placemarker.

i've been home in California now for a little over one week and it's been busy busy. i also caught the flu within the first few days and have been feeling low energy and a little overwhelmed at times. within the next few days i hope more business will be taken care of, including posting a few more images,updating my main website and resume, and buying materials to get started on some stuff in the works. reminder to self: send e-mail to M.L. and work on that article.

i want to write more about my feelings about being home for now vs. away, but i think i need a little more time and for sure to get over this head cold before i can write anything worth sharing. but i will take this opportunity to thank all the folks who read this little ol' blog and wrote something now and then - my adventures were all over the place and writing here did help me focus and reflect on where i'd been/what i'd done/seen. check back sometime later this week if you're into it!

it's against the law to frown in....capital city

i arrived in Washington D.C. last night, after a bittersweet goodbye to rainy Reykjavik. i'm staying for one more night (tonight) before flying on to California in about 6 hours. my hosts this time are a sweet and funny middle aged couple comprised of Antoinette (a beekeeper) and Sam (exec of some kind). they live right in D.C. and keep six hives of bees - check out her blog CityBees for more on that. anyway, she picked me up from the airport yesterday and took me to get Mongolian food (!!!), after which we came home and watched the Metalocalypse episode where they destroy Finland, and ate cookies until i passed out from jetlag. yes.

here are some photos from my last days in Reykjavik. some things i don't have photos of but are worth mentioning, specifically the Icelandic Love Corporation retrospective at the Reykjavik Museum of Art. wow. i can't remember the last time i smiled almost continuously through 3 large galleries of one group's work...it was a brilliant, inspiring, beautifully put together showcase spanning 10 years: the performances. the drawings. the champagne. the top hats. the mirror-lined coffins. the licorice portraits...phew. i never wanted it to end, seriously.




went over to Svanny's parents house to eat waffles, drink lemonade and play with puppies.


these little hunting guys are worth about 150,000 isk each


first encounter with the sheep's head


"the red hills"









helga


namesake vessel outside the secret old sailor men's coffee shop near the harbor





















warning: if you want to spare yourself the sight of the delicacy known as ye old Icelandic singed/boiled sheep's head, skip the next three photos











you have to admit this is kind of funny


svanhvit likes the eyes and the tounge the best









two photos from the start of the Iceland Airwaves fest i took before my camera died (at 12 Tonar recordshop)


Rokkuro (IS)


Gavin Portland (IS)





goodnight rvk



anyway i actually have some fun snaps from my day in DC that i'll post when i'm home in California, including feeding bees at a Franciscan monastery, the first American meal in 9 months, hanging out at the Arctic Studies Center, etc.

see you tomorrow.

smoke bay

long overdue photos...

Nuuk, Greenland

view from my apartment













signs for demonstration for art and culture. i am writing an article for the Smithsonian Arctic Studies center newsletter about the event - i'll post it when it comes out in December...


reindeer heart
















marching with angelica






Pauli and Absalon Ø.







and just a few snaps of Reykjavik for now...




Svanhvit!

i've been crazy busy and kind of overwhelmed, but i hope i can catch up with my mind real soon and of course share all i can.

love.

crush

hey, another short and picture-less post...i've been so caught up in getting from one place to another and doing stuff now that i am in Reykjavik i haven't had time to upload tons of pictures relating to exciting subjects such as:

- preparation and documentation of Greenland's very first demonstration for support of Art and Culture in Nuuk
-my last days in Nuuk, visiting the AirGreenland hangar
-snapshots of Kulusuk
-blurry photos of a crazy Saturday night in Reykjavik
-Reykjavik in the autumn (heartbreakingly beautiful)
-my lovely hostess Svanhvitt ("Swanwhite")

more of a reminder to myself of key photo-points to address more than anything.

perhaps also i will take this opportunity to announce that i am coming back to the United States on October 18th. i will be in Washington D.C. for two days, then i'm flying back to San Jose on the 20th. in essence, i will be "wintering"/recharing my brain batteries in California and then continuing my North American travels in the spring of 2008.

see you in 11 days.

delayed

so, my flight to Kulusuk today was cancelled due to bad weather, and is delayed until Saturday. that's right, Saturday! three days from now. totally awesome, because...i got comped a hotel room at the Hotel Hans Egede, including meals, and free cab rides to and from the airport. YES. this is actually the best thing that could have happened, since now i am saving a good 300KR a day by not having to find accomodation in Kulusuk and can do last minute stuff here in Nuuk. of course, i also get to jump up and down on beds and watch CNN and be in the center of town. i just hope the flight on Saturday isn't delayed too, because i have to catch my flight to Iceland then.

Pauli took me to the airport this morning, and got his dad, Absalon, to show me around the hangar and mechanic shop of Air Greenland. how could i pass it up? i don't think that in any way, shape, or form would that be allowed at a US airport-plus, Air Greenland has these cool small airplanes and helicopters in their fleet which they use for, among other things, people needing emergency rescue. i'll post some photos of all that later on, because about the only thing AirGreenland isn't covering at the hotel is the wireless internet, which is 50kr (approx. 10 USD) for 30 minutes.

if anyone in Nuuk is reading this and wants to hang out/go on an adventure/need help organizing their bookshelves, my Tussas number doesn't work anymore, but i'm in room 312 at the hotel.

adios

back across the ice cap

hey. just a short post to update on whats going in words.

i am flying to East Greenland tomorrow. let me share with you, now, what could possibly be the greatest official tourism slogan of all time:

"East Greenland is not Scenery - it's Savagery."

oh man. E. Grønland is, along with the Thule district, one of the most traditional parts of the country, where hunting is still crucial to having enough food and materials for living throughout the year. i'm gonna be staying in a village with a population of 310 for three days before flying on to Reykjavik, and i have no idea where i'm going to stay yet. adventures!

so today was my last day in Nuuk. i said goodbye to pals and ran around in the snow showers feeling generally antsy. i got a text message from a friend working on the ferry about how a wave had smashed two windows on the bridge and damaged the navigational equipment last night (see photos in the entry below), so they were gonna be stuck in Maniitsoq for some days while it got fixed. mind you, there is only one actual passenger vessel, the Sarfaq Ittuk, servicing all of Greenland...and now it's broken. i can only imagine all the people stranded along the coast, with no other option but waiting it out. which reminds me of a slogan of my own i came up with some time ago:

"Greenland: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't !"

i love this place.

avalanche

nuuk and ilulissat (photos of sisimiut later)