A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog
Aerial Thoughts, Lost in the View
December 27, 2014
A bump. Just a bit above the equator, we were skimming the coast of Liberia at thirty-eight thousand feet. It was a precocious two thirty in the morning, Cape Town time. Towering menacingly above our right wing, an enormous cumulonimbus was unleashing its brutal power and every few seconds, lightning erupted deep in its bowels and illuminated the giant from within. All around it, though, stars were shining coldly and with all parasite lights off–includi...
7 Comments
So Near And Yet So Far
December 19, 2014
This was taken in the Bo-Kaap, a colorful Cape Town neighborhood, during a street celebration. I'll post more later. For now, take us to warp, Mr. Sulu.
Waiting to join the parade
Flying East, Sinking South
December 3, 2014
It has been a rough and challenging ride. The journey is far from over. With a thousand memories of a cat clashing daily with a million bits of reality, there are still hurdles, and those only lead to check-points, which in turn open dark chasms into a fragmented universe of uncertainty.
But tomorrow I will, at long last, be boarding a dream machine they call a plane, aiming skywards and bound for the very opposite to this New York prison, a world of cruel beauty and de...
Godspeed 'Storbie
I will post more about that exceptional cat when I have pieced my heart together. For now, I'll again let Tolkien do the talking, it's so much easier. Marie and I just left our kitty at the Haven, bound for the Undying Lands with the Elves, and we are walking back to the Shire, wherever that might be, our minds heavy and our hearts drowned in infinite sadness.
RIP (Rest In Pellets) Don Estorbo de la Bodega Dominicana - You rocked
And then it seemed to him that as in hi...
I Did Nothing
November 12, 2014
Thinking back to the Cuban refugees, I have also been pondering our own situation these days and past. Sure, Marie and I have been living our lives for years like Formula One drivers on the Monaco race track, through an urban tangle of chicanes and tight turns, high-speed stretches, blind corners and narrow roads, heel-and-toe shifting, split-second decisions, and much unadulating fate. For better and worse, we have been focused more introspectively than outwards. But can ...
New York City Marathon 2014 - They Ran
November 5, 2014
After commenting rather cynically in my last post about the reasons that make some people run, I thought it would only be fair to document the "other side". So last Sunday I stood on a Fifth Avenue sidewalk for an hour and a half as marathoners flowed through kilometer 35, headed down towards Central Park and the finish line. Some seemed to be enjoying themselves, most looked in pain, a few struggled greatly.
It was tough weather for the New York City marathon 2014 edit...
We Run
October 31, 2014
Some run to win, others not to lose.
Some run to look, others to be seen.
I've seen many run because of looks. They are trying to be winners.
I just run, I reckon. It runs in my blood.
Running intrepidly by the museum
It's odd, I run because I am often too lazy to walk. In the city, that is. Walking in nature is different - a deep, sensuous pleasure. But then again so is running.
I run for redemption. My sins - procrastination, workday less-t...
Fall Was Straggling, Summer Had Gone
October 18, 2014
The Zipcar is dirty. Again.
Its seats are stained and you sit down uneasily. The windshield reluctantly shows you the world through a slightly foggy film embedded with fingerprints, the ghost of multiple GPS-mount suction bites and nicotine. But behind you is a full load of camera gear and picnic goodies in an open handbag. Thinks could be worse.
Google Maps plots and suggests a route taking into account distance, speed limit, tolls, construction, accidents...
Personae Non Grata
October 4, 2014
This is a re-post of a series of stories the first of which was written in 2008. I have revised it and completed it and added some pictures. It will now be part of the new "Little Cayman Chronicles". This will be a nostalgic series. The photos are very old, most taken with a two-megapixel point-and-shoot. Sigh.
Back in 2002, or maybe 2003, I had been living in Little Cayman for a few years, having arrived just as the Millennium bug was terrifying civili...
Hummingbird, the Sequel
September 30, 2014
Marie saw two of them in territorial fights on Saturday, I found one on Sunday, and by the time we were picnicking in the garden on Monday after work, on a strangely dull and almost milky late-afternoon, the hummingbirds appeared to have abandoned New York City in search of healthier southern climates.
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Running Around Harlem
September 21, 2014
I recently went for a Sunday run around the northern tip of Manhattan. Summer was coming to an end and people were out and about, determined to suck every last bit of marrow out of life.
Aiming for a fifteen-kilometer route that took me straight back home, I rode the no. 3 subway a few stations north, to avoid about twenty blocks of nasty street running. I started the run at the top of the Harlem River Driveway and followed it down and northward-bound, crossing over the...
Hummin' Harlem
September 17, 2014
When I came home last night after running back from work, I rang the buzzer but got no answer. Surprised, I let myself in and found the apartment deserted.
Assuming Marie would be on the terrace and torn between a childish desire to surprise her loudly and a more mature impulse to respect peace and harmony, I walked through in silence, our old wooden floors creaking as I advanced, and peeking through the bedroom door I found Marie standing on the terrace camera in hand,...