Thursday, March 15, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
She sings
She noticed herself in mirror on the ceiling of the elevator. It's been too far away, or too yellowed, or something, for her to notice in the past, but today she saw her face - both of our faces - and smiled.
When I play the piano, she sings.
When I play the piano, she sings.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The Birthday Present
I LOVE MAIL. I don't know why I love mail so much, but I have been known to check the mailbox multiple times a day just in case the mailman slipped in an extra round of mail one day for kicks. The funny thing is...I also hate mail. I have been known to go on lengthy, time consuming crusades, to stop the flow of junkmail into our mailbox. But, personal mail, mail from people I know and love; that is just the best.
Which brings me to the topic of my 31st birthday. You see while we were packing to go to Berlin for the summer Jessica was busy on a secret project, a secret birthday project. The present was wrapped in great mystery but I knew measurements, lots of tape and work with an exacto knife were a part of it. So while we actually celebrated my 31st birthday in St. Petersburg, the real party did not begin until we returned. That is when the mail started to come. First in a small trickle and then a veritable deluge of letters from around the world. From all the people that have been a part of my life since I can remember. The letters came every day for weeks. Sometimes in batches, sometimes one at a time. Each one a little treat. A little piece of someone's life from somewhere out there.
You see the secret project was a massive friend-sourced letter writing campaign. Jessica started by constructing this giant collage of photos of me, and us, and our friends and chopped it up into hundreds of postcard size pieces which she distributed to all the people in my life from the last 31 years. Each piece of this giant puzzle was sent with a self-addressed stamped envelope. The instructions asked my friends and family to share something about themselves, about me, whatever it was and send it back to us in Cambridge. And the torrent of mail that began with our return from Europe was awesome. This present continues to give me great joy. There might even be a few cards out there to find their way back home. Don't worry I am always on the look out for them.
On the one year anniversary of this super gift (which coincidentally was my 32nd birthday) I decided to finally reassemble the giant collage. The best part is this puzzle that it didn't have any patches of clouds or sky that are just a terrible chore to put together.
A giant thank you to Jess, and all my friends and family who made my 31st year on this planet a time of bountiful mail and smiles.
Monday, August 8, 2011
The Move
Our apartment had us at hello. After a marathon session of apartment hunting six years ago we arrived at number 54. From the moment Tony opened the door to the unit we knew we were home. So when we started thinking about getting a bigger place a couple years ago, our eyes didn't wander too far. We told Tony that we were interested whenever a unit in the five line, the two-bedroom line, opened up. About a year ago now a unit did open up. And not just any unit, the unit next door. The two bedroom unit on the fifth floor, no more than fifteen feet down the hallway. So not only did we get to keep our same address, we lucked into one of the easiest moves ever. A move that did not involve a single cardboard box or roll of packing tape.
A typical move involves weeks of preparation. Packing up the things you rarely use; assembling the 0-day box with all the things you need while your life is packed up in boxes. We prepped for this move like the minutemen. We knew where we needed to go and we had a small army of friends to help us pull it off at a moments notice (well maybe a couple day's notice), but the concept is the same.
So without further ado...I give you 'The Move'. Special thanks to Keh-Li Sheng for loaning us his beautiful Nikon 12 - 24mm lens. And of course to all of our friends who helped us haul our lives next door.
A typical move involves weeks of preparation. Packing up the things you rarely use; assembling the 0-day box with all the things you need while your life is packed up in boxes. We prepped for this move like the minutemen. We knew where we needed to go and we had a small army of friends to help us pull it off at a moments notice (well maybe a couple day's notice), but the concept is the same.
So without further ado...I give you 'The Move'. Special thanks to Keh-Li Sheng for loaning us his beautiful Nikon 12 - 24mm lens. And of course to all of our friends who helped us haul our lives next door.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Igloo v1.0
A couple weeks ago, as Jess and I were walking across Harvard Yard we spotted this igloo in the distance. It was not a "complete igloo," as it was lacking a roof but it definitely piqued my curiosity. Not enough to walk across the snow field in my low-top shoes, but it was piqued. I filed a little note to myself - "next storm build igloo." And so when last weeks blizzard rolled in I knew what had to be done. I texted our good friend Eitan and asked him if he wanted in on the project. A couple minutes later the team was assembled.
Ten minutes of intensive research on the internet led me to believe that this whole igloo project would be a piece of cake. Major thanks to Matthias Wandel for his thorough write-up on modern igloo building practice. Now although igloos have been built for thousands of years, building an igloo in a park with fresh snow is a completely different matter. Traditional igloos are built with already compressed and packed snow; the kind of rock hard snow that snow plows love to encase your car in. In our case we were going to be working with freshly fallen snow before it got trampled on by Harvard kids building snowmen and other frozen sculpture.
Let's first lay out the basics of igloo construction and then we can walkthrough what went right and what went wrong with igloo v1.0. The first thing you need when building a sizeable igloo is a whole lot of snow. Luckily we just happen to live across the street from a giant park. If it was large enough for the Continental Army to make camp in for the winter, it must surely be large enough to supply raw materials for a simple two person igloo. Second you need a good form to build your snow bricks. Ours included a couple of rubbermaid containers (bad) and a giant kitty litter bin (good).
