david and others

A few more pictures I took in Florence outside the Uffizi galleria.

(click to enlarge)


And here's the famous David. Unfortunately the sun gave his face a sorta harshness to it. At least that is what I noticed.



I love the old fashion feel of this one.





This one below is interesting to me because of the large statue hovering over the people and how the sun is hitting on the statue's face and he appears to be looking away to avoid direct sunlight. Plus the guy sitting on the fence (center) looks funny.

oda a la bella desnuda

I took these photographs of the statues outside the Uffizi galleria of Florence. (click images to enlarge)


Ode to a Beautiful Nude
by: Pablo Neruda

Beautiful nude:
equally beautiful
your feet
arched by primeval tap
of wind or sound;
your ears
small shells
of the splendid American sea;
your breasts
of level plenitude full-
filled by living light;
your flying
eyelids of wheat
revealing
or enclosing
the two deep countries of your eyes.

The line of your shoulders
have divided
into pale regions
loses itself and blends
into the compact halves
of an apple,
continues separating
your beauty down
into two columns
of burnished gold, fine alabaster,
to sink into the two grapes of your feet,
where your twin symmetrical tree
burns again and rises:
flowering fire, open chandelier,
a swelling fruit
over the pact of sea and earth.

i ordered two coffees

"i'm calling from the diner
the diner on the corner
i ordered two coffees
one is for you
the cups are so close
the steam is rising in one stream
how are you"

* ani difranco * "the diner"

--------------------- ---------------------
something to think about
from Pablo Neruda's "Book of Questions":

Where can you find a bell
that will ring in your dreams?

Why do leaves commit suicide
when they feel yellow?

And at whom does rice smile
with infinitely many white teeth?

Am I allowed to ask my book
whether it's true I wrote it?

--------------------- ---------------------
(my questions)

any answers? oh and what would you like to drink? my treat :)

return to Rome

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the beginning of my trip to Italy.
(granted I was still on the plane today)

Legend says that if you stand with your back to the Trevi Fountain and toss a coin over your left shoulder, you will one day return to the Eternal City. Simple enough. As I tossed the coin I couldn't help but make a wish. I hope it comes true. What I do have control over though is that I will return to Rome.

Here are some photographs I took: (click images to enlarge)







Romance in Rome can be found easily. All around me there were couples strolling around; arms linked, holding hands, lucky to be sharing in the beauty that this city can't help but show off. It reminded me of what I was missing and who I was missing and I enjoyed my cioccolato gelato guilt-free while they had their kisses :)
Beware, love follows you all around in Italy!

a little bird told me

I could hear them singing in the morning and on a given day would glance at them flying high in the afternoon sky but I never gave them the attention they deserved. I come from a family that loves nature and appreciates its beauty but it took me a little longer to understand their devotion. Of course I love going on nature hikes, having flowers around the house and there is nothing more visually stunning as a sunset by the ocean but the simple joys or countless conversations about some tree or the many types of flowers that exist were not something I could really get into.

We were sitting outside a cafe on a blue sky summer day when this little bird wandered by your seat. I heard you greet the bird lightly and I thought it was so sweet. I didn't think you noticed that I overhead or maybe its second nature to you so it didn't phase you. Either way, since that moment I started paying more attention to the little birds. any friend of yours is a friend of mine.

Since the last day I saw you and after several failed attempts at getting in touch with you, on some random day, a bird flying by me as I walked down the street or those serenading the morning with a song near my window made me stop and take notice. And while I was missing your company, these little birds carried thoughts of you to me and on some occassions that meant running into you several times a day.

"time flies when you're having fun, I heard somebody say"
It was a year later and I was in Mexico. It had been a decade since I had visited my relatives and my parent's hometown; it was great to be back! And the amazing thing about my trip was that my mind was no longer cluttered with all the things I was accustomed too back home! I'm usually inside my head way too much for my own good but everything was erased when I got there! I know it seems like a slight exaggeration but it was true and it wasn't because I was preoccupied with other activities; my days were actually spent enjoying the tranquility of the town and listening to all the sounds when their was no noise.

"Turn down the daily noise and at first there is the relief of silence. And then, very quietly, as quiet as light, meaning returns. Words are the part of silence that can be spoken." - j.winterson

I found some peace on this trip and I lie in bed embracing it. I was looking outside my window and in the distance I could hear the cows, birds, chickens, and dogs deep in conversation. It was a welcome change from the city's sounds. I saw a big group of birds flying together and I can only imagine they were playing a game, having a race or maybe line dancing as a group, who knows. I was looking at them and as I got up from my bed, all of a sudden one of the little birds bumped into the window frame and since it was open she stood on the window sill, as you can imagine this had more meaning to me than it might to someone else. Guess who entered my mind?....you. This was such a lovely moment for me. The little bird wasn't hurt, which I thought might be the case because it was a rather loud bump when she landed. Instead she gathered her composure and flew out to join her friends and the fun continued for them. It reminded me of children and how they do the very same thing; fall, get up, brush off the dirt from their knees and carry on.

I took this bird as a sign, a little messenger sent to comfort me and tell me that maybe I do cross your mind on occasion, since I was afraid you had forgotten me amidst all your happiness, and that I shouldn't be so sad when I think of you. I know you might think its crazy how I could read so much into something but I only took it as far as that so I think that makes me fairly sane. Like Milan Kundera said in his novel, people who find meaning in daily occurrences are the beautifiers of life and I'd like to think I'm one of them.

