# You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille



## naptime (Jan 2, 2012)

anyone remember that song?

It was Kenny Rogers first single as a solo artist.

he penned the lyrics after a memory from his past. he had been traveling by train. and was stopped in toledo. Across from the train station was a hotel. while drinking in the hotel lounge, he met a woman who had just left her husband. kenny hit it up with her. eventually her crying husband showed up and left crying. the woman would later end up in his room, only for him to have her leave, because he couldn't get over the site of her crying husband.

*In a bar in Toledo*
*Across from the depot*
On a bar stool she took off her ring
I thought I'd get closer
So I walked on over
I sat down and asked her name
When the drinks finally hit her
She said I'm no quitter
But I finally quit livin' on dreams
I'm hungry for laughter
And here ever after
I'm after whatever the other life brings


In the mirror I saw him
And I closely watched him
I thought how he looked out of place
He came to the woman
Who sat there beside me
He had a strange look on his face
The big hands were calloused
He looked like a mountain
For a minute I thought I was dead
But he started shakin'
His big heart was breakin'
He turned to the woman and said


You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille
With four hungry children
And a crop in the field
I've had some bad times
Lived through some sad times
But this time your hurtin' won't heal
You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille


After he left us
I ordered more whisky
I thought how she'd made him look small
*From the lights of the bar room*
*To a rented hotel room*
We walked without talkin' at all
She was a beauty
But when she came to me
She must have thought I'd lost my mind
I could'nt hold her
'Cos the words that he told her
Kept coming back time after time


You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille
With four hungry children
And a crop in the field
I've had some bad times
Lived through some sad times
But this time your hurtin' won't heal
You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille

Well, that hotel & bar would be the Park Hotel. Right across from the Amtrak station. It's been closed for a number of years. boarded up and falling apart. Once, one of the most illustrious hotels in the area. Particularly in the Hey Day of Amtrak. 

There is a bar in one side that's still open. but it's a typical hole in the wall neighborhood watering hole. But, it does occupy part of the space of the original hotel lounge. A few years ago the bar was called Lucille's . But no longer.




Park Hotel by jaythomson, on Flickr



my apologies for the less than wonderful photo. the daughter and i were out the other day shooting our first rolls of black and white film. and only our second day with slr's. had some exposure issues due to inexperience and ignorance in regards to metering. we also processed the film ourselves. our first time with that a well. Then scanned in and mildly edited.


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## BlackSheep (Jan 3, 2012)

Actually, in the context of the song and the current state of the building, your photo is absolutely appropriate. 

And I also like the image quite a bit on it's own (and including the scanning issues you were faced with). The photo has the feel of an old movie, and in that spirit - bravo!


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## BlackSheep (Jan 3, 2012)

PS you never told us that you are secretly an artist at heart


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## sm4him (Jan 3, 2012)

This was my favorite of the photos you posted in another thread, even without knowing the background.  I agree that the overall darkness of this particular image, and the vignetting, are completely appropriate here. Really nice, especially since it was only your second day out.

However, I take off several style points for the fact that I will now have that song playing in my head the rest of the night...


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## dxqcanada (Jan 3, 2012)

You realize that there are many Digital photographers that a lot of time and effort (and special PS filters/plug-ins) trying to get an image to look like that :thumbup:


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## MLeeK (Jan 3, 2012)

I'd be inside there in a HEARTBEAT. LOVE abandoned anything! I LOVED that song. Went to see him in concert about a year or two later with my parents. Someone died in the front row area that night. 
The image as it sits fits very well with the song!


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## naptime (Jan 3, 2012)

thanks. yeah i'm having a lot of fun editing the pics and working with what i have in regards to their quality, the scanner, etc...

artist... me.... well...... guilty as charged. 

i was supposed to head off to art school back in 89, had a full scholorship to cleveland art institute. three weeks before graduation i got into a fight and broke a kids nose in school. got suspended for 3 days. still graduated with a 3.98 but cleveland revoked my scholorship because of the suspension.. booooo

so i did the next best thing.. i joined the army  lol

and now i have a t-shirt silk screening business. i do all of our artwork. but all my work is flat vector, so working with raster images is proving to be a challenge.

having fun trying though !!


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## BlackSheep (Jan 3, 2012)

Aw, bummer, but these things happen. 

For what it's worth, I did go to art school (photography/film) in 1989, and it was very educational (and fun!), but to be honest it didn't do much that real life experience plus some reading wouldn't have done. 

I bet that your experience in the army made you a much better artist than art school ever could have. You probably have more soul now than you would have.


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## BlackSheep (Jan 3, 2012)

PS I would love to see some of your silk screening work, if you ever feel like sharing that?


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## MLeeK (Jan 3, 2012)

I had given great consideration into going to art school and even took some art courses in college, but... You really didn't miss much back then. You had to be the best of the best of the best to even be a starving artist after graduating and if you were in the top maybe 1 or 2% you landed a decent job that was art related, but... everyone else I know who went to school for art? Never made much of anything with that degree, ended up exactly where you were or went back to school again.  There were about 30 of us from different area schools who did a lot of things above and beyond. Probably 20 or so of us went to art school  and I don't think there are two I have talked to since had used their art education.  
Sad.


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## BlackSheep (Jan 3, 2012)

^ Exactly.

Creating art does not rely on having an art degree. I kinda think that having an art degree makes it harder to do.

ETA - Oh crum I just remembered that your daughter is intending to go to school for this - please tell her not to listen to this particular thread, I don't think the sort of art school that I went to is the same as what she's intending to do. Sorry!


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## jaicatalano (Jan 3, 2012)

How did you break a kids nose?  You look like a feather weight.  Oh sorry I was talking about me.  That photo works exactly how it is.  No need to apologize.  You and the daughter did well.


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## MLeeK (Jan 3, 2012)

BlackSheep said:


> ^ Exactly.
> 
> Creating art does not rely on having an art degree. I kinda think that having an art degree makes it harder to do.
> 
> ETA - Oh crum I just remembered that your daughter is intending to go to school for this - please tell her not to listen to this particular thread, I don't think the sort of art school that I went to is the same as what she's intending to do. Sorry!



I think that art has evolved a lot since then. There are fields in the arts now that weren't even an idea for me back then. There is much more than can be done with an arts major and another minor or another major and arts minor than there was 20 years ago or so... I wouldn't discourage my kids from going NOW, but if it were even 15 years ago I'd seriously question them about what exactly they intend to do with an arts degree before I encouraged it. They'd have to have given me one hell of a good career path in order for me to think it was a great idea then. Now? I'd still sit down and look very closely at the options and plans for the degree, but not like back when I was in school


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## BlackSheep (Jan 3, 2012)

Absolutely.

Also, I really believe that some schools teach "art" and other schools teach the skills to become an artist. Big, BIG difference. In any field, from art all the way through to engineering - it's the skills that need to be taught in school. The rest of what is needed is developed by life/work experience, IMO.


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## Josh66 (Jan 6, 2012)

I really like this one.  The 'imperfections' make it that much more moody, IMO.

My only real nit-pic is that you can't see any detail in the bricks - but you can tell it is there.


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## Frequency (Jan 7, 2012)

Fine... creates a feeling of solitude ..... liked it


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