Category Archives: Boston and Area

Street Life: Living Outside the Box

Xingping, Guangxi Province, China

While watching a video clip from Cuba Feliz (a film of Cuban street musician Miguel Del Morales – known as El Gallo > The Rooster in English) I had a revelation. One of the reasons I absolutely adore countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia (or cities like Paris, Florence and, Montreal) is that people there live in the streets – almost literally. They spend much of their time in public spaces rather than inside their homes. They socialize, play, walk, eat, and drink together on the streets despite the hubbub of automobiles, bicycles, scooters, and other vehicles. The street is where it all happens!

Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

Paris, France

In places like Vietnam and Cambodia, not only are dwelling spaces small, but the kitchens are particularly cramped and often poorly equipped. Additionally, everyday meals are inexpensive and readily available at any number of street vendors, cafes, and small semi-permanent food stalls. So, even though there are those who do have modern conveniences like stove-tops, washing machines, or televisions the tradition remains to gather with friends outside of the home. Western cities like Paris and Florence do not have the same street culture as Southeast Asia but, there too, just about everyone walks along the crowded streets, shops at outdoor markets, and rests or plays in public parks. Food vendors/hawkers are not as a common a sight there but open-air cafes, trattoria, tapas bars, etc. definitely are.

Chau Doc, Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Streets are meant for people. This is eroding worldwide because of the ubiquitous car and streets that are getting wider to make room for these automobiles. Because of car traffic one rarely sees, in North American cities for example, children playing ball hockey, or hide and seek, jumping rope, or simply making up their own games on the street. Stoop or porch sitting is not a common site either. Spending time on our streets is no longer integrated into our daily lives and is rapidly becoming a thing of the past – so it seems to me. The social lives of city dwellers appear to be increasingly isolated. If I did not live directly next door to a community garden and park, or sit on the stoop of my house (which is facing our dead-end street), I would not know the people in my neighbourhood or have impromptu chats with complete strangers who walk by.

My neighbourhood is changing for the better. When I moved here 13 years ago there wasn’t much to do nearby. Today, there are a growing number of shops, restaurants, cultural centres, and parks which are within walking distance. There are even two farmers’ markets. The quality of life is better, street life is beginning to thrive, and there is little need to drive because this community has almost everything I need within walking distance or on the subway lines right nearby. It is a livable locale where neighbours run into each other on the street as they go about their daily business.

As I have mentioned multiple times in this blog, I am from Montreal. Despite it being a Northern city known for its very cold winters it somehow balances the frigid months with a French/Southern European mentality. Street life is substantial during the summer; people sit on their front stoops or balconies and are thus able to see and catch up with their neighbours. They eat in parks with omnipresent wine or beer so that public spaces become an extension of the private. Life, overall, takes to the streets and parks; the city pulsates with energy and activity.

Atwater Market, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Vibrant streets call to me. Who wants to be cooped up indoors when there’s food, drink, fun, and people to meet or just watch? Healthy street culture abounds with respect for the other. In many quarters in Montreal or Paris, for instance, children come home from school and almost immediately go outdoors, on their own or with their parents, to play on the streets or on the playgrounds. In Italy, piazzas (squares) are the main gathering areas. During La Passeggiata, which is the time before dinner (around 5:30-8:30), people stroll about the central piazza or main drag of a town (in fact, La Passeggiata comes from the verb ‘to walk’). This traditional daily ritual is more common in small towns but can also be seen in cities; it is a way for Italians to connect. During passeggiata many people hang-out in the piazzas or surrounding outdoor bars to have an aperitivo. It is a time when you see a mix of age and class. Children flock together yet are within shouting distance of their parents. Likewise, many Asian countries’ city and town residents still work within a block or two of their homes (often, in fact, the front of the home is the place of business). Thus, city blocks are like little villages.

Street life gives one the opportunity for chance encounters. Life outside our boxes and on the street is like being in an outdoor living room where everyone congregates and the community is the pulse of it all. The bottom line, it is good for the heart and soul.

Dancing in a Park, Beijing, China

Hanoi, Vietnam

Open Street Barber, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Open Street Barber Stall, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cahors, France

Mexico City, Mexico

Apologies for no photos of the streets of Italy. Our camera was lost…

Grey, Grey, Boston

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Apricot Tree Outside my Bedroom Window

Slowly, Spring is coming. We, like everyone else in the Northeast, have been teased in Boston. A bright day offers hope but is then followed by many grey days. As I write this, the promise is that the next few days will embrace Spring fully. Despite the occasional wind, we are really starting to feel the warmth. The first flowers are splashing colour onto the urban landscape. Garlic leaves are shooting up, extending themselves in our garden. Asparagus stems are bursting through the earth. Our apricot tree has just bloomed; the petals have already fallen and its flowers are beginning the transformation into fruit.

