Pictures of people I don't know

I like my camera because it allows me to take pictures of people I don't know without being too obvious about it. Here are some from the past couple years:

Two men on their cell phones in Helsinki.

Also in Helsinki: two friends with green glasses.

On the couple theme, here's a bunch of pairs that fascinated me:

This St. Petersburg couple were posing for someone else.

Also in Russia, I took about a million photos of this couple with cool hair. (I also like the expression of the bored cafe attendant).

Not really a couple below. This woman was touring a museum accompanied by three burly men in jean shirts. Their look said Khazakistan to me.

Happy couple in New Orleans.

Also in New Orleans, dancing couples:

Could this sleepy guard in the Winter Palace look any more Russian?

This woman loitered in the Hermitage hallway. Her bruised knees fascinated me. I didn't get a very clear shot because I was afraid she'd accost me. She looked a bit crazy.

Beautiful woman in a restaurant on Main Street, Vancouver.

Beautiful woman on a train from St. Petersburg.

Actually, I could do a whole post on all the beautiful women I ogled in Russia...

Thinking about architecture

Last night I read an interview with Guy Nordenson, a structural engineer, in my The Believer magazine. Nordenson worked with Isamu Noguchi, Buckminster Fuller, and, recently, with Steven Holl, on a project called the Linked Hybrid Building, in Beijing. It looks so fricken cool, a cluster of linked apartment buildings, joined by pedestrian bridges high in the sky. Look at all the description and pictures here.

(As an aside, after I read that article I thought how fun it would be to have a baby and name it Buckminster.)

I have been lucky enough to visit a couple of Holl's buildings. I liked the Chapel of St. Ignatius, in Seattle, particularly, especially the doors, hand-blown glass lamps, and the lovely light on the curved white walls. I don't have photos, but you can read about it and take a virtual tour here.

I saw the same curved white effect at the Kiasma Gallery in Helsinki.

Kiasma inside:

Kiasma outside:

And then this morning I dragged my sorry ass out of bed by 9 (I know) for the opening of a new architectural marvel in Whitehorse, called by the unfortunate name Women's Annex, at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre. This building was designed by Kobayashi + Zedda Architects, and they did a fine job.

Not that I have anything against starting my day off in jail, but this didn't even feel like a jail: it was so thoughtfully and practically designed. Simple but perfect for the purpose, with some good touches, particularly the way the light was captured and held in the hallway, lessening the institutional feel, and the many windows, some at chest height. My favorites were the long, recessed windows beside each bunk bed. Those will be appreciated.

The mucky-mucks seemed pleased with the building, and I heard the residents were too, running around and putting dibs on their rooms.

I felt proud of my friend Jack and lucky to know him. Since I now know how to put links on my blog, here's a link to Jack.

Like every art, architecture has a language. The Linked Hybrid Building is described as a "porous urban space," and, in the article I read, Nordenson described the Statue of Liberty as "a speech act in the marketplace of urban ideas." Ha ha ha. That shit kills me.

Moving water

(Best with the sound off.)

I know it's not always November, but sometimes it can feel like November forever.

Tonight there's an insidious and determined wind. It got into all my clothes as Bella and I toured the neighborhood just now. I know the barks of all the individuals in these backyards. The dog we know as 'brindle boy', whose real name is Tex, is going through a change. In summer he was sweet, silent and indolent, positioning himself on the yellow line and staring all the cars down. Now he barks and startles, hurtles down the road after trucks, and skulks around the edges of houses. I think he's becoming a teenager, and, as he doesn't look to be 'fixed', I'm predicting trouble.

Everything was a perfect deep blue just before dark and we made it home without getting too cold.

These are some of my favourite photos in a long time. I spent part of the day trying to get them printed the way I want. So far no success: the paper not thick enough, the ink needs to bleed a little. Anyway, they're from after the freeze, before the snow. Oil slick on a swamp: