11/4/08, Inwood, Manhattan

Election Day, 2008, walked from my apartment on Hillside Ave, in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood, to the nearest polling place a few blocks away. I get drawn by the brightness of the spots, which are sprayed on with the type of spray paint the city uses to show where they will be hacking into the concrete. Someone must have taken dad's tools, and spritzed some dog poo. I've taken this to be an elaborate metaphor for the job Obama has ahead of him, taking poo and making it shine, even if it's just a layer of bright molecules.

Basement level, Chinatown, NYC

Sorry, for the long time in posting. Craziness. But here's a photo of a place. It's not a restaurant, it's a miniature model of a booth at a restaurant, a tiny model restaurant in a small section with other tinier models of food-related locales. In a basement store in Chinatown, downtown Manhattan. The basement levels in Chinatown are some of the oldest parts of the city. They used to be tunnels used by warring tongs for surprise knife fight attacks and to escape the police. Now it's a place where I'm searching for a tiny mirror. I had to ask three different stores, and one of the stores said that I couldn't take pictures of his displays. It's not like I'm trying to steal the secret of how they make microscopic tea cups.

Muggiò 20053

montestella / starmountain - amphiteatre

a 170 meters high mountain made up from 2nd world war debris

milan

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3362/montestella1xv7.jpg

"Kleiner Bunkerberg" (48 meters) and the "Großer Bunkerberg" (78 meters)

At the beginning of World War II, two anti-aircraft towers were built on two small hills in the Volkspark Friedrichshain. These towers were designed to protect the population but also as storage facilities for various Berlin museum collections. After the War, the two towers were demolished as part of the reconstruction of the heavily damaged park. The area was then covered with over 2,1 million cubic meters of rubble debris from the rest of the city. Two "bunker" mountains - the "Kleiner Bunkerberg" (48 meters) and the "Großer Bunkerberg" (78 meters) - grew out of this rubble. A toboggan run was set up on the Kleiner Bunkerberg and the Großer Bunkerberg soon received the nickname "Mont Klamott". Today both mountains are covered with greenery and are a popular place for taking leisurely walks.

Small Distances

I saw in the distance a harbor approaching, a harbor walking arm in arm with the sea, and upon the sea great catastrophes of ships, constellations of storm and fright. Distances. How much then I knew that distance was always our greatest enemy; distance was always the obstacle that could not be overcome. Steam trains bring us closer. Airplanes. Elevators. Rockets. But how can we be beside the one we love on that particular day when it would suddenly, inexplicably, mean the most? For small distances, a street, a room, the length of an arm, these divide like a sword. They are the worst, the most devilish, the most puzzling. Ask me again when I go into the hall, will I hate to be parted from you, will I call out the moment I am finished with what I must do? Instead, my love, arrive. Arrive quietly as I finish. Surely that is within your power.

Jesse Ball, Samedi the Deafness

Now it's your turn!

Have you ever seen the alhambra?
Or Toledo's walls?
Or Venice? Ayers Rock, Machu Pichu?
they are there waiting you!
Place where someone else already been.
Now it's your turn.

pam brown

I only see when I move

I only see things when they move
Olafur Eliasson