Isn't She Lovely?, originally uploaded by jimturbert.

Marleen and I participated in the Snoor Parade at de Kunsthal today. She fooled them with this silly disguise. She's a crafty one. Snoor means mustache by the way.
I ate another olie ball today. I am not sick of them yet. I don't have anything of substance to share with you, so I will go now.

Best,
Jim

Snow Tracks, originally uploaded by jimturbert.

It's freaking snowing in Rotterdam. Shit is crazy.

Reporting live,
Jim Turbert

things are progressing nicely at our place.  it's still messy after the arrival of our stuff, but it gets better and better everyday.  

i just want to tell you about olie ballen.  olie ballen (literally oil balls) are balls of dough fried, often with raisins, that have been deep fried and covered with powdered sugar.  sounds kind of like a doughnut, right?  well, marleen tells me that olie ballen were the inspiration for our (we, the americans) doughnuts.  i believe it, but i've never had a doughnut that tastes like this.  the oil ball is much denser and chewier.  i'm not going to say it's better than a doughnut, but it is a lot different, and given the fact that i am accustomed to the american doughnut, this is exotic and special for me.  i'm told that all of the olie ballen i've had so far, are of average quality.  i am very anxious to eat an exceptional one.  

also, i've been eating dutch goat cheese.  it takes the same form factor as normal dutch cheese, and it seems to be treated in the same way.  the only difference in its preparation is that goat milk is used instead of cow milk.  i must tell you that i love it.  like the doughnut versus olie ballen, it's not a matter of one being better than the other.  it's that they are similar yet different in so many ways.  i wish i could fully explain why this is.  i suppose the goat cheese is smoother.  it has a sweeter flavor, and the texture is finer than normal dutch cheeses.  the great thing is that this is not a specialty item.  you can buy it in the supermarket.  i've seen two varieties, jong (young) and belegen which means aged.  i've come to accept belegen as sharpness.  as a citizen of flavor country, i always choose belegen, but i'm sure the softer jong cheese is also incredibly delicious.  maybe i'll buy some today.

until next time, 

jim 

My goddamned stuff finally arrived this past Tuesday (56 days later). The boat actually arrived in the Netherlands on October 17, but due to the chronic ass sucking of the moving company (more of a broker actually), it just arrived this week. Do not ever, under any circumstances, use a company called Global Ocean Freight for any sort of moving. They are unreliable and uncommunicative. The only thing they are good at is making sure you have paid them. If you would like more info, feel free to e-mail me about them.
I just thought I'd post a little something from the glorious moving day. I'm really excited to have my bicycles, and it's great to have a couch. I will not miss the inflatable air mattress we were using for seating, and I will not miss the lawn chairs we were using for dining furniture. A new day is dawning. A day that includes my stuff. It is awesome. As awesome as it is, it takes a long ass time to set up. Listening to music through decent speakers makes unpacking better, but things are still chaotic and crappy. That said, it gets better every hour. Here's a little video of my motorcycle coming off the truck.


Tot ziens,
jim

"Delicious on Bread"

Hot Dogs in a Can, originally uploaded by jimturbert.

I was in the supermarket earlier today, and I saw hot dogs in a can. The idea of hot dogs in a can is not a pleasant one for me. I understand that hotdogs are a pretty low-brow food in general, but there are some examples of non-schwaggy wieners out there. When I was growing up in CT, my parents used to buy Mucke's, and they were really good. Boston has Pearl and Kayem, not to mention a wide assortment of national (and maybe international) brands that make an equally high-quality product (Hebrew National, Maple Leaf). Hot dogs don't need to be nasty mystery meat that was going to get tossed out anyway. The better ones are made from fine cuts of beef or a mixture of beef and pork. It's true that there is a lot of cartilage, fat and other ingredients that I don't care to discuss in most varieties of the hot dog, but I'd like to let everyone know that quality dogs do exist. Of course, the existence of hot dogs in a can does not help my case. Putting any meat in a can does not inspire folks to say things like, "Now this is good stuff!" Meat in a can is historically undesirable. Think of Spam, or anything made by Dinty More. Having canned hot dogs bearing the label "According to the original American recipe" on the shelf of Dutch supermarkets just reinforces the stereotype that Americans are a classless people with no culture or cuisine. I love eating hot dogs, and I love eating hamburgers. It appears to me that bastardized versions of delightful foodstuffs (like canned hot dogs and MacDonald's hamburgers) ruin an otherwise glorious thing for the rest of the world. Read my words. Tell your friends. Let everybody know.

