Everything gone!

i had a very hard time falling asleep last night. went over and over the boxes, their content, their weights... etc. then had weird dreams of an empty apartment filled with pillows....  today i thought the movers would come at ten, but then tim told me between 10 and 12! so even more hours of wondering whether it was all ok...  i decided to make one more box at the last moment.... then the movers came, and they were so nice! and the boxes were not too heavy and it was all done quickly and i just watched and didnt do a thing..... how convenient! in the end we had 18 medium boxes, and one bigger one to the left (we have some really nice picture frames that didnt fit in the medium ones). underneath the stack of boxes is a wooden bench that we bought off craigslist for just 40 dollars but that is just so very pretty that ever since we got it we knew we would ship it back home... its originally from a ship and the top opens. we used to keep (a portion of) our (my...) shoes in there, and whenever it wasnt covered in bags and stuff you can sit on it to actually put on your shoes... :) they wrapped it thoroughly and one of these weeks it will once again be on a ship, this time to amsterdam.... so... with the boxes some worries went as well... now i just hope we actually receive the stuff in amsterdam. i will let you know, of course!

that movie poster was always hanging on one of the doors in our apartment (the one with the washer/dryer, i always thought that was funny). we got it at the cinema when we saw the movie. its a good movie, i think, sad but funny as well, so watch it if you havent yet!

Bodega Bay

yesterday we arrived in bodega bay on highway 1 just after sunset. we had had enough of the driving for a little while already, but there was really nothing along the way. such a beautiful area, but also so very remote! lots of abandoned places. some houses on perfect spots, but no motels or hotels.... then we arrived in a small town with a motel that we found too expensive, but at the gas station the guy mentioned bodega bay would have more options. we found a nice looking motel at the bay. at the front desk i saw a picture of hitchcock and a barbiedoll from the movie the birds, both signed by hitchcock! turns out this was the hotel he stayed at. and... that movie was filmed at bodega and bodega bay. ofcourse, we had no clue, hahahaha (just like we drove through Forks in washington, where apparently the awful twilight movies were filmed...) so... we watched the movie that night (only half, we were too tired), and last night the second half. above the store in bodega that appeared in the movie, and as you see, a lifesize doll of hitchcock is still standing around.....

Last park....

i think today we visited our last park for this trip. we drove to zion national park, an hour or so from where we stayed for the night. another 25 dollars park fee (just like grand canyon, but you can actually also buy a pass for 80 dollars, which will grant you access for 1 year to all national parks... somehow we didnt do that...). and yet again; it was so pretty! and the scenery was so different once again! to me the mountains looked really delicate, like silk or something; but yet again it was hard to photograph... :) it was great to walk around, however. the weather was perfect too; not hot (as would be in summer), and not cold, as it was very sunny. we needed coats and so on, but we had lunch outside. unfortunately many of the hiking trails were closed (some halfway, so we had to turn around), due ice on the paths.

in 1909 this park was named mukuntuweap national monument, but in 1917 the visiting director renamed it zion, as mukuntuweap was very unpopular (now i just wonder why he named it zion, but im too tired to figure it out tonight).

and now, we both have had a bit of an overload of natural beauty. i didnt know it was possible, but we both have seen so much, that it is actually enough for now... :) and so... this evening we gained another hour as we are in the pacific time zone. to be specific; las vegas, nevada! in the city itself we dont have to fear for natural beauty, thats for sure... ;) we are here to cash in the 2 free nights we still had at the trump hotel... we are in a very fancy room, at the 40th floor, and it might be that tomorrow we will just do nothing.... 

(this evening we went to see django unchained from tarantino. it started out great, showing a lot of the wilderness we saw for ourselves the past days, but somewhere halfway it started to become really weird and bloody and now im still not sure whether i liked it or not. lets sleep on it.... good night!)

Not tomorrow!

another sunny picture... but this was last saturday when we were in new york. i took this photo while we were in the roosevelt island tram, aboveground! this is actually in between the car accessroads to the bridge, and (i guess) a homeless man is enjoying the sun while lying on a subway ventilation grill, completely oblivious to all the cars racing on either side of him.... tomorrow some snow is expected! here in boston at least, i dont know about new york, but i assume it will be a bit colder there too than it was last weekend. 

we just got back from the cinema, and it was cold already. we saw life of pi, in 3d. just in the cinema closest to our apartment, not in the center of boston or anything. and this was the price for 2 tickets (including the 3d glasses); 32 dollars!! 32! nowadays, if time allows, we go to 3 different supermarkets as i kind of know where what is the cheapest, to save a dollar or 2. and then we spend 32 dollars on the movies... :) ah no, actually we get discount tickets through work, and then they are 7.50 each (thats really nice!). however, since it was a 3d movie, we each had to pay 4.50 extra; so thats still a total of 24 dollars... for a movie we both did not really like.... grrrrr! (we both have read the book, i was not that impressed, tim was. then i read a review in time magazine that convinced us to go see the movie.... but i guess a movie hardly ever is better than the book)

