asakiyume: (the source)
When we visited Bogotá in 2018, Wakanomori noticed that the manhole covers had frogs on them:



I always meant to find out the story behind the frog--was it a particular frog? Why a frog? But I never did.

Then the other day, Juegasiempre (also known as DjLu), one of the graffiti artists/muralistas whose work we became acquainted with on that trip, posted this beautiful frog on Twitter: la rana sabenera, Dendropsophus molitor. (Wikipedia tells me in English it's called the green dotted tree frog.) He posted that it used to be very common in the ravines of Bogotá, but now you can hardly find it. (Original tweet here.)

La Rana Sabanera, Dendropsophus molitor

I took it into my head that this MUST be the frog on the manhole covers and finally set about to find the answer.

... Well, it's not. The manhole frog is just a generalized frog, not any particular frog, but I found out that frogs have been on Bogotá's manhole covers for more than a hundred years, getting redesigns now and then. Some people thought the design was of a toad (sapo), so the workers for the Empresa de Acueducto y Alcantarillado (Bogota's water and sewer company) would sometimes be called sapos. This is unfortunate because several years of watching telenovelas has taught me that that's also what you call a snitch.

There's a Facegroup page for people who want to preserve them--it's got some photos:





As for D. molitor, it's found only in Colombia. Females are larger than males, and they can grow to be about 70 mm. They can be green or brown, and some have stripes or lines that can be black, yellow, or blue. Although Wikipedia lists it as a species of least concern, one article I found said it's threatened in parts of Colombia by the introduction of another type of frog that competes for the same habitat.

Here's a cutie from Wikipedia (link):



Live long and prosper, little guy!

Resources consulted

"Conoce a la colorida rana que habita los humedales de Bogotá," Obervatorio Ambiental de Bogotá, 14 September 2020.

"Una rana nueva llega al acueducto," El Tiempo, 5 October 1991.

"Preservemos las Tapas del Acueducto de Bogotá; Disprivatizar el Acueducto" (Facebook page)

"Dendropsophus molitor," Wikipedia.
asakiyume: (feathers on the line)
This is the net to catch a falling sky. it has tears but is still strong.

net to catch a falling sky

Below the cut are some boxcar signatures. Even graffiti artists can want to own their accomplishments.

Lords and Tavo Alrak )

And here is something golden from a marsh--a marsh marigold, in fact

marsh marigolds 2020
asakiyume: (turnip lantern)
I mean to answer posts--and letters/cards (thinking of you, [personal profile] osprey_archer)--but I've got my head down with a long job that I have to finish by tomorrow. I'm taking a break to share with you the wisdom and art of a bathroom stall.

First the art--it's Pikachu! Who doesn't want to see Pikachu's cheerful face at such moments?



Now a blessing--located, aptly, over the toilet paper:




And lastly, some relationship advice. There were other, similarly themed nuggets that expressed themselves more caustically, but:



Please continue with your day blessed, advised, and fortified!
asakiyume: created by the ninja girl (Default)
I heard a quote last week from Lynn Margulis, of Gaia Theory fame: "Life is matter that chooses." My immediate reaction was that I liked it ... but then I started having doubts. It's appealing, but what does "choose" mean? If a single-celled organism moves toward light or engulfs a food particle or away from a predator, is that a choice? In what sense is it a choice? How is it different from a shadow's movement across the ground in response to the movement of the sun earth around the sun? For that matter, how is it different from the earth's own movement, or the sun's? Or if those things are too physical, then how is the single-celled organism's action more choice-y than a chemical reaction like rust forming on metal?

Maybe I'm too pedestrian a thinker in this case, but to me choice involves weighing alternatives, and while some things that are alive do weigh alternatives, I think it's a stretch to say all living things do, so I don't think this formulation really can be used to define life.

Completely unrelatedly, it hit me at 5:45 this morning that there's a good reason that various flavors of Christianity (maybe all of them?) tell people to imitate Jesus and not God, and it has entirely to do with the fact that on the face of things Jesus was just a person walking around doing person things--despite the central tenet of the faith that emphatically says we have to erase the "just" from the previous clause. You could say imitate the Dalai Lama or Nelson Mandela or Greta Thunberg or anyone else who's admired, and the effect is the same--you're picking a fellow human who's setting a good example for you in some way. But if you decide to imitate God/a divinity, then you and those around you are in for a world of trouble. (I mean, possibly you'll/they'll be in for that anyway, depending on the human you decide to choose as your model, but it's a guarantee if you take it into your head to imitate a deity.)

Last, a couple of pictures. I probably (most assuredly) won't do all of Inktober, but here's Day 1: "ring"



And here is some pointful stencil graffiti from Keene, NH, where we were this past weekend because Wakanomori was running a marathon

wooly achoo

Sep. 9th, 2018 05:52 pm
asakiyume: (feathers on the line)
Between tags, which I confess I'm not that fond of, and beautiful murals (such as this new one by the street artist who goes by the name "guache_art"), there are the fancy, elaborate versions of tags that you can see--for instance, on train cars, like these ones parked in B-town.

Here is one labeled "wooly achoo"

IMG_0654

I like the color and circles on this one:

IMG_0653

several more examples )

street art

Jun. 5th, 2018 10:32 pm
asakiyume: (man on wire)
It's hard to know where to begin with experiences of Bogotá, so I'm going to just launch right in with street art. It was everywhere. We passed this mural every day:

image near where we stayed

Any surface could have something beautiful painted on it:

oriole graffiti

There was ordinary tagging, too, of course, plus quickly scrawled political messages, like this one, on the headquarters of the newspaper El Tiempo (Without democratization of the media there is no peace!):

Sin democratizacion

We were eager to go on the Bogotá graffiti tour, which is held twice daily.


the graffiti tour )

This isn't half of what I photographed, but at least it gives a good taste. At least one mural has a special story attached to it, so it'll get its own entry.

Profile

asakiyume: created by the ninja girl (Default)
asakiyume

May 2025

S M T W T F S
    123
4567 8910
11 121314151617
1819202122 23 24
25262728 293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 2nd, 2025 09:18 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios
OSZAR »