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Statue of St. Anthony of Padua by Neil Noland

Fun facts (and legends) about Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic:

1. It's 516 meters (1,693 feet) long, and about 10 meters (33 feet) wide.

2. It was built to connect the castle to the Old Town.

3. There are three towers on the bridge: two on the castle side, one on the Old Town side. (I think you can go up one, maybe more, for slightly better panoramic views.)

4. Its construction has a very specific start time: 5:31 a.m. on the 9 July 1357. (Written another way: 1357.9.7.5:31.) So, it's a palindromic bridge. Supposedly stronger because of it. It was completed 45 years later in 1402.

5. The first stone was laid at the above minute by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles, for whom the bridge is named.

6. It didn't get the name "Charles Bridge" until 1870.

It originally had the more creative names of Stone Bridge or Prague Bridge. The river it spans, by the way, is the Vitava.

7. Prague is famous for being the filming locations of a handful of Hollywood movies (Amadeus, Immortal Beloved, Mission Impossible...and the pinnacle of Hollywood production, XXX -- the first one. For those of you who have deigned to sit through that gem, you'll know the setting was Prague. The final scene (well...penultimate) is of Vin Diesel sitting on these little wooden thingies next to the bridge. You're welcome for the memory, everyone...

8. There are 16 arches shielded by ice guards. (I think that's what the little wooden thingies are.)

9. There are 30 statues or statuaries on the bridge -- 15 on each side -- mostly of religious folk, saints and the like -- that were originally erected around 1700. How many of these are original? Zip. Zero. Nada. All replicas, with the originals in the National Museum, it seems.

10. This bridge/river/area is famous for swans. Why they're here and why they stay, I have no idea. But, they're nice. I saw them, but from a distance.

Now for my personal notes...

I've been on a severely sprained ankle the past few days, so haven't done much shooting in Prague, I'm sad to say. But, this bridge? I imagine it's easily the most photogenic (especially for panoramas) in the city. Looking at these pictures, I'm crying for the loss of my DSLRs and P&S cameras earlier this year. These turned out...ok, and a few slightly better than ok.

The problem with this is that every tourist (and all tourist companies) know this. Whatever you do, do NOT come between...I don't know...11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. or afternoon at all unless you love seeing throngs of people photobombing your shots. Come at sunrise or sundown. Sundown would give the best backlighting and blue hour shots of Old Town, and sunrise would give you the misty/foggy shots of the river and Old Town.

If I lived in Prague, this is exactly the place I'd come, probably once a week or every other week, to shoot in different times and seasons. It's that nice of a spot. Of course, I'd do that if I had my cameras back...

Paul_Hughes_Design_Thinking_Notebooks175 by Paul Hughes

Design Thinking uses concepts as creative leverage by first highlighting specific examples that are classified before we put them through a process of abstraction (by becoming aware of their similarities) that results in a concept, which in turn allows us to recognize new examples that are in the same class.

5th Grade Patriot's Day | 2014 by Westminster Schools of Augusta

Patriots’ Day brought to life all that the fifth-grade students have learned about the American Revolution. Students took part in gender-specific classes as one would have done in the 1800’s. In period-specific costumes and persona, the boys experienced militia training and learned Latin. The girls experienced refinement training that included lessons in conversation and sewing and even had a period-proper tea. The training was under the direction of a trained school master and lady of genteel. The students sampled period-specific snacks and participated in 19th century dancing and crafts such as knot tying, candle making, copper making and corn husk dolls. The crescendo to this day-long event was playing a role in the reenactment of a revolutionary wartime reception.

Jaisalmer Fort Detail by Neil Noland

Ambling out of Jaisalmer train station in late morning, we were immediately accosted by the throngs of drivers – mostly working for specific hotels – who were trying to pick us up. Since I’d booked a room at the Roop Mahal, this wasn’t an issue. It took a minute to find the guy, but he was there to drive us the whole 1-2 km to the hotel, which was at the base of the fort on the west side.

The biggest reason to come to Jaisalmer, the Golden City (since most places are primarily built of sandstone) is to see the fort, which is on a bit of a hill overlooking an otherwise flat desert. As it’s in the desert, the temperatures in the day, even in late September, were close to 40 degrees Celsius (a little over 100F).

According to Lonely Planet India, the fort was built in 1156 by the Rajput ruler Jaisal and reinforced by subsequent rulers. It “was the focus of a number of battles between the Bhatis, the Mughals of Delhi and the Rathores of Jodhpur.”

