title: and so, to ghent!

fortunately, bruges does not speak for all of belgium. ghent is awesome. it's like if bruges and brussels had a brilliant lovechild. it's full of art and medieval charm, just to the right scale, and everything is affordable for a lowly student such as myself. (don't get me wrong, you can go expensive if you want to, but it's not forced like in CERTAIN towns.) plus, the people are friendly here and the oldsters aren't scabs. i had coffee with a woman who has lived in ghent all her life, and had been going to that particular coffee shop (mokabon, where you can go to the best cappucino ever for only 2 euro) since she was nine years old. a cute young couple also sat with us, and spent the entire time pinching each other as they stirred their coffees. and that was only the beautiful beginning to my day.

one more cool thing: there is a street in ghent where you can do graffiti without getting in any trouble. behold.
does it not speak to the innermost happiness of you soul?! they love art in ghent. i also took in the s.m.a.k., where i saw some crappy modern art and some cool modern art. in addition to its exhibits, there is "coming people": the museum displays art students' work, chosen by curators from the museum itself and from international museums (this year it was a person from japan). also, they actually allow you to take (non-flash) photos in the museum, which is an awesome idea. i'm still working out whether or not any of the photos i took are good enough to be worth posting. only photoshop will tell! for now, just enjoy this beautiful image from a junk shop (where, incidentally, i wound up haggling for and buying a melodica):wow.

title: the best trip ever

ok, let me start this off by saying: really old churches. they're pretty damn cool, right? they have beautiful sculpture, architecture, and some serious presence. we're agreed as far as that is concerned. what if i then say: really old churches to which you get an all-access, backstage tour from an expert, plus coffee and cookies. did you have a heart attack from the awesome prospects contained within that last sentence? you did, but you're still alive? good, because here's the coup de grace for your blown mind (and arteries): i did that last friday!!!!

my art history professor, rob duckers, is the curator of the treasury of the basilica of st. servatius (sint servaas in dutch). that means he deals with ancient roman glass bowls, saints' bones, silver, gold, and "pieces of the cross" (most likely just some very old olive wood, but still), among other cool relic-y type things. he took us to the town of maastricht, which is also the town in which d'artagnan (of 3 musketeers fame) was killed in 1673, to see all the dirty secret parts of the basilica. this included the emperor's special balcony, the lofty third floor where the bells used to be, and the crypt. yeah, where they keep the cool coffins and stuff.

this is the basilica of sint servaas, of which, i am sure, far better photos exist:the treasury is beautiful, rob and his colleagues have done such a wonderful job of taking care of and displaying it all. i didn't walk around in the dimly lit galleries taking photos of relics behind glass, so you're going to have to trust me on this one. there are a million things i could say about romanesque column capitals and the different periods of architectural features in this basilica, but i will spare you the details and take you to the church of our lady, star of the sea:
i roped you into reading this post with the promise of churches, but there is a bonus feature that i didn't tell you about: maastricht itself is beautiful and many hundreds of years old! oh, look, here's a little piece of history right here:those of you with particularly sharp eyes will have noticed the sign that says "hellpoort 1229". those of you who speak dutch or are simply very clever will have figured out that "hellpoort" means "hell's gate". why would a medieval city want to name one of it's entrances hell's gate? well, i'll tell you why! this was the gate which led to the gallows before the city spread outside its walls. the vast majority of the people leaving this gate were leaving maastricht for good (unless they planned on coming back as ghosts). and everyone convicted of a sentence worthy of hanging was, logically, going to hell for their crimes. so, for most people, this gate was the way to hell!
the windows above the red wooden part are cells where prisoners about to be executed were kept. i imagine it was a lovely view if you could manage to ignore the gallows in the foreground. the red wooden part itself is accessible from the fortifications, allowing the gate's guards to pour/throw whatever dangerous objects they were able to find on invaders.

the hellpoort is in the "old" (everything is relative here) part of town. across the river is the more modern parts of maastricht, which i didn't get to see much of. it is full of nice coffee shops and stores, though. here is a view of the river, with the "old" area on the left and the "new" area on the right. the bridge going between them was rebuilt in the medieval times in almost the same place and in the same style as the original roman one, which stood there for centuries before.
as you can clearly tell from the picture, maastricht is a beautiful, beautiful city. everyone staying in kasteel well should go--it's a pretty short trip from here and you don't even have to spend the night (though it is an option, there are hostels). maastricht also works perfectly with a trip to haarlem, the next stop in my ever-growing collection of photos. stay tuned!

title: the surroundings of kasteel well on a sunny day

so, i have yet to accurately capture the image of the castle in its entirety. a friend of mine by the name of nicole has done an exceedingly wonderful job at that, however, and you can see her work on her flickr. for now, i have to show you what meager things i have managed to snap--a lot of plants and flowers, as seems to be my tendency.
i took a trip to nijmegen yesterday, and will be putting those photos up later tonight after i sort through them. so much has been going on, sometimes there isn't even time for a camera. imagine such a thing!

title: the final days in america

who says you can't go to the beach in september?
we visited plum island, which is also a wildlife refuge and exceedingly pleasant.

i recommend you view the following photo up close by clicking here. it's the brattle book shop on west street in boston. on nice days they have outdoor shelves full of a really robust and interesting collection of used books at cheap prices. on all days they have an immense selection indoors, arranged on tall shelves in classic bookshop fashion.my flight leaves tomorrow at 6:05 pm. next time you see me, i'll be living among the dutch (or, rather, ruling over them from my castle).

