Tag: travel

by jad

A Part of Us Left in Italy

We’re back in New York, but we’ve left a part of us in Italy. Going through my photos and thinking about our trip feels a little like this scene around Constantine’s Colosso in fragments at the Capitoline Museums: bits and pieces indexing other bits and pieces, a mosaic of affect still in need of putting together. It’s a good thing I have so many photos to go through. I’m going to need more time processing this experience. x Our trip to Italy was a convergence of several “tracks,” for the lack of a better word, one of which being @christine.bingham.art’s … Continue reading “A Part of Us Left in Italy” →

by jad

Gramsci’s Tomb (Arrivederci, Italia)

We’re boarding our flight back to the U.S. in a few minutes. Here are a couple more shots from Italy’s railways in the interregnum. x I really tried my best to pay my respects at Gramsci’s tomb, visiting the “Non-Catholic” cemetery where he is buried on both ends of our trip. Alas, we were thwarted both times by mysterious “technical difficulties” (probably ghosts) that closed the space to the public. No matter. We will be back. Optimism of the will, etc. x Italy’s train stations have some interesting amenities, like this chapel and barbershop. Rail travel was annoying, but all … Continue reading “Gramsci’s Tomb (Arrivederci, Italia)” →

by jad

The Fourth of July in Florence (and Italy’s Trains)

We’re in Florence on the Fourth of July, heading back to Rome tomorrow morning. What better way is there to “celebrate” 250 years of the American experiment than a shot of one of the first things I saw in Italy: a McDonald’s just outside of Roma Termini. We spent a lot of time getting on and off trains during this trip and took way too many photos everywhere we’ve been; I figured I’d get started with posting the “in-between” shots first, as we make our way back to the beginning. x If you’ve ever heard bad things about the trains … Continue reading “The Fourth of July in Florence (and Italy’s Trains)” →

by jad

Expats, the Uffizi Train, and a Photo of a Butt

A few angles and frames from the Met as we get ready to take the train to the Uffizi. x Yesterday, we had lunch with an older couple of American expats who moved to Italy permanently and in protest some 20 years ago, and we were talking about how one of the lesser-acknowledged benefits of living in some regions of Italy is just how much of the famous art is free to see, being part of the texture of active monasteries or churches. x Christine was like “are you taking a picture of a butt” and I said “yeah, and … Continue reading “Expats, the Uffizi Train, and a Photo of a Butt” →

by jad

Near Raphael’s Grave, Thinking About Orientalism

I’m sitting in a room that’s a ten-minute walk from where Raphael is buried in Rome, going through the last couple of shots I took from the exhibit of his life and work at the Met, writing these words while waiting for the sun to start setting, to get respite from the unbearable heat blazing across Europe. And I’m only just now noticing the subtitle the curators had chosen: “sublime poetry.” Being in Italy during this heatwave has been an interesting twist to a challenge we’d already set ourselves. Italy is infamous for its inscrutable ways. But there’s graffiti in … Continue reading “Near Raphael’s Grave, Thinking About Orientalism” →

by jad

MoMA, Duchamp, and a Birthday at the Raphael Exhibit

We’re in the Eternal City of Rome, but my mind’s still in the city that never sleeps—partially, because I’m very jet lagged and have barely slept in the past 48 hours, but mostly because I’ve a shit ton of photos left from our time there and it’s been way too hot to take many photos here. So I’ll be sharing some shots from the art museums we visited. This is the Rothko room at MoMA. 20 years ago, I only visited the Met and spent the whole time in the Modern Art section where I saw a Rothko for the … Continue reading “MoMA, Duchamp, and a Birthday at the Raphael Exhibit” →

by jad

Twenty Years Later: Back in New York, Turning 40

After twenty whole years, I’m back in “the city that blends and mends and tests”—and I still have a screenshot of that split second when my name pops up in the Beastie Boys video as my email avatar. I came here back then as a kind of escape; to be totally anonymous even for a little while; to turn 20 away from everyone, almost to prove a point: that I could make something out of this “great, unstable mass of blood and foam.” And this city did not let me down. It consoled me when I was at my lowest … Continue reading “Twenty Years Later: Back in New York, Turning 40” →

by jad

The Churches of Leavenworth (and Being Out of Sync)

Do you remember the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland? Not the abstract vision made cool and sexy by Jefferson Airplane; rather, the nervous wreck with a waistcoat and a pocket watch singing “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date.” That rabbit. According to many interpreters, Alice and the White Rabbit are foils: the Rabbit represents the frantic adult world, ruled by clocks and capital, obligations, and constant hurry. He rushes forward without clarity or purpose. Alice embodies childhood’s openness, curiosity, and imaginative freedom. By chasing him, Alice exposes the rift between her life of wonder and his … Continue reading “The Churches of Leavenworth (and Being Out of Sync)” →

by jad

Black Friday in Wenatchee and Leavenworth

Black Friday in Wenatchee. This place is like a box of LEGO bricks strewn across a pile of thick winter blankets and looks especially magical in the low-hanging morning sun. x As I was going through the photos I’d taken over Thanksgiving weekend, Christine said that I should tell you all about how difficult I had been while she was trying to come up with a plan for where to spend the break. I’d nixed three other choices as being 1) too far or 2) not worth the effort and 3) (allegedly) grumbled about the point of life itself before … Continue reading “Black Friday in Wenatchee and Leavenworth” →

by jad

Japan Trip: Tokyo Dream Park, and Coming Home

People waiting to be let into the mall to see that poop-shaped whatever store I mentioned earlier, while others mill in and around the nearby Symbol Promenade Park. That long golden teardrop you see in the last slide is the “Flame of Freedom,” a gift from the French government. x “Waiting Room” x “Tokyo Dream Park.” More views of what remains of the K-Museum building and the very last of the roll of my last roll in Tokyo. x This whole area is reclaimed land like Hiroshima and meant to be a showcase of Tokyo’s dreams of the nineties, with … Continue reading “Japan Trip: Tokyo Dream Park, and Coming Home” →