Archive for the ‘Sylt’ tag
Left over from Sylt…
I know it doesn’t mean the same thing in German, but I couldn’t resist. I mean look at that typeface!
Tags: daily photo, SyltRelated posts
Hell wiener says Welcome…to Hell!
This is one of the many left over photos from Sylt. These bags seemed to depict some Boschian Wurstdemon who enthusiastically greets the souls of weekend Weber enthusiasts when they enter the afterlife.
(note to self: register www.boschianwurstdemon.com in case I get that band started)
Yesterday after work I got together with my friend Lynne for the first time in months. It’s always emotional in the best possible way when we get together. As she said at the end of the meal, we are a “tonic” for each other. I admire how powerful and deep her creative process is, and how funny and rigorous her work is. And yet we sometimes get stuck in the same way. I love that we’ve been able to remain each other’s sounding board.
Started a new project last night (remarkable what I have the time for when I don’t turn on the TV) and as part of it began looking through the past three years of pictures. It was a better experience than I thought. I notice that many of the shots I’ve included here are not the ones I’m so drawn to. Often I chose very settle compositions for inclusion here. This time around I’m drawn to the untidy pictures.
Tags: daily photo, friends, Lynn, making things, SyltRelated posts
Packed…
Here we go. They’re no larger, but they are heavier than when I brought them here. Think kind thoughts about my back.
Tags: daily photo, Sylt, travelRelated posts
Blow, wind, blow…
My final day here has been punctuated by the most aggressive winds and downpours that I’ve seen so far. It’s a real reminder that we are on the sea, dammit. It gives me a bit of insight into what the off season must be like here. Every time I think about heading down to Westerland for a couple of final purchases, the sky will dump buckets of water outside the window. Some folks may not end up getting the presents I thought to pick up for them.
Could be it’s just nature telling me to stay in and get my stuff organized and try to knock out another couple of drawings before I pack it all away. If I could just resign myself to that course of action I’d be much happier. Instead I keep hopping up when it clears and thinking hmmm perhaps now I can get down there.
I do much better with limited options.
There are also still a couple of pictures I want to take around here, and at least I got my laundry done. I think this is the first time I’ll be coming back from a trip with more clean clothes than I arrived with. Which is good since I’m thinking about the massive amount of cleaning that has to happen at my place upon my arrival.
I am looking forward to getting back, I must say. There’s a lot of dirty New York I’m hungry for. And I’m hoping that I have the courage to retain some of the lessons learned while I was here.
Tags: daily photo, Sylt, travel, weatherRelated posts
Winding down…
Slept until 10:30 this morning. So it’s no surprise that so much of the day is gone by the time I’m getting around to posting. The rain I thought I would avoid yesterday caught up with me in the middle of Westerland, making for a damp bus ride back.
I’ve figured out my exit strategy however, and booked a room for Friday night in Hamburg so that I don’t have to: a)haul a heavy piece of luggage around a city I’ve never been to for hours in the evening and b)get to the airport eight hours before my flight departs and try to camp out while staying awake all night. I’m paying around $100.00 for the privilege of avoiding those options so I guess it means that I’m no longer the rough and tumble young traveler I used to be.
No everything I’m looking at is starting to take on the cast of: am I looking at this for the last time? and I’m starting to think about apportioning my hours: it’s clear right now, should I head over to the beach? Wouldn’t drawing be a better option. I’ll have plenty of time to read on the plane, so I shouldn’t do that.
Thoughts, just thoughts. The wavering bits that blow through my brain. They don’t really matter to me, and I assure you, they shouldn’t matter to you.
Tags: daily photo, Sylt, travel, triviaRelated posts
Yes…
There is some sort of water park here.
Overcast today, in the way that doesn’t portend breaking up later. I’ll make the walk into town after lunch anyway. The usual confused dreams about relocating studio, looking at possible rooms to rent, etc. The location shifting between San Francisco and Brooklyn.
