“Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.” - John F. Kennedy
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Staten Island Ferry-snowstorm
Ben Ailes- photographer, wind surfer, bicyclist, squash player, hiker and former rock climber embarks on an around the world journey with only a bike, a tent, NO cell phone, and $10 a day. He begins in Amsterdam, in September, with a plan to be in the Holy Land at Christmas. Will he make it? contact-bjailes@gmail.com
Official Seasons Greetings card 2012
R.I.P. Earl Scruggs. Took this picture at last year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park
Ailes Photography 2011 official holiday card to all followers
i've got 70 rooms (feels like more).
"Well old sport, Just went to Newport to prepare my summer cottage. My manservant, Horace, informs me the hot and cold
running salt water controls to the marble bathtub aren't operating correctly, not to mention some of the gilding in the main salon needs touchup. Do you know hard it is to find decent gilders nowadays old sport?"
Ben Gatsby the Great
here's their ever-so-private honeymoon getaway
and a second kiss!
the royal kiss
Congratulations to the duke and duchess of Cambridge!
connecticut!
(another photographer's photo)
Loading my painting for shipment, (the one I bought in May at Christies), to lend to the tate Gallery in London for their upcoming Picasso show. Hope they don't complain about some residual alkali dust from its week at Burning man last September.
From "The Sirens of titan" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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erica and dominik
i tried to go to this concert last night, walked all the way in the cold, but it was cancelled. I always liked AC-DC so especially was interested in that tribute band. now i may never get to hear the beautiful song stylings of "electric orgasm".
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this carabiner is about 4 feet long. they are still thinking big here in macedonia- remember philip of macedon and his son alexander (the great).
hiking in the surrounding mountains
the big earthquake in 1963 stopped the clock on the side of the train station; they're still waiting for that 5:27 from pristina.
and check out these ginormous hamburgers.
i love these mini-donuts, covered in warm chocolate sauce with powdered sugar made on the street in that chain-driven hot oil bath, what an invention.
mother theresa, she was born here
if you scroll down in my blog, about a year ago, you'll see the bull statue in lower manhatten, the merill-lynch bull.
a deuxchevaux, did i spell that right?
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macedonia! i hiked up the mountain in a light snowstorm to the "millenium cross", the tallest anywhere at 65 meters.
well luckily i am not in bratislava, but rather in...
tIME TO CHECK OUT A DIFFERENT COUNTRY...have you seen that movie "hostel"?
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"you my bwai!"
the river jordan
"and the walls came a tumblin' down."
summit plateau of masada. "flavius silva and the roman army will never take us alive!"
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st. anne's church
"the dome of the rock, built here in jerusalem on the very site of the jewish temple which was totally destroyed by the romans in 70 A.D. but don't get me started..." josephus, "the Jewish War", published in the aramaic language, 99 a.d.
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that's funny, you don't look jewish! (my beloved sister janie)
looking dapper in a yarmulke at the western wall. No one was wailing today, praise Yahweh!
israel, excuse me, occupied palestine.
time to head out of africa and go to...
Marta, Pita, and Serje-viva espagne!
oh i've been in the lowlands too long,
oh i know,
i know that i should go,
i've been in the lowlands too long.
Gillian Welch
oh i know,
i know that i should go,
i've been in the lowlands too long.
Gillian Welch
insane i've been lost in a song,
i can do nothin' all the day long,
but i can't do right and i know if i am wrong,
and i've been in the lowlands too long.
i can do nothin' all the day long,
but i can't do right and i know if i am wrong,
and i've been in the lowlands too long.
what is it real in my mind,
and what is this new sense of time,
it's the open fields
and the friends that are gone,
And i've been in the lowlands too long.
and what is this new sense of time,
it's the open fields
and the friends that are gone,
And i've been in the lowlands too long.
oh i've been in the lowlands too long,
oh i know,
i know that i should go
and i've been in the lowlands too long.
oh i know,
i know that i should go
and i've been in the lowlands too long.
this is not how it was at the start,
there's a doubt and a blame in my heart,
and it's no one else,
no fault but my own
that i've been in the lowlands too long.
there's a doubt and a blame in my heart,
and it's no one else,
no fault but my own
that i've been in the lowlands too long.
oh i've been in the lowlands too long,
oh I know,
i know that i should go
and i've been in the lowlands too long
oh I know,
i know that i should go
and i've been in the lowlands too long
saw a girl in the street in my home,
like a fire on a hillside she shone.
then i knew right then
that my best days were gone,
and i'd been in the lowlands too long.
like a fire on a hillside she shone.
then i knew right then
that my best days were gone,
and i'd been in the lowlands too long.
i stayed at this pension for almost 2 weeks; it felt like being in an M.c.escher engraving.
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pension castellana, in chaouen, another name for chefchaouen. It means "look at the peaks".
