’t get on the iPhone:

 

 

 

OCTOBER

 

This Hackensack bar/restaurant has the worst names: “Poitin Still” and now a real original: “Cheers”. The outside colors are pretty weak, so I saturated them………….it’s a major improvement!

 

In a Main St window:

 

A different view of the USS Ling:

 

This cormorant seems to like the framing with the Ling’s reflection (you’re welcome!):

 

From one of my bedroom windows:

 

Stopped at a red light (from same window):

 

Stink bug on my LR window screen:

 

You’re welcome to try to dislodge these metallic balloons from the transformers, but 3 months later, there are still no takers…………no live ones, anyway:

 

This may be the best shot I took this year from my bedroom – looking 7 floors straight down at dusk at heavy metal repairs on a garbage dumpster:

 

Manhattan sunset on October 14, 17, 17 and 19

 

Also on the 17th……….I’m shooting this double rainbow:

 

……..when I notice this little plane coming into Teterboro Airport and crossing the rainbow:

 

A couple of waxing gibbous moon shots on the 14th (those may be Jupiter – a speck – and Saturn in the top of the left pic):

 

From my little-used, north-facing LR window (my building’s roof edge along the bottom, including the satellite dish, the castle-like steeple of the Second Reformed Church behind the dish and a new not-yet-completed apartment building behind the steeple):

 

The parking cone for the beloved (55 years) and now-gone Hackensack Record King store (it’s currently in my living room……………the cone, not the store):

 

I have no idea what this blobby blowup is, but it has a cone too:

 

 

FIREWORKS

 

October 10 was “Teaneck Day” – Teaneck’s belated 125th Anniversary (1895-2020) Celebration, held at Votee Park, which is about 3 miles away from me. This easy way to see 24 pix was shot from my LR:

 

Roughly equidistant in the opposite direction on October 17 were the Lodi Fall Festival fireworks, as seen from my back BR window against Hackensack high-rises:

 

 

THE HACKENSACK BOO-THRU

 

This was a big project from the recreation department. It allowed residents and their kids to drive through Foschini Park and see all kinds of weird/scary things without getting out of the car. Of course, I had to get out of mine and walk around the entire park (there’s no other way to shoot it properly).

Here’s a taste (click to enlarge):

My car guard:

 

……………but if you want to see the whole thing, go here:

https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=14750

 

And when I came home, I saw this at the apartment below mine:

 

 

PEOPLE

 

Tied up by little dogs:

 

Hair tied up by little dog?

 

Kid into Jimi Hendrix?

 

Speaking of bands, meet the B-Ball Drum Duo:

For the finale, they dunk their drums (Dunkin’ Drumnuts?).

 

A Philadelphia Phillies cap AND a New York Rangers jersey? Either way, he’s gonna get beat up if he wears that combo at either team’s venue:

 

Kidz – board and otherwise

 

This looks slightly dangerous:

 

Maybe they should place this under the guy in the above pic?

 

Temporarily lit up by a car in the parking lot:

 

I don’t know what Mom’s doing, but couldn’t she find a classier cart than one from Sears?

 

All in one motion, this guy falls off his board and sets his phone up to record the next mishap (which you’ll see in the next section):

 

 

Irene’s had a rough day………….. (Good night, Irene)

 

 

MULTIPLES

 

Alright……..so let’s get the board mishap out of the way. He still can’t stay on the board.

“Maybe if I partially disrobe?”

“Nope!”

 

I have no idea what this guy’s doing, but it doesn’t look real successful:

 

Smokin’ pants!

 

Delivery, success, acknowledgement:

 

Girl doesn’t want to leave Grandma for Grandpa (strictly a guess):

 

Fire on Route 80?

