ricoh

argigento, italy.

last november i split a cab with three photojournalist from our hostel in oaxaca to monte albon. they all worked in and around the florida area. on the way there, an old vw beetle pulled up next to us, driven by a guy in full clown gear. so we all pulled out our cameras almost at the same time. the 645 wasn't loaded so i pulled out my trusty point and shoot. my carmates saw the camera and simultaneously said "rico..... sauve...."

the ricoh gr1 is a photographer's backup film camera. it sports a great wide fixed lens. has aperture priority and it's viewfinder give feedback to how far the focus is set to and the shutter speed. (other p&s photographer favorites include the olympus stylus epic and the yashica t4)

with the exception of the little red autofocus assist led that glows when shooting at night i love this little camera. it was one of the cameras i took with me on the past europe trip. i ended up going through about 25 rolls of film through it.

it was the first batch of pictures that i finished. i really didn't want to deal yet with the pages upon pages of other shots and it seems a quick digest of my trip. so here's the link http://www.ewah.com/i/gallery/_travel+08euxx_ricoh.

275 more rolls to go...

forget paris

Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 14:18:13 -0400
From: LMCC Paris Residency <xxxxxxxx>
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: LMCC Paris Residency

Dear Edward,

Thank you for your submission to Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's 2008-2009 Paris Residency. We were thrilled about the response to our call for applications. With over 200 applicants this was our largest and most competitive pool to date.

Unfortunately, your application has not been selected for this program, though we would like to thank you for taking the time to apply for this opportunity.

...

so now i can concentrate all my efforts back on eldridge. tomorrow i deposit the grant check. i held onto it incase i made it to paris and would not be able to complete the project. i should also email museum at eldridge and university settlement to look for a space to hang the work. i figured i would have it in mid november maybe hook it in with a birthday party.

i need to get into peoples homes.

flashback: may 27, 2007

i've always said my dream job would be traveling from festival to festival around the world photographing people and customs. i am very lucky where i am doing that at least part of the year.

last memorial day, i found a post off thorntree from a random user. they were looking for bloggers, writers, and photographers to go around the world. six months, twenty some odd countries starting in september 2008. everyone was going to be on video for a travel series.

naturally i applied even though it was unpaid. the great advantage was i would keep the rights to the images i created. most scenarios like this the company would own the images and i would have nothing but my memory and my imagination. maybe i would be able to publish something when i was done.

i was accepted. along with eight others. it was very exciting for a few months. talking logistics on the whens, wheres and whats. upgrading my camera equipment.

by october the producers had dropped the ball on too many things so all the talent dropped out. i still keep tabs on some of them over im or facebook.

over this last trip, i reaffirmed that round the world traveling may not be for me. preferring to travel more detailed and slowly. maybe big city party hostel living wasn't the thing for me anymore, as the americans in rome and athens just bothered me. and nothing is worse than train delays and airport purgatory.

but then again, if the opportunity presented itself again, i would take it in a heart beat.

echito: ronnie

echito, new york.

i caught him walking his dog on eldridge.

ronnie lives above houston. he lives in a rent control place. his landlord of course is trying to kick him out. his landlord has offered to put down a large down payment on a house. ronnie declined. he is looking to get a two family house, paid in full -- then he will move. mortgages are expensive, oil, water, who knows what will happen.

he believes the people in power want to make new york city, not just manhattan but the entire five boroughs, a place for just millionaires and billionaires. the workers will be shuttled in by ferry from the governors island, or something like that, and immediately at the end of their work day shuttled back.

i repsonded if that happens i'm probably moving there because it will me so much more interesting that the mickey mouse city that new york will become.

flashback: may 24, 2003

brooklyn, new york.

five years ago, i was way into new york city history -- actually, i still am. so when the brooklyn bridge turned 120 years old i wanted to just drop by and pay homage to it. there wasn't much going on for what it was. but i snapped a few pictures. i was snapping more diverse subjects (read random). in some aspects i do miss exploring with my camera instead of thinking when am i ever going to have time to print that.

this saturday is the 125th anniversary of it's opening. so i'm thinking of dropping by again. shoot off a roll maybe.

geography 201

traveling a bit i have a better than average knowledge of geography. i thought it was merely average until at a dinner i was at where people could not name the 50 state on a map, let alone countries in europe.

i am quite good connecting the dots in asia, latin america and europe. for most places can even figure out the best time of the year to visit and what do to do there in general.

i still have lots of trouble in my post-1989 geography and most of the african continent is a blur to me.

i am working on getting even more knowledge. there of course is flipping through random national geographic magazines and thumbing through lonely planets at barnes and nobles. when i get bored at work i try to listen to my long back log of "the world" podcast from npr. if i get really bored i login into geosense.net an really see how bad my skills are on a world map.

efficiency and the bouzouki

new york, usa.

despite what you want to expect, the topics are unrelated. i wish i could weave them in together. more so just more of my rantings. i probably should work harder to tie stuff like that together.

the new york public library has gotten too efficient. two days ago i decided to put in a slew of requests for DVDs to catch up with my continuing quest to watch the entire top 250 list. pretty much the only things left on the list are movies that were made in the last two years.

it used to be for recent movies it would take a good six months to pickup. that was ok as i am not in a hurry. now they have a huge amount of stock (in the hundreds) and they are getting picked up pretty quickly.

to be picked up on this rainy after noon are American Gangster; Zorba the Greek; and La Belle et la bête. I have to get through those quickly as I have another 2 movies in transit as well.

