For the next ten days or so I’ll be polishing off a giant manuscript and getting ready to go to Poland, so posting will be lighter than usual. Bear with me, as I do my best.
Here are a few of my photos to round out the day (click to enlarge). I suppose I put these up partly to remind me that my life hasn’t been so bad after all (I’m beset by the Black Dog today):
For a knish in New York, you must go to Yonah Shimmel’s on Houston Street. I don’t know how it’s survived 113 years!
Some of my fanciest cowboy boots, custom made by Rocketbuster. They hate getting orders for their Peacock Boots, as it takes hours of hand stitching:
Feral tabby Prince’s Mosque, Istanbul:
Roses at the central market, Bogota, Colombia:
A frog in the lab of Vicky Flechas, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota:
Drake fight, Botany Pond, 2011:
The Russian cruiser Aurora, built in 1900 for the Russo-Japanese war, photographed in St. Petersburg. It reportedly fired the first shot of the Russian Revolution, and still floats in the harbor.
A monument to all the cats sacrificed in laboratory experiments, University of St. Petersburg:
This is one of my favorite pictures. It’s a Cartier-Bresson-like picture of “the decisive moment” and I took it on purpose, sensing that here was a series of poses that wouldn’t be repeated. I underexposed the foreground to get a variety of girls in different lights and different dance-like poses. The original is in color, but I made it in black and white, too. (Which do you like best?) From Peter the Great’s summer palace, St. Petersburg.
Posing with a panelist and temporary friend (he gave me a smoke), Hay Festival, UK:
The shed where Dylan Thomas wrote poetry, behind The Boathouse in Laugharne, Wales:
Outside:
Inside:
Hitch, Sept 8, 2010; this may have been when he got the Dawkins Award but I can’t remember the occasion.
Sweet home Chicago:
Thanks for sharing your photos Jerry, they are really fun!
On the young girls, I prefer the black and white (I lean that way).
I really appreciate your photos. You’ve been lots of interesting places and it’s fun to “go there with you” if only through photos.
Thanks for the thoughts and pictures. I’m partial to the color version of the “Decisive Movement.” . . . and on a lighter note. . .
I finally got 8 hours of sleep. It took me three days, but whatever.
I appreciated all the photographs from your many travels, but the one of Hitch struck a timely chord with me. I’m about ¼ through “Hitch-22”, having just finished “Why Orwell Matters”, and “Arguably, Essays by Christopher Hitchens”. I am totally amazed at the scope of his interests, his provocative opinions, his sense of humor, his erudition, and overall the courage to share his beliefs in print.
I’ve read those two works by Hitch.. both excellent.
Hopefully, the anticipation of your visit to A&M in Poland will help dissipate the Black Dog, Jerry. It’s an awful feeling to fall into those doldrums.
Love the Peacock boots. The palm tree’s leaves in the background add an interesting and serendipitous extension to the left boot’s feathery stitching.
Make a better knish and the world will beat a path to your door.
That last pic calls for some Robert Johnson — or maybe for some Bonnie Raitt et al. paying homage to Buddy Guy at the Kennedy Center.
Just great. The B&W photo shades it for me. The Laugharne photos are very evocative. Please post more! Many thanks.
It’s really wonderful to see these photos! You have been so many places on this planet.
Personally, I prefer the color photo. With that photo, the girls out in the water come more clearly into focus. The color photo seems to have 2 separate scenes going on. The younger girls playing in the water and the silhouette of the 2 figures that seem older and in more of a pensive mood. It shows more of a contrast between the 2 groups. The silhouettes are more pronounced in the color photo and I like that. It is such a beautiful photo.
I’m glad to hear you will go to Poland. I’m looking forward to the photos.
Is your friend Tom Stoppard?
Yep. We were on a panel together and I criticized him for his penchant for the numinous. Then we had a smoke together afterwards (his ciggies). Lovely guy.
I’ve seen the Aurora, but when I did there sure as hell wasn’t a Samsung building nearby.
The Turkish kitty is a stunner, and the photo is beautifully composed.
Good luck chasing away that malevolent d*g.
Great set as usual, thanks. Always with the fancy shoes, academics. Like Pinker and his fancy boots. hehehe (I say out of pure boot envy!!) Even Dawkins has his sock thing*. 🙂
D.A.
NYC
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2020/06/10/photos-of-readers-93/
*wearing mismatched sox on stage to protest against the “tyranny of matched socks.”
Those are great photographs. I like the one of Yonah Shimmel’s bakery best of all. I’d bet they had a barrel of pickles in there, too.
Lovely photos — my vote’s for the colour version of the girls, but my favourite is the Bogota roses. Your new manuscript sounds exciting! — can you share anything about it here (apologies if you’ve already done so)?
It is a good picture.
Exciting to have Poland back on… following in Joe’s footsteps.
Great photos – thanks for sharing.
Both photos of the girls are special – for framing I’d choose the B & W.
It’s always good to see some of your world wanderings since william and mary. I am glad that you will go to poland and get to see Hili and her staff and friends in person. You have had and are having a very rich life IMHO.