Along the Canal 3

Even things that are sprayed in permanent paint sometimes change....


Compare with Along the canal 2 

 

 

There's always some room for good caligraphy.

R.

Writing with light

I have this theory...

When trying to move forward, take look back. My own version of looking both ways before crossing the street. I was browsing my flickt favourites, in an attempt to find inspiration for new projects (photographic and otherwise) when I found this:

It reminded me of what I like about photography. Not the "make me look good in this shot" part, but the "tell some sort of a story with this" part. The thing I hate more about my day-to-day is that I don't tell stories anymore. I don't make photos. I don't think about it and I hate that I don't. Well, I intend to change that. I have afew ideas and will be implementing them in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

I am still here.


R

P.S. In the meantime, check out lichtfaktor's stream. It is inspiring to say the least.

On graffiti and metaphors

I like graffiti. I like how it becomes more valuable when it's well integrated, I like that it's ephemeral and that it is sometimes hated by many. Original or not, a skillful attempt at art or just a tag of somebody's name, it is beautiful and meaningful in its own way. It's our attempt of having a word to say in the imagery-laden environment we live in. We are constantly assaulted by companies and their messages. Eat this. Drink that. Wear this. This is how you should look like. Graffiti is our voice in this dialog. It's raw and often rude, but it's real and sincere and sometimes quite compelling.

Even if it only says I was here. Hell, it's what we're all trying to do in the end. Shout in the loudest way possible I was here. Want to know how well that works? Go looking for a great mural you saw a few months or years ago. Entropy will most likely not have been good to it, as it is not good with any of us.

For what It's worth.... I was here!

R

 

 

Along the canal 2

Running in an urban environment is most of all seeing. There's buildings and trees and park benches and, especially if you live in a big city, street art. I have run many times along the canal and told myself I should do a photowalk here. Finally, I got around to it. Here are some of the results.

 

 

"Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal, a city where everybody could draw wherever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big businesses. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall - it's wet." - Banksy



R.

playing with fire

Been messing about with sparkling things.... nothing meaningful yet. Baby steps.

R

Project 1000 update

I'm happy to announce that Project 1000 is back online. I had to take a break from running because of a few cracked ribs, but I am back in my running shoes since April.

The beginning has been, however, a bit slow. I'm only at 60 km, which would make me about 60 km behind. My last runs were pretty good, so I am hopeful. I plan on making up the distance by the end of the month or the middle of June at the latest.

Longer blog post coming up at the 100 km mark.

Until then... here's an overview of my last run.

R

Project 1000 update

So, yeah.... the x-rays are pretty conclusive. I have 3 cracked ribs on my left side. I don't have to wear a cast or anything, but I will be in some degree of pain for the next 12 weeks. This makes it impossible for me to continue project1k. I will hopefully be able to start again in April, but that remains to be seen.

Until next time!

R

The orange, the lemon and the cucumber

 

A few more backlit slices from the other day.

Project 1000 update: due to an injury I sustained snowboarding I may have to forfeit the project. It's not sure yet, but it will be in a few days. Really hope I can recover fast enough.

R

Project 1000

Whenever a year ends, I cannot help but do a revision of what has been and think about things to come, set goals for myself and strive to achieve them. For a few weeks, anyway...

This year is no different. I have decided on a little project I want to make myself do while periodically blogging about it. I thought it up in December and decided that the 1st of January would be the perfect day to start it. And so I have. I went running yesterday morning. The purpose of the project is to make myself run 1000 km in 2013. It's not that much, if you think about it. It amounts to roughly 20 km per week. With a good schedule, some dieting and a bit of will, I'm sure I'll be able to do it.

I came up with a couple of rules to help me stay on track and prevent me from cheating. Here they are.

• Run 1000 km. Don't walk them. I will use a GPS watch to keep track of my speed, distance, etc. Only runs that have an average speed of 10 km/h or higher will be considered as run kilometers.
• Runs should be regular. My schedule allows for breaks, but anything longer than 11 days means I will forfeit the project.
• Runs cannot be shorter than 2 km. This one's pretty self explanatory.
• Dieting. This is not so much a rule as a decision to help things along. I don't plan on going on any crazy diets either... just cut back on fast food and stuff.

A blog post is scheduled after reaching 100km. More about the project then.

Note: Rules may be added to the list.

R. 

Burning the midnight rum

 I found some really strong rum at the store the other day and I thought to myself... now there's an idea. One snoot adapter later and...

