|
|
 |
|
Please email me to order one of these CDs
defabbio@verizon.net
|
|
| Babe Ruth |
Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven
Hawthorne, New York
Ruth.
The “Bambino”
The “Sultan of Swat.”
Ruth, Gehrig,
Di Maggio, Mantle, Maris, Yogi.
These were some of the names
that were such a large part of my childhood in New Jersey. Being born into a family of diehard Yankee fans, I kept a Mickey
Mantle scrapbook for years.
I never saw Ruth play but it
didn’t matter. It was the awesome lineage. It has the most history of any sports team.
Americana? “The House That Ruth
Built”- Yankee Stadium- is at One Americana Boulevard.
I knew
I’d find plenty of memorabilia at his memorial. A couple of kids left their baseball cards. Lineage.
Babe was one of the first five players in 1936 to be elected to the Baseball Hall
of Fame. As famous as he was he never forgot that he was raised in an orphanage. At the height of his powers, he would visit
the children in them and also children in hospitals freely signing his autograph.
Playing in the 1926 World Series, he learned that one of his fans a young boy was in the hospital very ill. He sent
the boy a telegram promising to hit a home run that day.
He
hit three.
|
|
| John Lennon Memorial |
Strawberry Fields
Central Park, New York City
The Dakota Building- One West Seventy Second Street, New York City. Where
John and Yoko lived and where John’s life ended. Across the street is Central Park and a short distance inside is the
two and a half acre Strawberry Fields. This was John’s favorite area in the park. It is maintained through a donation
from Yoko. It has not been confirmed but Yoko may have scattered John’s ashes in this area.
This is where the “Imagine” mosaic is found. It is a reproduction of
a mosaic from Pompeii, Italy. It was made by Italian craftsmen and was a gift from Naples.
Each day, visitors leave flowers, notes, candles, photos and other memorabilia. They
are removed daily.
Over one hundred countries donated
to the memorial and a plaque lists one hundred and twenty one countries that endorse the area as a Garden of Peace.
|
|
|
| Elvis Presley |
Graceland
Memphis, Tennessee
Arriving at dusk in Memphis, I found my way to Graceland and noticed directly across the street the neon lights of
Heartbreak Hotel. Perfect!
Knowing that the morning tours
started at nine o’clock, I arrived at eight thirty to find the gates already opened. The guard said that I could walk
the winding path to the right and see the gravesite. I had wanted to see it early before the crowds arrived so this was very
good news. The estate is very lovely with many tall trees.
It
had rained earlier and the droplets of water looked great on the metal cover. The statuettes at the top are left by visitors
and I feel add a lot to the image. These mementoes are put on the stone by the staff and changed periodically.
There was only one other person besides me at the memorial- a young Japanese woman.
She had a point and shoot camera and asked if I would take her picture as she stood next to the grave. I was more than happy
to do so and made two exposures.
|
|
| Charlie Chaplin Memorial |
Lake Geneva
Vevey, Switzerland English
motion picture actor, director, producer, and composer. He
achieved world wide fame with his silent films some of which are- The
Gold Rush City Lights Modern Times The
Great Dictator After touring the U.S. in 1910, he decided to stay. In 1952,
he moved permanently in Switzerland, returning briefly to Hollywood to receive a special Academy Award. He is buried in the
town of Corsier very near this memorial. With baggy pants, enormous shoes,
a bowler hat and a bamboo cane, he invented the classic character the tramp a symbol of the individual overcoming adversity
whether human or mechanical. During his career, he used the tramp in more than seventy films. The heavily overcast sky and low hanging clouds are a perfect backdrop for the darker figure. I especially like this
pose- the tramp looking toward the far horizon of endless possibilities seemingly oblivious to the constraints of the world.
|
|
|
| Greta Garbo |
The Woodland Cemetery
Stockholm, Sweden Garbo was on my list of must haves. It’s a beautiful stone. Simple but very
elegant with a great script. While traveling to Stockholm,
I had some concern that I would not be able to photograph the stone. Perhaps it was in the shop being worked on or there was
a scaffold around it or worse- like a museum, the stone was on loan. The
train lets one off at the cemetery entrance. I checked the map on the wall for the location and entered. Tall pines are everywhere.
While walking in the general direction, I encountered a groundskeeper and told him what I was looking for. As I walked away
he shouted, “It’s by itself on a small hill.” Set
apart? A little higher? Hmm? The memorial is on the backside
of a small four foot hill about fifty feet in diameter. Once on the hill, one walks a path of twenty eight flat stones. There
was a wonderful row of white flowers on each side and I decided to include some of them in the image. The sun was trying to
break through the trees from behind. Nice open shade for the time being. Lights!