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town of Chefchaouen, in the rif mountains, northern morocco
This painting was hanging above my bed for 2 weeks, so I bought it. A good example of the surrealism school, it asks more questions than it answers. Why are those moroccan sandals hanging in midair? What is that structure over the men? Why is the fellow on the left so aloof? How does he grow that beard around the very sides and bottom of his chin? How does he stay on that stool? did the artist run out of paint on the right edge of the painting?
and Maybe you didn't believe me when, earlier in the blog I talked about the Jag's "cigar" lighter...
Here it is, at the 10th annual film festival, my old car, a '64 Jaguar XKE convertible, glass over the headlights...
And the real marrakech
Yves saint laurent's marrakech
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there'll always be an england!
tony, john, jennifer, and josh.
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tony, john, jennifer, and josh.
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john, from england, the most fascinating person i've met; it's a long story.
josh and tony, englishmen, looking at... what the ...?
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don't you know you're riding on the marrakech express
don't you know you're riding on the marrakech express
it's takin' me to marrakech...
CSN and Y
don't you know you're riding on the marrakech express
it's takin' me to marrakech...
CSN and Y
After sunset, flying over sardinia and across the mediterranean towards casablanca, north africa's cities shone with yellow lights far off into the horizon. What a marvelous machine to be in at 38,000 feet, of course a balloon might be even more fun.
this is undoubtedly the best plane flight of my life, a great dinner, flying "west with the night", and thinking of Antoine de St. Exuperey's wonderful writing in "Wind,Sand, and Stars". He flew the night mail planes across this sea during WWII.
On to Morocco- Moroc!
Deena's got a wicked backhand.
i've been sneaking into the istanbul hilton, of all places, to play squash, just telling the guards that I'm a friend of Paris ; Hemish and deena are my new squash partners.
Burger kings competition
back in istanbul i do a hıgh fashion photoshoot with carolyn, also from Australia.
gene, a new acquaintance from australia told some wild stories.
my first photograph of a ufo- allah hu indeed akbar!!!
driving onward to selchuk
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so here i was, taking photos of the library at ephesus, and a ufo appeared, hovered for a few seconds, and was gone in a flash of light, startling, to say the least, all the tourists including me. This is the end of the world as we know it- i am trying to get this photo onto the cover of time magazine, Or at least the national enquirer, so stay tuned. The only trace it left behind that i noticed was a whiff of sweet smelling smoke.
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the 2000 year old library at ephesus
ephesus, yes a tourist trap, but the best ruins
Ruins at priene
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old donabray town- reminds me of a swiss village
let's speak turkish
myletos
apollo's temple at didyma
wake up- no napping during ruins exploring!
Amphoras
bodrum- the castle/museum
my tiny tent
professor ailes will be administering a 3 hour exam at the appropriate time.
2000 year old sundial
ruins at knidos
black olives here are scrumptious
nivek caught an octopus, grilled and ate it.
and now for something completely different-graves up in the clıffs
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need the google translater
xanthos!
show me the river,
take me across,
wash all my troubles away,
like that lucky ole sun
i got got nothin' to do,
but roll, roll around heaven
all day.
take me across,
wash all my troubles away,
like that lucky ole sun
i got got nothin' to do,
but roll, roll around heaven
all day.
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taking a boat ride to the island silmena, by the castle at kekova
sıgnals for the ships, i think the flames used to be higher. maybe the earh is runninhg out of natural gas here.
the legendary flames at chimaera
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olympus- what a great place
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i've been travelling with monsieur kevin for a few weeks now. He prefers to be called 'nivek', the backwards spelling; he is a great driver and manages to roll his cigarettes while steering with his knees. nivek also has seen almost every movie in existence so we have conversations about actors, plots, criticizing incessantly. 95% of the time we get along just fine, but he has a habit which is driving me to despair. Whenever i burp or fart (As frequently i am wont to do), he pipes up 'god bless you.' If I have just swallowed a glass of milk and burp, 'god bless you.' If I'm practicing consecutive letters of the alphabet, there it is again, and in a french accent. Now when people sneeze i always say the german 'gezundheit' (good health) because i think it is a bit too much even in english to have god blessing everyone for a simple sneeze; to hear it every time i even semi-stifle a harmless fart or belch is getting me stressed (a word i also despise) to the breaking point. To those of you who have never travelled with a young frenchman in a small renault, sleeping in the car or in tents, cooking meals on a small gasoline stove, my attitude may appear to be unbelieveably petty. it is!!!
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ataturk-the dog, who adopted us for 2 nıghts by the lake
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his own money- right on.
ruins at adada
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we camped for 2 nights by a beautiful lake- was a bit nippy in the morning.
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our pension does have the killer view.
on the road again, to egidir.
they have all been robbed over the last 2000 years.
tombs, i need more tombs, can't get enough of them.
ruins at termessos
perge- ruins, i need more ruins!
fast-painted signs as well.
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seleukeia, and we are the only people here.
where's that green flash?
aphrodisias- be careful what you eat and drink here.
it's alive!
sunrise at the castle, kizkalesi
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hiking in the ilhara valley.
