one last thing before I quit

In the back of my mind, I feel as though one of my true callings might rest in the field of photography. There's just this certain spark that grows most times when I pick up a camera. I love composition. Ya, I admit it. Composing shots is just satisfying. That said, struggling to make a shot work is very frustrating.

I came across a very interesting site regarding a place in Russia's history. Thanks to the wonderful and always reliable Wikipedia, I've learned that The Siege Of Leningrad was an unsuccessful military operation in WWII, that actually lasted 872 days. Ok, enough history.

From what I could find online, since my Russian is a little rusty, this man named Sergey Larenkov has taken old photographs from the war and superimposed newer ones on top, figuring out the exact same locations and angles.


I think that this is just beautiful. In most cases, it shows the destruction of the past as well as the restoration of many buildings. Russian architecture doesn't really interest me too much, but I very much enjoy seeing the history of it all. Some shots are truly neat, seeing what used to be and what inevitably then stood there. See, history can be fun kids!

Day Four is here, and it's bittersweet. We've been checking the weather whenever possible since we've been here and for a while it's been saying that there'd be some thundershowers all day. We've got a list of places we wanted to check out during the trip, so we picked two of the indoor ones. Clever us.

We quickly went to a little cafe for a bite to eat. It was called Deli Shez Cafe. It wasn't until the server answered the phone 'Delicious Cafe'. The food was cheap, tasty, and a nice start.

We then walked many blocks and visited the Experience Music Project. Jess and I have been anxious to go there since the first day we planned our trip out. I most certainly enjoy the music history while Jess enjoys the -er- 'unique' Frank Gehry design. It did look nice, and the colors were strangely cool, but it wasn't my reason for being there. After spending a chunk of time taking pictures of the building outside, we ventured in. When we went downstairs to pay for admission, we were quick to notice a display of roughly 10 Pearl Jam posters designed by Ames Bros. I was stoked!! What a way to start off!

We then went up to the 2nd floor and popped into the first room. They've got a 6-week or so exhibit on Jimi Hendrix. They had everything there, from his personal notebooks to lyrics written on hotel notepads and a few of his old guitars to one of his coats that he wore, starting a big trend. They also had iPods set up with what seemed like everything ever recorded, legal and not, for you to listen too. Super cool!

Next up was a large room with basses and guitars spanning from the 1800s to the present. There were many replicas of more famous designs, such as Eddie Van Halen and Paul McCartney's, but everything was a real guitar. There were also a few that were donated to them, like Bo Diddley and Kurt Cobain. It was a nice learning session.

Following that room was a section dedicated to Seattle's musical-imprint. They started with the old Gold Rush days, and continued to the present bands like Fleet Foxes. The grunge set-up was cool, where that just had a ton of magazine covers, comic books, a few LPs, some demo tapes and Nirvana's busted up instruments from the '92 VMAs. There were also some nice old signs from the Central Saloon and Off Ramp. There was too much Heart memorabilia for my liking.

That was pretty much the end to the music portion of the 'museum'. On the 3rd floor, a different kind of exhibit was going on. Hatch Show Print is a legendary letterpress printing company that's been doing event posters since 1879. I knew nothing of this. I was cool to see some of the posters with their actual carved, wood blocks hung up beside it. They've ranged in all kinds of music from the Hank Williams and Bob Dylan to the Beastie Boys and Eagles of Death Metal. It was a nice fit for a music gallery.

By the time we left, it was starting to rain, so we hustled back to a little grocery store, picked up a few items and had a make-shift lunch. We waited til the rain quieted down and caught the practical free bus, and headed down to the Seattle Central Library. This is another spectacle of a building that Seattle's got in their pocket. I don't know how to describe it, so maybe just go here and look for yourself. The inside is extremely open, graphic and modern. Much to what you'd almost not expect from a library. With all of the people inside, it was crazy as to just how quiet it was too. I felt bad for walking and making any noise.

Post-library, we kept the indoor theme going and stopped by a large mall to see what was inside, then just headed out for supper. We went to this Mexican restaurant Mama's Restaurant Kitchen. The food was fast, and seemed authentic. No more then 15 minutes after eating, we were both comfortably full but felt just horrible. Not the best way to end any day.

It's exactly what it says. Jumbo Hostel.

I think that this is a clever idea. It's just an old 747 that is out of service, and was renovated and turned into a cheap nights' stay, as opposed to chopping it up and putting it in a landfill. There's 25 rooms, roughly 6 square meters, with 3 bunk beds in each. And they're planning on adding more rooms in the engine compartments, using the original rotor blades as venetian blinds.


You can even get a room in the cock-pit.

This just made Stockholm cool.

With suburbia seeming to have the inevitable snowball effect of not being able to stop, it feels as though it's getting more rare to see buildings that have a unique or even an inspired look to them. It really sucks. Buildings just seem to be blending together more and more, simply resulting in them all being a sight for sore eyes.

Here's something that most likely doesn't get brought up into conversation when one's discussing odd architecture. Churches. Yep. There are most certainly some creative ones, be it design or just its location. Here's a few of my favorites that I've come upon.

The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira, Colombia
Built underground in a tunnel 200m inside of a salt mountain.