shoemaker country

Shoemaker Country
September 2008

My iTunes: Notre grand amour est mort by Carla Bruni

I seem to have missed a few days -- it's been a busy week. I have an unexpected three-day weekend, though, because somehow I ended up with no students today. I'm determined to be very productive, to catch up on sleep, and to spend some quality time in the practice rooms. I figured right now I would multi-task and eat breakfast while posting since I've missed the past few days.

Rehearsals for the opera have started -- it's so wonderful to be back. The only thing that could have kept me out of the last show was having back surgery. I've also finally started to set up visits to graduate schools... which means road trips and (hopefully) pictures! The first trip will be in a couple weeks, so I'll keep you posted.

old window

Old Window

June 2008

My iTunes: Dirty Dancing Soundtrack

I'm trying to sort through pictures from Italy tonight, so it's going to be yet another short post. Tomorrow is my "little" brother's 18th birthday and I'm taking him out for breakfast, so I'll be up early...

lonesome

Lonesome

June 2008

My iTunes: Spend My Life with You by Phil Keaggy

I was told today that peoples' creations reflect one's character and mood. I tried to pick an image tonight that reflected my mood. Today was the last day of the seminar. We all left each other today. I can echo what someone said today: I came into this expecting something intellectual, and I didn't expect to become to attached to everyone. I have never felt so sad upon closing a chapter or leaving a place. I really miss my girlfriends. They are some wonderful women who I am proud to have had in my life. I miss them terribly.

door at the wall

Door at the Wall

June 2008

My iTunes: Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi

Several of my faithful readers (whom I very much appreciate -- every day I look forward to reading your comments!) have mentioned how much they've enjoyed this little series I've been doing of images from Eastern State Penitentiary. I must say, I do agree -- they've been some really fun images to work with.

Something that made me laugh really hard yesterday: read Robert's comment! Maybe it's because I've been so tired these past few days that everything seems inordinately funnier. Check out his blog as well -- I love it when he posts pictures of his daughter, Lily! And I'm thoroughly enjoying the music now as well -- it is keeping me awake as I edit my prospectus (hopefully for a final time).

I'm coming down the home stretch with my research. Tomorrow is the last full day in the archives, and then Thursday and Friday mornings we will present our prospectuses before a panel of 12 professors from across the country, 2 PhD candidates, and the other 9 undergraduate fellows. It sounds quite intimidating, but right now I think I'm too sleepy to care...

OH, but today's most exciting new: Lacey Lichi (I have a link to her blog under "my favorite photographers") has finished her photography website, which we have all been greatly anticipating! Check it out, and tell her what you think!

through the windows

Through the Windows

June 2008

My iTunes: Nessun Dorma by Paul Potts

Quick post -- I got back my first prospectus draft with four versions of comments last night and have to finish editing it before my meeting later this morning. I was up working on it until almost 2:00 this morning, then up at 6:30 to continue... I needed a break so I thought I'd post this. But now, back to work.

Tidbit of the day: the Eastern State Penitentiary is being structurally stabilized so that it will remain in its decayed state for the public to see a a National Historic Landmark. It was the first penitentiary of its kind.

at the corners

At the Corners

June 2008

My iTunes: Freschi Luoghi, Prati Aulenti by Stephano Donaudy

Another shot from Eastern State, and yet again this will have to be a short post -- I'm leaving to go to the American Philosophical Society to do research today and have to pick up breakfast on the way out.

Today's random factoid: the two youngest inmates of Eastern State Penitentiary were 12 years old, convicted of arson and second degree murder, respectively.

I'm glad everyone has been enjoying these pictures -- it's been fun working with them!

broken doors

Broken Doors

June 2008

My iTunes: Overture from Mozart's Don Giovanni

This will have to be a short post because I need to finish my prospectus by 5:00 p.m. I will talk more about Eastern State Penitentiary later, though! (If you go to their website, you can take a virtual tour.)

