Unsung Heroes - U.S. Muay Thai Open 2018

As some of you might know, I competed in the U.S. Muay Thai Open East 2018 tournament this past weekend. And did pretty well. I walked away with a championship belt for the Novice division. The details of me winning my two matches aren't important. What I want to talk about are the unsung heroes that contributed, much like flawless cogs in a wheel, to my victory, and the seismic changes that occurred by pushing my limits.

Some of these heroes are real people, but others are real ideas. There's no difference, really.


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I. The body

I've always neglected my body. Punished it, even, in the form of excessive carbohydrate and fat intake and then punished that punishment in the form of self-criticism in its cruelest verbalized form. I have a sort of self-undoing with regards to my physical health, but what I didn't realize before starting Muay Thai was that the body is inexplicably but intrinsically connected to my mind and spirit. Or will. Or heart, in the metaphorical sense. It doesn't matter how sharp my mind and will were--how could they be sharp when they're being fueled by the wrong type of chemical energy?

Muay Thai came to me when I was studying abroad in London in 2015, where I was begrudgingly convinced by my friend to join a commercial gym that happened to have one of UK's best Muay Thai teams teaching classes there. I was particularly inspired by Daniel McGowan, whom I interviewed for my class project. He talked about cutting 5 kilos in a hot bath, and I laughed at the absurdity of it. Didn't seem as absurd when I had to do the same thing, two years later.

When I came back in the summer of '15, I lucked out by joining the Renzo Gracie Academy, where I completely revamped my technique from scratch and learned, first and foremost, how to be a great training partner. The only reason I was able to improve so quickly was because of my peers (same in architecture), who stayed late and went over techniques long after class was over. "The rising tide raises all boats!" as coach Jamie Crowder would say in his unfettered Liverpool accent.

My first training partner was Joshua Brandenburg. My first mentor was Michelle Diaz. My coach from day one was and always has been Joseph Sampieri. What they saw in a homeless-looking, sleepy-eyed, grumpy-ass and caffeine-addicted architecture student, I couldn't say for sure. All I know was that I was given a chance to show who I was, and I had already let enough important chances slip past me to know that I didn't want to coast through life anymore. Just being "good" at something isn't enough. I needed to attain a higher level of understanding in order to clear the fog in my brain. Sometimes I felt like I was navigating through life, but I wasn't really living. I'm here but not here. I'll meet you and not remember your name or your face, or even the hour-long conversation we had about your one-eyed puppy. Who are you? And just how different was that from lucid dreaming? I was lost at sea in the real world.

All to say that the body is truly miraculous. I went up 11 lbs (5 kg) a few hours after re-hydrating before my first tournament. Whatever I wanted, my body complied. "Oh, you're lifting now? We'll get stronger. Oh you're doing a double cut? Don't worry, we won't go up that much in weight. We'll help you out." I didn't realize that my body was my friend. All this time, trying to get me on the right track. Supporting me with explosive power and stability and balance. It's unbelievable that I had previously tried to navigate a physical world with a neglected physical body. It's like starting an RPG with a character with low physical stats, and never trying to improve those stats from map to map. Just...no.



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II. The mind

I have a tendency to dissociate when I get stressed out. If I black out and enough time passes, I won't have to deal with, you know, the looming thing anymore. This is also known more commonly as procrastination, but I added a little bit of a Neptunian flair to it by also losing my sense of time and self. I would "zombie-out" and hope for the best. My mind would shut off and run on autopilot, mostly to protect myself from my formless fears, which would snowball by the second until I had crushed myself with a make-believe avalanche.

Anyway, I definitely dissociated during my first Muay Thai fight at the 2017 U.S. Muay Thai Open East. I had a legitimate out-of-body experience. I could hear my corner screaming, but their voices felt muffled before they even reached my ears. I could hear my opponent's corner much more clearly, and all it did was chip away at my confidence. I OBSERVED myself throw kicks from a vague point behind my actual body. I didn't know if my teammates were watching, or if they even cared. All I knew was that my head was being snapped back by punches and my kicks didn't seem to do a thing against the monster that was marching straight at me. My body became a heavy bag of flesh after every round, and I wanted that 1-minute break to stretch forever so I didn't have to get up from the stool. Most of all, I felt completely and utterly alone. My pessimism colored my entire outlook, and I
had already lost the fight in my head. The match ended up being a split decision, which meant I had a fair chance of my hand being raised. But I never thought I had any chance of winning, so I had already sealed my loss before the first bell had rung.

