WhatISee

Today, random photos of Rafaela. Above, High school art students wear their colors while looking through the exhibit at the Photography Museum.

Below, a cup of matte. At lunch, we asked the group where you find matte since none of the restaurants offered it on their menu. The answer is that matte is only served at home between family and friends. We didn't want to impose, but they quickly realized we were interested in tasting it, so a discussion began over who should serve us matte. Everyone agreed that one person in particular had the best matte, so she offered to take us to her home.

It was an honor to be asked, and we eagerly accepted. She put the hot water on while she found the bag of matte. It's made just like tea, just with a different herb. The straw has a filter on it to keep the leaves out. It smells like a strong Chinese green tea, but tastes like it's more potent. She warned us we'd be up all night if we drank the whole cup.

We walked past the bus station twice and the difference couldn't be more dramatic. During the day, it was an empty shell. On Friday night, when everyone is returning it's full of people looking for their loved ones.

Outside the restaurant (see tomorrow's post), a football field waits for the young boys to come back.

We had to go to Rafaela, a small town 5 hours North of Buenos Aires. The people there could not have been nicer. The local Photography club took us out to dinner at a place that I believe was called Quilmes, but it wasn't the official name. It was a sort of social club. There was a large gathering of plumbers at the same time so the atmosphere was loud and raucous. Lots of Fun!

It was like a museum though. The owners had been collecting, well, stuff since the 1930's. There were guns, hats, beer mugs, coins, radios, oil cans and pretty much everything else under the sun. The guy in the apron was either the owner or manager, he came out several times to see how we were doing. Each time, he would grab something off the shelf to show us and tell us it's history.

The food kept coming out, course after course, with wine or Coke to wash it down. I don't know how they ate so much, I filled up halfway through the meal.

Another Photo Friday, Argentina Version. This is at Iguazu falls, looking directly down into the maelstrom.

We stopped by the 68th st Loews theatre on Broadway last night. Afterwards, we took the rear escalators to the street. At the bottom are the typical crash fire doors. From the outside, they have no handles inside though, they have the big crash bars to open the door.

I was VERY surprised to find one of the doors didn't open. It turns out that Loews put screws into the vertical bar to keep it from opening. I unscrewed it as you can see in the picture and the door works fine. Only one door still had it's screw in, but the other doors all had screw holes.

I'm not a fireman, but I believe this is TOTALLY illegal and a fire hazard. I can't believe someplace like Loews would condone something like this. Alarms, sirens, cameras, sure. Bring them on when on private property.

Locking the fire doors shut, not a good thing.

The bottlecaps come from a street vendor who looks like he had been in the same spot for decades. When he opens a bottle for a person, he tosses the cap over his shoulder into the street.

One of the main reasons we went to Argentina was to visit the photo exhibition, "De Norte a Sur" in Rafaela. It was hosted by the "Museo de Fotographia" which is part of the "Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes".

It is the only museum of photography in this part of Argentina. In fact, I don't think there's a dedicated museum of photography even in Buenos Aires. In addition to it's permanent collection of photographs, it has a large collection of cameras and equipment from the early days of photography. Specifically, it has several items associated with the Bauhaus movement. Some of the people associated with the German Bauhaus wound up in Argentina.

Several North American photographers were invited to contribute work for the exhbition. "M" was one of them. Only a few made the long trip to attend the opening.

The local tv reporters interview the director of the museum.

The building itself is very pleasant.

The show brought the regional government officials

As well as the local celebrity photographer, Fito Previdere.

This was the crowd at the end of the night. It had been even more crowded earlier.

These require a bit of description unlike yesterday's photos. Above is an orchid clinging to a suspended piece of wood. Below, one of the office buildings next to the Casa Rosada. Orginally it was a glass office building, but for some reason, they've covered it over with steel plating. It looks like a reinforced outpost rather than a place of business. I wonder what's inside.

Apparently, it's a rule that every airport have a military plane outside of the airport. Big airports get bigger airplanes. This small plane is in front of the Santa Fe airport.

You'll often see packs of dogs wandering around, sometimes they are sleeping. Other times, they are looking for something to eat. So, to keep them out of the garbage, you'll see these stands everywhere. Instead of garbage cans, you just put your bags in the basket. It is probably easier for the garbagemen as well.

Four views of the Obelisk in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is full of wide avenues and expansive vistas

Palermo is a large region in Buenos Aires, divided into areas called "Soho", "Viejo", "Hollywood" and "Canitas" The restaurants are very nice and, for a North American, very inexpensive.

We thought dinner at 9 was reasonable, but by the time we left, the real crowd had showed up and was waiting outside for our table. Our first restaurant in BA, CampoBravo was delicious and friendly. Try the grilled provolone and of course, the meat. Good selection of wines by the glass, 1/2 bottle or bottle. I highly recommend this restaurant, especially when you realize a full dinner for 2 people cost about $22 US.

An exccellent quiet place for lunch is La Catedra. It's off the main drags, but still near the park and the botanical garden.

