Istanbul. June, 2007

Happy birthday to my friend Nick, seen here playing peek-a-boo at Topkapi Palace.

Edirne, Turkey. June, 2007

Less than three hours by bus from Istanbul lies Edirne, the former Adrianople and the country's capital before it was moved to Constantinople. I went there one day to see the famed mosques, to see what Turkey looked like outside Istanbul, to have a scrub and a massage in a real Turkish hamam. On my hike out of the center of town to see that mosque in the distance, I had not gone two blocks before the surroundings turned mighty rural, as you can see here.

Edirnekapı, Istanbul. June, 2007

A short distance from the city center is the neighborhood of Edirnekapı, home to the Chora Church (and its remarkably preserved mosaics) and, right next door, the restaurant Asitane. Graced with a leafy garden, the perfect setting for a lazy June afternoon lunch, Asitane specializes in historic recipes from the records of royal kitchens stretching back over centuries. This little tray of welcoming spreads was just the beginning.

Istanbul. June, 2007

Now that's what I call an oven vent. This, one of several in the Sultan's kitchens in Topkapi Palace.

Istanbul. June, 2007

Friends in Turkey advise that this might not be the best time to visit their beautiful country. A failed coup. A bloody purge. Fatal bombings...including a recent one on Istanbul's famed mile-long pedestrian street, the Istiklal Caddesi, "Victory Street." This week, some memories from my first visit to the City of the World's Desire, including this "sweets on parade" at Saray, located right in the middle of the Istiklal.

Tucson. November, 2006

Not all desert plants are cactus. Some look like this one, thriving in filtered sunlight in my friend David's beautiful backyard garden.

New York, NY. December, 2006

A beautifully lit wall panel of divers (inspired by the famed divers of Acapulco) graces the dining room of a popular Mexican restaurant in Manhattan. (It shall remain nameless because it did a friend of mine dirty, withholding royalties after using his recipes.)

Chicago. July, 2007

On the day that I took an early flight from Boston to Chicago, my later-departing colleagues never made it to the Windy City. Tiles on the ceiling of the Ted Williams tunnel crashed down and Logan Airport access from the city was held up for hours. No problem. I had the day to myself. A dinner at the bar at Topolobambo. A classical music concert in a beautiful church. Oh, and a brief stop here at the Nokia store to see their display of Bose headphones, the purpose of our planned visit.

New York, NY. December, 2006

Remember the automat, one of my favorite memories from childhood? Although the original Horn & Hardart never looked glitzy like this. A Japanese company decided to "reinvent" (one of my least favorite words) an automat experience in NYC's East Village, and this is what they came up with. Their primary customer base, it was said, consisted of stoners with the late-night munchies, many unable to negotiate the proper coins into the slots. It didn't last very long. Just long enough for me to snap this picture.

Gloucester, MA. November, 2006

I never take for granted the view from our home overlooking the harbor, especially beautiful in autumn, my favorite season that begins today. Quiet and peaceful, the town calms down after a busy summer and exhales for a few heavenly months.

Montreal. October, 2006

Don't stop in at Le Fromentier if you're on a low-carb diet. Not even "just to look." Trust me.

Los Angeles. October, 2006

My friend Mike, calling attention to himself outside of the Kodak Theater in front of the standout Bose headphones billboard he designed, one of dozens placed here and there throughout the City of Angels.

Watertown, MA. September, 2016

I love visual clichés, when things in real life behave they way they do in cartoons. I remember laughing on my first trip to Ireland when I saw how very green it was. And when I visited NJ's Trailside Museum and an owl actually said, "Who." Here, a butterfly on my backyard's Butterfly Bush.

New Haven, CT. November, 1966

Why was I so gaga about Twiggy when she burst on the fashion scene in the mid-1960s? Probably a lot of reasons: my age, her age, her boyish looks, her haircut, Swinging London, the fact that she was everywhere you looked. I remember being in New Haven with an Emerson College friend for some theater festival (Emerson's entry was an original piece about the Donner Party, featuring a young undergraduate named Henry Winkler) and Twiggy was also in town. I was determined to cross paths with her. Instead, I went to a cast party, met a young woman named Honey Angel (seriously), got drunk (seriously), woke up the next morning with the worst hangover I'd ever had (at least until then.)

