"YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS ARE AS DAZZLING AS YOUR SUBJECTS"

Monday, May 31, 2010

MEMORIAL DAY: "After great pain a formal feeling comes."

For
MEMORIAL DAY


ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

"AFTER GREAT PAIN,
A FORMAL FEELING COMES -- "

-- Emily Dickinson

(The text of the poem, here)

(Some discussion, here)

(Two pieces on the honor guard
at Arlington National Cemetery,
here and here)

Sunday, May 30, 2010

BERKELEY STREET SCENE: A Vignette -- and The Rest of the Story?

SEEN ON THE STREET
ON A SUNDAY IN MAY


BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA



A vignette --

and

the rest of the story?

Saturday, May 29, 2010

YELTSIN WINS THE WHITE HOUSE -- TWENTY YEARS LATER

BORIS YELTSIN
WINS THE RUSSIAN
"WHITE HOUSE"
May 29, 1990


THE RUSSIAN "WHITE HOUSE," MOSCOW
PHOTOGRAPHED IN 1984
A HALF-DOZEN YEARS BEFORE
IT EVER CAME TO BE CALLED THAT

(to be continued)

Friday, May 28, 2010

PATRIOTS & POLES & MORE PLACES TO PARK U.S. TROOPS

PATRIOTS & POLES & 
MORE PLACES TO 
PARK U.S. TROOPS 

POLISH SOLDIERS PARADE 
AT THE TOMB OF 
THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER 
WARSAW, POLAND, 1981 

This is the week that American Patriot missiles arrived in Poland. 

On May 26, 2010, AFP reported that Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich "formally welcomed the 100-strong US unit that had arrived at a Polish army base in the northern town of Morag at the weekend, and viewed the three unarmed Patriot missile launchers which Polish troops will be trained to use. 


"'Your arrival here in Poland has two dimensions, political and symbolic. Politically, it's about Poland's security. And symbolically because on Polish soil, for the first time, US soldiers will be stationed long-term,' he [Klich] said." [italics added

Today (May 28) a Russian deputy foreign minister protested
Morag is only sixty kilometers, less than forty miles, from Russia. 

But of course the missile placement has nothing to do with Russia.... 

Some interesting analysis here

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

MAKE BAOZI, NOT SAUSAGE

MAKE BAOZI 
NOT SAUSAGE 


MAKING BAOZI 
NANJING, CHINA, 1981 

The great flurry of articles about the attempts to stave off war on the Korean Peninsula, or at least to enlist China on the side of the -- angels -- , coupled with speculation on possible civilian-military splits in the Chinese leadership on the subject, and on how this all fits in with the *RISE* of China -- linked (not accidentally) with the recently overused cliché on the similarities of sausage-making and policy-making (or law-making), and the very recent news that sausage is bad for you -- brought to mind this photograph of baozi (steamed bun)-making right out there in public in Nanjing in 1981.  

(Making a law, like making sausage, it is said,is not pretty -- you do not want to see what goes into it.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

THE TWO-HUNDREDTH POST


POST # 200 


BALLET EXERCISES 
CHILDREN'S PALACE 
SHANGHAI, CHINA, 1981 

Monday, May 24, 2010

JOHN KING FAIRBANK, b. May 24, 1907

JOHN KING FAIRBANK
May 24, 1907-September 14, 1991

JOHN KING FAIRBANK

Harvard Professor, Mentor, Friend

The "Dean" of American China studies

pictured at home in the Winthrop Street

house (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

he shared with Wilma Cannon Fairbank

until his death on September 14, 1991


Sunday, May 23, 2010

ALAN GARCIA, PRESIDENT OF PERU, TURNS FIFTY-ONE


ALAN GARCIA
PRESIDENT OF PERU
b. May 23, 1949


Hosting the APEC Summit
November 2008

Due for a U.S. summit June 1, 2010

Friday, May 21, 2010

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE... (Lima, Peru)

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE...