Deciphering headstones

oooh, i missed last weeks taphophile tragics!! i started on the post on tuesday. and on wednesday. and posted nothing on either day (and i also did not visit the other taphophiles... :( ). a new tuesday and its very late yet again, an hour after midnight....

so, just a quick post of tim and me when we are at a cemetery. i guess this is what others will see quite often, as we are reading (or trying to read) whats inscribed on the stone. normally we dont have a photographer to record our behavior, but this time my sister was present (every now and then we do drag others to cemeteries)...  this is in new york, at the graveyard surrounding the st. pauls chapel. this church was built in 1766, and is the oldest church still in use in manhattan. its just one block away from the world trade center; it survived the september 11 attacks quite well. some stones did break, and ofcourse the entire graveyard was covered in rubbish (as you can see here), but it came out relatively unharmed. most likely because of all the trees surrounding the place. it cost 300,000 dollars to restore the church and headstones, which were vacuumed and washed. i myself did not take any pictures here, we could not really read/photograph the inscription, and i just "did not see it", somehow.... (or was too lazy).

we just got back from a movie; bernie. its about an assistant funeral director (jack black; hes really good) that eventually kills one of its future clients... its based on a true story that happened in texas in 1996. we really enjoyed it!

for other taphophiles, go here.

Fisherman's memorial

above part of an 8 foot tall bronze statue of a fisherman that looks out over the gloucester harbor. its known as the fishermans memorial, but also named "man at the wheel". here you can see it in its entirety. apparently, its often confused with another iconic image; that of the gorton's fisherman, the logo of the company that sells fish sticks (also from gloucester), present on its packages since 1964... haha.

but no, this monument was placed in 1925, to commemorate "they that go down to the sea in ships" (taken from the bible), honoring 300 years of gloucester losing fishermen (thats quite a sad way to say it...). for example, in 1879, 249 fishermen and 29 vessels were lost during a terrible storm. and in 1991 6 fishermen died in a storm that formed the basis for the book, and later movie, "the perfect storm".

Tonight's movie

i took this picture very long ago, somewhere in the very first months we arrived in boston. i found it funny and put it in my "to post" folder, but i never did, as i thought, well yes, i post it, and then what do i write....?

tonight we saw a french movie "the intouchables". it was impressive. sad. very funny. i really liked it. you just have to go and see it. i didnt really know where it was about when i went; i didnt want to watch the trailer as it sometimes reveals too much. and now all i can say; just go and see it!

and dont read the review in the new york times (i just did, its here for the curious...). its a stupid review, on many levels. yes, the movie is about a very rich handicapped guy who hires someone to take care of him. that someone turns out to be poor, and very different and despite, or probably because their differences they really get along, eventually. yes, the idea is cliche (but based on a true story!!), but i think its execution is more funny, and more touching than anything i saw in a while (also, i suggest the writer of this review should watch more south park, this episode in particular). anyways, i think the pic somehow fits the movie.... so i can finally post it!

and now its again very late and time for bed....

Movie poster

this movie poster was still hanging in chinatown, now with some drawings on it, somewhere in january, for the movie the rum diary with johnny depp. i dont really get why they choose this image... as during most of the movie he is "just" the pretty boy.... this is the scene the film starts with, showing johnny depp in a state i didnt really ever wanted to see him, haha. but it only gets better after that. 

we watched the movie again in las vegas, before we wanted to go out and see the casinos one last time again, and have something to eat. instead, we fell asleep. so much for vegas. or the movie...

so we saw it again last week (ofcourse we also saw it in the cinema!). its really great. and funny... i hope i somehow convinced you with this boring post.... :)

Two wives...

new york seemed bombed with ads for the new movie with johnny depp; dark shadows. at first i didnt even recognize him and thought it was for some weird tv series or whatever. i like johnny depp (the rum diaries was great! i guess that was his latest), but this one does not particularly interest me, certainly not after seeing this advertisement, or when tim told me it is about some vampire that is set free. but... its with johnny depp... so, i just looked it up, and even watched the trailer, and it might be quite funny! besides, its from tim burton, so his wife helena bonham carter is in it too, and these 3 people usually make for great movies, or at least interesting... (someone once mentioned johnny depp being the second wife of tim burton, which seems sort of true... :D).

this year we havent gone to the cinema much, which is unusual, but there is really nothing interesting playing. this one comes out in may, so i need to have a little patience...

oh, and now i see that originally dark shadows was indeed a tv series, playing during the end 60s, beginning of the 70s. the actor who played the vampire in that series just died april 13th (a friday), at the age of 87...

in boston we have horrible weather right now; heavy wind and rain (since hours already)...