Sincerely,
Jim Turbert

Not A Giant Shopping Cart

Not A Giant Shopping Cart, originally uploaded by jimturbert.

I have not been inspired to write entertaining or informative weblogs lately. I apologize for that. In lieu of a decent post, I offer you a companion piece to the picture of the giant shopping cart I posted a few weeks ago. Marleen is included for scale.

Sincerely,
Jim Turbert

Giant Shopping Cart

Giant Shopping Cart, originally uploaded by jimturbert.

Today was the first real day i was out in Rotterdam on a bicycle. The bike is a hunk of dook, but, it was free, and that is the perfect price. I had to fix the brakes and stuff, but now I am able to get around the city, and it doesn't take me all day.
Check out this giant shopping cart I saw. Shit is crazy, right?
I finally got my camera today. Fedex came through for me. I don't really have much to say. I kind of just wanted to post the picture of the giant shopping cart. I'll be back in the future.

Best,
Jim

Torch Steak

Torch Steak, originally uploaded by jimturbert.

Marleen and I went to Amsterdam to see a performance by a group known as Dogtroep. It was quite an elaborately orchestrated presentation of rigorously planned chaos. After the performance Marleen told me that the performance was supposed to be based on Hamlet. My 9th grade English teacher Mrs. Tresky would be sad to hear that I didn't get that, but I thought the performance was very cool. Also, it was visually exciting. I don't have any pictures of the actual performance. First of all, I was busy watching the performance. Secondly, my crappy cell phone camera/fixed position seating position would not have done it justice. You'll have to believe me when I say that the spiral staircase with a ballerina on it which was suspended above the performance area by a giant crane was a sight to behold. What I do have pictures of is the concession area after the performance. It was an outdoor performance that finished after 10pm. We were cold, but imagine our delight when we stumbled across these two ladies cooking steaks with blow torches. Warm red meat is very satisfying after watching strange theatre in the cold night air.

Best,
Jim

this is an example of the public art in my new neighborhood.  i believe that it is the only public art in my neighborhood, but at least we have some, right?  i think it's a dear little sculpture relief thing on the wall.  i'm looking forward to posting more images like this.  being a large format man, i haven't done too much off the cuff shooting of my friends and surroundings since my massart days.  i don't even own a digital camera - gasp!  i just got a swell new iphone though, and it has a meager camera built in, so if i can force myself to remember that i have the capability, i will take some pictures of my new surroundings while i'm engaged in unemployed meanderings throughout rotterdam and the rest of the netherlands.  keep in mind that those meanderings are quite frequent, so there could be some interesting posts in the coming days.  

speaking of being unemployed, i've decided that once i have employment clearance from the very precise and rule abiding dutch government i would like to have a job naming dutch products that are supposed to sound american. this profession may seem unnecessary in a land filled with people who speak english almost as well as they speak their own language, but after today, i've decided that this new profession is a viable option.  the dutch tend to name things that are kind of big or have chocolate chips in it "american."  that's just lazy and obvious.  i recently encountered a brand of ice cream from the albert heijn supermarket chain that is supposed to compete with or offer a reasonable alternative to a product like ben and jerry's.  i'm not sure if it's marketing genius or a serious oversight, but they call one of their ice cream flavors "nut explosion."  i find the name hilarious, but am i the only one who believes nut explosion is an inappropriate name for a sweet creamy and delicious dairy dessert?  think about it. this is a family product. 

