no air conditione! in hell

we did a gig in biel on the 14th- got home around 10pm and i finished up my packing by midnight. i slept off and on [mostly off] until 5.30am, got up, made coffee, loaded the car, and jackie drove me to zurich; had to check in by 8am.

the flight home was the usual: interrogation and torture at every airport [only on flights coming to america] - in zurich i was interrogated [as was everyone going to atlanta] at the 1st security check before i even got to the ticket counter- i know the routine and the questions so well i should just make and hand them a paper. plus you have to schlepp all your bags while standing in line. no carts allowed; really f-ing dumb, when you have 2 big check ins, a carry on, and computer bag. then i had to pay 25$ for 1 'overweight' bag, but the computer at the ticket counter wasn't working [as usual] and couldn't accept my credit card- so i had to walk elsewhere to pay, schlepping my crap with me. if i'm going to be tortured i expect better service.

i went through passport control, then onto my gate. but before getting to my gate, had to go through another security check. take out the laptop, put all the crap on the table,etc. thank god switzerland has hi tech x-ray machines which can see everything; no problems. went to the smoking lounge and smoked.

i'd requested window seats when i got my ticket. however, i got an aisle seat in the exit section, which was better than a normal section, but still not good. put in my ear-plugs, put on my sleeping mask, and took a sleeping pill and slept about 5 hours, except when either the food or drink cart came by and knocked into me, or undisciplined unruly children were running amok. [there should be a special place in hell for people who let children run wild... especially on planes! "children should be seen and not heard" did not become an adage for nothing!] i didn't even wake for the 'lunch'- even when i smelled it passing- better to sleep and escape some of the 9 hours of the butt-numbing seats. i dozed off and on, woke maybe 2 hours before touchdown and the next tortures.

passport control wasnt bad- never is, really, except for the lines- the guy working at the booth i went to was rather funny. i had 8 boxes of Samson tobacco [enough to last a few months] and he asked if i was going to sell it. i said "no, i'm just not going to pay american prices to smoke!" [especially considering the majority of the cost here is taxes- and yet everywhere you go is now non-smoking here- tax me for smoking, but don't allow me to. duh!] he asked if i'd bought any liquor or chocolates and i said no- because i hadn't- but said, "well, i have some small bars- that were given me" to which he said, "aha mr. duffey! so you DO have chocolates... why did you say you didn't?" but waved me away...

next stop baggage claim: my bags were the last to come off the carousel. then when i went to re-check the 2 checked bags, it was a bordelle. trolleys and bags in heaps everywhere, and people yelling "leave the bags and get outa here" --- so, i did. then on to the fun part. a mile long line of people having to go through yet another security check. and this is what i dont get: you've been checked in zurich 2x, have only been on the plane, and then through passport control, and then baggage claim, and [if you're in transit] recheck- but yet... again, another control: take out the laptop, put all the junk on the table, take off the shoes, etc. and rude people barking orders- like WW2 Germany- very stressful to do all this with people in front of and behind you, pushing and stripping, and so on- and rude pushy TSA people hollering at you. this time, i forgot to take off my shoes... god forbid... had to go back; some surly bastard snarling at me from beyond the . then their machine couldn't SEE into my carry on [unlike the swiss machine]- so i had to unpack everything i'd tried to pack so carefully, while the conveyor belt was pushing other people's scheiss at me. scream time! afterward, i immediately went to the smoking area in terminal E [where i arrived] even though my connecting flight was at C.

above: a huge flying corn-cob dildo thing hanging in the atlanta airport. quite a metaphor! welcome to america!

afterward i went to C- which means schlepping bags down the mile long corridors, taking the mile long escalator, getting on the train, getting out, going back up the escalator and down yet another mile long corridor= exhausting. i checked in and as i had over an hour to wait- went to the smoking section. amazingly, during my absence, my time in europe, they have added more smoking areas. [unreal. incomprehensible. bravo!] when i went back to wait for boarding i was told the gate had been changed to D... Merde! now i had about 48 minutes... so... that meant schlepping bags down the mile long corridors, taking the mile long escalator, getting on the train, getting out, going back up the escalator and down yet another mile long corridor AGAIN= more exhausting.

