Bear Hugs & Poster Art

Time to share some silk screened inspiration.  No paint here.  No tool box.  None of the color or accessories that lets me make my own pictures so Ill fill myself up with others…Bear hugs are on my mind…

Free Hugs - misnopalesart

Royal Panda - Alice Gabb

Things I Like - Richard Perez

Girl With Teddybear - Dolk

Bear on a Bike - linocutboy

Bear Hug - Matt Sewell

Tall Bike - Antonia Schulz

 

It May Not Be the Right Way to Pray..

In the blink of an eye routine can be broken.  Surroundings change, change becomes comfortable, comfortable becomes routine and in another blink of another eye, routine re-emerges.  In my case, in a new language or perhaps a new alphabet…as though I woke up to a new life framed by the same familiar face in the mirror.

The last days have been intense with work and planning and, in the midst of the stress and work, I shelved the ‘adjustment’ and just plugged away like life in Hong Kong is totally normal.  That can of ‘adjusting’ rolled off the proverbial shelf and knocked me unconscious this past weekend.  Vegetative state would be an insult to parsnips so I’ll impress you with another metaphor…savasana.  Last weekend was a little death or, if that makes you worry about your far-away friend Beana, we can call it a mini hibernation.  I don’t think I said more than 25 words out loud between Friday and Monday and only managed to emerge from my flat once for a hot yoga class that almost made me vomit.  Clearly I needed a withdrawal.

I shook it off this morning and, like it just happened yesterday, my eyes opened and I realized that I am alone again in a far away place with a very cool job, everything I need to feel safe, joyful and free and yet, somehow, still totally isolated from the people that I love….now even more of them.  The longing is no longer contained to North America since there is a slew of ‘family’ and dear ones now nestled in the Alps too!  I remember this feeling well from when I experienced it 2 years ago in the tiny village of Wattens though I can now confirm that size is irrelevant….tiny village or throbbing metropolis, being alone in the world feels the same wherever you are.  Im guessing that my situational longing has something to do with the fact that all over the USA, people that I love are coming together tomorrow to eat and fight and laugh and talk and fight and play and then eat again.  I have no doubt that each of you reading this has your own laundry list of things to be thankful for and, if its not already high on the list, please add proximity.  Breathing the same air as people that are close to you and hugs from family and friends usually need proximity so count that among your blessings and take it from a person lacking it to know that it matters more than you realize.

I have been joking all week that I will celebrate Thanksgiving with some Peking Duck but the reality is that I will probably work late, do a little yoga since that’s one of my new things and then come home and let my mouth water reading Facebook updates on feasts aplenty.  I’d prefer Ready-Whip with Max and Cal, dress-up with Lucia, fetch with Sailor or Annie, Dominos with Popi, Rodeling with Innsbrucklyn or any variation on these themes but I will make the best of it and hope (just a little) that the ones I’m missing are missing me too.

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”  ~Buddah

  Roy Buchanan – Record Plant 1973

20er 2010 Kalendar – Asil und Arbeit

Some months ago I was approached by the people at 20er about shooting their 2010 calendar.  The theme was “Asyl und Arbeit” which loosely translates into a study on the plight of asylum seekers in Tirol.  The topic is an important issue in Austria and the notion of shooting 12 black and white images for their calendar was also appealing so I agreed.

The majority of research that I did on the topic was via the internet…the United Nations, Caritas and other organizations dedicated to moving, housing and integrating refugees.  Just about everything I found began to reveal to me that the situation for asylum seekers in Austria is not such a good situation.  People wait for years in state sponsored ‘camps’ in hopes that they will be given citizenship.  While they wait they are not allowed to work and have only limited opportunities for language courses keeping them isolated and poor.  It’s not good for the country and it’s not good for the refugees and it’s amazing to me that things carry on this way.

In addition to research I also had the opportunity to visit one home for asylum seekers in Innsbruck.  A dear friend volunteers German classes so I wandered the halls and talked to some inhabitants while she taught.  They were eager to show me their deteriorated living conditions and to offer their stories. You need to visit your local 20er sales guy to pick up one of the limited edition calendars to see all the images.

What I hoped would be an optimistic picture of untapped potential ended up being a pretty isolated and sad perspective on people that are kept separate and in a kind of purgatory.  It was a challenging and important assignment and I was honored to participate.

Clockenflap 2009 – Saturday in Pictures

Saturday night and i’m contemplating my options.   I finally managed to get through the Clockenflap edit.  It was only last weekend but, for some reason, it feels like forever ago.  Something is strange about time here in Hong Kong…it sneaks up on you incredibly quickly and when you look back on it in retrospect it still zooms, but it seems to stretch too – like the credits in Star Wars.

