Boeing and Nothingness

2009-01-28T10:28:00.000-08:00

So the top one is the the New York Pavilion and the bottom is the Unisphere aka the Globitron ( i personally prefer that name.) They are what remains of the 1964 World's Fair site in Queens, which was also the site of the 1939 Fair, and before that was a dumping ground which Fitzgerald described in Gatsby as the "valley of ashes." Cool stuff! The sphere was dedicated to "man's achievements on a shrinking globe in an expanding universe." I realized that woody allen makes reference to that in Annie Hall... the scene where he is taken as a child to a therapist because he is obsessed with the notion of the universe expanding and what is it all worth anyway etc.....
I love how these connections reveal themselves!

paris in december.

2008-11-29T13:16:00.001-08:00

it's the end of the month, almost the end of the year, going insane in another airport hotel, "i can say I hope it will be worth what i give up" but what exactly i'd be giving up here i don't know. early sunsets, fighting for time, rambling winter walks alone through a vast unfamiliar unfriendly city. when it's with another, is it any better? and what exactly am i anticipating coming home to? another holiday without the comfort and presence of family. is any of it worth worrying about when atrocities by human beings to other human beings are occuring countries away, mumbai to paris to new york, what is the future when people can do such things to each other...the coffee's getting cold, the light is escaping fast.

you will be infinite

2008-09-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

it was the last night of the san gennaro festival in little italy. celebrating the blood of a saint which has hardened and re-liquifies each year, by holy miracle. the spectacle is less sublime and more grotesque, packed with people eating awful varieties of fried foods and carrying huge carnival prizes like we're back at coney again only there are lights in arcs across the small winding street that make me feel like christmas or the first time i walked down that street in mid winter and snow started to fall just lightly and it was magical. first encounters and last encounters, in gram parsons own faraway city with a faraway feel though now it manages to be right here, right now, with that same sense of distance and unknowability that it has held for me since before i came. and there are moments when you're walking down the street and you don't even feel like you're wholly there, and walker percy comes to mind with the millions of personal rays shooting all over the place and it's falling down around your ears. and there are moments when you are whirling down the street and you're feeling fine and the city embraces you as you're holding on to someone's arm and they're gliding along with you, happy and momentous and shooting out rays of love for this place that thrills you because that feeling of being welcome is so rare and strange. and there are moments like this particular one standing on top of a phantom tollbooth that is perched on a rooftop with wind swirling around you and dramatic parrish clouds around you and the glow emanating from the edges and the corners of the buildings leaping up around you and the distant lights of the manhattan bridge not so distant from here and you look over the edge at the carnival crowd and it snakes in lights and bodies and heat down the road into the lights. this is the last night and at 11 they will start the rapid dissembling of the stands and carts and light displays and by the morning it will be any other street, clear and unceremoniously returned to the quotidian. now a small mamiya is being perched on a small tripod in the farthest corner of the rooftop, and he says to come and have a look, and you see a perfect little jewel postcard shot of the light river running down the street, the crowd and the fireescapes and the smoke and the dazzle. the photograph of an end for a beginning. the next day is bright and crisp with fall and the photographs can happen again, even without the lights. it was nothing to do with festivals and crowds and carnival excitement or clouds and rooftops and the thrill of the embracing city. sometimes things shift about in your mind and click into place with the right timing and the right inspiration and the rightness of the changing of seasons. elegy.

On the road to HP school...

2008-08-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

Now I imitate jessie and try to work through this process i've decided to embark upon. not going to change the title yet formally so as not to jinx it, but I think I'll have a meeting very soon with the director of the program at Pratt. Have started working on the statement of purpose, and it is amazing how much good advice people have when I tell them what it is i'm working on. i've got a lot of independent study to do, but i think lauren will be incredibly helpful and i am going to try with her help to do some volunteering/internship at the Historic District Council in the city. but for now, i have some brownies to bake for a barbecue happening later today in Ditmas Park. I'm going to try to ride there on the bike but am somewhat trepidatious (sp.?) about the Slope and finding the place from there.... we shall see.

DUMBO street art etc,

2008-08-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

just some shots in the streets of Dumbo. hard to ride a bike, the cobblestones are wacky and there are still streetcar lines everywhere, very cool neighborhood though. quiet and winding streets.

2008-08-29T14:32:00.000-07:00

Photos, again

2008-08-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

so the ones below are actually enroute bridge shots for the most part. I have a few more of those and then the houses themselves. the website there has some amazing shots of interiors, and some old photographs of what they originally looked like.

