I haven’t been able to continue with my project365 since I’ve been traveling (I have some that I’ll be posting but I missed a day or two) so when it came time to upload a picture today I decided to take one using the same dreary looking pose I used when I first began. Check out this spooky photo morph I made using MorphX:
(click for 164k quicktime video)
Back in Basel, that is. I cut my trip a little bit short for a bunch of reasons, but most importantly because I was exhausted and I’d already done in 7 days all I wanted to do, and then some. I visited Rome, Naples, and Florence and the thought of pushing forward to Milan and Venice just wasn’t very appealing so I decided to call it a day (or a week) and head home. I had a great time and I’ll be writing all about it as soon as I get all my pictures online. I took a ton of pictures, almost a thousand, and they really do say it all, from start to finish.
I’m going to Rome tomorrow for Christmas break. Why Rome? Winter is underway and it’s pretty cold here now, averaging in the low 30s most days. Europe has fairly cold winters and traveling can be less than pleasant so heading south is the best option. From what I ready, my best choices were either Spain or Italy so I opted for Italy. As much as I’d like to put what’s left of my Spanish to a test, it’ll have to wait for another day.
Speaking of Christmas, our holiday party was this past Wednesday. It was held in a restaurant of sorts, but with a twist. It was actually an old factory which had been converted into an event hall. On this particular evening it was a “dinner spectacle” and with good reason — it was actually a carnival complete with juggling, gymnastics and “high wire” acts, fire breathing, knife throwing, and silly animal tricks!
It was lots of fun and I got to meet a lot of people from BIG whom I hadn’t had the occasion to meet yet.
Anyways, I’ll be gone until the new year, so there most likely won’t be any updates until then. I just hope I don’t run out of storage for my cameras!
It’s always tough trying to pick my favorite albums of the year. The biggest problem is the sheer amount of music I listen to in a given year. By December it’s difficult to remember what I was listening to in January and February. This year it was even tougher since my main computer crashed over the summer and since then I haven’t listened to most of the stuff from the first half of the year, opting instead to only listen to newer albums for the most part.
There were a few clear favorites this year, like any other year, and then some which got off to a fast start but quickly fell by the wayside.
What are the chances that the NY Times travel section would post 36 Hours in Rome this weekend, of all weekends? It’s kind of eerie, actually.
Anyone who knows me at all knows I don’t like combing my hair. In fact, I hate combing my hair. On most days I would spend maybe 30 to 45 seconds on it and that’s if I decide to put something in it. Like a gel of some sort or of late a pomade-like substance. Other times I just push it down with my fingers so it’s not looking all crazy looking. And then there are the times when I don’t even do that much and it IS all crazy looking. Especially after towel drying.
So I’ve been here in Basel for a little over a month now. Five weeks and a day to be exact. Pretty crazy, actually. This project has been in the works for something like a year and a half and now here I am sitting in my apartment in Switzerland! Wild.
I was bored last night so I decided to go back to the Bird’s Eye and catch the second set at 10:30pm. For some reason, as soon as I took a seat and the set started, I got really sleepy. I couldn’t stop yawning for about 3/4 of the hour long set even though I really enjoyed the music. The band this time was the Jürgen Seefelder - Ingrid Jensen Quintet and they were really quite sharp. Loud, energetic, and at times playful, it was a fantastic show. They really put the great acoustics of the Bird’s Eye to good use.
On Tuesday I went to see the Thermals and the Lords of Altamont in Zurich. Zurich is Switzerland’s largest city and cultural capital — and nothing screams culture like Iron Maiden and the Thermals playing shows on the same night! Luckily for me (and a whole lot of Maiden fans) it’s just an hour away by train.
I actually saw them about a month ago at Fontana’s for the Brooklyn Vegan CMJ show but they only played a half-hour set and the place was so packed I could barely get in the room. They kicked ass, though, so there was no way I could pass up a chance to see em again.
