Rio Grande Building

Here are a few photos from the Rio Grande building on 300 South and 500 West. I didn't find this location as fun to shoot as Liberty Park, but there are still some gems to be found.









After I got home, I noticed the salt deposits on my car actually looked quite interesting when viewed up close.



Complete set is here.

Liberty Park

I'm taking yet another photography course - and I'm learning some excellent stuff in this one! Hopefully by the time I'm finished I'll be taking some pictures that are somewhat presentable.

In the meantime, you can look at these, taken at Liberty Park this morning.















Complete set can be found here.

EC -1

I say East Coast minus one, but I really don't mean it. Rural New England is beautiful, and New York City is one of my favorite cities in the world, if not my favorite.

I ended up in that part of the country last weekend through an odd set of circumstances. Not one to waste a trip, I made the most of my time and spent the first day driving to Lee, Massachusetts to visit my favorite classical music CD store on earth - Berkshire Record Outlet.

From there I took various highways and byways south, eventually working my way to Naugatuck, Connecticut where I stayed with a friend for the night. The small towns along the way all had their own charm and I made several stops along the way just to take in the sights.






Holy barrel distortion Batman! I'll fix it eventually.




I don't know why this ice is pink. It could be a dead body up there. Or maybe somebody threw a giant slurpee up there.

The next day I took a train to New York to meet my friend Ariel. I have known Ariel for several years via the online classical music and opera scene, but have never met her until now. We spent the afternoon enjoying some hot dogs from Gray's Papaya and doing some clothes shopping in SoHo and Tribeca. A dinner at Churrascaria Plataforma and an evening shooting photos around Times Square capped off a busy day!





The rest of the photos can always be found on my Flickr page!

Get Organ-ized

This blog post is to publicly thank my friend Cassie for saving me from a near-certain death. I would not be able to survive much longer if I was not able to glimpse at a copy of the score for the Third Symphony of Aram Khachaturian. I have been obsessed with this piece for a few years now, and I had reached the point where I had to see some of the magic behind it.

The piece is scored for a large orchestra, organ, and 15 trumpets. Considering most works have four or so trumpets at the most, this ends up being a very loud work. Probably one of the loudest I've ever heard.

The organ has several huge solos in the piece. I've loved pipe organs since I was in grade school, and the organ solos in this piece give me chills. Click here to hear a 20-second clip of one of the solos, part of which is shown in the score below!



So thank you Cassie for helping me find this and not making too much fun of me when I was looking in the wrong section of the library.