Natural Disasters

Last week was super-exciting, natural disaster-wise.

Earthquake:

Yes, my apartment shook.  I was home for lunch and thought there was some huge obnoxious piece of building equipment outside on my street, as they've been rumbling things around, repairing the facade of the building across from me all summer.  Things rattled a little, but mainly it felt kind of like low blood sugar, when you get a little dizzy and nauseated.  All in all, the perfect earthquake: all the fun and none of the danger.

Cordie Cat gave no advance warning, so she's absolutely useless for extra-sensory disaster detecting.  But then, she is a special needs kitty.

The news was funny, all "Philly Rocked by Earthquake!" when actually it was more like, "Philly Thinks Landlord Has People Working on the Roof" or "Philly Slightly Nauseated for a Brief Moment."

Hurricane:

This was all panic.  Rachel and I taught a workshop north of Philly, in Bucks County the Friday before.  Both of us needed small grocery items (mozzarella, pizza dough, kiwis, eggs, mushrooms, ricotta) for our individual Friday night cooking agenda, so we took the opportunity of a car to stop at Trader Joe's.

It was insane.  Bread = gone.  Hummus = gone.  Lines = starting at the cheese cooler, at the very back of the store. We made it out alive, with all of our random items, so I was able to make my long-awaited (waiting since like Tuesday) Swiss chard ricotta hurricane quiche.

Saturday, went to yoga, paused at bakery, bought blueberries.  The rest of the day was wimpy grey skies and pitiful spitting rain.

The Apple Store half-heartedly protected their giant glass storefront with sandbags.

I didn't venture out.  Like I need a reason on a crappy day to stay in my house, take long naps, read books, eat hurricane quiche, and watch Jane Austen films?

Some part of Philly got loads of water, mainly the western outskirts and the 'burbs.  The Walk for Health along the Schuykill River Trail was quite flooded.

(All these photos are from the Philly Inquirer).

Jane Austen Fight Club

This is going to take a long time to get old.

Roger Fenton

One of the three photographers that the Special Event in DC focused on was Roger Fenton. (Fenton's self-portrait courtesy of wikipedia, who had no idea from where it had gotten it).

















Roger Fenton (March 20, 1819 - August 8, 1869) was born in Lancashire, England - his grandfather had earned the family's wealth in trade. He attended the University College London, and afterward took an extraordinarily long time to become a lawyer. He took his time studying law, because he actually wanted to be a painter. He studied with respected historical painters in Paris and London, and attempted to have a few works admitted to the Royal Academy.

He visited the 1851 Great Exhibition and was struck by the photography displays. Soon after he was back in Paris, this time learning how to make calotypes - waxed paper negatives - and salted paper prints. Fenton was a fast learner, and by 1852 he was entering his own photographic work into exhibitions and was instrumental in forming what would later become the Royal Photographic Society.

His first photographs really aren't that great, but before too long something clicked, and Fenton started making some fabulous pictures.

He traveled to Russia, technically to photograph an under-construction bridge, even though there are only like three pictures of the bridge out of scores of others.

Moscow, Domes of Churches in the Kremlin, 1851, National Gallery of Art
This is much better is real life. You'll just have to trust me on it.















In 1855 Britain was involved int he Crimean War, and Fenton was commissioned by a publisher named Thomas Agnew to travel to the Crimea and photograph. Fenton took on two assistants, fitted out a large wagon as a traveling darkroom/tent, and field tested it in rural England. After making the necessary adjustments to the wagon, the team sailed for the Crimea.

The Artist's Van, 1855, PH - Fenton (R.), no. 122, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division


















Dromedary, 1855 PH - Fenton (R.), no. 298, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division


















Because of the over 300 images Fenton made in the Crimea, he is noted as the first war photographer. Even though the American Civil War is only a few years away, the 'war' photography done by Fenton is quite different. Fenton never photographs the dead or wounded, whereas the Civil War photographers had no hesitations. Why Fenton made that choice is still unclear.

This is probably the most well-known of Fenton's Crimean photographs. The road is covered with cannonballs fired by the Russians.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1855, PH - Fenton (R.), no. 218, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division















These images are of color slides, and they're probably from the mid-nineties, before the photographs were treated. Observe below: very dirty, and with a big loss along the bottom edge. This print looks very different now - much less dirty, tears mended, and losses filled.

Sebastopol with the Redan, Malakoff & Mamelon, 1855, PH - Fenton (R.), no. 122, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Wedding Actuality

This is probably the most incoherent thing ever to have been written about a wedding.  But that's just how it goes.

David and Mercedes' long-awaited wedding was a week from yesterday.  It was a really long weekend - what with entire days spent in the car driving to/from the Great White North - but was also really fantastic.  Activities not only included the baking and eating of the armadillo cake (see Armadillo Cake 2.0) but also cookouts and dancing and Paesano pizza eating.

The girl half of the wedding party was at a local salon at the crack of dawn to have our hair done.  

I always wonder, why, for somebody with hair that curls nicely on its own, do hairdressers still comb it frizzy, hairspray it, curl it on a curling iron, and then hairspray it again?  It will totally do that on its own - no need to worry about the curl falling out, because it won't happen - and it makes so much more work.  And then my head feels like concrete for the rest of the day.

Mercedes really had the best hair.

And in the break between the hair events and the actual wedding, we went to the Tastee Freez!  Look how excited Beth is!  That excitement is totally justified.

The babies also made an appearance.  This is before the wedding, in the room the bride and her maids hang out in, getting ready.  You can see how lovely Mercedes looked here... I don't actually have any during-wedding photographs of anyone.  Naturally.  Check out C&G's blog for those. 

Post-wedding.  Photo by Mum. 

Rideau Canal Springtime

I took, in the words of the Musgrove sisters, "a long walk," today.  The purpose of my walk was to participate in the annual Tulip Festival.  The weather has been lovely all week, but - of course - the entire weekend is forecasted to be a rainy mess. 

Whatever!  I put on the wellies and my Dutch jacket and headed out the door.

The Rideau Canal, but no longer icy.

Spring is finally here!

During World War II Princess Juliana of the Dutch Royal Family and her children were living in exile in Canada, in Ottawa actually.  After the war, in thanks for a friendly home and for liberating their nation, the Dutch Royals made a gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs!  Then the Princess Juliana made another personal gift of 10,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa.

Lots of people were traipsing through the tulips, despite the rain.

Canada and Nederland are still great friends.  The Netherlands still makes Canada a present of 10,000 tulips every year.  And so Canada now has billions and billions of tulips!

Princess Juliana was especially delighted by Canada.  Her third daughter, Princess Margriet, was born in Canada.  In order to ensure that Princess Margriet was only a Dutch citizen and not a dual-citizen, Canada temporarily ceded a room in the maternity ward of the hospital where she was born to the Netherlands.  I find this delightful!  Canada ceded a room to the Netherlands.  I learned this fun fact on a large informational sign set up amongst some nice red tulips.

The walk down to and amongst the tulips was very far and rainy, so I took the "Tulip Shuttle" back up to a more easily walkable distance of my house.

One of the two tulip beds I visited had a large 'International Pavilion' set up.  A number of embassies had booths set up to sell trinkets and informational packets and foodstuffs!  The US did not have a booth.  What characteristic foodstuff would it have had?  Ding-dongs?  Anyway, I ate some Mexican food, some Korean food (and I missed Hye-Sung at the Korea booth), and some Thai food.