Fox Theatre - Queen Street East, Toronto [ www.foxtheatre.ca/ ]

 

"It all began in October 1913 when a man named Arthur Brooks Webster was issued a permit to build a theatre on Queen St East, close to Beech Ave. At the time, the resident Beachers were not too thrilled about having another theatre in their midst; as there were already two other local cinemas (The Coliseum, and The Peter Pan). This forced Webster to petition door to door in the neighborhood, enlisting his friends to help out, and eventually he gained the necessary support.

 

In April 1914 the Toronto Sunday World reported that the doors were opening on the Theatre Without a Name. Opening nights feature film was 'The Squaw Man,' and a contest was announced to name the theatre. For a short time after (April 1914 until December 1914) the theatre ran under the name The Pastime. Within the same year however that name would be changed to Prince Edward, to honor the Prince of Wales. This was a patriotic gesture in response to Britain’s (and, subsequently, Canada’s) declaration of war against Germany. In fact, the stain glass window bearing that name, Prince Edward, remains above the interior doorway of the theatre.

 

In 1918 Webster died and the theatre was taken over by his son, Cecil Herbert Webster.

 

Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s the movie industry changed drastically; from silent films, to talkies, to full sound, and The Prince Edward always kept up with the industry.

 

In 1937 the name of the theatre was changed to The Fox, and the name has stuck for 70 years. While ownership of the theatre has changed several times, The Fox has remained a mainstay of the Beach Community for nearly a century, making it the longest running cinema in Canada." www.foxtheatre.ca/about/index.html

 

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"'Love Story' is a song by American country music-pop music artist Taylor Swift. It is the first single from her second studio album, 2008's Fearless. The song was released in September 2008, and by November it reached the top of the Billboard country chart, becoming her third Billboard Number One. It has also become her first top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. As with most of the songs on Fearless, Swift wrote 'Love Story' herself. 'Love Story' is Swift's first international single venturing into other markets outside North America and Australia. The single is also Swift's first single to receive remixes for the clubs. As of the week ending Feb. 8, 2009, 'Love Story' has been downloaded more than 2.64 million times making it the most downloaded country song in history. In addition, 'Love Story' also became the first country crossover recording to hit #1 on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart, which appears in industry leading trade publications Radio & Records and Billboard as well as #1 on the Mediabase Top 40 Chart. The song is currently number two in the UK Singles chart.

 

In an article for Billboard, Swift described 'Love Story' as 'a love that you've got to hide because for whatever reason it wouldn't go over well. I spun it in the direction of Romeo and Juliet; our parents are fighting. I relate to it more as a love that you cannot really elaborate on — a love that maybe society wouldn't accept [or] maybe your friends wouldn't accept.'

 

The song is a mid-tempo, accompanied by banjo and guitar. The chord progression is a simple I-V-vi-IV, very common in pop music. In the lyrics, the narrator alludes to Romeo and Juliet and The Scarlet Letter to describe a lover whom her father will not let her see. In the end, however, the father reconciles and the lover proposes to the female narrator. The proposal is accompanied by a modulation in key up one whole step, from D to E. Swift has repeatedly mentioned in interviews that the song was written around the lyrics, 'This love is difficult, but it's real.'

 

The Pop Mix replaces the Country-style instruments (i.e. the banjo) and adds a heavier bassline, a drum loop and heavier electric guitars.

 

The International Radio Mix is a hybrid mix of the album version and pop edit, keeping the storybook theme of the original song with a pop overtone arrangement." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Story_(Taylor_Swift_song)

No problems from CTA workers tonight as the tripod, camera and I went out to get another stacked shot of the Metra. While I like the earlier shot "Permit Required" better than this one, I think I've come up with a new way to show motion and details in the same shot.

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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This is the continuation of a photo-project that I began in the summer of 2008 (which you can see in this Flickr set), and continued throughout 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 (as shown in this Flickr set, this Flickr set, this Flickr set, this Flickr set, and this Flickr set)

): a random collection of "interesting" people in a broad stretch of the Upper West Side of Manhattan -- between 72nd Street and 104th Street, especially along Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. These are the people in my neighborhood, aka "peeps in the 'hood."

 

As I indicated when I first started this project six years ago, I don't like to intrude on people's privacy, so I normally use a zoom telephoto lens in order to photograph them while they're still 50-100 feet away from me; but that means I have to continue focusing my attention on the people and activities half a block away, rather than on what's right in front of me. Sometimes I find an empty bench on a busy street corner, and just sit quietly for an hour, watching people hustling past on the other side of the street; they're almost always so busy listening to their iPod, or talking on their cellphone, or daydreaming about something, that they never look up and see me aiming my camera in their direction.

 

I've also learned that, in many cases, the opportunities for an interesting picture are very fleeting -- literally a matter of a couple of seconds, before the person(s) in question move on, turn away, or stop doing whatever was interesting. So I've learned to keep my camera switched on, and not worry so much about zooming in for a perfectly-framed picture ... after all, once the digital image is uploaded to my computer, it's pretty trivial to crop out the parts unrelated to the main subject. Indeed, some of my most interesting photos have been so-called "hip shots," where I don't even bother to raise the camera up to my eye; I just keep the zoom lens set to the maximum wide-angle aperture, point in the general direction of the subject, and take several shots. As long as I can keep the shutter speed fairly high (which sometimes requires a fairly high ISO setting), I can usually get some fairly crisp shots -- even if the subject is walking in one direction, and I'm walking in the other direction, while I'm snapping the photos.

 

With only a few exceptions, I've generally avoided photographing bums, drunks, crazies, and homeless people. There are plenty of them around, and they would certainly create some dramatic pictures; but they generally don't want to be photographed, and I don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage of them. There have been a few opportunities to take some "sympathetic" pictures of such people, which might inspire others to reach out and help them. This is one example, and here is another example.

 

The other thing I've noticed, while carrying on this project for the past six years, is that while there are lots of interesting people to photograph, there are far, far, far more people who are not so interesting. They're probably fine people, and they might even be more interesting than the ones I've photographed ... unfortunately, there was just nothing memorable about them. They're all part of this big, crowded city; but for better or worse, there are an awful lot that you won't see in these Flickr sets of mine...

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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This is one of approx 260 photos that I decided were not so bad that I had to delete them and recover every wasted binary bit of storage on my computer disk ... but also not good enough to warrant uploading to Flickr as a "public" photo.

 

Since Flickr now provides so much storage to us picture-crazed photographers, I've decided to upload all of these "random pix" as restricted "friends and family" photos so that most of the world doesn't have to suffer through them ...

 

I've cropped and edited these photos, but have not gone to the additional trouble of geo-tagging them ... sorry about that.

 

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In the spring of 2014, we came to Paris for a week of relaxed vacationing, mostly to wander around and see some old familiar places. It was a “return” trip for both of us, though in my case I think it’s probably been more than 15 years since I was even here on a business trip.

 

Business trips to any city don’t really count as a “visit” -- since they basically involve flying into a busy airport at night, taking a taxi to a generic business-traveler’s hotel (a Hilton in Paris looks just like a Hilton in Cairo), and then spending several days working in the hotel (if the purpose of the trip was a seminar or computer conference), or at a client’s office (also “generic” in most cases — you can’t even tell what floor you’re on when you get off the elevator, because every floor of “open office” layouts is the same). The trip usually ends in the late afternoon or evening of the final day, with a mad dash back to the airport to catch the last plane home to NYC. Thus, a business trip to Paris is almost indistinguishable from a business trip to Omaha. Or Albany. Or Tokyo.

 

But I did make a few “personal” visits to Paris in the 1970s and 1980s, so I looked forward to having the chance to walk through some familiar places along the Left Bank. I’m not so interested in museums, monuments, cathedrals, or other “official” tourist spots (but yes, I have been to the Eiffel Tower, just as I’ve been to the Empire State Building in NYC), so you won’t see any photos of those places in this Flickr set.

 

As a photographer, I now concentrate mostly on people and street scenes. The details of the location don’t matter much to me, though I do try to geotag my photos whenever I can. But for the most part, what you’ll see here are scenes of people and local things in Paris that made me smile as I walked around …

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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Among the many things that become apparent as you get older: events that are seared into your brain as a child (e.g., 9-11, the Challenger explosion, the first manned landing on the moon, JFK’s assassination) are utterly meaningless to the next generation. Also, countries that we were raised to think of as “enemies” morph into this generation’s “friends”.

 

In that vein, I planned my various recent visits to Russia, Cuba, and Vietnam with a certain amount of trepidation; I assume the current generation of university students feels the same way about visiting Iran and North Korea … but if my just-finished trip to Hanoi is any indication, things will almost certainly be different for the generation just now being born.

 

My visit to Vietnam was relatively brief and localized, so I make no pretense of having seen the entire city of Hanoi. let alone the country. I was attending a computer conference that was held in the Hanoi Hilton (an irony that was utterly lost on my fellow attendees), and during my brief periods of free time, I wandered around the vicinity of my hotel, right next to the Hanoi Opera House, in what used to be known as the “French Quarter.”

 

I also went on one “guided tour” during my visit, so I’ve seen one or two of the obligatory temples, and I’ve seen the enormous, impressive Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. I took some photos of those scenes, but I really don’t think they’re any different than any of the standard tourist photos that you can find all over the Internet, so I haven’t bothered to upload any of them. Instead, I’ve focused on what can best be described as “street scenes” in the neighborhood of my hotel …

 

… and if you’ve ever been to Hanoi, you probably have a good idea of what I mean by that: as soon as you walk out on the street — any street — you’re overwhelmed by the massive number of motor scooters zooming along in all directions. I was told that the cheapest (Chinese) motor scooters cost only $300-400, but most of the ones you’ll see are sturdier machines made by Honda and Vespa etc. Some carry a solitary rider, but most of them have two … or three, or four, or more … people crammed together. Some of them (including the driver) are carrying on a cell-phone conversation, others are laughing at some private joke. And many of the passengers are young children, sandwiched between two protective parents, or sometimes standing in the front “well” of the scooter, grasping the handlebars and looking bravely into the onrushing crowd.

 

Someone told me that a law was passed a few years ago, mandating that all scooter drivers and passengers must wear helmets; and from what I could see, the majority of the rider/passengers respected the law. But there were quite a few without any helmets, and this seemed particularly common for the children — arguably the most vulnerable of all the riders. But what almost everyone did have was a bandana/kerchief of some kind, presumably to diminish the effect of the pollution and noxious fumes surrounding everyone on the street.

 

Of course, not everyone is riding a motor-scooter; there are bicycles, too, as well as the usual collection of cars, taxis, buses, and even a few rickshaws. And there are pedestrians, too, all of whom seem remarkably fearless when it comes to walking across the street in the midst of traffic zooming at them from every conceivable direction. To a visitor, it seems like a giant exercise in Brownian motion — utterly random movements, with few (if any) collisions. I guess visitors to New York City feel the same way about our traffic and our pedestrians …

 

In any case, what you’ll see in this Flickr set is a collection of such “street scenes.” I did my best to “freeze” the action by taking multiple photos, shooting at a fairly fast shutter speed whenever possible, and “panning” my camera along with the motion of the scooters … but at best, they provide only a silent glimpse of what really exists as noisy bedlam. If you truly want to understand what it’s like, you’ll have to get on an airplane, and visit Hanoi yourself...

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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Once upon a time, I had serious intentions of running the New York marathon. It was back in 1979, and the whole thing was much less formal than it is now. Indeed, it was sufficiently informal that Rosie Ruiz was accidentally given a “finished time” of 2:56:29 for the New York event that year, which qualified her for the 1980 Boston marathon. It was later discovered that she had not run the entire NYC course (nor did she do so up in Boston on April 21, 1980), and her time was ultimately rescinded in both races. Had her times stayed in the record books, her Boston time of 2:31:56 would have been the fastest female time ever in the Boston marathon and the third-fastest female time ever recorded in any marathon...

 

Informal as the New York marathon was in those ancient days, you still couldn’t just show up at the starting line and expect to be welcomed. On the other hand, all that was necessary to get an official invitation was going down to the main branch of the U.S. Post Office on 34th Street at midnight on some long-forgotten summer night,and waiting in line with a bunch of equally crazy people. I got my entry ticket (or letter, or certificate, or whatever it was) a few days later, and began following a fairly serious training regimen, working my way up to a modest 10-mile race … until a business trip took me to Sydney, Australia for most of the month of August, 1979. Between business and social events, and the cold, wet weather of Sydney’s winter season, I didn’t do any running at all for that whole month … and with my training regimen broken, I wisely decided not to run the marathon at all.

 

But since then, I’ve always had a fondness for the NYC marathon — especially considering how much it has grown, and what a city-wide celebration it has become. I missed the event in 2013 and 2012, so it has been three years since I watched on the sidelines in 2011. With the promise of cold-but-sunny weather this year, I decided to return once again — and, as in 2011, I positioned myself at roughly the 24.5-mile point, at the beginning of a downhill run at roughly 78th Street, at the side of the Central Park “inner roadway.”

 

The runners pass by all afternoon, and well into the evening; but it’s a little more difficult to anticipate when the lead runners will reach any particular point. There are now so many participants in the marathon (about 50,000) that the runners are released in “waves,” beginning with those on hand-operated wheelchair/bicycles, and the “elite” women, the elite men, and three or four waves of mere mortals. There was an additional delay this year, because the headwinds were so strong that the initial wave had great difficulty propelling their wheeled vehicles up over the “hump” of the Tappan Zee bridge. So if you’re standing somewhere along the route, at the 10-mile mark, or the 20-mile mark, or (as I was) the 24.5 mile mark, you can only guess at the moment when the lead runners — or a friend or family member whom you want to cheer onward to the finish line — might be coming near you.

 

On the other hand, there are some clues. Helicopters hover above the lead runners, low enough that you can hear the roar of their blades; and there are two or three waves of police cars and motorcycles zooming ahead of the runners, pushing people back to the sidelines, and ensuring that there are no disruptions or obstacles to slow them down. Then — and it’s always an adrenaline rush! — you see the official race car, driving just a few feet ahead of the lead runners, with a huge race clock mounted on its roof, showing those fast-moving runners the exact number of hours, minutes, and seconds since they started their journey back at the edge of Staten Island.

 

The lead runners, of whom there are often two or three or four even up to the last mile, are often several minutes ahead of the next ones; but those who are in positions three, four, five or ten, and who will get no recognition at all from the press, the media, or the crowd when they finish … well, they still run as if their lives depend on it. And the crowd cheers them on, clapping and calling out their names and urging them onward.

 

One of the differences I noticed this year was the widespread use of bicycle horns and cow-bells that the onlookers used to create a cacophony of merry noise; I don’t know if the runners took it as a sign of encouragement, but it sure sounded that way to me …

 

I stayed longer than I had intended, and took several hundred more photos that I had planned … but they’re all just bits on the camera’s digital memory card, so it doesn’t really matter. One might argue that I should have stayed for eight or ten hours, until the last runner had straggled by. And perhaps I should have photographed each of the 50,000 runners, for I’m sure they each had their own story to tell. But after a while, it gets overwhelming — and the faces and bodies and brightly colored shirts and tights and shoes begin to blur…

 

I think I got a representative collection of photos; and the video clips will give you a sense of the noise and the motion of what seemed like an endless stream of humanity racing past … but to really understand it, you need to be there in person. Barring a crippling storm (like Hurricane Sandy, which forced the cancellation of the 2012 marathon), you’ll find another crowd of 50,000 runners racing through Central Park at the end of next year’s marathon, on the first Sunday in November. And with any luck, I’ll be there with my camera …

 

Who knows: maybe even Rosie Ruiz will be there, too. It turns out that she was arrested in 1982 for embezzling $60,000 from a real estate company where she worked; after a week in jail and a sentence of five years’ probation, she moved back to south Florida, where she was arrested in 1983 for her involvement in a cocaine deal. But as of the year 2000, she still insisted that she had run the entire 1980 Boston marathon. C’est la vie...