Nowadays, it’s a living fort. Jaisalmer Fort has plenty of residents, restaurants, souvenir stands, havelis (old-style housing with ornate architecture: carved stone doorways, lattice screens, balconies, and turrets). The havelis are often hotels now, and almost every hotel here has a rooftop restaurant to enjoy the surrounding view. Our hotel, the Roop Mahal, also had a rooftop restaurant where I ate a few times. The food was…not great, but certainly not bad.

In addition to the havelis, there are also quite a few temples. Specifically, there are seven Jain temples (that you can tour for 150 rupees/15 RMB/$2.50USD). These temples were visually quite attractive inside – some more than others – and also had plenty of worshippers coming in and out. I was impressed by the intricacy of the details and sandstone carving, the intimacy of the art, and the way natural light was used in the temples. I don’t believe tripods were allowed inside the temple, which made a lot of shooting quite difficult, but not impossible. The only other rule is that you have to take your shoes off outside and pay someone (usually about 100 rupee) to “watch” your shoes.

After having a meal in the fort (and, excitedly, finding a spice shop where I bought the first of many Indian spices to bring back to China with me), my travel partner arranged for us to go out to the desert and ride camels. (The hotelier also offered something similar, but was a bit expensive.)

Later in the day, around 5:00, if I recall correctly, a guy came to pick us up at the hotel in a jeep and four of us – me, my travel partner, and two Israeli women – started our drive out to Sam, about 50 km west of Jaisalmer (and less than 100 km – maybe less than 50 – from the Pakistani border to the west).

En route, we had to make a few required stops (per our drivers). The first place was so forgettable that I can’t even recall the name of it or what it was. The second place was just to see a small village (really, two buildings) and a whole lot of kids running up to you begging for money in exchange for pictures.

After that, we finally made it out to the desert, where we rode camels for about half an hour and then stopped at a rather random place where we were eventually given a home-cooked Indian meal, vegetarian, that consisted of dal, naan, and a few curries. It was delicious, and had to be eaten completely in Indian style (no utensils of any kind).

While watching the sunset and the subsequent moonrise, we eventually bade our Israeli friends farewell (as they were spending the night in the desert) and headed back to town. Along the way, I caught a glimpse of a late night cricket match, and it was the only time during this trip I’d see that. When we got back to the hotel, we just needed to wait there for an hour or two before they were kind enough to drive us to the train station around 11:00 p.m. so we could catch our midnight train to Jodhpur…the Blue City.

Wineke Gartz - Hot Freaks, 2012 by Ed Jansen

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site-specific gecomponeerde totaalcollage

site-specific composed total collage

Nest heeft Wineke Gartz gevraagd een presentatie te maken binnen de Nestarchyserie die de afgelopen jaren is ontstaan en waarbinnen kunstenaars de complete tentoonstellingsruimte van Nest ter beschikking krijgen om mee aan de slag te gaan. Sinds Wineke Gartz in 1998 afstudeerde aan de Rijksakademie heeft ze een consistente carrière opgebouwd met installaties vol overlappende beelden, architectonische ingrepen, materialen en projecties.

Wineke Gartz heeft voor de kust van Scheveningen videomateriaal geschoten. Dat materiaal zal vermengd worden met materiaal van de kust van China waar ze enige tijd verbleef, en met filmfoto’s van Hollywoodsterren (de HotFreaks uit de titel), daklozen, bezinningscursussen, zelfportretten en performances uit Los Angeles. Het valt te verwachten dat het geheel een grote bewegende collage zal worden waarin alle oorspronkelijke ingrediënten hun oorsprong grotendeels verliezen en verworden tot een typische Wineke Gartz hallucinatie die de bezoeker een totaalervaring biedt en kan leiden tot een staat van trance. Tegelijkertijd worden esoterische clichés vermeden en doet het hedendaagse dagelijks leven volop mee.

Wineke Gartz exhibits in the Netherlands and in various countries worldwide. Her site-specific installations consist of complex overlays of imagery and media, often with the use of music and multiple video and slides projections and with the integral use of the architectural space. Her parallel realities include mixing the ordinary with the heroic, creating an almost hallucinatory experience. Her subjects relate to psychology, beauty, death, illusions and perception, nature versus urban life, art and mass media. Gartz is interested in the combination of spirituality, art and science. Currently she is developing video lectures about her work and started to collaborate with musicians.

Falling Down by Neil Noland

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