Pink Robert

This Robert, who dressed in this garb, spends his evenings taking

tiny steps up and down Santa Cruz, California's main downtown

street. Photo taken after dark, slow shutter speed, V.R. (vibration

reduction) lens. Your ratings and critiques are invited and very

welcome. If you rate harshly or very negatively, please submit a

helpful and constructive comment/Please share your superior

knowledge to help improve my photography.) Thanks! Enjoy!!! John

(oh, and Robert is not a 'clown', at least commercially -- this is

his form of self-expression, and he is mostly welcomed by Santa Cruz

regulars.)

A tip of the hat to PN member Bob Kurt.

;-))

John (Crosley)

For recognition and for safety concerns, Robert has installed a flashing red light on his pink and silver reflective umbrella, which he carries everywhere.

;-)

John (Crosley)

and why is the umbrella's underside coated in foil?

Why do you ask silly questions, like why is the pink umbrella's underside coated in foil.

The easy answer is that it attracts more attention, and Pink Robert certainly is an attention hog -- by now, after the local weekly featured him -- he's become an institution, all in one year.

But if you happen to be a school psychologist, or something like that, (which I infer you might be), you might go look in the current incarnation of DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry) and look for disorders that feature 'thought broadcasting' either from the individual or to the individual -- and that might be helpful, although there is no one but Pink Robert who can say for sure whether or how much he's in touch, or if he is sending or receiving 'rays'.

Maybe the foil just makes a better reflector for his blinking red light that makes him stand out in the evening hours when he likes to take his little bitty steps down Pacific Avenue, one way, then the other, all at a snail's pace. (One or two blocks an hour, or some such.)

Don't you just miss Santa Cruz so much?

Regards.

John

Does Pink Robert know that he could go to his local camera shop and get an umbrella with the foil already on there? and then paint the outside pink? It would look, well, more put together and I think would possibly even have better protection qualities than standard foil ;)

I wonder if there is a city anywhere like Santa Cruz. I believe half of them are suffering from second hand smoke and the other half from first hand smoke.

Knicki, you would be surprised at how 'gentrified' Santa Cruz has become with main street (Pacific Ave.) now lined with an increasing number of chain stores, etc. It's losing some of its local character and becoming more Sandiegoed and Los Angelefied, which is where most of the students attending come from, so far as I can tell.

Robert is just a tolerated diversion in a very tolerant city that once had a Socialist mayor and a police chief that refused to speak to the press (I remember once when I was gathering statewide crime statistics, county by county for AP and the SC police chief was the only one who refused to talk to AP. It then was called the 'murder capital of the U.S.' a title which long ago has been discarded and no longer fits at all -- with an average bungalow now going for over $700,000 -- that's a bungalow on an ordinary lot on an ordinary street with nothing special.

Just in housing ownership there's so much wealth in Santa Cruz that anybody older than 40 who owns their own home is becoming 'rich', and sooner or later those people have to spend their money and do things like economic planning which takes them out of the 'elder hippie' movement somewhat. The bums are increasingly gone, there's a brand new family 'shelter', street people congregate and play instruments/panhandle, but increasingly downtown Santa Cruz is looking like other main streets in other college/university towns. (Except Berkeley of course).

Kind regards,

John