This entry is cross-posted from Oculus, etherfarm's image repository.

This entry is cross-posted from Oculus, etherfarm's image repository.

This entry is cross-posted from Oculus, etherfarm's image repository.

This entry is cross-posted from Oculus, etherfarm's image repository.

This entry is cross-posted from Oculus, etherfarm's image repository.

(The courtyard at Sultanahmet Camii)

This entry is cross-posted from Oculus, etherfarm's image repository.

(A worshipper washes his feet before entering a mosque)

I’ll be referencing this photo in an upcoming article on street photography.

This entry is cross-posted from Oculus, etherfarm's image repository.

I’ve been wanting to go to Istanbul since 1991 or so, when I came across a series of scholarly articles on the Hagia Sophia during an architecture course. Medieval arabic cultures have always fascinated me, partially because I’ve always been confounded by the complexity of their aesthetics and philosophy. But I’m also interested because such cultures always seem to be relegated to the outskirts of typical American high school world history curriculum, which in general just perpetuates a fairy tale dualism of good vs. bad, i.e. white Christian interests vs. non-white pagan interests.

Just before I left California I comment offhandedly to some colleagues that in my opinion, no city in the world has been more pivotal than Istanbul (in all its incarnations) to the formation of Western civilization. I’m sure such a comment is easily dismissed by scholars of London, Rome, Athens, Jerusalem, or Branson, Missouri, but as the capital city of no less than four empires over the course of nearly 2000 years, so many peoples have woven themselves into Istanbul’s cultural tapestry that its significance becomes palpable in even the shortest of walks down its streets.

I of course took photos which will be posted soon enough (I have now to scale the dreadful Mount Email), but to those who knew I was going away, I’m back, with stories to tell.

Me: “Could you tell me if you have any books on Istanbul?”
Cashier, enthusiastic: “Sure, what’s that you want again?”
Me: “Any books on Istanbul.”
Cashier: “hmmm...”
Me: “You know, Istanbul not Constantinople...”
Cashier: “Oh yeah!”
Me, rythmically: “You know it’s Istanbul not Constantinople...”
Cashier, dubious: “Yeah. umm.”
Me, dubious: “...”
Cashier: “Fiction?”
Me: “No, anything in Travel?”
Cashier: “I’m sorry, is Istan or Bull the last name?”
Me: “...”
Cashier: “...”
Me: ”Istanbul. It’s a city in Turkey”
Cashier: “Sorry. I should have known that.”
Me: “...”
Cashier: “Is Istanbul one word?”

Generation Why indeed.

(Blame my mother for the über-cute suit)

Don’t worry--despite grandparent-sanctioned black-ops missions, etherfarm won’t descend into the neverending spiral of “pictures-of-my-kid”. That said, I couldn’t pass up posting this one, bad exposure and all.

Newsflash: there are two new feeds which are accessible on etherfarm entry pages. To date, all feeds at etherfarm were section-specific. The new feeds (available in RSS 2.0 and Atom flavors) are etherfarm-wide, meaning they include all posts made to etherfarm across Synapse, Oculus, and Mandible. If you find yourself missing posts to other sections, these feeds are for you.

Thanks to that person out there who sent in the suggestion, oh, a year or so ago.

This entry is cross-posted from Oculus, etherfarm's image repository.

(An Indian construction worker picks through metal rods)

I traveled to Bangalore four times in 2006 for work. It used to be my favorite city in India--when I went in 1991, it boasted wide open boulevards, clear skies, and a kind of cosmopolitanism which seemed organic and genuine.

I don’t know many people who enjoy today’s Bangalore. Traveling 7km can take 90 minutes due to poorly-maintained roads which can’t support the automobiles of the new middle class. The climate has taken a turn for the worse, the local government is corrupt, all this Western business has resulted in contrived (and often poorly executed) Western aesthetic, and everyone and everything seems on the verge of breaking down.

Similarly, while I love traveling to India, I really don’t like going there for work--my workdays are often 14-20 hours long, the traffic prevents me from doing or seeing anything of interest, and when I go in the winter, I generally don’t see daylight very much. Traveling for work is almost always difficult, but 23 hours of flying each way and a 12.5 hour time difference between there and home only make things worse. And though I’ve been four times this year, I only managed to take photographs on this last trip, which ended just before Thanksgiving. After a weekend of jet lag and several days of illness, I’m just now beginning to process the RAW files.

You don’t have to go far to find a construction site in Bangalore. These sites are bizarre affairs to at least this Western observer. The construction site itself is a small galaxy of many smaller sites: concrete blocks for the building exterior are formed and sun-dried on site; rocks are crushed to make cement to pour; the rebar grids are formed by legions of workers buzzing about mountains of metal rod; construction workers’ wives cook food and do laundry in squatter housing; children run and climb around mountains of construction debris.

There were several construction sites right next to my hotel and right behind my office, so I took these photos in 10-15 minute walks through those sites before leaving for work or on my way back from lunch. I’m opening the Bangalore, Nov. 2006 gallery with four images; over the next week you can expect one or two more every day.

As an aside, this is the first trip I’ve taken with my new camera (more on that in a later post). Astute etherfarm regulars will notice that I’ve reinstated the member registration and account functions (more on that also in a later post); If you haven’t done so already, I strongly encourage you to register and change the Oculus image size to medium or large to soak in as much detail as possible.

This entry is cross-posted from Oculus, etherfarm's image repository.

For the many of you who do not use RSS readers, this update is of no consequence whatsoever, and allow me to express to you my heartfelt gratitude (and vehement envy) that you’re someone who knows nothing of such ephemeral concerns.

We now continue with our irregularly scheduled programming. 

(3 months old already)

Clearly I have been occupied with things more important than this website.

All those things people say about kids growing up too quickly--they’re all true. Ray has more-or-less shed his squirming-larva self in favor of an ittle-bitty-person form.  There’s intent behind his smiles now. He watches things...tracks them as they move. He grabs flies with chopsticks.

When people see this photo they always say “He looks so much like you.” My outer reaction is, “He does?” My inner reaction is, “Poor little bastard.”

I suspect it’s true, that he does look like me, but I don’t see myself when I see Ray. Maybe I’m not looking. The depth of conviction in these comments, though, made me go and look through my older baby pictures, and in those I definitely see a resemblance.

The most obvious similarities: we both have ears, nostrils and hands. And a penchant for fire-colored shag carpet.

This entry is cross-posted from Oculus, etherfarm's image repository.

Some wonky layout issues and PHP parsing issues remain; I’ll get to these as time permits (and so you know, time isn’t permitting much these days).

update: I think things are more-or-less back to normal. Thanks to the folks at pMachine for the help.