American emptiness

this was last week, in new hampshire. it felt like we were driving through a movie set. everything so empty, here and there a house, a lone shop, just like in the movies. only the men with guns were missing.. but we did see a gun shop (i ofcourse thought it was a gum shop, at first..).

Happy family

looks cute, no?
at the frog pond, once again, in the boston common.
im not so much in a writing mood, these days.... perhaps next week again!

Yellow fan

the MBTA recently painted the fans in the subwaysystem yellow. when i first saw them, i found them really funny. sooo big! and would they really cool down the stations? soon i got used to them, until we had a visitor who showed me her pictures and said she tried to picture those big fans, as they looked so funny. only then i remembered that i once found them funny as well... :)

Big bag

what a big bag for such a ittle girl!

someone once told me that everything that while going through life you put all experiences into a bag that you will carry with you onto the next experience, and sometimes you get something out of the bag thats useful for another experience. 

i guess now i should say something deep too, but... hmm... im rather empty! i guess its all stuffed too deeply in my bag...

Bridge closed

if there is no bridge.... then apparently you need to fly..! 

above you see a hang glider being pulled into the air by a plane.... later the hang glider will be released and eventually will fly/float/whatever back to the ground. so tim went to do some of that. or rather, he was on a field with 2 instructors and had put on such fake wings and was running like crazy and sometimes he would get into the air a little. i just wondered; if we were meant to fly, wouldnt we have just gotten some wings?! but tim liked it a lot.....

here some pictures of him in action! :)

Almost collapsing

i saw this old barn about to collapse, somewhere in new hampshire.... i took so many pictures but all do not show how interesting it looked! perhaps if i could reconstruct a 3d image of all the pictures i took... :) here you can see some more pics.

now im soooo tired! thats because we had to get up real early this morning; tim dragged me to new hampshire at 6.30 in the morning. for his new hobby (nope, not for some sort of nice surprise for me... ;) ).... while he was out playing, i got to walk around and invetigated this barn. perhaps i will show you more about his new hobby tomorrow.. good night!

Do not...

the church finally changed their sign (this was their previous one). i actually thought it said dont initiate instead of imitate. perhaps i should let them know that i think initiate in this respect is better than imitate. if you only imitate, does it really come from you? in the case of evil that would perhaps be better, but when being good......

sad, sad things, so many sad things happen every day.......

but! we had a good day, it was hot, but not as hot as yesterday. i went to the gym and afterwards to the pool, then some shopping, and i did NOT buy those green shoes i liked.... (i have more than enough shoes), but i did buy a new shirt (it was on sale!). and just now i painted my fingernails bright orange and my toenails screaming pink. i think it looks nice, but i know tim does not like it.... :D (and i used the word "but" 5 times as my english vocabulaire is so limited....)

Boston's great!

this evening we saw a movie at the hatch shell, as you can see above! next to the charles river, boston organizes free friday flicks starting in june until august. the movie starts at sunset, today that was at 8.14, and thus every week the movie will start a little earlier, funny, no? we got some pizza, sat on some scrubs (tim brought them from work, we fogot to bring a blanket like real americans), enjoyed free salads and beverages... and finally a movie. this time it was despicable me, an animated film. i liked it so much!

on wednesday's you can go to the hatch shell as well, then to enjoy some classical music, as i posted last year. in the meantime, it was really, really hot today. at some point the temperature was 39.5 degrees celsius, or 103 F. the only day it was hotter here in boston was on july 4th, 1911, when it was 104 F. when stepping outside for lunch today, i had the feeling i stepped into a hair dryer, as it was very windy, somehow i liked it! anyways.. authorities take the heat very serious, you can goto "cooling centers" in the city, and i now know that the MBTA has distributed 66 extra fans throughout the subway stations, where it can be real hot. as such, the total number of fans is 276. just so you know! :) here you can read it all.