Officer's Row.

2008-08-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

www.officersrow.org
check out this website. this place is inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time, these decaying homes, with talk of razing the whole area and building a supermarket parking lot. This is why I believe I want to work in historic preservation.
I rode the bike down along the Columbia waterfront to Dumbo and under the Manhattan Bridge, over to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to see this place. Here are the resulting photos which aren't necessarily artistic but more documenting what I saw and of course, it is not possible to get inside the gate (at least from the street where I was.)

Paris, etc.

2008-08-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

here are some more recent photos since i havent posted here in a while....

PASSAGENWERK

2008-07-06T04:03:00.000-07:00

I came across this article today.... www.lensculture.com/rauschenberg.html

it has to do with re-photographing atget shots, looking for the same locations (if they are still there) and replicating the shot as closely as possible.
Inspiring! because i've been looking for a type of photo-project to pursue and to structure the time i'll be spending in paris starting on the 19th of this month. i've come to the conclusion that I should spend some time re-reading as much of Benjamin as I can, in particular his writings on photography, on flanerie, and revisit the Arcades Project. There's a New York Times article from a couple years back, says that there are about 30 of the actual arcades left, on the right bank, 1st and 2nd arrondissement.
the idea is to photograph decay, fetishism, the crowd, politicization of art, the ways in which the street becomes the interior, the perspective of the flaneur, to do a kind of photo-mapping of the different neighborhoods within the city, and at the same time pay a kind of homage to benjamin.

I have a lot of reading to do.

tuesday nonsense

2008-07-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

first thing that pops into mind: a cabin crew member from the earlier class (french so imagine a heavy accent) is asked by an instructor:
what do you say/do when you are patrolling the aisle on a night flight and you see someone awake?
"you say to zem: are you lonely tonight?"

its funnier if you say it out loud. and if you imagine it actually happening.

there's not much to keep us entertained here during the week. bad tv. internet research. some reading. listening out for ghosts. making tea. more bad tv.
and missing home, and trying to figure out which home you miss, or rather which idea of home.
because i know at least for myself i don't have a clear concept of it. i don't have a routine, an established life(style). feels like it's been nothing but flux for a while and i can't allow myself to even think too much about it because i get overwhelmed. not depressed, just confused.
takes me back to reading sontag, not too long ago but feels like ages, book's been donated to a photog who seemed keen on it....
her suggestion that photography can be a sort of defense mechanism, a filter you place between yourself and the world, to shield against what damage it may do up close if you make yourself vulnerable to your surroundings. there was a great deal more to it i know but at the moment i have the sense that i'm guilty of that. using the act of photography as my own immediate cheap form of psychotherapy. or something along those lines.
i'm tired and not making much sense at this point. the essence of what i'm trying to say is that in the midst of the drastic changes i've been going through and the focus i've been determined to maintain during this interview/training process, i'm looking left and right for the means by which to orient myself, to ground and center and develop something of a figurative root system. roots more in idea and meaning than actual earth. actual city. the risk of sounding trite, the home within the mind, which can stand physical upheaval and transition....

www.banksy.co.uk

2008-06-30T14:15:00.001-07:00

New art etc.

2008-06-30T13:26:00.000-07:00

this is stanley donwood.

this is JR.

this is paul insect.
this is faile.

the other weekend matt took me to a pretty amazing little gallery at charing cross road, called Lazarides. that experience, looking mostly at examples of street art, combined with the show at the tate this weekend, well let's just say that i have another new fascination (see following blog). I have copious amounts of "downtime" in the evenings here after class, so i'm now able to do some internets research and generally check out images from these artists that i'm really excited to be learning more about.... i will give you some examples. I hope that Joe Havasy has seen some of this stuff! alot of the work that I saw, I automatically thought that he would appreciate it.... so here goes. see what you like. these are just the ones that caught my eye...

i think i'm attracted to the subversive, cryptic nature of street art. I know that these examples here don't really engender that, these are pieces i saw in gallery, which somewhat contradicts the intent.....i think that these appeal to my love of the pop art aesthetic more than anything. the elusiveness of artists such as banksy really appeals to me though... "artivists" is a term i saw somewhere. work that invades the public space and commands to be seen, transforms ordinary surfaces into art and by extension statement.
there is one image that i saw at the tate that is sticking with me and won't leave my mind... this shot by jr:

it is breathtaking in scale and even more amazing in the current state of decay... the print is peeling from the building. i don't know what to think of this. it's surely powerful though.

the greatest thing, however, is that one of the common threads in the shots i've been inclined to take (esp. around new york) is that of street art and graffiti....finding it accidentally almost always and being pleasantly surprised by it constantly.
so now i have the platform from which i can learn more about street art as a form, those who create it, and seek it out where and when i may...