anyway, it's not that i don't find the name nut explosion funny, but i think they should hire me to come up with appealingly inoffensive names for their flavors of ice cream among other things.  

best wishes,

jim

p.s.  we got albert heijn ice cream for later tonight, and i was going to take a picture of the packaging for you.  marleen thought she grabbed nut explosion, but she got the boringly named cookie caramel instead.  i'm still looking forward to eating cookie caramel ice cream this evening it should still be quite good even if the name is not as racy.  

i'm not going to say much other than i am alive; b is alive, and we are in holland.  i'll let you know more later.

best, 

jim 

this is going to be the last post for at least a week.  i'm getting unplugged from the computer tomorrow.  the movers are coming in the morning.  the late morning.  i've been living in a mess of boxes and trash for weeks now, but i'm almost there.  instead of getting messier, it's getting cleaner and more orderly.  every moment gives me another square inch of floor.  i still need to drain the gas out of the motorcycle.  i can do that in the morning.  i also need to fill out the insurance papers.  i must do that tonight.  it's hard to believe that this is my last week living in boston.  it's so hard to believe that i am currently unemployed.  it's so hard to believe that i'm going to be a foreigner next week.  there are lots of things that it is hard to believe.

if you've recently e-mailed me, i will get back to you.  i can't really do that right now.  i shouldn't even be writing this because i haven't finished packing yet.  i figured it would be okay to post while i ate my trader joe's mojito salmon.  now the salmon is gone, and i have no excuse to keep writing.

i had a yard sale yesterday.  it was moderately successful.  i was, and still am, utterly shocked by some of the stuff that got sold.  on the other hand, i am also shocked at some of the stuff that didn't sell.  people are hard to predict.  so yeah, the next post will be from an expatriated man living amongst the vulcans of the human race.  i hope they don't mind meld me too much and turn my brain into mush.  that happens you know...

i'll talk to you later, 

jim 

hi. i wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about an exhibition that i will be in through most of september at wellesley. we put it up the other day, and it looks good. i totally want to buy one of andy mowbray's quilts, but i cannot afford it. i like the other work, too, but i didn't inquire about the prices. here is the wellesley press release for the show. if you live around boston and ever had the desire to see 10 of my expectations vs. realities pictures displayed at once, here is your chance. also, you can see other cool stuff (and i'm not just saying that...). the opening is wednesday from 4:30 until 6, but you can drop by and see the pictures until the 28th, i think.
i spent all day yesterday with my mom and my sister packing up my stuff. i'm still not finished. my sister was disgusted by how much stuff i was not willing to throw away. i suppose she's right, but i must say that i have some pretty good stuff. it is worth saving.
i have no plans for today. i suppose i could pack the rest of my crap up. i'd like to work on the motorcycle, but i feel that i need to go to the "triumph shop" in wakefield before i do that, but they aren't open on saturdays. there's no way they are open on labor day weekend.
i think i'm a dyslexic typist. i'm not really dyslexic. i'm just a bad typist, and the majority of my typos are reversed letters. for instance, i just went through this post for a quick edit, and i spelled until like this "utnil" once and like this "unitl" the next time. i type the word auditorium a lot at work. i almost always type it like this "auditroium" before correcting it. i'm not saying this is a disorder i have. i'm just saying...
speaking of work, i only have 4 more work days (5 more calendar days) until i'm unemployed. that is a very strange feeling.

until next time,
jim

i will be in this show.  i think it looks pretty cool.  i'm kind of intimidated because i think i'm i'm the only photo person, and you know how non-photo people feel about photo people, don't you?  anyway, if you are in the south of germany, you should go.  

http://www.tupajumi.com/sigmaringen/

thank you for your time, 

jim 

goddamnit, airfare is expensive.  although i've been preoccupied with moving my stuff to the netherlands lately, the fact remains that i will have to move myself there as well.  let me tell you a little about my experience, and why it sucks.  

