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Ten Panos + 1, China
Category: location blog
where I’m at…
Cross Country Trip
Short, very unprofessional video of my trip across country.
Something for everybody.
https://youtu.be/26dIgeZEdRY
back in middletown
On March 22 I came back to Middletown for a week. It rained almost the entire time, still lots of snow on the ground when I got there, cold. March weather in New England. Berlin had been pretty well along with early spring: crocuses, snow bells, daffodils and a few fruit trees blooming. Not Middletown: what few crocuses had come up had made a mistake.
I took a walk along the Salmon River just to just stretch my legs. Nothing was up, no green shoots; but the water was high and the birds were singing, two definite but not absolute signs of spring, plus while not warm, it wasn’t freezing either. The rain made the colors really stand out, the lichens on the trees, the few things that can survive the winter.
It’s hard being in Middletown, I ruminate. Then also it’s lovely, so many wonderful friends. I’m trying to hold onto the good memories, the many accomplishments, exhibitions, teaching and all of the people, students, staff and faculty I’ve known and know there. Those are good thoughts for March.
On Friday I flew to Beijing where it is spring for sure, and I’m enjoying it mightily. All good memories, a stimulating atmosphere.
“Pics to follow.”
roma
I visited Rome…a friend had said “Rome just keeps giving,” and he was right. Every corner you turn, there was something spectacular, ecstatic, surprising…and yet all very comfortable and inviting. What a splendid place, splendid people, a plaza society.
There is no “but” coming—it’s all good. Sights, people, food, transportation, weather, people watching: what a place, so old and yet not jaded.
It is monumental, things are large and then you get to someplace like St. Peter’s, the Coliseum, the Vatican Museums or the Pantheon and it is REALLY LARGE! Photos fail to catch the scale. And of course, it’s impossible to catch how nice people are, the quality of the food, sandwiches, coffee, wine, pizzas, dinners, seafood, or the close-in vistas that reveal themsleves all along those narrow streets.
Now back in Berlin, a different scene entirely, enjoyable in a different way.
And I note New England is getting your classic St. Patrick’s week blizzard.
counting blessings in berlin
For six months I have been packing my worldly belongings into a storage area. This was not fun, but it is done. I had a lot of help and support, and many thanks! I locked the old house up, locked the storage up, locked my car and had my friends drop me at Union Station in New Haven.
This morning at 7:23AM I landed at Tegel airport in Berlin. I will be posting regularly and in varied ways now and in the coming months and invite you to come along on the journey, tell your friends about laopan888.com and on Instagram where I will try to post daily (my #selfdrivingcar project is the default, but you see a lot of interesting things on the road). I’ve never gotten a comment (I don’t think: there are still couple of loose ends), so try me! Always a thrill!
dc: inauguration-women’s march
The top image is a group of ‘trouble boys’ intent on making a political statement through window smashing and burning trash cans. Note media contingent.
The next pano is Pennsylvania Avenue across from the District Building at 13th Street. I waited there with all those cops for the Inaugural Parade but after a (long) while it started to get dark and I left.
The next two panos are from Saturday’s Women’s March, a weak attempt to show what the enormous, extraordinary crowds that covered the Mall, Independence, Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues that day were like.
boone nc
The drive to Boone can be great. It’s up in the North Carolina mountains. You can go up I-85 through Georgia and S. Carolina (cheap gas! fireworks!) and then turn north in Gastonia and be here in about 4 hours. But I-85, while fast is also….well, it’s interesting in a tacky way. Coming straight up to Asheville and then north east to Boone is beautiful…..the lovely Smoky Mountains and this time snow.
Boone is nice, almost all the way to Tennessee, home of Appalachian State University (App State, ASU, the Mountaineers), a college town from more innocent days (but quickly catching up). The woman who cut my hair today’s son is majoring in Fermentation Technology, an old trade up here but I think he’ll be legal (minor in chemistry. People told me they also study making kimchi and miso, among other fermented things). Boone’s quaint, vacationy and still quiet, classes start next week. I’m staying in Sugar Grove—see? Everything’s poetry. nice place, relaxing but stimulating.
east lake, georgia
I’m currently in Atlanta, Georgia in a neighborhood named East Lake. It has been mentioned in rap songs but is also home to the very famous Bobby Jones designed East Lake Golf Course (members only).
it is just south of Decatur, Georgia which has cachet and so has lots of restaurants and traffic. Notable sites in the area are Value Village thrift store, the place that gives a two week guarantee on used tires, the undertaker with a broken clock and, a bit farther, the Dekalb Farmer’s Market.