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johnlaroe.bsky.social
LaRoeBoat
@johnlaroe.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.6K following 7.8K posts
dogs' dogsbody (he/him)
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johnlaroe.bsky.social
It's a Major Award.
( also #AlphabetChallenge #WeekWforWindows )
Cellphone Photo: A lamp consisting of a stocking-covered leg with a fringed skirt-ish shade (just like the one in the movie "Christmas Story") in a (second story) window, trimmed in white with black shutters. Text in the photo reads, "It's a Major Award."
December 5, 2025 at 8:05 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
View to a #Lectern
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekWforWindows
#NightPhotography #CellphonePhotography #ClassicMono
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
#KansasCity, #MO
June 2018
Cellphone Photo: Looking up a set of concrete stairs, with lights and a cabled railing on the right and a retaining wall on the left, towards the three glowing buildings, in overlapping succession: a museum's most recent addition. The center building of the three has a large window in the second above-grade floor's right-hand corner, and through it a lectern can be seen. Behind it is a similarly shaped building with a similar window, but the exposed room in that building is not lit internally and the shapes it holds are ill-defined. At the top of the stairs is a brick path. On the right of the stairs, streetlights illuminate a four-lane street where automobiles navigate with glowing headlights. The sky is uniform and starless. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art #KansasCity, #MO June 2018
December 4, 2025 at 6:51 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
My Sweet Embrasure-able You
(assuming an archer's #embrasure qualifies for the …)
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekWforWindows
also: #Medieval #Castle
#Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, #France
September 2025
Photo: A roughly three-quarter to four-fifths life-sized poster of an archer stands near stone steps and next to an archer's loophole (embrasure) in the very thick stone wall of a castle. The archer is dressed in medieval helmet and armor and he holds a bow with a notched arrow pulled back and ready for release through the embrasure. A full quiver lays at his feet. The wall is thick enough that the embrasure's interior The Oxford Languages dictionary defines embrasure as "an opening in a wall or parapet that is bevelled or splayed out on the inside, typically one around a window or door." In this case, as with most embrasures designed for archers, the opening is a long narrow vertical slit (showing here as a bright light in the midst of shadow) opening into a wide and deep "splayed" space that provides the archer room to move side to side behind the thick wall without exposing himself to attackers on the outside. Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, France September 2025 OM-1 MarkII: ƒ/5.6, 1/125, 24mm, ISO200
December 4, 2025 at 5:26 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Also. This.
Black text in a script-ish font, reading "Fuck 'em, if they can't take a block," with an attribution to "Bruce Arthurs" in smaller san-serif bold text.
December 2, 2025 at 4:53 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
@surlyamy.bsky.social
It arrived yesterday. So fast. So beautiful. My wife loves it.
---
One question: is it microwave safe?
---
Thanks!
Photo: Close up of a stoneware coffee mug with black birds flying across a sky of multiple blues and over a landscape of tan sands.
December 2, 2025 at 4:49 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Two-Dog Invictus
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekWforWindows
They are the masters of their fates.
They are the captains of their souls.
They are … the doggies in their windows.
Annie (left) & Lucy (right).
… with #apologies to #WilliamErnestHenley
#DogsOfBluesky #UglyDogs
Octobers 2017 & 2023
#KansasCity
Photo: Annie, at about three years, stands on her couch in her living room with her front paws on the sill of a window trimmed in white. Behind her, a large television has people on it. October 2017 Kansas City Cellphone photo Photo: Lucy, at about three years, stands on the concrete floor of a screened-in porch of a red brick house with her front paws on the sill of the front screen. Behind her a window trimmed in white looks out onto the porch. October 2023 Kansas City TG-6: ƒ/2, 1/320, 4.5mm, ISO6400
December 2, 2025 at 3:56 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
In an Alley in Sarlat
… a reflection in a confectionery window provides a view through a jewelry store window and a self-portrait.
Sarlat-la-Canéda, France
September 2025
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekWforWindows
Photo: The shop window of La Confiserie Saunier reflects (on its left) a view through a jewelry shop window across the alley, where the shopkeeper is assisting a customer, and (on its right) the photographer. There is a (probably not real) wedding cake in the bottom center of the confiserie window. Sarlat-la-Canéda, France September 2025 OM-1MarkII: ƒ/2.8, 1/20, 18mm, ISO640
December 1, 2025 at 6:31 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
"This is My RESISTING bitch face," [facetiously] read her sign, thus providing, in a single word, all six letters of eligibility for #WeekVforVowels in the #AlphabetChallenge.
