la bella sicilia (part two)

the vendicari

days five, six and seven were spent in syracuse/ortygia, at the vendicari nature preserve, and briefly in noto (pictures for noto will be in part three). syracuse really has two primary areas to see, syracuse itself (which has greek ruins) and a tiny island off its coast called ortygia (which has pretty much everything else). syracuse has a tremendous history--it has been "occupied" by phoenecians, carthaginians, greeks, romans, arabs/moors/saracens, normans, and now italians. actually, that's the whole history of sicily, too--it's just more apparent in syracuse. homer wrote about it in "the iliad," which reminds me that i need to do some remedial reading soon...

la fontana di arethusa--an odd little freshwater ("acqua dolce" in italian, which i love) spring right next to the ionian sea

il duomo of syracuse...on ortygia

the piazza in front of the duomo--lovely baroque space

interior, il duomo--you can see the 5th c BC temple integrated into the structure

coast off of ortygia

massive temple structure on ortygia--i think it is the temple of apollo

back onto mainland syracuse: this is the greek theatre, still in use today

the vendicari! it is an incredibly beautiful place, and amazing because it exists--it is one of the only unspoiled, protected patches of pure coastline left in sicily

vendicari beach with old tuna cannery in the background--i have absolutely no idea what those plant-like, ball-shaped things are all over the beach, but unfortunately they were interspersed with a disturbing number of syringes. not sure if they washed up from north africa or another part of sicily.

the vendicari is a nature preserve that a large number of migratory birds pass through on their way back to africa--these are cormorants and egrets on the ruined house

ruin and clover at the vendicari

parts of the vendicari reminded me of new mexico--i think it's the prickly pear, which is an invasive species there

tilt-shift rock and prickly pear! i'm loving this effect.

the old tunnery, which i think is a word

la bella sicilia (part one)

the view from my hotel window in atlanta (elwood blues was right: the planes flew by so often that after a while you really don't hear them)

for the past three christmases, rich has given me the tremendous gift of letting me go anywhere i want to go for one week in february while he stays home with the kids, and this year i picked sicily. i had never been there before and the journey didn't disappoint--it took 60 hours to get there because of snow in rome (!) and it kind of continued in that vein for the rest of the trip. it wasn't relaxing but it was quite an adventure.

and, as mentioned earlier, i've got a new camera so i'm abusing the tilt-shift feature something terrible. apologies in advance...

day three (days one and two were in hotlanta then on planes): rome (12 hour layover), then catania late at night

clivo dei publicii, 2. this is the top of the aventino hill in rome and a side-view of the convent i lived in with 39 other lovely people in the fall of 1988

romans playing in a snowy circus maximus

the colosseum in snow

largo argentina and rome's cat sanctuary in snow

day four: catania to syracuse/siracusa

amazingly, i was awake at 4:00 in the morning when these fireworks went off in catania (for the feast of st. agatha)

view from the hotel window

another view--seriously, i'm way into the tilt-shift

it is tough to see, but if you look closely at the top center of this photo you can see the tip of mt. etna, which was smoking beautifully this morning--it erupted just a few hours later (and closed the airport for the day). and how brave am i for staying across the street from the palazzo di giustizia, which has a tendency to get blown up during mafia trials?

catania centrale train station, which, odd for the second largest city in sicily, had a bit of an end-of-the-world vibe going on but was needed to get to...

...syracuse!

look for part two soon...

happy belated year of the dragon!

and the crazy busy year continues--i don't see the dragon giving me much of a break. this week i have a sick sophie bunny, two classes about native plants and one on embroidery to teach, gus' first step towards braces (palate expander/spacers)...and a flight to sicily. i'm a bit overwhelmed! i've managed to return a bunch of PANDAS-related emails as well, which is always difficult. i'm so glad gus is better today, knock on wood, but revisiting five years ago is stressful. thank god we've moved on.

and speaking of stressful, gus and i had a god-awful flight back from houston last week. i'm still cursing continental. fuckers. we bought DIRECT tickets from the crapids to houston--something i've longed to have access to for 15 years--and flew on a tiny plane to intergalactic in htown. we had a time, went to a camp longhorn shindig, got some good shopping done, then boarded the same tiny plane to head back home. it was a bumpy flight, made all the bumpier by the littleness of the plane, so the weather wasn't good. but, the plane made its way to cedar rapids...got within 2-3000 feet of the runway...we could see it!...wheels engaged...and at the very last moment the plane pulled up hard and flew us to kansas city. period. we were pissed; everyone on the plane was pissed. the plane sat for about an hour at a gate in kansas city before they opened the doors and let us off; gus and i demanded our bags and went and rented a platinum rental car so i could drive our freaked-out asses home. i hope gus gets back on a plane ever again; i'm usually chemically-enhanced myself. anyway, the drive was as god-awful as the flight, as the fog was dense and it was very hard to see. i'm glad to be home.

on that note, i'm a bit stressed about flying to sicily. to distract myself i've been out playing with my new toy while sophie and paco played outside--i'd love to know what you think! is this effect working?

