The Machinery of Night

Posted 7:12 AM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Bloch Fountain

To be technical, this is the fountain in the Richard and Annette Block Cancer Survivors Plaza in Houston:

Bloch Fountain
Houston, TX, Oct. 2007

I like this picture because it looks as if I'm trying to sneak up on the fountain, afraid to approach it. That was pretty much the case: there were other people crawling around the park that day, taking pictures inside the gazebo there, and I had to stand in one place to get a shot where they were hidden behind the columns. The large building in the background (Warwick Towers, according to Google Maps) kind of spoils the effect, but I could scarcely have it demolished. Not on such short notice, anyway.

If you're having trouble seeing the fountain, well, so was I. It's in there somewhere.

This is on the corner of Hermann Park, between the Mecom Fountain and the Natural History Museum.

It turns out that this is one of a chain, if you will, of parks dedicated to cancer survivors, set up by Richard Bloch. Read all about it here. Richard would be the R in H&R Bloch. There are 21 such parks (so far) scattered around the U.S., plus one in Canada. Start the virtual tour here. The descriptions each mention a computer -- noting where the computer is within the park -- but the purpose of the computer doesn't seem to be explained anywhere. I didn't see any computer; perhaps I didn't go into the gazebo, what with the plague of tourists. The Houston park surely must be the smallest of them (as suggested here, on what seems to be an earlier version of the park page -- some of the pictures are slightly different).

Check out the New Orleans park! Looks like the Rosicrucians have conquered Las Vegas. The Rancho Mirage park looks like an alien version of Disneyland ("PYRAMID POWER"). OK, now I want to collect the set, go to all those cities and photograph the parks. It would certainly give me something to do, should I ever be stuck in Indianapolis or Omaha.

Labels: Foto Friday, Texas