Mexicali Rose

April 21, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

To say that Japan is a place of contrasts – this means nothing, nothing more a cliché.  Shallow commentary, even for a one-time visitor like me.  But applied to travel, “a place of contrasts” should serve as polite euphemism for a grandiose WTF?!!  You see, men in blue jumpsuits are rappelling down Osaka Castle wall, meticulously tending to the creeping vines.  And Pachinko parlours are screaming, screaming and sucking the life and yen out from the fatigued and lonely-looking mums […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Description, Photography, Travel, Video • Tags: arcade, contrasts, japan, nostalgia, video

scapegoats

May 6, 2012 by Mike Ambach Photography

Herds of sugar-rattled kids and jostling teenagers, some bashfully toting stuffed bear prizes won from the game tents.  Small town ritual, they scream and flirt and fight and own the space. Buddy shows me the yellow band around his wrist.  I didn’t pay for this, no way, man – he tells me.  Just picked it up off the ground.  Ain’t no way these guys are gettin’ my money, that’s for sure. Can a leopard change its spots?  These Carnies here […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Events, Photography, Story • Tags: amusement park, carnival, kids, nostalgia, small town, time lapse, video

fly dog

April 27, 2012 by Mike Ambach Photography

Weird story… a Hungarian immigrant to Canada works in forestry in crummy Prince George, stops for a snapshot amidst the pulp mills and brown river.  Click.  Decades later, the image is pulled from the closet and cleaned up.  Well, sort of cleaned up. Meanwhile, there’s these guys from Ireland who sing American doo-wop songs. They see this photo, see this dapper hep cat and get an idea.  There you go.  Hep cat. Thanks to Patrick Kelleher’s crew for getting in […]

Categories: Art & Literature, Creative Writing, Description, Music, Photography • Tags: doo wop, family, memory, Music, nostalgia, photo restoration, retro

odd soul

April 7, 2012 by Mike Ambach Photography

You’ve been here for so long, even the memory of wanting escape brings a soft nostalgia.  The year you longed to get away from all this, now those were the days. You came here thinking you’d give it a try, and stayed on from season to season for the work.  There was a system to it all and it made the months pass quickly.  Always another job to do.  Always one more season.  It felt like you could leave at […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Documentary, Environmental, History, Photography, Story, Travel • Tags: architecture, heritage, memory, museum, North Pacific Historic Cannery Village, Northwest British Columbia, nostalgia, Photography

la fuite

April 4, 2012 by Mike Ambach Photography

On est là? Oui, on est là.  Vous êtes de retour.  Chez toi, terre natale, ou quelque chose. Les ruelles, des mauvaises-herbes, le mois de novembre qui dure six mois. Vous êtes là! Don’t be alarmed… it’s a simple case of dyslexic nostalgia, and this, too, shall pass, ou bien?!    

Categories: Photography, Street • Tags: alleys, french, more cryptic than usual, Northwest British Columbia, nostalgia, Street, words

punch. kick.

March 13, 2012 by Mike Ambach Photography

The DVORAK keyboard layout was a layout that was meant to displace the QWERTY one (look down at the keyboard, you’ll get it).  It was supposed to be faster, more accurate, engineered for efficiency. It failed. I was sitting in a cafe the other day and espied a generic old arcade game… “fight supreme something-or-other”.  The layout there was the standard at the time, but I guess the x-box and playstation layout have taken over.  A lost language.  Went down […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: arcade, game, nostalgia

flattery will get you nowhere

February 26, 2012 by Mike Ambach Photography

I think that one of the reasons that I’m so drawn to closed spaces – or spaces that are empty and cluttered at the same time – is that they have nothing to say.  They leave me utterly confounded, forcing me to find something of curiosity or interest in their mundacity.  This can have unexpected results and I find myself populating these empty lots with fragments of memories, real or embellished. So Sunday’s blog – four short, short stories (well, […]

Categories: Art & Literature, Creative Writing, Documentary, Environmental, Photography, Photography, Story, Street • Tags: abandoned, empty, nostalgia, storytelling

ghosts

January 30, 2012 by Mike Ambach Photography

There’s this place, you stopped there once years ago and were served the most exquisite breakfast.  A renovated character building, a manor.  The interior, immaculate, you felt as though you should be in period dress.  And now every time you pass this place on the highway, you think to yourself – ‘There – that’s a special place, not in any guidebook… let’s see if it’s open.’  But it isn’t, it hasn’t been for… what, years?  There are pickups in the […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Documentary, Photography, Story, Travel • Tags: Ashcroft, hitch-hiker, memory, nostalgia, road trip, story

a kodak moment

January 25, 2012 by Mike Ambach Photography

Me, 20 years ago.  Point and shoot film camera set up on a rock.  Giving up, or something, near the Rainbow Ridge in Tweedsmuir Park of BC’s Coast Range Mountains.  I was hiking alone for a few days, some small trepidations of grizzlies, grim terror of mosquitoes.  There are places that you really want to return to, you know?  One day. Around the time that photo was taken, the Kodak company was proudly hammering together the Quicktake (among the earliest […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Current Events, Documentary, History, Photography, Story • Tags: analog, film, kodachrome, memory, nostalgia, Photography

propaganda

January 3, 2012 by Mike Ambach Photography

Most family photo albums are a form of propaganda… I recently came across this article by photographer Martin Parr, on taking better family and vacation shots.  A good read, check it out. Propoganda might be a little severe.  I come from a family that never took a lot of photos, and of course it was all film, growing up, so the camera didn’t come out too often.  The family shoebox is not full of picture perfect shots of smiling and […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Documentary, Photography, Story • Tags: family, humor, memory, nostalgia, retro