Got a little caption for this too ... if I could just find it :)

One more?

Here's an indecent proposal

bits and pieces of poems

that got stuck inside me over the years;

When you first came,
quiet as the rain that never fell;
In the sunlight that never shone
I whispered words I had never known
and now, shall never forget.


Western wind, when wilt thou blow
The small rain down can rain?
Christ, if my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again!


When will we dance again
In yesterday's moonlight?

Backpacking

Being singled does mean I can now travel as a backpacker, and so that's how I did Frisco last year, Drakensberg, London and Miami the years before. I mean beyond the obvious guided tours, cost savings, peoplewatching opportunities and fantastic locales there's other more subtler reasons to backpack :) For one I still remember doing the Drakensberg day hiking trips and coming back in the evening to a large T Bone steak, washed down with Castle Laager at a roughhewn wooden dining table, open to the side all the way to the stars, with lightning flashing in plain sight a few miles away ... all for roughly about $5 American. Aieee, that place was beyond romantic ... If I coulda stayed there for another month I'd have gladly done so except that the lodge it was literally in the middle of nowhere and you could not anything for miles around ... good if you're being hunted by the mob but bad if you like to hit the club scene every now and then or murder a plate of pad thai or get midnight cravings for sashimi or even just want to go rent the latest emir kusturica or ...

And where in London could you do a pint for a pound other than in a backpackers bar. I mean it all qualifies as cost savings don't it? The only regret I have ... not having my camera on these trips. So summer's almost here and I'll be doing a few cities on the longer weekends and hopefully they'll all be at backpackers this time with the Finepix and maybe even the Nikon DSLR tagging along. I mean there are lockers to put stuff like that away at night ...

And here check out the this wonderfully presented guide to London for backpackers

Of course there is this other way to check out this quirky wonderfully eccentric city out by just clicking over to london daily instead :)

Ballad of a Russian Solder

What a find this movie is. Alyosha's innate decency and sense of honor, the short but one of the silver screen's sweetest romances with Shura, and the achingly lyrical cinematography of this movie make it one worth seeing again and again.

Criterion Collection movies

Criterion with unerring accuracy releases one masterwork after the other, each restored to their pristine original glory. Some may find the price a bit steep, and your neighborhood video rental may not always have them. But once you compare say Criterion's version of Seven Samurai against the other copies out there, you'll automatically find yourself counting the money out :)

I buy them when I can and have never regretted any of the choices to date. There's always the unexpected specials in them as well. For example in Tarkovsky's Solaris, I found two essays one by Philip Lopate AND the other by Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa had apparently visited Tarkovsky during the filming and the essay details his impressions from that visit. Quietly and simply it underscores the enormous respect both had for each other. Both made movies that were not just unforgettable but had a range, depth and mastery that will never probably be equalled by anybody else.

Recommendations include Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Redbeard, Yojimbo, Sanjuro and Rashomon for Kurosawa, and Solaris, Andrei Rubley for Tarkovsky (but be warned Tarkovsky is very meditative ... read that as very slow)

Flying high - The Swiss Airforce shows off :)

The Fuji Finepix F30

Must say it's possibly the finest point and shoot ever. Love the night shots (that truck above was done at night with no flash), but just realized today that if you shoot at higher than normal ISOs you can do other stuff with it after, like saturate it digitally, or increase the color temperature ...

That's a carpark in the neighborhood mall. Below's the original snap which I changed with Picasa

Must admit I'm pretty thrilled at the possibilities this opens up :)

Here's one more before and after ... my bike actually