Time passes

the traffic was interminable, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Just returned from Strasbourg, where I celebrated my birthday by eating a steak and reading a book.

Tonight, by coincidence, I came across this photo, which I posted on Flickr almost exactly two years ago. It's hard for me to believe how much has happened in only 24 months.

As it happens, an email from my mom was waiting when I got home to remind me what I was doing 24 years ago:

Hey Matt, was hoping to catch you on Skype but no luck so far so we are writing to say Happy Birthday!! Can't believe you are 27 big ones already!! Seems like only yesterday you were cruising naked up and down the sidewalk on your faithful plastic pony.

Agreed.

Stuttgart

visio, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Good trip to Stuttgart this weekend, with lots of good photos -- not to mention many more undeveloped on old-fashioned film. This one from the TV tower looking out over the city stands alone, so I'll leave it up until I have time to caption the rest.

L'art est la mort

man, these were creepy, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Have just returned from a great weekend in Stuttgart, where, at the German national gallery, I was reminded in caption after caption that art is a commentary on the link between life and death. I would like to say that's what I was going for in this shot, but really I was just thinking, "Those are some freaky-ass monkey skulls."

Anyways, over the weekend, the pictures was loaded up with comments and favs, even creeping up into Flickr's Interestingness rankings, which my photos almost never crack.

For further commentary on how to butcher the French language, see this YouTube video that considers Nine Inch Nails of a piece with Nietzsche and Derrida.

And now to Stuttgart

feet across the street, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

This weekend I'm heading to Stuttgart to visit an old friend from high school, Jule.

Have uploaded most of my photos from Karlsruhe, the little city where I'm staying. Went to Frankfurt and a small, formerly Roman town called Speyer last weekend, but those photos will have to wait.

Could be out of pocket until Tuesday, since some coworkers are taking me across the French border (about 30km away) Monday night for dinner. On the menu: flammkuchen, a thin-crust pizza topped with onions, bacon, and a sour-cream sauce. Also: horse steaks.

"The little horses they have down there," my boss told me today, "soo tender." Then he held up his hand, with fingers pinched together like a gourmand, and made the universal sound for "delicious."

From the banks of the Rheine

inlet of the rheine, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

So far I'm getting by over here with the limited camera equipment. Amanda's point and shoot was doing really well until it started chewing through batteries this weekend. I was lucky to get this shot, but missed out on a pretty amazing foggy morning in Frankfurt.

I did shoot half a roll in the fog on some slow B&W film with my Lomo fish-eye. Not sure what to expect from that camera. It's a lot of fun, if nothing else. I should mention that I'm already playing catch-up to my friend Jason and the great stuff he's been shooting with the one he got (especially here and here).

This week's goal is to not screw around so much in the evenings and get everything I've shot so far online, as well as some snippets of what I'm doing over here.

Hallo, Internet

Have arrived in Karlsruhe safe and sound. Finally got internet in my hotel and Photoshop on my computer this weekend. More updates soon.

Off to Germany

floyd the giraffe, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

I'll be in Germany for the next month. Not sure how many photos I'll be able to get online over there, especially since Wolf Camera never got my camera back to me, even though I dropped it off at the beginning of damn November. Thanks, guys. Last time I go there, I guess.

I'll leave a shot of the zoo up here. I read all about the tragedy there from Texas. I hope they get their shit together because the place was pretty beautiful.