(excerpt from LightHouseKeeping by Jeannette Winterson)

I told him it was about meaning, and he suggested, very politely psychosis.
"You think meaning is psychosis?"
"An obsession with meaning, at the expense of the ordinary shape of life, might be understood as psychosis, yes."
"I do not accept that life has no ordinary shape, or that there is anything ordinary about life at all. We make it ordinary, but it is not."
He twiddled his pencil. His nails were very clean.
"I am only asking questions."
"So am I"
There was a pause.
I said, "how would you define psychosis?"
He wrote on a piece of paper with his pencil: Psychosis: out of touch with reality.
Since then, I have been trying to find out what reality is, so that I can touch it.

I'd rather hold a bird in my hands.

sensual

I bought Pablo Neruda's book, "100 Love Sonnets"
Cien Sonetos de Amor
Sensuality is the most attractive quality in someone for me and Pablo Neruda expresses it best in his poetry. It's amazing how he can use anything like 'bread' to express his love and desire as in the first sonnet I include. Hope these bring you back to love :)

XIII

The light that rises from your feet to your hair,
the strength enfolding your delicate form,
are not mother-of-pearl, not chilly silver:
you are made of bread, a bread the fire adores.

The grain grew high in its harvest, in you,
in good time the flour swelled;
as the dough rose, doubling your breasts,
my love was the coal waiting ready in the earth.

Oh, bread your forehead, your legs, your mouth,
bread I devour, born with the morning light,
my love, beacon-flag of the bakeries:

fire taught you a lesson of the blood;
you learned your holiness from flour,
from bread your language and aroma.

II

Love, what a long way, to arrive at a kiss,
what loneliness-in-motion, toward your company!
Rolling with the rain we follow the tracks alone.
In Taltal there is neither daybreak nor spring.

But you and I, love, we are together
from our clothes down to our roots:
together in the autumn, in water, in hips, until
we can be alone together - only you, only me.

To think of the effort, that the current carried
so many stones, the delta of Boroa water;
to think that you and I, divided by trains and nations,

we had only to love one another:
with all the confusions, the men and the women,
the earth that makes carnations rise, and makes them bloom!


XIV

I don't have time enough to celebrate your hair.
One by one I should detail your hairs and praise them.
Other lovers want to live with particular eyes;
I only want to be your stylist.

In Italy they called you Medusa,
because of the high bristling light of your hair.
I call you curly, my tangler;
my heart knows the doorways of your hair.

When you lose your way through your own hair,
do not forget me, remember that I love you.
Don't let me wander lost - without your hair -

through the dark world, webbed by empty
roads with their shadows, their roving sorrows,
till the sun rises, lighting the high towers of your hair.

wonder woman smile

Part of my interest in photography started with Wonder Woman. I liked how at the end of each episode they'd freeze frame Linda Carter's beautiful smile.



And it was great that she kicked some major butt and portrayed a strong woman on TV during that decade. Armed with her Lazzo of Truth




wrist braclets to shield her from incoming bullets




and a crown that she'd throw at the enemy to defend herself, she gave females some feeling of empowerment. So as a little girl I too would spin 'round n 'round so that I'd find my magic power. My clothes didn't magically change like hers but I'm sure I could throw some major kicks and strong punches thanks to my kwando classes!

Anyhow that is where my interest in capturing such images with my camera came from. I like when I come across an occasion like that in my life; seeing my family or friends sporting their wonder woman smiles while involved in a silly, joyous moment makes me feel good and of course I never have a camera with me at the time but I'm still just happy having caught it. A smile is contagious for the most part.

honesty is the best policy?

Really? Try telling that to all those who lie. It is amazing how a large part of the population does, granted I can only go by those I know and damn am I amazed!

The Liars. I can understand those small, white lies "yes, the dress looks nice on you" (since they've asked)..or..."i don't have a problem waiting for you, it's okay" but anything outside of this I really don't care for. First of, isn't lying too much work? Don't you have to remember what you've lied about so that you are not found out? Granted, it has become a habit to some, they just layer it with another lie. Pretty soon they don't know the truth if it bitt them in the ass! And secondly, don't you feel bad when you are lying? I can honestly, honestly say that I can not lie to save the life of me. Actually that might be the only time I would....to save my life. Otherwise, it's not for me, it doesn't feel right. And seriously folks, if you tell me how you've lied to someone else about this or that NEWS FLASH: do you really think that I won't think you'll lie to me! yeah, add STUPID to LIAR because that is what you are!

The Honest ones. We do have a price to pay for being honest. I've had people afraid to tell me something because they would not like what I would have to say. Not because I would be critical but because they'd know I wouldn't just say "oh, that's ok" after the fifth time they've made some excuse for something they can't keep their word on. I'm sorry, I don't do B.S. It also puts you at a risk of being seen as critical or judgemental. If I give "my opinion" on something or someone, the person listening is then going to be cautious on how they act around me. They are not above me because as they make this assumption knock knock you are guilty of the same thing you are trying to call me. The big difference is that I'm not hiding who I am.

If you are not honest, you are phony and no amount of smiling is going to change that. I don't think it's worth chosing to be liked over being true to yourself and that is a big reason why people lie. That and because they are selfish. Can you really respect someone who lies? I can't.

By the way, don't give yourself a gold medal because you consider yourself someone 'who speaks her mind'. If what you have to say hurts, degrades and is told with bad intentions and comes from a place of jealousy or envy; save your truth for someone who gives a damn! And don't give me the "i'm just kidding" at the end of the sentence because guess who the real joke is.

(just standing up for the honest ones :)