Remainder

2008-06-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

i am newly fascinated by this writer Tom Mccarthy and his International Necronautical Society.... www.necronauts.org. There's an interview in the June Believer issue. Sounds like he's a pretty great novelist and an even more interesting artist...naturally I wiki'ed the society first... and by the by, he praises david lynch in the interview, which gives him extra gold stars in my world. here's why i'm intrigued....
."In 2004 the INS opened an office in Berlin, declaring it to be the “World Capital of Death.” The artist Anthony Auerbach, who holds the position of INS Chief of Propaganda, did field work in the city to seek out sites where the traces of death had most evidently been erased, especially monuments and memorials. These were surveyed using “low altitude aerial surveys” —that is, close-up photography of the pavement at each site. This material was then interpreted using, among other things, a painstaking inventory carried out by professional accountants of each grain of sand visible on the surface of the photographs." (wikipedia)
i love this wiki world so much! from here i am led to the Association of Autonomous Astronauts. a network of people dedicated to building their own spaceships. yes! check it out.

and go to the INS website... fascinating stuff. read the manifesto.

Halfway through training.

2008-06-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

we are about to finish up our 757 Conversion training though none of us needed converted as we were all already members of the church of Our Lady of Perpetual Flight on Boeing 757-200s. Today was most exciting as we got to put on oversized jumpsuits and white booties and slide down the big slide. also put out fires. also wear a spaceman oxygen hat and stumble through a smoke filled simulated cabin. so much fun. i have some photos here.
just a few examples anyway.
tomorrow i have three tests and im going to go study for them now. it's also my birthday which is neither here nor there, since i'll be studying. but maybe fun will happen this weekend!

Blogging from Merrye Olde

2008-06-08T10:16:00.001-07:00

I can't mention the name of the company that I'm training with, turns out. So the moniker will be "The Airline" from here on out.
Here are some photos from the flight over and the barbecue to celebrate the graduation of the last class.... ao here we have the hotel "manor", lyndsea and arellys in club world on our ba flight, terminal 5 at heathrow..
went to brighton on the coat today, so more photos of that when i've got time to organize them...

Update

2008-05-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

This morning I had a lovely interview with Le Parker Meridien. I never thought I'd be working in hotels but there are several Eos people going there and it seems like a nice atmosphere. It is a gorgeous hotel on 55th in Manhattan. I will attempt to locate a photo....

nothing sufficient really comes up. its not crazy fancy on the outside but the interior is nice and the views of central park on the upper floors are fabulous. the f train stops right there too, it'll be an easy commute.

it's strange to think of not flying anymore. but living and working in nyc is something i really want to try out, i have a good feeling about this anyway.

a beautiful weekend in the city will give me time to think about it. next interview is on tuesday.... apparently there are several steps in the process before i'm officially "hired" so we'll see.

something has to be done, at any rate. i don't enjoy being unemployed, it isn't my style!

2008-05-06T12:49:00.002-07:00

so i started writing this thing when i was starting to apply for FA jobs, so it essentially had the life span of my job at eos.
I am having significant difficulty adjusting to the reality of that life being over.
at the same time, I'm looking forward to whatever the next adventure is...even though sending out resume after resume gets really dull and i go through waves of confidence and defeat that are making me sea sick.

here are some photos since i haven't put any up in a while.

April really is the cruellest month. Not the coolest.

2008-05-06T12:49:00.001-07:00

jessie and andrew visit!

2008-03-30T03:16:00.001-07:00

San Francisco

2008-03-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

Current obsession.

2008-03-09T15:51:00.000-07:00

I must see all of his films! He's the most amazing actor ever.

This is from "In the Name of the Father" I think....

