Approaching the building, possibly the Magnum Opus of Frank Gehry’s career, is an unexpectedly emotional experience. Beginning with the childhood trope of, “Is it a bird, is it a plane…?” and continuing on to the discomfort of confronting extreme departures from form, the structure is composed of contradictions and surprises. Frank Gehry is an interventionist, […]
There are soldiers with guns positioned all over Paris, especially in the Marais where there are many Jewish businesses and synagogues. A very young soldier with a machine gun politely asked me not to take his photograph. So, I did not. These pictures of plaques commemorating murdered deportees and resisters are probably more appropriate, given […]
I’m not much of one for the whole pilgrim narrative and trying to figure out what to do with a 20 lb. bird (and its leftovers) is a bit of a conundrum. Still, despite the sorry events of this last week, there’s so much for which to give thanks. For many years, Thanksgiving has been […]
Like most Americans, I have a pretty tortured relationship with Paris. This is not unlike my relationships with other iconic cities, especially those in the USA – Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago. Cities are cities. Big, messy, crowded, dirty places where people rush from A to Z while the moments tick by. But, […]
Flying over the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan to be exact, I glanced down at an angle and caught this display of light and color, illuminating an otherwise barren landscape. In addition to adaptability, air travel in our post-9/11 world requires a nearly masochistic willingness to face numerous indignities and inconveniences. We’ve come to expect random […]
There is something magical and vaguely biblical in traveling across a frozen body of water. The color of ice is an indicator of how strong it is. Clear ice with a bluish hue is the most stable and has twice the strength of opaque ice, which appears to be white. Grey ice indicates water below […]
I had very mixed feelings about dog sledding. On one hand, you hear people talk about Huskies and how they love to work, that they are unhappy unless pulling human cargo across snow and ice. Sort of like you hear people talk about how Shepherds and other herding dogs are happiest when rounding up livestock. […]
As I made my way around Lake Minnewanka, words from Marilynne Robinson’s great novel, “Housekeeping”, provided a narrative text to accompany my journey around the perimeter of the frozen lake. “Imagine a Carthage sown with salt, and all the sowers gone, and the seeds lain however long in the earth, till there rose finally in […]
A deep freeze of frozen rivers and snow clad peaks reminds us how insignificant we are, frail and impermanent. You can’t help but to feel small in this endless landscape of rolling grasses, rugged mountains, and infinite sky. “Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains?” ― Jane Austen, Pride and […]
Maybe it’s just that it’s so well organized. The trains run on time, it’s denizens follow rules, and there seem to be contingencies in place for every possible hiccup, even drunken tourists . Perhaps this leaves a small space, beyond the perils of modernity, for something that resembles grace. Here are some tips. 1: Plan. […]
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