Immense pressure had built up between last year's defeat and this year's determination to try again. Same tournament, but I had gone up a weight class both because of the new double weigh-in rule and my poor choices in alcohol consumption after graduating from grad school (fuck it). Shit, what if these girls were massive? What if I crumpled like a piece of paper in the ring? What if even after trying my best, I was just not good enough?

Well, it turns out whether or not I was good enough depended mostly on what I believed. And I really, from the pit of my stomach really, did not want to lose again. My mind was trying to find an excuse, and came up with nil. Nothing. Nada. So the only option I had was to win. Leading up to the fight I forced myself (it wasn't easy) to throw all my insecurities aside to make room for game-planning and strategy. Pulling tarot cards, taking hour-long meditative showers, having perpetual angry-face and ignoring everyone...I didn't give a fuck what that looked like to other people. Coach Deborah gave us a pep talk that unleashed my mental restraints by giving us permission to be selfish for a week. Well, I definitely took her advice. And in doing so, discovered a pure and unapologetic version of myself.



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III. The heart

The one who grabbed my spirit mid-departure from my body and stuffed it back in my flesh-and-blood, human-shaped container was my coach Anne Lieberman. Up until the moment I stepped into the ring, I thought I had been ready, but the few minutes before my fight when we were waiting to get on deck changed my mentality drastically. Watching the fights before us finish and hearing the crowd scream with every shot landed...that all brought back the surrealism I felt from last year. My eyes started to glaze over, even though I thought I heard Joe say "switch on" in a muted voice far away. Nope, I was about to leave Earth and go to Neptune again. A safe and empty place where nothing could hurt me...

It was at this exact moment that Anne anchored her hands on my shoulders and caught my gaze. She gave me the most intense stare and uttered, "I need you with me for just 6 minutes. Give it all you've got." Looking into her eyes, I felt all of her frustration from her previous fight. She hadn't been given a fair chance in the ring, yet she had thrown her frustrations aside to corner me for my fight. That moment, I decided to show 100% of my heart in this fight and leave everything in the ring, wide open, to make her proud.

I felt more alive in that fight than I did in any other moment in my life. I had my hands on the wheel, and I was driving my life towards the direction that I wanted it to go in. Thank God for backseat drivers.



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IV. Backseat drivers

♚ Joseph Sampieri for the 20/20 coaching, cornering, gameplan, and endless sacrifice for the sake of the team

♛ Michelle Diaz for being THE life advice giver, always pushing me in training and in life by setting the best example--and lifting me up when I felt my lowest

♛ Anne Lieberman for being so dedicated to my success and happiness, sometimes at her own expense

♛♛ Kaitlin Sansoucie and Sonia Ortiz for so much magic and tarot support. Honestly, I trusted the heart of the (tarot) cards.

♞ Giselle Prenata for the most amazing coffee ever, the focus music and all the SUPPORT! Damn that support was real.

♛ Samantha Mang for all the boxing, sparring and adventures

♚ John Lee for all the amazing food and technical drilling

♚ Mateo Molina for the pep talks and mitt work, and putting me through the wringer when I needed to be

♚ Miguel Mariano for being the OG drilling partner

♚ Mark Marrero for the pads, sharp eye for weaknesses, and the booming voice in the corner I could always hear

♛♛♛ Dre, Buzz, and D for being gangster Amazonians in the ring and being my heroes

♚ Joe Boffi and Paul Pivarnik at Catalyst S.P.O.R.T for the lifting gains, confidence in my strength and being kind enough to let me sleep under desks and cut weight there 😓

♛ On Point Sports Care for the much needed acupuncture and recovery sessions

♛ Pari Aryafar for the amazing photos -- if there are no pics, did it even happen?

♛ Watt Sriboonruang for feeding me emergency pie at a moment of great desperation

♞ Dad for rushing over at night when I was cutting weight to help me meal prep and wash my sauna suit 😇

😻 Amanda La Salle for all the love

♚♛ Everyone who texted me to support in crucial moments

♞ Team Renzo Gracie for the family

All photos by Pari Aryafar

Le Loup interview excerpt, 2016, edited

The sound of Le Loup is characterized by haunting vocals, syncopated rhythms, and bass lines that embrace dissonance in all of their anti-Classical glory. The artist behind this solo production is 24-year old Louis P., who does everything from producing his tracks to recording live bass and vocals. His lyrics have a tendency to flirt with the dark side of life in surprisingly accurate descriptions. Subdued but quirky, Peralte keeps his electronically-based tracks shocking and mesmerizing, all while retaining an authentic singer-songwriter flair. Songwriting, for this Queens native, is a way to record his rapidly fluctuating emotions in everyday life. His style blends futuristic electronica with some rather surprising historical influences, conglomerating into a hypnotizing collage of sound.

