This gallery contains 7 photos.
天报月密問來往／水色山光相送迎 “Heaven tells the Moon secrets and asks how it’s been; ／ Scenes of Lake and scenes of Mountain welcome each other.” － Couplet, Inscription at Ngoc Son (Jade Mountain) Temple Hanoi is the 9th stop of my Grand Tour. … Continue reading
This gallery contains 9 photos.
This final chapter of the Tale of 125th Street is titled “Demolition Depot,” after an actual establishment on the street, if only because everything between 3rd and 2nd Avenues at least looks slated for the wrecking ball. Nothing may come … Continue reading
This gallery contains 17 photos.
If the appearance of a medical college in the last sector foretold gentrification, here between 7th and 3rd Avenues is where the phenomena is witnessed at full force. Here’s where 125th Street starts to look like a suburban outlet mall. … Continue reading
This gallery contains 9 photos.
As the iconic Apollo Theater comes into view, Harlem springs into life, in a Disneyland-ish sort of way. This used to be theater land, after all; Harlem’s equivalent of Broadway. The Apollo Theater is still a functioning venue, and still … Continue reading
This gallery contains 7 photos.
Past Amsterdam Avenue, 125th Street reverts to a village, reminding one of the the days of Nieuw Haarlem, the farming village established by Dutch colonisers in 1658, and occupied by the British very shortly in 1664. Spiritually, this section of … Continue reading
This gallery contains 7 photos.
At the edge of Harlem lies a peaceful little park where one goes to contemplate New Jersey and the Hudson River. Except no one really goes there, unless one is homeless, in which case one goes to find a bench … Continue reading
This gallery contains 4 photos.
“[t]he City… a universe of rented spaces haunted by a nowhere or by dreamed-of places.” – Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life “It’s such a / Bore / Being always / Poor.” – Langston Hughes, Ennui Harlem. The … Continue reading
This gallery contains 42 photos.
Downtown Yangon is like an open-air museum; an ode in brick, mortar and cast iron, to the British Empire (and the British Raj, of which Yangon was the Eastern-most point, until Burma became a colonial possession in its own right). … Continue reading
This gallery contains 8 photos.
“…[a]n agreeable life, luncheon at this club or that, drives along trim, wide roads, bridge at this club or that, gin pahits…then back through the night to dress for dinner and out again to dine with this hospitable host or … Continue reading
This gallery contains 11 photos.
Just past Bennett Avenue, the landscape abruptly shifts. The narrative has changed from one of struggle to inevitable resolution. A steep flight of stairs appears as if out of nowhere on Overlook Terrace, breaking 187th Street into two. Walking up … Continue reading
Dream Of A City 