On June 6, 1944, 156,000 Allied soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy: Omaha, Juno, etc. Robert Capa landed with the soldiers on Omaha, shooting this picture. 10,000 soldiers were killed or wounded. Yet, at the end of the day, all 5 beachheads were more or less secured, opening the way for the massive transfer…
Men only? (Commuting South, 1890.) Transportation museum, London. Victorian England. Women did not use public transportation? Not without a chaperon? “I say. The bl..dy window is stuck. Most annoying. What.” Transp. museum again. Saint-Paul from the “wobbly” bridge. Anthony Hopkins, “84 Charing Cross.” I find the name “Charing Cross” so utterly London-ish. Marble Arch. Hyde…
Sloth crossing over the path. On the Amazon. Banteay Kdei temple. Angkor. Cambodia. Banteay Kdei was built as a Buddhist temple during the 1100’s AD. The Khmer Empire (802-1431AD) was at its highest. After the end of the Empire, the temples were vandalised and abandoned to the jungle. Around 1920 the jungle was cut off…
Ta Prohm is one of more than 1,000 temples in the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia. Built around 1186AD, it was a Mahayana Buddhist monastery. Above is one of the 4 gates to the temple with four heads of my Lord Buddha. The locals call it “Tomb Raider” since some of the most spectacular scenes…
Frida Kahlo’s Blue House* in Coyoacán, Mexico City. You need to book in advance. That picture was taken after the worst of COVID, as you can see by the masks. Not too much crowd then. Frida in the garden with one of her favourite dogs, called a Xoloitzcuintle, a hairless dog. She and Diego had…
Previously: My ancestors on my father’s side come a small town in Flanders: Kortrijk. My parents traced the family roots all the way back to Carel Onraet, born in Kortrijk or Courtrai in 1531. After many trips to Belgium over the years, I finally made a detour to Kortrijk: One historic landmark of Kortrijk is…
Kortrijk, land of my fathers My family, on my father’s side, comes from a small town in West Flanders: Kortrijk in Flemish, Courtrai in French. Going back to the small Roman town of Cortoriacum in 43AD, it once was one of the richest cities of the region, a major centre of linen and wool. Cotton…
At the market. Why is the guy on the right not working? Little India. Singapore. Clarke quay. The old warehouses have been transformed. There’s great ice-cream around the corner to the right. “Letter writer. 12 January 1969.” In the old days, professional writers helped illiterate people write love letters or official documents. See how the…
“It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog.” Artist: Dean Stockton aka D*Face. Open your eyes. “Not just a pen.” (I’ve used Lamy for many years.) ‘Blue moon.’ Plenty of art by Mike Raz in NY. Great idea. Fantastic. Just tell me where the light is? Last ship to leave…
Fall 2011. 15 years ago. The Occupy Wall Street movement started in September. Lasted until November. One of our daughters was working in New York. Coincidence that we should be visiting her right at the moment of ‘Occupy’. Her office was smack on Bryant Park, next to the New York Public Library. (Where some might…
Graduation ceremony. San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, Mexico. San Juan is the sacred church of the tzotzil people. Men and women still use the traditional wool costume most of the time. No video or photos are allowed inside the church. Coca-Cola is considered a sacred beverage and is largely consumed inside. And outside. Probably one of…
“Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” (Emma Lazarus.) New York, 2021. The jewel is in the Lotus. Or is it the sunflower? Yogyakarta, Indonesia. 2025. Ommmm Mane… “You can keep…
A Time Patrol Movie We lived in Kenya from 1967 to 1971. Years of absolute magic. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the Kenya flag, but to me, it still carries the magic of Africa. Mount Kenya in the distance. Altitute: 5,200ms. For the Kikuyu and other tribes it is the home of…
Tlalpan, Mexico city. (Windows do qualify, right, Dan?) Baggaersthof, Kortrijk, Belgium. Probably one the first social housing projects in Europe. In the mid-1600s, Lady Josijne Baggaert built 13 small cottages for needy women. My ancestors were born and lived in Kortrijk since 1531. It felt strange -and good- to imagine them passing by that door.…
Do you want to improve the world? I don’t think it can be done. The world is sacred, It can’t be improved. If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it. If you treat it like an object, you’ll lose it. … Tao Te Ching, by Stephen Mitchell
Equinoxio 