Thursday, November 13, 2014

Back to Work

I spent a fair amount of time yesterday trying to figure out how to secretly photograph microfilmed articles.

While I am sure there is a legal way to do it, I'm also equally sure it is unnecessarily long (probably taking a week or two), unnecessarily complicated (probably involving more than one party and various forms), and certainly unnecessarily expensive.  Instead, I sit in the darkened room, whip out my cell phone on mute, and quickly snap a copy of the displayed image.

It looks something like this:


When I went on Monday, the microfilm room was totally empty, so I brought my good camera with me yesterday, since I can control the focus. Unfortunately, yesterday, everyone showed up.  I just couldn't use it since it makes a noticeable "click" every time.  Instead, I used my cell phone camera on mute.

Still many of the shots came out fine, and I only have to go back today to retake one of them.  Here's one that turned out great of a book about the pogroms being advertised in connection with the murder trial.


I left the BnF early to do laundry one last time in Paris, then headed out across town to have dinner with a colleague and her family.  Ali and I were both in Israel on the Fulbright from 1998-99, and so it was very nice to catch up.


They have a gorgeous apartment in the 7th, and they have a spectacular view at night:


Now I've been told by reliable sources that while a certain Parisian landmark is in the public domain, the nighttime light show is protected by copyright, so all I'll do is post a photo of the night sky from their apartment window.





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