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Fleur Blüm

~ writer, performer, musician

Fleur Blüm

Tag Archives: New York

Fear

25 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by toearlyretirement in Writing, Writing101

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Art, Artist Date, dreams, Fear, Inspiration, Loneliness, New York, Writing, Writing101

I’m standing on a windswept cliff top, everything below is whipped into a rage by the winds, the sea throwing itself against the rocks. I’m cold, wearing only the jogging clothes I came up in, damp with sweat. Slowly I turn back to the thing that frightened me, your face, crushed by the conversation we’re trying to have.

“You can’t break up with me. You said you loved me.”

I take a step towards you, my hand outstretched,then let it fall as I release the breath I had been holding.

“I do love you, I will always love you. But I can’t do this.”

You’re crying, I watch the trails that the tears make down your cheeks.

“You know it’s for the best, in the long run. I’m holding you back, you know I am. You’ll never do what you need to do while we’re together.”

“I can’t do it without you,” you protest.

“You can. You have to. I can’t hold your hand anymore. It’s not fair on me, and it’s not fair on you.”

I kneel beside you in the sandy grass, taking your hand in mine.

“It’s ok. Really. Trust yourself. Take the job, go to New York, make a new life for yourself. I can’t leave, but I don’t want to stop you from achieving your dream.”

You look so small, bewildered that I can’t follow you, but there’s a steely resolve in your eyes.

“Everything we have had was beautiful. I will always cherish it,” you say with a sigh.

You turn away, getting up to leave.

“I always hoped you would be able to conquer your fear and come with me. I hoped my love would be enough, but I see now it’s not. I’m sorry.”

You’re still holding my hand, but you drop it as you walk away.

“I’m sorry.”

I know. I’m sorry too.

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USA – Urban Monuments

30 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Photo Essay, Travel

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Tags

Canon 1100D, Graceland, Las Vegas, Memphis, New York, Photo Essay, Photography, Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach, Washington D.C.

Post number six in my collections from the US; urban monuments. There are some places that just inspire photos, and a lot of them that are from New York! It’s like I’m all about the east coast.

I like the idea that these are man made objects that have become the object of worship and awe. There is something about these places that triggers a response to take photos in tourists, this reflex to capture the moment, even though you may never look through your photos again.

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Grand Central Station with at least one person coming from the LGBTIQ Pride Parade, can you spot them?

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The New York City Public Library. This reminded me really strongly of a scene in the Harry Potter Lego video game, and when I showed a colleague at work they said the State Library in Melbourne was better.

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Radio City Music Hall. I really liked the art deco stylings and the use of neon lights, it’s very different to a lot of the stuff you get here in Melbourne.

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The classic night time shot of Times’ Square. I actually didn’t enjoy it that much (the Broadway show I saw excluded, because that was amazing!), it was full of other tourists and street hawkers trying to get money from me, but it was definitely an experience I am glad I had.

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Manhattan city skyline from the top of the Rockefeller building. The day was weirdly overcast, but still very warm and glarey.

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Obligatory photo of Lady Liberty. It was the same day as the photo of the skyline but the sun had come out by then. I tried to get a bit arty with the angle, I’m not sure I succeeded.

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World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. Each of the pillars you can see in the background represents a state and their contribution (and losses).

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On the fourth of July the Washington Monument was lit up by fireworks as the sun set; it was pretty spectacular. Unfortunately the monument is still covered in scaffolding because it split during an earthquake a couple of years ago.

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This is Elvis’ grave at Graceland, Memphis. You can see from the contributions left there that people literally worship it. According to the guided narration device, they will display any and all tributes on the grave until such time as the elements degrade them. The graves along side are Elvis’ parents and twin brother who died as an infant. I must say it’s weird visiting graves when the weather is nice, it seems unfitting.

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To contrast the impressive image of the original Lady Liberty, here is a shot of the replica in Las Vegas. There is something about the city that makes me wary; some seething underbelly of human misery upon which these glittering, gaudy monuments are built.

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The last photo in this group is of Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. The weather here was a bit strange, it was a little bit cold, and the clouds were coming down over the hills behind the ferris wheel. I think it was also a lot less busy because it was not a nice day so I got a different feeling of the area than what’s shown in movies and TV. It’s hard to imagine this as the Baywatch Beach from this photo.

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USA – Food

24 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Photo Essay, Travel

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Austin, Canon 1100D, Food porn, New Mexico, New Orleans, New York, Photo Essay, Photography, Texas, USA, Virginia, Washington D.C.

As the fourth in my instalments of themed photos from my trip, I present FOOD.

Yes I was one of those people who whipped out the DSLR at restaurants and cafes and fast food stops, and you know what? I don’t care! I was on holiday and I wanted photos of what I ate. I put a lot of emphasis on eating, it’s one of my favourite things, and here are the photos to prove that American food can be pretty darn good!

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Nachos in New York. The Americans seem to have a love for liquid cheese, which is fine while it’s still hot, but ends up being sort of disconcertingly shiny when it cools down.