i sat down and re-packed everything in my carry on bag [like always] in the wide open- i always take delicate items, like cameras and external hard-drives, ect. in my carry on, but because the plane to MLU is smaller there is no overheard bin room for a normal sized carry on. i've seen the way the baggage handler THROW the carry on bags... so always take an extra bag, in the carry on so i can re-pack. the overhead speakers are always saying [about the security/threat level] "the level is orange" or "for security reasons, dont leave baggage unatttended", "report any suspicious behaviour" etc. always some scheiss. people watched me strangely as i re-packed. i'm surprised i wasn't reported. i'm sure i looked crazy, from stress and all the running i'd been doing. if i've said it once, i've said it a million times, "travel, which used to be a pleasure, is now total torture!"

eh bien, finally we boarded and winged homeward. friends had emailed me in switzerland saying "stay there! don't come home... the heat and mosquitoes are unbearable!" and i wasn't really looking forward to either. but... home is home; even if summer in louisiana IS hell.

i had many great moments in europe- but, one thing i relished in particular was that i NEVER watched/saw FOX news [especially- what fascists!], CNN or any of the US news programs. i always surfed right past them to something cultural; something intelligent/intellectual; the kinds of programs that are sorely missing on even american cable tv. it was such a pleasure to be away from all the propaganda, political rhetoric, and non-stop horror stories. i ONLY stopped and watched CNN 1x when i saw that Karl Rove had resigned from W's [dub-yuh] cabinet [read: regime]... another rat fleeing the sinking ship.

so... i'm back! back to the land of propaganda, paranoia, and religious fanatics; 100F heat, mosquitoes, west nile virus, encephalitis, snakes etc. oh well...

i made a few random shots from the car with the digicam: below is part of what's left of the monroe skyline; they ripped down all historical buildings in the 60s when they began building shopping centers and malls in the suburbs. it was shot from the car, on a bridge, while driving. [with reflections]... "frances towers" [sounds like the name of an old film star] sticks out like one of stalin's "7 ugly sisters" [buildings] in Moscow; telephone poles look like crucifixes... another metaphor.


i saw this church sign [below] en route to my house and it says it all: illiterate religious nut cases.


they can't spell "air conditioning" [conditione!] but they sho nuff can preach at and condemn you!... [or maybe they're mocking cartmen on "south park"... "dont question my authoritei!"...nah, probably not!]

yesterday, in wal-mart, i saw a young teenage boy wearing a tee shirt that said "in jesus name"- [what the hell does THAT mean? good gawd]- if i hadn't already been damned near arrested once in wal-mart- for taking a foto [ages ago]- i would've snapped him w/the digicam. i should have anyway... it was a total diane arbus moment. "he who hesitates is lost"

[c] 2007 doug duffey

bern baby bern

made an afternoon trip to Bern to the kunstmusem [art museum] to see the paul senn exhibit, and the "expressionism from the mountains" exhibit. we also took some time after the exhibit to hang out in the marktplatz, have a beer and some snacks at an outdoor table, people watch, and yes... I made fotos. i shot unsuspecting passers-by; and some city and street shots posted here.

bern [for those who don't know] is the capital of switzerland. it was founded in 1191! it's a beautiful old medieval city...with tram tracks, and flags hanging, and fountains and an old clock tower... the sidewalks are covered, like long caves... lots of great 'show windows' in the shops... it's old... but it's totally modern. they're doing a lot of street work at the moment. this is a shot of the main street -from one side of marktplatz- which isn't being worked on

and this is the opposite side, where they've gutted the street... although i do see the tram line and cobblestones down the center...

below are the doors of the kunst museum. they're really massive carved wooden doors. these are just the wrought iron grates over the windows in the doors!

