http://pondermagazine.com Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:37:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The first thing you notice is the steam. It rises meanderingly into the darkness, stark and formless, illuminated by hundreds of florescent lights. As you venture closer, the smell grabs hold of your attention. The scent is at once comforting, like your mother cooking in the next room, and foreign, infused ... http://pondermagazine.com/?p=228 "Visual Inspiration" is a new series of features on Ponder. The idea is fairly simple: each post will contain a collection of photographs that capture the objects, ideas, people and places that captivate and stimulate my imagination. For the first edition, we venture into the Brooklyn Flea, an eclectic weekend ... http://pondermagazine.com/?p=241 It’s a brisk November night in Prague, cold enough to make any sane person retreat to the warm comforts of home. But football fans have never been known for their sanity. Tonight, two Prague-based clubs – Sparta Praha and Bohemians 1905 – face off in the Gambrinus Liga, the highest level ... http://pondermagazine.com/?p=196 At 5:30 AM on a blisteringly cold Friday morning, we arrived in Vienna. We wandered through the Austrian capital's dark, empty streets before dawn and watched as they slowly came to life. The city is beautiful, to be sure – its buildings are adorned with the architectural grandiosity one might expect ... http://pondermagazine.com/?p=165 A group of young soldiers in Liberia (2003) Words by Yang-Yi Goh | Photographs by Jan Sibik The boy pulls the pin from the grenade. Silence fills the air. He studies the frozen, terrified expressions of the four European reporters who stand no more than 20 feet before him. Please, please, don’t do ... http://pondermagazine.com/?p=111 This piece was originally written in September 2009 for a Travel Writing class. Mark and Rachel Price are visiting Prague from Birmingham, England. They are standing in front of the famous Nationale-Nederlanden building – known colloquially as the Dancing House – gazing up at its parabolic glass exterior. “I quite like it, yeah,” ... http://pondermagazine.com/?p=97 You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. – Colette
 People say a lot of things about mistakes – everybody makes them; you learn from them; they’re human. Nothing they can tell you, however, will take away the initial sting of regret that siphons through your body when you realize ... http://pondermagazine.com/?p=61 There are plenty of things you might expect to find in a deserted back-alley: discarded junk, old tires, perhaps a rodent or two. Chances are, though, that “menswear boutique” wouldn’t be high on that list. After three and a half years on Toronto’s main shopping strip, owner Matt Robinson made ... http://pondermagazine.com/?p=23