peace - love - reason

Jill Of All Trades

26.5.07 by literaghost

Moo Matisse


Cow paintings in the window of an art gallery, somewhere in northern France.


Not Quite Free Yet


It seems it was just yesterday that everyone spoke of "freedom coming to Russia." Did their wings get stuck at the critical moment, also?
(Monument in Moscow, Russia.)



Pick a Letter


Letter cutouts on a craft house worktable - Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio.

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And now, your regularly scheduled photo-flood.

by literaghost

Guardian of the Fake Sushi


Window display for a Japanese restaurant - downtown Nashville, Tennessee.


Memorial


D-day memorial on one of Normandy's beaches.


Opposing Pair


Towers in the Old Kremlin - Novgorod, Russia.




Shall break for the night after the next round.

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Interlude for a Widget

by literaghost



Your regularly scheduled barrage of photos shall continue shortly.

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by literaghost

Infinite


Stained glass inside the Sainte Chapelle cathedral on the Ile de la Cite - Paris, France.


Long On Fun!


Playing with focus and perspective. Some sort of taffy-thing, found and shot in a discount convenience store.


Body in the Bathroom


Random, innocent bodycast found in an upstairs bathroom of the craft house. What can I say, I guess they're predisposed to mildly philosophical setups. I had nothing to do with it, I swear. (Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio.)

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by literaghost

History is Bunk


Perhaps a better title would have that phrased as a question.
(Partially destroyed German bunker at one of Normandy's beaches.)



Keely & Frasier


Two young writers in the upside-down tree - Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio.


St. Sophia


Saint Sophia cathedral in Novgorod, Russia (under renovation).

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by literaghost

Exodus


Group exiting the Kremlin - Moscow, Russia.


Family


Family gathering (Easter '06) - Okolona, Louisville, Kentucky.


Find Peace


Is this even where you can find it, where it's such a small and hidden-away part compared to all the other ostentation?
(Inside a St. Petersburg cathedral.)

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by literaghost

Clarity


Gondoliers outside the Venetian hotel and casino - Las Vegas, Nevada.


Gaining Perspective


Abbey courtyard/garden - Monastery of Mont Saint-Michel, France.


Descent


Stairs of a partially-destroyed German bunker - one of Normandy's beaches.

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by literaghost

Waiting...


...For the moment of freedom.
(Taken through a gate at the Keeneland race track - Lexington, Kentucky.)



Dead and Lush


Not long before the rest fall.
(Dried reeds in our backyard.)



Far from Home


Wherever home is.
(The landscape just outside Novgorod, Russia.)

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by literaghost

Art Lovers


A scuplture of lovers inside the Hermitage museum (St. Petersburg, Russia). Outside the window is Palace Square, and its entrance through the General Staff building (the archway).

Attention to Detail


One of my group-mates getting splashed by one of Peterhof's fountains (Peterhof being the summer palaces and gardens of Peter the Great) - outside St. Petersburg, Russia.

Ceremony


Inside the chapel of the cathedral at Mont Saint-Michel (France), where they still hold services.




Once again, pictures link to their original (borderless) versions in my deviantART gallery.

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Beginning the siege of photo posts

25.5.07 by literaghost

I've been working on adding borders to some of my better photos - think I'll need to play around with widths and such. Any comments?




Branches


These roots run deeper than you'd expect.


10


Part of the old water tower (now arts center) - Louisville, Kentucky.


Camera-Shy


Photo collage - Orphanage #4, St. Petersburg, Russia. This particular orphanage "specializes" in (if you could call it that) mentally and physically disabled children. All of the orphans there have some degree of schizophrenia, and quite a few of them have conditions that leave them permanently infant-like, despite being well into their teens. Many stories here...*




Pictures link to original pics in my dA gallery. (Borders added using Picnik.)

More photos coming soon, and continuing - at least until I get other posts written, and perhaps even after that.

*Explanation of title: here, taking photos directly of the children felt boorish and awkward to me - instead, I took a picture of pictures. Which of us could be called "camera-shy," then? Hmm.

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24.5.07 by literaghost

Well, I've forgotten what else I was going to post.

Besides that one thing. Which is for later.

Ah, well. Photo posts starting tomorrow, while I'm trying to remember what I was doing.

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THE CATACOMBS OF LEXINGTON!

22.5.07 by literaghost

Much ado has been made about my sideways mentioning of an attempted Urban Exploration stint a while back. Thus, without any further of said ado, I give you...the rest of the story.




