The Machinery of Night

Friday, November 30, 2007

Posted 9:52 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Mt. Ida

Next week I swear I'm going to get some scanning done. So for now, something old:

Mt. Ida, Crete, June, 1990

This view is very close to that shown in a previous post.

Um, wish I had more to say, but I don't.

At least it's not Hawaii[1].

[1]Muahahahaha!

Labels: Foto Friday, Greece

Friday, June 22, 2007

Posted 10:28 AM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Acropolis

A little something from the vault:

The Acropolis, Athens, June 1990

Taken from the roof of my hotel, whose name has been long forgotten. It was just off Syntagma Square, as I recall.
I scanned this from a print; I have no idea where the negatives are. Yes, I'm shocked too. They've got to be somewhere, though, right?

My mother recently gave me a big batch of family photos, and said that they'd just thrown out a bunch of negatives. I mean, what are you going to do with negatives, now, really? I damn near had a heart attack.

Labels: Foto Friday, Greece

Friday, February 02, 2007

Posted 10:07 AM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Phaestos

Oh, no time, no time. So have some old thing I already have scanned.

Mt. Ida from Phaestos, Crete, June 1990

At the time, of course, I was annoyed that I'd managed to catch the guy on the motorcycle. Now I think it adds valuable local color.

This is from a Kodachrome slide. The mountains have a watery look you sometimes see in old slides, but this one isn't really very old. So I don't know how I got that.

No, I'm not sure which one is Mt. Ida.

I remember looking at the Cretan mountains and thinking, "Civilization has been here so long that there is nowhere, nowhere in these hills where people have not walked." It was a claustrophobic feeling. Where I grew up, in the Ozarks, you could pretend that wasn't true. You could pretend that you were the first to explore this ground, even if just one tiny patch. Or, at least, you could tell yourself that no one had been here since the days of the Indians. That is, until you were snagged by a rusting string of barbed wire, or a plastic six-pack ring.

Labels: Foto Friday, Greece

Friday, December 29, 2006

Posted 11:06 AM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Church of the Holy Apostles

Church of the Holy Apostles Athens, June, 1990

This church looks terribly small -- not big enough to hold a dozen lumpy American tourists -- but it's not as small as it looks. This page has a photo at the top of the ancient Agora; the Church of the Holy Apostles is at the bottom of the picture, slightly to the left of center.

I was going to go in and look around, as this fellow did, but there was a sign at the front of the church reminding us that it was still a church, and that we should enter respectfully, not clomping in loudly in our hot pants and photographing everything willy-nilly[1]. A few black-robed Greek women slipping in for prayers highlighted this message.

I couldn't find out a lot about the church, except that it was built in the 11th century over an ancient nymphaion. Apparently it was restored in the last century, so the building you see did not survive ten centuries as it is.

[1]It's possible that I am misremembering this. Michael Lima -- he of the first link on the page -- says that the church was deconsecrated 50 years ago. Perhaps I saw a similar sign somewhere else, or I may be confusing the Church of the Holy Apostles with some other tiny polygonal church in Athens. But wherever they were, the black-robed women were real.

Labels: Foto Friday, Greece

Friday, September 01, 2006

Posted 2:19 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Automandias

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said:--Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
A Budget Rent-A-Car counter...

Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens, June 1990

I was going to work up a full-length poem, in correct rhyme and meter, which would reference conveniently-placed Jamba Juices for the fasting activist on the move. But it got to be too much work. Poetry is hard.

This picture seems to tilt, I know. By putting these pictures on line I have discovered, to my chagrin, that I don't always hold the camera exactly straight. Who knew? Fortunately the "rotate" task fixes this. But this picture defied correct rotation -- no rotation seemed to fit all the elements. So I'm just going to blame it on the Greeks' skill with "optical refinements".

That's the Acropolis over there on the right, by the way.

This was my first trip out of the US, and I was constantly embarrassed and frightened -- by which I mean, frightened of being embarrassed. There were other, personal things going on in my life at that moment, likewise frightening and embarrassing, with the result that I cannot remember this trip with much pleasure. At the time, though, I thought this would be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit Greece.

(It occurs to me that I have very seldom been frightened, except that I was frightened of being embarrassed. Of that, though, I am terrified, constantly. I envy people who have no shame.)

Anyhow: Greece. I spent two weeks on Crete, on business, and a weekend in Athens, sightseeing. These scans were made from prints. I'm hoping to get a slide scanner soon, and then I'll scan in some slides I took on the trip.

Labels: Foto Friday, Greece

Friday, August 18, 2006

Posted 1:59 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: The Twelve Apostles

No, not a Biblical reference, but a rock formation off the coast of Victoria, Australia.

The Twelve Apostles, Victoria, Australia, Dec. 2000

In December 2000 we flew to Coober Pedy (an opal-mining town in South Australia, famous for underground houses with jewel-studded walls), then visited Kangaroo Island, near Adelaide, and afterward drove on along the coast to Melbourne. We went past Mt. Gambier (home of the World-Famous Blue Lake, which I'd never heard of, before or since), the Big Lobster, and other delights I'll get around to posting one of these days.

Near Melbourne there's a section known as the Great Ocean Road, with many very beautiful rock formations, fantastic vistas, and about ten billion flies. I think the Twelve Apostles (most of them are behind me, in this photo) are the last major formation as you go east.

We had perfect timing that day. We got there just before sunset on a beautiful cloudless day, with a strong south wind whipping up spray into a golden glow.

After taking these pictures we drove back up the coast and took pictures of other formations we'd driven past to get to the Apostles before sunset, and the next day we did it again, getting shots in full sun. As we were leaving the area I went to pay for gas and found I did not have my debit card. This was just before Christmas, and we still had to fly back to Sydney (where I was living) and get Christmas dinner. We went to lunch (Niles paid) and I went through my wallet again and -- ta da! -- there it was, put in the wrong pocket.

I tell you this trivia because you should know that there is no feeling like the one you get when you find you are not flat broke in a foreign country, two days before Christmas.

We never did get to Melbourne. We didn't have time. But we waved as we drove past it to the airport.

Labels: Foto Friday, Greece

Home