Cohoes Falls

Frog Hunting in Five Rivers

Summer at McCarren Park

[These pictures relate to this Get to the 'Point from the Greenpoint Gazette.]

East River Park

Vinyl Vs. Books

At the Writing, Literature & Publishing Orientation today (which was mostly boring, and which I mostly cut), during the faculty introductions, Gian Lombardo asked, "Who here still listens to vinyl records?" A couple students raised their hands.

Lombardo then asked, "Who here still reads books in paper form?" Everyone raised their hands.

"Think about that," he said, and walked away from the podium.

Vogue India, Pushing Fashion for the Unfortunate, Right?

Fashion editorials are usually stupid and unbelievable. Right, you're going to wear a $4,000 plain dress while hiking through the mountains of Patagonia, because it just makes so much sense. Vogue India takes that even further: putting $10,000 designer bags and $200 designer umbrellas in the hands of India's people. No, not models Vogue India dressed up to look Indian, but instead, the true people of India--the workers whose clothes are covered in dirt, the women missing teeth, etc.

The Vogue India editor, Priya Tanna, had this to say about the editorial (from the New York Times):

“Lighten up,” she said in a telephone interview. Vogue is about realizing the “power of fashion” she said, and the shoot was saying that “fashion is no longer a rich man’s privilege. Anyone can carry it off and make it look beautiful,” she said.

“You have to remember with fashion, you can’t take it that seriously,” Ms. Tanna said. “We weren’t trying to make a political statement or save the world,” she said.

Riiiiiight.

(Thanks, Ekyjot, for pointing out the article to me.)

Boston, Massachusetts

While walking around my new neighborhood yesterday, I overheard various snippets of conversation that basically sounded like the following:

"I hate September 1st--all those college kids moving in and everything."

Granted, Katie and I are college kids (graduate college kids, which make us better, I would hope), but our neighbors across the street and in our building aren't college students.

Just had to point that out.

Terrible Beauty

Though I dislike the New York Times' travel section, this article isn't that bad, if only for the phrase "terrible beauty," and the gorgeous imagery.

Rubber Duckies

Too bad I have work and Josh's birthday today, otherwise this would've been amazing to see.

Death Tourism

Because of a high-profile serial killer on the loose in Indonesia, people are flocking to the village of Jatiwates in East Java to view his victims. Interesting.