photography: May 2004 Archives

Seems to have been some sort of collapse at Charles De Gaulle Terminal 2e... this is where I took a bunch of pictures during a layover in December, 2003.

This picture, taken in December 2003 in Stockholm, was part of the Swedish Postal System's holiday campaign. The slogan Posta julen translates to "Send Christmas." The lettering on the Rastafarian hat the man is knitting says "Merry Christmas Grandma."

The red bulb on the envelope at the bottom, God Jul, is cognate with English "Good Yule." Interestingly, the envelope is marked as Inrikes, or within the country, implying that the man's grandmother lives in Sweden as well.

I've added two pictures to my gallery from Golden Gate Park in December of last year. In contrast to the pleasant butterflies that make up the bulk of the older collection, these two pictures are of a wall full of skulls and a crocodile.

The first shot, a macabre assemblage indeed, is from a museum that until recently had its collections in the Park. (It's currently building a new facility.) The California Academy of Sciences has amassed one of the world's largest collections of sea lion skulls. They're kind of vague about how and why they did so, but it's clear somebody's hoarding instinct went horribly wrong.

This was the result.

The fellow below is denizen of the Academy's neighbor, the Steinhart Aquarium.

Uploaded a few shots I took from an airplane in January, 2001, of New York City.

After presenting my paper at the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study last month, I took an extra day in LA to visit with a friend. We drove downtown to the new Frank Gehry-designed Disney Concert Hall, and took the following pictures.

The Concert Hall is the latest in a series of building programs (Chandler Hall, etc) designed to butress Downtown's reputation as a cultural center. By far the best book I've read on LA is Mike Davis' City of Quartz.

This is kind of an odd idea for an entry. Tonight was the final evening of lectures in the Finland's Pasts and Presents series, for which I've been the photographer as well as the audio-digitizer. Here's a picture of each speaker we've had over the last two quarters -- all taken by me with the exception of Pirjo Lyytikäinen, who was photographed by Lola while I was in class.

Finnish studies is a relatively small field; this is probably the most comprehensive photo gallery of its leading lights in 2004.

Suomi-kuva 1802: Constructing the Finn and Finland in Giuseppe Acerbi’s Travels
Thomas DuBois
University of Wisconsin, Madison

A Not-So-Distant Mirror: Finland between the World Wars (1918-1939)
Jason Lavery
Oklahoma State University

Politics of National Cinema
Mervi Pantti
University of Amsterdam

Finnish Decadence
George Schoolfield
Yale University

Kullervo's Curse: The Transgression Tradition in Finnish Literature
Pirjo Lyytikäinen
University of Helsinki

The Stench of Intimacy Sells: Finland's Autobiography Boom
Lea Rojola
University of Turku

Publishing Finnish Studies
Börje Vähämäki
University of Toronto