 

Today and 30 years in the future:

 

Here comes the bride (and groom):

 

Here comes the sun (and clouds):

 

Let’s hope this look doesn’t catch on:

 

 

PANOS (panoramic photos – click ALL to enlarge)

 

I love that I can get incredibly-wide shots on my iPhone with just a left-to-right swipe of my hand. Here are a few from October:

The Bergen County Courthouse:

 

Fancy parking lot (if you’re Fred Flintstone):

 

Hackensack’s been going through a HUGE downtown revitalization/redevelopment (the reason I lost my river view and will lose my World Trade Center view in a couple of years)…………progress, I guess. But there’s something that they’re pushing really hard on (and spending a lot of money on): a catchy name.

They insist that everyone call downtown, “The Sack”! THE SACK!!!

Yucch!

When I first heard that, I immediately thought of old Sad Sack comics – not exactly an image to strive for:

 

“But everybody calls it “The Sack!”, they say. I’ve lived my entire life living in or next to Hackensack and I’ve NEVER heard it called that.

What I HAVE heard are jokes: “Too bad Hackensack doesn’t border Nutley………then they could call it the NutSack!”

And who hasn’t heard of someone being called a sack of………….whatever.

This is just a TERRIBLE idea, but they refuse to give up on it…………..so much so that they have this on a downtown wall:

If they were smart, they’d sack this idea.

 

On the far end of that mural, you can see a pretty famous (just ask Guy Fieri) burger joint called White Manna, which is 4 blocks from where I live:

 

Remember when I mentioned that I take these PANO shots by moving the phone from left to right? THIS is what happens when you do that and your subject is moving from right to left:

Awwwww…………..ain’t it cute? Even if it DID get squashed? You KNOW I’m gonna be exploring this phenomenon a lot more in the future.

 

 

So much for October. In November, you’ll see what happens when I PANO a tractor-trailer that’s moving from left to right at 50mph. It’s fairly freaky.

 

 

NOVEMBER

Although Hackensack was still using regular voting machines, we were given an “I Voted” stylus with which to sign our names. These sigs would be kept for future comparisons. Bad idea.

Signatures come out SO sloppy-looking with these “pens” that I don’t think I could ever recognize it years later as mine, let alone replicate it to even remotely look the same.

There may be a lot of rejected voters because of this in future elections.

Big bonus, however: “You can keep the stylus, sir.”

Whooppee.

 

There was a lot of empty space in the middle of the larger image, so I added a picture of a fly that crash-landed on my window to increase the window-bug vibe:

 

Lovely thin cones and their fat, mocked cousin:

 

Speaking of cones, driving around with one on your hood is perfectly normal, right?

 

Speaking of normal, here are preparations for the Saint Scaffolding’s Feast Day service:

 

The monthly FCC (Fish Crow Conference) meeting atop an apartment building that’s 2 blocks away:

 

Speaking of birds, a turkey vulture glides past the Holy Trinity Church steeple:

 

Speaking of (whirly-) birds (and this is a true story), 3 of them are flying in the sky (shot from my LR) about 4 miles away, over Route 4 in Teaneck near Teaneck High School after an accident where a motorcyclist died after colliding with a deer:

 

This is not the best segue (sorry), but you know when you get a blood test and they then apply a bandage/covering that you take off when you get home? You might see a spot of blood, but this one looks more like a donation:

 

On a somewhat brighter, more colorful note………..old toothbrush meets new toothpaste:

 

……….And it’s laundry day at someone’s apartment (not mine):

 

 

MODULAR HOUSE

 

A crane (two interesting reflections of it on a nearby building)………… :

 

…………was to lift 3 modular pieces to create the 2nd-floor above this 1st-floor:

(BTW – This PANO shot was actually taken at the end of October. All the others are from November.)