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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This set of photos is based on a very simple concept: walk every block of Manhattan with a camera, and see what happens. To avoid missing anything, walk both sides of the street.

 

That's all there is to it …

 

Of course, if you wanted to be more ambitious, you could also walk the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. But that's more than I'm willing to commit to at this point, and I'll leave the remaining boroughs of New York City to other, more adventurous photographers.

 

Oh, actually, there's one more small detail: leave the photos alone for a month -- unedited, untouched, and unviewed. By the time I actually focus on the first of these "every-block" photos, I will have taken more than 8,000 images on the nearby streets of the Upper West Side -- plus another several thousand in Rome, Coney Island, and the various spots in NYC where I traditionally take photos. So I don't expect to be emotionally attached to any of the "every-block" photos, and hope that I'll be able to make an objective selection of the ones worth looking at.

 

As for the criteria that I've used to select the small subset of every-block photos that get uploaded to Flickr: there are three. First, I'll upload any photo that I think is "great," and where I hope the reaction of my Flickr-friends will be, "I have no idea when or where that photo was taken, but it's really a terrific picture!"

 

A second criterion has to do with place, and the third involves time. I'm hoping that I'll take some photos that clearly say, "This is New York!" to anyone who looks at it. Obviously, certain landscape icons like the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty would satisfy that criterion; but I'm hoping that I'll find other, more unexpected examples. I hope that I'll be able to take some shots that will make a "local" viewer say, "Well, even if that's not recognizable to someone from another part of the country, or another part of the world, I know that that's New York!" And there might be some photos where a "non-local" viewer might say, "I had no idea that there was anyplace in New York City that was so interesting/beautiful/ugly/spectacular."

 

As for the sense of time: I remember wandering around my neighborhood in 2005, photographing various shops, stores, restaurants, and business establishments -- and then casually looking at the photos about five years later, and being stunned by how much had changed. Little by little, store by store, day by day, things change … and when you've been around as long as I have, it's even more amazing to go back and look at the photos you took thirty or forty years ago, and ask yourself, "Was it really like that back then? Seriously, did people really wear bell-bottom jeans?"

 

So, with the expectation that I'll be looking at these every-block photos five or ten years from now (and maybe you will be, too), I'm going to be doing my best to capture scenes that convey the sense that they were taken in the year 2013 … or at least sometime in the decade of the 2010's (I have no idea what we're calling this decade yet). Or maybe they'll just say to us, "This is what it was like a dozen years after 9-11".

 

Movie posters are a trivial example of such a time-specific image; I've already taken a bunch, and I don't know if I'll ultimately decide that they're worth uploading. Women's fashion/styles are another obvious example of a time-specific phenomenon; and even though I'm definitely not a fashion expert, I suspected that I'll be able to look at some images ten years from now and mutter to myself, "Did we really wear shirts like that? Did women really wear those weird skirts that are short in the front, and long in the back? Did everyone in New York have a tattoo?"

 

Another example: I'm fascinated by the interactions that people have with their cellphones out on the street. It seems that everyone has one, which certainly wasn't true a decade ago; and it seems that everyone walks down the street with their eyes and their entire conscious attention riveted on this little box-like gadget, utterly oblivious about anything else that might be going on (among other things, that makes it very easy for me to photograph them without their even noticing, particularly if they've also got earphones so they can listen to music or carry on a phone conversation). But I can't help wondering whether this kind of social behavior will seem bizarre a decade from now … especially if our cellphones have become so miniaturized that they're incorporated into the glasses we wear, or implanted directly into our eyeballs.

 

If you have any suggestions about places that I should definitely visit to get some good photos, or if you'd like me to photograph you in your little corner of New York City, please let me know. You can send me a Flickr-mail message, or you can email me directly at ed-at-yourdon-dot-com

 

Stay tuned as the photo-walk continues, block by block ...

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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About a year ago, I created Flickr album for photos that I had started taking with my iPhone5s; and now I’m creating a new Flickr album for photos that I’ve begun taking with myiPhone6, which just arrived from T-Mobile this morning.

 

In last year’s album, I wrote, "Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, it’s hard to walk around with a modern smartphone in your pocket, and not be tempted to use the built-in camera from time-to-time. Veteran photographers typically sneer at such behavior, and most will tell you that they can instantly recognize an iPhone photo, which they mentally reject as being unworthy of any serious attention.

 

"After using many earlier models of smartphones over the past several years, I was inclined to agree; after all, I always (well, almost always) had a “real” camera in my pocket (or backpack or camera-bag), and it was always capable of taking a much better photographic image than the mediocre, grainy images shot with a camera-phone.

 

"But still … there were a few occasions when I desperately wanted to capture some photo-worthy event taking place right in front of me, and inevitably it turned out to be the times when I did not have the “real” camera with me. Or I did have it, but it was buried somewhere in a bag, and I knew that the “event” would have disappeared by the time I found the “real" camera and turned it on. By contrast, the smart-phone was always in my pocket (along with my keys and my wallet, it’s one of the three things I consciously grab every time I walk out the door). And I often found that I could turn it on, point it at the photographic scene, and take the picture much faster than I could do the same thing with a “traditional” camera.

 

"Meanwhile, smartphone cameras have gotten substantially better in the past few years, from a mechanical/hardware perspective; and the software “intelligence” controlling the camera has become amazingly sophisticated. It’s still not on the same level as a “professional” DSLR camera, but for a large majority of the “average” photographic situations we’re likely to encounter in the unplanned moments of our lives, it’s more and more likely to be “good enough.” The old adage of “the best camera is the one you have with you” is more and more relevant these days. For me, 90% of the success in taking a good photo is simply being in the right place at the right time, being aware that the “photo opportunity” is there, and having a camera — any camera — to take advantage of that opportunity. Only 10% of the time does it matter which camera I’m using, or what technical features I’ve managed to use.

 

"And now, with the recent advent of the iPhone5s, there is one more improvement — which, as far as I can tell, simply does not exist in any of the “professional” cameras. You can take an unlimited number of “burst-mode” shots with the new iPhone, simply by keeping your finger on the shutter button; instead of being limited to just six (as a few of the DSLR cameras currently offer), you can take 10, 20, or even a hundred shots. And then — almost magically — the iPhone will show you which one or two of the large burst of photos was optimally sharp and clear. With a couple of clicks, you can then delete everything else, and retain only the very best one or two from the entire burst.

 

"With that in mind, I’ve begun using my iPhone5s for more and more “everyday” photo situations out on the street. Since I’m typically photographing ordinary, mundane events, even the one or two “optimal” shots that the camera-phone retains might not be worth showing anyone else … so there is still a lot of pruning and editing to be done, and I’m lucky if 10% of those “optimal” shots are good enough to justify uploading to Flickr and sharing with the rest of the world. Still, it’s an enormous benefit to know that my editing work can begin with photos that are more-or-less “technically” adequate, and that I don’t have to waste even a second reviewing dozens of technically-mediocre shots that are fuzzy, or blurred.

 

"Oh, yeah, one other minor benefit of the iPhone5s (and presumably most other current brands of smartphone): it automatically geotags every photo and video, without any special effort on the photographer’s part. Only one of my other big, fat cameras (the Sony Alpha SLT A65) has that feature, and I’ve noticed that almost none of the “new” mirrorless cameras have got a built-in GPS thingy that will perform the geotagging...

 

"I’ve had my iPhone5s for a couple of months now, but I’ve only been using the “burst-mode” photography feature aggressively for the past couple of weeks. As a result, the initial batch of photos that I’m uploading are all taken in the greater-NYC area. But as time goes on, and as my normal travel routine takes me to other parts of the world, I hope to add more and more “everyday” scenes in cities that I might not have the opportunity to photograph in a “serious” way.

 

*****************************************************************************

 

Okay, so now it’s September of 2014, and I’ve got the iPhone 6. They say that the camera is better, and that the internal camera-related hardware/firmware/software is better, too. Obviously, I’ve got the newer iOS, too, and even on the “old” phones, it now supports time-lapse videos along with everything else.

 

I’ve still got my pocket camera (an amazing little Sony ERX-100 Mark III), and two larger cameras (Sony RX-10, and Sony A7), but I have a feeling that I won’t even be taking them out of the camera bag when I’m out on the street for ordinary day-to-day walking around.

 

That will depend, obviously, on what kind of photos and videos the iPhone6 is actually capable of taking … so I’m going to try to use it every day, and see what the results look like …

 

Like I said last year, “stay tuned…"

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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I have a confession to make: I’ve lived in New York City for 45 years — but until last night, I had never attended, observed, photographed, or participated in the annual Halloween Parade that takes place in Greenwich Village. I can’t be blamed for the first few years: I moved to NYC in the late 60’s (on Bleecker Street, right in the middle of the West Village), and the parade did not begin until 1974. But that means last night’s parade was the 40th such event … and for some reason, I missed them all.

 

But I was there last night … a little unsure of myself, for the parade did not actually begin until 7 PM, an hour after sunset. Even at 5 PM, the sun has usually dropped so low (in the fall and winter months) that the light is pretty mediocre for photography — and it was a cold, gray, overcast day as well. So I brought my flash along, even though I’ve rarely used it, and wandered through the crowd to see what I could find.

 

And it was a crowd: as early as 1985, it was estimated that some 250,000 people were participating in the event; I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a million people there last night. But at first, I couldn’t find any of them: the newspaper had announced that people could arrive at a pre-parade “staging” area on Canal Street and Sixth Avenue … but when I got there (early, as usual), there was not a soul to be seen. But I eventually noticed some costumed people who seemed to know where they were going … and I could hear music in the distance … so so I began heading north, and found the beginning of the crowd scene about three blocks further north, on Broome Street.

 

After that, it was sheer bedlam for the next couple of hours — until the parade officially began moving north on Sixth Avenue, right at 7 PM. The costumes were overwhelming — everything from witches and goblins, monsters, the GhostBusters, kings and queens and pirates and aliens. There were a few topless women with thick psychedelic body-paint to provide a small amount of modesty, and there were several groups of dancers who had obviously practiced dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which blared loudly from several sound systems. Meanwhile, there were drummers and samba bands, steel bands, and informal groups doing their best to provide the crowd with Italian, Chinese, Irish, Dixieland, and African music…

 

After I left the parade, I took the subway from Canal Street up to 14th Street to meet my wife for a quiet dinner at a small Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. But everywhere I went — streets, sidewalks, subway stations — it seemed that all of Greenwich Village had been caught up in the revelry.

 

Beyond that, it’s impossible for me to describe the noise, the music, the costumes, and the overall revelry. For an overall summary, you might want to look at this Wikipedia article

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York's_Village_Halloween_Parade

 

But I think the only way to really understand what the NYC Halloween Parade is all about is to be there. Words don’t really suffice ...

   

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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This is a continuation of Flickr sets that I created in 2013 (shown here), 2012 (shown here), 2011 (shown here), 2010 (shown here), 2009 (shown here), and 2008 (shown here) -- which, collectively, illustrate a variety of scenes and people in the small "pocket park" known as Verdi Square, located at 72nd Street and Broadway in New York City's Upper West Side, right by the 72nd St. IRT subway station.

 

I typically visit a local gym once or twice a week, and I get there by taking the downtown IRT express from my home (at 96th Street) down to the 72nd Street stop. Whenever possible, I try to schedule an extra 30-60 minutes to sit quietly on one of the park benches, and just watch the flow of people coming in and out of the park -- sometimes just passing through, to get from 72nd Street up to 73rd Street, sometimes coming down Broadway to enter the park at 73rd Street, but mostly entering or exiting the subway station.

 

You see all kinds of people here: students, bums, tourists (from New Jersey and from all four corners of the globe), office workers, homeless people, retired people, babysitters, children, soldiers, sanitation workers, lovers, friends, dogs, cats, pigeons, and a few things that simply defy description. Sometimes you see the same people over and over again; sometimes they follow a regular pattern at a particular time of the day, which always makes me smile — even though I never go up to them and introduce myself.

 

If I focus on the people coming south on Broadway, and entering the park at 73rd Street, and then continuing to walk southwards toward the subway entrance, I typically have five or ten seconds to (a) decide if they're sufficiently interesting to bother photographing,(b) wait for them to get in a position where I can get a clear shot of them, and (c) focus my camera on them and take several shots, in the hope that at least one or two of them will be well-focused and really interesting.

 

While you might get the impression that I photograph every single person who moves through this park, it's actually just the opposite: the overwhelming majority of people that I see here are just not all that interesting. (It's not that they're ugly, it's just that there's nothing interesting, memorable, or distinctive about them.) Even so, I might well take, say, 200 shots in the space of an hour. But some of them are repetitive or redundant, and others are blurred or out-of-focus, or technically defective in some other way. Of the ones that survive this kind of scrutiny, many turn out to be well-focused, nicely-composed, but ... well ... just "okay". I'll keep them on my computer, just in case, but I don't bother uploading them.

 

Typically, only about 1-2% of the photos I've taken get uploaded to Flickr -- e.g., about 5-10 photos from a one-hour session in which a thousand, or more, people have walked past me. There are some exceptions to this rule of thumb -- but in general, what you're seeing it is indeed only a tiny, tiny subset of the "real" street scene in New York City. On the other hand, it is reassuring to see that there are at least a few "interesting" people in a city that often has a reputation of being mean, cold, and heartless...

(More details later, as time permits)

 

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This is a continuation of a Flickr set that I started in the summer of 2009, and continued in 2010 (in this Flickr set), 2011 (in this Flickr set), 2012 (in this Flickr set), and 2013 (in this Flickr set). As I noted in those earlier sets of photos, I still have many parts of New York City left to explore -- but I've also realized that I don't always have to go looking elsewhere for interesting photographs. Some of it is available just outside my front door.

 

I live on a street corner on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where there's an express stop on the IRT subway line, as well as a crosstown bus stop, an entrance to the West Side Highway, and the usual range of banks, delis, grocery stores, mobile-phone stores, drug-stores, McDonald’s, Two Boots Pizza, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, Subway, 7-11, and other commercial enterprises. As a result, there are lots of interesting people moving past my apartment building, all day and all night long.

 

It's easy to find an unobtrusive spot on the edge of the median strip separating the east side of Broadway from the west side; nobody pays any attention to me as they cross the street from east to west, and nobody even looks in my direction as they cross from north to south (or vice versa). In rainy weather, sometimes I huddle under an awning of the T-Mobile phone store on the corner, so I can take pictures of people under their umbrellas, without getting my camera and myself soaking wet...

 

So, these are some of the people I thought were photo-worthy during the past few weeks and months; I'll add more to the collection as the year progresses ... unless, of course, other parts of New York City turn out to be more compelling from time to time.

Si me permiten voy a dedicar esta pequeña serie a los compañeros fotografos que nos reunimos el dia 15 de Mayo en el jardin canario para que no se olviden que tenemos pendiente otra salida el proximo mes a ver si vamos pensando fecha!!!

 

algunos miembros de aquella kdada no me dejan agregarle a la foto!!!!muahhhhh!!!

A ranger stands outside the Wilderness Permit Center.