ANOTHER PERUVIAN HILLSIDE,

WITH HOUSES, THIS ONE IN LIMA

THE PREVIOUS ONE, IN CUSCO, IS

HERE


NEWS OF THE DAY FROM PERU

"Peru Is in a 'Growth League of Its Own,'

Bank of America Says"

BusinessWeek reports that "Peru will grow 6.1 percent this year and 5.8 percent in 2011, Bank of America said in the report, reiterating its revised forecast from April."


Thursday, May 20, 2010

YOUNG PIONEERS II

YOUNG PIONEERS II

MEMBERS OF A

YOUNG PIONEER HONOR GUARD

MARCH AT A CIVIL WAR MEMORIAL

NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA, 1984

BACK IN THE USSR

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

YOUNG PIONEERS I

YOUNG PIONEERS I


YOUNG PIONEER
HONOR GUARD MEMBER
NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA, 1984
BACK IN THE USSR

SHE TOOK HER DUTIES VERY SERIOUSLY.

On May 19, 1922, the Young Pioneer Organization of
the Soviet Union was founded; it was formally known
as the Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization.

The Young Pioneer Organization continues
today in Russia. (See a Reuters photograph
here -- the second in the slide show.)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

CUSCO HILLS: TO FOLLOW UP ON THE MACHU PICCHU FLOOD STORY

FOLLOW-UP ON THE
MACHU PICCHU FLOOD STORY


CUSCO HILLSIDE

CUSCO (CUZCO), PERU
CAPITAL OF THE INCAN EMPIRE

The Ferrocarril Transandino (Fetransa) authorities have
promised to have the Cusco-Machu Picchu Railway
repaired by June 30, reports LivinginPeru.com

Monday, May 17, 2010

Sunday, May 16, 2010

IT IS SUNDAY: PRESENTING THE SILVER LEAF GOSPEL SINGERS


IT IS SUNDAY


PRESENTING THE

In concert at Sanders Theatre
Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 19, 2005

Joyful, a capella, “jubilee” singing

First "gig," March 11, 1945 

Saturday, May 15, 2010

PETER THE GREAT, TAKE II: THE SNAKE AT THE BACK

PETER THE GREAT

THE MONUMENT TO

PETER THE GREAT

BY E. M. FALCONET

"THE BRONZE HORSEMAN"

THE REAR VIEW

We have seen the horse of Mao Zedong;
the horses on the Narva Triumphal Arch,
the answer to the Arc de Triomphe;
and the front view of The Bronze Horseman.

Here we have tsar, horse, and snake --
the snake at the back representing
the enemies of Peter the Great,
the enemies of reform.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

ANOTHER ETERNAL FLAME -- THIS ONE IN STONE (NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA)

ANOTHER ETERNAL FLAME


NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA
Another eternal flame (see Stalingrad Memorial),
this time in stone; another upthrust hand
holding the flame

Photographed back in the USSR, in 1984


Wednesday, May 12, 2010

THE NARVA TRIUMPHAL ARCH & THE WAR OF 1812: RUSSIA'S OTHER "PATRIOTIC WAR"


THE WAR OF 1812
RUSSIA'S OTHER
"PATRIOTIC WAR" --
AGAINST NAPOLEON

THE NARVA TRIUMPHAL ARCH
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

The sixty-fifth anniversary of victory in the European
theater in World War II (the "Great Patriotic War")
has just been celebrated in Moscow.

The Narva Triumphal Arch (above) in St. Petersburg,
Russia, was erected to celebrate the Russian victory in
the "Patriotic War" of 1812 over the invading forces of Napoleon.

The original version of the arch was erected in time
to welcome the Russian troops returning from France
in the summer of 1814 (more information here).

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Monday, May 10, 2010

Sunday, May 9, 2010

RUSSIA CELEBRATES VICTORY IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR SIXTY-FIVE YEARS ON: PART OF THE PRICE PAID

RUSSIA CELEBRATES VICTORY
IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR
(WORLD WAR II)
SIXTY-FIVE YEARS ON


THE ETERNAL FLAME
AND SOME OF THE NAMES
OF THE DEAD
IN THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
VOLGOGRAD (RUSSIA)
BACK IN THE USSR
1984

SOME OF THE PRICE PAID