Clarifications

The following interview was conducted over the phone on the evening of December 9, 2016. Originally written for the Fall 2016 course, HNR340: Inside the Words and Music.

-Ableton is a songwriting and musical production program that allows tracks to be created and edited. It is the preferred software of many electronic musicians. 

-The description of Moondog is corrected from “Viking of Sixth Street” to “Viking of Sixth Avenue.” Moondog was also not homeless, but did busk regularly on the streets of New York.

Interview

I’ve heard a lot of the tracks you’ve recorded recently, and they’re all produced in Ableton. How much would you say that you have a vision of the song prior to using Ableton and how much are you just experimenting with the software at this point?

It’s not heavily rooted in the program itself. I think [Ableton is] just an easy way to get the recordings done, so usually it would just be me noodling on a guitar coming up with a melody, and I’ll go like, “Oh, that would go really well with something.” And that’s when I lay it down on Ableton. I’ll let that loop. I’ll start messing around with it in my head. It’s very physical. When I think of [the song], I start doing things with my hands, because that’s how I’m envisioning it. I’m thinking of it like...shapes, or I guess like a feeling. At that point that’s when it starts to become heavily rooted in the program because then I want to add to that.

Back to what you said about starting off with a short melody or a loop. Do you usually just hum or sing those melodies? Or do you hear it in your head? How does that work?

I almost always hum or sing in head voice. Like, it will always be like “hmmmm” or like a “doo dooo…” and then I’ll see what that feels like. So to me, [what I just sang] was like...a piano. So I’ll be like, “that’s gonna be a piano.” Usually I won’t envision anything when I’m playing the bass or guitar, I’ll actually feel those [instruments] out. I won’t think about what I’m going to play, I’ll just let my hands do it. And if [the phrase] is chordal, then I usually don’t imagine it all at once. I’ll start with the root and then I’ll do the harmonies however I see fit.

It’s interesting how you just let yourself play whatever on the bass. Are you afraid at all that it won’t sound good?

Not really, because a lot of it is muscle memory. For me, when it comes to playing the strings, it’s more rhythmic than anything. I don’t think very...melodically. I think that’s what I mean by “I’ll let my hands do whatever.” I’ll know where to go just based on the chord progression of the song. So it’s not like I’m just playing random notes.

Are you comfortable recording with instruments you may not necessarily have that much experience with?

Yeah, I do that all the time. If anything, that’s the most fun. For the most part, every song that I have is just an accumulation of happy accidents. That’s how I work. If I don’t know what I’m going to write I’m going to pick up an instrument that I’m terrible at. And I’m gonna play it, and I’ll be like, “Hey, that is cool. I will elaborate on that.”

So do you think knowing more about the instrument is actually a roadblock to writing with it? Because then the things you thought were cool...don’t become so cool anymore?

No, not at all. I mean if anything I always feel...what’s the word? Inadequate. I always feel really inadequate because I’m like, “I know that [what I’m doing] works for now, but what if I actually know my theory? What could this have been?” So I don’t think knowing more, or having more of a technical know-how, would be a roadblock when it comes to [writing with] these instruments.

Do you sit down and decide to write something? Or do you find yourself noodling or doing something else and then being inspired to open a program to record it?

Okay, so I only figured this out recently. But for the most part, it’s a compulsion. Like for me, [songwriting] is very meditative because I can focus on it and ignore everything else that’s going on. So if I’m ever sitting down and I don’t have something to do, I will just instinctively start doing something. I’ll either grab a guitar or I’ll open [Ableton] and start doing something there. Not because I want to, or I feel inspired, but because I have to. Because something inside of me is just itchy. And I need to scratch that itch. So there will be days where I’m not doing anything and I’ll just be going stir crazy. I’ll open [Ableton] up, and by the time I look at the clock it’ll have been been six hours. And I’ll have been doing that one thing.