2 August 2025
RageAgainstTheRegime
#KansasCity, #Missouri
#Photography of #Facetious #AntiFascist #Resistance
Photo: Maddy, in a red "Rosie the Riveter" t-shirt, smiles demurely into the camera at an anti-Trump demonstration while lifting aloft a hand-made sign that reads "This is My RESISTING bitch face." Her hair, sunglasses, and jeans are dark. The grass on the slope behind her is green. The sky is partly cloudy. And the object of her protest is a misogynistic and corrupt pig (also a convicted felon and adjudicated sexual predator). 2 August 2025 Rage Against the Regime Kansas City, Missouri D5600: ƒ/13, 1/640, 26mm, ISO320
November 26, 2025 at 3:20 AM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
View of the #small village of #Ainhoa (pop 665), #France, from the side of Mount Errebi.
September 2025
#BlueSkyArtShow #landscape #aLittleBitCountry
Photo: A small Basque village in a broad valley as seen from a mountainside. The village appears as a cluster of red roofed, white walled buildings in the center of the frame, surrounded by neatly tended green fields bordered with round-topped trees. In the village's center, the tower of a church is visible (Eglise de Notre-Dame de l'Assomption). The untamed foliage of the mountainside dominates the photograph's foreground. The mountains on the other side of the valley define the horizon. The sky is hazy with a bit of blue breaking through on the right. September 2025 Looking down from Mount Errebi in the Pyrénées onto Ainhoa, France. TG-6: ƒ/4, 1/400, 7.31mm, ISO100
November 23, 2025 at 2:11 AM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
gif that pops up when I type my name
animated characters cling to a raft caught in a torrent of water at the mention of "LaRoeBoat"
November 20, 2025 at 5:15 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Found But Never Claimed
… spotted at the foot of the fence from whence it fell, a sign in an unofficial dog park behind an abandoned high school in …
#KansasCity, #Missouri
August 2025
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUforUnloved #Phonetography
Cellphone Photo: A seemingly handmade sign with the text "Cat FOUND!!!" above and the text "Male No Collar Tan w/ Black & Gray: -NOT NICE! Found by Dumpster (May be scared) Not House Broken Rewards Accepted" below a picture of a snarling opossum. In small text at the bottom the sign is copyrighted as follows: ©2017 Nich Mhery Is-www.nightofmystery.com
November 18, 2025 at 2:07 AM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Looking Back and Reflecting
November 1012
"Lake" Hudson, #Granville, #Ohio
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUforUnloved
Photo: In the foreground, the stern of a small, white, decaying, open boat (pulled up on the shore) has been reinforced to support a small outboard motor. But there is no motor, just dead leaves collecting in its bottom. Beyond the boat, the still waters of a pond reflect, upside down, the bare limbs of the trees on the opposite shore; but the shore and the trees themselves are out of frame. D5100: ƒ/10, 1/400, 55mm, ISO200 November 1012 "Lake" Hudson, Granville, Ohio
November 18, 2025 at 12:29 AM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Big Raccoon
A sculpture by Bordalo II, in his "Trash Animals" series.
Bordalo would have us rethink our wasteful commercialism In the meantime, he creates art from what we discard.
April 2023
#Belém, #Lisbon, #Portugal
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUforUnloved #UrbanGaze
Photo: A three-story sculpture seemingly bursting from one end of a building constructed from discarded items: automobile bumpers and tires, plastic waste, twisted metal fencing, etc. This is "Big Raccoon" by Bordalo II, in his "Trash Animals" series. A man and a young girl wearing casual shorts walk left to right on the sidewalk in front of the sculpture. A jitney has just entered the camera frame in the lower right hand quadrant. April 2023 Belém, Lisbon, Portugal OM-1: ƒ/7.1, 1/400, 12mm, ISO200
November 18, 2025 at 12:08 AM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Still Life with #Unwanted Charging Cables
on 17 November 2025
in #KansasCity, #Missouri
for the #AlphabetChallenge
Photo: A plastic tub in a drawer, filled with cables: Mostly USB Types A (and maybe 3.0) on the receiving end (with the exception of one that's built to mate with an automobile cigarette lighter doohickey) with delivery ends of types Mini, Micro, Type C and who knows what else. They are black and white, with brass or steel hardware. Tangled beyond redemption. The tub's lid is red but the tub itself is translucent.
November 17, 2025 at 7:27 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
After a couple of years (I'm a slow learner) of trying to convince myself that the all-in-one grinder-dumper-brewer combo was right for me (despite dozens of counter-top-tragedies born of forgetfulness & sloth), I admitted to myself & others: a simple grinder and plain old brewer was what I needed.
