James [November] Harbeck
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sesquiotic.bsky.social
James [November] Harbeck
@sesquiotic.bsky.social
4.8K followers 1.5K following 9.2K posts
Louche left-wing nerd. Words, food, music, beverage alcohol. MA linguistics, PhD theatre. jamesharbeck.com, sesquiotic.com
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sesquiotic.bsky.social
Your last saved meme is your moral philosophy
Mamdani-style poster that says OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE
November 17, 2025 at 2:55 AM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One urban tree photo a day, all month.

16. Leica X typ 113. Somewhere around Beverly Street or Huron Street, Toronto, can't quite remember.
A three-storey brick building with an outdoor metal staircase up to an upper-floor door, and, in front of it, a leafless tree that almost parallels the angle of the stairs, with branches that reach up and seem to cradle windows.
November 16, 2025 at 3:15 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
The tree that is prominent in the original is the one behind it
Wider-angle view from slightly to the left so you can see another tree, a bit larger and still green, behind it; the roof over the walkway swoops across the left half of the image
November 15, 2025 at 9:43 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
View today from the opposite angle
A tree still with yellow leaves, seen on a grey day, in a small grass quadrangle, with tall buildings behind.
November 15, 2025 at 9:41 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One urban tree photo a day, all month.

15. Sony a7ii, Leica Elmarit 90mm f/2.8. Scott Street, Toronto (seen from my apartment window).
A black-and-white night photo taken in January: framed by a building and the acute angle of a roofed walkway apart from the building with lights glowing is a solitary tree, like an exotic beast fenced in a pen. All around is dark, with berms of snow.
November 15, 2025 at 2:30 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
Office with better desk
Now I’m in the Art Gallery of Ontario espresso bar, at a normal table, with a latte and a Nanaimo bar and a Canon 7 and of course my computer
November 14, 2025 at 8:58 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
Office with low desk
I’m at Black Wolf on Bay north of Gerrard, at a padded bench with the window behind and my computer and flat white on a low round marble table
November 14, 2025 at 7:19 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One urban tree photo a day, all month.

14. Sony a7ii, Minolta MD 135mm f/3.5. Toronto.
On a mid-floor terrace in a high-rise apartment building, a couple of small-mid-size trees grow.
November 14, 2025 at 4:02 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One urban tree photo a day, all month.

13. Canonet QL17, Film Photography Project ASA 25 film. Overlea Boulevard, Toronto. (Photo from 2016. The building is no longer there and the camera no longer works.)
A black-and-white photo of a tree at the end of fall, in the median of a boulevard, in front of a modernist three-storey building. The tree is rendered in a black so dense it seems to glow black.
November 13, 2025 at 4:31 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
rising from the street without sanctuary or nave or transept. The highest spire in the world is the Burj Khalifa. I live near another that used to be the highest, the CN Tower. Do you get the point? A spire needs not aspire to divinity to inspire. It needs only be a… what, a spear into the sky? 8/12
A dusk view of Toronto downtown from across the harbour, with the CN Tower spearing the sky like a toothpick in a martini
November 13, 2025 at 7:57 AM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
If you, as an architect, aspired to inspire, what might you do? Would you conspire to spear the air? A tower of any shape has the dominating height that looms like an adult over a small child, but mere parapets, however parental, do not quite get to the point like a spire does. 1/12
A black-and-white photo of the spire of the Cathedral Church of St. James in Toronto, seen through the branches of a tree that seems to wrap it and reach beyond it
November 13, 2025 at 7:54 AM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One urban tree photo a day, all month.

12. Leica X typ 113. Can't remember exactly where, but probably Berczy Park or St. James Park, Toronto.
A close-up in black and white of the base of a vine or small tree, supported by metal rods, with some vines growing and some cut from it, so that it looks like a kneeling supplicant reaching out to someone.
November 12, 2025 at 4:15 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
It got quite pink
Aurora Borealis, looking very pink on top and turquoise below, with bright streaks
November 12, 2025 at 3:17 AM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
Out in the Alberta countryside
A telephone pole with an end-of-road sign and, behind, pink and blue Aurora Borealis
November 12, 2025 at 2:31 AM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One urban tree photo a day, all month.

11. Sony NEX-7, can't remember the lens. St. James Park, Toronto.
In black and white, a church spire is seen through bare tree branches as though they are lightning from below or reaching up to caress it.
November 11, 2025 at 4:00 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One urban tree photo a day, all month.

10. Sony RX100ii. Queen Street, Toronto.
A rainbow-coloured park bench sits in front of a snow-covered park overseen by a troika of winter trees.
November 11, 2025 at 2:22 AM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One urban tree photo a day, all month.

9. Sony a7ii, can't remember which lens. Scott Street, Toronto.
A single green leafy tree grows next to a modernist building on the right, with a 1920s-era brick building behind; in front of it is an old-styled street lamp with a one-way arrow, and an orange diamond sign indicating construction ahead.
November 9, 2025 at 11:21 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
Like look at this photo I took last weekend for example. You could come up with all sorts of stories of drama and conflict and so on. Actually it’s just a freeze frame from two ordinary conversations happening side by side.
Foreground right, is a man looking like he is speaking critically to a young woman, foreground left, whose eyes are closed; background are two women looking serious and one is clutching her scarf.
November 9, 2025 at 4:49 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
This one will come in handy
In Mamdani poster style, it says OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE
November 8, 2025 at 9:54 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
Bonus photo today, from my iPhone
A view of Toronto in early November from an airplane recently departed from Pearson, facing downtown from around Lawrence and Weston. Scattered clouds cast mottled shadows. The million trees are on average a rust colour.
November 8, 2025 at 9:21 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One urban tree photo a day, all month.

8. Mamiya C3, 55mm f/4.5, Kodak Ektar 100. Don Valley, Toronto.
A view down the slope of Riverdale hill and across the playing fields, to a wall of autumn trees below a range of skyscrapers.
November 8, 2025 at 5:16 PM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
Martini suggestion: add a half ounce of this
A jar of Kühne Barrel Dill Pickles that now contains only the residual juice
November 8, 2025 at 2:17 AM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
Yesssss got my copy

Order yours through your local independent bookstore, or, if you do not have one, through the usual suspects
After the Feast: A Turkey Leftovers Cookbooklet, by Iva Cheung
November 8, 2025 at 2:15 AM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
Post you from a different era

Photo booth circa 1992
I am young and skinny and have a moustache and round glasses and tied-back hair
November 8, 2025 at 12:00 AM
sesquiotic.bsky.social
One urban tree photo a day, all month.

7. Moskva IV, Kodak Gold 200. Don Valley, Toronto.
On a glorious lightly cloudy fall day, the Don Valley Parkway is seen from the Bloor Viaduct as it cuts through the tree-filled valley, with tall lights along it and tall buildings behind.
November 7, 2025 at 4:04 PM