Beautiful Commutes

Recently there was a wonderful photo essay on the most beautiful subway stations. The photographs do a wonderful job of capturing the spaces, which all look like they could be somewhere else, if not for the trains. Public transit has often struggled in America, despite being effective and useful in so many other parts of the world, like Europe and China.

New Music Series

A few months ago, my friend Dan complained that he could never find anyone to talk to about music. Since I sometimes feel the same way, I suggested he talked to me about music, suggesting Radiohead's recent album, The King of Limbs, as the first bit of music we could talk about. For whatever reason, Dan was not interested, and the album went undiscussed. As my recent photography has illustrated, I recently spent some time in the Pacific Northwest, including the lovely city of Seattle. While there, I found myself wanting to learn more about Seattle bands.
Seattle has a strange relationship with music. Unlike most major American cities, up until the last twenty to thirty years, it did not have much of a music tradition. New York City was infamous for jazz, as being where Bob Dylan recorded some of his best material, and as the first place punk could be heard in the U.S. Los Angeles has pop music and its Sunset Strip is the home of 80s metal. Detroit is a the home of Motown Records and techno. New Orleans has blues, Chicago has more jazz, Nashville has country. Seattle had...the high school of Jimi Hendrix? "Louie, Louie?" Because of their relative geographical isolation, a small but important, and, eventually, influential independent music scene formed. In the coming weeks, I'm hoping to explore the bands of Seattle through watching their music and reading up on their history.
By Seattle bands, I do not just mean bands that started within the city limits, but bands that were part of the larger area, in Washington towns like Bellevue, Aberdeen, and Olympia, and even farther away from Seattle-proper in towns like Portland, Oregon. I will also be including bands with no geographic connection but a musical one: bands that influenced Seattle area bands in a notable way.
One of the great traditions in Seattle music is D.I.Y. ethics. In doing my own research and writing my own notes on their music, not being an "expert" in any sense of the word, I will be working in the same spirit of D.I.Y. ethics. I am not expecting my notes to be particularly revolutionary or perfect, but just a collection of thoughts concerning these bands, especially as it adheres to politics, one of the things Seattle bands (especially those connecting to punk, riot grrrl and queercore) have been connected to.
Do not worry: there will still be posts regarding other art and generally nerdiness throughout the coming weeks.
We start tomorrow with the band The Melvins, possibly the most influential and least remembered, Seattle area bands.

Victoria, Canada

Recently, I went out on the town to photograph Victoria, Canada, a lovely city. Here's some of my favorite photos.

This is the Legislative Body of British Columbia from across the nearby harbor. The lighting done on the building is similar to the Eiffel Tower.

There was a fair amount of sidewalk chalk art in the downtown area. Here's a Mona Lisa.

In addition to the sidewalk chalk art, there were lovely pieces of art just on the corners. This piece was one of my favorites. It has a poem ("You who/lift a penny/from the gutter/with the same hand/point out stars/find me.") has part of the art. I wish there was more poetry-art decorating the world.


Victoria has many chocolate shops. This was a white chocolate Hello Kitty. How cute.

Despite how upscale the city is, there is a fair amount of punk music and bohemian culture here. This was one of my favorite band posters. I love the bright colors and the use of Alf. (Also, the TransAm Burnouts are a great name for a band.)

Victoria even has its own Chinatown.

Chinatown has two lions guarding the neighborhood. Legend holds that if an honest politican crosses between the two lions, they will spring to life. Here's one of those lions. Looks like no one could find an honest politican. Shocker.

This lion is even a little crabby about it.

Chinatown is decorated with all sorts of fun art like this.


I love the way the lights behind the clock turned out in this photo.

A part of a mural map. Here is obviously Victoria, on the British Columbia/Canada side, and Port Angeles, on the Washington/U.S. side.

Another bit of the same mural map.

I love this little bit of graffiti, which depicts a panda bear with two guns. (A commentary on animal rights and violence perhaps?) If it's not Banksy, it sure looks a lot like his work.

People are really into Killer Whales in the Pacific Northwest.

The Empress at night. I really love that I captured someone looking up at it.

The Empress. This might be one of their conference rooms.