i will be flying with our beloved cat b.  i figure she's going to freak the fuck out on the plane, so i want to take the fastest flight possible.  there is only one carrier who flies directly to amsterdam via boston, and that is northwest.  here's the other thing; i need a  round trip.  since i don't yet have a visa, i can't get a one way ticket, and the maximum amount of time i'm supposed to spend there is three months.  so i want to buy a ticket from september 12 until december 12.  the only price for that ticket anywhere is $2091!!!  just for shits and giggles, i checked to see what the flight would cost if i bought the same flight, but returning on october 12 instead of december 12.  well, that flight only costs $869.  you may have noticed that there is a slight difference in the fares.  i called northwest, and her explanation was that december is "a christmas month."  yes it is , and there is no way for me to get my fare reduced.  i think i'm going to buy the ticket for the october return, and not use the october ticket.  the downside to that is that i may not be able to get my visa while i'm over there, so i may have to return anyway for legal reasons.  i might just buy a more reasonably priced december return ticket on another airline, and deal with my cat on multiple airplanes.  what would you do?  

thanks for your time, 

jim turbert   

i'm a little pre-occupied to write a good blog entry, but i thought i'd leave you with a few tidbits. 

1)  i watched the bob saget roast on comedy central last night.  all i have to say is that norm macdonald is a freaking genius.  i have no idea why he is not more visible in the world of funny movies and stuff.  i wish he was my neighbor.    

2)  i took two pictures with two entirely different set-ups in two entirely different locations yesterday.  that's big for me.  most people won't understand, but if you could see the way i work, you'd think it was quite an accomplishment as well.  

3)  my house is a hell hole of pain.  there are boxes and mess everywhere.  soon it will be entirely empty.  shit is crazy.  

4)  my time in this country is getting very short.  it is both exciting and scary.  

5)  would you mind being on my homepage?  let me know if you do, and i'll tell you why i ask.  keep in mind that you need to be relatively nearby if you do.  if you live in canada or nebraska i can't really help you.  my request requires that you live near where i currently am, meaning boston.   

alright then.  back to the phones.  

best wishes, 

jim 

man oh man, it has been raining like nobody's business here.  i almost don't know how to cope.  i'm not saying that the rain is too much for me.  it's not.  it has merely been more abundant lately than i am accustomed to.  i was at wellesley on wednesday evening, and there was some serious thunder happening right over my head.  it's not everyday that we get thunder that serious.  if i were a dog, i would have been cowering in the corner.  i am not a dog.  instead of cowering, i was taking pictures of myself in a stairwell.  i'd like to see a dog do that.  i don't think the dog would waste his time with such trifles if he could.  i'm sure he would be content chasing things and licking his balls.  unfortunately, that's not enough for me.  i'm on a mission to ensure that everyone in the world has seen a picture of me.  that's not true.  there is no mission, but it would be cool if more people saw the fruits of my labors.  it would be even cooler if people sought out my fruits.  just to be clear, when i say fruits, i mean my photographs.  

best, 

jim 

  

check it out - fancy silver eye >>> http://www.silvereye.org/exhibitions_new_works_gallery.htm

now if only they would show my work in my own freaking town.  during the past 12 months i've shown work in pittsburgh, pa; lexington, ky; new york, ny; miami, fl; brattleboro, vt; providence, ri; poughkeepsie, ny; and a few other places that i can't recall right now.  during the past two months i was rejected from two juried shows in boston.  that does not feel good. granted, thirteen months ago (not 12), i was in the lovely prc members show in boston.  that was a good one.  it was particularly good because i could invite friends to go to the opening. going to an art opening is kind of like going to see your friend's band, but instead of loud rock there are photographs and it's much earlier in the evening.  also, your ears don't ring at the end of the night, and you get to eat cheese and snacks.  since i'm about to move my ass over an ocean, i kind of hoped that i could get that kind of photo love from this place i've called home for the past 12 years.  that's not going to happen.  it's sad, but here's to a fresh start (glasses klink).  boston, soon you won't have jim turbert to kick around anymore. fuckers.  