2008-03-08T17:27:00.000-08:00

Trinidad

2008-03-08T17:22:00.000-08:00

Cambridge

2008-03-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

2008-03-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

Too Long

2008-03-08T12:30:00.000-08:00

since i've put anything new on this thing, so i've got some catching up to do.....

the past couple of trips aren't even on here. i went to cambridge one stn trip, then to trinidad, and then just got back from a charter from ny-stn-salzburg-newfoundland-ny....i'm really tired.

i have a few interesting photos, though.

and more forthcoming, since i'm going to san francisco in a week or so!

photos

2008-02-19T11:33:00.000-08:00

I think flickr is gonna give me the axe

2008-02-19T11:28:00.000-08:00

cause i've reached 200 photos. anyway.
i will post many here also... from strolls around brooklyn (Prospect park, park slope, red hook).

trinidad

2008-02-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

my home

2008-02-13T12:02:00.000-08:00

Idle time

2008-02-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

without a camera is a shock experience all on its own. I gave the little camera i was using back to my neighbor, now i'm without... for a while. I went to look around for cameras yesterday, nothing fancy, perhaps just a step up from what I was using before. staying in the canon family, I found a great one, was sold out EVERYWHERE, so I ordered one online actually cheaper than retail prices. hopefully it will get here soon. I don't really want to travel anywhere without a camera, so i'll be sticking around the area for the next few days of the vacation (unless i can manage to pick up a trip).
for all its rough edges and dirty corners, this neighborhood is full of photographic opportunities.... i can't wait to get going with it!

i've been really enjoying this apartment, too.... there's a record player, the roommates have everything from charles mingus to elvis costello to recordings of ezra pound reading from the cantos.... so despite the lack of cable i'm loving listening to record after record, painting little by little in my room, making tea, befriending the cats.

jessie would freak out over their bookshelves, too. there's calvino, sebald, marquez, barthes, delillo, kundera etc....

Greenpoint I Love You But I'm Moving to Red Hook

2008-01-30T10:43:00.000-08:00

i found a lovely little ship-apartment in Red Hook, overlooking the park, beautiful rooftop, view of the Statue of Liberty, super-nice roommates, big kitchen, IKEA next door (for better or worse)
so i'm out of this lovely little nabe that ive really come to love and into a new one that i am so excited to become familiar with.

but all of that after a trip over the pond. one of the pilots likened the experience to Groundhog Day recently and i quite agree. i'm going to try to maintain variety though.....

more on saturday, returning and packing up and moving on.

then, i am going to plan a trip to someplace warm and sunny. puerto rico or cancun, 12 dollar hostel, close to the beach. might as well enjoy the privileges of flying!

Spitalfields again

2008-01-29T07:05:00.001-08:00

London: Spitalfields Market

2008-01-29T06:54:00.000-08:00

More photos

2008-01-26T12:29:00.000-08:00

Red Hook Photos

2008-01-25T16:38:00.000-08:00

Red Hook

2008-01-25T16:18:00.000-08:00

Today i went to red hook to hang with lyndsea and shoot some pictures. it was a beautiful and cold day, and we had a great time. I really love the neighborhood, the waterfront, the grocery store, the run-down buildings, the little coffeeshop.
Therefore. My goal for the next month or two: get a place there... i want to find myself in red hook for the coming of warmer weather. I will do this.

I will also:
shoot at the 1964 worlds fair site, ellis island, brooklyn navy yard, staten island ship graveyards, any and everything else i might find along the way.

next month is going to be busy with flying so i need to focus on getting to these places on the off days, and looking for any and every available space in red hook.

so i guess these are resolutions, more of a plan of action....

Glam Deteriorates

2008-01-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

New York I Love You But I'm Going to Miami

2008-01-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

because I have this restless feeling for some reason, like I have to maintain this sort of momentum, the perpetual motion of departure and arrival, to observe and enjoy this place that seems simultaneously hostile and welcoming. i'm keeping you at a distance, new york, because I can't tell yet how I feel about you, because sometimes I feel like I'm coming home and sometimes I feel threatened....
I try to keep in mind that rush of warm feeling i get on the occasion that i have a jumpseat with a view descending into JFK and I see the city lights and i'm amazed to be where I am, doing what i'm doing...

"every great city is a Lourdes where you hope to throw off your crutches but meanwhile must stumble along on them, hobbling under the protection of the shrine."*

along these lines I'm experiencing this strange apprehension stemming from recent tragic events back home. it is somewhat paralyzing. I want to roam around in search of good photographs, but the isolated places i'd normally explore are frightening right now. it'll pass but for the moment i suppose i have a keener sense of human fragility and the reality that our world is a violent and chaotic place to exist.

so, i'm keeping the wheels in motion and stepping carefully around my new "home", hoping at some point that everything will fall into place and I will wake up someday and look out the window at that formidable skyline and say "this is where I belong." we'll see.

