catfish and gumbo- yum

shot 3.9.2008 at middendorf's- manchac, louisiana- [great catfish and gumbo!] on the way home from new orleans/mexico/new orleans.
[c] 2008 doug duffey

memphis, baby

a shot inside the memphis airport: one whole wall.

i flew to & from zurich via amsterdam and memphis this trip; which is 1 extra stop too many. i normally do mlu-atl-zrh which means only being tortured 2 times instead of 3.
the last time through memphis i got the cool sign that said "hip long before the hop was added" which i loved- very true statement. old memphis soul is still waaaaaaaaaaaaaay cooler than 99% of the crap you hear today.
this time i shot this wall- which looks like beale street at night.
i had a smoke [actually about 5 Gauloises] in the 'blue note cafe'- but didn't get my obligatory corky's barbque sandwich, which was too bad. but since they've outlawed smoking in zurich & amsterdam airports as of january, 2008- i had priorities!

[c] 2008 doug duffey

fasnacht luzern .01.31.08 - 02.01.08

[c] 2008 doug duffey

luzern- afternoon walk

got out of the hotel today and walked across the bridge in luzern into the old town [altstadt] making some fotos w/the casio [these] and 2 toy cams.

[c] 2008 doug duffey

fasnacht - store windows

shots from downtown grenchen- getting ready for fasnacht [mardi gras]
[c] 2008 doug duffey

mardi gras -fasnacht

i found this mardi gras -fasnacht- drag backstage at a gig and made a polaroid self portrait.
[c] 2008 doug duffey

back to life... finally!

i haven't been blogging much this trip. after a few weeks with "la grippe suisse" [the swiss flu] -which hit me like a ton of bricks after zermatt-[from about jan.13th until now!] i am finally beginning to feel like i'm getting back to normal. it was rough! one of the worst flu[s] i've ever had.

i'd planned to do so many things while here; i brought cameras & film, art supplies, music/lyric files, etc. to work on- but like the old saying goes... "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry..." amen. the big plan was to go in the studio and do some recordings... and it might happen yet ...

luckily, we recorded live at the blue note last week- and got some great recordings. we will record tonight and tomorrow nights gigs- and next week in luzern, where we'll be 3 nights for fasnacht [mardi gras] - and possibly pull enough material from all the sessions for a 'live' cd. it's time we made a cd that sounds exactly like we sound live.

[c] 2008 doug duffey/ switerland 01.25.2008

a room with a view

shots from my room- which has 2 balconies. [hotel post- zermatt, switzerland]
it's been snowing, which keeps me indoors; i'm always afraid i'll catch cold or flu and not get through the gig... and we have 3 more nights here. it snowed a lot yesterday- just as i was thinking of finally going out of the hotel- and it's snowing again today- so, that ends that idea. i don't give good snow.
[c] 2008 doug duffey

Drei Konige Tage

today was Drei Konige Tage [3 Kings Day- as in the 3 wise men; also the origin of "king cakes"]- however, there were no king cakes... just "rhythm & business" as usual.
[c] 2008 doug duffey

fasnacht in zermatt- gugge band

outside, this evening, the swiss Mardi Gras [Fasnacht] was going on... each region in switzerland has it's own specific date for carnival. a gugge band [carnival marching band] was playing in the street. seems they go from bar to bar, play some, drink some, play some more, then go on to the next bar-from one end of town to the other. the bands used to be very thrown together- unrehearsed and musically ragged- more fun- now they're much more polished.

the tuba player was dancing and spinning

below: parts of the drum section


[c] 2008 doug duffey

en route to zermatt... and there

waiting between trains- hauptbahnhof- bern; to get to the gig in zermatt entailed changing trains 4 times, with luggage- on in grenchen, off and on in biel, off and on in bern, off and on in visp, then off in zermatt, and to the hotel.

a shot from the train between Visp and Zermatt; i've shot this scenery many times over the years w/different cameras, but only took a few digital shots w/my casio exilim this trip.

hani and sebi at soundcheck- the pink- hotel post- zermatt; the hotel has been renovated. 'the pink' which was an institution... is now purple & black... very Prince.
[c] 2008 doug duffey

some shots from the trip

above: a sign for the stax museum in the memphis airport. it says "hip long before hop was added" -AMEN! memphis soul music is still my favorite- Stax and HI records rule!
above: i finally found a use for the cup in my carry on [when the handle is up]- it's a perfect fit for a corky's bar-b-que pork sandwich, which i got & rolled through the memphis airport to the plane.
it was a good thing i had it, because for some odd reason my in flight 'meal' got messed up and i got a bad/bland vegetarian one.

above: schiphol airport, amsterdam, where i sat and smoked and drank coffee for 4 hours... thinking everything was cool- that my flight would be stress free.... and almost missed my connecting flight because the monitor ONLY showed 1 flight to zurich @ 3pm- which happened to be the wrong one!
i was at what i thought was the right gate to board; but, as i handed my boarding pass to the guy, he said "you have a KLM ticket; this is Swiss air" -so i had to literally RUN to the other end of the airport; my flight was for 3:15! i got to the gate i thought he'd said -D6- but he'd said D56- so i had to run another 50 gates- another mile! i thought i'd have a heart attack, and miss the flight... or both. BUT i managed to get to the gate just at the last second, and luckily just made the flight. i'd had to take out my laptop from it's bag 3x- at security checks- and finally just threw it in my carry on!

above: engelberg, switzerland-where we played new years eve- the 1st gig of the tour. the view is from my hotel room.
[c] 2008 doug duffey

red square- saint basils- moscow 1991-1992

ran across this shot in my files... it was shot in 1991 or 1992. i went to russia 2x to play for the american embassy; the 1st time was when it was still the soviet union in 1991; the 2nd time after perestroika in 1992.

there was a little ticket kiosk by st. basil's and once, while in red square, i noticed a queue of people lined up, and realized they were buying tickets. the museums had been iffy at best to get into; i'd gone to several only to be told they were closed [when the guide book said they would be open]-i was amazed that tickets were available to go inside st. basils.

i bought a ticket w/my with rubles, and went in. they said a definite "nyet" to my camera hanging around my neck; i said "okay okay" - BUT- i shot fotos inside, anyway. unfortunately a lot of the ones inside the chapels didn't come out. not enough light. i made some self portraits sitting on stairs inside , which did.

anyway... this was shot in red square at a different time from that day.
[c] 2007 doug duffey

UNION HILL REDUX

i haven't been traveling since i got home from europe, so i'm shooting some local color. this is turning out to be my favorite new sign to watch. it changes about weekly.
[c] 2007 doug duffey

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