The things I thought I’d get done here and those I have done. I’ve read eight books. I expected to edit and repost most of the pictures of my work from my old website. No such luck. I’ve done more bike riding than I have in the past ten years, which is not to say much, but still. I returned the rental bike rather than renewing it for the final week, without regret. I enjoy the long walks. I’ve spent very little time hanging out on the beach. Silly because it’s only fifteen minutes away. I thought I would wade through all the podcasts backed up on my iPhone: nope.
And I didn’t think that I’d post so regularly here. It’s proved very easy to get online, perhaps a little too. And I’ve come to have the habit of daily photographing and posting. And I’m very happy with the little eeepc. It has exceeded my expectations in the past year. Last week in the cafe, it was one of three petite Asus models in operation. I haven’t felt it as limited in any way. Little more than a year of use, so we’ll see how it does on durability.
And I’ve drawn a bunch. Not quite as much as I’d hoped initially, but there it is. There’s still a few days left, and I’ve the feeling that I may have some developed some momentum to carry me into the next month.
And boy have I missed folks!
Tags: daily photo, eeepc, reading, Sylt, travelRelated posts
Looking like a nono…
Working on the third drawing of the day. Or rather procrastinating on the third drawing of the day. There’s an itch to get on with some of the sorts of things that I’ve been thinking about doing for the past couple of years, but I wonder if that’s simply one of the things I’m using to distract myself, mainly because it requires a bunch of equipment I don’t own at present, so it’s conveniently out of the bounds of possibility. The paper that’s in front of me, the pencils I have with me these are more than enough for me to make something with. Get on with it, sluggard.
Treated myself to downloads of three albums I haven’t listened to in years: Portfolio, Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing, all by Grace Jones. Portfolio really because it makes me laugh, what with Grace battling her way through horrible arrangements and gamely trying to put over a terrible version of “Tomorrow”. I picked up the other two because they used to be in heavy rotation when I worked at Just Desserts. And of those, Nightclubbing stands out on this listen: great playing and a sly assessment of her limitations and strengths.
And now I’m on to to Strangeways, Here We Come. So I’m deep in 80′s San Francisco thought. Perhaps in solidarity for all of my pals heading over to Dore Alley this afternoon. Although I’ll most likely be beddy-bye before you all get up to any mischief. Just remember I was there the year it started.
Oh and the picture is a very straightforward view of where I’m staying: in the center is the gallery/restaurant and to side is the bottling plant. Just behind it to the right are the apartments where I lay my shaggy head.
Tags: daily photo, drawing, Grace Jones, music, Question Month, san francisco, SyltRelated posts
Slow fade…
Quiet day today. Stayed around the apartment, a bit of tidying, a bit of drawing. Not much, only one drawing done. Hard to believe that it’s almost ten pm already.
Tags: daily photo, SyltRelated posts
You can’t make this stuff up…
Since I’d walked into town today, I almost took the bus home, but I was feeling pretty good and decided to make the trek on foot. About four fifths of the way back I started to notice how crazy the sky was getting, with huge clouds piled up across the horizon. No rain, but the sorts of canyons of fluff that you just don’t see all that often. I took a bunch of pictures and then walked on and before I got much further I just had to stop and shoot more. And then I saw it and hopefully you can see it too: the rainbow just to the right of the center of this picture. I have some where it’s more distinct, but I’m choosing this one to show you because It shows where it’s touching down. That building you see there? The kind of large one? Well, right behind it is the place I’m staying.
I didn’t want to goose the color in the shot, so this is pretty much what the camera saw. If I were a suspicious man I’d call it a sign, but instead I’ll take it as a bit of good fortune, a reward for walking.
Two other very nice things happened today as well: the post that I put up on the 13th of this month the one called “In Response” has garnered a lot of kind words over on facebook, and has been reposted here, in a great blog called Little Paper Planes, which has one of the most comprehensive sets of interesting gallery and artist links out there. Well worth your while.
And a very nice (and talented, and cute) artist, Joey Veltkamp has published a short interview with me here, on his blog. SO if you haven’t read enough of my yammering, you can go read some more. Or just use the links and go look at Joey’s stuff.
Tags: daily photo, good news, Sylt, weather