Do you think part of it is having manic tendencies?

It’s definitely part of it. You know I started taking anti-anxiety meds, right? That’s a recent thing. I’m just comparing the way that I do things now to the way I did things when I last saw you. I’ve put out so many recordings so compulsively because of my anxiety. I feel like I have to do it. I have to produce something and to make my time worthwhile. A lot of that stems from the anxiety. I didn’t know until I was able to look back at my habits before taking meds.

Do you think that taking the anti-anxiety meds actually stifles your creative process?

Somewhat. It’s kind of sad, actually. I don’t know if it’s just because I started working, and I don’t have the time to write, but I don’t have the compulsion to sit down with the software, so I haven’t been doing that for three weeks now. But on the other hand, there are so many tracks that I’ve started but never finished because I was like, “This isn’t perfect, this isn’t perfect…” I have a few that I’ve written since I started on the medication and they’re a little looser, in terms of the quality, but they’re coming out with more ease.

So when do lyrics actually get written in your songs? Do you ever, instead of humming a melody, think of lyrics first?

I almost always do lyrics last. Because the song is generally a feeling I’m thinking about when I’m writing it. I’ll start out with the intro, and there won’t be any words for that. There won’t be any words for [the verse]...then I get to the chorus and at that point I have a feel for the song. So let’s say the feel for the song is…”I’m falling through the floor.” Then, the whole time I’m recording the rest of the song I’m just thinking of that one thing; “I’m falling through the floor, I’m falling through the floor.” I’ll quickly record everything still with just this one thought in my mind, and by the time I have the skeleton of the song down, I’ll go back and I’ll write the lyrics down.

I know that you also do a lot of creative freewriting. How come you don’t start off with lyrics from your writing?

I have a lot of poetry that I want to turn into songs but once I have the words down and they’re like an entity in and of themselves. I can’t find the right feel or tone to express it. Because they already have their own tone. So I feel like any music that I set to it wouldn’t actually match the right way.

On average, how often do you complete your songs? How many have one verse down, and how many have two verses?

I have this thing that I call the first verse curse. I’ll have the song. I’ll have the format of it like I told you, and I’ll have all this space to fill up [with lyrics]. I’ll come up with a really solid first verse, and then anything after that just doesn’t feel like it amounts to what I set up in the first verse. So all the good intentions and all of the good details, that’s all in the first verse. But then after that, it’s like how do I keep putting out this content? That’s the first verse curse.

How is it different to write solo as opposed to in a duo or in a band?

When I’m writing in a band, there’s a lot of “I don’t want to step on toes, I don’t want to tell you what you’re doing is bad, or I don’t like this.” Then there is also not wanting to be too overbearing and being like, “Well I wanted it like this.” So it’s a lot of judging your balance and territory. Writing solo is like, “Well, of course I’m going to do this. Of course I’m going to do that. And well, there’s that thing that I already know what to do.” So like, I don’t know, I get kind of bored with the stuff that I do sometimes, but writing with somebody else, it’s like, “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Do you feel like that process diluted your original intentions for the songs?

Definitely. Because it’s like, “Oh, you kind of took away from what I meant, from what I felt.” I guess I didn’t really realize that I had such a deep connection between the intent of the song and the words of the song, the feel of the song.

Where do you hope to take your songwriting?

I want to start my own band. I want to see what everybody is able to make. I guess it’s kind of like reading someone’s diary. That’s how I use songs. They’re like my diary entries. I feel like everyone should have an opportunity to put [himself/herself] out there. So...long term, yeah, I want to start a band, I want to gig, I want to put my music out there, put the music I write with other people out there. But for me...the most fun is recording.

Who do you respect the most as a songwriter?

I have a few. I have Moondog. Moondog was the Viking of Sixth Avenue. He was this blind hobo in New York in like the 1940’s. And he was writing from the ’40’s up until like the late ‘60’s. His stuff is so weird. And so future. He would make his own instruments, and he would play them.

Who else?

Danny Elfman. His stuff in Oingo Boingo. That’s the band he has with his brother and some other people. If anything has the most influence on my approach to vocals, so if you were to put on a track by Oingo Boingo, you’d be like, “Oh, that’s why he does that.”

Those are all the questions I have. Thank you for your time!