2012, year of the crazy busy

mini bunny a-sledding

i don't know if it's having one or two kids scheduled for one or two activities a day, or the 103 travel days i've already penciled into my nifty new calendar, but i'm a bit overwhelmed already. on the plus side, i did get a new camera for christmas with which to document said 103 travel days! i think i love it--it has a 1:1 aspect shooting ratio, which equates to what i shoot with my beloved hasselblad, and a miniature/tilt shift filter that i expect to abuse greatly. but for now i'm off to plan the three classes that i'm teaching at the kiddo's school over the next month (the same classes i'm trying not to regret volunteering to teach...i loved it last year...i loved it last year...i loved it last year). tally ho, y'all!

i missed my calling.

in another life, i'd be joining these lovely ladies in the giant margarita for a massive new year's eve bash

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

the bizcochitos and minted nuts are made, the kids are out of school, our anniversary has passed...so here is wishing you all a very merry christmas and, in case i don't post again before the new year, a happy 2012. go out and enjoy winter!

image fail

pop, 1978

my dad had a massive equipment failure the day this was taken and i'd so love to know how to use photoshop well enough to fix this image. any ideas?

UPDATE! a new friend in london, mike s., very kindly worked on this image...and his results are astounding:

honestly, i'm completely blown away by the results. my mom is going to freak. out. thank you, mike!

the one in which rich argues against a cash bar

received in an email this afternoon: "I think they should have a cash dessert bar, since not everyone eats dessert, and a piece of fucking cake is probably worse for you than a glass of red wine."

i love rich logic.

thanksgiving is just around the corner...

i bet they could pass for turkey if served with enough gravy

...are you ready? i'm not! but, i did grab some awesome vintage thanksgiving postcards off of ebay and am getting more in the mood. i'd probably feel even more in the mood if i'd put away my halloween decorations.

when rich saw i was looking at vintage postcards, he said: "i want one with the turkey being eaten alive"...and then he laughed at menacingly. so, sweetie, this is for you. love you.

this may be the year to go vegan if haunted turkeys aren't your thing

there has to be a better way to evaluate a turkey than this

i can't even come up with anything here. it's just far too confusing. i have no idea what the artist was trying to convey as a tribute "for thanksgiving." do we really want to know why the little boy wearing a bow loincloth?

the master gardener in me loves these cards--i thought about buying them, then realized i could buy the actual trees they represent for the same price. this is a chestnut (horse chestnut?)...

...oak (red oak?)...

...and some lovely invasive-if-you-don't-keep-up-with-them wild grapes.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

rich, c. 1996

rich, atop san marco in venice. this picture just makes me smile.

crystal bridges museum of american art

interior courtyard at night, crystal bridges museum

this past weekend rich granted me a reprieve to go to the opening of the crystal bridges museum of american art in bentonville, arkansas. i'd been excited about this institution since i first heard of it; i was thrilled to actually get tickets and go see it in all its inaugural glory. i have to say: it did not disappoint in the slightest. it was beautifully designed by moshe safdie with a comprehensive american art collection put together, largely, by alice walton; it is the louvre of the ozarks. more than 50% of the collection is on view (but almost 100% of the paintings--i asked about this because most museums are only to show about 10% of their total collection). i actually went twice: first on 11/11/11, opening night, to get a general glimpse of everything, then the next day to really spend some concentrated time on the work.

and it was a flippin' joy to actually get to use my ph.d. for something, even if the museum is judd-free...

entrance and aluminum tree

this is what you see from street-level, before descending the pathway to the entrance

rooftop garden sproutlings (this is located on top of the gift shop, which you do not have to walk through to exit the museum)

interior at night, in the dining area

hallway between museum offices and "wonder world" exhibition space

detail, vaulted ceilings--these were made of pressed native arkansas pine and shaped to make ribs spanning the width of the wing

interior courtyard by daylight

lunch

this was tremendous, and definitely one of my favorites: devorah sperber's "after the last supper," 2005. it is made from ball chain (like what you find on a ceiling fan) and 20,736 spools of thread...and a sphere on a viewing stand. amazing.

another view of "after the last supper"

detail of the viewing sphere (image is righted by the curvature of the glass)

detail of christ, made entirely out of spools of thread. loved it long time.

"rosie the riveter," by norman rockwell. check out the copy of "mein kampf" she's got her foot on.

lovely little (yes, it is actually small) o'keeffe, "evening star VII"

josef albers, "homage to the square," 1964. LOVE this. this was about as minimal as the collection got, and it's not technically minimalism, but it's a masterpiece nonetheless.

intriguing copley portrait, not for the woman portrayed...

...but for her pet flying squirrel. it's rocky before he (she?) found bullwinkle.

gilbert stuart's "george washington"--this is one of the paintings east coast critics were complaining about losing to arkansas

a swath of abstract expressionism by adolf gottlieb