I'm fantasizing about better food out here in the sticks... '' the new burger world ginormous breakfast monster sandwich... one sausage patty, 2 eggs, 2 cheese slices, and 3 strips of bacon, a quarter pound of pastrami, 4 snickers bars, 6 more strips of bacon, 2 sticks of butter, 4 of our regular size burgers, 3 corn dogs, a pint and a half of chili, a jumbo turkey drumstick, and a baked potato with sour cream, all smothered with 3 fried onions on 2 sesame seed buns.''
''The ginormous breakfast monster sandwich- we dare you to try it. (De-fıbrillation not included.)''
Heard on kpig radio, 2008
''The ginormous breakfast monster sandwich- we dare you to try it. (De-fıbrillation not included.)''
Heard on kpig radio, 2008
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let's try out the new nargile, also known as a 'sheesha'.
a fıxer-upper for sale
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here are the 'fairy chimneys' located in the love valley (seriously). they look lıke shlongs to me.
the 'dude', noting that smoking, hopefully only cıgarette smoking, might be bad for your sex lıfe...
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hot air ballooning- big business here in cappadokya.
we camped, with another fellow Arthur, from czech, so as to see the next morning's excitement...
kevin, looking like the burning man man.
oops-back to the underground city.
reminiscent of van gogh's potato eaters, these women are potato pickers.
welcome to the village of goreme, in cappadokya.
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cappadokya!
monsieur kevin has done something probably as absurd as my biking from Amsterdam to Turkey- he has drıven it! 5000 km. in 2 1/2 weeks by himself, sleeping in his car, in the ''wild'' as they say. We decide to team up, sharing the gas costs, which in this country is ten dollars a gallon... why not?
so, another plan has surfaced. I've just met a young frenchman in the hostel, kevin; not a french first name, but that's what his parents called him. i Mention that i'm about to take a bus to the south, continuing my bike journey, but first stopping in Cappadokya. this is the fascinating playground of cave houses and ''fairy chimneys.''
The blue mosque from the roof of the ''old city Hostel.'' allah-hu-akbar! Full volume! Repeat 5 times daily. Start at 5 a.m.
Thıs could be my old yacht, the ''Karen Elissa'' (nee okane ana) on the sea of marmara.
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don't ever slight the diminutive skinny ethiopians. The men as well as Ethiopian women won all the money, silver trophies, and bragging rites. Here is the marathon winner (a cool 2:10); is he the world's best I heard about on the bbc broadcast recently?
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There is also a 15 km. race at the same time and place of the marathon, so I plan to get up early and run. I head to McDonalds at 7 am., conveniently right across from my hostel. Being the very FIRST customer the workers have not even made the coffee or McMuffins yet as I pace back and forth muttering ¨I have a race to win.¨
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Istanbul! Staying at the ¨Old City¨ Hostel in the Sultanahmet district. I promptly slept a solid 15 hours upon arrival. A Swiss fellow in my dormitory room tells me there is a big marathon race the following day.
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Before I go I should at least cast a vote for Linda McMahon, who is running for governor here in Connecticut. Nathan and I loved being fans of the World Wrestling Federation, Linda and her husband Vince being the brains behind that vast entertainment success. Wasn't Vince the person who started the XFL football games? As I recall she was usually the voice of reason in all the on-air fights with her family and the various bad-ass wrestlers- the undertaker, kane, the rock...
It is now almost time to go; my return ticket to Istanbul is for the 14 th of October. Do I really want to fly back, take a bus to southern Turkey to retrieve my bike and trailer, and then spend the last week in October and the month of November cycling along the coast, camping wild, cooking most of my meals, visiting ruins and other attractions as I happen to come across them? Alone? Well...why not?
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"temple of flux" by Rebecca anders, jessica hobbs, peter kimmelman and crew
the man burns
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megatropolis by
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cheetah girl & friend
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fellow burner nick, practicing his levitation
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The world's most expensive painting ever sold at auction- Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves and Grass". I bought it (anonymously) at Christie's in may of this year. Paid a lot of $$ for it, $106 million as a matter of fact, and I'm thinking to burn it.
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"Bliss Dance" by Marco cochrane
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Burning Man 2010. "Minaret" by brian tedrick
mt. conness
Children of the Corn (for all the horror movie fans out there).
Great weather for hiking in Tuolomne Meadows
Summit of Mt. dana- that's the latest issue of "Yachting" I'm reading
some of you faithful readers of the Ben Ailes World Tour blog are informing me that i seem to be overly self-obsessed. Ahh, I think you're imagining things.
Bizarre lighting conditions, summit of Half dome
It's surprising how many people are willing to go hand-over-hand up the steel cables on half dome. The park service has yet to re-install the uprights to make proper (but steep) handrails.
climbers at the base of El Cap
Don't know exactly why I love Camp 4 so much.
Used to have a red VW microbus just like this, mine was a 1969; glad to see they are still running.
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ben, feed me!
Let's have some fun in Yosemite, my favorite place on earth.