The Sweetest Housing Development

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of visiting the Sugar Hill affordable housing development with my studio. From its saw-tooth plan, attention to pre-cast details, and transparency of spaces, this project was not at all what I envisioned when the project architect (David Adjaye Architects) told us that it was for the lowest 10% of AMI households! (Around $15,000/year for a household of 4.)

There are many restrictions for affordable housing projects, which is why they typically look like this:

(View from the roof of Sugar Hill Development) 

Depressing! And check that huge shadow cast by the Greek-cross extrusion of the plan! It'd suck to have no light entering your window!

But David Adjaye's project looks like this:

I mean, what? At first glance, you might think...is this contextual at all?

But from the scale, subtle rose-detailing on the pre-cast concrete facade (which glimmers in just the right way!), and play in transparencies, the project is actually very rooted in its neighborhood (the junction between West Harlem and Washington Heights). There's a pre-school and large (78,000 SF) children's museum, which is rare up on 155th street. The project architect also talked about deriving certain datum lines from the surrounding context, but that's probably more to satisfy zoning than for the users...

A really nice lightwell condition on the ground floor, looking down into a double-height space of the museum.

From the museum, looking up.

A multipurpose space adjacent to the museum. Imagine playing a concert here! (Which my band might just pitch to them!)

Kiddie toilet in the pre-school classroom...pretty cool!

Almost Corbusian roof details...

That unobstructed roof view though.

If you want to learn more about the project, check out Broadway Housing Communities' website: http://www.bhc.org/housing/sugarhill/

October web shopping

I read somewhere that geminis have obsessive compulsive shopping tendencies? Maybe if I post these I won't feel the need to buy them. 

Dipped tulle skirt, Anthropologie 

I just waded in a lake of navy blue paint, nbd.

Python-trimmed leather Chelsea boots, Reed Krakoff

Sick. Details. The proportion of the block heel isn't overwhelming, and the loose ankle cuff at the top gives it balance. 

The Petra portfolio, Everlane

Sold out, but at $425, I couldn't afford it anyway. (Thinking about making this because of the simple cut...but I'd have to be really careful about construction.)

Missguided Faux Fur Coat, ASOS

Polar bear time.

Camo flannel, Uniqlo

Printed flannel shirts all the way!

Draped neck cardigan, Zara

I like the cut on this! Not too long, and streamlined.

Mobius ring, Jenny Wu LACE

Sci-arc professor and architect turned 3d printed jewelry designer. How very sci-arc. (40% off right now!)

African skies stack, 2 Bandits

Bracelets aren't usually my thing because I play piano and the weight difference on my wrists is annoying, but these are super cool and can stack in different ways!

Extended neck cage, Chromat (for the days I don't feel like talking to anyone)

Another architect-turned-fashion designer led brand.

I will never buy full-priced designer items as long as I'm in school...

Oh, and by the way, these are what I actually bought recently:

Venum challenger mouthguard, Amazon

Hayabusa hand wraps, Amazon

Lesson: If form follows function, then $$, not $$$$$, will be spent

ARC500.2: Stockholm: The Optimistic City

Stockholm was a city that really made me question its ambitions. Perhaps my weekend excursion was simply too short to discover anything beyond its message to tourists: "we're green, we're conservative, we're smart, we're fashionable, we're designed, we're growing!). The city was fairly insistent upon using clean design to distract me from how it worked as a system. Could the notion of the Picturesque (masking undesirable truths) be at work at an urban scale as well?

BACK TO THE FOUNDATIONS

My Swedish friend told me that Stockholm is built on a foundation of rock, so they have to drill deep into the rock to build anything. As a result, their buildings have extremely sturdy foundations. He works in demolition, so I can probably trust his opinion on this.

DESIGN CULTURE

Ahh, the Kulturhuset ("Culture House") in the central square Sergels torg. Built in the 1960's in an era of Modernist ambitions, it is massive, located at the heart of major transportation hubs, and consists of many layers. Above is the cleanest, most public layer.

Underneath the public ground is a semi-private level that serves as circulation and of course, mid-end and high-end retail. There is nothing that is not cleanly designed in this multi-layered plaza. Ironic that a lot of these shops are Swedish graphic and interior design stores. 

But upon closer examination, maybe architecture isn't the solution for their obsession with cleanliness. Maybe they should clean their ceilings first. But what are we looking at through these glass lenses?

Ah, on the layer above resides the infamous glass obelisk. This thing looks ancient, rock solid, and devoid of culture in the daytime and lights up at night to become "cultured," I guess. I'm not sure if the statement is meant to represent some sort of dichotomy in the work and night-lives of the Sweds. 

