January, One Year Ago

We lived across the bridge in Brooklyn


On 8th Avenue


Down the street from my sister


Down the street from my best friend and her family



Across the park from Raul the Jewel


A few neighborhoods away from old friends



One state away from even older friends


Fred worked in an office


With the ladies


Ran a lot of miles with Knox


And played the occasional DJ gig


I studied and taught yoga


And danced






We had picnics in Prospect Park









Friends came for dinner



Friends had babies







Friends came to visit from out of town



Friends came to say goodbye

Available Light

We set out early...



Despite a late Friday night talking all sorts of nonsense with Roberto, I was excited for my first trip to Berlin...




First we saw a little chunk of the wall...


We spent the late morning in the Holocaust Memorial, which was heavy and beautiful in the December sun...






Kids played hide and seek among the stones.



Then we got together with our friends Zoe...


and Jens...


for lunch and then cake and big bowls of coffee at Jens' photo studio. He unwrapped some of his new work to show us...

Jens has been working for several years making long-exposure (think HOURS) photos using available light in near-darkness (or in the light of a television turned on in a dark room). Meaning: he sets up a camera in a room and opens the shutter, then leaves. The light accumulates over the time the shutter is open, so he ends up with basically all the light from a long period of time condensed into one frame. Go to www.komossa.tv to see for yourself. (All things blog related: our first Brooklyn apartment is the last shot in the NY Television series).

I encouraged Zoe to keep her chin up about her PhD disertation...

(over our heads is Jen's photo of mailboxes in Finland, taken at night)

I took a picture of his kitchen because I have a thing for water bottles...


and his skylight because I have a thing for sky...


It turns out this banana tag you see all over Berlin is made by a relative of Jens...



Berlin = Party People Pumpin' They Fist Like This



Berlin = Party People Pumpin' They Fist Like This



This trip was our warm-up. Wednesday the games begin.
Next stop: PARIS!