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I ran in the Bay-to-Breakers race again this year, 27 out of the last 28 years; it's one of the few things I can brag about. Did not win, the Kenyan men and women won the Mercedes yet again. Many thanks to Charles Gay who lent me this T-shirt, I'm now an honorary "membar" of Shiva's Slaves Motorcycle Club, Kathmandu. In the past I've worn a tuxedo, once painted half my face blue and dressed as "Braveheart" (William Wallace) carrying a large battleaxe, worn my Tibetan "drokpa" jacket- 7 pounds of sheepskin, worn a 30 foot Rajastani Indian turban, twice been dressed as Osama Bin Laden replete with black beard and white shalwar kameez, and the list goes on. Re: the last costume, people thought was I Moses? , a rabbi? Guess I'm way too short to be mistaken for this most-wanted villain who now has a $50 million reward on his head.
Here I am on Landscape arch, in Arches National Park, Moab, Utah. Memories of Gokyo Ri, in Nepal.
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I checked on "ask Jeeves" about how to fix flats; said you must use tire irons. But as my friend Jody says, "tire irons are for pussies."
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Thimking big in Goodland, kansas. Thinking? No, thimking!
Provenance: Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh
oil on canvas
22 x 26 1/2 inches
1890- Theo van Gogh (1857-1891) Paris
1891- Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (1862-1925) Amsterdam
1897- Ambroise Vollard (1866-1938) (European art dealer)
1897- Alice Ruben Faber (1866-1939) Copenhagen
Mogens Ballin (1871-1914) Copenhagen (Obscure Danish artist)
1904- Paul Cassirer (1871-1926) Berlin (art dealer)
1904- Harry Graf Kessler (1868-1937) Weimar collector
1910- Galerie Eugene Druet (1868-1916) Paris
1911- Stadelsches Kunstinstitut und Stadtische Galerie Franfurt, acquired by the director George Swarzenski as a gift of Victor Mossinger
oil on canvas
22 x 26 1/2 inches
1890- Theo van Gogh (1857-1891) Paris
1891- Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (1862-1925) Amsterdam
1897- Ambroise Vollard (1866-1938) (European art dealer)
1897- Alice Ruben Faber (1866-1939) Copenhagen
Mogens Ballin (1871-1914) Copenhagen (Obscure Danish artist)
1904- Paul Cassirer (1871-1926) Berlin (art dealer)
1904- Harry Graf Kessler (1868-1937) Weimar collector
1910- Galerie Eugene Druet (1868-1916) Paris
1911- Stadelsches Kunstinstitut und Stadtische Galerie Franfurt, acquired by the director George Swarzenski as a gift of Victor Mossinger
1937- Reich Ministry for Public enlightenment & Propaganda, Berlin (Confiscated, Dec. 1937)
1938- Hermann Goring (1893-1946) Berlin
1938 - Franz Koenigs (1881-1941) Amsterdam
1938- Siegfried Kramarsky (1893-1961) Amsterdam, New
York, trust under the will of Siegfried kramarsky
1990- Ryoei saito (1920-1996) Tokyo
2008- Benjamin Ailes (1947-) Black Rock City, Nevada, USA
1938- Hermann Goring (1893-1946) Berlin
1938 - Franz Koenigs (1881-1941) Amsterdam
1938- Siegfried Kramarsky (1893-1961) Amsterdam, New
York, trust under the will of Siegfried kramarsky
1990- Ryoei saito (1920-1996) Tokyo
2008- Benjamin Ailes (1947-) Black Rock City, Nevada, USA
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traveling lighter now!
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Staten Island Ferry-snowstorm
Our hero, Nikola tesla, here on the 100 dinar note of Serbia.
"...For a full two hours, Mr. tesla kept his audience spellbound. Before such colleagues as J.j.thomson, Oliver Heaviside, ...Sir James Dewar, Sir William Preese, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crookes, and lord kelvin, Tesla proclaimed the driving force of his motivation. 'Is there, I ask, can there be, a more interesting study than that of alternating current?... We observe how the energy takes the many forms of heat, light, mechanical energy...and even chemical affinity...all of these observations fascinate us...each day we go to our work...in these strivings...we have found hours of untold pleasure, and we have directed our energies to the benefit of mankind."
"...For a full two hours, Mr. tesla kept his audience spellbound. Before such colleagues as J.j.thomson, Oliver Heaviside, ...Sir James Dewar, Sir William Preese, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crookes, and lord kelvin, Tesla proclaimed the driving force of his motivation. 'Is there, I ask, can there be, a more interesting study than that of alternating current?... We observe how the energy takes the many forms of heat, light, mechanical energy...and even chemical affinity...all of these observations fascinate us...each day we go to our work...in these strivings...we have found hours of untold pleasure, and we have directed our energies to the benefit of mankind."
