Pictures from Planes

I don't travel for work anymore, but I am fortunate enough to be able to take half a dozen flights a year, for fun. You know what? I have never been upgraded to first class, or even business class! I have had the occasional hotel upgrade; to a suite in Boston a few years ago, on Marathon weekend, no less, and once at the New York Palace. But, all my flying has been done crammed into coach, trying to get comfortable, and wondering if I should drink the free Diet Coke and praying that turbulence doesn't take away my bathroom privileges. In short, flying sucks.

Except that it doesn't, does it? It's a freaking miracle of invention that in about half a century, we went from barely getting off the ground, to landing someone on the moon. Any idiot with a few bucks and a passport can buy a ticket, head to 30,000 feet above the earth, and zoom at 500 miles per hour to another part of the world. I have had dinner in Toronto, and breakfast in Paris. Even if I have to spend 7 hours in between with some doofus's seat reclined into my face, it's not something I take for granted.

Here are some photos I have taken out from planes over the years (more of New York here). I am the one who leans out the window like I've never flown before. What can I say, I love being in the sky; I find it majestic, and it never gets old. The world is beautiful, isn't it? I wish we'd stop fucking it up...

Sweet home Toronto

On the way to Rome.

Northern Italian mountains

The Pentagon, pulling into Reagan Airport, Washington DC.

Washington Monument, and the Mall.

My beloved Harbour Island, Bahamas, on a wee plane jaunt up to Abaco.

Flying JFK to LAX.

Crop circles! Aliens!

Stunning.

And then, out of nowhere, civilization. Or, at least, people.

Comments

Writing at Night

This is how I do it. My brain turns on at the weirdest times. I first saw a pen like this when I was in my 20s, in a TV report about a movie reviewer, who used one to take his notes in a dark theatre. I searched everywhere, and finally found one. Before I had it, I tried a few other tactics to help me save for posterity the incredibly deep, meaningful thoughts I felt I was having at night. I tried just writing with a pencil in the dark, but that didn't work out too well. My writing, on a good day, looks like someone suffering from the DTs sprayed Silly String on paper during an earthquake. What I mean to say is, it's really, really bad. So, the pencil thing was a bust. Next, I bought a mini-tape recorder, but my middle-of-the-night mumbling was almost worse than my writing. It seemed like my Shakespearean musings would be lost to humanity. How tragic! The pen. Then, I got my flashlight pen. It was a revela...

New Old York

"You'll love Toronto, Liz. It's just like New York, but without all the stuff!" - Gavin Volure, as played by Steve Martin, 30 Rock I live in Toronto, but I love New York. I've loved it from my first visit as a teenager , when I stayed at the Edison, and Times Square was still seedy and gross, to my most recent visit a few months ago, when I stayed at the Sofitel, and ate at Balthazar and Babbo again. I learned to love New York from movies as old as The Thin Man, to The Godfather and When Harry Met Sally. The joke is how many New York movies were actually shot in Toronto. Spring St on Adelaide St Yes, this has been going on for decades. Whenever our dollar is in the toilet, the American productions ramp up. Legend has it that set designers used to have to make fake garbage to litter our streets, since Toronto was so tidy that it didn't look authentic. Thanks to Rudy and Bloomberg cleaning up New York, and Rob Ford turning To...

Again with the Rain

Summer storm season is here. By that, I mean it's wherever I am. Apparently, I brought it back from New York with me. Last Wednesday, I left the office with my Wayfarers on, and walked home in bright sunshine, thinking to myself, what are those morons on the Weather Network talking about? It's not going to rain! 10 minutes after I got in the door (for once, I was lucky), sheets of water started falling from the sky. Seriously. An hour later, the lobby ceiling in the other condo in this generally lovely complex, which my friends call Cabrini Green , because the elevators break so often, partially collapsed when a storm drain broke. This left both buildings with no hot water Thursday morning. Great. I discovered this at 7 AM by sticking my leg under running water I assumed to be hot. The shriek I let out woke me, and probably a few neighbours, up. There was no way I was taking an ice cold shower, so I j...

Blue Velvet Sectional

Search This Blog