General – Page 10 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

Salzburg And Munich

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We’ll be leaving in a few weeks for our upcoming Christmas time adventure to Salzburg, Austria and Munich, Germany. In the past we’ve taken our winter trips on Christmas day, but this time we are wanting to have visit coincide with the Advent celebrations which occur in early December. The reason for this is that we want to see Krampus.

From Wikipedia:

Krampus is a mythical creature recognized in Alpine countries. According to legend, Krampus accompanies Saint Nicholas during the Christmas season, warning and punishing bad children, in contrast to St. Nicholas, who gives gifts to good children. When the Krampus finds a particularly naughty child, it stuffs the child in its sack and carries the frightened child away to its lair, presumably to devour for its Christmas dinner.

Apparently there are those whole will dress in some elaborate Krampus costumes and stalk the street of Salzburg during the nights leading up to Advent. It should be an interesting photo opportunity.

As always, I will be updating here with pictures and anecdotes from the trip.

Rats!

Why I love (and sometimes fear) Cynthia – reason # 2,341,456

One of her coworkers has been out of town this week. Let’s just say that Cynthia and this particular co-worker don’t always see eye to eye and have somewhat of a “friendly rivalry” going on.

While this particular co-worker was out of of the office, Cynthia busied herself “re-decorating” it by cutting out pictures of dozens and dozens of rats and placing them all over his office. There’s even rats in the drawers and in the cabinets. She also plans to scatter a box of raisins on his desk before he returns on Friday as a finishing touch.

Cynthia confided in me that the subtle symbolism of her message may be lost on this particular co-worker.

Click any image to see a larger, more rat-ly version.

Rats

Garland Jeffreys

My good friend Nick Gaitan of Nick Gaitain and The Umbrella Man called me Friday afternoon to ask me if I was planning to go see Garland Jeffreys at The Houston Continental Club that evening. I told him I had not planned on it and he proceeded to tell me a little bit about Garland Jeffreys and how he thought I might be interested in this show based on what he knows about my taste in music as well as my desire to photograph truly unique musical events when they happen in town.

Without going in to too many details, I will just direct you to the Wiki article on Garland. Suffice to say, I became VERY interested in seeing this show and told Nick I would see him there.

It is worth noting that Nick’s band was opening for Garland Jeffreys, but in all the years I have known Nick he has never been one to call me out to a show just because he’s playing it.

Of course The Umbrella Man put on a great show, but that night was all about Garland Jeffreys. The show was not well attended. But it was one of the best concerts I have ever attended. I am a music photographer, not a music reviewer, so I will just point you to the Houston Press review of the show for details. I should also note, the review does NOT feature my photographs as The Houston Press had Jason Wotler on call for this one. But I am glad I went and took my camera because ultimately, I shoot for my own archives and this is one I am glad to have captured.

All shot with the Sony A77 using the Carl Zeiss 85 f/1.4 and the Sigma 10mm Fisheye.

Happy Festival Of Popular Delusions Day!

June 5th is Festival Of Popular Delusions Day.

The festival began in Germany on June 5th, 1945 which is one year after D-Day and one day before the one year anniversary. It marks the last day the Nazi’s were able to delude themselves that they would rule the Earth for a thousand years.

Festival Of Popular Delusions Day is now a day for ourselves to perform a reality check not only on our selves as individuals, but take a look at the popular ideas of the day.

To commemorate this day, and in the spirit of our “wacky” holiday card tradition, Cynthia and I sent out a card to our friends and also offer a copy here since we can’t afford stamps for everyone.

Thanks!

Thank you all for the kind words and the outpouring of support. I appreciate it. At this time I request that anyone visiting my site please refrain from copying content and posting it elsewhere without my consent.

At this time I do not condone or endorse anyone posting material from my site to any other web site. Further, I do not endorse anyone contacting anyone claiming to be on my behalf other than my attorney.

Any authority, if ever granted, will be done so on this site.

Anyone wishing to speak to me can reach me using the contact form on this blog or emailing me at baldheretic at gmail dot com

Rome – Day 4 – Vatican Museum

After our audience with The Pope we headed over to the Vatican Museum. This was around 12:30 and the crowds were out in force. We had acquired our ticket vouchers online and, as it turned out, we pretty much walked right in.

You have to be careful when visiting the Vatican Museum. There are tons of people trying to convince you to buy a tour and skip the line. This may be a good idea if you don’t have your voucher already in hand, but is a total scam if you do.

Also, this area is crawling with gypsies. I saw a guy nearly get pickpocketed in this area our last visit in 2005. They’re good at what they do, but this one fumbled the pass when she was handing the wallet off to one of her accomplices.

The Vatican Museum is crowded and hectic. We wanted to see the Sistine Chapel and I specifically wanted to see the spiral staircase.

There’s a lot of really fantastic art to see. And some areas are not too crowded.

But the trek to the chapel is where it starts to get bad. It is literally a cattle call.. A throng of humanity shuffling down a long and ever shrinking corridor until you reach the chapel.

Eventually you do end up in the chapel.

And sadly, there are no photos allowed in the chapel.

At this point we were pretty beat and the crowds were just too much so we made our way to the exit. Even this was a long walk. But we did end up at the magnificent spiral staircase which was something I *really* wanted to see and photograph.

We headed back to the hotel to get some lunch and relax for a bit. The rest of the day would be pretty casual as we’re winding down to come home.

Rome – Day 4 – The Pope

As a lapsed catholic, the significance of Rome and Vatican City is not lost on me. After all, it is the very heart of the Roman Catholic Church. But oddly, it is Cynthia who seems to have the most interest in seeing the Pope when travelling to Italy. And she is not even remotely Catholic.

