Trip to the USA

The week from 24-31 March I was in the States. I was mostly in Cleveland, but the first two days I spent in New York City. Mostly on airports, since my flights were rerouted. I did manage to tour the Manhattan. My photo camera batteries were dying, so I wasn't able to get many decent shots, but here's one: Time Square.



It's mad and hectic, rich and down-and-out at the same time. I bet many things have changed since '98 when I last visited Manhattan. When riding in a cab in Greenwich Villaga, I could swear Harvey Keitel drove pass me. Whaddya know!

My trip to the States wasn't too productive, since I had a tight schedule with conferences and the like, plus the time lag, and many times my darn flights got rerouted, so I could only do some sketches on the airports and in the conference halls:




I cannot produce any of the photos from Cleveland, since I still haven't developed the photos from a disposable camera I had bought earlier in New York. I can only say that in Cleveland I did two interesting things. First, I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where I've learned a lot of important stuff about Rock music, and have seen original musicians' items on exhibits, ranging from wardrobe, instruments, documents and original lyrics. Second, I went to this art supply store and purchased a long list of interesting articles, ranging from cartoon nibs, palettes, a t-square, many different pencils, rapidographs, and a set of Prismacolor cool grey markers. I employed the latter in this test sketch of a WWII fighter that I copied from a book on the subject that I had also bought in Cleveland:

What can I say about Cleveand? Well, it was alot different to New York, and more down-to-earth. Llower income Black population inhabits the downtown, and far more afluent Whites occupy the subburbs. Blacks use the public transportation, and Whites almost not at all. I felt the racial segregation is still omnipresent in America, not by a virtue of laws, but by a virtue of real estate market. It made all the "Equal Opportunities Employment" talk sound puny in light of what really goes on in there. The whole area belongs to the once famous Manufacturing Belt, that had since decayed into a "Rust Belt" due to job losses overseas.. The City's many industrial sites testify to Clevelands rich airplane and automobile manufacturing history. I should have photos developed soon, so I'll just slip them in here.