Checking In Again

Just a note that I'll be using tumblr as an ongoing file cabinet for sketches/photos/quotes/notes etc. Check it out if you wanna. Trying for three substantive updates a week (a tall order, I know, but I'm done with school now so I can handle it, right?).

Thoughts on summer/future coming next week, just before I leave for Italy/Switzerland/Germany/Czech Republic/Austria.

In the spirit of cataloguing, here's what I've been reading:

 - Hans Ulrich Obrist, The Conversation Series, Vol. 4: Rem Koolhaas
 - Log 26 (Fall 2012)
 - Alexandra Lange, Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities
 - Malcolm McCullough, Digital Ground

Really digging the latter two. The former is just about what you'd expect but has the added bonus of providing a primer on major figures in architectural criticism from the 20th century. The latter deals with "context-oriented technological design," examining the implications of the digitalization of everything (see "things, internet of") for physical and (especially) place-based interventions into daily life.

Also: can't stop listening to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's self-titled album. If you care to give a listen, keep in mind that you'll get past the guy's voice eventually.

Also also: been continuing my photographic exploration. Highlights from this week below.

Kitchen Window

National Theatre

The Eye

Westminster

Calm Before the Storm

Roofs, Birds

Amsterdam

Amsterdam managed to be a good midpoint between aggressive tourism in Paris and laying low in Brussels. There was plenty of walking (we even got a bit lost one night) but the canals and buildings made the walking worthwhile. I dragged RJ to the Stedelijk Museum for some killer contemporary art (Flavin! Wall! Kienholz!) and a hotly contested Marcel Wanders exhibition.

Richard Serra at the Stedelijk

The Red Light District was about what I expected, but that didn't make it any less strange. What managed to make it more strange, however, was the woman there to take pictures with her two daughters in tow ("Mom, the ladies aren't happy about it!"), neither of whom could have been older than ten. The ladies weren't, in fact, happy about having their photos taken, or else I'd show mine here.

The Anne Frank House was fascinating and more than a little harrowing. Most frustrating, of course, is the museum's insistence that she couldn't have been a Belieber due to a condition called "anachronism", which sounds made up to me.  

Bird and Boy

Sunday Drive

 

Aperture Experiment

I'll Put a Move on You

Peeking

Brussels

After the walk-a-thon of Paris, we were glad to find that Brussels was a small city. We found some beers and made our way to a local restaurant and wandered until we were tired.

Day 1 was spent walking to, exploring, and coming home from the EU Parliamentarium, which aside from teaching me more about the EU also had this cool display:

We also met a dinosaur:

RJ also had to do laundry at one point, so we hung out and did that the following afternoon. It was odd, being alone (literally, or as the only white/male/foreign people) in the laundromat on vacation, but it was commensurate with Brussels being the resting place between the intensive walking/sightseeing of Paris and Amsterdam.

With RJ at the Laundromat in Brussels

There were plenty of cool sights, though - especially the architecture. Here are the rest of the highlights.

Sainte-Catherine

Selfie, Grand Place

RJ, Surveying

Musee royal de l'armee 

Sniped

Not Photoshopped

Paris

RJ and I emerged from the Chunnel and immediately noticed we'd become sophisticated - like a continental breakfast. I'd always been curious what it's be like to be urbane, and was glad to find that it suited me. I can only assume that the French police that checked our bags on the platform did so to see where we got our clothes.

We walked most of the city that first afternoon, from Montmartre (we were staying right near Sacre-Coeur) to the Concorde, along the Champs-Elysees to the Arc d'Triomphe and down to see the Eiffel Tower just in time for sunset. I accidentally led some German teens into traffic - I didn't know they were following me, or for that matter what I was doing in the first place. We all got out ok and I decided to use my "seeming French" powers for good from then on out.

It was around dinnertime that night that we realized we didn't know any French. The waiter at that first cafe didn't seem to approve of our lack of preparation, so we ended up at a kebab shop around the corner before crashing at the hostel.

The next day we managed to get into Notre-Dame before the lines got incredibly long. I said a Hail Mary and RJ and I tried to imagine someone living in there. It's cavernous, and the way it's built makes it apparent. At some points you can see through a wall (via a window or arch) in front of you, and then through several more behind:

Notre Dame Cathedral

Then onto the Louvre. Well worth it, although the mob scene at the Mona Lisa slightly overshadowed the painting itself. I knew it was small, but what I wasn't expecting was the overbearing presence of middle schoolers from Maryland.

The Mona Lisa

This was also the day we got to go up on the Eiffel Tower. We walked up to the second level but didn't go all the way to the top. I managed a few good photos though:

The Top

Neighbors

In all we walked about 32 miles in under 3 days. Other highlights included Shakespeare & Co., The Bastille, talking about Queen Elizabeth's timeshare in Denver, and mussels. Here are the other good photos:

Moulin Rouge

Try Riding a Mile in My Stroller

CDG

Do We Know Him?

Champs-Elysees

RJ

London with RJ and Ankur

RJ got in a day or so after I got home from Manchester, and Ankur about a day after that. We all realized we hadn't all been in the same place in about two years, since we were all in Ann Arbor. We fell back into our original Bursley groove pretty quickly, and had a blast. We saw most of the major and sights as well as an awesome wood-paneled basement bar, and because of Ankur's brilliance we were able to see a production of Othello in a tiny black box theater (maybe 30 people in the audience; I got bumped by Iago a few times and Othello himself spit on all of us) under Leicester Square. RJ and I hopped on a train under the Channel to Paris; Ankur flew to Atlanta.

Gotcha

Selfie

Beware

Family Portrait 

A word about the above photo: I'm in it. You probably wouldn't have noticed, but my left ear snuck in along the left border. I was supposed to be in it, but apparently the gentleman who took the photo either didn't know how to use my camera and was nervous to ask for help or just didn't like the way I look. In any event, it's become one of my favorite photos of all time.

That's Better

You Know, Like, Comedy?

Quality II

#London

London/York/Leeds/Manchester with Zach and Ash

Note: Just found the following text - apparently I at least intended to post something since March. 

--

Some friends came from Thailand on their respective routes home - here are some of the photos. Hope to have time to write up a few short stories also, but I've got more visitors in tomorrow then off to Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam on Sunday! Then exams.

Spooked Ya

Dammit Zach (Leeds)

Ryan

Bile Beans (York)

Wet Wigglers

Subliminal Messaging

Ellie

Hey Buddy

Geezer

Angie and Lino

London with Tesh and Cory

This is the only photo from my time with Tesh and Cory, but I think it's pretty appropriate.

It's the menu from my local BrewDog bar in Shoreditch, which we went to before seeing a DJ show down in Elephant & Castle. We had been walking around that area most of the day, hiding in floral lamps and finding good art books, and needed somewhere to drink. We found good brews here and talked about music, art, and education. The show was good too; we met a group of lovely Irish people, one of whom was deciding between MFA programs at UMass and UVA, and another of whom, named George, seemed unable to comprehend either my decision to come study in London as opposed to Dublin or that I understood that he wasn't hitting on me. I got home as the sun was coming up and had a good sleep before getting ready for the next wave of visitors.