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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Nearly a year elapsed after I photographed the tango dancers gathering on Pier 45 (where Christopher Street runs into the Hudson River in New York City's West Village), before I finally came back in late-August 2014. I had been preoccupied with other duties, and I was away from the city for most of August, finally returning to the Pier 45 on the weekend before Labor Day…

 

As I've mentioned in other Flickr sets, I have now met a few of the dancers at previous tango events, and I made a point of introducing myself to several others, handing out business cards with my Flickr address so that people would be able to find these pictures without too much difficulty. But the dancers have good reason to be more interested in the music, and the movement of their partners, than a guy on the sideline with a camera -- so most of them simply ignore me...

 

As I've also pointed out in some previous Flickr albums (here, for example), I do not dance the tango; and even after watching the dancers for nearly three years, I know almost nothing about the history, the folklore, or even the steps and rhythms of the tango. But after accidentally stumbling upon a local gathering of tango aficionados on a business trip to Washington in August 2009 (see my Flickr set Last tango in Washington), I discovered that there were similar informal events throughout New York City. When I got home, I searched on the Internet and found a schedule of upcoming tango events at several different NYC locations -- including Pier 45, where I made my first visit in mid-April of 2010, which led to this set of photos.

 

Altogether, I've now taken a dozen sets of tango-related photos, and you can see a thumbnail overview of them in this Flickr collection. And if you'd like to watch some other examples NYC tango dancing, check out Richard Lipkin's Guide to Argentine Tango in New York City.

 

For a video version of the tango dancers, complete with music (which isn’t really tango music, but that’s okay), check out my YouTube page from 2011; it’s here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqmnTQuwn54&list=UUUXim5Er2O4...

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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In the spring of 2014, we came to Paris for a week of relaxed vacationing, mostly to wander around and see some old familiar places. It was a “return” trip for both of us, though in my case I think it’s probably been more than 15 years since I was even here on a business trip.

 

Business trips to any city don’t really count as a “visit” -- since they basically involve flying into a busy airport at night, taking a taxi to a generic business-traveler’s hotel (a Hilton in Paris looks just like a Hilton in Cairo), and then spending several days working in the hotel (if the purpose of the trip was a seminar or computer conference), or at a client’s office (also “generic” in most cases — you can’t even tell what floor you’re on when you get off the elevator, because every floor of “open office” layouts is the same). The trip usually ends in the late afternoon or evening of the final day, with a mad dash back to the airport to catch the last plane home to NYC. Thus, a business trip to Paris is almost indistinguishable from a business trip to Omaha. Or Albany. Or Tokyo.

 

But I did make a few “personal” visits to Paris in the 1970s and 1980s, so I looked forward to having the chance to walk through some familiar places along the Left Bank. I’m not so interested in museums, monuments, cathedrals, or other “official” tourist spots (but yes, I have been to the Eiffel Tower, just as I’ve been to the Empire State Building in NYC), so you won’t see any photos of those places in this Flickr set.

 

As a photographer, I now concentrate mostly on people and street scenes. The details of the location don’t matter much to me, though I do try to geotag my photos whenever I can. But for the most part, what you’ll see here are scenes of people and local things in Paris that made me smile as I walked around …

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Demolition permits have been issued for two General Iron Industries properties: 1909 N. Clifton Ave. (actually located on N. Kingsbury Street) and 1910 N. Clifton Ave. (on the other side of fenced-in property). Demolition permits were also issued for General Metals properties at 1806 and 1836 N. Kingsbury St. The controversial General Iron facilities had been closed since January 2021 and had sought to move to E. 116th Street on the city’s far Southeast Side. The city has since rescinded that permit. The North Side property was the scene of a massive explosion in 2020, which hastened calls for the city to shut down the scrap operations.

 

The four-story 1909 building is 76,000 square feet. The 1910 property, although listed as a one-story building, is being marketed as three land parcels totaling 20.3 acres.

 

A few shots of the incredible 1938 French-built streamlined Hudson at the Cite du Train museum (the National Railway Museum) in Mulhouse, France. This beautifully restored locomotive is set up on rollers, permitting the drivers and valve motion to be seen in action every 30 minutes. fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/232_U_1

Esta fotografía permite reflejar la intención de la marca del cuidado de la piel en la época del verano ya que el sol la deshidrata, se pretende que la mujer pueda tener una línea completa de productos que ayuden a su piel a lucir hermosamente natural sin importar las inclemencias del clima.

Day: 072/365

 

As Cobra Commander emerges from an underground bunker his personal guards - led by Tomax and Xamot - and the Barroness spread out to make sure the permiter is safe for thier leader.

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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This is the continuation of a photo-project that I began in the summer of 2008 (which you can see in this Flickr set), and continued throughout 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 (as shown in this Flickr set, this Flickr set, this Flickr set, this Flickr set, and this Flickr set)

): a random collection of "interesting" people in a broad stretch of the Upper West Side of Manhattan -- between 72nd Street and 104th Street, especially along Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. These are the people in my neighborhood, aka "peeps in the 'hood."

 

As I indicated when I first started this project six years ago, I don't like to intrude on people's privacy, so I normally use a zoom telephoto lens in order to photograph them while they're still 50-100 feet away from me; but that means I have to continue focusing my attention on the people and activities half a block away, rather than on what's right in front of me. Sometimes I find an empty bench on a busy street corner, and just sit quietly for an hour, watching people hustling past on the other side of the street; they're almost always so busy listening to their iPod, or talking on their cellphone, or daydreaming about something, that they never look up and see me aiming my camera in their direction.

 

I've also learned that, in many cases, the opportunities for an interesting picture are very fleeting -- literally a matter of a couple of seconds, before the person(s) in question move on, turn away, or stop doing whatever was interesting. So I've learned to keep my camera switched on, and not worry so much about zooming in for a perfectly-framed picture ... after all, once the digital image is uploaded to my computer, it's pretty trivial to crop out the parts unrelated to the main subject. Indeed, some of my most interesting photos have been so-called "hip shots," where I don't even bother to raise the camera up to my eye; I just keep the zoom lens set to the maximum wide-angle aperture, point in the general direction of the subject, and take several shots. As long as I can keep the shutter speed fairly high (which sometimes requires a fairly high ISO setting), I can usually get some fairly crisp shots -- even if the subject is walking in one direction, and I'm walking in the other direction, while I'm snapping the photos.

 

With only a few exceptions, I've generally avoided photographing bums, drunks, crazies, and homeless people. There are plenty of them around, and they would certainly create some dramatic pictures; but they generally don't want to be photographed, and I don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage of them. There have been a few opportunities to take some "sympathetic" pictures of such people, which might inspire others to reach out and help them. This is one example, and here is another example.

 

The other thing I've noticed, while carrying on this project for the past six years, is that while there are lots of interesting people to photograph, there are far, far, far more people who are not so interesting. They're probably fine people, and they might even be more interesting than the ones I've photographed ... unfortunately, there was just nothing memorable about them. They're all part of this big, crowded city; but for better or worse, there are an awful lot that you won't see in these Flickr sets of mine...

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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I’ve been to Venice once or twice for brief business trips during my life, which had the same characteristics as the business trips I described in a separate Flickr album about Paris — i.e., they basically involve flying into a busy airport at night, taking a taxi to a generic business-traveler’s hotel (a Hilton in Venice looks just like a Hilton in Cairo,except perhaps for the canal outside the main entrance), and then spending several days working in the hotel (if the purpose of the trip was a seminar or computer conference), or at a client’s office (also “generic” in most cases — you can’t even tell what floor you’re on when you get off the elevator, because every floor of “open office” layouts is the same). The trip usually ends in the late afternoon or evening of the final day, with a mad dash back to the airport to catch the last plane home to NYC. Thus, a business trip to Venice is almost indistinguishable from a business trip to Omaha. Or Albany. Or Tokyo.

 

But Venice is different from almost any other place in the world, and I’ve had a couple of vacation trips to experience that side of the city. But it’s been a long, long time: the first such visit was back in 1976 (which you can see here on Flickr), and the second visit was in 1983 (pictures of which do exist on Flickr, but have been restricted to family-only access, since they consist mostly of boring pictures of drooling babies and kids sticking their collective tongues out at me).

 

Thirty years is a long time between visits … but for a city like Venice, I doubt that very much has changed. Well, perhaps there wasn’t a McDonald’s outlet in Venice when I first came here (and I did photograph one such outlet on this current visit, which you’ll find in this album), and you can certainly guarantee that people weren’t walking around with cellphones and smartphones the way they are today. And while the tourists typically did have cameras back in the good-old-days, they were typically modest little “Instamatic” film-based gadgets, rather than the big, garish, DSLR cameras that everyone now seems to carry around with them, complete with advertising logos all over the camera-straps and bodies to remind you that they, too, can afford to buy an expensive Canon or Nikon gadget that they really don’t know how to use properly. (Sorry, I got carried away there …)

 

But the buildings, and the people, and the canals, and the gondolas … all of that is the same. And that’s what I’ve tried to capture in this set of photos. The tourist crowds are now so thick (even in May!) that I didn’t even bother going to the square at San Marco, and I didn’t bother taking any photos from the Rialto bridge over the Grand Canal; but you will see some photos of tourists in this album, along with photos of the local people who are still here …

 

I don’t expect to come back to Venice again in the next year or two … but if it turns out to be 20 or 30 years before my next return, I suspect it will all look pretty much exactly the same as it did on this trip, and in 1983, and when I first saw it in 1976.

Pagar karma

 

Tenemos la pretensión de saber exactamente lo que hacemos. El porque y el porque no de cada cosa. Cada meta que nos proponemos, en caso de no cumplirla, tiene una sola explicación: el otro no me lo permite: el otro, los otros, las circunstancias ajenas a mi.

Soy una persona bastante cerebral. Me guío por mi pensamiento más que por mis sentimientos.

Me encontraba en un dilema, más allá de mi entendimiento: el porque estaba casada con un hombre y amaba a otro.

No hallaba una explicación y tenía que hacer algo al respecto y, para ello, primero debía saber de que se trataba. Busque soluciones en distintos lugares y con distintas técnicas: terapia froidiana con un psicólogo, carta natal con una astróloga (con revolución solar incluida), videntes de varias clases: tarot, runas, borra de café.

La famosa teoría de la prueba y el error no me había dado muy buen resultado: había hecho todas las pruebas y todo me conducía a un error.

Me habían recomendado una modalidad nueva: terapia de vidas anteriores.

El razonamiento para aplicarla se sustentaba en este pensamiento: si no sabes porque te casaste con una persona de la cual ni siquiera estabas enamorada, estas unida por un lazo de una vida anterior (cuestiones karmicas que le dicen). Si te enamoraste perdidamente de una persona que apenas conoces, y te aferras a ella como si fuese la única en el mundo, estas unida por un lazo de una vida anterior (adivinaste, otra cuestión karmica)

Simple, lógico, bastante bizarro.

A falta de algo mas ortodoxo para probar y, presa de la desesperación, decidí hacerla.

- Ahora, voy a pedir permiso para abrir el libro de la… (no recuerdo si dijo vida y alguna otra palabra)…de los archivos akasicos- dijo la terapeuta con vos profunda y casi en un susurro. Y mientras ella hablaba yo me imaginaba un libro viejo, con signos, señales y, porque no, imágenes.

Me sentía confortable. Me había hecho recostar en una otomana. Puesto una almohada bajo mi cabeza y, con una frazada suave y liviana, me arropo.

- Es importante que no sientas frío, y que estés cómoda, para que no te distraigas con alguna sensación de molestia- me explico mientras me cubría con la manta.

Me hizo relajar, practica que yo tenía incorporada por algunos años de yoga. Después me señalo que era posible que visualizara mi “yo superior”. – Vas a sentir como una presencia cerca de ti, no te asustes, porque, seguramente, te va a ayudar en el proceso - y, haciendo una cuenta regresiva, me introdujo a la visión de una vida anterior.

La consigna, de la que habíamos hablado previamente, era hacerme a mi misma la pregunta del porque estaba junto a Dardo, mi marido. Porque, habiendo tantas diferencias (el carácter, los gustos, en realidad todo), me había obligado a unirme en matrimonio con una persona tan distinta y, por la cual, solo sentía un afecto casi amistoso.

En ese momento pensaba que no estaba muy segura de lo que estaba haciendo. Fue solo un reflejo de mi impotencia la que me llevo a este lugar. Y, la pregunta del millón era: que le contestaría cuando no pudiera ver. Como le respondería a sus preguntas, a sus requerimientos.

Yo había reparado que estaba anotando todo lo que sucedía y, seguramente, me iba a preguntar lo que estaba viendo para dejarlo asentado.

-Para que preocuparse- , me dije, -veamos que pasa-.

Al llegar al número uno de la cuenta regresiva, me encontré en un lugar extraño que nunca había visto, en medio de una tormenta de arena, huyendo de alguien que me perseguía. Lo empecé a relatar con vos entrecortada y como si tuviera la boca pastosa. Tenía dificultades para hablar. Luego sentí que me tomaban por la espalda rudamente y me hundían un puñal en el pecho. No se si realmente sentí el dolor, lo que si se es que me habían matado.

Claro que había sido fuerte la visión. Si era el producto de mi imaginación no puedo asegurarlo.

Sin sacarme de ese estado me pregunto quien era la persona que me perseguía. Yo, sin dudarlo, conteste que mi marido, cuando inquirió el porque, respondí, sin pensarlo, porque quería hacerme suya, y para eso, me había raptado. Como yo no quería ser su esposa me escape de su casa, donde me tenía encerrada, y el me busco por el desierto hasta que, al encontrarme, me apuñalo por venganza de mi rechazo y de mi huida. Cuando inquirió sobre la época y el lugar, dije rápidamente, alrededor del 1700 en Turquía.

Después de estas respuestas, la terapeuta expreso unas palabras de agradecimiento por permitir las visiones que había tenido, y, lentamente, me fue sacando del estado de relajación, haciendo una cuenta progresiva.

Cuando abrí los ojos, me hizo sentar y, nos pusimos a conversar del tema.

Le confesé que, ciertamente, la persona que había visto durante la sesión era, hasta físicamente, parecida a mi marido actual. Sentí la sensación de miedo al verme correr por el desierto y pánico al sentirme atacada. Cuando me apuñalo recordé que la terapeuta trato de tranquilizarme.

No se si durante esta conversación o en momentos posteriores estuve pensando sobre los sentimientos y las vivencias que había tenido: podría decirse que era razonable, después de lo visto, porque yo, a Dardo, le tenía miedo, o cierta aprensión cuando me miraba de reojo, por alguna cosa que suponía había hecho mal.

El nunca me insulto, ni me levanto la mano, ni discutía conmigo. La forma de imponerse era por cansancio. Insistía hasta la exasperación y terminaba venciendo mi no, por un si, solo porque yo quería que dejara de pedir. Aun así yo sentía ese ligero temor de su persona. En parte eso era lo que me había impedido, hasta ese momento, pedirle la separación. Yo sentía como una obligación hacia el bastante inexplicable lo que me ataba a su presencia.

De todas maneras esa sesión bien puedo ser producto de la imaginación que, a no dudarlo, tengo en demasía. ¿Quién lo puede saber? Yo en ese momento no.

Quedamos para una próxima entrevista con el fin de continuar la experiencia.

No se si estaba mas confundida, lo que si sentí fue una profunda curiosidad por lo que había vivenciado. Quería volver para tratar de ir al mismo lugar y, de ser posible, ver que encontraba.

Tres días más tarde me encontré nuevamente en el consultorio escuchando la cuenta regresiva de la terapeuta.

La consigna era, en esta oportunidad, igual que la anterior pero, después de preguntar nuevamente porque sentía que estaba con mi marido, debía preguntarme, porque sentía tanto amor, mezclado con miedo a perderlo, hacia Carlos, mi amante.

