Maureen’s Blog

On the 20th day of April 2009, a massive water bottle explosion has ravaged and destroyed the innards of my purse. Falling victim to the destruction were a few crumpled receipts, pens, papers, and sadly my only copy of Doing Documentary Work, by Robert Coles.

A day of remembrance is planned for the book and the $1.50 I could have earned by reselling it on half.com. All are welcome, hors d’oeuvres will be served.

- Maureen

Ok, so since soundslides refuses to recognize that I actually have a slideshow on my astro account, I’m going to post the link instead for my life of a colleague.

hopefully this will work for everyone, because if it doesn’t, I’m going to cry in a corner.

Life of a Colleague 

My life of a Colleague project is on my cousin Marah Dibello. I followed her around on campus, to her house, and out on a photo assignment for another class. She’s always been an interesting person, and I hope that I was able to reflect that in this project. 

Maureen, 

Signing out. 

Last Thursday I went down to D.C. to attend my Uncle’s promotion ceremony from a one-star General to a two-star. This is my documentation of such events.

The introduction to the ceremony. This guy sounded like he should be telling me what time the Regal is playing movies.

There were a lot of people there this time around.

The Secretary of the Army speaks.

And people listen.

Lining up for the presentation of the stars

Mr. Secretary putting on the stars.

Uncle Randy, now Major General Uncle Randy

Swearing in and taking the oath.

Speech! ” my job is like a Tom Clancy novel..”

Shaking hands, taking pictures, saying hello.

Talking to the troops

Uncle Randy and Aunt Margret, hugs all around.

After party!

Delicious cake

This is where all your tax money is going to…specialized napkins..and cookies.

This guy sang the National Anthem and would say “Hooha” after everything my Uncle said. He sat right next to my brother and I during the ceremony, it was pretty hilarious.

This one is compliments of my cousin Jamie.  “Randy, your son’s middle name is not Mathias, its Matthew!”

Oh yeah, we went to the Library of Congress.

I didn’t find the President’s secret book…yet…. but I did get to see the Lincoln bible. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of it though, sorry! But hey, I did get a replica of the Declaration of Independence from the gift shop.  I think that’s all I can really ask for.

View Larger Map

Ok, so for my Philly A to Z project I spent the day in the Art Museum, which I haven’t been to in a while so it was interesting to check out the displays.

A is for Angel in the Stained Glass Window

B is for Billy Penn

C is for Crossbow

D is for Death Cart. ( Quick Explaination: The Statue is named Death Cart because, well, that’s basically what is is. It’s a sculpture of a skeleton holding a bow and arrow riding a cart. It was made in New Mexico in the 1880’s.

E is for Elevators.

F is for Flasks.

G is for Glass.

H is for Hallway

I is for Indian

J is for Jesus

K is for Knife box. This is the foot of a knife box from the revolutionary era. All I can say is that whoever created it must have been a big fan of the Never Ending Story.

L is for La Preimiere Pose.

M is for Multiple Arms. I think he’s trying to say Hang Ten.

N is for Never ending line to get in.

O is for Observers

P is for Plates.

Q is for Quarters thrown into the fountain

R is for Rifles.

S is for Statues

T is for Tiles

U is for Underground.

V is for Van Gogh

W is for Weapons

X is for X

Y is for Yak

Z is for Zen

Question: How many times during the course of one long walk, can you get yelled at from people in their cars saying things the likes of “Hey baby, you can take my picture” ?

The answer, of course, is five. Five times. Now, on to the show..

12: 34 pm

12:36 pm

12:39 pm

12:42 pm

12:45 pm

12:50 pm

12:52 pm

12:53 pm

12:58 pm

1:01 pm

1:06 pm

1:10 pm

1:14 pm

This is Brad Fitzpatrick, he was down at the Art museum with his girlfriend Krista (see pic below). He’s lived in Philadelphia  for 2 years now and says that he loves that its so quaint, but as he says “The city becomes a ghost town at night.”

This is Krista Padovanic, she doesn’t live in Philadelphia but was down from New York visiting Brad (above). She works as a graphic designer and has been down to the city plenty of times. She  likes that the city is smaller and quaint, compared to the big apple, but agreed with Brad that there isn’t much of a night life.

This is Gardener. He didn’t give me his first name for some reason but any name is good I guess. He lives out in Los Angeles and was in Philadelphia for work purposes. He says his favorite thing about Philadelphia would be Geno’s steaks, and his least favorite part, agreeing with Brad and Krista, is that the city is dead at night.

This is Leigh, she works at the Art Museum and was just coming back to work from her lunch break.  She’s lived in Philadelphia area for her entire life, but has lived within the city for the past year.  She likes that there are a number of things to do around the city but hates the public transportation.  Sorry Septa.

This is Vicky, she’s lived in Philadelphia for just about 3 and 1/2 years and works at the Art Museum as well.  She says that she likes living in Philadelphia’s urban setting because it’s not overwhelming, though she’s not a fan of public transportation either.

This is Sean, he’s 18 and has lived in the city his whole life.  He likes the view of the entire city and the skyline, but really hates the violence in the area.

This is Ericka, she was down at the art museum with Sean (above), who joked that she didn’t like getting her picture taken.  She’s lived in the city her entire life as well and likes that its so rich in history. She agreed with Sean that she doesn’t like all the violence in the city either.

Ahmed is originally from Northern Jersey close to New York City. He was visiting the area to see family and stopped by the art museum in his free time. Though he doesn’t live in Philadelphia, he likes the “dynamic small feel” of the city but dislikes that there are many dangerous areas.

Ok, now there was definitely a language barrier on this one.  From the left, there is Plavia, Natalia, Maria, and Cassia. They currently work in the city with an internship program but are orginally from Brazil. I’m pretty sure they had a hard time understanding what I was saying but they like the city so far from what they’ve seen of it. They were at the art museum taking in the scenes and getting a better view of the Rocky statue.

Temple University

City Hall

Broad and Montgomery

15th Street and Chestnut .

St. John’s – They were apparently doing restoration work on the church, made only obvious to me by the large scaffolding.

Carpenter’s Hall

Union League of Philadelphia

Washington Square

Old U.S. Mint

Logan Square

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