Unfortunately I don't have photos of our entire igloo building process. But I will walk you through our build step by step (or how I wish our build had proceeded), so you can try this in your own park. Building an igloo in a public space is highly recommended. For one - tons of people come by and say things like "awesome igloo", or "nice igloo", or "what are you building", to which you can respond "an awesome nice igloo." Second, a park is filled with passerbys whom you can enlist in your igloo building endevour (not for the super fun part of laying the bricks, but the more tedious brick building phase)
Step 1 - Choose a site
Since you are going to be collecting snow for your bricks it is important to pick your site in the middle of your snow field. This will greatly reduce the amount of walking you will have to do while building your bricks.
Step 2 - Prep the site
The igloo is essentially a dome you live in. Draw a circle on the snow field that is large enough for two adults to stand in. I put the handle of our snow shovel at what would be the center of our igloo and rotated it until it drew a full circle in the snow.
Step 3 - Build some bricks
The basic concept here is you have a brick-like form, you tightly pack some snow into it and you turn it upside down. You do that around 150 times and you have enough bricks for an igloo. The key to brick making is to let the bricks set before trying to work with them. I would wait at least ten minutes, but thirty would be even better. When you pack the snow into the form it melts a little, and the idea is that letting it set before handling it allows the melted snow to refreeze into a solid brick. Think of the outdoors as one giant freezing cold kiln.
As for forms it is important that your form be sturdy and deep enough so you can stack your bricks. We began the build with some rubbermaid containers which started to crack and fall apart before we have even completed the first ring of our igloo. The issue with your standard household container is that under stress they will bend and crack. Luckily one of our neighbors had just thrown out a giant kitty litter bin which turns out to be a nearly perfect brick shape and also is made from really sturdy plastic. So if you have a cat or no someone who does, or don't mind digging through some trash, find yourself some of these. I recommend at least two (because who wants to build an igloo all alone) and some extra for the occasional volunteer who wanders into your construction site. (Those really sturdy blue recycling bins might also do the trick)
As you are building bricks remember to note which are your oldest and therefore most set and frozen bricks. You will be tempted to start building your igloo right away, but you need to resist that temptation. An igloo with a weak foundation will just not work.
Step 4 - Build your Igloo
Start laying down your bricks along the circle you drew in the snow. The bricks should be as tightly spaced as possible. Fill in the cracks with loose snow and try to make sure your ring is fairly level. Any early imperfections will be greatly magnified when you are on your fifth or sixth level so be careful. After your first ring is complete start on the second level. The key is to stack the second level an inch or two in from the first level. This is how you build your dome and hopefully have all your walls meet each other. Also you want to make sure the bricks are offset from the layer below, just like you would when building a brick wall.
I would like to tell you how to finish your igloo off, but to be honest, igloo v1.0 was never finished. We made some crucial mistakes I have tried to correct for in this post, but I don't know exactly how to finish off an igloo because I never have. That is an excercise for igloo v2.0.
What didn't work
1. Do not build a doorway into your igloo in advance. The entranceway will just lead to instability in your dome as you put it together. A doorway should be cut into the igloo after it is finished.
2. Do not start building your igloo before you have lots of bricks ready to go. As you build your ever shrinking circles you will want to have extra bricks on hand to pack together and keep the growing arch intact. If you don't have extra bricks you may suffer a cave in.
3. Make sure each of your levels is as uniform as possible. One side of our build was a little off and this led to multiple cave-ins when our igloo reached any significant height.
What worked
1. Build your igloo with friends.
2. Pick a public place so kids can play in your igloo for days after the storm and you can walk by and say to yourself - "that's my igloo". Or a spontaneous fashion shoot might take place.
Anyway, thats all for now. Stay tuned for the next storm when Igloo v2.0 comes to life. I just purchased a snow-saw with the hopes that it will assist in carving the bricks in the late stages of the igloo build and also...I have a snow saw. How ridiculous is that.
Major thanks to Jess for shooting these pics.
Ten minutes of intensive research on the internet led me to believe that this whole igloo project would be a piece of cake. Major thanks to Matthias Wandel for his thorough write-up on modern igloo building practice. Now although igloos have been built for thousands of years, building an igloo in a park with fresh snow is a completely different matter. Traditional igloos are built with already compressed and packed snow; the kind of rock hard snow that snow plows love to encase your car in. In our case we were going to be working with freshly fallen snow before it got trampled on by Harvard kids building snowmen and other frozen sculpture.
Let's first lay out the basics of igloo construction and then we can walkthrough what went right and what went wrong with igloo v1.0. The first thing you need when building a sizeable igloo is a whole lot of snow. Luckily we just happen to live across the street from a giant park. If it was large enough for the Continental Army to make camp in for the winter, it must surely be large enough to supply raw materials for a simple two person igloo. Second you need a good form to build your snow bricks. Ours included a couple of rubbermaid containers (bad) and a giant kitty litter bin (good).
