August 13 - 18 / New York City '08

These are brief visions of New York City as I saw them in August 2008.  I had spent about five days visiting my brother and his fiancé, Gretchen.  They live on Roosevelt Island, which is on the other side of Manhattan (separated by the East River).  Time there was nice.  They have a little dog named Olive that likes to wake everyone up at 5 AM.  For me, dogs seem to resemble humans most of the time.  Why is it so strange that this dog looked like Sally Field?

New York is a bull whip of a town.  I have been lucky as to have visited the city on numerous occasion as a musician but this time it was as a tourist.  My brother (who was on vacation from his general law practice internship) and I got the chance to go to our usual watering holes (central park; McSorley's, etc..) but we also went to the Museum of Natural History.  There, we did Very Important Things like calculate our relative weight on planets like Mercury and Saturn.  

From Roosevelt Island, we can see the United Nations.  This is inspiring for me.

*****On Roosevelt Island*****

Taken from when Dustin and I were out walking the dog.  It was an overcast August day and we were going to go out on the town.

*****Pre-historic Shark*****
Nightmarish models in the Museum of Natural History.  My brother and I paid for general entrance and were later disappointed in the fact we could not enter the "Horses" exhibit.  WTF?!?

*****McSorley's Pub*****
The oldest tavern in America.  Whenever I see my brother in NYC (which is about once or twice a year) we go to this bar.  There are pictures and news articles inside that date from the 1860s.  There is a picture of Woody Guthrie that hangs in McSorley's -- he is playing guitar inside of McSorley's back in the '40s with a small crowd of gentlemen gathered 'round.  There are only two options of drink at this bar -- 'dark' or 'light' (dark or light beer).  I have always gotten the dark and I usually order some crackers and cheese too.  The style of the pub is very communal -- it is always crowded inside as such that you are forced to sit with strangers.  Strangers become long-lost friends within minutes and you become amazed on our ability of interconnectivity. 

*****Dustin*****

My brother in Central Park.  I am very proud of him and I love him very much.  He is just about finished with law school at New York Law School. 

August 2008

Electric Paris

Here are a few shots I took in Paris while experimenting with shutter speeds.  It was July 14 (Bastille Day) which is the French independence day.  Most of the light sources were streetlights or car lights except for the first, which came from the fireworks light.

*****Fireworks Display*****

*****Lynx*****

*****Determination of the Pisces*****

*****Let it All Hang Out*****

******I Found a Reason*****

*****Vietato Fumare*****

*****Gila*****

July 2008

June 2008 pt. 1

June 2008 was principally marked by the end of Spring quarter.  I was glad that the quarter was over  because it had been strangely difficult for me.  All of my intellectual gears were rusty after being out of school for a year and transitioning was a struggle.  Socially, I was looking for friends and confidants because of my general feelings of displacement -- most of the friends I had come to know since I had moved to Athens had left a year earlier with graduation.  If I had taken a more orthodox path in college, I would have graduated with them in the Spring of 2007.  So knowing that most of them were already out in the "real world" was a strange thought paired up with the reality that I still have some way to go before I can enter a more advanced "adult" life.  

That and transitioning from being in a band was overwhelming.  Most of the goals I had in my mind being a musician were changing.  Change is the only constant in life and I could certainly feel it all around me but mostly within myself.  I was looking for serenity or at least some where and some one that I could really sink into and figure out some things with myself.  When I told a lot of people that I was spending most of the summer in Switzerland, the general reaction was eye-rolling misunderstanding but coupled with people just trying to be nice.  It does sound impractical, far-fetched, or escapist to go somewhere so foreign and far but for me, being with my family (particularly my parents) centers me.  It puts me at an equilibrium where I can remember where I came from, who I used to be, and perhaps give me nurturing and encouragement to decide where I am going.  It just so happens that going "home" for me is about 5,000 miles away in the Swiss Alps.  I have come to terms with whatever people's opinions/judgements are about my life and in the end I don't really care.  If someone judges me negatively for aspects of how my family works, it is something I will generally disregard.