below: posters for each show are outside the museum on the street... the little rectangles all over the posters are the stickers you get [and are to wear while in the museum] when you buy your ticket. the color indicates if you are seeing one or the other exhibits; they say "kunstmuseum bern". people stuck them on the posters when they left and passed by them... even more art being created... on top of art... i like the fact that each 'sticker' is from an individual person; adding to the 'work' in progress.

i've been a big Paul Senn fan for years. i particularly like his fotos of swiss village life; i love old things/antiques, etc. i love the old farm houses and barns here; you still see many of them, especially up in the alps... to see the people, in their time, in those settings... to see their daily life, and the unspoiled landscape, in his fotos, was beautiful... and sad. the alp scenes: the farmers, workers, villagers etc. all such little time capsules. life must have been very hard then, but i think it was probably much better than this soul-less, stressed out, hi-tech, modern age we live in.

Senn was from Bern; he was a home-boy. it was great to see his Rolleiflex camera [beaten to hell and back]-and some of his papers and his passport. i bought a Rolleicord [cheaper version of the Rollieflex] at a 2nd hand shop in Bern a few years back... seeing his camera and the show made me want to start using it. how he made voyeur shots with it -on subways etc- seems difficult, considering the way TLR cameras work- to focus you have to lift the lid, and look, twist a knob on the side of the camera to get the image in focus- and after the shot, roll the film forward. when i compare them -the big box- to my little digital camera, which i try to conceal when making street shots [catching people off guard is the whole point] it seems impossible. then again people probably weren't as paranoid as they are today. i have actually been stopped and asked why i was making fotos [in louisiana] even when i was shooting buildings [not people] many times... and laws today are insane. i've heard of photographers in the US being arrested for making photos in PUBLIC places... that's crazy! anyway, Senn's voyeuristic shots are great.

go to his online archive- http://www.paulsenn.ch/ -and in the box that says "online archiv" click on "alle" to see a lot of his fotos... many which were in the show.

the second exhibit i saw was the one below "expressionism from the mountains"- again the poster and the museum entrance stickers-

i've always been into german/austrian expressionism [and dada ]: mainly otto dix, george grosz, egon schiele, john heartfield, max beckmann---but, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a founding member of Die Brücke [in Dresden in 1905]... so, he's rather like "the godfather of expressionism" ... i've been to the kirchner museum in davos [years ago--- but don't remember much of it] but this was a group show, so i wanted to see it.

this show was from the "rot-blau" [red blue] group... artists who hung out with kirchner -in a sort of hippy commune in davos- and obviously artistically fed each others creative flames. they did many portraits of each other. from a few fotos i've seen they must have been the forerunner of hippies- running around naked in the wild, partying and making art... ETC.
[i have to laugh when i think of any group of struggling artists even visiting Davos these days... much less trying to live there. again... it was a much different -and less expensive- time... ]

the woodcuts were incredible; the time, patience, knowledge and technique involved in doing them is amazing. [they did this stuff by hand! no dremels and/or power tools]--- and most of the drawings were really good, if not great--- but the paintings were [for me] really primitive and garish. kirchner was by far the best of the artists, but even so, his woodcuts and drawings were/are much better than his paintings. i didnt even linger in the paintings sections, but rather power walked through them, stopping only to really look, in depth, at the woodcuts [see some here] and drawings.

below: the bern city jail... just across the street from the kunstmuseum. even the jail is arty.

and in my "there goes the neighborhood" series: starbucks! smack dab in the middle of bern.


