Tag Archives: USA

Decameron, Day 1. The joy of being wrong.

Posted on 25/03/2020 by awtytravels

Adunque, – disse la reina – se questo vi piace, per questa prima giornata voglio che libero sia a ciascuno di quella materia ragionare che più gli sarà a grado. It is perhaps appropriate that, for the first day, there … Continue reading →

Posted in Day 1, Decameron, Odd ones out | Tagged Charlotte, Day 1, Decameron, North Carolina, Pampinea, USA | 21 Comments

“The Stranger in the Woods”, by Michael Finkel, Simon & Schuster

Posted on 01/02/2020 by awtytravels

Source One fine day in 1986, sometime after the Chernobyl disaster and well into Reagan’s second term in office (and a few months before my birth, though it wasn’t mentioned), a twenty-something called Christopher Knight parked his almost-new Subaru Brat … Continue reading →

Posted in Books review | Tagged Books review, Chris Knight, Finkel, Hermit, Journalism, Junger, Literary review, Maine, Michael Finkel, Stranger, USA, Woods | 22 Comments

North of the sun.

Posted on 23/01/2020 by awtytravels

I’ve never flown this far north. On the moving map a rendition of our aircraft is hurtling down a steep curve, a headfirst plunge along a yellow arc linking London to the Pacific Northwest. We’ve climbed north, past Scotland and … Continue reading →

Posted in Odd ones out, The world from above | Tagged 777, BA49, Boeing, British Airways, Canada, Day, Flying, Greenland, Heathrow, Heathrow Airport, Ice, London, New World, Night, Northern Territories, Nunavut, Odd ones out, Polar ice, Pole, Seattle, Sunrise, Sunset, The world from above, United States, USA, Whitehorse, Winter, World from above | 28 Comments

The sublime art of panning, or how to fail in Chicago and succeed in London.

Posted on 01/08/2018 by awtytravels

Panning, excitable teenagers on Youtube will tell you, is a technique used in photography where the camera rotates on its Y axis in order to keep a moving object in focus. If done well, the result will be a striking … Continue reading →

Posted in Americas, Europe, UK, USA | Tagged Bicycle, Bike, Bridge, Charity race, Chicago, Chiswick, Cyclist, Europe, Illinois, Lincoln Park, London, London Prudential 100, Motorbike, North Chicago, Olympus, Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III, OM-D, Panning, Prudential, Richmond, Shutter speed, Street photography, Street race, Thames, UK, USA | 24 Comments

“I’ve Got Ninja Style Kung-Fu Grip”.

Posted on 01/02/2018 by awtytravels

“Keep Austin weird” is, according to a brochure I happened to read some time ago, this city’s strapline. It sounds somehow artificial, not only because it was coined, as it turned out, by a group of lobbyists named the Independent … Continue reading →

Posted in Americas, USA | Tagged Ai Weiwei, America, Americas, Austin, Begging, Bible, Capitol, Cormorant, Dogs, Emancipation, Ersatz, Homeless, Homelessness, Hotels, Keep Austin Weird, Lake, Latino, Lone Star, Lone Star State, Park, Planned Parenthood, Rodriguez, Street photography, Texas, Texas capitol, United States, Urban photography, USA | 14 Comments

A tale of two missions. Part 2.

Posted on 15/01/2018 by awtytravels

It was just appropriate that, in line with the general low-key-feeling of the entire place, the next stop in our tour looked a lot like grandpa’s barn meets serial accumulator’s shack, if one was willing to ignore the fact that … Continue reading →

Posted in Americas, USA | Tagged 747, Anders, Apollo, Apollo 1, Apollo 11, Apollo 8, Austin, Boeing, Borman, Chief Astronaut, Cosmos, Faith 7, Gemini, Gemini 5, Gene Cernan, Gene Kranz, Houston, Johnson Space Center, Lovell, Mars, Mercury, Micheal Collins, Moon, Moon Buggy, NASA, NASA Parkway, Orion, Pete Conrad, Pin, Shuttle, Space race, Space Shuttle, Texas, TSUM Dushanbe, USA, USSR, Venera 10 | 12 Comments

A tale of two missions. Part 1.

Posted on 13/01/2018 by awtytravels

The TsUM Magazin on Rudaki was rumoured, according to the chit-chat in the hostel, to be unbeatable in Dušanbe for Soviet tat, but once we’d gotten there it was pretty hard to figure out why. Ground floor was packed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Americas, USA | Tagged 747, Apollo, Apollo 11, Austin, Boeing, Chief Astronaut, Cosmos, Faith 7, Gemini, Gemini 5, Gene Cernan, Gene Kranz, Houston, Johnson Space Center, Mars, Mercury, Micheal Collins, Moon, Moon Buggy, NASA, NASA Parkway, Orion, Pete Conrad, Pin, Shuttle, Space race, Space Shuttle, Texas, TSUM Dushanbe, USA, USSR, Venera 10 | 13 Comments

Chicago people watching.

Posted on 27/01/2017 by awtytravels

I have one camera – an old Olympus PEN – and two lenses. One long, and the other one a pancake. Yes, that’s as far as my technical knowledge will go and yes, two lenses is one set too many … Continue reading →

Posted in Americas, USA | Tagged Anish Kapoor, B&W, Black & White, Chicago, Cloud Gate, CTA, Great Lakes, Ice, Illinois, John Hancock, Lake, Loop, Michigan, Millenium Park, North Side, People, People watching, Photography, Skyscrapers, Street photography, The Bean, The L, United States, USA | 17 Comments

E.R., towers and life on the streets. Notes from Chicago.

Posted on 12/01/2017 by awtytravels

When I was a teenager, activists from both ends of the political spectrum – the far left and the neo-Fascists – used to hand out leaflets outside my school. There was only one refrain that could have been copied from … Continue reading →

Posted in Americas, USA | Tagged Bankruptcy, Barack Obama, Chicago, Clinton, Donald Trump, E.R., Elevated Rail, Illinois, L, Lake, Lake Michigan, Loop, Macy's, Metropolis, Michigan, Michigan Avenue, Netflix, North Side, OC, Robber Barons, Snow, The Loop, Trump, Trump Tower & Hotel, TV Series, United States, USA, Wabash Avenue, Winter | 16 Comments

Amongst the Charlotteans, or how I smashed my own preconceptions.

Posted on 29/05/2015 by awtytravels

The baggage of preconceptions and of prejudices that we’ve accumulated over the years is, in the vast majority of occasions, completely wrong: someone we assumed to be a twat will turn out to be a smart fellow, a dish we … Continue reading →