The Cyberport in Pok Fu Lam was home to a 2 day music festival last weekend with the strange and, perhaps unfortunate, name of Clockenflap.  I scored a media pass and spent the better part of Saturday seeing how the indie culture in Hong Kong lives and hearing some new music.  The crowd was dressed for the occasion and well-behaved and, generally speaking , it felt like a family affair.  Soft, short grass in tiers down to a big stage it was the perfect combination of awesome, big production with the down-home feel of a little show.  Really a nice combination.

Indie Pop 'aint Noise Pollution

If i’m honest, theres’s only 2 bands that I will say something about of the 10 or so that I photographed.  It’s entirely possible that they were all amazing and noteworthy (well, probably not all) but there were two that really caught my attention – Chochuckmo and the all-powerful, electro clash machine that is Pet Conspiracy.

Chochuckmo is a rock band that has the full support of Time Out Hong Kong so it’s been hard not to hear about them here.  Considering all the hype, they still brought it.  The lead singer is definitely a rock star and the music was good.  Im not sure what they were singing about per se but perhaps I’ll pay more attention to the lyrics when I go see them again next week.  Here are a couple of my fav shots of them though feel free to check out my whole set right here.

Chochuckmo @ Clockenflap

Chochuckmo

Chochuckmo

Shortly after these guys left the stage the sun started to go down and with it, any doubt that Clockenflap would come and go without leaving me rocked.  Pet Conspiracy is an electro clash band from Beijing and from the moment their set started to the second it ended, every minute was charged.  They were totally awesome for lack of a better word.  The crowd lit up and by the end of the set there was a beer pouring, crowd surfing, body-slamming Chinese disco party in action.  I have since checked out all their videos on YouTube and downloaded the latest ep.  None of it is bad but it doesn’t touch what they do on stage.  Here’s a pretty tame and sweet track called ‘Love is Dead’ but don’t let that fool you….They are smart and sophisticated and brimming with awesome.  I can’t wait to see these guys again and if the gods are smiling on me than it will be a double bill with their American evil twins Heloise & the Savoir Faire.

Pet Conspiracy

Pet Conspiracy @ Clockenflap

Pet Conspiracy

Pet Conspiracy

Sex Machine - Pet Conspiracy

Pet Conspiracy

Pet Conspiracy

Pet Conspiracy

As I write their song ‘What Do You Want’ is playing loud and I’m wondering why I didn’t post that one for you…oh well.  Maybe another day.  If you’re curious to see more of the hot, hot Pet Conspiracy click here for more images and here for their MySpace page.  I’ve said it before and now i’ll say it again, Beijing rocks!

Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip was the poor purple-clad fool who had to follow an act that is hard to follow.  I’m not dialed in on whats cool with the DJ set thing but i’m pretty sure this wasn’t it.  It was all a little fragile sounding to me and lacking any real meat.  Maybe that was the point, i’m not sure.  In any case, he was wearing a rad purple suit so you’ve got to give that to him.  Click here to see that nice blazer i’m talking about.

Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) - Clockenflap DJ Set

There are more images and more stories to tell for sure but that’s what I feel like sharing.  Click here to peruse some more rock and ambiance shots if you’re so inclined…

At this very moment I am supposed to be packing my camera for a night of Swedish hip hop at Fringe Club but my motivation is lacking.  Im feeling cozy on my couch and reliving Clockenflap has proved nourishing enough to satiate my need for rock.

Music Is Life

A Worthy Excusrion

I’ve been considering how to go about sitting down to the blog for the last week and every opportunity slipped away…due mainly to a need to focus my eyes on something other than a computer screen and any form of responsibility.  I’m finding myself still very much immersed in ‘work mode’ and have to trust my instincts when my mind says, “veg.”  Last week and weekend were jam-packed with goodness and I want to share some of that before this weekend rolls in and deflates the memory.

Clockenflap was an adventure on Saturday and I imagine that I will be able to share the images from that festival along with some gratitutious raving over Pet Conspiracy sometime this weekend.  I met some new people and found some new music so, all in all, it was a worthy excursion.  Late in the evening, full of rock and salt air, I scooped up Domenica and John for another couple days of visit and fun.  Friends in a new flat or town have the wonderful effect of making things feel like home.  Food, fun and laughter that is still rattling my soul were had in plenty.  Here are a few photos I shot on our adventures around Hong Kong.  If you’d like to see them all, click here.

Meat Me - Sheung Wan Market

Spring Onion Cake - Spring Deer Restaurant - Tsim Tsa Tsui

Stanley - Hong Kong

Dark Light - Sheung Wan Market

J & D are now off roaming around Viet Nam and I am in the midst of plotting some of my own adventures in South East Asia.  Next week I will be in Macau and the Mainland for work which is a little adventure.  The winter holds the promise of Yunnan Province, Singapore, Bali and Japan.  Friends are radio’ing in left and right and its clear this winter will be full of fun.  More details on that as things become solid….