but to even it out... a nice blurry shot of marktplatz [made while walking; w/o flash] as we were heading to the car... [c] 2007 doug duffey

shots from the hood- switzerland august 2007

shots made around Bettlach and Altreu this week

little chapel build in 1379

a field of sunflowers

a swiss barn

the schon river Aare

storks on their nests @ "the green monkey" restaurant


[c] 2007 doug duffey

Prague in July 2007

dd self portrait on charles bridge [Karlův most] prague

jackie and i spent 4 days in Prague [july 28-31] which, now that i'm back in Switzerland, seems like a dream. i think flying in and then flying out again has something to do with that... plus the fact that we did 3 concerts-one nighters- back to back, then went for a day to Europa Park [Germany] prior to going; stayed 4 days, then flew back, slept, and went to do another show near the German/Austrian border the next day. so basically it was running non-stop for about 8 days... but the thing about that is: you dont feel it until you stop!

i didn't write many journal entries in my little 'tagbuch' while there, because i was too busy walking, looking and making a gazillion fotos with about as many cameras. i normally try to write down events as they happen during the day/night when i'm somewhere interesting. but after walking around all day, you get too tired to scribble. i didn't take my laptop [to blog] because i didn't want to schlepp any extra stuff, due to weight limits, and the fact that i had 6 cameras with me, already. AND... because everyone warned me what a criminal city Prague was. it absolutely wasn't... plus we were staying at a 4 star hotel [beautiful] which was perfectly safe. later i wished i had taken the laptop and downloaded the 539 digital fotos off my little casio digital camera, because on the last night, when attempting to make a shot, the 1GB card froze, and gave up the ghost. it read "card error" which just about gave me "heart failure"! read the outcome of the saga at the end of this blog page!!!

i also made fotos with my 2 toy plastic vivitar 35mm cameras; my Agfa Isola [medium format film]- none of which use batteries; and 3 SLR 35mm cameras: Cosina, Kowa, and Zenit [bought it there] ... [i have a huge plastic bag full of film which will have to be processed when i get home]... and last but certainly not least i used my Polaroid Land 210 camera. I took about 6 packs of b&w pack film, and got maybe 60 Polaroids! people were amazed by it and gawked as i pulled the film out, waited, then peeled it apart. cant wait to scan them and see the BIG results. i usually shot the same scene with every camera, to have different perspectives/shots... but the Polaroids are very special.

it's hard to remember the sequence of events unless i look at the digital pic files on my laptop. they're mercifully in sequence... except for the last day... but on to the trip:

day 1: we got up very early and took the taxi to the train to the airport in zurich... then flew into prague w/ czech air. upon entering the airport [after passport control] the first thing that hit me was a huge KFC sign in the terminal! i thought, "there goes the neighborhood"; bad enough that McDonald's is everywhere.
we took a shuttle to the hotel U Krale Karla [click on the link to read about it] but were so tired that, after checking in, we napped a few hours. the hotel was beautiful, the walls and ceiling were painted with murals, and there was stained glass in every window. the above link shows some fotos of the interior.

after napping we walked down to and through the old gate, and across the famous charles bridge Karlův most [click and read more], which is amazingly beautiful. it was packed with people. most of the statues [saints] are black from centuries w/o cleaning; it was cloudy and the sky was really surreal, which just added to the overall magical and 'mystical' feel of the place; all the serious religious overtones everywhere.

we ate at some touristy cafe on the water by the bridge. then wandered through streets until we wound up in the "old town square", where we had coffee outside at the grand cafe praha [which reminded me of Venice's San Marco, except smoking is still permitted in the Czech republic, thank god!]- i tried some "B setting" night shots with the Agfa, which i hope will come out. below is a small snapshot with the casio... the square is huge... [cant tell anything from this pic] but all around the square are umbrellas and tables from the various cafes... the square and all cafes were packed with people. we wandered around a while and finally found a tram back to the big square by the hotel... but had to walk UP the very steep cobblestone street... something we didn't do again! from then on we took taxis up the street.