Unfortunately I don't have photos of our entire igloo building process. But I will walk you through our build step by step (or how I wish our build had proceeded), so you can try this in your own park. Building an igloo in a public space is highly recommended. For one - tons of people come by and say things like "awesome igloo", or "nice igloo", or "what are you building", to which you can respond "an awesome nice igloo." Second, a park is filled with passerbys whom you can enlist in your igloo building endevour (not for the super fun part of laying the bricks, but the more tedious brick building phase)
Step 1 - Choose a site
Since you are going to be collecting snow for your bricks it is important to pick your site in the middle of your snow field. This will greatly reduce the amount of walking you will have to do while building your bricks.
Step 2 - Prep the site
The igloo is essentially a dome you live in. Draw a circle on the snow field that is large enough for two adults to stand in. I put the handle of our snow shovel at what would be the center of our igloo and rotated it until it drew a full circle in the snow.
Step 3 - Build some bricks
The basic concept here is you have a brick-like form, you tightly pack some snow into it and you turn it upside down. You do that around 150 times and you have enough bricks for an igloo. The key to brick making is to let the bricks set before trying to work with them. I would wait at least ten minutes, but thirty would be even better. When you pack the snow into the form it melts a little, and the idea is that letting it set before handling it allows the melted snow to refreeze into a solid brick. Think of the outdoors as one giant freezing cold kiln.
As for forms it is important that your form be sturdy and deep enough so you can stack your bricks. We began the build with some rubbermaid containers which started to crack and fall apart before we have even completed the first ring of our igloo. The issue with your standard household container is that under stress they will bend and crack. Luckily one of our neighbors had just thrown out a giant kitty litter bin which turns out to be a nearly perfect brick shape and also is made from really sturdy plastic. So if you have a cat or no someone who does, or don't mind digging through some trash, find yourself some of these. I recommend at least two (because who wants to build an igloo all alone) and some extra for the occasional volunteer who wanders into your construction site. (Those really sturdy blue recycling bins might also do the trick)
As you are building bricks remember to note which are your oldest and therefore most set and frozen bricks. You will be tempted to start building your igloo right away, but you need to resist that temptation. An igloo with a weak foundation will just not work.
Step 4 - Build your Igloo
Start laying down your bricks along the circle you drew in the snow. The bricks should be as tightly spaced as possible. Fill in the cracks with loose snow and try to make sure your ring is fairly level. Any early imperfections will be greatly magnified when you are on your fifth or sixth level so be careful. After your first ring is complete start on the second level. The key is to stack the second level an inch or two in from the first level. This is how you build your dome and hopefully have all your walls meet each other. Also you want to make sure the bricks are offset from the layer below, just like you would when building a brick wall.
I would like to tell you how to finish your igloo off, but to be honest, igloo v1.0 was never finished. We made some crucial mistakes I have tried to correct for in this post, but I don't know exactly how to finish off an igloo because I never have. That is an excercise for igloo v2.0.
What didn't work
1. Do not build a doorway into your igloo in advance. The entranceway will just lead to instability in your dome as you put it together. A doorway should be cut into the igloo after it is finished.
2. Do not start building your igloo before you have lots of bricks ready to go. As you build your ever shrinking circles you will want to have extra bricks on hand to pack together and keep the growing arch intact. If you don't have extra bricks you may suffer a cave in.
3. Make sure each of your levels is as uniform as possible. One side of our build was a little off and this led to multiple cave-ins when our igloo reached any significant height.
What worked
1. Build your igloo with friends.
2. Pick a public place so kids can play in your igloo for days after the storm and you can walk by and say to yourself - "that's my igloo". Or a spontaneous fashion shoot might take place.
Anyway, thats all for now. Stay tuned for the next storm when Igloo v2.0 comes to life. I just purchased a snow-saw with the hopes that it will assist in carving the bricks in the late stages of the igloo build and also...I have a snow saw. How ridiculous is that.
Major thanks to Jess for shooting these pics.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Prenzlauer Berg, No. 1
A special request came in recently for more neighborhood shots (hi, Mom!) and so I'm kicking things off with this set. I took a couple of walks around our neighborhood, Prenzlauer Berg, over the weekend, and I spent a lot of time looking up. Most of the buildings around here were built during the first half of the 20th century, and restored after the fall of the Wall. As you can see, the extent of the restoration varies from building to building. One of my favorite things about the particular beauty of Berlin is that it's a rough-around-the-edges kind of beauty - even in the super-trendy Prenzlauer Berg.
That last shot is of our apartment here. When we see those flags from a block or so away, we know we're almost home.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
November
We went out to a place called November for my brother's farewell dinner. Do you see that plate of Matjesfilet and Bratkartoffeln (herring and roasted potatoes)? It was delicious. I think I finally understand what that dubious-looking jarred herring and cream that they sell back home is supposed to taste like. Also, there were pickles in the cream. PICKLES!
Berlin, I love you.
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