"at 8:00 pm on june 20, 1957, in the ballroom of the Hotel diplomat in New york city, the interplanetary sessions newsletter announced a meeting to coordinate an expected visit by the "space people" to the planet earth. The event was planned by three individuals: george van tassel, author of "i rode a flying saucer";
george king, purported telepathic contactee with extraterrestrials, and margaret storm, author of the occult biography "return of the dove", a book whose transcripts were received on the tesla set, a radio-type machine invented by tesla in 1936 for interplanetary communication. By July 1 it was assured that the "martians" would have "full scale operations" in Washington, d.c., new york, and "general north american areas." it was also revealed that "tesla was a venusian, brought to this planet as a baby in 1856, and left in a remote mountain province in what is now Yogoslavia (sic.)"
both passages from "Wizard-the life and times of nikola tesla, biography of a genius- Marc seifer 1996
george king, purported telepathic contactee with extraterrestrials, and margaret storm, author of the occult biography "return of the dove", a book whose transcripts were received on the tesla set, a radio-type machine invented by tesla in 1936 for interplanetary communication. By July 1 it was assured that the "martians" would have "full scale operations" in Washington, d.c., new york, and "general north american areas." it was also revealed that "tesla was a venusian, brought to this planet as a baby in 1856, and left in a remote mountain province in what is now Yogoslavia (sic.)"
both passages from "Wizard-the life and times of nikola tesla, biography of a genius- Marc seifer 1996
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Brooklyn Bridge. Those girls recognize an old hippy when they see one.
aaargghh!
It's great to be back in the usa where one can see billboards not to be found in a moslem country
Where am I ever going to find more of my toothpaste if I ever get back to Berkeley?
snow fell last night, on the mountain behind where I am camped. I bicycled up it a few weeks ago, a 5000 foot peak with chromium mining going on near the summit.
a double rainbow can beautify even the most prosaic of towns, in this instance Arsuz. I bike there for needed supplies- potato chips, cookies, the occasional chicken, preferably dead.
konacik, the village on the shores of the Mediterranean where I have been camping for three weeks now, through fair weather and foul.
glorious hills and mountains here.
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Here`s the Mercedes where I have been camping- it has a large gun holder on the dashboard, for quicker access I suppose. The windows, one of which has a crack, are about 1 1-2 inches thick.
the mediterranean when it was calm- before the windstorm.
I want to stitch these four photos together wıth photoshop to make a panorama.
I want to stitch these four photos together wıth photoshop to make a panorama.
Two great books
the 'illumination'. by the full moon.
i claim to be wanting adventure on this trip, but this is getting ridiculous.
Like being at Bıg Sur- only no people , probably because the (mostly dirt) road was washed out in two places. note i'm trying to grow a ponytail.
brewing up Turk Kahvesi-Turkish coffee.
I really don't believe she did the whole hike, in spite of writing all that stuff about "counteracting the enervating mood of voluptuous luxury."
i biked up to a part of the wall which once completely surrounded the city. it used to have, before many invading armies as well as devastating earthquakes destroyed much of it, 360 observation towers along its length and it is recorded that a four horse chariot could be driven along the top of the wall, it was that wide. So Miss macauley continues, "The great wall which it is the tourist's duty and pleasure to walk round will have with its seven mile circuit over crag, mountain and ravine, a bracing, tonic effect, counteracting the enervating mood of voluptuous luxury." Now I am hiking over sharp stones , boulders of all sizes, barely a trail, it is excruciating and I am worried I might twist an ankle, very rough...
so, it says here in rose macauley`s "a pleasure of ruins", "...the ruin-seeking traveller," (that would be me), "pushes on to Antioch," (Antakya in Turkish) "he is exalted, almost intoxicated by the magnificent mountain paths through the oleandrous glen of daphne, whose gushing streams and aromatic odors and smiling ghosts from the richly licentious past set the right mood for the ghosts and the glory of ancient antioch."
my new favorıte foods
He lived up here for 45 years. and some people think I'm a bit eccentric!
Saint simon`s monastery-he lived atop the column in the center which used to be 39 feet high, lived up there for a long time.
this fellow tobias has an interesting website of his travels-check out www.tobiasquerweltein.de
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Guri is installing a new (Chinese) tire for me, a whitewall. Perhaps I will glaze ıt with aureolin yellow to keep to my well-planned color coordination.
cHRiSTMAS EVE AND STiLL I AM THE ONLY ViSiTOR
Watching Taurus and Orion march across the nıght sky, then Leo the Lion, whAT A PLACE.
One of my better sleeping spots- all alone under the stars next to the amazing old castle at Bakras.
Very few sıgns directing you to the castle at Bakras. And zero signs of any sort once you fınally push the bike up the last steeep hill with some assistance from a helpful local man, - I love Turkey.
Santiago from Espana. He had his whole bike and most of the traveling gear stolen in Budapest, even though it had 2 locks. So he bought a second-hand bike and equipment and continued his journey to Egypt, crossing central Turkey, (not the coast route than I took buses on), in the recent frigid and extremely windy weather. He's a true hard man.
merry Chrıstmas
Aıles photography 2009
This is the world's oldest church- Saint Peter's in Antakya. A natural cave measuring 13 by 9.5 m. and 7m. high, the Apostle Saint Peter preached here between 29 and 40 A.D. Sınce Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar also frequented antakya, and here I was at sunset with once again the entire place to myself, it was an immense feeling standing at the alter, listening to Palestrina sing ''Miserere'' on the MP-3.
