Sky / Blue / Water

Film snapshots One year ago Memorial Day weekend Northern Minnesota Road. Hair. The Boy From Walker. Red. Lake. Paul / Babe Yellow / Blue / Sky Park. Name. Tower. Continue reading →

Niagara Falls is for lovers

Film pictures from a road trip in late July around the great Canadian-American lake loop, culminating in two subsequent days of birthday celebrations in the honeymoon capital of the world/home of the majestic natural wonder, Niagara Falls. Continue reading →

And the years like birds fly

My grandma, Babulya, and I used to go to the circus every summer I spent in Kostroma. I haven’t been to an American circus, so I don’t have much to compare it to, but in Russia, the circus is a rich cultural tradition and showcase of talent, and an outing I eagerly awaited each time. … Continue reading →

Of golden tigresses and abandoned houses

It was the first day of February. A Sunday – our day off at the chocolate farm. Eva and I had spent it celebrating the birthday of our Costa Rican host father, a fiesta that included homemade mango cake, a hired mariachi band, and a house overflowing with Ticos of all ages for the special day. As … Continue reading →

Confessions of a blitz chocolatier

Costa Rica is where American school buses come to die. Or, more specifically, they come to the town of Puriscal. About five months ago, I boarded one of these ancient yellow Bluebirds. Knowing little to no Spanish at that point (I did start picking it up later), I was lucky to have found a young … Continue reading →

Tokens of absence

“A photograph is a both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence. Like a wood fire in a room, photographs – especially those of people, of distant landscapes and faraway cities, of the vanished past – are incitements to reverie.” – Susan Sontag Film memories of Costa Rica, one month after the fact. ✵ ✵ … Continue reading →

A meditation on coming home

When I left Minnesota in January for Costa Rica, I wasn’t completely sure what I would find. I will credit my time at Quail Springs Permaculture last year as the catalyst for the kind of trip I crafted, but I chose my ingredients carefully: Country? One without a standing army that seemed to hold the … Continue reading →