The last time we were there we attended the Papal Blessing on a Sunday. The Sunday blessing features The Pope appearing in a window of the Apostolic Palace and speaking to the crowds that gather in St. Peter’s Square. Thousands gather to receive his blessing, or simply gawk.

This visit we were not going to be in Rome in time to attend the Sunday blessing, but we were going to be there on a Wednesday. And, as it happens, Wednesday is the day the Pope conducts his Papal Audience where he actually comes down to conduct a service.

Depending on variables I am not certain about, the audience can either be right in St. Peter’s Square in front of the basilica or they hold the event indoors at the Paul VI Audience Hall.

Cynthia expressed a strong interest in attending and I thought it would be a good opportunity to grab some interesting photos.

Prior to our departure I went online and requested tickets for seats at the event. To do this you simply go to the Web site of The Church of Santa Susanna and fill out a simple form. A week or so prior to your selected date you will be notified if you have been granted tickets.

About two weeks before our departure I received an email confirming our tickets for May 2 at the Paul VI Audience Hall.

There were two disappointments in this email. The first was that the audience would be at the Paul VI Audience Hall so no dramatic outdoor shots. The second was the date. We would not be in Rome on May 2. We would be there on May 9.

Unfortunately I did not realize there was a discrepancy in the date until AFTER I emailed Cynthia with the good, but inaccurate news.

I went back to the Web site and resubmitted my request. We received another confirmation right before we left for Italy. This time with the correct date and confirmation that this audience would, indeed, be in front of the basilica. w00t!

The email confirmation instructed us to go to Santa Susanna during some set times to pick up our tickets. As it turned out, Santa Susanna was only a few blocks from our hotel so finding it and getting there was a total breeze.

When we went to pick up our tickets the priest who met with us asked me what parish I attended. I figured I would be asked something like this and happily told him I was a member of Mt. Carmel. Which is technically true. At least when I was younger. I have attended mass in over 3 decades. As it turns out, the priest knew Mt. Carmel and used to live in Houston. I was quickly put in to a position where I had to admit I was a very, very lapsed Catholic. He smiled and said perhaps our visit would change that.

We got our tickets and made the suggested donation and skedaddled out of there before I was asked anymore questions.

On the day of the audience we got up early and had breakfast and then caught a cab to St. Peter’s Square. The audience was scheduled for 10:30 am and it was suggested we get there early if we wanted good seats. We got there around 8:00 and were able to get about 5th or 6th row. Not too shabby.

The weather was sunny and the skies were blue. And as the time approached for the Pope to appear the crowds in St. Peter’s grew and grew. It was definitely a photo opportunity deluxe.

The wait time went quickly enough and then the big moment arrived. The Pope entered the square

I could see his head and shoulders gliding effortlessly above the crowd. At one point I suggested he was coming in on a Segway to the guilty laughter of those around us. But no, he was not on a Segway, he was on the Mercedes “Pope-Mobile”

I was happy to have brought the 70-200mm lens. Even though we were in a good seat, it was still nice to have the reach

After riding around the square and greeting everyone he eventually settled in to his seat at the top of his podium and addressed the crowd.

It was quite a spectacle. I don’t think I will be going back to mass anytime soon, but it was kind of special and I am glad to have witnessed something like this in person.

Rome – Day 3

Day three in Rome dawned with sunshine and blue skies blazing! We got up, got dressed and had our breakfast before heading out to take a walk around this magnificent city.

We walked from the hotel to Trevi Fountain which was a little less than a mile away. I will tell you this, the key to seeing any of the main sites in Rome is to go early. The fountain had a smattering of tourists, but it was not jammed up and crowded as it would be later in the day.

The custom is to toss a coin in to the fountain with the promise that if you do so, you will one day return. We did this in 2005 so I can vouch for the effectiveness 🙂

From the Trevi it was a short walk to The Pantheon

Again, early arrival meant fewer crowds. We were dodging some tour groups, but it was not so bad…yet.

I had brought my fisheye along for this excursion as I thought it might be fun to take some shots inside the Pantheon using this lens. The Pantheon is pretty much a big dome and I figured the circular nature of the architecture would lend itself well to this style of phptography.

I took a few shots and created some HDR multi-exposures

As I was shooting it occurred to me that this would be a great opportunity for one of my “Camera On The Floor” shots. I like to do this in dark interiors. What I do is find a spot on the floor and set the timer on my camera and place the camera face up to the ceiling and let it take the shot. The results can be rather dramatic. Although I could not get to the center of the Pantheon as they had it roped off, I was able to get this.

From The Pantheon we walked to the Piazza Navona.

From there it was a short walk to Campo de’ Fiori to see the statue of Giordano Bruno who was Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model in proposing that the Sun was essentially a star, and moreover, that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited worlds populated by other intelligent beings.

Giordano Bruno was a heretic who was burned at the stake by civil authorities in 1600 after the Roman Inquisition found him guilty of heresy for his pantheism.

At this point we have walked several miles, but were still feeling strong and enthusiastic so we trekked to the river to find our way to the Bocca della Verità or “Truth Mouth” located in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin.

Legend has it that if you place your hand in the mouth of this statue and you tell a lie, the statue will bite your hand off. Cynthia and I each took our turn placing our hand in the mouth while the other asked if we loved them. I am happy to report we still have both our hands.

At this point we were getting a little tired and knew we had a bit of a hike to get back to the hotel where we could rest and recuperate. We could see Altare della Patria looming over us.

We knew that if we headed toward that monument path would lead us to Trajan’s Column and then back to our hotel.

But before that we made a detour over to The Colosseum to see The Arch of Constantine before hiking the main road back to the hotel.

All in all, we walked a good 5-6 miles by my reckoning. Google Maps places it at 5.7 miles, but does not take in to consideration the few wrong turns and the less than direct route we took to each location.