Aıles photography 2009
This is the world's oldest church- Saint Peter's in Antakya. A natural cave measuring 13 by 9.5 m. and 7m. high, the Apostle Saint Peter preached here between 29 and 40 A.D. Sınce Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar also frequented antakya, and here I was at sunset with once again the entire place to myself, it was an immense feeling standing at the alter, listening to Palestrina sing ''Miserere'' on the MP-3.
This is the vıew from the church- the best of both worlds.
This looks like the blair witch project i realize- but here is the story. a half hour ago at about 9pm from outsıde my tent I hear ''Salaam Aleikum.'' So i respond in kind ''Wa aleikum salaam.'' It turns out I am camped on the farm of Amir's father. But everything is ''no problem'', Amir assures me, he just wanted to warn me about dogs. At least I think that's what he meant. And also to lock my bike, there are gypsy thieves about. If I understand correctly- this was done with the use of my Turkish phrasebook outside the tent in the dark. So it turns out after we conversed for a while Amir kept pointing to the word ''sex'' in the dictionary (which happens to sound the same in Turkish), and then pointing to me and to himself- you get the idea. OK, my headlight was shining into his eyes, he couldn't see my 10 day growth of beard, I was totally bundled up in black clothing, he had not noticed I'd gone for a week without a shower... Stıll,
Yeats says this is no country for old men-HA!!
Yeats says this is no country for old men-HA!!
OK, this will be the very last photo of a mosque. But am I the only one who guesses that beneath the smooth veneer of those minarets hide intercontinental ballistic missiles pointed at infidel nations???
original art by nick grossenbacher
Wall is 4000 years old- this whole site was a giant covered-over mound and has been excavated over the last 140 years.
My shadow and I the only occupants of ancient troy last sunday afternoon.
Along the waterfront in Canakkale stands the horse from the movie (starrıng Brad Pitt).
Thinking about Homer, in the eighth century bce, writing over and over in The ''Iliad'' of the ''beautiful walls of Troy.'' Of course I'm sure the learned readers of my blog are familiar with these words, probably in the original greek.
I had the entire place to myself for three hours before some busloads of other tourists arrived.
Thıs Trojan horse was created at the Troy ruins by an artist 30 years ago- it does look similar to the ones on vases.
Felix, the ItalIan owner of the best pensIon In Canakkale, (the Sera Palas) and master chef molto bene- hIs pasta con torno Is delIcIoso. ItalIan lessons Included. He is one of the few men in Turkey wIth hair longer than mine.
mysteries of istanbul
Bruno is thinking about not thinking, and vice versa
nıck, my partner ın crime. May submit this to be the next cover for ''cıgar aficianado magazine''
Or should we send this one?
ıstanbul! the view from my bed ın the 5 euro/ night hostel
Peaches in the summertime
Apples in the fall
If I can't have the girl I love
I don't want none at all
Shady grove my little love
Shady Grove I know
Shady Grove my little love
I'm bound for Shady Grove
Apples in the fall
If I can't have the girl I love
I don't want none at all
Shady grove my little love
Shady Grove I know
Shady Grove my little love
I'm bound for Shady Grove
I quickly get up and out of my tent at the marina 10 km. past Novi Sad, although I love sleeping at marinas and it has been an unusual warm night, the rain has just started. Should I stay or should I go- just like that song. Latest sign said Belgrade 87 km. so I should be able to get there if the weather does not worsen. Which it does. Plus I'm on the recommended route-a busy highway, no shoulders, big trucks, buses, traffic, cars madly passing uphill as well as down. Scared, I even put new batteries in my blinking taillight and headlight, tighten my helmet, zip up the reflective jacket, plus it is a 10% uphill grade all of a sudden, what happened to the river? My glasses fogging, I was miserable, although at least not cold AND miserable. I pull over, 5 feet from the road and make a cup of coffee, my first. I wait, what to do, should I stay or should I go, go back, down that hill I've been pumping up, no way. I wait. I make another coffee. A dog is staring at me, as is their wont, from inside his (dry) dog house. Maybe I should have a smoke. I count my money- 700 dinars, what's that, eleven dollars. Been in Serbia for 4 days now, without a map, just following the "Euro Route #6" signs. Well the clouds are lifting a bit, rain seems to be lightening, action!
OK, here's what to do- been here a long time even though I started early, so I start pushing my bike up hill, it's so steep anyway, at least my body is a bit to the side of the road, feels safer. Finally near the top it begins to level out, feels just like a mountain pass, and miraculously the route switches to small local roads, and there's a tailwind, after I've been fighting headwinds the last three days.
Now comes the reason people adore bicycling. I get the longest, gentle, fastest downhill of my five weeks of biking, kilometer after kilometer, down, down, just beautiful, in calm air even though I'm shredding, all the way down to a sign, this sign. I couldn't stop laughing. The line between love and hate, heaven and hell is very thin. As they say here, ciaou ciaou! I need a Doner kebab.