Photo: On a white counter, an OXO coffee grinder sits on the left and a bonavita coffee brewer (with a halfa carrafa coffee) sits on the right.
November 17, 2025 at 6:18 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Ascension of the Photographer
… from the chapel in …
Hospital de los Venerables
Seville, Spain
April 2023
#BlueSkyArtShow #Bright
( #podium *&* #lectern alert )
Photo: a photographer (who is not me) aims his camera, with telephoto lens, into the dazzling ceiling of the chapel in Hospital de los Venerables. He wears a blue shirt. The camera's strap and a pair of wrap-around sunglasses dangle around his throat. He sits in a red-cushioned pew, Framed religious paintings hang on the walls around him. In the background are a podium *and* a lectern. One wall is white. Another seems to be covered in enough gold leaf to make Donald Trump blush (if that were possible). Light appears to burst through a wall behind him. It is *everywhere*. Surely the moment is nigh! April 2023 Hospital de los Venerables Seville, Spain OM-1: ƒ/8, 1.6s, 18mm, ISO800
November 15, 2025 at 5:26 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Northwoods Lodge
The brightest of lights shine in the darkest of nights.
September 2020
Gunflint Lake, Superior National Forest, #Minnesota
#BlueSkyArtShow #Bright
#NightPhotography #BoundaryWaters
Photo: Exterior lights of a lodge on Gunflint Lake illuminate its walls and light from a gabbled upstairs window illuminates a part of its roof. Interior lights illuminate its first-floor restaurant. Water around the Boundary Waters outfitter's dock reflects that illumination. The ghost of a modern voyageur, in red jacket and blue jeans, uses a flashlight to navigate the path between the lodge and the lake. September 2020 Gunflint Lake, Superior National Forest, Minnesota D5600: ƒ/5.3, ¼, 48mm, ISO6400
November 15, 2025 at 4:52 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Down Cemetery Road
(well, technically: "Church Road" but work with me here)
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekTforTelevision
September 2025
Église Saint-Fructueux
Chemin de l'Église, #Itxassou, #France
Photo: Front & center, a cross (in the cross patonce style, with its three top points ending in a triple-leaf shape evocative of the fleur-de-lis) mounted on a burial vault in a cemetery surrounding a church is a Basque village. Some suggest that the triple leaves at the tips of this type of cross are symbolic of the virtues of faith, wisdom, and chivalry. The church is Église Saint-Fructueux; the village, Itxassou. There are quite a few grave markers just beyond it and a stone wall beyond those. Further off, down a hill, there are a couple of buildings on both flanks of the photo, both in the Basque traditional style of white stucco with dark red window shutters and red tile roofs. And beyond the buildings is woodland and a few Basque-style farm buildings on the side of Mount Errebi. September 2025 Itxassou, France OM-1MarkII: ƒ/6.3, 1/160, 35mm, ISO200
November 13, 2025 at 2:03 AM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
My $.02
Photo with Text: The photo: a United States flag, backlit by a low sun 10 November 2013 on the former Army base, now a National Historic Site: Fort Scott, Kansas. The Text: Headline: Democratic Socialism Subhead: Democracy That Works For You Body Text: Do not point to the failures of the American "experiment" and tell us that "democracy does not work." Democracy would work just fine, if that was what we had. But this is late-stage monopoly capitalism, in which all the costs are borne by the people, and all the benefits accrue to the corporations, the oligarchs, the billionaires. Additional Context related to the Photo: This happens to be the fort where the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry was recruited and trained in mid-1862 and where it was mustered into federal service on 13 January 1863. This was the first Black military unit recruited in a Northern state and the first such unit to see battle. Over the course of the War Against Secession, this unit suffered the highest casualty rate of any military unit from the state.
November 12, 2025 at 5:30 AM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
"So, you're telling me he's *not* my son?"
Joseph has a difficult conversation with Mary in this Chuck Lorre spinoff of #TouchedByAnAngel that's sure to trigger controversy in its Christmas debut.
Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Bull
#Menorca, #Spain
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekTforTelevision
Photo: In a dark room in the rear of a Catholic church & Franciscan nunnery on the highest point of the Spanish Balearic Island of Menorca, a television on one wall reflects a stained glass window in an adjacent wall. The window depicts Joseph, with a red robe, looking skeptically towards Mary, in a blue robe, whose attention is focussed solely on the baby, in a light blue sleeping bag, on a hay-filled crib before them. Joseph holds a shepherd's staff. Mary's hands are folded in front of her as if in prayer. The baby's crib is filled with hay. It's sleeping. All three wear halos. A bright star shines above them. The room is dimly lit and devoid of color. April 2023 Sanctuary of the Virgen del Toro, Monte Toro, Menorca, Balearic Islands, Spain OM-1: ƒ/4.5, 1/160, 22mm, ISO200
November 10, 2025 at 8:31 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
1) I did not put the turkey in the wagon.