What happened..?!

we were having a long walk in boston, and suddenly we entered this street. entirely deserted, but with such a mess! (i must admit, this was a few months back, but i havent been taking pictures this week..)  what on earth happened?!! and why was nobody there...? then we saw all those bricks are actually made of styrofoam! from afar you really couldnt tell! without knowing, we had entered a movie set... but the shooting had been done already, and they were cleaning up... :( we also saw several trashed cars, some on top of each other... 

it was for the movie RIPD (rest in peace department). its due to release somewhere in 2013, and stars ryan reynolds, kevin bacon, jeff bridges... among others, and has something to do with undead police officers and whatnot... apparently, they have been filming all over boston! (so, only for that im curious to see that movie). it was interesting to see that for such a movie they just shut down several entire streets in the financial district of boston on a sunday afternoon (not that it is very crowded there during weekends anyways), and how many cars (entirely demolished) were involved, and how many props, and that even the newspaper boxes were brought in by them, as well as the bike, the streetlight and the parking meter.... imagine how much work it is to clean it all up again, and how many people are involved!

Funny, but...

...why? how did that piano get there? were they planning on burning it? why in this open field? somewhere around boston...

we just got back from the new sherlock holmes movie. very funny too. but... sometimes, i wondered, why? i couldnt follow it sometimes... but well, still funny...

In time

i was fascinated by this guy's hair, but whenever i was ready to shoot, someone walked into my frame. grr.. now i tell myself this is interesting too, as you can see how different hair styles can be. but he looked interesting, and now i only have his interesting hair... :(

last night we went to the movie "in time". somewhere in some future they discovered how to turn off the aging gene, and nobody ages beyond 25. once you turn 25, you have only one more year to live (unless you already have debts; then you will have less time) however, you can earn more time, as time is the currency, instead of money. everyone has fancy green numbers on their arm, indicating how much longer they have to live. but this can change; if you work, you get paid in time. if you buy a coffee, you loose a little time. just exchange money for time. it was a very interesting, and freaky, concept. it was also funny that everyone looked 25, but some were living already for 75 years. the world, or the town -whatever, was segregated in time zones. the poor people, where everyone is always running out of time; they rarely had more than 24 hours, forcing them to live day by day. this zone has a lot of crime as people are trying to steal each other's time. then there is the middle class, and the really rich people, not caring about time, as they have more than enough of it..... (some had thousands of years). you could call them the 1%, which makes this movie very up to date. as they said; many have to die for a few to live eternally.....

i think they could have done a better job, but i guess they rather wanted to be cool, fast and fancy, than to make it into something really mind blowing (the people behind us were indeed mostly impressed by the fast and fancy parts "oh man, this is sweet, this is sooooo sweet! (and they were very much annoying us with their brainless comments)). nevertheless, it was a really interesting concept and it really made me think (im still thinking... ;) ), in a way we are already paying for a lot of things with our time, or life, whatever you want to call it. we just are not always aware of it, since we dont have such a fancy green clock ticking on our arms... hmmmm....

so i do suggest you go see this movie!

Winter storm!

currently, it looks like this outside!! the morning started out chilly, but dry, so we went for a run outside (we now ran 45 minutes, of which i am very proud.. :) then we went to eat pancakes; well-deserved, no?). but.... a storm was clearly approaching, the sky was soo dark, and yes, the afternoon started with heavy rain and wind, and in the early evening this turned into snow, covering everything with a little layer!! october has not even ended! apparently, many people are without power (almost 300,000), and a state of emergency has been declared.

perfect weather to stay inside and watch a movie... but the movie we saw was sooo boring, beeehhh...

other movies we recently saw: "real steel". about fighting robots. it was so awful, bad acting, overly sentimental and terribly predictable. in new york we saw "drive", about some guy in car turning into lunatic killing machine, that was awful too and i almost left the cinema before the movie ended (but many people like it a lot, for whatever reason). then we saw "toast" with helena bonham carter; i like her a lot, so that was the main reason we went. the movie was ok, the beginning was funny, the middle was good, but the end was disappointing. i however was obsessed with the lemon meringue pie they make in the movie, and so last week we made such a pie ourselves (recipe).... not bad! we also saw "ides of march", pictured on a billboard in new york, above. that one was really good, george clooney running for president and dirty politics..... (here wikipedia will tell you about the origin of ides of march)

the internet stopped again, so thats it for today....