best, 

jim 

hi.  if you have nothing to do tonight, you should go to brattleboro.  i'll be there talking about my pictures.  others will be there talking about their work.  i realize this is short notice, but my mind has been elsewhere, so i'm not really at the top of my game.  

anyway,  here's the link to tonight's event >>> click me!!!

best,
jim

i recently sold a bunch of stuff on ebay, and one of the buyers posted the feedback, "There are better sellers on ebay!"  i wasn't sure how to interpret that.  better than whom?  me?  it was positive feedback, but i couldn't tell if he insinuating that my selling could have been better?  i choose to think that he's suggesting that i am one of the better sellers on ebay.  there is an exclamation point after the sentence that indicates urgency or loud insistence.  but maybe i'm wrong.  maybe he feels strongly about the fact that there are some better ebayers out there than me.  maybe i did (or didn't do) something that he expects from an ebay seller.  it was an unremarkable transaction.  i posted it, he bid on it, i sent him an invoice, he paid.  that's a smooth transaction if i ever had one, and i'm sure i'm reading too much into this.  i just thought it was weird feedback.

sincerely, 

jim 

besides wanting to get an iphone, i've been grappling with a huge list of other shit that i want to deal with.  i need to shoot off some film.  lots of film.  marleen isn't around to help me with special picture time, so that makes things a bit more difficult.  i can do it by myself, but large format self-portraits go a lot smoother with some assistance.  there's other stuff too.  i'm a little overwhelmed.    

in preparation for the big pittsburgh photo show coming up later this month, i went out to worcester to preview my prints.  they look good.  if it weren't weird, i'd hang all of them up in my house, but it would be weird, so i'm not going to do it.  my point is that they look sweet, and i totally want to hang them up.  

i rode the motorcycle out to worcester.  i don't usually do a lot of highway riding.  riding from wellesley to worcester shouldn't be a big deal, but when i got off the bike, my hands were all vibratey, and i felt like i had been at a rock concert all night.  i'm not sure if it's the noise from the high revving bike engine or the constant white noise of air rushing over my helmet, but my ears were ringing.  they still kind of are.  i've been contemplating longer rides recently.  i want to ride down to hometown, connecticut to say my goodbyes to some people, and also to get some paperwork done in hartford (i need original birth certificates).  i'm not sure if i can handle the intensity of a 2.5 hour ride from boston to winsted on the triumph.  it's a sweet ride (i'll post a picture or two someday), but the thing is shakey, and as i mentioned before, it's not the most reliable bike on the block.  it had the weird pissing gasoline problem again this afternoon. fortunately, i knew how to deal with it this time, so i didn't have to push the bike home from worcester.  that would have been bad.  

that's all i've got for you now.  i need to go get some cat food for young b.  she is going to be pumped to see me.  

best wishes, 

jim     

i saw a guy in the grocery store wearing a t-shirt that said,

"Haikus are easy,

but sometimes they don't make sense.

Refrigerator."

shit cracked me up.  refrigerator!

best, 

jim 

i'd just like to let everyone in the world know that they should not walk around with blue tooth cell phone headsets stuck in their ears. it's okay if you are in the car or at your desk while you are multi-tasking.  it is NOT OKAY when you are out in the world playing with your kids and stuff. you are not geordi from star trek the next generation or one of those guys from cloud city. also, you are not cool. you look like a douche. seriously, only wear those things when you have to. i'm trying to help you.