Here is one tidbit about ESP: only one man ever escaped and avoided recapture. He would be around 100 years old now if he were still alive. I hope he's come back for the tour.

penitentiary

Penitentiary

June 2008

My iTunes: Nel furor delle tempeste from Bellini's Il Pirata

I went to jail today. Eastern State Penitentiary to be precise. It was built in the early 1800's and was a working penitentiary until it was closed in the 1970's. So, no, I was not convicted of a crime (unless the crime is spending too much time in the archives); I just did my usual thing and spent my free time doing something educational. At least I got to take picture.

My friend Stephanie who went with me called over to me as I was taking a macro shot of a door (to be unveiled later this week): "Christy, take your blog photos later!" It made me smile to know that I'm known as the photographer.

I like the lighting in this one: "Go towards the light!" This is one of the corridors where they kept prisoners. In the interest of reforming the inmates so that they might become helpful members of society, the penitentiary was designed to produce penitent prisoners -- even the skylights were designed so that the inmates felt that though they spent 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, God was always looking down upon them.

If I had the time, I would share more of the interesting history, but I have to write my prospectus tonight. I didn't get to it yesterday, so I'm writing tonight and tomorrow. I also have to pick one of the many pieces of sheet music from the nineteenth century to perform for everyone at the end of this fellowship program. I promise to give you more details about the penitentiary over the next few days, because I took a lot of pictures. The one interesting tidbit I will share is that at different times, this penitentiary held Al Capone and a Black Labrador. Now don't you want to hear more about it?

faces

Faces

May 2008

My iTunes: The Mermaid's Song by Anne Sofie von Otter

Writing about museums in my last post made me look through some of my old images from museums in Europe. It's difficult to photograph in museums sometimes, usually because of the low-lighting and no-flash-allowed, and the "no cameras" rule is difficult to work with as well...

I took this on my last weekend living in London; I went with a friend to the Sunday morning service at Westminster Abbey, and afterward we walked around the Abbey and looked at some of the smaller side chapels.

One of my favorite things about this image is how each person is looking somewhere different. This was just a very small section of a large painting (possibly a fresco, but I can't remember the exact setting). Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take a picture of the plaque to see what the story is about or when it was made, but my educated guess is that it dates to somewhere in the Middle Ages before the Renaissance. Art at that time was very flat and two-dimensional, and in diptychs and triptychs (two- and three- panelled altarpieces) from that era often had the angels arranged much like these people: very close together, overlapping, and without a clear sense of three-dimensional space.

I hope you learned a little something about art history, but enough of that for today. I'm getting ready to go to my follow up appointment after surgery and see if I'm allowed to sit down again! I sure hope so!

poetry

Poetry

April 2008

My iTunes: Rewrite This Tragedy by Sara Groves

Installment number two for Project Green -- these were some books that I found at an antique shop last year. I like seeing books like these on shelves. There is something appealing about seeing a bunch of books that all look the same, but knowing that upon closer inspection they aren't all exactly alike.

My favorite of these books is probably The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. I read them in high school years ago and enjoyed them a lot. I'm not a huge fan of poetry, though. I think it's rather odd that I'm not a poetry fan because I love music and art so much. Liking poetry would make sense, but thankfully it isn't a prerequisite for liking art or music! My appreciate for poetry increases when it is set to music, though. I like some of the German poetry that is the inspiration for some of the art songs that I have studied. But poetry for poetry's sake is something I have yet to learn to appreciate.

I've added a new widget to my blog that I rather like -- it's an iTunes widget and there are a variety of options that you can have to customize its appearance and what it displays. I have it set to display the names of my favorite artists.

1 day until surgery!

antique shoes

Antique Shoes
December 2007

My iTunes: La Vie En Rose by Edith Piaf

Taking photos at antique stores is quite fun -- you can find some really interesting stuff there if you look. This was one of my favorite finds -- old wooden shoe molds in a hand-made wicker basket. Makes me wonder whose shoes they once filled...