Al llegar al número uno me encontré nuevamente en el desierto, corriendo en medio de una tormenta de arena. Era creer o creer, igual visión, iguales circunstancias, igual final, solo que la terapeuta me llevo a lo siguiente antes que me apuñalaran salteando ese momento en mi recuerdo, para que no reviva, inútilmente, ese acontecimiento tan dramático y doloroso.

Ante la pregunta de porque estaba tan aferrada a mi amante pude ver un picaporte dorado y mi mano tratando de abrirlo nerviosamente. Vi una cómoda con un gran cristal biselado. Entre los cepillos para el pelo, el peine y los perfumes una carta estaba apoyada contra el marco del espejo.

Vi unas manos abriéndola con apuro y, luego de leerla, una congoja se apodero de mí. Vi como bajaba las escaleras corriendo y salía por la puerta principal hacia el jardín.

Luego, bajo la lluvia, vi un torrente de agua que discurría sobre el cause de un río, y seguía sintiendo una gran angustia.

Me llego la vos de la terapeuta, diciéndome que, si había una situación muy traumática, la pasara por alto y siguiera avanzando con la visión. Vi desde arriba a una joven tendida en el pasto, completamente quieta y mojada, con gente alrededor que le hablaba para hacerla reaccionar, yo la veía cada vez desde más arriba, sabiendo que la muchacha estaba muerta.

Sentí mucha pena y, a la pregunta de la terapeuta de porque se había suicidado, le conteste porque en la carta la abandonaba su novio, un caballero que había partido hacia la guerra y se había enamorado en el frente de otra mujer. A la pregunta de quien era el soldado, respondí que Carlos. Descartado estaba que la muchacha era yo, y que por el abandono me había suicidado.

Cuando, después de la cuenta progresiva de la terapeuta, volví a estar sentada frente a ella, no podía dudar mas, había visto la misma escena de la primera sesión, con los mismos detalles, sintiendo las mismas cosas. Era, si no contundente, algo para tomar en cuenta, la similitud de las imágenes me producía cierta reserva sobre un posible engaño. Era yo con lo que había visto, provocado por el mismo método.

El experimento se había reproducido cabalmente y había dado el mismo resultado: igual prueba, igual resultado. No había error.

Después de una ligera interpretación de la terapeuta, salí del consultorio con más dudas que respuestas. Entendía que la Licenciada, de eso se había recibido, tenía una gran habilidad para lograr que las personas revivieran escenas de, podríamos decir, archivos olvidados de su conciencia. Si uno creía o no en vidas anteriores, no tenía nada que ver con el hecho que lo que se descubría era el motivo de sentimientos y sensaciones con personas con las que, en esta vida, no había una historia previa que las justifique.

Lo que no podía llevar adelante esta licenciada era el tema de la interpretación. Según ella yo debía continuar con mi marido, por que estaba unida por una cuestión karmica, y olvidarme de Carlos, porque…, ella era acolita de los seguidores de Allan Kardec y, además, católica apostólica romana. Creo que más que por cuestiones terapéuticas, era por cuestiones de su religión.

Como era mi costumbre, tome lo que me servia y el resto lo deje sin un mayor cuestionamiento. Para que perder el tiempo del porque de su interpretación, bastante caprichosa a mi entender.

No estaba muy segura de compartir esta experiencia con mi amante. Lo que si sabía era que, de ninguna manera, lo iba a conversar con mi marido. Era negador de todo tipo de terapia y ni siquiera sabía que había ido a una sesión.

Recuerdo mi apuro por solucionar el tema, y recuerdo mi gran aflicción por las decisiones que debía tomar.

Sabía que no quería seguir estando a lado de un hombre que no amaba. Iba contra toda la lógica de mi vida. Vivir bien con quien uno ama, no por dinero, no por estatus, solo por amor.

Sabia que de ninguna manera iba a obligar a nada a Carlos, que, por otra parte, estaba casado y no tenía ninguna intención de separarse. Solo estaba consiente que lo adoraba y que, cada noche, me juraba a mi misma que, si tenía la oportunidad de vivir con el, lo seguiría hasta el fin del mundo, pase lo que pase.

En fin, era una decisión difícil de tomar o no. Era más difícil vivir en la mentira, me decía a mi misma.

Al llegar a casa y ver la luz prendida supe que Dardo ya había llegado del trabajo. Tenía que tomar una resolución y cuanto antes lo hiciera, antes me sentiría en paz.

Al abrir la puerta, su cuerpo se interpuso ante la cocina, y, casi sorprendido, se acerco para besarme. - hola, te estaba esperando, creí que ya estabas en casa- me dijo, buscando mi boca. Yo, casi con descuido, corrí mi cara, poniéndole la mejilla para que me besara. - No te acordás que te avise que me veía con Gladis- mentí, sabiendo que mi amiga siempre me cubría, y, además, sabiendo que el no le iba a preguntar.

– Preparo la comida- dije rapidamente. Trataba de apurar el tiempo de la conversación y, a la vez, huir de su presencia para no tener que enfrentarlo.

- Dale, mientras me ducho. ¿Qué calor hizo hoy? – lo de siempre. Su tema favorito, el tiempo y otras intrascendencias.

Bueno, ahora, a pensar, que mientras se ducha, se viste y come, no va ha tener nada que cuestionar y tengo mi mente libre.

Claro, se lo tengo que decir. Pero lo antes posible. Yo se que el ni se lo espera. Pero eso a mi no me importa, solo debo hacerlo.

Durante la cena, en algún momento vi que se quedo mirándome fijo. - ¿A vos te pasa algo?- me dijo. Esto no estaba en el libreto, el nunca se daba cuenta o inquiría sobre mis estados de animo. Mientras no le reclamara o no le pidiera algo que el no quería hacer, estaba todo bien. Trate de sacarlo de tema haciéndome la distraída – ¿No se a que te referís? – dije y, seguidamente, seguí comiendo para tener la boca ocupada y no hablar.

Dardo pestañeo, apretó los labios, en una actitud de duda y, mirándome de reojo, volvió a preguntar -¿Qué te pasa?- casi en forma desafiante.

En nuestros cuatro años de matrimonio nunca habíamos discutido. Era una convivencia casi amistosa, en donde dejábamos y tomábamos libertad de ambas partes, sin darnos mayores explicaciones.

- Mira, no se que te pasa a vos, que estas tan preguntón, pero a mi no me pasa nada – mentí, tratando de minimizar su pregunta.

- Bueno- dijo mansamente – pero no me engañas, a vos te pasa algo- siguió el argumento desafiante de antes – ya vamos a ver de que se trata- y después de decir esto, se concentro en la televisión sin dirigirme mas la palabra.

Solo, de vez en cuando, me miraba de reojo, sin mover la cara, como dando a entender que sabía que le estaba mintiendo.

Me hacía sentir bastante incomoda, pero, supuestamente, ya sabía porque era. El, finalmente, era un tipo de cuidado.

No iba a ser tan fácil decirle que quería separarme. No iba a querer y, además, me iba a pedir explicaciones y yo, sabia perfectamente, no debía decirle nada que había otro hombre. Suponía el resultado de esta cuestión

Tenia que apurar los tiempos. Yo no iba a resistir mucho su presión. Me sentía acobardada, pero, al mismo tiempo, decidida a finiquitar la cuestión.

Cuando termino el partido, estaba contento porque había ganado su equipo. Le pedí que habláramos y me dijo- ahora soy yo el que no quiero, mañana puede ser, déjame disfrutar este buen momento, porque, por tu cara, no es nada bueno lo que te pasa y no quiero que me arruines el día- y sin saludarme se fue a dormir.

No estaba segura de estar enojada, sabía que no podía obligarlo a que me escuchara. Lo importante, para mi, era tener yo la resolución de hablar. Que iba a decir él era una incógnita, pero bastante predecible.

En la mañana estaba peor que cuando me había acostado. Durante la noche me sentí torturada por las decisiones que debía tomar y el resultado impredecible de estas.

Recordé la protagonista de la película “Durmiendo con el Enemigo”.

Me levante y, después de hacer el desayuno, llame a Dardo.

Cuando se sentó en la mesa, lo mas suavemente posible, le pregunte - ¿ahora si podemos hablar?-

- Bueno, puede ser. ¿Qué te pasa?- me pregunto medio en serio, medio en broma.

Siempre había tenido chispa para los chistes. Siempre había sido el centro de atención en las reuniones.

- Quiero que nos separemos. No quiero vivir mas con vos- le dije, sabiendo que, para mi, era la mejor manera de encarar el tema.

Se rió y, queriendo convencerme me dijo – Buenos, no es para tanto. Ayer estabas enojada, ¿verdad?- ante mi negativa siguió diciendo- no mientas, te sentías mal y yo no quería que me pasaras la factura de tu malestar, por eso te conteste así. No quería pelear- la verdad es que nunca peleamos porque yo, en los años de matrimonio, nunca me opuse a lo que el quería.

- No hay nada que discutir- le dije lo mas serenamente que pude – no quiero vivir mas con vos. Quiero el divorcio. No lo pensé anoche, ya lo vengo pensando hace un tiempo- trate de ser firme en mi determinación.

Su cara se fue transformando, al comprender que no estaba jugando, que era en serio. De incredulidad paso a miedo y siguió con un gesto desencajado de terror. Mientras me negaba mi propuesta – No, no es cierto, no me estas pidiendo esto…- hasta que, finalmente, totalmente colérico, empezó a gritarme. En su discurso enfatizaba en todo lo que había aguantado, soportado, tenido paciencia. En todas las cosas que había hecho en consideración a mi.

Se había puesto de pie y caminaba a grandes zancadas de un lado a otro de la cocina, elevando la vos y agitando los brazos dándole énfasis a sus palabras.

Cuando termino se quedo de pie frente a mi, esperando.

Nuevamente le dije – me quiero separar-

El, agobiado se sentó, apoyo los codos en las rodillas y puso su cara entre las manos y empezó a llorar. – si yo no te obligue, vos estas conmigo porque querès, yo te gane, yo te seduje, tenes que estar conmigo- yo lo escuchaba, pero era como si hablara para si mismo o para otro.

De pronto sentí que el también sabía la historia de la otra vida. Lentamente se puso de pie y, su cara, una mascara de pavor y odio, me recordó a la del turco que había visto en la regresión.

En ese instante supe que me iba a atacar y me acerque a la mesa donde estaban los cuchillos. Dándole la espalda tome el mas grande y, al darme vuelta, lo escondí atrás mío. Sentía mucho miedo. No se de donde saque fuerzas y le dije, con un hilo de vos – no te acerques por favor-

Como un animal acorralado se hecho encima mío. Yo sabía cual era mi fin, lo había revivido dos veces y, con toda la fuerza, apuntando el cuchillo a su estomago, lo espere, tratando que se le clavara la hoja. Sentí su grito y todo se puso negro. Me desmaye.

Cuando reaccione, estaba acostado sobre las baldosas de la cocina. Al mover las manos las sentí pegajosas. Tenía un gran peso sobre mi cuerpo, era Dardo y no respiraba. Y, al contrario de lo que hubiera imaginado, me sentí tranquila, en paz.

Me levante, fui al baño a lavarme la sangre que había en mis manos y llame a la policía.

- De acuerdo a como me relataste que fueron los hechos fue en defensa propia. Aunque no haya testigos, es posible que te den dos años en suspenso. No vas a ir ni un día a la cárcel- me aseguro mi abogado.

Yo estaba resignada. No atemorizada. Me sentía vacía. Ayer segura y con dos hombres: uno que me quería, otro a quien querer. Hoy había matado a un inocente por temores internos, de otro tiempo.

Yo sabía que él no me había atacado. No tuvo oportunidad. Yo, primero, lo mate, y, después, ¿le pediría explicación sobre que iba a hacer?

- Esta bien, gracias- dije con desencanto.

Me aislé, al punto de no ver a nadie ni contestar llamados.

Cuanto tiempo podría mantener la mentira de defensa propia. Había matado y, ahora, ¿como seguía el karma?

Cuando tenía que salir a comprar comida, elegía la noche y caminaba hasta otro barrio para no encontrarme con gente conocida. No quería ver ni que me vieran.

A la semana, una noche al salir encontré a Carlos esperándome. Me abrazo fuerte y trato de consolarme-yo se que lo hiciste por mi, por lo nuestro ¿es cierto? ¿El se entero? ¿Te ataco?- me bombardeo a preguntas y yo no quería mentir, pero tampoco podía explicar que mi miedo, que era de otra época, fue mortal para Dardo.

Le suplique – por favor, ahora no, espera que te llame. No puedo hablar con nadie. Después te explico- en realidad no podía explicar nada, la situación era inexplicable.

- Sobreseída del cargo. Queda en libertad- me dijo la jueza. El abogado había hecho bien su trabajo. Y yo también.

Una pregunta: me había cargado el karma por la muerte o me había desembarazado de él. Quien lo sabía. Yo, ni ahí, que iba a volver a la terapeuta, ya lo sabría si leía el diario. Pero yo no contestaba el teléfono, así que, si me llamo, ni enterada estaba.

Carlos empezó a perseguirme, con el mismo tesón que lo había hecho Dardo.

Yo lo amaba pero, había un muerto por él, que quería decir, que significaba a esta altura, mi juramente, “si estoy con él lo seguiré a donde quiera” no lo se, no quiero ni pensarlo.

Me sentía un envase sin contenido y, para colmo, descartable.

- No te quiero ver mas, ya lo que fue no es posible- le dije a Carlos después de tres meses de persecución por su parte. Creí así, de algún modo, expiar mi culpa. No sabía que podía ser de aquí en más mi vida. De lo que estaba segura es que no podía estar al lado de un hombre que había provocado en mí el titulo de asesina. Me absolvieron, pero yo no sentía así. Me sentía culpable.

Vendí el departamento y me mude. Solo el portero del edificio tenía mi dirección a donde me enviaba la correspondencia mensualmente.

Sentía que aislarme y no tener contacto con ninguna persona de mi vida anterior podía permitirme alguna posibilidad de calmar mi culpa.

Al llegar las cartas, las personales las apartaba sin leerlas. El resto, cuentas y facturas las pagaba y archivaba. Un día reconocí en una carta la letra de Carlos y, por curiosidad la abrí y me puse a leerla. Al terminar su lectura, tenía la cara cubierta de lágrimas. La congoja del pecho no me dejaba respirar y la sensación de muerte por mano propia era una cosa cierta.

Sin proponérmelo lo había logrado, el karma fue pagado. Carlos se había suicidado.

Silvia Mottes

El simulador permite que el alumno de Odontología disponga del modelo anatómico de una cara humana, como si estuviera en vivo con un paciente. Por ejemplo, la dureza de cada diente que se coloca en este paciente artificial es prácticamente igual a los de una persona real, puesto que se emplean dientes elaborados con melanina y acrílico. De la misma forma, cada simulador puede succionar, abrir y cerrar la boca, ya que cuenta con

articulaciones similares a las de cualquier hombre o mujer de carne y hueso.

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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Several members of the eastern and southern contingent of my extended family converged in Indialantic, Florida to celebrate the Christmas holidays in December 2014 — and these photos illustrate one of the more unusual activities of the gathering.

 

One of my nephews, Matt Adcock, is a world-famous wedding photographer — and is not only a much better photographer than I could ever dream of being, but is also much more of a gadget freak than I will ever be. For the past year, one of his main passions has been “drone photography” — mostly consisting of GoPro cameras mounted on a small drone that he can manipulate and navigate from the ground, as it flies around taking videos and still shots of things on the ground.

