2013

I don't know why I took this, but this is actually one of several that I tried.

This was part of a triple bill that included Cacory, Gattaca, and Landverraad. This was Gattaca.

Here's an alternate shot of Gattaca. I took most of these during the sound check, before the lights were lowered.

This was one of the better shots that I got of Landverraad that night. The show was great, and one of the wilder ones I've been to, but I didn't have the best luck with photography.

This photo is hopelessly blurred, but it captures the mood of the show.

I found this newly-restored Art Deco(?) building while walking in Prague, and that I found it illustrates the advantage of having a cameraphone (or a Lomo). I don't know much about the history, and my "Art Deco" classification of it is a guess.

Metrans are one of a group of rolling stock leasing companies that have been expanding their European business in the past few years. This business can involve supplying short-term leases of rolling stock to both passenger and freight carriers, and the customers (the carriers) can have any number of reasons for leasing instead of buying. Often, it's a way of dealing with peaks in traffic without expanding the full-time fleet, as is the case with freight railroads the United States. In America, the rolling stock leasing business is much older than in Europe, dating back to the 1910's at least. Think of General American Transportation, or GATX, who also operate in Europe. I know far less about Metrans, but I see their locomotives around a lot. I don't know much about this E186 Class, but I presume that this is actually a DB Class 186 Class "TRAXX" electric.

When I took this, I hadn't done any rail photography in Hostivar for awhile. The intermodal freights through Hostivar seem to be increasing in length, over 40 wagons (cars), which is probably good news both for business and the environment. Electric locomotives are ideal for this given their greater power, on average, than diesels, and Czech electrics are generally geared for slow speeds, which in this case is another advantage.

In a very short time (two months), the Narodni Trida Metro Station had gone from being a hole in the ground to being an actual structure, and a rugged one, from the looks of it. I'm not sure of why this building is being built so ruggedly, with those huge trusses, but I suspect it may be to make it a parking garage. I hope the developers aren't this foolish, as the neighborhood has virtually no capacity for the cars, nor will it ever have it.

This is one of the floors of the new station over street level, again with very heavy-duty concrete construction, or at least, I hope it's heavy duty as opposed to just heavy. Although the building has a heavy steel frame around the outer wall (or what will be the outer wall), the supports for the floors aren't visible in this shot, as those beams you see are part of the scaffolding (right?).

Sending Lights weren't originally scheduled to play on this particular night, and neither were the following band, Foxxen, who share the guitarist in the foreground (sorry if I've forgotten your name). Originally, The Smashrooms and Nine Eleven were supposed to play, but the night became a quadruple bill.

Here's shot of them tuning up.

Foxxen were next.

This is the village square in Mnichovice. Although that building in the background looks like a church, my understanding is that it's the village hall, or radnice.

Actually, the guitarist for Sending Lights is the bass player for Foxxen.

I ended up standing right in the front of the crowd for the Smashrooms set. I had met them two years earlier at Klub 007.

Here's an alternate shot.

I had never heard of Nine Eleven before, but they're hardcore band from France. Their set was the craziest that I've ever been to at Cafe na pul cesty, so I expected to be sore the next day. In reality, that didn't happen, but I unfortunately didn't get too many pictures because of all the movement.