title: tuvan throat singing

a couple of thursdays ago i was fortunate enough to take in a free performance by the amazing ensemble alash. they are comprised of some of the greatest musicians in tuva, a small republic of russia located in southern siberia.
they are all throat singers. if you've never heard throat singing, you will be blown away. even if you have, these guys are among the best. listen to their samples on their site, and seriously think about buying a cd.
for some reason stephen colbert has been all about throat singing lately, so maybe you heard about it from him. at the suggestion of chris (nathan's mom's boyfriend, but i know him a lot better than that title makes it seem), alash is going to try and get on the colbert report. they deserve the colbert bump.the igil, a stringed tuvan instrument played with a bow, always includes the image of a horse's head because of a legend about a boy and his beloved horse. nathan is building one of these, and he got a lot of tips from the group's interpreter/friend/agent when we went to the concert.

if you live in the princeton, nj area, there is talk of the group returning for another performance. i highly reccomend going! the concert we went to was presented by the arts council of princeton, so checking their website would probably be your best bet. now go visit the alash website (linked at the top of this post) and listen!!

title: iranian election

i just wanted to post this link to faramaz hashemi's flickr photoset of the iranian election protests.

photography has played an immensely important role in the global publicization of the protests and violence happening in tehran. with the country's media blockade, the protests have made reporters and photojournalists out of amateur photographers. these people are taking pictures to document and express the changes and horrors happening around them, and this is photography in its purest form. the power and succintity of image is fully exemplified in the shots which have been uploaded from within tehran. i am so pleased that the people of iran have managed to get this much exposed. i hope as many people around the world see these pictures as possible, and that they help to keep us vigilant and aware as iran's series of events unfolds. whatever the outcome, it cannot happen in secret.

title: june 17-18

i think today felt like this for a lot of people, myself included:
rain is everywhere. we are all tired.
here's something to wake you up.
i bought a konica "big mini" 35 mm camera off ebay last night, so when it gets here prepare to see my experiments in film photography (kind of). i picked a big mini because of hiromix; it was the first camera she used. i like the look of the pictures the big mini takes--they have a certain cast to them. i want to try processing the film myself in a makeshift darkroom. i will probably end up accidentally fully exposing (or otherwise destroying) my first five or so rolls, but maybe i will get the hang of it (or just give up and take them to the rite-aid) and you'll see some results here. wsh me luck!

title: may 30

i just got a flickr pro account! all of my photos are visible at my photostream now. exciting!

nathan and i went to the watershed on saturday for a walk. we both brought our cameras. it was so much fun, like being in a super secret club of photographers. also, we are proof that canon and nikon can get along :)

here he is checking out a spider on his arm. after punching a plant.
this is a stereotypical picture of a field. i love it nonetheless:happy june!!

title: may 18

i was taking photos for a listing on etsy today, and this was one.i just like it.

lately there have been several visitors who got here from google searching "telephoto photography". i did this too, just see where i show up. guess what? i am on the 43rd page! this means you have browsed through 43 freakin' pages of results before arriving here. all i can say is props to you for being so diligent in your googling efforts. that's a lot of clicking, fellows. if you're one of these wandering soldiers of the internet, please at least drop me a comment! i applaud you!

i would also like to take this time to respond to jordan's comment on a large, public scale: YES! i will be posting more vegan-releated things here as i cook and live my life. but these so-called "things" will always include photos, so please do not fear, photo-kateers.

today i hope to get around to planting some of my vegetable garden, and from this will spring various and sundry photographic efforts. keep your eyes (and bananas) peeled!

title: apr 19

beautiful. beautiful beautiful beautiful! the weather has been kickass, causing me to forsake my work and run free about the city. with spring my head gets pulled in every direction, full of ideas and choices and impulses. this is why this post is tagged with almost every tag i've got--i'm all over the place!

let me tell you why i love the "selective color" feature in photoshop. no, better yet, let me show you. this is, after all, a photo blog.horray for cool jellies! i took a trip to the new england aquarium on sunday, where a (heavily sponsored by soveriegn bank) exhibit of jellies was going on! the underground rooms were packed with hideous, screaming children (as was the rest of the aquarium), but you wouldn't know it from the looks of these guys. they're all "oh, yeah, i'm just glubbin' along."
did you know that to reproduce, they just spray their sperm and eggs all over the freakin' ocean and hope the stuff runs into each other somewhere in the great blue? squishy. insert "salty ocean" joke here. GUH.

p.s.: check out the cool new bar of links i've created right over there ---->
it has a bunch of links to my friends' blogs, which you can and should enjoy to the full extent of the law. i would also like to take this time to pee my pants over the fact that we are coming up on 500 hits, and a decent amount of them are not from my mom and dad's computer. thank you, boys and girls!

title: mar 17

there is always time to take pictures on beautiful, seventy degree days. i had a date with myself today. there was a whole lot of pink.
i walked past this place and decided to go in. it's a cupcake restaurant. SERIOUSLY. a cupcake restaurant. and its adorable inside--all princessy and pink like a cupcake place should be. heaven. i have never had a more delcious cupcake in my life. plus two tons of icing.
i walked down to the esplanade to enjoy the spoils of cupcakey victory. i have never felt so attached to an object in my life. if that cupcake so much as shifted i would have crapped my pants. it is impossible to take a bad picture of a cherry tree in bloom.thanks for looking!