Zorba isn't on the top 250 list, but traditional music and the bouzouki (a mandolin like instrument) are fresh in my head from my stay in greece.

it was pretty magical to see the people just break out in song. too bad i didn't get to record all of it, my sd card filled up. a little something i recorded easter sunday on the bouzouki iannis and the vocals his brother nikos and nikos' wife.

Play: A | B | C

flashback: may 13, 2006

malaga, spain.

malaga wasn't the amazing city i thought it would be. before the trip the only thing i knew about it was that it was the birth place of pablo picasso.

i spent a weekend there, the 13th was the saturday. spent the morning going to the picasso museum. some really great pieces. they had an exhibit of picasso at antibes. i remember sketching an image of a sea urchin eater (above) that he drew. it was amazing.

spent the afternoon just walking along the beach, ended up for about 10k to the point. i was mostly thinking "why am i not a beach person."

stayed at a hostel called picasso's corner. pretty fun hostel 1 euro happy hour beers. they had a paella dinner served right there. spent the evening mostly talking to a pair of slc'er (a mormon and a long distance runner) and a kiwi going home from london.

the late evening we shared a boton -- 2 liters of coke, a liter of rum in the park -- and met up some people from the hostel for salsa. i can't salsa.

good times. good times.

skills

monday, i go back to an old client, it will probably feel like i never left at all. in the two and a half months i've been away besides checking my email i've rarely used my computer so hopefully i hit my stride quickly.

friday, my server went down, we just assumed it was the colocation up to there usual antics. they didn't have a tech last night to reboot the machine. so we found out this morning that the power supply fan isn't spinning up. not ruling out their antics, but wanted to give this backup server a try that i have on the bs rack.

today, i test my worth. so far, i got the email working again. most of the web stuff working (as soon as the dns kicks in). had to install a few package i forgot about when i setup the backup box originally. all in all reasonable, not great. it's going to be a long night getting everything back smooth again.

i know you

i know you
yeah, you took a picture of me two years ago up the block, on the steps. me and a friend. i with a basketball.
let me know when your out again, i'll let everyone know in the neighborhood. get a good picture in.
yeah, sometimes i look at that picture and see how much i've changed. not just having more tattoos.

didn't take a picture of him tonight, though i probably should have.

i'm back

new york, usa.

ok, i got back two days ago. but definitely feeling the city today. it is blossoming with hay fever. i have been catching up with local and national news, but it looks both are as equally disturbing as when i had left.

coming home does give me the advantages of a pair of sneakers (though i need a new pair); cotton t-shirts and blue jeans. each i would never dare to wear travelling for laundry and weight control.

being back also entails doing all the work that has built up while i was away. 280+ rolls of film and my taxes, finding work.

jet lag, its only midnight.. feels more like 5am

everything's ruined

athens, greece.

i consider myself a pretty seasoned traveler. but there is one aspect of how i travel i am slowly trying to change. i want to have the restraint to not go to the "you have to see..." sights if i don't want to.

today i spent the day going through the acropolis, the ancient agora and the temple of zeus. lots of two millenia old marble. at the acropolis, we were herded about like cattle to see three buildings. the agora was a just a field of building parts. and the temple (toppled already for two centuries) we were rushed out of because it closed at five.

time and time again i have gone to ancient ruins to imagine what it would be like in ancient roman times, in incan times, in mayan times, in shang dynasty times, during the dark ages, etc. for the most part, it is a massive heap of stones and the neighboring archaeological museum has much better information. but i just haven't been able to say no.

i have been able to say no to gaudy (and not so gaudy) classic palaces, so there is a start.

back to the subject of historic remains of a once great society off to get a haircut for k-cow's wedding sunday.

local celebrity

arahova, greece.

i am enjoying the last few hours of local celebrity status. it only took a week. this morning in was having breakfast in the main square. everyone came up to me and said hi. i don't get that kind of respect in echito and i have only been here for one week. (now i have something to strive for)

celebrity status does have its draw backs though. last night when the festival finished out. i was trying to make it from one side of town to the other to drop off my camera gear. every panahoti and giorgios in town called me over to have a drink with them. it took me 5 hours to make it back. then i crashed.

the festival itself was amazing and i do want to come back to it in a few years.