Some weeks ago, in the darker days, I decided to go for a long walk, despite cool temperatures, grey skies and wind. My hands were in fingerless gloves so that I could easily hold onto my camera and access it.

The photos from that walk could easily have been taken last week (but not quite… the snow is gone, for starters, and Spring is truly starting to arrive). That day the wind blew and blew. The air was crisp. Boston was grey.

Chinatown

Back Bay

Overlooking the Turnpike

Back Bay

Outside My Door

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No Bird on the Wires (or in the birdhouse)

I have been in quite an artistic funk of late. I am at a crossroad and do not know where I am heading so cannot figure out the route I need to take to get there. I only know that I am ready to move forward. I look at the photographic work of others and it seems they have a purpose. As they do – I, too, want to produce images that are beautiful, emotional, have power, and touch people deeply. It is the way I feel about the world and life. Such intangibles.

Then I remind myself that there is a wealth of interesting life all around me – right outside my door. Nothing is insignificant. The ordinary is what I must keep my eyes and heart open to. My intention is to really see. My intention is to connect to the world. Perhaps then I will find the latent core of what surrounds me or, at the very least, get a glimpse of understanding. If I head out there with the purpose of capturing images that can have an emotional impact then I will likely not succeed. I tend to forget that I work best on instinct. If I second-guess myself I end up less receptive to the everyday, to mysteries and questions. This process will take years of hard, ongoing, work, time, and patience. I am just at the beginning. And yet, and yet… I hope to never quite get there so that I may continue to discover the world.

Playground Slide

Broadway Street

M.I.T.

Cloud

I’m a City Girl: Boston

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Boston Skyline of the Fenway/Kenmore Area

People love to visit Boston – the largest city in New England. It is full of history, excellent food, good sports, fun things to do for the whole family, and right by the ocean! Boston is also a city of diverse neighbourhoods and, believe it or not, many were established as towns, historically. However, they were eventually seized by Boston. Perhaps because of this past annexation there is a strong pride and connection to those who come from these neighbourhoods. When asked where they are from, many people will tell you they are from “Eastie” (East Boston), “Southie” (South Boston), “Dot” (Dorchester), or, “JP” (Jamaica Plain); they do not say, “I’m from Boston.” Similarly, people who live in the suburbs often will tell you that they are from Boston. No matter, the photographs in this posting were taken in Boston proper or on one of the bridges into Boston from Cambridge, with a Boston skyline ahead of me. Boston proper consists of the following districts: Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Chinatown, Downtown, Fenway-Kenmore, the Financial District, Government Center, the North End, and the South End.

Mary Baker Eddy Library Pond, Back Bay

Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe, South End

Off of Harrison Avenue, South End

Carrying Bags from Chinatown

Downtown Crossing

Boston Common

Boston Skyline (the gold dome with a turret in the far distance is the Massachusetts State House)

I’m a City Girl: My Neighbourhood

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Sculpture over Second Street Parking Lot Entrance, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Living in “the city” is a choice I made a long time ago. I grew up in a bedroom community (i.e., the suburbs) and hated it from a very young age; I felt as if I lived in a frontier town. A recurring nightmare I often had as a child and teenager, was about long concrete blocks that took forever to get to the end of on foot. To make matters worse, in these horrifying dreams, it was always a blazingly hot summer without trees – a desert of cement and asphalt where nothing could be differentiated, so I could never reach my destination. In my late teens, I vowed that I would live right in an urban area or completely outside of one, in the countryside.

In the city, one is literally surrounded by people. If you are lucky, you find community within this environment, but mostly the people around you are strangers. At the moment I am very fortunate; I live within a half hour walk of the heart of downtown Boston and know a number of people in my neighbourhood of East Cambridge – some very well – in part because of a community garden (of which I am a member) that sits right beside my home.

Melanie and Sophie working in the Costa Lopez Taylor Community Garden, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Boston Seen from the Cambridge Power Plant, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

I have lived in Montreal, Toronto, as well as in Calgary. Sadly, in Calgary my apartment was much more than a 30 minute walk from the centre of town, and I was forced to face both my nightmares and “the mall” which I have always abhorred. I now live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a small (approximately eight square blocks) residential neighbourhood in the midst of mostly bio-genetic laboratory space (e.g., the Broad Institute, Genzyme, and Biogen), technology companies (like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon), and M.I.T. The area is defined by M.I.T., the Charles River, and train tracks on two sides.

