February 2013

Sunny Italy

Yesterday we travelled to a frigid Siberian winter. Sorry….soo sooo sorry. Today let’s shake off the shivers and head to places where worries melt away….along the coast of Italy:
1. Tuscan mineral baths
2. Monterosso in Cinque Terre, Italy
3. Capri, Italy

I studied abroad in Florence. It was a magical experience. I’d often hop a train by myself or with a friend and hike Cinque Terre. It was off season and before the 5 towns had been written up in a lot of guide books so it was really quiet and non-touristy. I’d rent a tiny room (that you’d get to by climbing one of the many stone stairways from the hilly mainstreet to the stone and stucco houses stacked above) from a nice man who ran the hardware store in town and do the big hike from Riomaggiore to Monterosso (passing orange trees, clover forests and hilly vistas). It was spring so there were no umbrellas out in Monterosso like in the photo above. At the end of the semester, I’d been there so many times the man from the hardware store, Silvano gave me a bottle of wine he and his wife made themselves.

Years later on our honeymoon, Dave and I went back. It was summer so it was super hot and there were lots of tourists milling about. Still, it’s a stunning place full of memories and gnocci pesto served at charming cafes overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Monterosso had those umbrellas to rent and lounge chairs on the beach. The sand was scalding and the water was so refreshing. There’s nothing more beautiful than that blue-green sea.

I’m dreaming of going back someday.

Siberian winter

I’m a big time sufferer of seasonal affective disorder. My love for New York, the vibrant culture, the people here, the raging ambition and passion and my proximity to family are the reasons why we stay. Sometimes however, I dream about living in a sunny place with blossoming trees and nature walks in proximity to a cute city with cafes. That’s most likely never going to happen so I’ll just have to muscle through winter after winter here. After looking at these photos of the winter in Siberia though, I feel like I’m living on a Caribbean island!

Finding Vivian Maier

Street photographer Vivian Maier’s massive body of work was discovered at a local thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side in 2007.

I’m so utterly blown away by the intimacy with strangers present in her photographs. This new documentary tells the tale of Maier, an intensely private woman who amassed a huge body of street photography over the years that is only now seeing the light of day. I can’t wait to learn more about this incredible artist and secretive woman through this documentary by John Maloof who purchased the negatives for about $380 not knowing exactly what he’d gotten.

The site dedicated to her recently discovered work describes Vivian as “guarded and private, Vivian could be counted on to feistily preach her own very liberal worldview to anyone who cared to listen, or didn’t. Decidedly unmaterialistic, Vivian would come to amass a group of storage lockers stuffed to the brim with found items, art books, newspaper clippings, home films, as well as political tchotchkes and knick-knacks.

The story of this nanny who has now wowed the world with her photography, and who incidentally recorded some of the most interesting marvels and peculiarities of Urban America in the second half of the twentieth century is seemingly beyond belief.”