sincerely,
jim turbert

happy birthday america.
fireworks should be starting soon. we're having a barbecue tomorrow. if you happen to be in or near boston and feel like coming over, that would be fine. you should call me if you know my number, or you should e-mail me. i check e-mail rather frequently.
i had a dream last night that i was on vacation with sarah and andrew. i don't remember much about the dream, but i think i was offering technical assistance to people. when i was a waiter, i sometimes had waiter dreams. i did not like that. i think this was the first technical assistance dream i've ever had. i could have had one before, but i don't remember. i forget my dreams a lot. at any rate, i woke up late, and i thought marleen was still in bed with me. i was wrong. she was doing other stuff, and i was all alone.
i scanned some film today. i need to reshoot. i hate reshooting, but i do it all the freaking time. if you are reading this blog, i assume that you've looked at my pictures before. if you have not, i suggest that you look at the pictures before you read any further...
okay, now that you've seen my pictures, there's one that i call dr. yale. i'm dressed up in a blue robe in a fancy looking library room. i took that picture 3 times. the blue truck one was two times. the first time i shot, i got all kinds of crazy lens flare. i was pretty pissed off about that. the basketball guys was once, and i have a football (not posted) one that was twice. i could go on, but i won't. i'm just trying to say that sometimes you need to do things over again. often i have to do things over again. kind of like when you technically support people while you are awake, and then you do it again while you are dreaming. that's just how it goes.

best,
jim

the upside of coming home from a european trip is getting accustomed to the time difference. marleen will disagree with me on this one. she hasn't had much luck adjusting since we've been back. i, on the other hand, get up earlier with very little effort, and i like it. i eat something before i leave the house. i have time to contemplate things that may be worth contemplating, and i read a few blogs before i go off to swelles for another rewarding day at work. it's not so bad.
when we go to europe, i'm a mess. it becomes difficult to get out of bed, and i feel like staying up until 3am. i suppose that's great if you've got something to do at 3am, but most of my people go to bed at a reasonable hour, and have no desire to be someplace until 3am. if they did want to be out until 3, chances are it would be at some crappy dance music venue, and i really can't take much of that. i am old, and it is getting more an more difficult for me to spend hours listening to music that i don't like just for the sake of hanging out. i would rather rake leaves than go to crazy dance club night. i am no fun. that said, staying up all night used to be my specialty. i would stay and hang out with all the drunks until they passed out or we called it quits. i just don't hang out with drunks anymore, and marleen really doesn't want to stay up until 3. we generally go to bed at a reasonable hour.
my neighbor is singing. i'm going to bed right now at the reasonable hour of 11:16pm.

good night,
jim

we're back. i have to go to work tomorrow. i'm really excited about that. i'm also excited that it's hot and rainy (or about to rainy) here. i think i'm going to make some pancakes. i'll try to write something interesting later.

best,
jim

i told you i'd post some pictures of holland.  well here they are.

this is a skoda.  i believe skoda was originally manufactured in the soviet union.  i ask you, "why would anyone want to buy a car (or anything else) made in russia?"

this is marleen in front of that middle lifty bridge thing in rotterdam.

boat in rotterdam - woo wee

in case you weren't aware, pannenkoeken are pancakes, and a boot is a boat.  that makes this the pancake boat.  evidently you can ride this boat and get all you can eat pancakes.  why have i not been on this boat?

the following pictures were taken in front of a cafe called dudoc in rotterdam.  in case you can't tell, this woman is carrying her not so small dog in her sweatshirt like a baby.

evidently it was difficult to secure the dog, so she asked a passerbye to help her secure him.

i've seen dutch people carry all kinds of crazy shit while riding their bicycles, but i've never seen anyone ride around with a good sized dog wrapped around their chest like a baby in one of those baby sarong things.  as a side note, look how badly her tires need to be inflated.

so far, these are my vacation pictures.  pretty exciting, heh?  i really don't get into looking at or taking vacation pictures all that much.  i go through phases i guess.  i used to take pictures all the time, but now i only take them when i'm working on a project.

i have a few more that i'll post tomorrow or the next day.  i know you can't wait.