Camera! Action! I photographed for about an hour and then sat and wrote notes
in a small pad. I was in no hurry to leave. This was my moment with the crème de la crème. Before leaving, one last view from behind the stone, one realizes that Greta now
has, for all eternity, the things she valued most- seclusion, a stage and the audience below.
|
|
| Count Dracula tomb |
Monastery of Snagov Church Near Bucharest, Romania Dracula, Transylvania, Nighttime,
Bats Hollywood
did a great job of putting a scare into us. Actually, Count Dracula was fictional but Count Vlad Dracul was a real person
although not a very nice one. He would terrorize people at the Romanian borders to protect the country. He had three castles
but it’s unclear how much time he spent in each. A short
ride from Bucharest on a small lake is a small island. I rented a boat, rowed to it and immediately saw the church where he’s
buried. Walking to it, I was met by a small old nun in a black habit who was carrying a large ring with many skeleton keys. Hmm? Already getting a bit spooky. Thank God there’s daylight. What if, once inside the church,
the nun turns into a vampire? Should have worn garlic. Cold
and clammy inside, it was easily the weirdest tomb I’ve ever encountered. It was a small church with scaffolding on
both sides and dark recesses. Gotta get this shot and get the hell out! And that dark curtain. God only knows what’s
behind that. No way I wanna be on this island after dark.
|
|
|
| Rosa Parks lying in state |
US Capitol rotunda
African American civil rights activist
(1913-2005).
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, she refused to give
up her bus seat to a white man as required by law. Her subsequent arrest started the Montgomery bus boycott that lasted 381
days and sparked the civil rights movement. The boycott was the first large-scale, organized protest against segregation and
it stressed non violence. It also brought to the forefront of the struggle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a minister who had
just moved to the city.
In 1943, Rosa became secretary
of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP. In 1996, President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest
honor that the U.S. government can bestow on a civilian.
Rosa was the first woman to ever lie in state in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. To be
assured of seeing her, I arrived very early in the morning and was fortunate to be able to pass by her casket twice.
From the book I Dream a World, Rosa said:
“Many whites, even white Southerners, told me that even though it may have
seemed like the blacks were being freed, they felt more free and at ease themselves. They thought that my action didn’t
just free blacks but them also.”
|
|
| Titanic Memorial |
Washington, DC
Inscription reads:
To the brave
men
who perished in the wreck of the Titanic April 15, 1912 They gave their lives that women and
children might be saved
Erected by the Women of America
|
|
|
| Ludwig van Beethoven |
Central Cemetery, Vienna, Austria He is considered possibly the greatest Western composer of all
time. He composed string quartets, chamber music, songs, two masses, an opera and nine symphonies. His funeral was a huge public event in 1827. A procession of 20,000 people followed his coffin to the cemetery. Franz
Schubert was one of the 36 torchbearers. I thought it fitting that Beethoven
has such a magnificent memorial. I could almost hear some of his powerful music coming from it. I looked at it for a very long time.
|
|
| Vincent van Gogh |
Auvers Town Cemetery
Auvers, France
I saw van Gogh’s stone
on findagrave.com. It looked ordinary so I decided not to include it in the book. However, his famous “Church in Auvers”
was on my list and I wanted to photograph that. I couldn’t find Auvers on the map but thought I would eventually locate
it.
Driving a short distance northeast of Paris, I saw a highway
sign with the church on it. Ah, good fortune once again. At the church there is a sign for the nearby graveyard.
I was all alone when I approached his memorial and it was beautiful.
It looked as if Vincent had painted those four dabs of color. The font was perfect.
An identical stone was to the right. It was his brother Theo.
After spending some time photographing, I noticed a middle aged couple come in with their teen aged son. I walked
to another part of the cemetery but wanted to observe them as they approached the stone. They stood in silence for a long
time just staring.
There’s not much to the
memorial but the name is mesmerizing.
It’s who he was and what
he did that really matters.
|
|
This book of “50 Famous Gravesites
and Memorials” is on CD and sells for $25. I have shown 10 samples above and below are the entire 50 gravesites in the
order of their appearance in the book. Please email me to see a specific gravesite or memorial.
Johannes Brahms Franz Schubert Johann
Strauss Ludwig van Beethoven Franz von Suppe Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Kathe Kollwitz Kathe Kollwitz Sculpture Mahatma Gandhi Taj
Mahal Winston Churchill memorial Pierre and Marie Curie Vincent van Gogh Frederic Chopin Constantin Brancusi Francois Raspail Jules
Verne Oscar Wilde Napoleon Bonaparte Chief Red Cloud FDR Memorial Rosa Parks Babe Ruth Berlin Wall Albert
Einstein memorial Elvis Presley Leonard Matlovich World Trade Center Kahlil Gibran memorial Titanic memorial Gettysburg Sam and Hannah The Kansas Kid The
“Thunderbolt” rollercoaster Camarasaurus- dinosaur Death
Valley Easter Island Fererico Fellini Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi Yangtze River Christopher Columbus Count Dracula Greta
Garbo Mount Koya Hiroshima/Nagasaki The Great Pyramid Anton Chekhov Giuseppe Verdi Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky Charlie Chaplin memorial
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|