Framingham, MA. Fall, 2003

Two of the great pleasures of my time at the most respected name in sound were: 1. Working with smart and talented designer Mike Hoffman, and 2. Working with and for smart and talented clients in the Noise Reduction Technology Group (aka Headphones.) Here's one of the concepts we all created together to launch Bose's entry into the non-noise-reduction headphones market. Quite a change from the calmer print ads the company was known for. A lot of work and a lot of fun those days. (The model, whose name I forget, went on to appear on some TV show called Fear Factor. From what my colleagues told me, that could easily have been the name of the department I worked for soon after I escaped.)

Tucson. November, 2006

Though oil is the most common medium in which to blend pigment, wax can also be used, resulting in a technique called encaustic. My friend Miles is a recognized leader in this field, teaching classes and workshops on encaustic, selling equipment and related products. Here's a work of his on the left, seen during an exhibit at his Tucson gallery, the Conrad-Wilde.

Paris. December, 2005

I'm always frustrated when I visit markets in my travels. Why? Because I have no kitchen at my disposal to prepare the beautiful produce on display. Fortunately, enjoying cheese requires no kitchen. Seen here, some local cheeses offered for sale at the city's Bastille market.

Tucson. November, 2006

Weasel and Bunnycakes, the devil cats, emerge for their own take on the town's annual All Souls Procession.

Berkeley, CA. November, 2005

This baseball diamond at UC Berkeley looks especially green today because our New England summer (the driest on record) has turned all of the local lawns brown.

Watertown, MA. May, 2013

Peonies really are show-offs, aren't they? Whenever I see them each spring, I understand why Manet loved them so.

Los Angeles. May, 2005

Enough said.

Watertown, MA. August, 2016

Beware.

Watertown, MA. August, 2016

There is an apartment building behind the main liquor store in town. And the brief stretch of greenery between the two is always full of empty nips, as seen here. It amuses me. But I'm sure I'd feel differently if I lived there.

Watertown, MA. August, 2016

Well, which is it?

Watertown, MA. August, 2016

Remembering our fallen heroes.

Watertown, MA. August, 2016

I love the town in which I live. Today, I brought my iPhone along with me so I could take some pictures as I walked the two miles to the library and back. Over the next few days, I'll show you some of the things I saw. Like this car. Did Buddha really say that? Would you take the word of someone who drove a car like this one?

Tucson. May, 2005

I never tire of admiring the Diamondback Bridge that my friend Simon designed for his current hometown. Here, a view down the inside that affords a look at the ribbed structure and the expanse that crosses the highway lanes of Broadway down below.

Los Angeles. May, 2005

I've just finished reading two books by Jeffrey Toobin that both take place largely in Los Angeles. One, American Heiress, is about the adventures of Patty Hearst. The other, The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson, is about, well, you know what it's about. My connection with the Southern California city has been somewhat a charmed one. I've either visited on expense-account business trips. Or I've spent the night at the home of a friend, a movie star. Recently, a good friend has moved there from Boston, so maybe I'll be heading back for a visit.

Springfield, NJ. July, 2016

My brother Brien and two items of which he is justly proud: the Mexican sunflowers he's grown in front of his house...and his beloved dog, Emma. (Thanks to his friend Erica who took and sent me this picture.)

Westford, MA. June, 2007

My friend Eileen, my colleague when we both worked at Bose, sent me this photo a few days ago. Ah, yes, the team-building department outing at Kimball Farms. I seem to recall that both Eileen and I avoided the softball games and such in favor of the ceramics tent and the ice cream offerings. Neither she nor I work at the most respected name in sound any longer. So much for team building. I do like this shirt that I bought earlier that month in Istanbul.