Gstaad, Switzerland

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton loved Gstaad!

Zaanse Schans, Netherlands: The Windmills

All That Raw Land That Rolls

“So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars'll be out, and don't you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.”
 --Jack Kerouac, "On the Road"

Sun Valley, Idaho

The shades of the place:

Jacob Riis, photographs

coming soon!

The Green Shutters, an update

The piece below was first published at this blog in May 2013.

Today, I looked out of the windows and lo and behold workmen had cut through the brick that covered those old windows which were once surrounded by those old green shutters. The windows that were gone were today visible but covered by protective net.

And oh! The tree in the courtyard that grew taller than the building wall was removed and the smaller tree next to it was also destroyed. My green view is gone.

I took a few photos from my own windows. Here is one of them:

 This is from 5/24/2013: from The New York Times:
"Top 4 Floors in Chelsea to Be Above the Adjacent Structure; Condo Shaped Like Inverted L"


I moved into this apartment in 1968. There was a small tree in the back courtyard that was visible from my windows. And on the brick wall that faced my windows I could always see in bright colorful paint: "Sol Shapiro, Plumbing Supplies."

Also, on that wall were three large windows with green shutters. The shutters were rarely opened and when they were I never really saw any activity behind those windows.

I thought of those windows today and those green shutters. Over a decade ago, the windows were replaced with brick and everything on that wall was covered in dull beige paint. Now, it just a wall and nothing remains except this one memory:

In about 2002, I looked out and saw a young man looking out of the middle window and he stayed there for quite some time. He may have been saying good-bye. 

On this street, the old New York Telephone Company is becoming the Walker Tower. And the old post office that is a landmark may close.

Nothing else much has changed I suppose, except that the tree in the courtyard is now taller than the building.

Montauk in the Snow

Shady Lanes

Paris, Texas

Cove, Oregon

Central Synagogue

Central Synagogue, the history

The Charlie Parker House

in the NY Post

Charlie Parker residence website

inside the residence