"when you travel your first discovery is that you do not exist."*

*elizabeth hardwick. thanks jessie!

2008-01-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

2007-12-31T11:28:00.001-08:00

Along these lines- Jess-bon, i just finished laughter in the dark and i need you to dig up your cerbu notes and tell me why i should like it. it's no lolita, no pale fire. i await your lecture.

Submarine

2007-12-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

I will be checking this out soon.

Jessie is Amazing!

2007-12-30T18:37:00.000-08:00

www.deweyorotherwise.wordpress.com

my sister is a brilliant and sensitive reader, who at the perfect moment reminds me why i love books.
she feels the words completely, they are alive to her in a way that i haven't really experienced or allowed myself to experience in a long time.
check out the blog and see for yourself~

PostChristmas.... post-woman...and the everpresent General Malaise

2007-12-29T16:52:00.000-08:00

news from the frontlines of the army of General Malaise...i'm suddenly reminded of this banner in the classroom of my math teacher in college that read BEWARE THE GHOST OF MEDIOCRITY. Perhaps that's what i'm fighting here....
so christmas went by rather painlessly though i expected to be flying, not hanging around in brooklyn...
january schedules came out and none of us are flying much at all, maxjet shut down and i'm kinda scared about the future of MY job hence jason suggested i become a post-woman as a backup plan. which strikes me as funny when you think of it like "post-modern." I am what comes after woman. whatever.

just have to get to new years. can't think about any resolutions except to be more aggressive with scheduling. hence having to forgo celebrations nyearseve and instead wake up at god-knows-what hour to be at kennedy at 5, fly to puerto vallarta, pick up some wealthy people and their kids who spent christmas in mexico and shuttle them back to sunny nyc.

in other news, check out my grandfathers manifesto in his blog entitled "determinism and your life." if you try to argue his philosophy he'll just tell you that you don't understand him. none of us do! he travels by greyhound and paints his driveway grey. he is wise.

be well in the new year. make your resolutions but don't be surprised if you forget about them in a week.

love
b

Christmas in Brooklyn

2007-12-25T10:46:00.000-08:00

Edward Hopper

2007-12-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

so i caught a minute of a radio show about the edward hopper exhibit that is up at the national gallery in dc.
seemed like an interesting discussion of his work, and definitely made me want to go see nighthawks in person.

however, during the course of a discussion regarding the pursuit of the so-called "american dream," isolation within the city/crowd/noise of modernity,sense of being nowhere and everywhere at once, describing many of my recent thoughts since joining the army of General Malaise--one of the critics said that "loneliness is so overdone."

that made me kinda mad.but by then i was home and could turn off the radio.

It's been awhile

2007-12-13T08:16:00.000-08:00

since i posted anything here or felt like it or had sufficient time. now is a good day since it's raining blocks of ice outside and i have the day off to do as i please which is turning out to be housecleaning and cooking and staring out the window.
"new york is cold but i like where i'm living," no music on clinton street all through the evening because it's just too cold.

i have a few days off in which to slowly lose my mind. i've been combatting this by baking things, and taking them to the few people i can take them to here in brooklyn. not the same, though, as baking moravian cookies this time of year at my grandmothers house in georgia, recipe straight from the little old ladies in winstonsalem, or that first christmas baking with jan (sailboats and umbrellas instead of trees or santaclaus) singing along to the oldies station and making a mess. not like putting up the christmas tree with my mom, pulling out all the old homemade ornaments and the one ornament signed by keith when there's no one in my family named keith, laughing about its possible origin...

so now i'm looking up recipes and baking by myself which is relaxing in a way but definitely a departure from my preferred mode of being in the kitchen. which is, in any case, not "alone."