best,

jim    

hi. it's been awhile. i'm still far, far away in holland, but despite my distance from home, i cannot escape certain things. one of those things is the desire to promote myself. i feel kind of silly posting this, but it could win me $500, and i am willing to do almost anythign for money. i guess that makes me a money grubbing whore.
we can talk about that later.
right now i want you to go to this website, and vote for me, or rate me highly if you feel so inclined.
>>> http://artistswanted.org/turbert <<<
the organization is not promoting this at all. they are leaving it up to people to use their social networks, etc. to get the word out there. my problem is that i do not participate in any new fangled social networks. this blog is the closest thing i have to a social network (as pathetic as that may seem), so i am throwing this one out to you, my readers/viewers. you could post it on the social networking site of your choice. you could tell your buddies all about how fantastic they will think my work is. blah blah blah. it was worth a try.
i guess i should post some hallandish pictures on this crappy blog. truth is, i haven't taken a single picture since i've been here. i'm busy. i'm also preoccupied. even on vacation, i can't escape my own brain or the horribleness that is 2008. this has to be the worst year since 1996. 1995 and 1996 sucked some serious ass, so that's saying a lot. i'll post some pictures before the end of the week.

love,
jim

damnit, it's hot.

two days ago i wore an insulated sweatshirt, and now i can't stop sweating.  shit is crazy.  so yeah, a lot of stuff is happening.  this summer is already action packed.  i wish i could say that i'm taking lots of pictures.  i am not.  i will be hitting it hard two weeks from now though.  i have mad plans.  i'm all nervous about it.  what if i bust my ass and my results suck?  i hate that feeling, but it usually works out at this point in my life.  i sort of know what i'm doing.  that said, there are always surprises in life.  i'm going to apply to the sandberg institute in amsterdam.  how exciting is that?  they only take 16 people per year (usually half of those are dutch).  with only around 8 spots available, it looks like my odds are not so hot.  combine that with the fact that i may or may not be a little late with my application due to some confusion (on my part).  my interpretation was that i had until july to apply.  technically, only EU people have until july.  US people had until may.  the lady on the phone told me to get it in as soon as possible despite my lateness.  they will get my application next week.  i don't know how much power she has, but i'm hoping she convinces the powerful people that my tardiness is acceptable.  if not, then there's always next year.  

what else have i got for you?  

not much.  i'm going to the photo store in a little while.  i hope they have super 8 film.  i want to buy some.  

best, 

jim

please do not call me or my pictures zany.  i do not not appreciate it.  

thanks, 

jim turbert

my summer starts today.  i no longer have to work at swelles on monday, which is a glorious and splendiferous thing.  the recent graduates (good luck to them) are gone along with the rest of the students, and there are no classes to speak of.  now i must get in gear and get some work done.  2008 has been a shitty year so far.  there have been some good things, but i've been in a fog since january.  it's time for that fog to lift because i don't have much time.  i'll be in holland from the 9th of june until the 22nd.  then i'll only have  a few weeks of high production mode until the pain of semester life starts again.  

on an entirely different note, let me tell you a little about vintage motorcycles.  they are wicked cool, and they look awesome.  they also inspire lots of middle aged men to talk to you.  that said, i don't recommend getting one unless you know what the fuck you are doing mechanically. buy a newer honda that will start every single time and will never stall.  if you are a mechanic, then by all means, get the cool vintage motorcycle.  i was riding my cool vintage motorcycle yesterday, and it stopped running.  i couldn't get it to run again, and it was pissing gas all over the place.  i shut off the fuel lines and walked it home from forest hills (fortunately i was relatively close to home).  i got it home, and discovered that my "float was stuck."  if you don't know what that means, then you probably shouldn't own a vintage motorcycle (unless you are rich).  i now know what it means, and i got my bike running again.  i am not ready to give up, but this thing is costing me a lot of money and aggravation.  i have a lot to learn about running and maintaining a motorcycle. when it works properly, it is totally awesome by the way.  i'm just saying it's not the most reliable bike on the block.  the suzuki down the street is probably the most reliable bike on the block, but i (and lots of middle aged men) think mine looks way cooler.  

best, 

jim