I have another cover shoot and photo commission to share with you which I will try to do this weekend between yoga classes and the editing and sharing of Clockenflap :)  Hooray for Friday!

Edible Bird (Nesting)

Ok.

Friday is here and before I head out the door to work I am going to make this promise to myself…today I am going nest a little.  A bank account is priority numero Uno since I’ve accumulated a few Hong Kong dollars that need a place to sit but I also want to get myself a calendar so I can be more deliberate about planning my off & on time.  I’m approaching the 4 week mark and, though it hasn’t been that long, it’s been long enough to admit that I live here now and I need to stop living out of a suitcase and on take-out.  With dear friends on the way here and more on the horizon I want to be a hostess and not a tourist.  I’ll start today.

Tonight I settle…tomorrow morning I’ll head to the South side of Hong Kong Island to the Cyberport to shoot a festival called Clockenflap before heading to the airport to scoop up the jet-setting J&D who will grace me with their presence through Tuesday morning.  I’m looking forward to friends in the vicinity…

Speaking of friends in the vicinity, I just got confirmation that christmas in Singapore is ON! and it’s looking like Cambodia and Japan are in the ‘almost booked’ pipeline….More on that later

World Wooshing By

The weekend went by so fast.  The upside of that is that the week did too.  Tomorrow is already Thursday and I’m thinking about investing in a seatbelt for life since it’s moving so fast.  I guess that’s basically a belt and I have plenty of those so maybe not…but hopefully you get my point.  I don’t know if its the subways and traffic that are making the world whoosh past me faster or if its age or maybe  the new job but, damn! time is flying.

Again, I had grand intentions that dissipated into a blurry swirl of sleeping late, finding food, taking pictures and feeling too tired to do much beyond find a seat and watch the city wash over me.  Toss in some hypnotic monkeys, hilarious street art and contemporary laser magic and it all looks like a lot more activity than it was.  Here’s a peek of some photos from last weekend. . .

cheeky

Dialectics of Void & Substance - Li Hui

pretty anklet

portals to my soul

bringing it

Hungry for a little more Hong Kong?  Perhaps a little street art?  Go on and click ‘em.

The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World

The words have returned.

The haze of the weekend burned off like dew in the sunshine.  My mental hibernation has been replaced with an acute awareness.   I feel a little like a laser beam split between my desire to run barefoot into the jungle to discover my true Oneness with All There Ever Is and Was and Will Be and my desire to climb the corporate ladder to the top and shift the paradigm of international business in a large, multi-national corporation.  I’m wondering now if it’s possible to do both.  Simultaneously.

I never shared the triumph of my first cover shoot and tonight I’m feeling inspired to do that.  MOLE, a new publication in Tirol asked me to shoot the cover of their first edition magazine.  When I say the words, “media landscape in Tirol,” what comes to your mind?  Most people say something like “mountains” . . . but lest I remind them, a media landscape is not always the same as a landscape.  2+ years in the lovely hamlet produced a lot of cultural richness but a real dirth of commentary about it.  Something about the nature of state-funded publications produces a very bland form of coverage.  Come on, every German-adapted production of The King and I can’t be triumphant, right?  In any case, my job was to consider the media landscape in Tirol.  It was my first ’staged’ ‘concept’ shoot and I ended up taking an old cinema called Cinematograph to realize my image “The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.”

The quote is from the French founder of new wave cinema Jean-Luc Godard.  I don’t want to come across as a French cinema snob, ’cause i’m not, but his quote hit home on what I was trying to capture.  The media landscape to me was something like a beautiful fraud.  The cinema filled with people represents that the audience is present.  They are showing up, buying their tickets and entering into new experience willingly, eagerly and openly.  The openness of the audience in Tirol to new things always humbled me and helped me find my own portal to openess to new media, culture and art.  Its a wonderful thing for a woman who always had the flexibility to carefully curate her sonic landscape (thanks New York!) to find herself in a place where you get what you get.  The glasses were made of the 7 different popular media outlets that cover ‘kultur’ in Tirol.  The majority are state-funded and, as a result, have a very bland way of covering events that might actually be thrilling.  That bland filter is the cause of the audiences obstructed view…the generic coverage and promotion of the kultur essentially alters it, making it similarly moving, similarly edgy, similarly interesting and, as a result, exactly the same as what came before.  The added element of the cinema further removes the audience from the experience keeping it both filtered and 2 dimensional.

MOLE is going to attempt to alter the media landscape of the Tirol.  Make no mistake, they are also state funded but they are going to attempt to shine a new light and bring a new perspective.  The light of the projector is MOLE…hopefully they can be the beacon ,the light, the difference between ‘the filter’ and the unaltered experience.  I’m certainly rooting for them.  Check out MOLE online or swing by any cultural institution in the Tirol to pick up a copy.