like all tourist traps- and prague is no exception- there were tee shirt and souvenir shops everywhere. their big things to hawk are amber, old soviet memorabilia, tee shirts and caps, of course, and anything with "prague" on it- AND billions of little statues of the "Infant of Prague", whom i'd completely forgotten about until i saw the 1st one; then shop after shop filled with these little kitsch ceramic dolls.
day 2: we walked down the hill and took the tram... and walked to nemesti republiky [replublic square] to take a city tour. i shot a lot as we walked or rode -and later from the bus; we rode around [what seemed like] the whole city--- but, i later discovered that we were basically just going in circles, that the old part of prague really isn't that huge! we stopped and got out to see a panorama from prague castle [which i later discovered was just up the hill from our hotel] - walked down to the palace to see the changing of the guards, and a big church [also just by the hotel] got back on the bus and rode around some more.

we went inside nowhere; most tours at least take you into a museum or something; this one only told us anecdotes about landmarks as we passed them, let us out at 1 square, walked us down a hill to another, and told us more anecdotes, and that was that. using a map and tour book, going it alone, would have been better!... and more time efficient.

instead of them [tour company] dropping us off where they picked us up- at nemesti republiky- they let us out at "old town square" - and having seen bits and pieces of the city already, from going by foot or tram, and riding around all day, i semi knew about where we were.

it was drizzling... but, i wanted to shoot the old jewish cemetery... i left Jackie at a cafe and walked to the cemetery, which was about to close. i told the guard i did not want to tour the jewish museum, that i only wanted to see the cemetery; i had to pay him 100 cz krone to enter the cemetery- which i thought rather weird!- i've never paid to visit one before. all the headstones are jammed up together, tilted, etc. i shot a whole role of b&w film there [maybe more, as i used 5 different cameras] and did a few digital shots...

i walked back and found jt at cafe franz kafka [she had moved from where i'd left her] and had a beer. it was interesting to watch people passing by, even though it was off the beaten path. 2 policemen were standing around over the street; i went and asked if could photograph them, and they refused; then they left. it reminded me of Russia [1991 and 1992] when i was told/warned not to photograph police or soldiers...

we took the tram to our square, then ate at a restaurant [typical czech food] and met an American businessman who told us he comes to prague at least 1x a month. i asked, "if you only had one thing to see here, what would it be" and he said "the best is to just walk around and look"- so that was the next days plan.
day 3:
i woke early and went downstairs and had coffee and breakfast while Jackie slept. i waited for a 2nd hand shop across the street to open so i could buy the zenit camera i had see the day before. while J had her breakfast i went back and checked it out [and bought it] and looked at several other OLD cameras. there was an Exacta i wanted... but not for the asking price. the guy said he had some Leica cameras and would bring them the next day. i asked, "are they real Leica or Russian copies? he assured me they were real.

i absolutely wanted to see the real "Infant of Prague"- so we took the tram to the church. there were signs saying no cameras etc. but everyone was snapping like crazy, so i did likewise. unfortunately the digital doesn't do well in dark; i tried B setting on a few of the slrs, and hope i got something, but wont know until i have all the color film processed at wal-mart! i did get 3 shots w/the digital but the flash reflected off the glass casing covering the "Infant"


after seeing the infant, we decided to tram it to wenceslas square. i offered my seat to an elegant woman on the tram, who refused it. but then, after a while, came to me and said "because you were so nice to offer your seat, i want to help you... where do you want to go?" she said we were on the wrong tram... so we got off... just by a bakery and got some czech pastries, then caught another tram. this time a businessman who had friends from san francisco [and obviously from all over] told us where to get off, told us stories, and then walked with us a few blocks. but wenceslas square was/is just like an major shopping area in any major city... except that there are amazing facades on buildings here and there... after a while, and some coffees in old town square [again] we decided to walk back to the bridge so i could 'polaroid' it... which had been the main reason we went. i also wanted to get a lot of shots of 'billboard collages' in places i'd seen from the tram and tour bus... so again, jackie waited while i ran crazy, snapping every torn up sign i could find. i really should have used 100ASA slide film in an slr or rangefinder camera... but too late... the smaller digital shots will have to suffice. they're all i have. i find this billboard stuff to be abstract ART... especially when blown up poster size.