OK, here's what to do- been here a long time even though I started early, so I start pushing my bike up hill, it's so steep anyway, at least my body is a bit to the side of the road, feels safer. Finally near the top it begins to level out, feels just like a mountain pass, and miraculously the route switches to small local roads, and there's a tailwind, after I've been fighting headwinds the last three days.
Now comes the reason people adore bicycling. I get the longest, gentle, fastest downhill of my five weeks of biking, kilometer after kilometer, down, down, just beautiful, in calm air even though I'm shredding, all the way down to a sign, this sign. I couldn't stop laughing. The line between love and hate, heaven and hell is very thin. As they say here, ciaou ciaou! I need a Doner kebab.
Who comes up with these ad campaigns-Morgan! Speak to me.
I say..."Praise Jah I'm a man."
I say..."Praise Jah I'm a man."
I promised you the world's biggest organ. Ailes Photography delivers. It has 17,794 pipes, 4 carillons, etc., all played from one keyboard.
this wall is definitely making a statement. Which I believe is screw You (in Serbian).
Here in the land of heavenly boiled cabbages, for me heaven boils down to being drafted by a cabbage truck.
"Do you like onion sandwiches? You're going to love bullfighting." E. Hemingway
I bet even here in rural Serbia I could get some of those pre-machined shims for adjusting the overhead camshafts on a '64 E-type 3.8 (with 3 SU carbs.)
Serbia- I see billboards about "Survivor Serbia". Maybe I can cross their path.
Was in Croatia, just for a day. My map, a German language bicycle route map of Hungary I had picked up in Bugapest, ended at the village of Suza, it was getting dark, so I camped, like many times before, in a farmer's field. Very early in the morning, as I was making coffee, the farmer and his helper show up, to spread fertilizer by the look of their tractor and bags of supplies. He was very pleasant, but only spoke Croatian, so he whips out his cell phone and I talk to his daughter, hand the phone to the father who speaks to her, I speak to her again, back and forth, and the whole time he is drawing this map. Something has to make my day, and this certainly was it.
BTW, that big loop I inked in is a wrong-way dead end detour, very annoying.
BTW, that big loop I inked in is a wrong-way dead end detour, very annoying.
there's something on these roads- 4 flats today, breaking my personal record of 3, in the south of france, 13 years ago.
things to give me pause, #6
rabid foxes
rabid foxes
the golden road to samarkand? Actually that is... in the distance.
been rare for me to see a sunset.
i am lost, as in usual at various times during each day, but that seems to be when unusual picture possibilities show up. This is so appropriate, since I am reading the second book i brought, a 642 page viking portable library edition of Hemingway.
add this one to the bestiary.
now this is a bridge-budapest.
how wonderful to have such beautiful money after all the euro countries. Hungary has had the forint for over a thousand years, according to Adam, the hare krishna monk who befriended me as i was fixing a flat in front of a supermarket.
now this is a tiny church. I'd love to see the inside-must be lots of candles. Who invented the candle anyway-the one I use every night in my tent is amazingly bright.
can't we just all get along?
hungary!
This neatly piled wood is as big as a cottage. The owner comes up to me, speaking his language of course, but then switched to broken English. "This me-Estrodom, this mine, you like?"
"Esterdom, it's very impressive", I reply. "Wait, I get book", he said, running back to his hut and returning with what looked like an old dog-eared dictionary.He rifled through it. "This my art.I..." He picked out a word, "stack, stacking, I stacker.uh huh. Another furious search in the dictionary.
"Fagot. I, I fagot-stacker."
"Oh really. If you say so," I say.
Esterdom explains, "Yah, I fagot- stacker. My dream, take to big festival in your country America."
"Sounds reasonable," I say. "What then?"
" I set on fire. I go to Burning Man!"
"Esterdom, it's very impressive", I reply. "Wait, I get book", he said, running back to his hut and returning with what looked like an old dog-eared dictionary.He rifled through it. "This my art.I..." He picked out a word, "stack, stacking, I stacker.uh huh. Another furious search in the dictionary.
"Fagot. I, I fagot-stacker."
"Oh really. If you say so," I say.
Esterdom explains, "Yah, I fagot- stacker. My dream, take to big festival in your country America."
"Sounds reasonable," I say. "What then?"
" I set on fire. I go to Burning Man!"
and dat lucky ole sun
ain't got nothin' to do,
but roll 'round heaben all day.
ain't got nothin' to do,
but roll 'round heaben all day.
and quiet flows the donau
Castle in Slovenia
Blowing 25 knots and cold- this morning in Vienna reminds me of the Columbia River Gorge where I used to often windsurf.
weener world? yeah, I'm feeling a bit peckish for a hot dog. Oh, it means Vienna woods?