R.

Crash course literature and a few shots

So, yeah.... John Green will be posting educational videos on literature on the Crash Course channel.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! If I would not venture to say I love literature, although I do like it, I absolutely love the way John Green talks about it and the way the way we see our world is held together by words. Here's the video.

'Faulkner beneath the stars'? I laughed so hard!


On a totally unrelated topic, here are some more shots from my little macro shoot the other day.

Cleaning old coins

 Macro, anyone?

R.

We instant froze some beer

I also shot some video. If anyone asks for it, I might upload it.

I'm still exploring this new camera, but I am very impressed to what I've discovered so far.


R

It's a Ferrari!

A quick snap I took on my way home from work. Is this a Ferrari in a Halloween costume? Your guess is just as good as mine.

R

Some animals only come out at night

 Just as some photos only come out at night. Went for a photowalk the other day and this is what came out of it. I don't know why I can't get enough of rivers of light, but hey! Here's to one day finding that perfect spot for the perfect shot.

The last two are images of the Uniqua Tower in Vienna and its reflection in the canal (rotated 180 degrees).

Why I think running is great

There are many reasons we enjoy sport. And it is right that we should. The health benefits of sport have been scientifically proven over and over again. We get it... it's good for us. But that's not what I want to talk about. I don't like running because I know it reduces the risk of a cardiovascular condition. No, sir. I like it for different reasons altogether. And I would like to talk about them.

I would say that I like running because it is the opposite being stationary, because it means moving and changing in a very measurable and perceptible way. Measuring your progress as a human being is by no means an easy task. Measuring your progress as a runner, on the other hand... distance, time, pace, calories. While running you might not always know where you're going or if you'll get there, but you always know where you are and where you've been. And after you push through and get yourself up to speed, moving is the rule of you existence. Being stationary becomes the exception. As a rather lazy individual, I find that a rare and empowering thing, something I always want to get more of. Whenever I have a busy day ahead, I like to first go for a half-an-hour-spin around the block. Drinking coffee or energy drinks is nothing compared to that. You would expect running to tire you, but it rarely does... it just helps you focus on one thing.

I guess that's what being a good runner means, after all... being good at focusing on one thing. Just keeping your feet on dry land and not stopping for anything. Just letting the road flow under your feet without even thinking about it. I'm not an expert on this or anything, but I think that if you can reach such a level in any other activity... if you can somehow manage to make everything flow like that and not constantly think and obsess about it, you've got something going.

Want me to write more about running, routes and tips for running in Vienna? Let me know in the comment section. Until then... I leave you with this photo I took more than 4 years ago. Enjoy! 

 The new camera is coming... soon!

R

Baksy fans in Vienna

Somebody's a Banksy fan in Vienna. They don't look good enough to be originals. Still... good effort!

The colors are great... very Austrian.

The last one isn't a Baksy-style work... still awesome, though.

Rzvn update.

I've been promising to do this for some time now, so here it goes. It's what I'm doing at the moment and what I've been doing during the last couple of months. This will be short.

My semester began. My seminaries look pretty awesome, but I'm not going to have an easy time passing. Just the way things go, I suppose.

I lost my camera. I know... how could I? Truth is... I was planning on an upgrade, anyway, so this is just an opportunity to do it. I will buy a new one, probably in November or December. We'll see how well I can manage my finances.  It's not pleasant not having a camera. But sometimes it gives you just what a new lens would... perspective. The shots above were taken with a friend's camera.

I moved. Love the new place... but I'm still getting the hang of it. I mean... it's different having to live with a roommate and having to keep things rather clean all the time, but it is worth it. It's a regular space and everything. No more closets for me to live in, thank you!

Yeah... I guess this is pretty much it, for now.

Until next time,

R

About the presence of death

As always, I'm blogging when I'm supposed to be studying. Just taking a break, though.

