i dream about society at night

a giant hersheys kiss?

kyiv at sunset

unreal!

places i miss

sava centar, belgrade, serbia

simplistic and beautiful

ugly/beautiful

I went to Eastern Europe for the first time in May of 2008 and arriving in at Nikola Testa Airport in Belgrade, Serbia on a warm Sunday morning, I ended up having to figure out which taxi driver was less shady and eventually ended up sharing a taxi with two Dutch guys as I headed to the city centre. From the get go, I knew this was not going to be like trips I was used to. What I didn't expect was the extent to which I'd fall in love with this country and area of the world.

I went a few months after the revisiting of the situation with Kosovo (where several countries around the world finally recognized Kosovo as a separate country from Serbia, which they claimed as religious territory pretty much) and I can remember returning from class one day ,shortly before I was supposed to leave, to see the American embassy in flames in Belgrade. My parents were unbelievably worried about me going, and as travel warnings were issued for Americans going to Serbia, I was still holding on to a small glimmer of optimism.

Of course, I never experienced the worst of what I was expecting in a "what if?" situation, and everyone I met was amazing, friendly, and wonderful to me and my friends I was with (which ranged from Greek, to Lithuanian, to British) and I've actually made great friends there that I hope to see in the future.

I was only in Serbia for a week, but when I was leaving I knew I needed to return sooner rather than later. Admittedly, I could never live there, but the thirst to explore more of the region and meet people that I will never forget stems from my short time spent in this amazing country.

This picture is from outside of the place I stayed in Belgrade, the building across the way. In a great part of town, there are still reminders from the long battle fought in the region between so many incredible cultures. Yet I find this so beautiful, as we attempted to find - beauty in the ugly...

beauty in our backyards

I took this picture last April by Emma S. Clark library. I couldn't believe that such beauty really is in our backyards. I have a lot of animosity for this place, but sometimes it's nice to just take a deep breath in and out and realize that this amazing view is here.

kissing coppers

My favourite Banksy, from my on/off city of residence (Brighton)... I miss passing by this on my way to the rail station.

(taken by Leonski @ flickr)

There's protection over the cops in this one because a few years ago someone wrote homophobic comments all over it. In what many consider the "San Francisco of England". Sad.

my family through comics...

I've been meaning to post this but I've been stuck in the time warp that is Ann Arbor, Michigan since Thursday....

a page from my comic; (#9, to be exact)


























I've posted the comic in its entirety on flickr here: family comic project - thr 216

folk at the café

A picture I took of folk musician Ellis Paul performing at the Sunday acoustic series at the University Café. If you're into acoustic/folk music, check universitycafe.org to see if there's a show coming up one Sunday. It's a great way to spend an afternoon, and I guess I'm biased as I help out with the series and my father is the organizer of it. You never know what's going on if you don't seek it out!

the gems discovered in family photos...

...include pictures of your mother as a baby eating tinsel off the Christmas tree.

Whenever I have my mother screaming in my ear about this or that from now on, I'll prefer to look at this photo of her from the 1950's and imagine this instead.

This of course bruises her authority somewhat, but it provides humour for me.

fireworks are awesome.

Taken at the Ducks game earlier tonight.

memories

I took a trip out to the east end of the Island to visit my grandmother earlier, the only grandparent I've really ever known well (the parents of my father dying before I was born, and my mom's father died when I was 4). Knowing that I was planning to peruse photos of my family on my mom's side, she pulled out several photo albums. For a few hours we sat together, went through these albums delicately, and she told me stories I had never heard before about my extended family.

It's amazing how photographs can conjure up so many emotions and thoughts - I called my mother while I was looking through all of these photos and although I heard that authoritative voice I had known all of my life, I was picturing the 7 year old version of my mother in her communion dress standing on a porch in Huntington in 1963, thanks to several pictures of this event I had just seen.

After already getting a stressful workload in the first week of classes, it was nice to clear my mind for a bit looking through decades upon decades of photos. On my drive home, I didn't find myself thinking about the pages of readings I had to do for the upcoming week, but about the amazing memories my family has accumulated over the years.

beauty is in the eye of the beholder

I was thinking about this ongoing assignment to search for the beauty in (perceived) ugliness and I started looking through photos I've taken in the past to see if I could associate anything with this concept. I took this picture outside of Reykjavík, Iceland in 2006 and can remember never seeing anything quite like this before. As Iceland is situated between two tectonic plates, the tiny country is susceptible to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes quite frequently, and because of this, the landscape is unique - trees are mostly unseen and the land is built on lightly, therefore leaving a lot of empty space. The day I took this picture, rain was intermittent, the temperature was chilly and there was no speck of sunlight at any point during the day.

We assume places like the Bahamas and Aruba and such are beautiful because of the warm weather, sandy beaches and illuminating sunshine and we see adverts enticing us to experience the joy of these "paradises" - but there is something so intriguing and hidden about lands like Iceland that (for the most part) go unnoticed. If I had the choice, I would certainly go back to a place like Iceland over one of these tropical vacation spots - it feels like you're on a different planet, to be quite honest - I saw the world in a completely different way, and incorporated a new type of "beautiful" into my mindset after visiting.