On the Way to the Charles River, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Originally, East Cambridge, was marshland. Once land was built and developed it became a working class area that housed the people employed by the factories that produced candy, glass, and candles. Many factory buildings still stand but have been re-purposed as offices, condominiums, restaurants, cafes, and, bars. What attracted Steve and me to this neighbourhood, when we moved in, was that it was still working class with 75% of the population renting their places and most of the house owners had lived here for decades. These “old-timers” were predominantly Portuguese and Italian. Twelve years later 60% of the neighbourhood rents, and the demographics keep changing. Until a few years ago, our neck of the woods was was completely quiet after rush-hour. So far, it is still a quiet neighbourhood unless you walk toward M.I.T. where all the hip is now happening. East Cambridge is very slowly becoming vibrant but the old feel is still strong.

Outside Club Lusitania on Fifth Street, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

I am happy to sacrifice the physical space of the suburbs for access to places I enjoy – like art galleries and museums, independent shops, theatres, cafes, restaurants, and bookstores (sadly the record/CD stores are now practically extinct – with the cafe and bookstore, perhaps, not too far behind). Much of the contact I have with people in the city happens when I go to “my” local cafe, Voltage, where I meet other “regulars” and have conversations with them and the lovely people who work there. The city is a great place for people-watching, a pastime I enjoy. An urban landscape also offers the best variety of architecture, something that is not easy to find in the suburbs, where everything tends to be similar. Simply put, I much prefer and thrive in the city. It is here that I have always been able to carve out my own niche – find my place. For me, the city is home.

Voltage Coffee, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Abigail’s Restaurant, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Rhoda Sitting on her Third Street Stoop, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Nina, Third Street, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Walter, Hanging Out in the Costa Lopez Taylor Community Garden, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Thorndike Street House, Cambridge, MA, U.S

Thorndike Street, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Second Street, Cambridge, MA, U.S

Typical Neighbourhood Cornice, Spring Street, Cambridge, MA, U.S

Sullivan Courthouse, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Cambridge Power Plant, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Outside Club Lusitania on Fifth Street, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Off to the Mall, Lechemere Subway Station, Cambridge, MA, U.S

Off to the Mall, Lechmere Subway Station, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Waiting for the Bus, Lechemere Subway Station, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Waiting for the Bus, Lechmere Subway Station, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Live Poultry Fresh Killed, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Mayflower Poultry Co., Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Woman Taking Advantage of a Lovely Summer Day – Walking Along the Esplanade, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Resting – Sixth and Cambridge Streets, Cambridge, MA, U.S

Live Here Now, Next to Genzyme, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Fulkerson Street, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

AT&T and Old Foundry, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

New Building Under Construction, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Charles River Canoe & Kayak, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Costa Lopez Taylor Park Basketball Court, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Summer Hockey at the Ahearn Field, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Street Hockey at the Ahearn Field, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Charles Street, Cambridge, MA, U.S.

Three Springs in One Year? Impossible.

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Minoushka

Who would have thunk? Certainly not me. Yet here you have it:

February 2014, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
March 2014, Dali and Shaxi, Yunnan Province, China
April/May 2014, Cambridge, MA, United States

I have been home in East Cambridge, now, for two months and am enjoying a third Spring this year, albeit one that is slower to warm up (it is almost officially summertime and we are several weeks behind what we typically see at this time of year). Since returning to the U.S. from Asia, I have been surrounded by a blooming crab apple tree as well as flowering plum, cherry, apricot, and peach trees, tulips, allium, wisteria, a climbing hydrangea, and more. The garlic has given us a large crop and we have used many of the leaves in our cooking. Yesterday I cut the scapes. In July we’ll pick the bulbs. I have seen the leaves on all of the trees turn from that bright lime green freshness that I only associate with the new start of Spring to a deeper green that indicates that Summer is here – or at least on its way. When it arrives, it shall be my second Summer this year.

Clearly, I have settled into life at home. I am in love with my home, husband, cat, the New England Area, and knowing that I am close to my family and friends in Montreal. Yet I know (and I have mentioned this before in this blog), I will want to be on the road again, soon enough. It is a matter of striking a balance between nurturing my life at home and moving about – with my heart and feet grounded here, yet being able to live elsewhere – even if it is temporary.

I have moved more than twenty times in my adult years. I seem to be always searching. The places I’ve lived and visited have helped me find home, including inside myself. But I have lived with Steve for 16 years now, and find that I have learned to cultivate home and love. Here I am.