This last photos are the inside of the Empress.



I have other photos of the Empress on my Flikr page.

Hot Writers

Canteen Magazine has this amazing series of photos of hot writers.  Basically, writers, who I always think are a certain level of hot because they spend their time thinking, reading and writing, have been photographed in the style of couture models.  I'm really enjoying this little series.  So far, my favorite is of Tao Lin. 

LEGO Alphabet

I love a strange art project, and my friend Matt pointed me to this Lego Alphabet photos.  When I was little, I adored legos, and there's something really fun about these photos.  It would be really cool to see a hallway or maybe a little boy's room decorated with these photos. 

A Couple of Favorites from the MET

I recently went over to the MET to see some great art, and I thought I would share some of them with you.

This is a statue of Saint Stephen, considered the first martyr.

The friends I was with insisted on seeing the musical instrument exhibit, which I have to admit, was pretty cool. As a little girl, harp was my favorite instrument.

I fell in love with this painting when I was a little girl. It's a depiction of Joan of Arc, in the garden at her parents' home hearing the saints, who instruct her to fight for France. I was totally sidelined to see this painting at the MET. I was just walking by with my friends, and there it was. It was way bigger than I imagined it would be. It's even more magical in real life.

This painting looks more like a photograph in real life than an actual painting.

MOMA Photography

I headed over to the Museum of Modern Art recently. The place is massive and overwhelming, but is jammed with some amazing art. I wanted to share two of my favorite pieces.

This one is of someone's body that was tattooed. My sense from the title that it was done in a traditional Chinese way. I love it.

There was a whole exhibit of photography featuring innovative poses. This was actually probably the least inventive, but I really like it all the same. I especially love the look on this woman's face.

The Smiling Victorians

Usually when I think of old-time photography, I imagine stiff, emotionless faces. Sometimes even angry looking ones. But The Smiling Victorian is apparently determined to change all of that by their collection of happy dispositions. Some of these people featured are downright cute.

Linh Dinh Photography

Linh Dinh is going to be showing off his photography at the University of Pennsylvania starting next week.  Dinh is a great poet, and I am curious as to what his photography is like.  (And also wondering if it is similar to his poetry, which is to ask if it is avant garde, political, and taking minority voices into consideration.  I suspect, given the name of the exhibit, it is at least political.)  If you're in Philadelphia, check it out. 

Civil War Photos

The Library of Congress has recently posted an entire collection of Civil War photos on the Flikr page.  It's a pretty intense collection of images.  They are hoping that people will see an ancestor and contact the library so that they might finally get some names with those faces.  No one in my family participated in the Civil War, but the images are a great reminder of that people who served.  They often look stiff in these photos, but at the same time, it is easy to see how they were fathers, brothers, husbands and friends and not just dead bodies. 
Thanks to the ladies over at Two Nerdy History Girls for the link. 

Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival

I went to the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival today. I was surprised by how crowded it was (I had gotten there early in the day, thinking the rush would be later, but wow.) We were packed in like little sardines there. I had a really good time getting a look at some amazing indie comics out there.

I actually collect comics, so I was excited to buy a few cool things. This is my favorite thing, which was the first thing I got: I Married a Manchild. It's by one of my favorite artists, Kate Beaton. I love her stuff because so much of it pokes fun at literary or historical characters. I recognized most of the comics in the book, but I also got it signed by Beaton. She even drew a picture of me, which made me look way cooler than I actually am. She was really nice and was totally star-struck.

I got stocked up on other cool comic swag: buttons, postcards, fliers for local comic and graphic arts events, even free mini comics and newspaper-printed comics. Above and below are sections of the newspaper-style comics I got. They was some intense and beautiful work there.

One of the other great things was that even a celebrity showed up. Matt Groening was there, not to sign stuff or to talk art, but just to go. He was milling around with a friend, looking at people's work and buying things. I'm not really a big Simpsons fan, but seeing him there made me think about how many of the people there (mostly people around my age but also some ten or fifteen years older) grew up watching that show or at least knowing about it since it's been on so long and is so beloved. Him showing up was probably special in a strange way, since he probably inspired and influenced a lot of the artists there.
Something tells me next year this thing is going to be much bigger.