 

Matt persuaded my grandniece to dance around in my sister’s back yard, with a setting sun and the Indian River in the background — as his drone danced around, too, following her every move. It was hypnotic to watch … and a little spooky, too, to see how the technology worked…

 

Included in this set are a few photos of the drone-dancing activities. Matt would have taken infinitely better photos than I did, and I found it difficult to balance the shadows, the backlighting of the setting sun, and the motion of both people and the drone dancing around … but hopefully, it will be enough to give you a sense of what it was like...

Este año ha sido muy activo en cuanto a viajes al Gran Valparaíso se refiere, permitiendome la oportunidad de conocer esta hermosa conurbación de una manera diferente y en varios tramos. Uno de ellos es la misma ciudad de Valparaíso, la que con sus impresionantes cerros, vistas, personas, costumbres y otros elementos de largo detalle permiten generar una experiencia de viaje única y que sin duda permite ser recordada por un buen tiempo. Dentro de eso "impresionante", por cierto, tenemos que destacar al sistema del Metro, o más conocido como Merval, el que ya por el año 2005 sufrió una transformación radical en su funcionamiento, por medio de la construcción de un túnel en la zona céntrica de Viña del Mar, sumada a la remodelación de sus estaciones y a un elemento aún más visible, el empleo de nuevos trenes, los Alstom Xtrapolis.

 

Hacía mucho tiempo que ya tenía ganas de usar este sistema, y cumpliendo con la deuda de ir a Valparaíso, aproveché de utilizarlo. Respecto a las expectativas, bueno, honestamente no quise crearme demasiadas, no por un sentido de menospreciar, sino más bien por principios, porque al final, sabía que iba a tener un buen viaje. Y así fue... Sin dudas viajar en el Merval es algo fascinante, teniendo especial consideración que un tramo importante transita a un costado del Mar, entre la Estación Puerto de Valparaíso y la Estación Recreo en Viña del Mar, lo que entrega una cuota de encanto. A eso sumemos, que en general el comportamiento que percibí en los pasajeros fue bueno, lejos de todo estrés y seudo caos que se puede apreciar en forma frecuente en el Metro de Santiago. Paciencia por parte de los usuarios sobraba y también muy buena educación y disposición, quizás influyan aspectos como el menor tamaño de la ciudad, que el viaje sea predecible (los paneles de información variable con la indicación de en cuántos minutos viene el tren es algo notable) o la brisa marina, pero esa buena percecpión y disposición de quiénes usan el Metro de Valparaíso es un plus (o un "must") que debe ser explotado.

 

Nada de ser graves ví tampoco. De hecho, en el momento cuando me tocó cambiar de vagón en un tren (por un sistema de puertas correderas de vidrio) encontré mucha buena onda por parte de una chiquilla, algo así reflejado en ayuda y consultas varias, o bien, cuando en las dos ocasiones que he tomado el tren he visto a artistas de todo tipo, desde Hip Hoperos improvisando canciones a gusto del público (en una dinámica, del "dame una palabra y ahí la inventamos") hasta canciones típicas chilenas pasando por humoristas, ví que gran parte de los pasajeros reaccionaba de muy buen modo, a lo mejor influenciados por la calidad de los artistas callejeros. Algo muy notable de destacar.

 

Asimismo, los trenes son sumamente cómodos, son tan anchos como los que se utilizan en la L4 del Metro de Santiago (el fabricante es el mismo, aunque la procedencia difiere, ya que los trenes de Valparaíso fueron fabricados en Francia) y tienen muy buenos detalles, que son dignos de imitar por los trenes Españoles de calidad promedio empleados en la L1 del Metro santiaguino. En general estos trenes Xtrapolis del Merval se comportan muy bien en prácticamente todo el trazado del Metro, desde el plan de Valparaíso hasta los valles de Limache.

 

Sin duda una experiencia que es recomendable a cualquiera, ahora bien, existen algunos desafíos, como poder construir en algún futuro una nueva línea entre Viña del Mar (desde la Plaza Sucre) hasta Quintero, conforme Con Con, Reñaca y Quintero crecen y reciben nuevos habitantes producto del crecimiento de la conurbación del Gran Valparaíso, como por otro lado, un gran desafío podría ser la remodelación de las estaciones con diversos estilos arquitectónicos. Y por cierto, lograr una integración tarifaria con los buses en un esquema similar al Transantiago, aunque este anhelo requiere una reformulación del sistema de transportes del Gran Valparaíso.

 

Espero que les haya gustado

 

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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This is one of approx 250 photos that I decided were not so bad that I had to delete them and recover every wasted binary bit of storage on my computer disk ... but also not good enough to warrant uploading to Flickr as a "public" photo.

 

Since Flickr now provides so much storage to us picture-crazed photographers, I've decided to upload all of these "random pix" as restricted "friends and family" photos so that most of the world doesn't have to suffer through them ...

 

I've cropped and edited these photos, but have not gone to the additional trouble of geo-tagging them ... sorry about that.

  

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In the spring of 2014, we came to Paris for a week of relaxed vacationing, mostly to wander around and see some old familiar places. It was a “return” trip for both of us, though in my case I think it’s probably been more than 15 years since I was even here on a business trip.

 

Business trips to any city don’t really count as a “visit” -- since they basically involve flying into a busy airport at night, taking a taxi to a generic business-traveler’s hotel (a Hilton in Paris looks just like a Hilton in Cairo), and then spending several days working in the hotel (if the purpose of the trip was a seminar or computer conference), or at a client’s office (also “generic” in most cases — you can’t even tell what floor you’re on when you get off the elevator, because every floor of “open office” layouts is the same). The trip usually ends in the late afternoon or evening of the final day, with a mad dash back to the airport to catch the last plane home to NYC. Thus, a business trip to Paris is almost indistinguishable from a business trip to Omaha. Or Albany. Or Tokyo.

 

But I did make a few “personal” visits to Paris in the 1970s and 1980s, so I looked forward to having the chance to walk through some familiar places along the Left Bank. I’m not so interested in museums, monuments, cathedrals, or other “official” tourist spots (but yes, I have been to the Eiffel Tower, just as I’ve been to the Empire State Building in NYC), so you won’t see any photos of those places in this Flickr set.

 

As a photographer, I now concentrate mostly on people and street scenes. The details of the location don’t matter much to me, though I do try to geotag my photos whenever I can. But for the most part, what you’ll see here are scenes of people and local things in Paris that made me smile as I walked around …

Original Caption: Hikers Rest at Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park. Ranger Naturalists Take Tourists There through a Maze of Narrow Canyons. Without an Expert along the Inexperienced Visitor Can Easily Get Lost, Hence Only Guided Tours of the Area Are Permitted, 05/197

 

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-3270

 

Photographer: Hiser, David, 1937-

 

Subjects:

Arches National Park (Grand county, Utah, United States) national park

Environmental Protection Agency

Project DOCUMERICA

 

Persistent URL: catalog.archives.gov/id/545757

  

Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001.

 

For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html

 

Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html

   

Access Restrictions: Unrestricted

Use Restrictions: Unrestricted

 

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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I have a confession to make: I’ve lived in New York City for 45 years — but until last night, I had never attended, observed, photographed, or participated in the annual Halloween Parade that takes place in Greenwich Village. I can’t be blamed for the first few years: I moved to NYC in the late 60’s (on Bleecker Street, right in the middle of the West Village), and the parade did not begin until 1974. But that means last night’s parade was the 40th such event … and for some reason, I missed them all.

 

But I was there last night … a little unsure of myself, for the parade did not actually begin until 7 PM, an hour after sunset. Even at 5 PM, the sun has usually dropped so low (in the fall and winter months) that the light is pretty mediocre for photography — and it was a cold, gray, overcast day as well. So I brought my flash along, even though I’ve rarely used it, and wandered through the crowd to see what I could find.

 

And it was a crowd: as early as 1985, it was estimated that some 250,000 people were participating in the event; I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a million people there last night. But at first, I couldn’t find any of them: the newspaper had announced that people could arrive at a pre-parade “staging” area on Canal Street and Sixth Avenue … but when I got there (early, as usual), there was not a soul to be seen. But I eventually noticed some costumed people who seemed to know where they were going … and I could hear music in the distance … so so I began heading north, and found the beginning of the crowd scene about three blocks further north, on Broome Street.

 

After that, it was sheer bedlam for the next couple of hours — until the parade officially began moving north on Sixth Avenue, right at 7 PM. The costumes were overwhelming — everything from witches and goblins, monsters, the GhostBusters, kings and queens and pirates and aliens. There were a few topless women with thick psychedelic body-paint to provide a small amount of modesty, and there were several groups of dancers who had obviously practiced dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which blared loudly from several sound systems. Meanwhile, there were drummers and samba bands, steel bands, and informal groups doing their best to provide the crowd with Italian, Chinese, Irish, Dixieland, and African music…

 

After I left the parade, I took the subway from Canal Street up to 14th Street to meet my wife for a quiet dinner at a small Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. But everywhere I went — streets, sidewalks, subway stations — it seemed that all of Greenwich Village had been caught up in the revelry.

 

Beyond that, it’s impossible for me to describe the noise, the music, the costumes, and the overall revelry. For an overall summary, you might want to look at this Wikipedia article

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York's_Village_Halloween_Parade

 

But I think the only way to really understand what the NYC Halloween Parade is all about is to be there. Words don’t really suffice ...

   

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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I’ve been to Venice once or twice for brief business trips during my life, which had the same characteristics as the business trips I described in a separate Flickr album about Paris — i.e., they basically involve flying into a busy airport at night, taking a taxi to a generic business-traveler’s hotel (a Hilton in Venice looks just like a Hilton in Cairo,except perhaps for the canal outside the main entrance), and then spending several days working in the hotel (if the purpose of the trip was a seminar or computer conference), or at a client’s office (also “generic” in most cases — you can’t even tell what floor you’re on when you get off the elevator, because every floor of “open office” layouts is the same). The trip usually ends in the late afternoon or evening of the final day, with a mad dash back to the airport to catch the last plane home to NYC. Thus, a business trip to Venice is almost indistinguishable from a business trip to Omaha. Or Albany. Or Tokyo.

 

But Venice is different from almost any other place in the world, and I’ve had a couple of vacation trips to experience that side of the city. But it’s been a long, long time: the first such visit was back in 1976 (which you can see here on Flickr), and the second visit was in 1983 (pictures of which do exist on Flickr, but have been restricted to family-only access, since they consist mostly of boring pictures of drooling babies and kids sticking their collective tongues out at me).

 

Thirty years is a long time between visits … but for a city like Venice, I doubt that very much has changed. Well, perhaps there wasn’t a McDonald’s outlet in Venice when I first came here (and I did photograph one such outlet on this current visit, which you’ll find in this album), and you can certainly guarantee that people weren’t walking around with cellphones and smartphones the way they are today. And while the tourists typically did have cameras back in the good-old-days, they were typically modest little “Instamatic” film-based gadgets, rather than the big, garish, DSLR cameras that everyone now seems to carry around with them, complete with advertising logos all over the camera-straps and bodies to remind you that they, too, can afford to buy an expensive Canon or Nikon gadget that they really don’t know how to use properly. (Sorry, I got carried away there …)

 

But the buildings, and the people, and the canals, and the gondolas … all of that is the same. And that’s what I’ve tried to capture in this set of photos. The tourist crowds are now so thick (even in May!) that I didn’t even bother going to the square at San Marco, and I didn’t bother taking any photos from the Rialto bridge over the Grand Canal; but you will see some photos of tourists in this album, along with photos of the local people who are still here …

 

I don’t expect to come back to Venice again in the next year or two … but if it turns out to be 20 or 30 years before my next return, I suspect it will all look pretty much exactly the same as it did on this trip, and in 1983, and when I first saw it in 1976.

(more details later, as time permits)

 

**************************

 

In the spring of 2014, we came to Paris for a week of relaxed vacationing, mostly to wander around and see some old familiar places. It was a “return” trip for both of us, though in my case I think it’s probably been more than 15 years since I was even here on a business trip.

 

Business trips to any city don’t really count as a “visit” -- since they basically involve flying into a busy airport at night, taking a taxi to a generic business-traveler’s hotel (a Hilton in Paris looks just like a Hilton in Cairo), and then spending several days working in the hotel (if the purpose of the trip was a seminar or computer conference), or at a client’s office (also “generic” in most cases — you can’t even tell what floor you’re on when you get off the elevator, because every floor of “open office” layouts is the same). The trip usually ends in the late afternoon or evening of the final day, with a mad dash back to the airport to catch the last plane home to NYC. Thus, a business trip to Paris is almost indistinguishable from a business trip to Omaha. Or Albany. Or Tokyo.

 

But I did make a few “personal” visits to Paris in the 1970s and 1980s, so I looked forward to having the chance to walk through some familiar places along the Left Bank. I’m not so interested in museums, monuments, cathedrals, or other “official” tourist spots (but yes, I have been to the Eiffel Tower, just as I’ve been to the Empire State Building in NYC), so you won’t see any photos of those places in this Flickr set.

 

As a photographer, I now concentrate mostly on people and street scenes. The details of the location don’t matter much to me, though I do try to geotag my photos whenever I can. But for the most part, what you’ll see here are scenes of people and local things in Paris that made me smile as I walked around …]

This image is my property and no downloads or copies are permitted without my prior consent.

(more details later, as time permits)

 

****************************************

 

I had a lunchtime dentist appointment in midtown Manhattan the other day, and when it was over, I decided to walk a couple blocks over to Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library. It was a sunny day, and I thought I might see some gorgeous babes sunbathing on the park lawn in their bikinis (even being an amateur photographer is a tough job, but someone's gotta do it). If not, I thought perhaps I'd find some photogenic tourists or oddball New Yorkers that I could photograph.

 

As it turns out, almost all of the central lawn was being covered over with some kind of wooden platform -- presumably for an upcoming concert performance of some kind -- so nobody was sunbathing out on the grass. But since that area was unavailable, and since it was still the lunchtime period, the periphery around the central lawn was chock-a-block with people. There's now a cafe immediately behind (i.e., to the west) of the library itself, and it was doing a land-office business. And all along the north and south sides of the park, as well as the broader western side, there were tables and chairs and benches where people could enjoy their lunch with whatever food or entertainment they had brought along.

 

I was already aware of the pentanque court on the western side of the park, and knew that I'd find one or two good pictures there. But I didn't realize that the Parks Department had set up two ping-pong tables, as well as several tables for chess-players. In addition, there were a few card games underway, and there was also a section set aside for people who wanted to borrow local newspapers to read.

 

As for the people: I had to remind myself that because Bryant Park is smack in the middle of mid-town Manhattan (a block away from Times Square, filling the square block between 41st/42nd street, and 5th/6th Avenue), most of the people enjoying their lunch were office workers. So the men typically wore slacks and dress shirts, and a surprising number of them were also wearing suits and ties. The women wore dresses and skirts, and generally looked quite fashionable and presentable. Of course, there were also tourists and students and miscellaneous others; but overall, it was a much more "upscale" bunch of people than I'm accustomed to seeing in my own residential area on the Upper West Side.

 

I was surprised by how many people were sitting alone -- eating alone, reading alone, listening to music alone, dozing alone, or just staring into space alone. You'll see some of them in this album, though I didn't want to over-emphasize their presence; equally important, many of the loners just weren't all that interesting from a photogenic perspective. So you'll also see lots of couples, some children, a couple of families, and occasionally larger groups of people who were eating and chatting and enjoying the warm summer day.

 

Three activities dominated the scene, all of which were fairly predictable, under the circumstances: eating, reading, and talking on cellphones. You would expect people to be eating at lunch-time, of course; and you wouldn't be surprised at the notion of people reading a book as they sat behind the New York Public Library on a warm, sunny day. But the pervasiveness of the cellphones was quite astonishing ... oh, yeah, there were a few laptops, too, but fewer than I might have imagined.