 

The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World

It was an honor to participate in the 1st edition of an idealistic new magazine and a treat to nab the cover. The team assembled making the print and online editions are excellent, inspired people and I hope our paths cross again.

 

Each relic I leave behind me feels a little like a bouey…like breadcrumbs in the forest…showing me the channel through which I’ve sailed.  I leave pieces of me wherever I go not to show me the way back but to remind me where I’ve been.  Like a ship out on the sea…  I’ll have another fun commission to share with you in the coming weeks that will live in Austria for a whole year!  How wonderful.

  Don’t see the player?  That’s okay…click here for my long distance dedication.  Casey Kasem-style.

These Lights Will Inspire You

36 hours of free, unrestrained weekend time and looking back on it from my couch right now, I don’t have much to say.  I was busy futzing around but it was all pretty uneventful…just some settling in, storing boxes, a little shopping and some fun with power point.  I had ideas of junk boats or beaches or other fun touristy tings but mostly I just relaxed.  I think it was necessary.  Gray matter seems concentrated in non-verbal and work-oriented areas so I’m not going to force the prose.  Here are some photos uploaded since I last wrote…

Shooting Shows in Asia

These Lights Will Inspire You

Belly of No Beast

Wandering Eye

I also got around to finally editing the last set that I shot in Innsbruck chez Chris…a Bye Bye Beana BBQ.  Say that three times fast!  Click here for the whole set.

Lone Wiener

Im hoping my words return in the next days…there’s a lot that I’d like to share.

Little Boxes

As it turns out *any* band by the name of Live Fast Die can play when I arrive on a new continent….not the specific one from New Hampshire.  I might have put that together sooner if I had put any effort into the details at all but, well, I didn’t.

Today was long. I began at 7am with a trip to Guangzhou for work and ended now at 1:11am after a bag of pistachios for dinner and 8 out of 17 bands at a club called rockschool.  Im exhausted and wondering where my energy comes from on a day like today.  I sat on a corner of the bar and had a decent perspective for watching the music but a pretty lame angle for photographs.  I fired off a few but there wasn’t much steam and I don’t anticipate that this is the set that is going to make HK aware that Beana Bern is in town.  We’ll see.

Tomorrow…er, later today…12 boxes of life will be delivered to my flat and, except for my geeky camera and computer gear and my ukulele, I have contemplated just not letting them in.  Less is more right?  If I let the delivery happen as scheduled then my nice, nice apartment is going to full of crap I don’t need.  I lined up a storage space in the neighborhood but you know what that means?  It means that Beana has a storage space in Hong Kong, Innsbruck, New York and a corner of the attic in both New Jersey and Cape Cod.  Remind me to write a “special comment” on what “home” means to me…

Uncanny Coincidence

I got my passport back this evening after giving it to a colleague 2 days ago.  Inside is a Visa that grants me access to China for the next 6 months.  How many visits “multiple” means is not clear but I think that I am now flexible with the mainland for a while. Cool.

The frazzledom subsided today and I actually had a productive day.  After lunch at a yummy Vietnemese spot in Causeway Bay, a colleague and I headed out to a spot in the New Territories to get me acquainted with one of the many channels with which people in Hong Kong can do business.  Tomorrow’s journey to Guangzhou will be even more illuminating…knowing that China is “the worlds factory” and seeing it are two very different things.  The ‘understanding curve’ which is a little less tangible than the ‘learning curve’ seems to be going up exponentially every day I go to work.  As the understanding and learning come so does the workload.  It’s officially on.

On to other news…an uncanny coincidence.  When I first moved to Wattens, Austria I found myself alone in a foreign place with no friends and nothing I had to do besides work.  If you know me by now, you know that this is not a sustainable situation.  I headed to Innsbruck and ended up shooting a band from New Hampshire in a little club called p.m.k.  It was the beginning of what turned out to be a wonderful tenure of rock photography at p.m.k. and a reassuring experience that I would be able to live in Tirol without breaking The First Rule of Rocking  (um….obvs….”don’t stop rocking!”)  The band I shot was called Live.Fast.Die.

Wouldn’t you know that tomorrow night at a venue called rockschool (shout out to Paul Green perhaps?) there is the final heat in a global battle of the bands and a little band from New Hampshire is on the bill called Live.Fast.Die  Maybe I am the only one who sees this as uncanny and odd and somehow, maybe meaningful but the first band that appears before me in whatever new land I land in is Live.Fast.Die.  Crazy.  It sounds like kind of an intense format for the production guys (15+ bands play 8 minutes each) and kind of a great challenge for a rock photographer.  Assuming my business trip doesn’t put my ass to bed early I’m gonna go and shoot and see what other peeps seek out noise in this town.