Category Archives: Raleigh

Ruins of St. Agnes

St. Agnes Hospital

 

This is the ruins of St. Agnes Hospital, found on the campus of St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh.

Not a big fan of ‘ruin porn’ but this building seems to compliment the falling snow nicely.

The walls of this building have seen a lot of souls pass through it.

Among them: Jack Johnson, legendary heavyweight champion of the world. Mr. Johnson died here in 1946 after getting injured in a car accident on Route 1 near Franklinton (St. Agnes was the closest black hospital to Franklinton in the segregated NC.)

Video of Jack Johnson vs James Jeffries 1910 bout. 

Miles Davis’ Tribute to Jack Johnson.

 

Inaugural Post!!!

Raleigh after sunset
Raleigh after sunset

 

Greetings!

Welcome to the first blog post of bobspaziano.com.

Please allow me to introduce myself and the purpose of this blog. My name is Bob Spaziano. I have a variety of interests that span the spectrum of expression (more on that as they unfold.)

Recently (and for numerous, boring, reasons) I have grown frustrated with the limitations and realities of social media. At the same time, I still have plenty of things to share with the world
through the internet.

This blog represents an opportunity and attempt to share and connect with the world, without our identity becoming commodified and aggregated. Ultimately, it is my name on the website; we will swap the frantic pace of social media for a more authentic exhale. My goal is walk the fine line between expression and narcissism, and keep it real.

As for the format of this blog, we’re going to go for some images and a little commentary. This will continue to evolve, and future posts will undoubtedly be less verbose. In the mean time, please feel free to voice any critiques or opinions you may have.

Without further ado, about this first image.

This is a photo of my home-town, Raleigh. It is taken from the Boylan St bridge (35.77°,-78.65°), shortly after a winter sunset.

Locals have seen images taken from this vantage point, ad nauseum. (Most recently, a similar image appeared on the Google Fiber Triangle announcement. If you’ve seen an image of Raleigh, most likely it looks like this one.)

I’ve chosen this image for our inaugural post for a variety of reasons. First, it represents my first foray into true high-dynamic-range processing (and I’m learning!)

More importantly, the tracks below represent to me the diverging paths and choices we all face.

To the left, the metropolises of the eastern seaboard. To the right, the shimmer wall and ultimately the coast.

Which route would you pick?