 

I've photographed Bryant Park several times over the past 40 years, going back to some photos of 1969 Vietnam War protest marches that you can see in this album. I was here in the summer of 2008 to take these photos; I came back in January 2009 to take these photos of the winter scene; and I returned again for these pictures in March 2009 and these these pictures in the late spring of 2009; all of these have been collected into a Flickr "collection" of albums that you can find here. But if you want to see what New York City's midtown office workers are doing at lunch, take a look at what's in this album.

Nikon F2A, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 pancake, Ilford Delta 400

Gosforth Nature Reserve is a wildlife haven in Tyne and Wear, England. It includes extensive woodland and wetland habitats and is managed by the Natural History Society of Northumbria. Access to the reserve is restricted to NHSN members and those in possession of a valid day pass. Dog walking and other recreational activities are not permitted on site. The reserve is part of Gosforth Park, the old estate of Gosforth House.

 

History

In medieval times, what is now Gosforth Nature Reserve would have been agricultural land, there is some remaining evidence of ridge and furrow. The general habitat in the area would have been heathland, hence the name of the nearby village of West Moor and the nearby track called Heathery Lane. When the Brandling family took over the land and built their large estate house they had the surrounding area landscaped, as was the fashion of the day. This included planting new woodland and creating a new lake for boating and fishing. From historic maps it appears that the lake was created in the period 1810–1820 and that most of the woodland was planted around the mid-19th century.

 

The Brandling family fell on hard times and sold off the estate towards the end of the 19th century and from that period onwards nature began to take over. In 1924 in order to prevent hunting and shooting of the wildlife Mr W. E. Beck leased the shooting rights for the lake and surrounding woodland. He was a member of the Natural History Society of Northumbria and in 1929, in declining health, he passed his rights to the trustees of the Society. Since that time the Society has managed this area for the benefit of wildlife.

 

Habitats and wildlife

Gosforth Nature Reserve contains an important wetland, which is dominated by Phragmites reeds and open water and surrounded by wet carr woodland. These wetland habitats support breeding bird species such as reed warbler, water rail, reed bunting, sedge warbler, common tern and little grebe and in the winter birds such as bittern, kingfisher, wigeon, teal and shoveler. Aquatic mammals such as otter. water vole and water shrew are also present. England's second largest colony of coralroot orchid is also found here.

 

The majority of the reserve is semi-natural woodland, dominated by oak and birch, however, there are also some plantations of conifers. Woodland mammals such as badger, fox, roe deer and stoat can be found and red squirrel are also still present. Most importantly the woodland supports a wide range of insects, including many uncommon species.

 

There is also a small area of meadow, which contains plants such as heather and northern marsh orchid.

 

Site of Special Scientific Interest

Gosforth Park Nature Reserve was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 1977. The citation includes:

 

The locality is regionally important for its aquatic, grassland and woodland invertebrate faunas which include two nationally rare species, a small beetle Triplax scutellaris and Adrena alfkenella, a solitary bee.

 

Ownership and public access

The nature reserve is still part of Newcastle Racecourse, which as of 2015 is owned by Arena Racing Company. It lies to the north-east of the Whitebridge Park housing estate. It is leased to the Natural History Society of Northumbria.

 

In order to minimize disturbance to sensitive wildlife, there is no public access to the nature reserve, and there are no public rights of way. The reserve is open to members of the Natural History Society of Northumbria; non-members can buy a visitor pass upon arrival. NHSN holds regular public open days on-site and hosts a range of activities for school groups and local people.

 

Gosforth Park is a park north of Gosforth in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It houses Newcastle Racecourse, Virgin Money Unity Arena, a Britannia hotel, two golf courses, a garden centre and a football centre. It is also home to Gosforth Nature Reserve, a private SSSI managed by the Natural History Society of Northumbria, consisting of a lake and woodland.

 

The park was laid out by Charles Brandling (1733–1802), a wealthy coal-mine owner and local politician, to adorn his new mansion, Gosforth House (now Brandling House, the racecourse hospitality and conference centre), built 1755–64.

 

Up to the 1950s tramcars came into the park on race days through a special gate from what was then the A1 Great North Road.

 

Between 2016 and 2019 the two walled gardens and icehouse at Gosforth Park were the subject of archaeological investigations by AAG Archaeology, prior to the gardens having houses built within them.

 

Hotel

The Gosforth Park Hotel, now in the Britannia Hotels chain, was originally built in 1965 and opened by the Duke of Northumberland, and by 1986 was owned by Scottish & Newcastle and run by Thistle Hotels. Between being in the Thistle and Britannia portfolios it had been operated as a Marriott.

 

Virgin Money Unity Arena

Virgin Money Unity Arena is the UK's first purpose built socially distanced outdoor entertainment venue constructed in the grounds of Gosforth Park. During 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic caused all concert and stand-up comedy events in the country to be cancelled. As the country came out of lockdown a number of efforts were made to re-start entertainment events including some drive-in venues.

 

The temporary outdoor venue site is 45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft) and consists of 500 viewing spaces. Each socially distanced viewing space can occupy up to 5 people bringing the maximum capacity of the venue to 2500. The first two concerts on 11 and 13 August by North Tyneside singer Sam Fender sold out in minutes.

 

The venue is operated by SSD Concerts and Engine No.4. The event's title sponsor is the Virgin Money bank who have their headquarters in the nearby Regent Centre business park.

 

Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.

 

Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

 

The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.

 

Roman settlement

The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.

 

The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.

 

Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.

 

Anglo-Saxon development

The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.

 

Norman period

After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.

 

In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.

 

Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.

 

Middle Ages

Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.

 

The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.

 

Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.

 

In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.

 

In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.

 

Religious houses

During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.

 

The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.

 

The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.

 

The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.

 

The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.

 

The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.

 

All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.

 

An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.

 

Tudor period

The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.

 

During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).

 

With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.

 

Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.

 

The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.

 

In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.

 

Stuart period

In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.

 

In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.

 

In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.

 

In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.

 

In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.

 

A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.

 

Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.

 

In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.

 

In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.

 

Eighteenth century

In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.

 

In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.

 

In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.

 

Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.

 

The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.

 

In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.

 

A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.

 

Victorian period

Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.

 

In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.

 

In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.

 

In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.

 

In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.

 

Industrialisation

In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.

 

Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:

 

George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.

George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.

 

Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.

 

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.

 

William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.

 

The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:

 

Glassmaking

A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Locomotive manufacture

In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.

 

Shipbuilding

In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.

 

Armaments

In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.

 

Steam turbines

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.

 

Pottery

In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.

 

Expansion of the city

Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.

 

Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.

 

Twentieth century

In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.

 

During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.

 

In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.

 

Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.

 

As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.

 

In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.

 

As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.

 

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.

 

Recent developments

Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.

"No permitas que nadie diga que eres incapaz de hacer algo, ni si quiera yo. Si tienes un sueño, debes conservarlo. Si quieres algo, sal a buscarlo, y punto.

¿Sabes?, la gente que no logra conseguir sus sueños suele decirles a los demás que tampoco cumplirán los suyos"

Fazıl Küçük (Turkish pronunciation: [faˈzɯl cyˈtʃyc]; Greek: Φαζίλ Κιουτσούκ; 14 March 1906 – 15 January 1984) was a Turkish Cypriot politician and a medical doctor who served as the first Vice President of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Fazıl Küçük, the son of a farmer, was born in Nicosia in 1906. After graduating from the Turkish High School in Nicosia, Küçük went on to study medicine at the Universities of Istanbul, Lausanne and Paris. Having returned to Cyprus in 1937, he started a practice, but his interest in politics soon led to him to become a voice for Turkish Cypriot rights. In 1941 Küçük founded the newspaper Halkın Sesi (The Voice of the People) and became the managing editor. Due to his campaign against the British colonial administration, his paper was not given a permit for publication until 1942, the paper is still being published to this day.

 

In 1943, he became one of the founders of the Kıbrıs Adası Türk Azınlığı Kurumu (Association of the Turkish Minority of the Island of Cyprus – known as KATAK). The aim of the party was to promote the social, economic and political well-being of the Turkish Cypriot people. Due to disagreements with some of its members, Küçük parted with KATAK and established the Kıbrıs Millî Türk Halk Partisi (Cyprus National Turkish People's Party – known as KMTHP). Following a 15-year struggle, Küçük helped for the transfer of the Evkaf (a Turkish religious fund) from British to Turkish Cypriot control.

 

During the 1959 London and Zurich Conferences for the creation of an independent Republic of Cyprus, Küçük represented the Turkish Cypriot community and was able to secure constitutional safeguards for the people. On December 3, 1959 Küçük was elected vice president of the new republic. Following Greek Cypriot proposals to modify the constitution (see Cyprus dispute), Küçük continued as the vice president of the Republic of Cyprus until 1973 when he was succeeded by Rauf Denktaş. Despite ill health, Küçük continued to support Turkish Cypriots through his Halkın Sesi newspaper.

 

Küçük died in a Westminster hospital on January 15, 1984, less than a year after the Unilateral declaration of Independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. He was the uncle of former Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus prime minister, İrsen Küçük.

 

Nicosia ( Greek : Λευκωσία (Lefkosia), English : Nicosia), located in the middle of the island of Cyprus , is the capital of the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus . It is the most populous city of Cyprus and the most important cultural, industrial, trade and transportation center. Nicosia is located at 35°10' north, 33°21' east.

 

The city is divided into two by the border called the Green Line . Although de jure the Republic of Cyprus has the administration of the entire city, de facto it only has control over South Nicosia . Northern Nicosia is under the rule of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and is considered to be under Turkish occupation by the international community. The two sectors are separated by a Buffer Zone administered by United Nations Peacekeeping Forces . With the 1960 Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, the Turkish Municipality of Nicosia was granted legal status.

 

Nicosia is known as "Lefkosia" (Λευκωσία) in Greek and "Nicosia" in English .

 

The first name of the area where the city is located was "Ledra". This name is also written as "Ledrae", "Lidir", "Ledras", "Ledron" and "Letra". Later, this city was destroyed and when it was rebuilt by Leucus, the city was named "Lefkotheon" (Λευκόθεον - city of the white gods). This name was also occasionally referred to as "Ledron". Later, the words "Kermia" and "Leucus" (Λευκούς) were used for the city. In the 7th century, Hierocles, a Byzantine geographer, mentioned the city as Lefkousia (Λευκουσία) in his book Synekdemos (Vademecum) . In the 13th century , the Patriarch of Constantinople referred to Nicosia as Kalli Nikesis (Καλλι Νίκησις - Beautiful Victory). A writer and monk, St. Neophytos referred to Nicosia as "Leucopolis" (Lefkopolis - White City) in a sermon he gave around 1176. Since the 10th century, the name "Nicosia" has become generally accepted. In the 18th century, Greek Cypriot historian Archimandrite Kyprianos stated that another name for Nicosia was "Photolampos" (Shining with Light).

 

There are various claims that the city is referred to as "Nicosia" and similar forms in European languages. According to one claim, the Latins replaced the first syllable of the word, "Lef", with "Ni" because they could not pronounce it. Another claim is that the name derives from the name "Kallinikesis". A writer from Sicily named Sindaco connects the name "Nicosia" to the town named "Nicosia" in Sicily and claimed that King Tancred from this town was with Richard I during the siege of Cyprus and named the city after his own town. . Another claim is that the name "Nicosia" emerged during the rebellion of the city's people against the Knights Templar in 1192. A German priest named Ludolf named the city "Nycosia" between 1341 and 1363. HAS Dearborn, in his book published in 1819, says that another name for Nicosia is "Nicotia". In 1856, William Curry stated that the Greeks called the city "Escosie" and the Western Europeans called it "Licosia".

 

The name of the city is mentioned in Ottoman documents as "Nicosia" or "medine-i Nicosia" . In addition, in a letter regarding the conquest of Nicosia in 1570, the name of the city is mentioned as "Nicosia". Kâtip Çelebi refers to the city as "Nicosia" (which is sometimes used today).

 

The first settlement in the area where Nicosia is located took place in the Neolithic Age . The date of the first settlement is approximately 3000-4000 BC. In 1050 BC or in the 7th century BC, a city called " Ledra " was founded in the region. This city had an important place among the other city kingdoms on the island. During archaeological excavations, a Greek inscription written in the 4th century BC was found indicating the existence of a temple dedicated to Aphrodite in Ledra. By around 330 BC it had shrunk to a small village. When this city was destroyed due to earthquakes , in 200 BC, Leucus, the son of Ptolemy I Soter , founded the city that is today Nicosia.

 

The city's importance began to increase in the late Byzantine period. In the 7th century, it became the capital of the island during the Arab raids.

 

It fell into the hands of Richard I in 1191 . It was the capital of the island during the period when the Knights Templar purchased and dominated the island. A rebellion broke out in the city on 11 April 1192. The knights suppressed this uprising with a massacre and then left the island.

 

The Lusignans purchased the island and Nicosia remained their capital. During the Lusignan period, he built many new buildings in the city. During the Venetian period, most of these were demolished and used in the construction of walls. During this period, the Lusignans also built walls around the city. These walls were in the shape of an irregular pentagon . There were no walls in the city before. King Henry I built the first walls with two towers in 1211, Peter I built a third tower, and Henry II built the first walls. Henry had the city completely surrounded by walls. The city became quite wealthy during this period. Nicosia was one of four dioceses on the island. It also became the center of an archdiocese in 1212. During this period, events were taking place between Greeks and Latins, and bloody conflicts broke out in the city in 1313 and 1360.

 

Nicosia has been damaged by many earthquakes throughout its history. The 1222 Cyprus earthquake was felt strongly in the city and caused great damage. In November 1330, a flood occurred in the city and three thousand people lost their lives. In addition, the city was heavily damaged by the Genoese in 1373 and the Mamluks in 1426.

 

On February 26, 1489, Nicosia, along with the entire island, came under the rule of the Republic of Venice . Just before the Ottoman conquest of the island, the Venetians inspected the walls and found them too weak. According to the new plans, the walls of Nicosia were reduced from eight miles to three miles. Meanwhile, all buildings outside the new walls were destroyed. According to a claim, the route of Kanlıdere was changed by the Venetians. Another claim is that the Ottomans changed the route of the stream to save the city from floods.

 

During the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottomans , Nicosia was the third largest settlement taken. Piyale Pasha and his army took action to take Nicosia on 22 July 1570. On July 25, Nicosia was besieged. Clashes began on July 27, as the Venetians did not accept the Ottomans' demands to surrender the castle. The fact that the walls were very strong ensured that Nicosia would not fall. At dawn on 9 September 1570, a new attack was launched and troops of more than 20 thousand people conquered Nicosia.

 

As part of the settlement of Turks in Cyprus during the Ottoman period, the settlement of the Turkish population in Nicosia, as well as in the entire island, started in 1572. Non-professional Greeks in the city were settled in the neighborhoods outside the city and replaced by Turks. According to a census made during this period, the city had 31 neighborhoods. In two of them ("Ermiyan" and "Karaman"), the Armenian population was in the majority.

 

During the Ottoman period, Nicosia first served as the capital of the State of Cyprus as the center of a district called "Mountain Kaza", and later became a sanjak . During the Ottoman period, St. Large churches such as the Sophia Cathedral were converted into mosques. ​​Nicosia - Larnaca road was built. The gates of the city were opened at sunrise and closed at sunset. The Governor, Judge, Interpreter and Greek Archbishop resided in Nicosia. ​​William Kimbrough Pendleton states that in 1864 most of the houses in the city were made of clay brick. As a result of a major earthquake in 1741, one minaret of the Selimiye Mosque collapsed and had to be rebuilt. There were riots in the city in 1764 and 1821.