Coming into Vienna, the city of Beethoven's grave, I was listening to his piano Sonatas on the mp3 player, pretending I was playing the slow movements, and my nephew Matthew playing all the difficult ones, which he brilliantly does!
got to weed out the unnecessary weight from my belongings.
extra spokes, how much could they weigh?
Got to have these extra hubs in case I need to build some new wheels. Not in Belgrade, maybe in Ulan Bator.
an extra pump, and some more spokes
ok i brought squash raquet strings, maybe i'll need a clothes line. These were salvaged from my next-to-last raquet. The latest one is yet intact.
How does a master photographer obtain such an advanced, special effect, super creative one- in- a- million shot as this one? (Hint) Set your kodak Brownie to "sunny", then catch the camera before it smashes into the ground because you forgot to tighten the reverse-knurled mounting lug.
ok, maybe it's not my compass malfunctioning. But o? m? what the...
Warned you I look like a dork with that trailer behind me- silk, silk! long underwear notwithstanding.
abstract art photograph, or open-faced sardine and walnut sandwich on carrot bread?
A wonderful tailwind helped me across Austria, although the weather was cold and "moist".
what are these watchtowers looking over every field of crops I have seen. We don't have them in the US do we?
Boiled potatoes, steamed broccoli, crumbled potato chips (paprika), top with mayonnaise. A feast!
The life of luxury-river boat on the Donau (Danube)
This is for Jane B. & Satan/Mow-Mow
I got a trailer, at the Germany-Austria border after going into a bike shop the fellow said to try it out. Although I now look even more like a dork, the bike feels like a bike again, very manouverable and just pulling the weight behind. Of course a few minutes after I took this picture I was lost in the forest, had to dismantle and unload the trailer, drag it up a muddy hill, totally retrace my steps to board a small ferry across the river, and you don't know the HALF of it.
christina, I stole your mirror- I'll send a new one from Istanbul.
3 o'clock "latte" time. Good to the last drop.
I like these small churches, wish I had Photoshop to remove those wires.
don't be fooled- a pee bottle by any other name...
Every day my grossly top-heavy, overloaded bike falls over at least once, and these statue figures capture what my muscles feel trying to save it as it goes "lower and lower in the narrowing gyre", I almost get a hernia, if I succeed it is more by swearwords than brute force.
The spirit of biking
This is for my beloved friends of this name- Elissa, Curt, Frankie, Dana (by marriage), Sophia, Grant
Cathedral at Ulm
New favorite food
I've been reading some of Prof. Hawkings lectures about space-time curvature, and here's experimental proof.
Some ride the ferris wheel, others the pendulum
These colors tell me I had better SOON be going south,south,south
pHOTOGRAPHS FROM gERMANY
This is for my sister Janie, who recommended the book, after I had already bought it. I now must read some of the novels she discusses.
Now on the Neckar River from Stuttgart.
The load on the back of my bike will soon be reaching up and over my head. An extra wheel and tire, and those bananas hanging off the back don't help. It is hard to balance at low speeds, although I believe one can improve ones balance skills even at any age. As you could guess, the bike and I have tremendous destructive power when really going fast.
I pick up and eat walnuts during the day, they drop right onto the path, look like little brains do they not? Hmm, I better look for a manicUre salon- just in case A queen pays me a visit.
hope my readers aren't bored- I take photographs of things which just seem beautiful, perhaps because I've done so extremely much legwork to arrive at these locations.
Three boys for every girl (musical notes drawn in)
Been eating a lot of herring- luckily I FIND HERRING DELICIOUS.
I slept under a tree along the shore of the Rhine, looking up at this castle; when I awoke after midnight the lights had been turned off for the rest of the night.
The mighty Rhine
If you were in the mood to be praying for some reason, this might be a good place to get "His" attention.
I used to have a Jag, older than this one for sale on a country road. Mine, a '64 E-type convertible had glass over the headlights, very dainty horizontal taillights, and toggle switches, not the newer,"safer," rocker type. It had a lighter on the dashboard which said "cigar". And I had a record player from Europe mounted between the bucket seats which would play one 45 at a time. Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" was a favorite of mine. And " Keep on Dancin' " by...And "California Sun" ...by the Nightcaps? nO, MAYBE THE rIVIERAS.
Netherlands or Germany?
Deutchland, definitely.
I get lost a lot, even though I try to use maps, like this one, in a spectral light. Have been in mud, through a drainage tunnel, my compass is my best friend.
This is the life. Is this the life? The life is this? This life is the...
Istanbul Or Bust!
Living on the dangerous edge...these bunnies greeted me in the morning.
Roger, this one's for you- they have names. That's Aisha, Superpollen, and simply "Nepali". The latter is the best. Oh, and I wish they were really this large.
LEANING TOWER OF UTRECHT
My yellow bicycle has been giving me some problems; I'm thinking of getting a Dutch bike, maybe a green one. Maybe blue, no I think green. Then I would have the added cachet of "going green".
Carrying about 60 pounds on the back, 7 on the front.
Amsterdam Or Bust!
Photos
Driving across the USA
the bike rider
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