Jack Hietpas, Muros, Galicia, Spain: I spent this past Saturday afternoon wandering around the old harbor town of Muros, about an hour’s bus ride south of Cee. I had a great time weaving through its narrow streets and stairways, passing beneath archways and between crumbling, often abandoned buildings. Inside the Iglesia de San Pedro, Muros' Gothic parish church, I was confronted by the scariest crucifix I have ever seen. A plaque informed me that this is the Cristo de la Agonía (Christ of Agony), meant to depict Jesus in his final breath. It was made in the 1790s. I think what makes it particularly disturbing is the use of real human hair.
Aditi Kapoor, Telegraph Hill, London, UK: These are my neighbors, Daniel and Heidi - they are exactly my grandparents age and married in 1969 and have been together since 1966. They’ve travelled the world together and used to live in same house in Telegraph Hill that I live in now, until they bought the property next door. Eerie because my neighbors in my UWS apartment also used to live in my apartment at the time, until they moved next door. Daniel and Heidi met because of the London housing crisis when Heidi moved into Daniel’s basement during their time at med school. They have a cat name Samson that I befriended in my first week here when it was eerily warm for London. I used to sit a lot in our garden and eventually they invited me to cross our garden fence and have tea with them. They always give us fresh vegetables and fruits from their garden, and while they can’t hear very well— they are very keen listeners. I feel as though I have so much to learn from them. My grandpa in India keeps asking me about them; a weird long distance kinship has developed and they feel like my guardian angels. It’s good to look at them and be reminded of life and what it has to offer. Perhaps that’s too idealistic. I will say: they sustain my hope (& flourish it).
Here they are bee keeping last Saturday afternoon, and I took this photo from my kitchen.
Andrew Swant, Silver City, Milwaukee, WI: The street in front of our house is being redone for the first time in like 80+ years. The manhole cover in the middle of the road was removed, so I looked down into it and took a photo. You can see the sewer water flowing at the bottom. I think the bricks going up the sides are maybe cream city bricks that are covered with like 100 years of grime. All the houses around here are from the 1890s, so I have no idea how old the sewers under the roads are.
Britany Gunderson, Pikes Peak, CO: This past week I was visiting a relative in Colorado Springs. We drove to the top of Pikes Peak - an elevation of 14,000 feet. Pictured you can see the winding switchbacks of the road leading up the mountain. I learned about the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb where they race vehicles up the mountain. The fastest time is 9 mins. It took us over an hour.
Elm McKissick, Western MA: Last week I went apple picking at an orchard in western MA. There were bees everywhere. Lots of them had nestled into rotten apples like this one above. Kinda cute (and possibly freaky) how they do that. Anyway, we picked our apples, baked our pie, and called it a day. It’s fun to have a no-stress fall, the first one I can remember.
Julia Gunnison, Brooklyn, NY: This is a picture I took of the inside cover of Alasdair Gray's Poor Things which I started reading via the Internet Archive this week (very hard to find a hard copy of this book !). I took the picture because I thought this creepy lil head emerging from the book would make a fantastic tattoo.
Karuna Vikram, Cambridge, UK: Loads of firsts this week! I tried out for crew and went out to row in the freezing rain (but thankfully practice was cancelled). Surprisingly, rowing was a very peaceful experience, not super strenuous, and overall quite meditative! It was really fun to feel like part of a team and a bigger unit. Other firsts included punting and drinking with my professors.
I’ve been settling in at uni now, and have found a rhythm. I’ll say that my favorite part of the week was just hanging out in the kitchen in my dorm, blasting music and cooking with friends. Feeling more at home here slowly!
Liyan Zhao, Upper West Side, Manhattan, NY: In search of a bathroom around Lincoln Center last weekend, I stumbled into the American Folk Art Museum, which had been on my list of places to visit for years. They had a show on materiality which featured this illustration by Melvin Edward Nelson of Colton, Oregon. According to the wall text, he made his own pigments using a hand crank to grind rocks and soil from the foothills of the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest. His recipe for burnt umber called for mixing roasted coffee, iodine, water, and ammonia nitrate; bringing the mixture to a boil; and adding "stardust" once cooled.
Lydia Milano, Baltimore, MD: This week, I visited the Maryland Historical Society (now renamed “Maryland Center for History and Culture”) and saw this 20ft long circus diorama. It was made by one man (Joseph F. Schmidt), in his basement, and he custom built pretty much everything except the tiny people. The Sideshow freaks were my favorite. I don’t think he was a professional artist. The display was on the top floor by the bathrooms.
Marisa Riepenhoff, Milwaukee, WI: Watching Sara Caron’s cats while she and John are in Paris
Melanie Holterman, Milwaukee, WI: On Indigenous People’s Day, I went to the Milwaukee Public Museum where I saw paintings by an Indigenous artist named Jesus Alvia. He had one large painting honoring Native people and another honoring Black icons, one of which was Nicki Minaj. I took it as a good omen, I love Nicki and I played her a lot to soothe Patches (the cat I was watching at the time).
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