 

On July 12, 1878, Nicosia, along with the rest of the island, came under British rule . British troops entered the city through the Kyrenia Gate and hoisted the first British flag on the Değirmen Bastion next to the Paphos Gate . Nicosia Municipality was established in 1882. Under British rule, Nicosia grew outside the city walls. Between 1930 and 1945, villages such as Ortaköy , Strovolos , Büyük Kaymaklı , Küçük Kaymaklı began to merge with the city, and the first settlements were made in regions such as Yenişehir . On January 1, 1944, Ayii Omoloyitadhes was included in the municipal boundaries. In order to provide access outside the city, the walls on the sides of the Paphos Gate in 1879, the Kyrenia Gate in 1931, and the Famagusta Gate in 1945 were cut. In 1905, a train station was built in Büyük Kaymaklı and train services to Nicosia started, this practice ended in 1955. In 1912, the first electricity came to the city. Also in the same year, kerosene-powered street lamps were replaced with electric ones. Under British rule, the sewer network was cleaned and the roads were repaired. On October 17, 1947, as a result of an explosion in the power plant that supplied energy to the city, the city was left without electricity for 116 days.

 

In 1895, Greeks attacked the Turks in the Tahtakale region of Nicosia. In 1931, Greeks rebelled against British rule and burned the government building. Founded in 1955, EOKA attacked public buildings and the radio station in the city against British rule.

 

The Republic of Cyprus was established on 16 August 1960 . The flag of the Republic of Cyprus was hoisted in the House of Representatives at midnight that night, ending British rule on the island. In accordance with Article 173 of the 1960 constitution, a Greek (Nicosia -Greek Municipality) and a Turkish ( Nicosia Turkish Municipality ) municipality were established on the island. On the night of 20–21 December 1963, the events known as " Bloody Christmas " began. Zeki Halil and Cemaliye Emirali were killed as a result of fire opened on cars in Tahtakale district of Nicosia. Between 23-30, Küçük Kaymaklı was besieged. On the night of 23-24 January, 11 people were killed in the Kumsal region, and the family of Turkish major Nihat İlhan was killed in the incident known as the Kumsal Raid. An attack was carried out against the Turks in the Kanlıdere region. As a result of the events, the governments of Turkey , Greece and the United Kingdom met on 30 December 1963 . As a result of this meeting, the border , also known as the Green Line, was drawn, dividing the city into Turkish and Greek parts. The reason why this border is called the "Green Line" is that the pen of the United Nations official who drew the line on the map was green. The borders of the city were finalized with the Cyprus Operation carried out in 1974 by the order of Turkish Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit .

 

On 29 March 1968, the suburbs of Eylence , Büyük Kaymaklı, Küçük Kaymaklı, Pallouriotissa , Strovolos (partially) and Kızılay were also included in the municipal borders. Following the de facto division of the city, the area under the administration of the Republic of Cyprus continued to grow in a southerly direction. North Nicosia also continued to grow and merged with outlying villages such as Gönyeli (which has a separate municipality) and Hamitköy (which is part of the Nicosia Turkish Municipality).

 

Kermiya Border Gate was opened in 2003, and Lokmacı Gate was opened in 2008 .

 

Nicosia is located in a central point of the island of Cyprus, in the central parts of the Mesarya Plain .

 

Nicosia has a hot semi-arid climate according to the Köppen climate classification . The hottest months are July and August, and the coldest months are January and February. The month with the most rainfall is January. Nicosia is one of the warmest places on the island.

 

Nicosia is located in the center of the geological formation called Nicosia Formation. This region dates back to the Lower Pliocene period. Gray, yellow and white marl layers, sandy and yellow limestones and sparse conglomerate bands are frequently encountered. The reconnection of the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean resulted in the rise of sea water and the formation of new sediments, which formed the Nicosia Formation. Underneath Nicosia is the Nicosia- Serdarlı aquifer , which has an area of ​​60 km² .

 

The riverside parts of Nicosia city, especially Kanlıdere , have a great biodiversity. [88] In a research conducted in the streams in a 12.5 km diameter area of ​​the city, which is rich in vegetation (especially in stream beds), 185 different plant species belonging to 62 different families were identified. Among these, there are four endemic and 16 rare species. The most common tree species found on the banks of streams in the city is the eucalyptus tree (various types can be found). There is a total of 0.262 square kilometers of forest area in the Nicosia Central agricultural region of Northern Cyprus . Two kilometers outside Nicosia (in its southern part), within the boundaries of the Municipality of Eylence, is the Pedagogical Academy National Forest Park, and to the south of the city is the Athalassa National Forest Park. In Northern Nicosia, there is the Nicosia Forest Nursery, which is 0.5 hectares in size.

 

The habitats of animals in the stream beds in some parts of the city are in danger. The reeds along the streams host many animals, especially bird species. Many creatures such as kingfishers , water chickens , striped turtles and chameleons live on the banks of the streams . There are especially many turtles in the streams.

 

Nicosia is the commercial center of Cyprus. The city hosts the central banks of the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus .

 

The city of Nicosia is divided into two parts in terms of urbanization, these are old Nicosia (the area inside the walls) and new Nicosia (outside the walls). In Old Nicosia, the roads are narrow and there are dead ends. In New Nicosia, there is more vertical and horizontal development over a wider area. Junctions and roads are wider, parks occupy larger areas.

 

In Nicosia during the Ottoman period, Greeks and Turks lived mixed in some neighborhoods, and in some neighborhoods, one of them was the majority. Mosques can be found in Turkish neighborhoods and churches in Greek neighborhoods. Armenians also lived in the city. The houses of the Armenians who used to live in Köşklüçiftlik were all made of cut stone and had their own unique architecture. Bay windows are a common feature in houses in Old Nicosia . The Büyük Han is one of the most advanced architectural works on the island, and today it is a cultural center where various activities such as exhibitions, sales of antiques and traditional items, and shadow plays take place.

 

There are fourteen museums in the part of Nicosia south of the Green Line. The Cyprus Museum was founded in 1888 and exhibits hundreds of archaeological artifacts brought from all over the island. The house of Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios, who worked as a translator for the Divan during the Ottoman period, built in 1793, is used as an ethnography museum. In the northern part of the city, the number of museums is six. Derviş Pasha Mansion is used as an ethnography museum.

 

Although there are many theaters in the south of the city, the headquarters of the Cyprus Theater Association is in Nicosia. The State Theater Building, built in the 2000s, formerly hosted this institution, which suffered from inadequate facilities, and is not allowed to be used by any other theater organization. Nicosia Municipality Theatre, built in 1967, has a capacity of 1220 people. In the north, the Turkish Cypriot State Theater performs plays and organizes tours; but it does not have a hall. Also in the north is the Nicosia Municipal Theater, which was established in 1980. The Cyprus Theater Festival, jointly organized by the Nicosia Turkish Municipality and Nicosia Municipal Theatres, is a large organization attended by institutions such as Istanbul City Theatres , and all of these can be held in only two halls.

 

There are nineteen cinemas in the southern part of the city, six of which are owned by a company called K Cineplex, and thirteen are owned by other companies. In the north of the city, the number of cinemas is four.

 

Two waterways built during the Ottoman period were used in Nicosia until the mid-20th century. These waterways were Arab Ahmed and Silihtar waterways. Apart from this, water extracted from wells was also used.

 

Telegraph was first used in the city in 1873. In 1936, a public telephone network was established covering the entire island and Nicosia.

 

The migration to the city of Nicosia as a result of the Cyprus Operation in 1974 caused problems such as development, transportation, sewerage, housing shortage and lack of infrastructure in the city.

 

Since Nicosia is a divided city, the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus education systems are implemented in the city. A university called Near East University in North Nicosia , Cyprus International University, Mediterranean Karpaz University, Anadolu University 's open education faculty, apart from these, colleges such as Atatürk Teachers Academy and Police School There are. In the area under the control of the Republic of Cyprus , there are universities named University of Cyprus , Open University of Cyprus , Frederick University , University of Nicosia , [132] and European University of Cyprus.

 

In the Nicosia District of the Republic of Cyprus, there are 42 secondary schools, 133 primary schools and three kindergartens. There are a total of 30 primary schools, kindergartens and special education centers at the primary level in the Nicosia district of Northern Cyprus .

 

The roads on the island were built to be centered in Nicosia and unite in Nicosia. All important roads meet in Nicosia. During the Ottoman period, only the Larnaca road was built, and the previously built roads were in ruins. Under British rule, these roads were rebuilt and a regular postal service was established between Nicosia and other cities. The first car arrived in the city in 1907. The first bus services from the city started in 1929, these services departed from the Kyrenia Gate and went to Strovolos, Aydemet and Büyük Kaymaklı. [139] Train services started between Nicosia and Famagusta on 21 October 1905 . Train services were organized from Nicosia to approximately 30 stops. Train services ended on December 31, 1951. Nicosia International Airport was opened in 1949 . This airport is in the Buffer Zone today and is not used.

 

Today, there is a bus service in the Republic of Cyprus controlled part of the city run by a company called Nicosia Bus Company . All buses leave from the terminal in Solomos Square and make stops every 20 to 30 minutes. There are plans to expand the bus line, increase the frequency of services and renew the bus fleet. The Department of Public Works signed an agreement to establish tram and light rail lines between Nicosia - Larnaca and Limassol . There are motorways such as A1 and A2 from the city . In addition to developing this road network, there are also projects to improve the roads within the city. Apart from this, there are also taxis . Air transportation to the city is provided by Larnaca International Airport (44 km away) and Paphos International Airport . Larnaca Airport is used more than Paphos Airport.

 

LETTAŞ company also has buses in North Nicosia. The first municipal bus was put into operation on the Göçmenköy-Yenişehir route on January 15, 1980, during Mustafa Akıncı 's term as mayor. Starting from 1984, this service was transformed into a public transportation network within the municipality and started to provide service, and later the same vehicles were privatized to be operated by the LETTAŞ company. There is a bus terminal in the Yenişehir area. The airport used by the northern part of the city is Ercan Airport . Transportation to the airport is provided by buses. It is also possible to reach the city by taxi and minibus .

 

Nicosia Municipality is a sister city with the following cities:

Germany Schwerin , Germany (1974)

Greece Athens , Greece (1988)

Ukraine Odessa , Ukraine (1996)

Iranian Shiraz , Iran (1999)

Romania Bucharest , Romania (2004)

Chinese Shanghai , China (2004)

 

The city has also collaborated with the following cities:

Russia Moscow , Russia (1997, 2002, 2003-2004, 2006-2008)

Italy Nicosia , Italy (2000-2002)

Chinese Qingdao , China (2001)

Greece Athens , Greece (2001, 2003)

Finland Helsinki , Finland (2003)

Syria Damascus , Syria (2003)

Croatia Zagreb , Croatia (2004)

Malta Valletta , Malta (2007)

 

Sister cities of Nicosia Turkish Municipality

Türkiye Izmir , Turkey (2019)

Türkiye Ankara , Turkey (1988)

Türkiye Bursa , Turkey

North Macedonia Kumanovo , North Macedonia (2007)

Gagauzia Comrat , Gagauzia

Türkiye Gaziantep Turkey​

Türkiye Istanbul Turkey

 

Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.

 

A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.

 

Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 

Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.

 

Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.

 

Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.

 

The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.

 

Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.

 

Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.

 

By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.

 

EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.

 

However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.

 

On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.

 

In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.

 

By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.

 

In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.

 

The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.

 

After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".

 

As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.

 

Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

 

On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.

 

Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.

 

The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.

 

Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.

 

Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria

An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."

 

In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.

 

Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.

 

In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.

 

Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.

 

Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.

 

Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.

 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:

 

UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.

 

The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.

 

By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."

 

After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.

 

On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.

 

The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.

 

During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.

 

In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.

 

Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.

 

A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.

Taken during permitted exercise

I captured my permitted walks during Covid-19, but still in July 2021 we are still faced with this dreadful virus, I might need to update with a version two the way things are going. The book is for my own records and for my daughters who will look back on this period one-day with amazement as to how underprepared the world was for Covid.

 

Hope you enjoy the video, stay safe.

ALA-48 (803 y 402 ESCUADRÓN DE FUERZAS AÉREAS)

 

El NH90 es el helicóptero más moderno del Ejército del Aire y del Espacio, denominada Lobo por la Fuerza Aérea, opera en el 803 Escuadrón del Ala 48 situado en la base de Cuatro Vientos.

Las principales misiones de este helicóptero son la búsqueda y salvamento, aeroevacuaciones médicas, operaciones aéreas especiales y misiones de recuperación de personal. Dispone de una cabina digital representa los datos de performance, mantenimiento, misión y equipos, célula de fibra de vidrio o carbono o fly by wire.

También cuenta con una cuarta vía de piloto automático que permite al piloto la descarga de trabajo en situaciones críticas del vuelo y es un helicóptero todo tiempo gracias a los radares de navegación y meteorológico y a un sistema antihielo que permite la operación en cualquier situación.

Cuenta con capacidades adicionales como tanques de combustible externos, gancho baricentro para el transporte de cargas, rampa y hatch trasero, dispensador de chaff y bengalas y plegado de cola y palas del rotor principal para la operación en buques de la Armada.

Los seis NH90 en servicio ya pertenecen al conocido como Estándar 2 del helicóptero, que cuenta con Flir táctico, comunicaciones cifradas por satélite, sistema de radioayudas Tacan y grúa de rescate de doble gancho. El Ejército del Aire recibirá dentro del segundo lote contratado por el Ministerio de Defensa otra media docena más ya del Estándar 3 entre 2024 y 2026, y contempla actualizar toda la flota a esta última configuración que incluirá además nuevos sistemas IFF (identificador amigo-enemigo), suite de guerra electrónica y sistema contramedidas, entre otras mejoras.

El NH90, desarrollado por NH Industries, consorcio que engloba a Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopters y Fokker Aerostructures, fue diseñado para cumplir con los requisitos de la OTAN de un helicóptero militar polivalente, moderno y de tamaño mediano, tanto en operaciones terrestres como marítimas.

El vehículo principal para las versiones TTH (transporte táctico) y NFH (helicóptero de fragata de la OTAN) es un aparato bimotor que incorpora características innovadoras como ayudas de vuelo de misión avanzadas y un sistema de control fly-by-wire con piloto automático de 4 ejes, junto con sistemas de diagnóstico y monitoreo a bordo.

Beneficiándose de un enfoque moderno de los materiales, el fuselaje compuesto del NH90 tiene menos piezas y un peso estructural más bajo, lo que resulta en un 30 % más de resistencia en comparación con un fuselaje metálico, además de una mayor resistencia al daño de batalla, entre otros beneficios. Las palas compuestas del rotor tienen una mayor resistencia a la fatiga, tolerancia al daño y vida útil de los componentes, así como un rendimiento aerodinámico mejorado.

Versátil y compacto, es lo suficientemente pequeño como para caber en el hangar de una fragata de la OTAN, pero con un volumen de cabina para albergar a 20 soldados totalmente equipados o un sistema de misión marítima. Su amplia cabina modular, grandes puertas corredizas a cada lado y rampa trasera lo convierten en el helicóptero militar más accesible disponible.

Capacidad de supervivencia de la operación

Evitación de la detección: el NH90 presenta la firma de radar más baja de su clase gracias a la estructura del avión completamente compuesta en forma de diamante del helicóptero. Además, los dispositivos supresores de infrarrojos y las tomas de aire verticales del motor contribuyen aún más a reducir las firmas acústicas e infrarrojas del NH90.