LEXINGTON IS BUILT upon the dust of an ancient walled city of vast extent. In 1776 hunters discovered catacombs 300x100 feet, fifteen feet below the surface, in which there were numerous mummies...*

Several years ago while browsing through a library, I chanced upon some poorly-researched book on ancient and paranormal-y sites, of which my city (Lexington) had a passing mention. According to the book, the city as it stands had been built on several underground Native American catacombs. My first thoughts were "Ooh, catacombs!" and "Hey, why haven't I heard of this before?" However, the book was rather vague on both where these supposed catacombs were located and how to access them - and as my research skills were nowhere near where they are today, the matter died.

Two or three months ago, the matter resurfaced (I can't quite remember how), and I returned to the hunt for answers.

My trail led to the accounts of Thomas Ashe, an Irish adventurer/historian of the early 1800's, who quickly gained notoriety as being "a slippery fellow" who told people what they wanted to hear. The story stuck, however, being picked up by the historian George W. Ranck in 1872 ("History of Lexington," pub. Cincinnati, OH). Mentioned also was a Prof. Rafinesque, one-time teacher at Lexington's Transylvania University, and referred to in a 1902 article as "the highest authority on the mounds and reliques [sic] of the Mississippi Valley" - despite the fact that he was a professor of botany, which his career seemed to be limited to.

In 1873, a year after the publication of Ranck's History, William Leavy published his own "Memoir of Lexington," which included a scathing critique of Ranck's inclusion of the catacomb story. However, while Leavy might have made a convincing case by critiquing Ranck's dubious sources, he instead simply lists a bunch of people who were in Lexington at the time of Ashe (not even saying "and they didn't see anything of the sort"). Helpful for genealogists, maybe, but...
Um. Yeah.

And so I continued my search. That's when I started to run into trouble.

My archival resources online were rapidly dwindling, so I decided to enlist the help of a friend and search our main library's Kentucky Room - but, wouldn't you know it, a series of crises threw off my plans.

What happened:

  • Bad weather (after all, this was February).

  • Grandmother being rushed to the hospital (and grandfather, soon after she got out).

  • Exploration partner falling ill, and then just becoming lazy once he realized that we would not actually be digging up graves (keeping in mind that I only recently stopped looking...twelve, and it would be very unwise for me to wander the depths of downtown Lex on my own).


And, the kicker...

  • A pipe burst in the Kentucky Room, damaging quite a few books and temporarily closing it for repairs. If that's not angry Native American spirits wreaking havoc in an attempt to dissuade potential nosy explorers, I'm not sure what is.


All that was coupled with a growing sense that - if the shrines/catacombs even existed - entering them would probably require getting jackhammers and a backhoe in the middle of a busy downtown intersection, or persuading strangers to let us dig up their basements. It didn't help that most of the only recent mentions I've heard of the catacomb legend are coupled with either Illuminati conspiracy theories or internal analyses of the Book of Mormon.




So, that particular plan to go where no girl has gone before (well, at least not recently) has petered out. Unfortunately for those who have to deal with me, the urge to discover and rediscover local treasures has only been stoked.

Me and my army of bird-crafts will find those abandoned buildings yet. You'll see.

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Anyone got the number for Origamaholics Anonymous?

17.5.07 by literaghost

What I should be/should've been doing:


  • Working

  • Updating blog

  • Explaining what the hell I was talking about in the beginning of my last post

  • Writing Morphine semi-tribute/music post

  • Working through Perilous Times before the library confiscates it or something

  • Responding to my dA comments

  • Responding to comments, period (I haven't forgotten you, Thivai, I swear!)

  • Getting butter, chocolate, gelatin, peppermint oil, and heavy cream from the grocery

  • Going through the 607 unread deviations on my dA watch

  • Probably 15 more things I've already forgotten about



What I've actually been doing:

  • Folding cranes


Lots...and lots...of cranes.
173, to be exact.



The smallest's slightly more than half-an-inch or slightly less than two centimeters in wingspan (depending on your country).



I know, I know, I'm crazy. I can't help it, though - this stuff is addicting!

Wait...why's my hand all spotty-looking in that last picture? Oh, no, it's...it's...

...THE FOLDING SICKNESS! Mother always told me to beware of those tricky Japanese handiworks, I should've listened...

Actual posts starting tomorrow night.

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