This makes me VERY angry.

Pale Male and Lola were evicted on Tuesday from their 5th Ave apt by their coop board. Read more about the Red Tail Hawks of Fifth Ave from our archives.

Or check out Gothamist, Curbed, Cityrag, MemeFirst, and various other media outlets for more details. Of course the official site is http://palemale.com. There's a protest being organizaed for Thurs at 4:30pm

I think this is the last of the Photo Friday's Argentina editions. This was a small tomb in Recoleta which apparently had been bricked over. Looking inside, no one had been in there for years.

Pretty much everywhere you went in Buenos Aires that had grass, you found couples making out. It was kind of sexy/uninhibited.

Of course with these statues all around, I'm starting to get the idea why.

For our last two days in Argentina, we wanted something a little relaxing. On the suggestion of Cintia (more on her later), we booked two days and one night at Estancia Santa Rita, an estancia two hours outside of Buenos Aires.

We had gotten in very late the night before and then had an early pickup for the ride to Santa Rita. I think I passed out, but I woke up when the driver pulled over for directions. Leaving the highway, we started going down a dirt road that seemed to go forever. On either side, open fields out to the horizon.

Eventually, we passed through Antonio Carboneri, which looks like towns in the Old West did. Wide streets, no one but dogs outside, small windowed buildings and faded old signs everywhere.

Another mile or two and we arrived. Driving down the tree lined lane, we rolled down the window to smell the grass and the trees. Several people were saddling up for their ride while others sat in chairs in the shade.

This is where we ate our meals. Drinks and empanadas were brought out to you wherever you were sitting.

The owners Franklin and Isable as well as their handyman look over their expansion plans with fresh construction behind. They're planning on putting in a lobby with a front desk.

I stopped by the Pale Male Protest today at 927 Fifth Ave. There were about 200 people there at any one time, but people kept coming, staying for a while and then leaving due to the cold. So I'd say many many more people were there throughout the day.

One of the first things to catch the eye were the two red hawk tail mascots running around in traffic.

The two mascots revealed. Marie Winn, author of Red Tails in Love, on the left and Rebekah Creshkoff on the right.

Rebecca took a break just in time to see Pale Male fly overhead at which point she started clapping her wings together

The second thing you noticed at the Hawk Protest at 927 Fifth Ave were the many handheld and handmade signs.

Third of four sets of photos from Sunday's protest. This time, it's the faces of the protestors. I didn't stake out the service entrance, so no photos of residents.

Below, every time Pale Male flew overhead, the crowd looked up and cheered.

This picture of Lincoln (in the hat) doesn't do justice to how sad he is about the whole situation. I wouldn't say I know Lincoln, but as a fellow telescope owner (though much much smaller), we've chatted a few times over the years. I've never seen him like this though.

Marie Winn, author of Red Tails in Love

The card in his hat is for Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania.

Fourth of four posts on Sunday's protests (oh and check out Hiding in Plain Sight's updates). Let's take a look at 927 Fifth Ave. The nest was over the middle window on the top floor.

Below, you'll see one of the ubiquitous flag and eagle printouts from post 9/11. How ironic it's flying in one of the doctors windows on the first floor.

Any resident or worker trying to avoid the crowds in front is using these service stairs. I'll bet they never thought they'd have to walk up a flight of stairs when they bought their apt. Only delivery people and the staff are supposed to use these stairs

An ingenious idea someone had was to dump a LOT of birdseed all over their front door. Sure enough, first the little birds came, and then the birder equivalent of bikers: the pigeons.

Oh and a view of the crowd from the front door.

I was afraid of this. Lincoln Karim was arrested tonight, allegedly for stalking CNN anchor, Paula Zahn. More information available at Jo Miller, Ingrid Spangler, and the NYtimes .

I wasn't there for either "incident", but Lincoln is a very quiet person who is very upset at the callousness of the board. I can certainly believe he took pictures and I can certainly believe he would say "bring back the nest", but I don't believe he would yell or harrass anyone.

I guess it's in the eye of the beholder. If you have been hounded by the press and had people across the street from your house you'd probably think you were being harassed as well. Lincoln is certainly one of the more visible members of the birder community. As such, he's an easy target for people who are very surprised by the reaction they've received due to their actions.

Let's hope that he's freed on bail and that the charges are eventually dismissed.

Well, Lincoln has been released and it sounds like there's an agreement in place to let the hawks back. I watched the Pale Male movie tonight. So, unless anything changes, back to finishing off the Argentina trip.

The outside of the Estancia Santa Rita is beautiful, but the owners Franklin and Isabel have done amazing work inside as well. Originally purchased as a country home for their family, eventually they started restoring more of the buildings and renting rooms out to visitors. Their six mostly grown daughters each take a turn coming back to help out on weekends.

Above, is the bedroom part of the suite we stayed in. Below, is the fireplace in the anteroom. In the mirrors, you're looking at our balcony.