Autoprotección: el conjunto avanzado de autoprotección del helicóptero está compuesto por receptores de advertencia de radar y láser, un sistema de detección de lanzamiento de misiles y dispensadores de bengalas/chaff.

Capacidad de supervivencia: la redundancia inherente de los controles fly-by-wire (cuatro canales analógicos/digitales segregados) aumenta considerablemente la capacidad de supervivencia si el NH90 es atacado por armas pequeñas. Todos los sistemas y subsistemas son redundantes y segregados; mientras que se proporciona blindaje tanto para la tripulación como para las tropas.

La estructura compuesta a prueba de choques (que evita que los componentes pesados ​​rompan la cabina), combinada con un equipo de flotación altamente efectivo, brinda el mejor nivel de supervivencia de la tripulación en su clase.

Integración y mantenimiento

El conjunto de aviónica integrado y la cabina de cristal del NH90 facilitan la interacción intuitiva con los sistemas del helicóptero y el conjunto de comunicaciones, junto con las ayudas para el vuelo, la navegación y la misión. Esto permite una gestión eficaz del entorno de la cabina para el éxito de la misión y la seguridad en todas las condiciones de funcionamiento.

Las estaciones de trabajo altamente integradas y el uso de la fusión de datos aumentan la velocidad, la precisión y la cantidad de datos que se pueden procesar y mostrar en pantallas configurables. Esto es vital para operaciones autónomas y conjuntas efectivas en entornos terrestres y marítimos.

La carga de trabajo del piloto se reduce drásticamente mediante el uso de una interfaz hombre-máquina optimizada, lo que permite que el NH90 NFH vuele en misiones de guerra naval día y noche con una tripulación de un piloto, un coordinador táctico en la cabina y un operador de sensores en la estación de trabajo de la cabina. . También es posible una configuración con dos pilotos y dos operadores tácticos en la cabina.

Como plataforma común para todas las misiones, las versiones de transporte táctico (TTH) y helicóptero fragata de la OTAN (NFH) del NH90 utilizan sistemas comunes, lo que facilita el diseño paralelo y simplifica su huella de apoyo logístico.

Tener un sistema de capacitación central para pilotos y técnicos de mantenimiento, junto con un sistema central de mantenimiento y repuestos, reduce significativamente los costos del ciclo de vida.

Características

Velocidad máxima de crucero (a 10.000 kg): 300 km/h

Alcance máximo (interno): 982 kilometros

Gama Ferry (tanques de combustible auxiliares internos): 1.600 kilómetros

Dimensiones externas (torneado del rotor): Longitud 19,56 m; ancho 16,30m; altura 5,31m

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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About a year ago, I created Flickr album for photos that I had started taking with my iPhone5s; and now I’m creating a new Flickr album for photos that I’ve begun taking with myiPhone6, which just arrived from T-Mobile this morning.

 

In last year’s album, I wrote, "Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, it’s hard to walk around with a modern smartphone in your pocket, and not be tempted to use the built-in camera from time-to-time. Veteran photographers typically sneer at such behavior, and most will tell you that they can instantly recognize an iPhone photo, which they mentally reject as being unworthy of any serious attention.

 

"After using many earlier models of smartphones over the past several years, I was inclined to agree; after all, I always (well, almost always) had a “real” camera in my pocket (or backpack or camera-bag), and it was always capable of taking a much better photographic image than the mediocre, grainy images shot with a camera-phone.

 

"But still … there were a few occasions when I desperately wanted to capture some photo-worthy event taking place right in front of me, and inevitably it turned out to be the times when I did not have the “real” camera with me. Or I did have it, but it was buried somewhere in a bag, and I knew that the “event” would have disappeared by the time I found the “real" camera and turned it on. By contrast, the smart-phone was always in my pocket (along with my keys and my wallet, it’s one of the three things I consciously grab every time I walk out the door). And I often found that I could turn it on, point it at the photographic scene, and take the picture much faster than I could do the same thing with a “traditional” camera.

 

"Meanwhile, smartphone cameras have gotten substantially better in the past few years, from a mechanical/hardware perspective; and the software “intelligence” controlling the camera has become amazingly sophisticated. It’s still not on the same level as a “professional” DSLR camera, but for a large majority of the “average” photographic situations we’re likely to encounter in the unplanned moments of our lives, it’s more and more likely to be “good enough.” The old adage of “the best camera is the one you have with you” is more and more relevant these days. For me, 90% of the success in taking a good photo is simply being in the right place at the right time, being aware that the “photo opportunity” is there, and having a camera — any camera — to take advantage of that opportunity. Only 10% of the time does it matter which camera I’m using, or what technical features I’ve managed to use.

 

"And now, with the recent advent of the iPhone5s, there is one more improvement — which, as far as I can tell, simply does not exist in any of the “professional” cameras. You can take an unlimited number of “burst-mode” shots with the new iPhone, simply by keeping your finger on the shutter button; instead of being limited to just six (as a few of the DSLR cameras currently offer), you can take 10, 20, or even a hundred shots. And then — almost magically — the iPhone will show you which one or two of the large burst of photos was optimally sharp and clear. With a couple of clicks, you can then delete everything else, and retain only the very best one or two from the entire burst.

 

"With that in mind, I’ve begun using my iPhone5s for more and more “everyday” photo situations out on the street. Since I’m typically photographing ordinary, mundane events, even the one or two “optimal” shots that the camera-phone retains might not be worth showing anyone else … so there is still a lot of pruning and editing to be done, and I’m lucky if 10% of those “optimal” shots are good enough to justify uploading to Flickr and sharing with the rest of the world. Still, it’s an enormous benefit to know that my editing work can begin with photos that are more-or-less “technically” adequate, and that I don’t have to waste even a second reviewing dozens of technically-mediocre shots that are fuzzy, or blurred.

 

"Oh, yeah, one other minor benefit of the iPhone5s (and presumably most other current brands of smartphone): it automatically geotags every photo and video, without any special effort on the photographer’s part. Only one of my other big, fat cameras (the Sony Alpha SLT A65) has that feature, and I’ve noticed that almost none of the “new” mirrorless cameras have got a built-in GPS thingy that will perform the geotagging...

 

"I’ve had my iPhone5s for a couple of months now, but I’ve only been using the “burst-mode” photography feature aggressively for the past couple of weeks. As a result, the initial batch of photos that I’m uploading are all taken in the greater-NYC area. But as time goes on, and as my normal travel routine takes me to other parts of the world, I hope to add more and more “everyday” scenes in cities that I might not have the opportunity to photograph in a “serious” way.

 

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Okay, so now it’s September of 2014, and I’ve got the iPhone 6. They say that the camera is better, and that the internal camera-related hardware/firmware/software is better, too. Obviously, I’ve got the newer iOS, too, and even on the “old” phones, it now supports time-lapse videos along with everything else.

 

I’ve still got my pocket camera (an amazing little Sony ERX-100 Mark III), and two larger cameras (Sony RX-10, and Sony A7), but I have a feeling that I won’t even be taking them out of the camera bag when I’m out on the street for ordinary day-to-day walking around.

 

That will depend, obviously, on what kind of photos and videos the iPhone6 is actually capable of taking … so I’m going to try to use it every day, and see what the results look like …

 

Like I said last year, “stay tuned…"

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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Virtually everyone in America, as well as millions of other people around the world, know that Thanksgiving is one of the main occasions for organizing a huge parade.

 

It’s especially true in New York City, where I live — hundreds of parade workers converge on a one-block stretch between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West on 77th Street on the night before Thanksgiving to assemble the floats, and pump the huge balloons full of helium, so they’ll be ready to go the next morning. The parade itself lasts for hours, and stretches all the way down Central Park West and Broadway, and ultimately through Herald Square and past the main entrance to Macy’s on 34th Street. The whole thing is televised for the benefit of viewers all around the world, with TV commentators and an endless procession of marching bands, baton-twirlers, singers, dancers, jugglers, magicians, Broadway actors, and other forms of entertainment…

 

While New York City may be the only example of a Thanksgiving-Day parade that people around the world actually see on their TV screen, it’s definitely not the only such parade that takes place in this country. I’m sure that every big city has its own version of the turkey-day parade, as do most of the medium-size cities, and quite a few smaller towns and villages, too. They may not be visible on television, but a lot of local citizens and visitors turn out to watch such parades, if only because their sons and daughters are typically marching in the high-school bands that form a big part of the event.

 

On this particular occasion — in November of 2013 — I happened to be in one such medium-size city, where the parade took place on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It was in Portland, Oregon where we were spending the holiday period with one of our sons and his family; the parade took place in the “Pearl District” of downtown Portland … and, to our amazement, we were able to park our car about a block from the parade route, and walk right up to the corner (at Davis St and NW Park, if you want to track it down on Google Maps) where all of the bands and floats and costumed marchers walked by. In fact, I was able to take the “parade experience” even one step further: the people were friendly enough, and the security was light enough, that I was able to walk right out into the middle of the street with my camera, to photograph the floats and bands and marchers as they approached me … scampering out of the way only at the last moment.

 

Admittedly, Portland is a much bigger city than a tiny village of a thousand people somewhere in the midwest … but it still felt like “small town America” to me, and it was a great spectacle to watch. I got the impression that many of the visitors and observers standing along the street actually knew the people marching past them … and in any case, the marchers laughed and smiled and walked right up to us, handing out little pieces of candy to all of the children. Maybe next year I’ll go looking for a really small Thanksgiving parade in one of those tiny midwest-America villages, before retreating back to the Big Apple to watch the spectacle of thousands of marchers parading past millions of observers, and a TV audience of tens of millions …

 

I wish that I had taken some video clips of the parade, because the sounds and the music and the motion were a big part of what we experienced. But for better or worse, all I took was a bunch of traditional still photos. Actually, I took a LOT of still photos — nearly a thousand, altogether — but I’ve winnowed the collection down to 50 “keepers” that I hope will give you a sense of what Thanksgiving is all about…

 

Actually, if you live anywhere besides New York City here in the U S of A, you already know what Thanksgiving is all about, at least to the extent that it’s symbolized by the parade. But for those of us who spend most our time in New York City, it was a very pleasant experience indeed. After an hour, it was all over; we walked back to our car a block away, and drove back to our son’s house … and a day later, we were back in New York City. And thus ended another Thanksgiving holiday, at least until 2014.

(more details later, as time permits)

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I love to stroll along Riverside Park, on the western edge of Manhattan by the Hudson River, during almost any season of the year (and you can see the photographic results in this Flickr collection). However, I've never been south of 70th Street nor north of 125th Street on these strolls -- even though I know the park extends all the way up to the George Washington Bridge, a couple miles further north.

 

Actually, it had not been possible to walk the entire distance between 70th and 125th, at least not right along the river, because there was a section between 82nd and 96th Street that had once been a very narrow, rough, rutted footpath between the river and the ever-busy West Side Highway ... until the New York Parks Department decided to close it off and build a properly paved, somewhat wider, pathway for bicyclists, skaters, joggers, and people just out strolling along, like me. Of course, it took the Parks Department a couple years longer than originally planned, and after a while, nobody paid any attention to the signs indicating that they were definitely going to be finished this spring ... no, this summer ... no, well, maybe this fall.

 

But then, all of a sudden, they did finish ... and word circulated around the Upper West Side that it would be officially opened, thus connecting "Riverside Park South" with "Riverside Park North," sometime just before Memorial Day weekend. So we decided to check it out, starting with a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe at the base of the pier that extends out into the Hudson River at 70th Street.

 

After lunch, I was planning to walk north and check out the new pathway ... but first, there was an old abandoned freight elevator at the edge of the water, which I decided I should photograph. It was just to the south of the 70th-Street cafe, and after taking the photos, I looked a little further south, and saw that there was a broad pathway, carefully mowed grass, and lots of people strolling ... where? further south!

 

So I followed the path, and found that it expanded into a complex web of sidewalks, mini-gardens, mini-piers jutting out into the river, wooden-slat chairs, picnic benches, and boardwalks leading through wild grass and flowers that had been carefully planted. All of this continued, block after block after block, down below the elevated West Side Highway, all the way down to 59th Street. And it turns out that that is where "Riverside Park South" actually starts.

 

So that's where most of the photos in this set were actually taken. There are some strange sights along the way, because the whole area used to be occupied by working piers that loaded and unloaded ships filled with freight and cargo, on and off railroads that snaked their way along the west side of Manhattan. But as ship-borne cargo was gradually replaced by truck, rail, and air cargo, the piers and docks gradually fell into disuse; and when the Penn Central Railroad went bankrupt, they really fell into disuse.

 

It turns out that there was a massive fire along this area back in June of 1971 (a time when I lived in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, and was more-or-less oblivious to what was going on in Manhattan), and the fire was so hot that it melted and warped the steel girders of many of the docks, cranes, and loading structures. When the whole area was renovated recently (apparently part of a required "civic contribution" by Donald Trump when he acquired the rights to build condos and apartment buildings along the stretch of the far West Side of Manhattan, from 72nd Street to the mid-60s), the city planners initially intended to remove all of the old twisted metal and rotting wooden piers. But local civic groups prevailed upon the city to leave some of it intact, as a reminder of what was there before... I could go on with more details, but you can check it out for yourself here on Wikipedia.

 

Anyway, I eventually strolled back to my starting point at 70th Street, and then up to 82nd Street, and finally along the newly-opened pathway connecting the southern stretch of park with the northern section that starts at 96th Street. Alas, it turned out to be utterly boring: absolutely straight, with a northbound bike lane, a southbound bike lane, a thick garish yellow line dividing the two, and a narrow 3-foot path by the railing for pedestrians to creep along. No benches, no tables, no mini-piers jutting out into the river; no curves, no artistic flair, no flowers, no grass, no nothing. You can see for yourself in the final two or three photos in this set ...

 

But all in all, it was a pleasant afternoon. One of these days, I'll go back down to Riverside Park South around sunset, and see if I can get some good pictures of the sun disappearing into the smoggy haze of New Jersey, across the water...

the tall stems permit the carnivorous pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) to get pollinated by the insects that may later fall victim to the pitchers below... Purbeck, Dorset

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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In the spring of 2014, we came to Paris for a week of relaxed vacationing, mostly to wander around and see some old familiar places. It was a “return” trip for both of us, though in my case I think it’s probably been more than 15 years since I was even here on a business trip.

 

Business trips to any city don’t really count as a “visit” -- since they basically involve flying into a busy airport at night, taking a taxi to a generic business-traveler’s hotel (a Hilton in Paris looks just like a Hilton in Cairo), and then spending several days working in the hotel (if the purpose of the trip was a seminar or computer conference), or at a client’s office (also “generic” in most cases — you can’t even tell what floor you’re on when you get off the elevator, because every floor of “open office” layouts is the same). The trip usually ends in the late afternoon or evening of the final day, with a mad dash back to the airport to catch the last plane home to NYC. Thus, a business trip to Paris is almost indistinguishable from a business trip to Omaha. Or Albany. Or Tokyo.

 

But I did make a few “personal” visits to Paris in the 1970s and 1980s, so I looked forward to having the chance to walk through some familiar places along the Left Bank. I’m not so interested in museums, monuments, cathedrals, or other “official” tourist spots (but yes, I have been to the Eiffel Tower, just as I’ve been to the Empire State Building in NYC), so you won’t see any photos of those places in this Flickr set.

 

As a photographer, I now concentrate mostly on people and street scenes. The details of the location don’t matter much to me, though I do try to geotag my photos whenever I can. But for the most part, what you’ll see here are scenes of people and local things in Paris that made me smile as I walked around …