we walked across the bridge, and i shot almost every statue w/the polaroid Land 210, the toy cameras, and some with the slrs. it was quite an event, and a lot of work. as said earlier, people [i'd met a korean woman, and german guy, earlier] were amazed by the old Land 210 -the peel apart film- the whole trip. a japanese man, with his family, stopped me on the bridge and wanted to see the camera, the results, etc.; he even shot some fotos of me with the camera.


as beautiful as the polaroids came out, i am hoping the ilford b&w film in the toy cameras [which usually do amazing things to clouds] came out equally as good, if not better. the clouds were again, amazing... even the 2MP digital captured a hint of them...
after the photo session on the bridge -which took all afternoon into evening- we were kaput. J had helped me by taking the polaroid backs and stuffing them in a plastic bag as i shot and we walked. it was a long process- and one i am sure she tired of, but didn't complain of.
we had drinks under/by the big gate, then had dinner at the same restaurant we'd gone to the night before. i was about to take a foto of an old foto in the restaurant, when my camera stopped working, and read "card error" -that was the end of the digital fotos. my elation from all the shots i'd done earlier was over... the thought of losing 530+ fotos was frustrating and depressing. i remembered that i had shots if the Infant of Prague on the memory card... so... "talked" to Him and asked him to "save my fotos!"

day 4: we had breakfast and waited for the taxi to take us to the airport. while waiting, i decided to walk up the hill to check out the castle and the view. i shot fotos all the way up the VERY steep street [Nerudova] w/all the slrs and toy cams--- the castle turned out to be the one we'd gone to via the tour bus. i went around the little square, and shot as much as i could with the 3 slrs, and toy cams [as the digital was non functioning]. i walked back down, and j&i had coffee at a cafe just on the corner from the hotel; i went to see the Leica guy, but didn't buy anything; then i decided to go UP the hill on the corner and what was what. it was the palace we'd been to to see the changing of the guards etc.! i went back and shot the guards w/film, and some street scenes, went back and had another coffee w/J, and then the taxi came. so... almost everything we'd seen by 'tour' was already right under our noses! so... now i/we know...

we had lunch in the airport- which was maybe the best meal we had while there- although the restaurant we went to 2x was very good-i think i ate goulash 3x while in CZ- we flew to zurich, then took the train, then the taxi home.

my 1st thought was to try and get the fotos off the card, but my laptop didn't recognize the card-and the foto programs i normally use wouldn't recognize the card or the camera- so my petitioning to the Infant increased! i went online and found a program [which had to be bought by credit card] to "retrieve data from memory card" [the 'search' phrase i typed in]--- had to wait for a password to be sent to email address, then type in the very long code, etc. but eventually the code was cracked and miracle of miracles, the program sucked almost all of the images off the card. it was a miracle! ... and i chalk it up to the Infant of Prague... but then the Holy Trinity, st. Anthony, and st. Jude were also petitioned- [i asked for and got a lot of help] -

i bought a new 2GB memory card the very next day in switzerland... and also bought more ilford b&w film--- and while out, bought some more SLR film cameras & lenses at 2nd hand shops here [a praktica which uses NO batteries; a porst, and a konica, which do] so i can always have every version of film with me--- a roll of 100/400 b&w AND color AND slide film in each camera. digital sucks! the biggest problem i had [other than the digital nightmare] was that i didn't bring any zoom lenses w/me- and therefore couldn't get any close ups from distances [like facades and things high up on buildings]... and low light was sometimes a problem... 'B' [bulb] setting w/a cable release, using a tripod, could have fixed that... but did i really want to schlepp a tri-pod? no!

we didn't go in a single museum while in prague, but then, i've been to venice many times and never went in any there, either. the thing about prague is that it [like venice] is itself a work of art; a living museum. the architecture is amazing, and surprises- a mural, relief, statue, or mosaic on a building- are at every turn.

[c] 2007 doug duffey