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Watchtowers
Leonardo Dalessandri is a very talented artist. He made these two videos about two of my favorite places. You should watch.
turkey
morocco
The man with the beautiful eyes
A poem by Charles Bukowski, from his collection The Last Night of the Earth poems.
when we were kids
there was a strange house
all the shades were
always
drawn
and we never heard voices
in there
and the yard was full of
bamboo
and we liked to play in
the bamboo
pretend we were
Tarzan
(although there was no
Jane).
and there was a
fish pond
a large one
full of the
fattest goldfish
you ever saw
and they were
tame.
they came to the
surface of the water
and took pieces of
bread
from our hands.
our parents had
told us:
“never go near that
house.”
so, of course,
we went.
we wondered if anybody
lived there.
weeks went by and we
never saw
anybody.
then one day
we heard
a voice
from the house
“YOU GOD DAMNED
WHORE!”
it was a man’s
voice.
then the screen
door
of the house was
flung open
and the man
walked
out.
he was holding a
fifth of whiskey
in his right
hand.
he was about
30.
he had a cigar
in his
mouth,
needed a shave.
his hair was
wild and
and uncombed
and he was
barefoot
in undershirt
and pants.
but his eyes
were
bright.
they blazed
with
brightness
and he said,
“hey, little
gentlemen,
having a good
time, I
hope?”
then he gave a
little laugh
and walked
back into the
house.
we left,
went back to my
parents’ yard
and thought
about it.
our parents,
we decided,
had wanted us
to stay away
from there
because they
never wanted us
to see a man
like
that,
a strong natural
man
with
beautiful
eyes.
our parents
were ashamed
that they were
not
like that
man,
that’s why they
wanted us
to stay
away.
but
we went back
to that house
and the bamboo
and the tame
goldfish.
we went back
many times
for many weeks
but we never
saw
or heard
the man
again.
the shades were
down
as always
and it was
quiet.
then one day
as we came back from
school
we saw the
house.
it had burned
down,
there was nothing
left,
just a smoldering
twisted black
foundation
and we went to
the fish pond
and there was
no water
in it
and the fat
orange goldfish
were dead
there,
drying out.
we went back to
my parents’ yard
and talked about
it
and decided that
our parents had
burned their
house down,
had killed
them
had killed the
goldfish
because it was
all too
beautiful,
even the bamboo
forest had
burned.
they had been
afraid of
the man with the
beautiful
eyes.
and
we were afraid
then
that
all throughout our lives
things like that
would
happen,
that nobody
wanted
anybody
to be
strong and
beautiful
like that,
that
others would never
allow it,
and that
many people
would have to
die.
The village in Burkina Faso where every house is a work of art
Near the southern border of Burkina Faso close to Ghana is a village called Tiebele-Corabie where the houses are all fantastically decorated. 
Travel blogger Olga Stavrakis managed to gain access and take some great photos of the place. She said
… It was only through a process of year long negotiations that we were permitted to enter the royal palace the entrance of which is pictured here. They were awaiting us and the grand old men of the village, the nobility, were all seated waiting for us. Each of the villages has muslims and animists (local religions) and no one much cares who believes in what. However, we were told in advance that we must not wear anything red and we may not carry an umbrella. Only the chiefly noble family is permitted that privilege and to do so would constitute a great affront to our hosts…
See a blog post about her trip here. See a complete gallery of photos here on Flickr.
VIDDY
This might convince me to buy a few rolls of film and teach my nephew how cameras work.
Then – once I take the film out, drive to the camera store (most of which have gone out of business by now), drop the film off, drive home, drive back a week later, pay as much money as I did for the film in the first place, and then get my processed film and negatives – I’ll go back to digital.
But it’s a good kickstarter that will probably get funded many times over. If you’re interested you can read more about it here:
Here are some of the photos they say you can get with the cardboard pinhole camera:
and here is what the camera looks like out of the box:
Planetary Panoramas
Pretty cool time lapse work here:
Here is the rig the photographer, Vincent Brady, used
The rest of the workflow described here.
Riptide video = AMAZING
I’m terrified of scuba diving. I’m even more terrified of free diving. But this video is pretty amazing.