Duck extension

this evening tim and me met at the ducks in the public garden. i could sit there everyday watch the children. its so cute, and i could prove my theory that almost each kid does the same when seeing this statue; sitting on each duck (there are 8 small ones and the mother duck; above), at least one time. and the parents do the same too; grab their cameras and take as many pictures as possible. this girl put her skirt over each duck head (the park is one of the few places without hand sanitizer). tim was worried the skirt would get stuck onto the head when she was about to jump off, but it didnt.

after that we went to the hatch shell to listen to some free classical music, but it got a little chilly so we left during the break. then we went to the cinema; we saw the help. it was sad, but also very funny at times, and i really liked it.

Four girls

its late already and im a little lazy; so i just picked the picture that i still had open form yesterday! the sea of flags was a photo opportunity for many.... these 4 little girls had to pose a few times before their father was satisfied with the portrait...

tim picked me up from work and said we should goto the movies. and so we did... this time it was woody allen's midnight in paris. and i liked it a lot. funny, too... just a movie you should see rather than that i tell you about it.. :)

Prepared to...

.. fight? to me it looked like those machines, opposite of each other.. are.... perhaps at night, when everyone sleeps?

although not shot today, also today it was very sunny and even warm! but not at the beach where it was windy and cold, as we found out. ah well...  tonight we went to the movies. this time to Hanna. a girl is trained to fight somewhere in the forests and then is released into the "real world" to do what shes been trained for her entire life. beautifully shot; it was not just a thriller but almost art. and suspense as it was originally defined. the music was good too. its from the same director as atonement, which was very good too. but.. if you like to read, i would suggest you first read the book by ian mcewan (and then read most of his other books too..; if i would have to name a favorite writer, its most certainly him!)

anyways, i enjoyed every minute of this movie and wouldnt mind to see it again next week! only i would have named the movie, HannaH, but thats just a small detail...

Its cold!!

this was last night, from our apartment...! it lasted not very long though.... tim was somewhere in cambridge, and there was no snow at all.

tonight its cold as well. we went to the cinema. oh no... i mean, we went to the movies.... apparently people here dont say "we went to the cinema". when i said that the other day in the lab, someone said; cinema?! is that what you say over in europa? ah well... the movie was not the best. lincoln lawyer, with matthew mac-something. i dont really like that guy anyways. it was not boring, but also not very great.

Snow drift

when walking to the station yesterday morning, i heard some birds, it was very sunny, not cold at all. even warm, perhaps? and i thought i could smell spring... i was writing some lines in my mind that surely would some way or another make it here, accompanied by a bright and sunny photo....

not so much, today it was very cold again!! the wind is blowing around, making it even colder. we went to the cinema, for a change.. :), and saw "the eagle", not about americans, but about a roman that wanted the eagle back that his father had lost somewhere in britain. at times the movie reminded me of "the long walk" (another rather recent crappy movie). both had in common that there were barely women and quite some hardship and fighting. there were at least 3 little kids in the audience, im not sure this movie was the best choice for them. tim just wrote on facebook "avoid at all costs". ah well, i would not go that far; at times it was interesting....

when getting out of the theater it was suddenly terribly cold (-8 C; yesterday it was +13 C)! even more wind, and snow.. blown around by the wind just above the black streets. actually very pretty; i tried to take a picture of it... reminded me of liquid nitrogen on lab floors.....

Snow farm

i guess we discovered a snow farm.... mountains and mountians of snow on the excess parking lot of the showcase cinemas in revere. in summer there is a market here, and in winter there is snow! :)

today it rained a lot, and it was not so cold, so the piles started to melt, resulting in soooo much water on the streets!! but the piles of snow are still high, the roads still narrow (i saw so many rear view mirrors that were broken off cars standing alongside the roads.. it just doesnt fit currently). many roofs are collapsing too, due to all the snow..... according to the weather forecast; more to come next week.

ah yes, we went to see a movie (we go very often here), this time it was the king's speech. i had seen the preview already several times when going to other movies and wasnt that enthousiastic. but.... it was a very good movie. not boring at all (as i had expected)!

Wicked funny

another wedding yesterday, or wedding pictures for that matter, at the public garden (shortly before we saw another one as well, but this one was clearly more posh). i found the entire scene hilarious, really everything is wrong, and i am sure these people would not appreciate this photo at all.. :)
what was real wicked fun (a new expression for me but towards becoming a real american i should add it to my vocabulaire, i believe), and this really lived up to the definition of "wicked fun" was the movie we went to see last night; red (retired and extremely dangerous). with bruce willis, morgan freeman and john malkovich. my oh my! that was really funny.. and i recommend you all go and see it...
we went to the AMC Loews at/near boston common, and the movie theater itself was cool as well. it was enormous (bigger than "our" theater in revere), and soo american! should take some pictures there someday...