Briefly: A Perspective Study

After the crushing length of the last post, I wanted to break up the rhythm of this blog a bit and do something shorter. Our insanely-bearded professor, Alec Longstreth, recently gave us the best perspective lecture I have ever seen. He super-imposed perspective lines over normal photos, and by the end it was so obvious that the exercise had been become mundane! For homework, we had to take one of our own photos that clearly shows 1, 2, or 3-point perspective, light-box/trace the perspective lines, and then do an illustration off of it. So here’s the photo I used:

It’s a picture I shot in Berlin, at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. I didn’t write about it at the time, but it was an intensely powerful place to be. As you walk into it and the stone rectangles surround you, it really is disconcerting. Anyway, here it is with some perspective lines on top of it:

The yellow line is the “horizon line;” which is really obvious in this photo because the rectangles become flat and straight on. The other colors are the three planes of perspective. You can see on the right that the red line tapers in a little, and isn’t just straight up and down like it would be in 2-point. So I “light-boxed” (with a piece of plexi-glass on my lap and a desk lamp on the ground pointing up) these perspective lines onto a piece of bristol and drew this:

Please resist the urge but enlarge if you must, it looks much better smaller. I might get around to coloring it at some point — I kinda like it.

The Last Day of Summer

Well, senior year starts tomorrow. I’ve had a pretty good summer. Good times all around. I’ve been back in DC for about a month now, working at my beloved Cowgirl Creamery and dispensing cheese to the rich and hungry. I always love summer for what it promises (swimming, walks, BBQ, etc.) but not what it costs (poison ivy, working in the heat, etc.). Above is the nice end of summer meal I made tonight for some guests. The chicken was fried in crushed corn flakes (crispy!); the pasta salad is tossed with carrot, bell pepper, shallot, parsley, basil; the artichoke was just boiled soft. I intended to do more with that ‘choke, but you can only do so much some times, you know?

Towards the end of this past week, a friend and I descended into Shenandoah National Park for a hike and overnight camping. We saw two black bear cubs and fantastic summer stars. The above picture is a view almost identical to what we enjoyed the first day. I used to go camping a lot more. I missed it — but frankly wondered if I would still enjoy it. But there are wonderful things that you can forget, like the raw feeling on your hands at the end of the trip.

And still, it’s even easier to forget that I was traveling around Europe at the beginning of summer. Today in CVS, a French girl asked me if all American notebooks were line ruled, and not squared like she was used to. “Sorry,” I said, “that’s not how they do it here.”

Photo of Shenandoah courtesy of flickr user PatrickMMoore.

Disposable Europe

We take pictures to supplement our visual memories. Aside from sheer artistic and aesthetic merit, no one needs convincing that pictures we take remind us of people, places, and things. I’ve heard that when we take pictures, it limits and focuses our memories, but it’s easy to give that up for the joy of fondly remembering something from a snapshot. Anyone who has ever had a camera stolen knows what a terrible feeling that can be. More after the jump.

A Paris Journal

Well I’m home. Bigger soda containers and even bigger automobiles. More culture shock reflections to come. Now, the first European post in retrospect. I’m going to try and hit the main places, though I may not go in order. Going to get my three disposable cameras developed soon.

As promised, here are my thoughts on Paris that I jotted down while I was there. I tried to get a “drawing” on each page. Almost. Sorry if you can’t read it, that’s my actual handwriting. Click to enlarge, more after the jump.

Madrid, Capital of Spain and Cool

I thought I published this back in Barcelona, after staying in Madrid for about a week and a half. Now I’m in Nice, and heading to Paris tomorrow, where the internet is 4 euros an hour, but stay tuned. For most of the time in Madrid, I stayed with my friend Molly in a quiet but convenient neighborhood called Embajadores. It was relaxing. I spent a lot of time in nearby Lavapies, a ethnically diverse and architecturally barrio. For the first couple of days, I couldn’t help comparing Rome, where no one would dream of there being an openly gay neighborhood like Madrid’s Cuerca, to the modern bustle of Spain’s capital. Indeed, I once again found myself in a “stand on the right, walk on the left” escalator city. Madrid has a better Metro system, more interesting fashion, and much more interesting nightlife. However, they have far more Starbucks, McDonalds, and Burger King. Still, the two countries have many of the same social problems. They are both plagued by high real estate prices, unemployment, and incapable governments. More after the jump.

Chump-less Checklist to Doing Rome: The Nitty Gritty

And now the Nitty Gritty, continuing from the Generalities:

One of my favorite places in the city is the Jewish Ghetto, which I already wrote a bit about in my post about the synagogue. But this little four block quadrant has a lot of genuine charm. For one, it has restaurants that serve the excellent “carciofi alla guidea” or Jewish style artichokes. There are also small delis to bop into for lunch, and because pork is not so kosher, they have cured beef similar to prosciutto that is amazing. Also, it has a lot of really awesome stenciled street art by c215 (above).

By all means, go see the Trevi Fountain; it’s beautiful. But listen, even in the non-tourist season, seeing it can be uncomfortable because of the mobs that gather around it. If you follow one piece of my advice about seeing Rome, take this one to heart: Go to it late at night. After midnight, there are only a few people around and it is beautifully lit. Throw in your coin over your shoulder and guarantee your eventual return to Rome. More golden nuggets of advice after the jump.