 

The pieces were unpacked:

 

…………and put into place:

 

I got this early-morning PANO shot of the topper piece that was to be placed above the 2nd-floor, but I never got the chance to shoot it being placed:

 

………..so instead, I present this shot, which kind of sums up that day:

 

 

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE AND ROSS DOCK ON VETERANS DAY

This was a magnificent shoot (and post). I would prefer that you simply go to https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=14825 and enjoy the 49 images (19 are panoramic) and stories, but if you need convincing, here are 14 images (8 are PANO – you’ll have to click all off them to find out which ones) with NO text – a taste to get you to hit the link:

 

 

SUNSETS

 

Two same-day kitchen shots:

 

Two Hudson Yards (NYC) shots taken 3 weeks apart:

If you’re NOT familiar with Hudson Yards, it’s BIG, NEW and AMAZING! Enter “Hudson Yards” in Google Images. After you see what’s there, you’ll wanna go (and take me with you – I haven’t been there yet either).

 

World Trade Center (and helicopter):

I have to take all the good pictures I can of the WTC from here because I’m gonna lose this view in about 2 years due to Hackensack redevelopment.

 

Next-Door Neighbor 1st Presbyterian Church’s Great Steeple

(one of my long-time favorite subjects)

 

 

PEOPLE

 

I haven’t see that message before, so slightly blurry or not, it gets posted:

 

Otto the Auto visits Hackensack:

Since O the A is part of AAA – and so am I – I knew what this was as soon as I saw it from about a half-block away. If you don’t know what he’s about, go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP3hA7sfZqY

 

Walking the dogs:

 

For cleaning up after the dogs?

 

The rock toss and the rock push/pull:

 

Down in a hole:

If you don’t like that one, here’s a better one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8hT3oDDf6c

Some of the comments (almost halfway down) are quite moving.

 

Back from the optometrist after having my pupils dilated:

BTW – that red vein in my left eye (on the right) is left over from when a hard-hit ground ball that I was fielding hit a pebble on a hard schoolyard surface and took a bad hop right into my eye when I was a kid. The eye was swollen shut and I was blind in that eye for about a week. It must have healed well because that’s my shooting eye.

 

 

MULTIPLES

 

Bi-level birthday:

 

One win, one loss:

 

The November 1, 10 and 12 moons:

 

More speculation: possible “before” shots if the Bobcat tipped over or the drill was dropped and run over:

 

Wheel people:

 

Dog carriers:

 

Boys and their skateboards (some are hipper than others):

 

 

DECEMBER

 

This shoot was a great start to the month………….and most of you know at least 2 of these guys (and all 3 if you’re from the NJ area).

 

If you’ve ever watched Conan O’Brien’s show, you should know the guys on the ends. Jerry Vivino – on the left – was the sax player in the show’s band and his brother Jimmy Vivino – on the right – was the band’s leader, musical director and guitarist.

 

The guy in the middle? The hat should tell you Jersey people that it’s Uncle Floyd, star of the hilarious and long-running Uncle Floyd TV Show – the favorite US comedy show of people like John Lennon, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie – who wrote a song about it called “Slip Away” (you’re better off finding the earlier version, which is simply called “Uncle Floyd”). Lennon – in fact – turned Bowie on to the show and all these guys (and others in that crowd) used to run home every night to tune in at 7pm.

 

Floyd’s last name – of course – is Vivino and he’s the oldest of the 3 very musical brothers.

 

And guess who was the show’s official photographer many moons ago…………

That was an on-air introduction during one of the few bits I was in.

 

Anyway, these 3 brothers and a whole bunch of other accomplished musicians all knew each other from playing together in the Glen Rock (NJ) High School band a half-century ago under the tutelage of their beloved music teacher, Joe Sielski.

On December 2, all of these people got together – with many flying in from California – on the GRHS stage to put on a remarkable show for 700 lucky ticket-holders to honor (and play with) Joe Sielski.

And the best part is that the entire venture is the subject of a much-anticipated documentary that should be out in the Spring.

I was fortunate enough to photograph everything that night: rehearsal, backstage and the show. Of course, I made a post about the whole thing that I hope you’ll enjoy: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=14920 (it starts off with the official trailer for the documentary).

