after stocking up on cough drops, i started making my rounds to the somerville open studios that was happening this weekend. the weather was sublime (a touch of 70's) and i managed to ride my motorcycle. open studio spaces dotted the town, identifiable by the orange balloons, but i had a more organized game plan, focusing only on photography: landscapes, travel, wildlife.i visited a young couple who spent 6 months traveling in europe and turned their snapshots and blog postings into a photo book (between the 2 of them they had 2000 photos). i saw an exhibit called scaryville, detailing the industrial underbelly of somerville (i asked him if he ever ran into trouble with the law photographing sensitive landmarks - nutshell answer: yes). i chatted with a travel photographer who's visited many, of the places i've been to as well, including burma and western china (the sands of the xinjiang ruined 3 of his lenses). i stepped inside the renovated somerville armory for the first time, an open space where artists were displaying and more importantly selling their works. the only studio i visited that wasn't photo related had drawings and paintings of animals and food; there i had a coughing fit, but luckily saved by some free sprite. i traveled to the farthest corners of somerville: east to joy street (underneath mcgrath highway), north to ash (where i glanced the mystic river), and west to sunset (near my old tufts haunting ground).

in the evening i settled in for a night of celtics basketball, the final game of the series against the chicago bulls. alex ended up dropping by in the second half and we talked more photography and china travel. the celtics ended up winning without going into overtime.