2) I did not put the wagon in the free-throw lane of the basketball court.
I just pushed a button on the camera. (Although certain liberties were taken after the fact.)
Questions? Contact my attorney.
9 November 2025
#MartinCity, #Missouri
Photo: A turkey decoy sits in a Radio Flyer wagon. The wagon is parked in the free-throw lane of an outdoor basketball court. There is, predictably, a basketball backboard with a hoop with a net on a stand. There is a basketball on the grass beyond the court. There is a line of trees across a one lane street. The Radio Flyer wagon is in its original red (with black tires on white wheels with red hubs); the rest of the photo was de-saturated after the fact.
November 9, 2025 at 10:55 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Done for the Day
July 2007
#Archie, #Missouri
#BlueSkyArtShow #Evening #RuralGaze
Photo: Looking through and over the upper left-side corner of a strung rope hammock and its spreader bar across a lush green field into a blurry scrub-brush and tree horizon where the sun, like the photographer, is about to call it a day. July 2007 Archie, Missouri NIKON D5100: ƒ/7.1, 1/200, 55mm, ISO400
November 8, 2025 at 10:27 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Evening in the Old Center City
September 2025
#Sarlat-la-Canéda, #France
#BlueSkyArtShow #Evening
#IceCream & #Architecture & #UrbanGaze
Under a twilight sky in which the blue is darkening and scattered clouds have begun to resemble smoke, artificial (I'm assuming) flowers bloom, hanging from lines above the street, while the upper floors of a limestone building serve as a backdrop. Chimneys line the buildings' roofs in faint imitation of crenellations. A giant (waffle-style) ice cream cone stands on the balcony between the window shutters on the lowest visible floor of the building. (I assume it, too, is artificial.) September 2025 Sarlat-la-Canéda, France OM-1MarkII: ƒ/2.8, 1/10, 12mm, ISO640 Detail (with the exposure boosted for clarity): A giant waffle-style ice cream cone stands on the balcony between the window shutters on the lowest visible floor of the building. A playful sculpture of a child is perched behind the cone's strawberry and orange sherbert (IMHO) scoops. He wears an orange t-shirt and grey ball cap; and he appears to be just about to lift and wave a flag, with only its vertical blue striped edge and a sliver of its white center strip showing along its staff, the rest of the French national flag still presumably hidden behind the sherbet. The wrought iron railing of the balcony is painted white, with a blue cast, perhaps attributable to the twilight. Likewise the shutters for the French doors on either side of the cone.
November 8, 2025 at 10:08 PM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
What's in your wallet?
An image displaying the following text, in white on a black background: Attention SNAP Program Participants: If you are wondering how you rank among the MAGA regime's priorities, consider this: In the first week of November, that regime sought the repeal of a court order demanding that it continue to provide food assistance to 42 million Americans. But in mid-October, two weeks into a shutdown of the government that it is supposed to be administering, the Trump regime announced its intent to provide Argentina with $40 billion to bail out the failing economy of the Trump-friendly regime. For perspective: That is $952,380.95 per SNAP participant. Call me crazy, but I'm thinking if you had gotten a check this week for $952,380.95, that would have alleviated a lot of your concerns about food insecurity.
November 8, 2025 at 2:33 AM
johnlaroe.bsky.social
Shadows at Play
… on the calçada portuguesa sidewalk of the Avenida da Liberdade.
April 2023
#Lisbon, #Portugal
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekSforShadow
#Cityscape #StreetPhotography #TravelPhotography
Photo: jacaranda trees cast chaotic shadows across ornate patterns laid in calçada portuguesa ("a traditional-style pavement used for many pedestrian areas in Portugal …. It consists of small pieces of stone arranged in a pattern or image, like a mosaic," according to wikipedia) of the sidewalk that runs down the center of the Avenida da Liberdade, in Lisbon, Portugal. A man sits mostly in shadow off to the right, messing with his phone. A few random pedestrians are visible further down the sidewalk. Jacaranda trees overhang the sidewalk. April 2023 OM-1: ƒ/6.3, 1/320,12mm, ISO200
November 8, 2025 at 1:51 AM