132. PASSAGES. Monaco. Mediterranean culture is the pinnacle of something, the Occident was pretty much invented there for one thing and you can see why–add the genius of the French to it and you really have something. I am stuck in 1920’s France thanks to the interwar work of Ernest Hemingway, but that doesn’t explain why every photo I took in Monaco came back feeling like Art Deco.

131. PASSAGES. South Padre Island, Texas. There is a big difference between traveling for vacation versus traveling for education, but against my better judgement I was convinced to do a “sun vacation” on this narrow strip of an island in the Gulf of Mexico. The rain and freezing temperatures forced me to buy a winter jacket on the first afternoon, and I lost the bag with my wallet while doing so. The rest of the week was a frustrating search that made enemies of the hotel staff and half the town. It turned up on the afternoon of the last day, brought to my hotel by the guy who found it, a tough-as-nails Mexican cowboy. I thanked him for his honesty and made some pretentious speech about integrity, but all he said was “I couldn’t keep it. It doesn’t go with any of my outfits.”

130. PASSAGES. Century City, Los Angeles. The contrast between New York and Los Angeles is legendary, and there are clearly deep cultural, historical, climatic and economic differences. That aside, the two places could not look less alike. I suspect that three-quarters of the car commercials made in the USA are shot in Century City. That gleaming glass and steel image belies LA’s grit, but there is no mistaking that the Pacific coast of America is more pacific.

129. PASSAGES. Lubbock, Texas. Manhattan is exotic, but living there eventually makes it feel normal and everything else exotic. The stillness of Lubbock might begin to explain why so many New Yorkers are fascinated with Texas. The French word quotidien comes to mind, as does the title of a Hemingway short story, “A Way You Will Never Be”.