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Frogurt with various toppings in New York. I bought this on my way back from seeing a show on Broadway (it was a version of MacBeth with Alan Cummings and it was extremely good).

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New York Pizza; bought from a place near the ferry I took to go around the harbour and see the Statue of Liberty. I have to say, it wasn’t that good, but I probably didn’t go to the best pizza place so I can’t hold that against the New Yorkers.

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Tortilla soup in Washington D.C. It was really tasty, but not that hot (to me anyway). I spent a lot of time in the US smothering things in hot sauce. MMmmmm, hot sauce.

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After having hot tortilla soup we wanted smoothies. I think we were hoping for something with a bit more fruit and ice, but we ended up with very tasty yogurt and milk ones.

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From memory this is ginger ale in a peculiar little place in Whytheville, Virginia. They ran on a very slow timetable, they said that their food was made with love and as a result it would take time. It was quite good, but quite slow.

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Curly fries and buffalo wings at Hooters in Memphis. This was not my meal, but it looked good! Also in that Hooters there was a sign explaining that you couldn’t bring firearms into the restaurant. Only in America!

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I acknowledge that this meal does not look so good, but it was possibly the best meal I had while I was away. Pulled pork, slaw, beans and a bun. So good, I can’t even tell you (also in Memphis).

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Beignets (French doughnuts) at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans. The were truly excellent, but you had to be very careful not to breathe in or out while taking a bite or the powdered sugar would get you! This place was also open 24 hours a day, everyday. By all accounts it’s a requirement when you’re in New Orleans to go there.

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Chocolate mole enchiladas in Austin, Texas. Another fantastic meal! Also the black beans in the top right were amazing.

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Probably the artiest food shot from the collection; gorgeous honey bread in a steak house in Texas. They made the bread on site. The steak was really good too, but I was too busy eating it to take a picture.

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I believe this is called the Big Bowl. It’s beans, rice, corn, minced beef, chilli and cheese all together. The puffy thing on the side is a sort of hollow bread puff, called a sopailla. This is in New Mexico.

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The last photo in the series is an Asian stir fry meal that we ate in Las Vegas.

One of the things I missed while I was away was Asian style food – Vietnamese and Thai in particular. I guess it’s a geographical thing, a lot of their restaurants are Mexican, because they’re close to Mexico, while here we have a lot of south east Asian food, because we’re much closer. I dunno, but it was a treat none the less.

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USA – Arty

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Photo Essay, Travel

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Tags

Adventure, Arizona, Brisbane, California, Canon 1100D, Maryland, Monument Valley, New Mexico, New Orleans, New York, Photo Essay, Photography, San Diego, Santa Fe, St Louis Cemetery #1, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington

The third in my series of photo essays from my travels in the USA. I like to think of these as the ‘arty’ shots; here I put less emphasis on what the photo is of, and more emphasis on the aesthetically pleasing elements captured in the image.
Given this, I’m not going to tell you a story about these photos, I’ll just tell you where they were taken, and you can make up the story that goes with them.

IMG_5711 Southbank, Brisbane.

IMG_6218 Battery Maritime Building, Manhattan.

IMG_6213 Battery Maritime Building, Manhattan.

IMG_6357 Washington D.C.

IMG_6532 Wytheville, Virginia.

IMG_6553 Nashville, Tennessee.

IMG_7073 St Louis Cemetery #1, New Orleans.

IMG_7247 Somewhere along the road in Texas.

IMG_7484 Santa Fe, New Mexico.

IMG_7616 Monument Valley, it’s either Utah or Arizona, the state line runs through the whole area.

IMG_8063 San Diego, California.

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USA – Urban Decay

16 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Photo Essay, Travel

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Adventure, Canon 1100D, Cold War, Grand Canyon, Manhattan, Memphis, New Orleans, New York, NY Subway, Photo Essay, Photography, Route 66, San Diego, St Louis Cemetery #1

In the spirit of thematically grouping my photos from my travels, I now present to you photo essay number two: Urban Decay.

IMG_5800This sign was on the wall of a public housing building in uptown New York. I found it fascinating for two reasons, firstly because it speaks to a cold war heritage that we just don’t have or understand in Australia, and secondly, because it was so obviously out of date (probably 1960s) and yet it was still there, within reach of the street for everyone who walked past. I think it says something about the fact that the locals pay it absolutely no attention. While I was taking this photo, a gent who lived in the area asked what I was doing, and when I explained to him, he told me about his experience as a child being taught to duck and cover at school. It was quite surreal.

IMG_5821 This wall is right near Times’ Square in Manhattan. I found it interesting that a building in such a populated, high traffic area was not being used for advertising. I also thought that the peeling paint was beautiful.

IMG_6004 This pay phone was in a subway station in Manhattan. I love this photo.

IMG_6808 This building was also in Memphis, but it was in a poorer area. It felt deserted and kind of desolate in the heat of the summer.

