Boots on the ground. Notre Dame plaza, Paris, France, May 2013.
Today we went by the outdoor market on our way to the Rodin Sculpture Garden, Napoleon’s tomb, the Military Museum and Map Museum as part of the class. Then Laurie and I walked to the Cimetière du Montparnasse, found Serge Gainsbourg’s grave, then walked back to the hotel. We walked to a restaurant that specialized in crepes for dinner, which was a mile and a half from the Hotel. The crepes were delicious, and a couple of women sitting at the end of our table gave us a sample of their apple cider, which was really good — it reminded us of Spain. After dinner we walk back to the hotel, which was mostly along Rue Mouffetard. A light rain was falling making the air slightly hazy and the stone streets glisten. One of the stores we walked by had Moulin Rouge Goth style dresses and an ad for a Goth-style model. There were several bars and food places along the walk, and the dog in the second photo was part of the crepe restaurant. I measured our walk on Google Map Pedometer and got 6.5 miles for the day.
The only aisle that is a straight shot from household goods to groceries in Walmart runs right through the bras. For as much as people complain about Walmart, they are good at merchandising, because I have never seen a woman walk past the bras on her way to household or groceries and not stop and at least flip through the large variety of brightly colored, multi-patterned bras hanging on the displays. If she decides to try on a few, and she happens to have a man in tow, he will slowly die of hunger and thirst waiting for his lovely gal to find a bra that fits just right.
Since l was done with the grocery shopping and there was nothing else I needed or wanted to look for, I sat on the wire bench outside the fitting rooms while I waited for Laurie. While fidgeting around trying to get comfortable, I started thinking about how suicide bombers believe they get 72 virgins after they blow themselves to hell. “Hmmm!” I thought to myself, what if they actually got condemned to shopping for bras with their 72 virgins for eternity? Now that would be hell! Think about it, sitting on an uncomfortable bench watching his 72 virgins all lined to get into the fitting room, each with a half a dozen bras in their hands. One by one they would come out and explain to him in detail why each bra didn’t fit quite right — “The cups fit on this one, but the straps dug into the fat! This one bloops out unless I stand up really straight and stick my chest out… this one’s underwire poked me, and this one…” And she’s off to grab another handful of bras to try on. While he’s waiting for his next virgin to give him the run down on the inadequacies of the load of bras she hauled into the fitting room, he has the rather round and tired old lady who’s at the end of her shift that never comes to keep him company. She’s nice enough, but he’s not enjoying fantasizing about what she would look like in her underwear. Another virgin interrupts his fantasy to describe her delicate dilemmas with the colorful display of cups and straps she’s dangling in his face — “This one doesn’t….”
A costumed crowd was gathered outside the Kimo Theater. I wanted to park and get photos but there were no parking spots available, so I swung around the block and did a drive-by photo at about 10 mph. The sunset was beautiful, but my best opportunity of getting a photo of it was a drive-by at 80 mph on I-40.
The last phase of Laurie’s hair style experiment was to put her hair up in a bun. She tried a couple of different styles of buns, and I used our mirrored wall for the background, and a single studio flash with an umbrella for the lighting. I’ve noticed that high key exposures seem to be all the rage in Laurie’s fashion magazines, so I pushed up the exposure to where the highlights are beginning to washout, which allowed me to get fairly good exposures in the mirror.
I can’t think of a better way to spend a lunch hour than photographing a beautiful woman. Meet Tiffany Paleo, make-up artist, actress, singer, wife and mother. She’s as sweet as she is beautiful, and delightful to work with. For you women who like to be pampered, Tiffany is available at Katharoz Boutique to help you with all your skin care needs — 505-227-1224.
Laurie and I attended the annual holiday party for the Friends of Medieval Studies at UNM tonight, which featured a concert by Música Antigua de Albuquerque — they were wonderful. Música Antigua de Albuquerque will be performing “Stella Nuova” on Saturday, December 22th at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, 601 Montaño NW in Albuquerque.
Mark April 15-18, 2013 on your calendars. The 2013 Medieval Spring Lecture series is “Medieval Myths and Monsters”. This promises to be a superb lecture series not to be missed.
The dress rehearsal for the Messiah was tonight and it sounded wonderful with the orchestra and soloists. Tomorrow night’s performance is sold out, but there still might be tickets available for Sunday afternoon’s performance. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern thought Laurie’s new black velvety dress was a great color and texture and had to be involved in the photo shoot.