Category Archives: Culture

Our 2013 Calendar

Posted on January 9, 2013 by | 107 comments

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

We have a recent tradition: This year and last, we’ve created a wall calendar based on Vlad’s photos. It’s an enormous amount of fun to look through the photos and select the thirteen (including cover) that best capture our themes for the month, and the year.

We print the calendar using  Shutterfly, which overall does a fine job for a reasonable price. The calendars are printed on heavy, glossy paper stock (they’re hanging on the walls now) and we’re able to customize each day of the year, adding holidays, birthdays, phases of the moon, and, of course, the times of tidal current change in Hell Gate! (Hell Gate is a good proxy for the current everywhere in the New York harbor—it basically tells us whether we’ll be kayaking north or south on a particular day).

We decided to share our 2013 photos with you. Please let us know your favorite shots. (There are some months that we’re already impatient for, because we like the photos so much!)

Cover

IMGP5494 cropped small(Story is here.)

What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?

Philip Larkin, Days

January

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February

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March

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April

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May

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June

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July

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August

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September

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October

DSC_0097 cropped small 3(More photos are here.)

November

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December

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Happy 2013!

107 Comments

Posted in Life, Literature, Photography

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Emergence

Posted on December 20, 2012 by | 86 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

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… like a sea-anemone
Or simple snail, there cautiously
Unfolds, emerges, what I am.

Philip Larkin, Best Society

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But, contrary to Larkin, the best society is not always solitude…

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(St. Pete Beach, Florida, December 2012)

86 Comments

Posted in Literature, Nature

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At Play in the Land of the Giants

Posted on December 2, 2012 by | 38 comments

By Johna Till Johnson and Vladimir Brezina

It started like any other kayak trip.

The night before, we prepared. We made sure we had our paddling equipment (life jackets, spray skirts, tow ropes, pumps and sponges). Navigation gear (compasses, GPS, charts). And clothing: it’s definitely the season for drysuits now, with plenty of insulation underneath. And pogies–can’t forget the pogies! (Pogies are kayaking “mittens” that allow your bare hands to grip the paddle, but simultaneously sheath them in delightfully warm neoprene.) The Jetboil, so we’d be able to make hot coffee during the trip. And food, water, all the usual.

Continue reading →

38 Comments

Posted in Art, Kayaking, Nature

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry, Take Two

Posted on November 2, 2012 by | 60 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Geometry.

9/11 Memorial and surrounding buildings, Manhattan. More photos and story are here.

Two other responses to the “Geometry” challenge are here and here.

60 Comments

Posted in Architecture, New York City, Photography

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry

Posted on November 2, 2012 by | 42 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Geometry.

Upper East Side of Manhattan, 2010.

Two further responses to the “Geometry” challenge are here and here.

Continue reading →

42 Comments

Posted in Architecture, New York City, Photography

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Halloween Spooktacular 2012

Posted on November 1, 2012 by | 28 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

The famous Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village was canceled, or at least postponed, because of Hurricane Sandy. But on the Upper East Side, the Carnegie Hill Neighbors’ second annual “Halloween Spooktacular” block party, held among the elaborate Halloween decorations on East 92nd Street, was even bigger than the first!

A few highlights:

Click on a photo to start slideshow:

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28 Comments

Posted in Art, New York City, Society

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Portraits of Scariness

Posted on November 1, 2012 by | 25 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Elsewhere, it might have been quite enough that this big scary thing was going to join the party.

But on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, people take their Halloween very seriously.

No mere hurricane was going to restrain their Halloween decorations!

Here are a few highlights:

Click on one of these photos to start a slideshow:

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I think these portraits qualify, too, as an appropriate response to Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week, Spooky…

25 Comments

Posted in Art, New York City

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Travel Theme: Spooky

Posted on October 26, 2012 by | 46 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Ailsa’s Travel-Themed photo challenge this eek is Spooky.

This is still an old photo, from Halloween 2011. But I will head out any day now to take fresh photos of this year’s Halloween decorations that are now cropping up in our neighborhood. It should be a spooky Halloween this year…

… unless of course Hurricane Sandy spooks us out first. Current forecasts have it arriving in New York City precisely on Halloween!

46 Comments

Posted in Art, New York City, Photography

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Just Hanging Out in New Orleans

Posted on October 22, 2012 by | 36 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Most architectural sculptures work hard at their jobs.

Caryatids carry things on their heads….

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… atlants bow down under the weight of entire facades

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… even gargoyles make themselves useful when it rains

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But these guys are just hanging out, shooting the breeze…

What was the sculptor thinking? Any ideas?

36 Comments

Posted in Architecture, Art, Humor

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Weekly Photo Challenge & Travel Theme: Happy Animals

Posted on October 5, 2012 by | 73 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

The Daily Post’s Photo Challenge this week is Happy. And Ailsa’s Travel-Themed Photo Challenge is Animals. So…

Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling along the bridge over the Hao River. Zhuangzi said, “The minnows swim about so freely, following the openings wherever they take them. Such is the happiness of fish.”

Huizi said, “You are not a fish, so whence do you know the happiness of fish?”

Zhuangzi said, “You are not I, so whence do you know I don’t know the happiness of fish?”

Huizi said, “I am not you, to be sure, so I don’t know what it is to be you. But by the same token, since you are certainly not a fish, my point about your inability to know the happiness of fish stands intact.”

Zhuangzi said, “Let’s go back to the starting point. You said, ‘Whence do you know the happiness of fish?’ Since your question was premised on your knowing that I know it, I must have known it from here, up above the Hao River.”

The Happiness of Fish

I don’t know about fish, but these squirrels sure look happy to me…

 

A second interpretation of “Animals” is here.

73 Comments

Posted in Nature, Philosophy, Photography

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