IMG_6828 This is the view of a warehouse from my hotel in Memphis. We were within walking distance of the main city area, and from Beale St, the main tourist area, but this warehouse was empty and unused.
IMG_6905 While we were on a river cruise up the Mississippi from New Orleans, we passed a series of docks which were severely damaged. This one looks like it hasn’t been used for a long time, but it could just be a hang-over from Hurricane Katrina that was never cleaned up.

IMG_6914 A rusty water tower along the Mississippi.

IMG_7051 The other thing I did in New Orleans was go on a swamp tour, the sort where they feed alligators hot dogs and marshmallows over the side of a tin boat. Along the Pearl River, outside of the city and in the middle of the bayou, were a number of houses and recreation structures that had been destroyed by Katrina and had been left to sink into the river. Many of them were accessible only by water and the owners simply didn’t want to repair them.

IMG_7099 Still in New Orleans, this is a photos of one of the above ground vaults in St Louis Cemetery #1. Many of the vaults in this cemetery have been restored, but many of them are falling apart, like this one. Generations of people are buried in these vaults, according to the marble face plates. The earliest ones I found, that were still legible, were from 1750s. I still haven’t worked out what the little offerings and markings are, I think it’s a voodoo thing though.

IMG_7204 This one is just of a carpark in Austin. I like the peeling paint, the door that leads nowhere, and the discolouration. I suppose there used to be a building where the carpark is.

IMG_7695 This pay phone is outside a general store/truck stop along the road on the way to the Grand Canyon. I didn’t test whether the phone worked, but the cobwebs covered in red dust looked a bit like rusty bullet holes from afar.

IMG_7889 This is the famous Route 66. It’s empty. Since the US government has improved the interstate system people don’t drive on Route 66 anymore. There are all these little towns dotted along the route, that runs between Chicago and Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles, that are slowly dying out. We stopped in one, which was full of tourists because it was high season, but I would guess they don’t get much business in the winter months.

IMG_8134 I acknowledge that this is not actually decay, it’s more like street art, but I really liked it. It covered an entire wall of a shopping centre in San Diego. I guess it speaks to the concept of changing cityscapes though.

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USA – Ordinary People

15 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by toearlyretirement in Photo Essay, Travel

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Tags

Adventure, Austin, Brisbane, Canon 1100D, Inspiration, Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans, New York, People, Photo Essay, Photography, Street Photography, Washington D.C.

While I was on my travels I took an enormous number of photos. I have been back for a couple of weeks, but life got in the way a bit and I am only just getting on to organising my photos into themed photo essays for this blog.

I am starting with a theme I’m calling ordinary people. This is a selection of (largely) unposed photos I took of people I encountered in the US on my four week adventure.

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This couple is actually in Brisbane, I took this while on Southbank during the 12 hour delay on the way into New York.

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This is in Manhattan, in a park I don’t remember the name of, just about sunset. To the right of the shot there are basketball courts and other community sporting grounds, to the left of the shot is a cycling/walking track and a stretch of park. I like to think this guy was doing homework, or writing something, and that he was out in the beautiful summer evening because his apartment was too tiny, or too noisy, or too full.

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These people were watching the LGBTIQ Pride Parade as it wound it’s way through Manhattan. The parade was awesome but I liked that you could be standing next to almost anyone on the crowd. We were all there for the same reason, all baking in the sun, watching the spectacle go past.

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This woman was getting out of her taxi as we drove into Washington D.C. Something about the poverty of the area and the normality of the action inspired me to grab this shot from the car.

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This man and his son were inside the Smithsonian Natural history museum in Washington D.C. He was so good with this kid, so patient and enthusiastic, and the child was having such an awesome time. They made me smile.

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<This guy. What can I say about him? He brought his massive iguanato watch the 4th of July fireworks display in the Mall in Washington D.C. I was not the only person to get a photo of these two.

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This little girl is gorgeous. She was sitting in Beale St, Memphis, with her family watching some street performers doing an acrobatics display. I suspect some of the boys performing were her brothers or cousins, but she may have just been hanging out.

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The Latin Quarter of New Orleans: I would love to go back there and spend some more time. We were standing in the street after having a meal when a woman and her dog (this little guy) came past. She seemed so poor and desperate, and her dog seemed so afraid and hungry. She stopped to chat with us for a bit, bummed a cigarette from one of us, and then went on her way.

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In Austin, there seemed to be a lot of cool people on bicycles, but the helmet laws are different.

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We arrived in San Diego on the final day of Comic Con, just in time to catch a few cosplayers heading back from the convention centre and to see these guys filming some sort of review or wrap up.

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Another Comic Conner, this is the only posed one of the group, he had such an excellent moustache I asked him for a photo. Clearly he was all too happy to oblige.

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People working out at Muscle Beach in Los Angeles. In the bottom right of the shot you can see a guy stretching. He looked like he’d been coming there for years, he would have been about 60, he had skin like leather from too much sun, and just before I could get the camera out he’d been doing handstands on those bars. It was very impressive.

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