Quidditch World Cup Day Two

MSU, sadly, lost against to one of the other Quidditch teams early on the second day. It was a hard match to watch, just because MSU was working so hard. Mike, the Seeker, was getting criticized by the commentators for not ending the game by simply catching the snitch. And they kept calling us the University of Michigan, which is really rude and disrespectful. They didn't do that to other schools, and Michigan would not appreciate it either.

I am proud of how MSU played. They play hard no matter what, and I find that admirable. At the end of the game, they even sang "MSU Shadows," and it was just like being at school.
I decided to stick around and catch some of the other games. The day before, I had hung out with the Transylvania University team, so I decided to go find them. They had cheered for us during our game, so I was going to cheer for them too.
For teams that did not make it into the finals bracket, they scheduled skirmishes. Basically, this is a great opportunity for teams to play a lot of different schools they might not otherwise play. They can practice their strategy and see other teams' strategies too. So, basically Quidditch boot camp.
Transylvania played against John Hopkins. It was a close game, but Transylvania (who are the Animagi) were up. At one point, one of the John Hopkins players ended up on the ground. Hopkins chose to forfeit the game, in part because they were already down one player from another game. I hope that young woman who fell down is okay. She seemed to have the wind knocked out of her.

After that, I chilled with the team, taking some pictures and talking to them about this relatively new sport. Here's some of the Transylvania players posing for me.

One of the things they talked about to me was the history of their school. According to Thane, who usually plays Seeker for the team, Transylvania is about the sixteenth oldest school in the nation. Because of its geographic location, it was named Transylvania because that word means "through the woods."

Then something really surprising happened: MTV approached the team and asked if they would like to be filmed playing Quidditch. Transylvania agreed, and they had an MTV personality take over the role of a Beater to play the game. They got lots of shots of them talking about the game, what they were doing strategy wise, and even warming up. Here are some pictures of the team and Kevin from MTV warming up. Kevin is wearing a black headband to signify his position of beater.
Here's the team right before they start shooting some of the program.


Tractor had a rip in his jeans and they basically ripped off earlier that morning, which is why he's wearing half jeans half shorts in this picture.

I have a couple of extra photos posted up on flikr too.

A Catwalk for the Birds

New Scientist has some great photos of birds in flight.  I particularly like the white background of these photos.  It's jarring because they're suppose to be nature photos, but they lack all the other aspects of a nature shot (focusing instead on the subject at hand.) 
Like many English people, I am really interested in the gaze, and I found the gaze of the Secretary Bird startling.  Animals are, to most people, beneath us, in some ways just like women.  This bird gazing at the audience is shocking, because we're not use to looking at them as an audience. 

Battle

Yesterday, I posted some photos from a reenactment of the French and Indian War. That post mostly featured the British camp and what it looked like. I have some more pictures here from the actual battle they recreated.
The British side, obviously.  There was a pretty large group of them.  They mostly kept in lines that advanced forward, sometimes individually, sometimes not. More of the British side.  Some of the men were dressed in very fancy outfits, but others were dressed to represent the poorer classes who participated.  Here are some of the latter. You'll notice a woman standing in this picture.  She's what is called a Molly.  Women were often an important part of the battlefield.  They stood behind men and did things like give them water.  During the Revolutionary War, some of these Mollys would even fire cannons.A bunch on the British side firing their guns all at once.  Sometimes individual soldiers would shoot their rifles, other times they would fire as a unit.  If you look on the way left corner, you can see a Molly sitting in the grass. The British continued to advance on the French and Native Americans.  Here they are getting much closer to them. A close-up of one of the Mollys. A unit of Scottish soldiers firing all at once. A side view of the British soldiers. The French side of the battle.  They were defending this fort.  At the end of the battle, they retreated into the fort.
One of the things I wanted pictures of but couldn't get close enough to see was the Native Americans who sided with the French.  They would make all sorts of noise and then come out and shoot some of the British, and then retreat back into the trees, repeating this several times over.  
The battle was very impressive.  There were eight hundred reenactors there, so there was a lot of impressive coordination and organization that went on to pull this off.