June was difficult for me because it was all about getting into productive habits.  When I lost my job back in January, I fell into a nether-world of laziness and messiness.  My life seemed pointless and chaotic for awhile because I had felt like the rug was pulled from under me.  Going home for the Summer was all about getting in the habit of making healthy decisions for me and wrapping myself with a big blanket.  

*****Flower Stand*****

The first couple of days for trans-atlantic flights are always hard for me.  This was on the day after I arrived in CH.  My mom and I went out for a walk around the village where she and my dad live.  This was a flower stand along the way.

*****Swiss Dairy Cow*****

*****Oberaegeri Farm*****

The landscape and outdoors are breath-taking where my parents live.  It is heavily agricultural, although my parents live in a newly developed condominium.  The name of their town is Oberageri and it has been around since the 16th century.  It is mind-blowing for me to see some of the buildings when I walk around the village -- they are often marked with the year they were built and a lot of them read years in the 1700s.

*****House-Horsie*****

This artwork was painted on the side of a house that I saw on our walk.

*****Cyber-Caitlin / Cyber Ricky*****
Caitlin bought a Mac computer shortly after I left to CH and we communicated through iChat's video chat feature.  It was a good way to keep in touch, to see each other face to face.  I still missed her very much but at least we could see each other.

*****Kitty*****

Neighborhood tom-cat.

*****Clouds*****

*****Psychedelic*****

*****Woah*****

April & May 2008

Attending lectures is really enjoyable to me.  This past spring I took two Spanish classes -- Advanced Composition and Conversation III and Poetic Images of the Hispanic World.  Both courses dazzled me but I especially enjoyed the poetry course.  My instructor, José Delgado-Casta is perhaps the best teacher I have ever had.  I think I also worked nearly as hard or harder in that class than I ever have worked in a Spanish course.  We covered a broad range of materials -- beginning with the medieval peninsular writers and slowly following the course of expansion to South and Central America and further to the Antilles poets like Guillén.  My favorite poet was Federico García Lorca for sure.  

The spring went by very fast like a steep water slide ride at a water park.  Here are some of the memories:

*****The Avett Brothers at Nelsonville Music Festival*****
Nostra Nova played its last show at the Nelsonville Music Festival on May 18th.  One of the headliners for the festival and for that night were the Avett Brothers.  Truthfully, I was not impressed a whole lot by what they were doing musically.  It seemed a little grandiose but to their defense they had great energy behind their stage presence.  And they were all very handsome, too.

*****We are Here and Glad first meeting @ China Panda -- Sushi!*****
I don't know if I can talk about our secret club too much but this was our first meeting.  Our club is called We are Here and Glad (up to reconsideration).  It primarily consists of Caitlin, Me, and Larry but Jamie was at this dinner and so was Julia.  

*****Matthew Emmons*****
Matt is a good friend of mine and he composes wondrous waves (as in sine, saw tooth, square etc.) and sometimes plays them for Us All.  I love you Matt.

*****Morky Magic*****
She looks like a pirate trying to steal some treasure. 

*****Rem and Amanda in front of their house*****
Great news for Adam and Amanda Remnant -- they are buying 3 Ring Street!  They made an offer to the current owner (who had just bought the house) and it has all panned out.  They close on the house on July 30th.  The house itself, I think, is one of the most interesting houses in all of Athens.  It has so much character, whether in plain daylight or in the dark shadows at night.  I remember Rem listening to Bonnie "Prince" Billy's song A Knight at Night one morning at home -- the lyrics

this is how I start another day in my kingdom

always stood out when I think of Rem and Amanda and this house.  I am so happy for them and I am lucky to have such great friends and even (technically) landlords.

*****The salmon, tornado warning, and twilight sky*****
Weird Spring weather.

*****Morki*****
I took this a couple days after school was over and before I left for the summer.  It was somewhat of a candid shot in my car.  She is so beautiful!

*****House*****
Another shot of 3 Ring Street.

*****James*****
Jamie is probably my best friend in the world.  We communicate in our own wavelength -- perhaps the wavelength between green and blue.  It is not indigo, however,...there is just no way that it is indigo.  Jamie has written some songs that speak to me.  One day, when he records these songs, look out for the one's called Blue Skies or American Chesnutt Tree.

*****Caitlin*****

This was immediately before the winking shot (from above).