Hidden America

Last weekend I went on a road trip to no man's land (read: Southern Illinois). I call it no man's land because there is nothing interesting about Illinois outside of Chicago. There are corn fields, corn fields, corn fields, the occasional John Deere outlet store, and more corn fields.

Well this weekend I learned that there's actually a portion of Illinois that is kind of breath-takingly beautiful and NOT corn field. The area along the Mississippi River is absolutely stunning. It's very reminiscent of those coastal highways in California. Winding roads going through surprisingly large bluffs...(I know, I didn't know there were mountains in Illinois either).

And it's really cool because it's not the crazy busy commercial Mississippi River I'm used to. People actually take their yachts and jet ski's onto the river and have a grand ole' time. Here are the obligatory photography pictures I took on my trip:

First I went to a little park on a bluff like.....100 feet above the ground. It was high. These were the stairs to the park. And a cobblestone road! Very New England/San Francisco.

Lots of textures, and aged things. I was in black and white heaven.

Anyway, here's an unremarkable photo of the stunning view. You can see the road below. I was feeling uninspired because the sky was so ugly I guess, so I only have this photo of the view... At any rate, you can see the St. Louis skyline from this spot...though not in this picture.

AFTER THE PARK, I went to ANOTHER park...but this one is on the ground and it gives access to the water. There was this lonely little bridge thing on it. I guess people can go stand on top of it because the stairs weren't blocked off. I didn't for fear of my life.

Besides, the things under the bridge were much cooler....LIKE GRAFFITI. Here's a hoodlum caught in the act. JK, it's just my little cousin modeling for me.

And safety takes a backseat at this park. There are no barriers to the water...So I mean, false step and you roll down this hill into the Mississippi River where the butch undercurrents probably sweep you away...like Huckelberry Finn.


And finally, I took a trip down River Road. And it was STUNNING. Does this even LOOK LIKE Illinois?!


Caught this SKETCH ferry from like....Maine or 1800 across the river. It was really weird.






Don't let the ferry sink because spiders took over the life vest containers. 4 of about 30.




CHECK OUT THIS GQMF LENSFLARE. JJ ABRAMS would be so proud of me.




Here's a little bar from this small town on the river. It is "Biker Friendly". And there were TONS of bikers on this road. Not surprising. Who wouldn't want to cruise down through this scenery on a bike?

4TH

What is a 4th of July without fireworks? I went to the annual fireworks "dance battle" in New Orleans and brought along my baby. I haven't shot fireworks with it before and....don't really know the settings TO shoot fireworks anyway...so I just ended up experimenting. And I found this bomb A setting that creates a really kaleidoscopic, abstract, colorful, awesome picture. And these are all fireworks!

I personally love them. I'm thinking I want to blow one up to make a full wall mural.

Also, here's some New Orleans FLAVOR.

St. Louis Cathedral. At ~*~TWILIGHT~*~


St. Louis Cathedral. At ~*~TWILIGHT~*~ WITH COOL LIGHT BALL EFFECT.

Boss pictures of Ethiopian tribal groups

Check it yo.

SPAZZ BAM BOOM BANG RAZZZZMATAZZ

AHHHHH It's been so long and I have all this internetage bottled up inside of me and I just have to let it out in one colassal EXPLOSION post!!

When I got a text about the Oprah KFC free meal coupons earlier this week, my roomate and I print out like a gazillion of them. I just found out that KFC is cancelling the deal. Epic fail KFC.

Speaking of texts... ever get that one text that you just wanna mass forward text to all your contacts because it's just so unbelievable aka hilarious? Well now you can post it to the word via texts from last night. I'd say it's the FML of the txting world.

Meat business cards! Meat! Meat! Meat! It's a treat!

Mmmmm a photo blog about hospital food.



Watch Youtube videos in kaleidoscope collage weird mosaic whatever it's called.


Pasta bowls now available at Domino's!

Finally, a place where I can learn how to beat up dinosaurs, sacks of nickels and pretty much anything in the universe! howtobeatupanything.com Do it. Oh, and do this:

Life Post: Memorial

This weekend, in my never-ending effort to take be an amazing photographer, I visited the Holocaust Memorial on Miami Beach. Now, now, don't jump to conclusions. Memorials don't sound exciting at all, but the Holocaust Memorial on Miami Beach is the MOST INTRIGUING memorial...hell it's the most intriguing ANYTHING I've ever seen. Judge for yourself.