OLD CITY

Approaching Gamla Stan (the Old City). Over to the left you can see the Parliament house, semi-circular, a shocking combination of contemporary structure and nostalgic veneer. Once again, there is the idea that in order to be culturally cohesive, your building has to look like its surroundings. Although, it does express its "real" structure towards the skyline, so maybe something symbolic can be said, like without the old, the new wouldn't be possible?

Caves vs. corridor urban typology in the old city. 

I am severely afraid of anything that looks like this. It feels like you're marching to your own execution. Don't get me wrong, it's extraordinarily beautiful and clean, but lacking the dirtiness and grittiness that comes with...well, life. Walking through this makes me feel like I'm confined to the public zone that somebody wanted me to see. I want to see the underlying system that governs this, and I refuse to be silenced by beautiful exteriors. 

MODERNIST AND CONTEMPORARY AMBITIONS

Gunnar Asplund's Modernist ambitions. (1928) The use of abstraction of the classical orders and radical centralized form to establish monumentality. Apparently, from looking and this building, knowledge should be revered. It's too bad the building was closed over Easter weekend, but the exterior also conveys a sense of centrality and of controlled elegance. The rotunda is eerily reminiscent of the Panopticon.

Sketch of the Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibit in the Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art). Clean lines of the exihibit vs my not-so-clean sketch (I'm never patient enough to wait for an inkwash to dry before closing my sketchbook...)

Contemporary ambitions for urban growth can be seen in the massive cranes that dominate the skyline. What kind of city does Stockholm want to become? How can they reconcile their fervor of building with their apparent dislike of immigrants and foreigners? Apparently, building more seems to be the answer. I'm dying to see how this city will look like in a couple of years.

JUNKSPACE

Yes, Skansen (a miniature Viking village) is incredible, because it provides visitors the opportunity to go back in time and explore pre-industrial built environment. But one might question the validity of such an open-air museum. Monuments of monuments of meaning lost.

Infrastructure penetrates the waterfront, and a city of junkspace ensues. Reminds me of the chaos of South Bank in London. It would be interesting to see how the city deals with this leftover space, which I think has a lot of architectural potential.

STOCKHOLM IN 15 SECONDS

ARC500.2: When in Rome...it's impossible to outdo what the Romans already did.

The day we spent in Rome was life-changing. Not only had my friend and I visited the Colosseum, Musei Vaticani, St. Peter's Basilica, and the Pantheon all in one day, I was also surprised to find my notoriously lazy self sketching like a maniac. The spaces themselves demanded more attention than just photographs, I think. I sketched like a madman until my fingers were numb, and until I felt pain in both legs from awkwardly standing for hours.

I can never wrap my head around ancient Roman architecture, and how many of the people who took over after the Roman Empire had disintegrated (the Saxons in London, for example) seemed to go back to antiquated approaches of building, because they were also too perplexed by Roman engineering to know what to do with these magnificent concrete structures.

A Pantheon-like space in the Musei Vaticani.

Gah! I can't tell what's relief and what's painting!

Bramante double helix staircase in the Musei Vaticani (Giuseppe Momo, 1932)

On towards St. Peter's Basilica. This sketch was particularly difficult because we started at the left side of the line wrapped around the basilica, and quickly moved across to the right (and therefore changed perspectives).

The colossal monstrosity that is St. Peter's Basilica. Seriously, you can't even begin to imagine the scale of this until you come up to it and realize the column bases are taller than you. (Michelangelo, Donato Bramante, Carlo Maderno, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1626)

And, even though it's larger than human comprehension, it's also easily the most ornate and detailed building you'll ever encounter.

Climbing the cupola. How weird that there are renovated stairs with modern dimensions...

The view from the top of the cupola. I'd like to believe that we were so high up we could tell that the Earth is round. (But most likely it was because of the camera's distortion.)

On another note, can someone tell me where I can get some of these Roman trees? They's so poofy and perfect for renderings.

Some sketches of the Pantheon. We saw the oculus change from its daylit mode to its night-time mode, which was fun.

Obligatory touristy photo to end this post. We didn't have enough time in Rome (we did all this in a day!) to get into the Colosseum, but even the exterior is awe-inspiring. I still can't believe they used to flood the stadium for naval battles. Is this real life?