Ice cream...

or just anything cold.... as it is soooo hot!! and tomorrow even hotter; 38 degrees celsius (100 fahrenheit). but i only notice it during the short stretch from home to subway and back as everywhere else the airconditioners are working at full speed... wearing an extra jacket at work to keep warm! isnt that weird....

just read on wikipedia that in the persian empire, 500 BC, something like ice cream was already served. when it was hot, people would pour grape juice concentrate over snow and eat this as a treat.  either snow would be saved in the cool-keeping underground chambers or taken from fresh snow that still remained at the top of the mountains by the summer... want to read more about ice cream? go here; then i goto sleep now... good night!

Heat advisory

so, its hot in boston, well over 30 degrees celsius, and friday its predicted to be over 35..... the mayor has therefore spread a heat advisory... :"The City’s cooling centers will be open and pools will operate with extended hours, until 9 PM, for residents who want to cool off.  The Parks Department also operates 50 water spray features at parks throughout the City."

what are cooling centers?! and is it allowed to enjoy the water sprays if you are an adult without kid? above another photo of the frog pond... :) note the 2 photographers in the front; they were there without children! but i presume they just wanted to catch the rainbow, like me...

but remember; you cannot get too hot; dont take off all your clothes and take a swim in the charles river, you will get handcuffed (while naked), as you can see here. however... i recently read it is legal for women to go topless! at least this is the case in new york: "The state's highest court established long ago that women have the same right as men to appear topless in public" if you feel the urge, august 21 you can participate in the national us go-topless day...

Playing sports

this was sunday, at the real american party! some badminton in the garden...

i just like the fisheye lens so much!

every evening i think about going to the gym in the morning, but in the morning i really do not see one reason to actualy go there. tim has much more discipline, and does go... perhaps i will too, tomorrow, since i spent yet another evening sleeping on the couch...

Look, there!

... is a street, and cars are coming, and....

General Logan

we went to a very nice, real american party, and above the host's dog! the dog's name is Logan, so i said "aah, like the airport" (how ignorant), while at the same time the host said "like the general"... i thus didnt dare asking who general logan actually is!

i asked my friend wikipedia, and so far found 2 logans (plus logan's son), the general logan from boston, after which boston logan airport was named in 1943, and general logan from illinois, who is the founder of memorial day. if interested in either logan, just click on the links and wikipedia will tell you all about them!

ah well, the dog was cute. i dont generally like dogs, and am usually afraid of them. but this one was more afraid of me! :D

Special parking

right at the entrance, when you are employee of the month at the salvation army! would that be the only perk when you become employee of the month?

Sexy cyclist

saw this girl last week at the boston common (there were lots of interesting people there that day!), and she perfectly illustrates a news story over a month old by now... in may, a dutch bicycle company manager was cycling in new york, in a miniskirt. then she was stopped by a cop, who wanted her ID and told her that she was not supposed to ride around like that. she was told that her outfit was very disturbing and dangerous, as it could distract cars. she then told him that she was not aware of any dresscode, and that biking with a skirt is perfectly normal in the netherlands. the cop responded: "I decide what's a dangerous situation".... in the end she didnt get a ticket, but.. next time; she'd better wear pants!!

only later, back home, she posted this pic on facebook and then media saw it and several articles appeared, both in the us and in the netherlands. again somewhat later it was questioned whether the story was true; perhaps it was a marketing stunt to sell more bikes?! she didnt get the name of the cop, and also no ticket. well... i can perfectly believe that something like this happens, i heard several weird stories about us cops showing off their power like this already... like this story, for example, or this one..

Test stress

 

at copley square this lady was offering a free stress test. whatever that may be. it all looked rather peaceful to me, and i was not curious enough to wait and undergo the test myself!

if you walk from prudential center to the public garden, you will come by copley square. there is the public library where we always get lost (why is it so big?!), and then there is the square where often people demonstrate for one thing or the other (perhaps i show a photo some other time), there is the trinity church (we never went inside, but the outside is ugly, in my opinion), the hancock tower (the tallest building in boston that closed its observation deck after 9/11), a fountain, some grass. and also a lot of homeless people. somehow i am not very charmed by this square; i like the 2 parks, the public garden and the boston common, much better (but they are also much bigger).