yesterday we went through differences training for the new aircraft which is affectionately named N756MX. i think. 7 or 9. either way, it's coming to us in a high density configuration and will be that way until june.
here's what this means...
a. i've finally made it to a point in my life where using terms like "high density configuration" and "crosscheck" is normal communication.
b. i've finally made it to a first class airline only to be scheduled to fly charter on one of these planes with 178 seats, economy class, peanuts, styrofoam cups, and trash bags to carry up and down the aisles.
I don't mind this. I need the flight hours this month. i will have the opportunity to briefly touch down in cancun and montego bay (not get off the plane) but will still be there physically for a moment. i will come away from this with an awakened appreciation for what everyone else has to do when they become a flight attendant.
but i'm going to have to brace myself to spend christmas hopping up and down on this plane from a hub of DETROIT (anyone have ANYTHING good to say about detroit?!?) to various cool cities that i won't be able to experience.
i know i'm complaining. i'm just kinda homesick, friendsick, cabinfeverish, bored, etc.
now the ice rain has turned into full blown snowfall. i can't even see any of manhattan through it. it's beautiful but i'm staying in.... when it stops we'll see if there's enough on the ground for a snowman.

More photos from London.

2007-12-04T15:07:00.001-08:00

This Week in London

2007-11-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

Aurore and Heather and I went into the city on Thursday. We went to Abbey Road Studio and walked across the crosswalk. We went to Bond Street and admired the lights, the crowd, the tiny cobblestone alleyways hidden between buildings. We had great fun! as you can see.

2007-11-21T14:42:00.000-08:00

all the photos here are from my trip home.... my family, my old house, my friend joe, banjo the cat, peanut the dog, etc....

Athens again

2007-11-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

Athens etc.

2007-11-21T14:21:00.000-08:00

Athens Trip

2007-11-21T14:13:00.001-08:00

2007-11-12T14:39:00.000-08:00

More photos from the other day.

2007-11-12T14:31:00.000-08:00

I am greatly looking forward to doing a bit of roaming around the old hometown for a little while and taking some photos, after looking closely at gpoint for some time now. Forthcoming...Athens photos, hopefully alot from the wayside as i take the great american road trip back up here, then next flight i plan to photograph the cathedral at thaxted and hopefully the remains of an RAF airfield at Dunmow.
Until then, gentle readers, if you exist....

Poem I like....(thanks Jessie)

2007-11-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

In This Sense, Beyond

Better to think, the descent before me is a strangers.
Its ache routing a body I do not know. Its nos
formed by lips never parted. Better to let
the mind feel the best it can and shatter
the heart, its recycling machinery.
Better to have all that gray matter act,
to have it call up coherence
out of some lobe in the left brain. Compassion again
sends my hand to the heat and sweat of this forehead,
again bends my torso over this torso, keeping it
nameless, refusing. For above all, I know to desire

sweetness:

Let the mouth be fitted to earth, concede gracefully,
the inevitable incorporating compelled. Disentangle
from all brooding, sidestep this wilderness preceding Amen.

-Claudia Rankine

The Best Lunge Ever

2007-11-12T07:40:00.000-08:00

Below...

2007-11-11T13:00:00.003-08:00

These are from walking around Gpoint/williamsburg today. Yes, that IS an elephant in the Mccarren park pool. we also have the crazy L train dancing guy, the williamsburg bridge, the domino sugar factory, and some random graffiti. there you are.

more wanderings

2007-11-11T12:56:00.000-08:00

Williamsburg Wanderings

2007-11-11T12:52:00.000-08:00

British Invasion Halloween

2007-11-11T07:52:00.001-08:00

So these are photos taken Halloween night with the crazy brits who invaded brooklyn for a few days... i'll even include the one that was taken UNBEKNOWNST to me after Zippy decided to leap the wall at Coco 66 and knock me down on the concrete. other than that small brush with death, we had a fun time.

Brunch

2007-11-10T14:52:00.000-08:00

We cooked grits and eggs and bacon and home fries today for brunch. It turned out really good. you can see for yourself.

2007-11-10T14:49:00.000-08:00

These are from an impromptu karaoke/dance/dress-up party last night. As you can see, it wasn't pretty. and i had to work this morning too- airport reserve. but we had us some fun. That's Donna and Cindy doing the Dreamgirls number with me.

Crazy night

2007-11-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

These are....

2007-11-10T14:23:00.001-08:00

from rambling around greenpoint the other day. the dog belongs to caroline, his name is capone and he's the best. there's one from the riverfront park, one from manhattan avenue.....