Above is the sunken couch in the main room of the house. We were there on halloween, and for some reason I thought this looked like a pumpkin. Closer inspection shows that it's a heart, but it still looks cool.

Above and below, views of the portico, off the main room of the house. This is where the meals are served.

Besides space and dark skies, Estancia Santa Rita also had a lot of animals walking around. The Collie above we named Rastafarian #1. With his heavy coat and attentive table manners, he would wanter around during dinner, looking for a little something extra. He had a darker brother, Rastafarian #2.

Below, you see the Llama. Note, they are usually quite territorial, but this guy just walked up, looking for some attention.

Turkeys and geese

and of course, chickens.

About 7 of us went for a ride after lunch. A few minutes away by horseback, we reach the pampas, fields of grass going to the horizon. Our horses are willing to go wherever we ask. They don't mind going off by themselves, chasing some of the cows around.

The saddles aren't either of the two types I've been used to before. It's like a english saddle underneath a blanket.

They also have a small carriage that they use with families with small children

As we finish up what feels like a month of posts on Argentina, there are four last photos to share.

Above, AeroVip, an internal Argentinian airline. On our way back from Rafaela, we were supposed to fly AeroVip. Cintia, our local travel agent sent email to every address she had for us, saying "pls call". AeroVip went out of business or closed down or whatever.

As a result, instead of a leisurely 1 hr flight, we wound up driving for almsot six hours from Rafaela to Santa Fe (where we had rented the car) and then driving all the way to Buenos Aires. Most the the way was normal highway driving, but near Rosario, we entered another world. Where kids played football across the highway. Women walked with water jugs from the lake to their village. Shantytowns set up in the middle of the highway.

We also learned something about rental car companies in the small towns. When we had picked up the car, our very nice salesperson gave us the typical damage form. He indicated three areas of damage. I figured the car was a wrecker and was VERY surprised to see a beautiful small car. He then proceeded to point out three VERY small scratches and made me sign that I had seen them.

Anyway, he was very reluctant to let us take the car to BA. He made up for this reluctance by charging a lot of money for the priviledge. It was only when we dropped the car off that we realized the car belonged to him personally. Not the global rental car company, him personally. No wonder he cared so much.

Anyway, we eventually made it to the airport and dropped off the car.

On the way home, we were astonished to see that we had to walk through a mall to get to the gate. The thing went on forever. In fact, we had to double back to find our plane.

Buenos Aires from the air

Night sky on the way home.

As seen on the men's bathroom wall at Parsons School of Design: "Watch your Kerning". Only at a design school would you get someone correcting the graphic design aspects of graffiti.

Standing on a midtown corner late one night, I was almost bowled over by this guy jumping out of the back of the pickup truck. He grabbed the water gun and quickly blasted the garbage can from all angles, including the inside. In about a minute, he had completely washed the can and jumped back in the pickup bed. The driver accelerated to the next can, slammed on the breaks and the process started all over again, leaving shiny garbage cans behind.

I had noticed they always tended to look clean, and now I know how the magic happens.

I know exactly how she felt. She was passed out for the 15 minutes I was wandering around this part of the store. No sign of her children, if it was even her stroller.

Below, a cool interactive display. As you moved around the image displayed on the floor, it reacted to you and swirled around.

While eating a hamburger in "the place behind the curtain in Le Meridien", I couldn't take my eyes off this camera that the nice Japanese couple had. It wasn't a small camera, but the LCD was the entire back of the camera. In fact, when she turned it on, there were icons which she touched to go into camera mode. It looked like it could be a pda as well.

Anyway, Olympus US doesn't have anything like it. Looking at the Japan site doesn't ring any bells either. Perhaps it's new, maybe it's old. But it certainly caught the eye. If we spoke more Japanese or they spoke more English, we could have resolved this. Or we can let the public decide.

A very enjoyable show. Not really for kids though. Several cried out during the show in fear. One yelled, "Mommy, I don't like the scary movie". This photo is from after the show, when you get to play ping pong with giant balls.

As seen near Houston in Soho

Great Gothamist interview with Steve "Pepe" Zwaryczuk: barkeep at McSorley's.

Related: Our visit to McSorleys, along with Mayor Bloomberg

Any serious camera buff knows what's here. A few weeks ago, I took a Japanese visitor for the first time. I had to go somewhere afterwards, but he wanted to stay. He said, "it's better than Yodabashi".

As an aside, I really like these street signs they've been putting up in midtown. They're MUCH larger than the normal signs, they look a lot nicer and they light up at night. I look forward to seeing them throughout the city.

Photo Friday: Best of 2004

This was my Photo Friday: Perfection entry, originally from my Roosevelt Island series.

How do I pick one photo to stand out from all of my 2004 photos? I went through them all yesterday and this one kept catching my eye. I'm really glad I signed up for the Photo Friday challenge emails, since I think they are among the best photos I put up this year. I'm looking forward to continuing to improve next year. Below, you can see the 18 other entries for 2004.