 

 

On to other things…………

 

An interesting sky behind my next-door neighbor:

 

Earlier in this post, I mentioned a potential problem with the bottom of a local dumpster. Well, the sun was in the right place this day to show exactly what I was talking about. This container was just about to be dumped into the truck where it says “top”, but bad things are happening at the bottom:

 

Speaking of garbage…………….when you want the taste of baby back ribs or turkey with stuffing, do you yearn for hard, crunchy potato chips that might have a whiff of something you think you may have eaten a long time ago, but can’t identify? Then head to ShopRite!

 

Speaking of food…………Baby Bellas – my favorite:

 

Back to garbage………..I stuck my head out of my LR window, looked down and saw this: computer screens and/or flatscreen TVs, a safe, a malformed Christmas tree (I think) and other junk. Why did I shoot this? Fork if I know:

 

Fight to the death? Looks like it, but if you have a better idea, let me know:

 

I’ve got a problem with this car (and most of today’s cars). Shapewise, they all look alike and almost every one has 4 doors!

I come from a time when the most uncool thing you could do was drive a car with 4 doors. If your cool coupe was in the shop and you had to borrow your parents’ 4-door car, you were mercilessly mocked for driving a “mommydaddy car”……….and God help you if they owned a station wagon – the most uncool thing you could possibly drive!

And most people today drive an SUV, which ALL look alike to me and ALL remind me of station wagons, so almost EVERYONE is wildly uncool.

Back to this car: spoilers look really stupid to me. First off, no one needs a spoiler on the street. To me this looks like my parents put a spoiler on their 4-door mommydaddy car – uncool on top of uncool.

Me? I’ve never owned a 4-door car in my life (and never will). I can’t even think of any car today that I’d love to own. Whenever I see a coupe or other 2-door sports car, I feel like going over and shaking the owner’s hand. Fortunately, COVID keeps me from doing that.

(Oh, shut up, Bob – you’ve never married and have no kids, so you never had to switch to mommydaddyness like most people have.)

 

Speaking of cars, this one’s pretty easy to figure out:

 

I took this shot from almost a half-mile away through a closed kitchen window with my tripod half in the sink:

In all my years here, I had never seen their colorful windows or their triple cross illuminated by the sun before.

BTW – the mountains in the background are 10 miles away in Paterson, NJ.

 

OK – seven folders to go………

Let’s start with the worst one: AIRCRAFT

The Army-Navy football game was held this year at MetLife Stadium – about 6 miles south of me – on December 12. There was supposed to be a military flyover of F-18 jets and big helicopters before the game. These aircraft were going to be flying in 2-3 days before, landing at Teterboro Airport – about 4 miles south of me.

This means that I could probably a few decent shots over that period as they fly about and maybe even on game day.

Three days before, I saw 3 choppers from my LR window heading south, toward Teterboro, I imagined. The first one was much larger than the other two (are Hueys still in service?).

It was a very overcast day and I couldn’t get a decent shot of it, but I did get a good one of the other two:

Little did I know that that would be my best shot of the entire weekend.

 

I managed to get one unsharp and rather grainy shot of an F-18 the day before the game:

Game day was rainy and I got nothing of the flyover.

 

Fortunately – for whatever it’s worth – I got some good F-18 shots in 2018 at Teterboro when they were parked there:

 

Three days after the game – again on a sunless day – I got a shot of another helicopter flying near/over my building:

 

 

Overall aircraft photo score this month: zero

 

 

SWAT TEAM

Staying on the semi-military tip, I saw something from my LR that I’ve NEVER seen around here – military-looking vehicles and armed men who sort of resembled soldiers who were poised to raid a credit union bank:

 

I went outside for a closer look:

 

A SWAT team! And the men were now nowhere in sight! I walked through the parking lot and noticed they were all inside the lobby, still with rifles raised.

Having no idea what was going – a bank robbery? A hostage situation? – I thought it best not to stand there and start taking pictures, so I returned home.

At exactly 4pm, they all started exited the building, casually strolled back to their vehicles and left:

I couldn’t find anybody who had a clue as to what had just transpired, so I called the bank’s main office in nearby Paramus. They told me that they had vacated that building 3 months before (“But your sign is still up.”) and had no idea what had happened, so I still don’t know.