Some Random Photos

2007-11-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

Extraordinary Crashes by Night

2007-11-07T05:12:00.000-08:00

I have been having a recurring dream- actually, the details differ, but the general action is the same. in this dream i am outdoors somewhere among good friends- luke, lyndsea, sarah- and we collectively observe the crashing of an aircraft in a most horrific manner. one night it was specifically an airfrance plane, spinning down like a corkscrew in flames. i couldn't stop crying and we were in the airport waiting to board one of our planes and everyone kept saying "be professional, stop crying" and "dont worry they're evacuating it's fine" but it really wasn't fine, i could tell....everyone was laughing and pretending like nothing had happened.
last night it was a ups cargo plane. we were standing near the runway and it took off and started climbing way too steeply,then it flipped over on its back in flames. same thing, everyone laughing and i'm crying hysterically.

i haven't heard of any real accidents in the news.
i also don't think these are necessarily nightmares either.
they're not realistic crashes, and i never happen to be in the plane when it is crashing... always watching from the ground.

it might not be a good idea to admit that i have a brief flash of fear everytime we take off and land. or maybe its like the ocean-- a small amount of fear equals a healthy respect for something that is bigger, more powerful, more mysterious than we are. once we lose that little bit of fear and respect, that's when things will go wrong.

i don't know, either way i'm a little weary of waking up disturbed and emotionally exhausted after these nighttime traumas. it certainly doesn't help when today happens to be a flying day.

Random recent photos...

2007-11-02T09:40:00.001-07:00

The first image

2007-10-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

How to identify a Boeing 757.

2007-10-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

Shibboleth

2007-10-27T15:48:00.001-07:00

From the Tate Modern website:
Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth is the first work to intervene directly in the fabric of the Turbine Hall. Rather than fill this iconic space with a conventional sculpture or installation, Salcedo has created a subterranean chasm that stretches the length of the Turbine Hall. The concrete walls of the crevice are ruptured by a steel mesh fence, creating a tension between these elements that resist yet depend on one another. By making the floor the principal focus of her project, Salcedo dramatically shifts our perception of the Turbine Hall’s architecture, subtly subverting its claims to monumentality and grandeur. Shibboleth asks questions about the interaction of sculpture and space, about architecture and the values it enshrines, and about the shaky ideological foundations on which Western notions of modernity are built.

In particular, Salcedo is addressing a long legacy of racism and colonialism that underlies the modern world. A ‘shibboleth’ is a custom, phrase or use of language that acts as a test of belonging to a particular social group or class. By definition, it is used to exclude those deemed unsuitable to join this group.

‘The history of racism’, Salcedo writes, ‘runs parallel to the history of modernity, and is its untold dark side’. For hundreds of years, Western ideas of progress and prosperity have been underpinned by colonial exploitation and the withdrawal of basic rights from others. Our own time, Salcedo is keen to remind us, remains defined by the existence of a huge socially excluded underclass, in Western as well as post-colonial societies.

In breaking open the floor of the museum, Salcedo is exposing a fracture in modernity itself. Her work encourages us to confront uncomfortable truths about our history and about ourselves with absolute candidness, and without self-deception.

London last weekend... Essex right now

2007-10-26T02:57:00.000-07:00

These photos below (sorry about the repeat of the Parliament photo) are from an outing in London last weekend... Lyndsea and I flew together and set out to the big city planning to go to the Tate Modern. of course we managed to get kinda lost but that's my preferred method of exploring places. We ended up discovering St. James Park which is so beautiful. From there we could see Buckingham palace- I think there's a photo on here of that building... walked down to Westminster abbey, houses of Parliament, Big Ben, etc. then alongside the Thames to the Tate Britain. Ran through there, looked at some favorite paintings (Whistler, Rossetti, Waterhouse, Sargent) and then took this water taxi across the river and down to the Tate Modern, saw the great crack there (shibboleth) and some work by Magritte, de Chirico, Louise Bourgeois, and on and on...then we walked across the pedestrian bridge which leads right up to St. Pauls cathedral. caught a train to liverpool street and back here....it was an exhausting day altogether but beautiful, sunny, and pleasant. watched the rugby match until i fell asleep.
so anyway, that explains these photos below except for the couple on the plane, we just got bored after service and i broke out the not-broken camera that ken loaned me to use. great fun!
right now im in the hotel room and about to get ready for the flight home. i slept most of yesterday after we got here cause i was tired and the weather was dismal. next time, i'd like to go to cambridge... we'll see... but this trip was sleep, read, go to pub, go back to sleep....
hoping for a chill flight tonight and then back out on Sunday afternoon....

London this weekend

2007-10-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

This Weekend in London

2007-10-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

EOS 2nd Anniversary!