Yeah....it's hard to drive past that....100 foot hand coming out of the ground. Oh but it gets better. It's hard to see in this picture, but all of that texture on the arm.....HUMAN BODIES. The most morbid sculpture I've ever seen......and I feel awkward for thinking so but it's also absolutely beautiful and stunning.

There's this beautiful blue pond around the hand. The water is so still it reflects the hand like a mirror. There's also a walkway that goes around the hand with a marble wall with people's names carved into (standard procedure for a memorial I feel like). But the experience is just breathtaking. There are flowering trees all around the pond. And the petals just fall right into the water and just float there....it's like a scene straight out of a movie.


SO STUNNING I CAN'T EVEN STAND IT.

Anyway, from first glance it looks like the hand is sitting in the middle of the pond and there's no way for people to go up to the hand. As seen in the first picture...there's a huge wall around the hand as well. But as I'm walking around (through the walkway above) I realize there's a door that lets people go to the hand...up close and personal. And I knew there were bodies carved into the hand...but I was not prepared for the EXTENT of the bodies.

This is the pathway that leads you to the hand. The cuts in the walls create a beautiful light and shadow pattern.

Through the cuts you could catch little glimpses of the pond and walkway with all of the trees. Once again absolutely stunning (stunning is my new word) and ingenious. You feel kind of like a prisoner in this hallway where you only get a small view of the beauty that is outside the walls. Likely a reference to the way prisoners must have felt in the camps.

And on these walls there are the names of all the concentration camps (also standard procedure for a Holocaust memorial I believe). There are speakers built into the wall and there are children singing Jewish songs through the speakers....It was a little it unnerving....especially with that little statue in front of the arm. And I mean, I was here BY MYSELF....it was a little bit uncomfortable.

The mix of the song and this statue and being alone made it a little tough for me to take pictures.

So once I get over the emotional trauma of this hallway, I make my way to the hand. Oh dear God, when I say I was NOT PREPARED FOR IT...I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR IT.

The sculptur of this project has guts. And they are an absolute genius. I walked out to see the arm and I was terrified. I can only imagine that's the way you are supposed to feel. It took me a good 5 minutes to be able to walk around because I was so scared. I even had to call my mom. Not ONLY were the bodies on the arm, but also ON THE GROUND. ON MY EYE LEVEL. They are so real it feels like they will start moving around at any moment. It was seriously, TERRIFYING. And those children were STILL singing in the background.

Seriously, the designers of this memorial were absolutely ON POINT in everything. I'm pretty emotionally detached from...everything...but OMG.....this was too much for ME.

At any rate, once I was able to calm down a little bit I could get closer to the sculpture and photograph it. But it was hard. The statues were literally life sized. It was an awful feeling.

Here's the view up the arm. Absolutely STUNNING.

Anyway, I took lots of pictures. And I left a different person. Well not really, but the memorial is ACTUALLY one of my favorite buildings on this planet now. It's so simple, but so genius. And if you're ever in Miami then I would definitely visit it. But go on a sunny day because it is absolutely BREATH TAKING and STUNNING.

WARNING: YOU MAY BE ATTACKED!!

A sweet little Hawk family set up a nest around one of the dorms at my school. And apparently as people walk by the nest they've had encounters with the hawk (Ie. "I was walking and I felt something hit my head. When I looked up a hawk was flying away from me.")

But it gets even better. There's a security guard who has to escort students walking through the hazard zone with an umbrella so they don't get attacked by the hawk.

I might have to find an excuse to go there because this is too good to be true.

Did Your Mom Teach You To Park Like That?

I just have to wonder...Do they REALIZE half of their car is on the curb? GRANTED, the parking spaces are really small, but still!



But at least they didn't double park, I guess.

New Goodies!

I got a special little surprise in the mail today!


Whatever can it be......


???


WORD ON THE SIDEWALK STICKERS!!! They look absolutely fabulous.






Sticker ballin'


So many!!!!