“You’re an expatriate. You’ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see. You hang around cafés.”
- Ernest Hemingway The Sun Also Rises
Add comment February 8th, 2010
Back in the summer of ‘05, I was oversees working on the film, Munich. Ironically, I got to visit several countries in Europe that year, but of course, not Germany. The closest I got was the daytrip I took to Vienna. I took the early morning train from Budapest and spent the day walking around, taking in the sights and sounds of the Austrian capital. Having studied German for two years in college, I was determined to use as little English as possible on the trip, which meant that it turned out to be a pretty quiet day.
I couldn’t help but snap a pic of this “small” cafe; an idyllic looking European cityscape if there ever was one. I also couldn’t help but patronize the cafe and order a refreshing Austrian lager (by pointing at the menu).
Add comment February 5th, 2010
In terms of my grandfather, truer words were never spoken than…
“I’d rather be fishin’.”
Add comment February 2nd, 2010
“Heaven knows this is a heartland”
- U2 Heartland
(above: not my grandparents’ house, but rather a neighbor’s)
Add comment January 29th, 2010
When I was a kid, I used to spend a good chunk of my summer vacations staying with my grandparents at their home in Camargo, IL. My days would be filled with fishing with my grandpa and helping him out in his garden; there was a decent amount of daytime soaps watching with my grandma; and every once in a while we would take the bass boat down to Millcreek to go swimming and for more fishing. I loved every second of it and so looked forward to going back with every school year ending.
When my grandma died a few years ago, I flew back from California a couple weeks after her death to spend a long weekend with my grandpa, just the two of us. It was late March, and unfortunately too early in the spring to do any fishing or gardening. With little else to do, we watched a lot of TV on that trip, particularly a marathon of Cash Cabs. We were addicted to that show.
One afternoon, I went out for a walk to take some photos of the house and surrounding area. It seemed all too appropriate the bleakness in the air and the lack of life in the hibernating trees and plants. As an adult, I couldn’t help but see this little old farm town, population under 500, in quite a different light. Long gone were those vibrant summers from my youth, and it made me really sad.
To quote my grandpa: “Don’t ever grow up, Ryan. It’s hell.”
Add comment January 28th, 2010
“When a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.”
- Paul Auster The Brooklyn Follies: A Novel
Add comment January 21st, 2010
The stapled remains of the fence outside Stubb’s Bar-B-Q once all the many live music posters have been torn down…
Add comment January 19th, 2010
A balmy 76° in Los Angeles today. Just got done washing the car in my shorts and sandals, and I can’t say I miss the snow back in Chicago one bit!
Add comment January 9th, 2010