2007-10-18T09:29:00.001-07:00

Wall Street Journal - Trans-Atlantic Rivals Pose Challenge to Big Airlines
Upstart Eos Airlines Inc. said it plans to add two routes between the East Coast and Europe, as competition intensifies for the major carriers' best passengers.The move is the latest sign that a small band of all-business-class trans-Atlantic airlines are winning passengers with roomier seating, more on-board amenities and moderate ticket prices. But as the major airlines wake up to this competition, the upstarts may be tested. Two-year-old Eos now serves London's Stansted Airport from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport with two to four round trips a day. While the closely held carrier still is losing money, it recently raised $50 million in new capital, expanded its fleet and won passenger plaudits. Next year, Eos plans to add flights to Paris from JFK and service to Stansted from Newark, N.J. Jack Williams, chief executive officer of Eos, acknowledges that the market across the Atlantic is "very competitive," but said the carrier has managed to ramp up daily flights while also filling more seats on each plane. Luke Mauro, a senior vice president of Instinet LLC, says he has taken about 25 business trips to London on Eos, and no longer uses Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. Eos "is reasonable, convenient, a great experience," he says. Eos has four leased 757s outfitted with 48 seats, instead of 220. They all recline into lay-flat beds. A fifth aircraft is being renovated to the Eos configuration and Mr. Williams, the CEO, says he hopes to have a dozen planes by the end of 2008

of Montreal at the Roseland

2007-10-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

Flickr is Fabulous!

2007-10-13T07:53:00.001-07:00

Hello! I am writing this post to let you know... if anyone actually looks at this blog... that the accidental photographer is alive and well and living in Brooklyn... and on Flickr. My name there is EosFA618 and I have boocoos of photos up there for your perusal. Please let me know what you think of them! The camera is still broken and for the moment I like it that way.

Greenpoint today

2007-10-11T11:44:00.001-07:00

More Gpoint photos 10-11

2007-10-11T11:41:00.001-07:00

These are in the City

2007-10-10T12:52:00.000-07:00

This is where i live

2007-10-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

I just have been wandering along West St. and neighboring areas to take accidents with my camera. so there are alot of photos on here!

2007-10-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

2007-10-10T12:43:00.000-07:00

2007-10-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

2007-10-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

More Accidental Photos

2007-10-10T12:37:00.001-07:00

Color saturation

2007-10-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

is my new friend! i feel giddy with color excitement, like the kittens in that book that pour paint all over everything. y'all are going to get sick with colors. cause i've now stumbled across a fun thing about technology! here's the roof view, saturated!

Radisson view

2007-10-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

This is what i saw out the window of my hotel room last time i was at stansted. that was the plane I came in on!

Bishop Stortford canal

2007-10-10T10:52:00.001-07:00

the boat was gone when we walked past a second time. neighboring village to stansted where the pubs are.

gpoint 2

2007-10-10T10:49:00.001-07:00

2007-10-10T10:47:00.000-07:00

accidental greenpoint wednesday morning

2007-10-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

Accidental Photography

2007-10-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

SO.... now my camera is broke. i need to get it fixed. but for the moment i am taking pictures blindly (the viewer/display screen has some sort of abstract design on it that is kinda cool actually but NOT the image i'm trying to shoot.) so i point in the general direction, take the picture, wait and see what uploads when i attach to the computer. some interesting photos have happened as a result. this isn't helping me hone my photography skills as i actually have very little to do with the outcome, can't frame anything, etcetera so i take no credit for what you see here.
HOWEVER i have learned how to use the little tricks on the computer to play with color saturation, contrast and so forth which may be cheating in some way but it's pretty fun to see the results. here some are, anyway. I'm the accidental photographer. the pictures take themselves!

The City by Day

2007-10-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

Pentecost

2007-10-03T08:25:00.001-07:00

Insanity

2007-10-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't actually get to stay at the Gershwin. I was called out to fly just as I was checking in, so I left my suitcases in their storage and went straight to the airport. It was a good trip, all in all, but I am glad to have time now to settle into the new place.

The Gershwin Hotel

2007-09-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

This is the New Place!

2007-09-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

It's amazing! The place is in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with this incredible view of the city across the East River. My new roommates are awesome and I can't wait to move in on Sunday! Until then, I'll be at the Gershwin Hotel in Manhattan, which looks like a pretty neat place also.
Things are finally coming together in a good way...

2007-09-28T07:51:00.001-07:00