I want to write about something that happened a couple of weeks ago. I returned from Romania where I had visited family and, the next day, coming back from grocery shopping, I noticed a weird smell in the hallway. Having spent all my life living in apartment buildings, I'm used to the fact that there's always a weird smell somewhere. This was different, though. It smelled like death. It smelled like dead, actually... long dead. First thought... something died. Pigeons and squirrels are generally the first that come to mind, but they can't get into our stairwell and, more than that, it seem to be coming from inside one of my neighbor's apartment. I thought he had gone on a long trip and forgot to leave his cat enough food or something. The something died theory seemed to be confirmed by the smell getting worse as the days went by. On the fourth day since the discovery of the smell I decided to call someone. Being a rather lazy individual, I told myself I would wait till morning. I wasn't going to call the police and the building administration has office hours only until 4 o'clock, anyway. At something past 6 all I could do was leave a message, which seemed rather pointless. Little did I know I would never get the chance of phoning it in. Sometime after 7 I heard some noises in the hallway. I went to have a look through the peephole. Police and paramedics all over the place. 'Alright' I thought, 'they're gonna do something about that damn dead animal'. With all this going on, I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that somebody rather than something might have died.

After what seemed like 15 minutes somebody rang my doorbell. It was one of the police officers who wanted to tell me to stay indoors until they clear out what was left of my neighbor. That's right. My neighbor had died and there he was just before the door, only his rather purple legs and his round white belly visible, the rest of him submerged in the darkness of his home. I said 'Okay' and quickly closed the door. As the fact that my neighbor had died was sinking in, I started to lose it. I was hyperventilating and I kept thinking about how the roundness of his belly reminded me of the roundness of the moon and how the smell made me want to vomit and how I was unable to vomit due to my hyperventilation. I somehow pulled myself together after hearing a friend tell me it was all going to be okay. That was all I needed to hear. After seeing him lying on his back like that, I felt like nothing was going to be okay... ever. And I just wanted somebody to tell me that I was wrong and that the fallen are just like us, which means we are just like them... only not yet.

Looking back on this, I seem to understand why I freaked out. I mean... I had smelt putrefaction way worse than that and I had been in the presence of dead human bodies before, but something about this was different. Maybe it was because I knew before anybody else. I remember telling my roommate on the very first day I smelled it 'Hope our neighbor's not dead'. I obviously thought it was cool to be sarcastic and making fun of death was the ultimate thing in the being sarcastic business. Little did I know that the Universe out there was thinking 'Sure, it's funny now... you just wait for your time.'
Maybe it was just the feeling of failure... I had failed to act upon my instincts and, although it would have been too late to save him from death, I could have at least saved him from rotting before his front door. Our failure is the thing ugliest to us, something we cannot bury or forget or treat lightly. It's the stinkiest thing out there.


R


P.S. It seems stupid to add things about my everyday life to this, so I'll let it break here... rzvn update still to come.

Fahrenheit 451

It took me a while to get this, but it was worth it. You probably know it or you probably need to find it out for yourself. I'm not asking you to take my word for it. I'm just saying it. And here it is.

BOOKS ARE NOT ABOUT WHAT THEY SEEM TO BE.

Maybe bad or mediocre books are. Not the great ones, though. You would think that books are about stories and plots and characters and complexity. They are all those things, but they are not about all those things the same way you and I are flesh and bones but are not about flesh and bones. If that's what we were about, we would be dead. Only corpses are flesh and bones about flesh and bones.

Books are words and pages and covers. The moment they truly get a chance to become something else, something more important is when somebody reads them. I guess this is the most important thing about Brandbury's novel. The same way nothing is worth speaking when no one is listening, there little to no sense in writing a truly great book if no one gets to read it.

But more than that, Fahrenhei 451  is not only a novel about a world without books, but - more than that - it is a novel about a world without the thing books stand for: critical thinking. I'll just end this with my favourite quote of the book.

“The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.  They’re Caesar’s praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, ‘Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.’ - Ray Brandbury

R.

P.S. Rzvn update.... soon!

rzvn update(s)

So yeah... this is going to be another one of those posts where I throw text at you and include a vlogbrothers video. Yup... good times.

Summer vacation has begun which means... another year of fun in the city. The city being bigger will surely help this year, but still... beyond a trip home at the end of the summer, I've got nothing particularly fun planned. There are a few thing which I will procrastinate doing and Fahrenheit 451, the book I will read. Here is a video about that (John speaks about the book somewhere in the second part of the video).

I love the idea that books become real only if you read them. I will try and blog about my experience reading this, but will most probably fail. 

Here are a few shots of Vienna at 4 a.m. to compensate for that. Enjoy!

You're thinking... 'escalators, no big deal'. Well... the thing is... They're NEVER unused.... except at 4 a.m. There was no one in one of the most crowded subway stations in Vienna, I felt like Robert Neville in I am Legend.

R