Tet Festival in Black and White, and more at Manh and Lieu Photography.
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Also, from Flickr user mlsnp, a gorgeous set of the Chua Linh Son Temple.
Author: Robert Kimberly
New Houston Mayor Say Bloggers Can Be "Negative and Snarky": I Say "WHATEVZ!!!"
I kid!!!
It’s nice listen to the new mayor (whom I voted for) talk intelligently about technology. She talks of bloggers as almost neighborhood captains (constituency, point of view, etc). Avoidance of most local news means I hadn’t seen much of the mayor on TV. I’m liking what I’m seeing in terms of her realism and insights.
Wednesday Night Photo Post: Masonic Aztek Mural, Galaxy Auto Upholstery – Houston, TX
New On Flickr: The University of Houston Digital Library
The University of Houston Digital Library now has an additional internet presence, a new Flickr page. While the World Famous Red Headed Widows, ca. 1909 postcard not there yet, the Flickr page is only a few days old, so it will be interesting to see how the digital library uses it. Personally, I’d like to see all the historic Houston photographs placed on an available map.
Wednesday Night Photo Post: The Stibbert Museum – Florence, Italy
All my Stibbert Museum Photos.
Graffiti is Italian: Graffiti in Italy
First impressions taking the train from Leonardo da Vinci Airport to Roma Termini?… there are a lot of kids with loads of free time and lots of paint in Rome. Seemingly, every abandoned train platform and track-side structure was tagged with graffiti. Also truly unexpected, the abundance of aged and abandoned buildings that scattered the landscape, within view of the rail line running from airport to central. Years-long decay of structures and the defacing of buildings didn’t impress this first-time visitor. Italy sells itself on historic ruins, so the toll of nature and patina of age is expected in picturesque roman buildings. It’s the more contemporary neglect that was shocking. Leaving Rome, there was lovely countryside to take in (looking a lot like Southern California), but even then graffiti gravitated to any building near the rail line..
The Florence is heavily affected by rampant tagging. The official tourism board has a page dedicated to historic graffito, but for obvious reasons, there is not mention of the current plague that affects the many of the city walls. The Travelers Notebook touched upon Florence’s graffiti issue in June ’09 article, Florence Defaced By Graffiti, Declared Ugly and Depressing.
Outside the Accedemia, look for the block-plus long scrawled massages by those waiting in line for the David and other works. In the barely populated off-season street, I didn’t understand why so much graffiti lined the walls until I noticed a simple message “4 hour.”
Being neither fluent in Italian nor of Florentine opinion, its impossible to know the local sentiment. I heard from a local that the new, young mayor is working on the task. As a visitor who was only in the city a few days, I can only imagine what those who live with this daily.
Greetings from Baden, Ontario Stencil Graffiti – Florence, Italy, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.
Wednesday Night Photo Post: Space City
Wednesday Night Photo Post: Shots From the Italy Trip
Exhaustion.
A cold.
Poor sleep.
Yup, all of those came back with me, mostly. There was an ideal trip to Italy and this just wasn’t quite the one. Why no blog entries while on vacation? Google and Blogger decided not to join us abroad. Gmail, nope. Google maps, nope. Google search, nope. Blogger, nope. Had to use a poxy service just to get them kind of running. The rest of the internet, just fine.
There were some good times had and here are some pictures as proof. More stories and images to come this week.
Museo di Firenze (Local History Museum) Biblioteca delle Oblate – Florence, Italy, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.
Reproduction of David, Piazzale Michelangelo – Florence, Italy, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.
Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella – Florence, Italy, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.
Ungrateful in Florence: Mark Twain as Good Company Abroad
The month of pre-flight stress, the hours of plane and train travel, the jet-lagged and cold early mornings have all conspired to make me feel grumpy, achy and not receptive to an unfamiliar city. Fortunately yesterday, one of the missus’ professional lunch companions recommended another who was felt the same after his trip as well.
“How the fatigues and annoyances of travel fill one with bitter prejudices
sometimes! I might enter Florence under happier auspices a month hence
and find it all beautiful, all attractive. But I do not care to think of
it now, at all, nor of its roomy shops filled to the ceiling with snowy
marble and alabaster copies of all the celebrated sculptures in Europe–
copies so enchanting to the eye that I wonder how they can really be
shaped like the dingy petrified nightmares they are the portraits of.”
Mark Twain literate cynicism about travel might be the perfect antidote to my current fatigue. I hope last night’s rest, more of Mr. Clemens’ wit and a good breakfast will get me on a happier path.
Neon Poisoning 