A training exercise maybe?

 

 

PEOPLE

 

Yeah – THAT looks exciting!

 

No clue…………

 

Is she about to kick a field goal or an extra point with that dog?

 

Not every kid thinks walking along that curb is fun……….

 

But COVID boosters are ALWAYS fun!

 

So is dumping a coolerful of ice in the parking lot:

 

……….or slanted roof-walking:

 

…………or sharing a Giant Farmers Market bag and looking back to see if any Giant Farmers are chasing after them:

 

JUST what you want to be doing on Christmas Day!

 

From my back room, I saw a strange tent on the Middle School property and a long line snaking through the lot, out onto the State St sidewalk and around the corner up the Passaic St sidewalk. School wasn’t in session on 12/29, so it must have been a COVID testing site:

 

 

MULTIPLES

 

Boarding in the lot – active and inactive:

 

Goosing in “The Sack”:

(That name sounded stupid when I mentioned it before and it sounds worse now when I try to make believe that it’s an accepted thing.)

 

Here’s how some residents reacted when they first heard it:

(More on that stupid name later)

 

The up/down electronic gate across the lot from me that allows residents of that new building to come and go from their parking lot, got crunched somehow. The repair crew surveyed the damage, rolled up and lowered the old gate and unwrapped the new one:

 

This is the same scene along the Hackensack River Walkway, taken 6 months apart:

 

 

CHRISTMAS EVE WALK

 

Speaking of the Hackensack River Walkway, I took a nice photo-walk there on Christmas Eve afternoon – about a mile in each direction.

I wasn’t alone:

 

Read what it says:

(Well, have you?)

 

Apparently, you need 3 traffic lights, a Do Not Walk red-hand sign, a video cam AND a fence to keep receptacles and a Batman sign from crossing the street:

 

A “First Student” (that what it says) school bus (and its reflection) rumble across the crumbling Route 4 bridge over the Hackensack River into Teaneck:

Now where would a school bus be going at 2:03pm on Christmas Eve?

 

Here’s a similar shot from farther away on the walk back (with some dingleberries):

 

(Left) I thought the two-sided sign on Route 4 might be more interesting-looking from the side (and below) than whatever crap it was advertising.

(Right) Have you ever seen knock-kneed pipes before?

 

I’ve never seen this before, but it makes oodles of sense on a school’s outfield fence:

Who wants to reach over the fence to rob someone of a home run and receive multiple puncture wounds for his/her efforts?

 

BTW – this is the PANO I shot way before I got close to that fence:

 

Research tells me this might be an ornamental cabbage:

Do any of you horticulturists out there give me a green thumb up or down on that guess?

 

PANO time (click to enlarge):

 

This part of the walkway runs through the Hackensack campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University. This shot shows the Teaneck FDU campus on the other side of the Hackensack River:

 

Though they may appear to be parallel to each other, the two pathways on each end are actually one straight line. The PANO left-to-right motion bends very wide 3-dimensional scenes to fit into a 2-dimensional jpeg:

Just to the left of center is the pedestrian footbridge that connects the Teaneck and Hackensack campuses, while Martin Luther King, JR watches over the walkway. BTW – if you’d like to see MLK’s arrival (tied down to a flatbed truck), installation and dedication service, it’s all in the 2014 “Best Photos” post in the October section and toward the end: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=1739

 

Meanwhile – the MLK vertical PANO:

 

 

Time to leave the Walkway with a double informative PANO about the river area denizens and their dining preferences:

Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to read it with all the petrified avian poop left on them for who-knows-how-many years.

 

Other than that, it was a nice and productive walk.

 

 

 

CHRISTMAS – INSIDE AND OUTSIDE

 

In my building:

 

Across the street and next door:

 

 

Sunrise………….and the sun setting on 2021:

 

(I couldn’t make up my mind which to show of either, but I’ll try to do better in 2022.)