With pipe

i thought the girl in the red dress looked interesting, and that was even before i saw that she was smoking a pipe! you rarely see pipes, and even less on young ladies.... :)

i think anyways people smoke much less here in boston than for example in the netherlands. in new york, however, it seemed that more people were smoking. in the netherlands it is forbidden to smoke inside, but just right outside most buildings it is ok; here you often cannot even smoke outside the building, you have to go a little further away....
someone just told me that chances are that there is not only tobacco inside, but something that would be legal... in the netherlands.... can you get arrested for that? just wondering.....

Listening stone

i did not know a title for this post, until i looked up the name of the artwork... :)

i never thought of this stoneface as listening, but it actually makes sense. it is made from granite, by joseph wheelwright. it is in the de cordova museum in lincoln, where we have been many times, by now. the park is beautiful, this time we brought a blanket and had a small pinic in between all the sculptures. the museum is nice too, and exhibitions change rather regularly.... if you come to the park by bike, entrance is free!! isnt that nice? i think in general the museums in the us (the ones we saw and that are quite some, by now), are very nice,but i think this museum is my favorite!

behind the listening stone you see another artwork; its a 1936 chrysler equipped with monitors and speakers. its named "requiem to the 20th century" by nam june paik. he is considered to be the first video artist, and his work is in collections all over the world. here is a quote from him that i like: "Our life is half natural and half technological. Half-and-half is good. You cannot deny that high-tech is progress. We need it for jobs. Yet if you make only high-tech, you make war. So we must have a strong human element to keep modesty and natural life." and this one too: "The only way to win a race is to run alone".

Customized MBTA

on saturday we were in the green line, and saw those 2 chairs! i really had to suppress the urge to go and sit on them, as we had to stand. no clue whom they belonged to. perhaps it was some sort of social experiment? who is going to sit on such a chair?

or maybe it was because the MBTA is trying to renew itself? i read in the newspaper this morning that the MBTA (which stands for massachusetts bay transportation authority, or the T, in short) is thinking of selling "station naming rights". as such, the T would incorporate both the station name and a corporate brand into the renamed facility. in doing so, they could avoid an increase in fare prices, which would be a good thing (although i think the T is really cheap, especially compared to the netherlands, where it is ridiculously expensive) but can you imagine the weird names wealthy people could come up with? or mc donalds could name a T stop after itself? hmmmmpf, i think its not a good idea; we would have to replace our shower curtain that has a map of the subway system each time someone buys a new T stop!

i think they should start smaller; why not selling seats on the T? then you are guaranteed to always have a seat! the bigger the seat, the more you paid... ;) and ofcourse, you can customize your seat, as above. that just must have been a pilot experiment. it worked, nobody sat on them!

The extraordinary..

in the ordinary. that kind of photos i like a lot... like this one, for example. each time i see that pic, i have to laugh! picking up your dog's shit is perfectly normal here, as are perfect wedding photos, but the 2 dont usually go together.

above is funny too, with the tree rat! i didnt take this pic, however, it was tim. i saw him taking this pic, but i thought "ow, boring, just someone reading in the sun". hahahha, didnt look careful enough!

yesterday's post generated a lot of responses, that was interesting. i am still thinking about it. i guess this is the solution; everyone, especially those against "taking pictures of strangers" (or watching strangers, for that matter, in particular children) should watch minority report. that movie shows perfectly why people cannot be punished (or whatever) for something they have not (yet) done... it is entirely possible they never will! moreover, free will is not possible when your every move is regarded as potentially malicious. that brings us to 1984 from george orwell: we already have the security cameras.... lets leave it at that!