The Music of Movement: Part 1 – Beijing & Mutianyu

In bed, listening to tunes and curled around my laptop like its a lover, I couldn’t fall asleep.  I wore myself out yesterday and should have been swimming in stars and the mist that was my dreams of yesterday, today and tomorrow but I was awake.  Wide awake. I feel like if I were sitting upright that  I would be on the edge of my seat…perched as though something certain is about to happen.  I’m pretty certain that the only thing I should expect is uncertainty, though, so I’m curious about what gives.  The endorphins from China and Mongolia did not dissipate upon my arrival home but, instead, channeled themselves right into the next adventure and I think it is this excitement that I am anticipating.  That said, I think it’s time to reflect on my past trip before I depart on the next one…

The whole holiday was a movement of music.  The rhythm and cadence of my movements was well choreographed and the itinerary was well-designed to carry me through.  A brief stop in Cairo could be equivalent to that moment before the concert when the lights go out and the audience wonders whats about to happen.  It was a clear departure from my current reality and an indicator that, like in the theater, it was time to suspend my disbelief and just let go.  A comedy of errors, between 2 broken buses, a ridiculous pig flu quarantine and over-friendly Air Egypt flight attendants, I was just happy to find my gate and some tea.  Prayers and chanting from a mosque echoed out into the terminal where I was sitting and they must have been heard because Allah carried us safely to Peking.

im out

5 days and nights alone in Beijing to feel myself away, shake off work and have some real quality time with the city was a perfect beginning.  I slipped slowly and sublimely into a groove that felt oddly like Orchard Street.  Same smells as the funny markets near my house, I felt closer to ‘home’ than I have in a while.  The melody began to take shape as I wandered all of Beijing – baseline of foot steps, the creaky rattle of the rickshaw, the echos and bells of the subway, the deafening squeak of the buses breaks, the spinning prayer wheels at the Llama Temple and the bi-lingual and ineffective conversation with the taxi drivers.

Rickshaw Driver - Beijing, China

Around the time that I was in sync with myself it was time to meet my guide and travel companion and begin a more structured exploration of the city.  At this point we got more ’serious’ about making sure that the history – the vast and long history – of the city was explored.  Between my days alone and with Tom, I saw : Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, Forbidden City,  Temple of Heaven, Drum & Bell Towers, Panjiayuan Market, Silk Street, Longtan Park, Beihai Lake, the 798 Art District, the Birds Nest & Watercube, Monument to the Peoples Heros, Llama Temple, Dongyue Temple, Qianhai Lake, Donganmen Dajie and the night market, Ritan Park, a Peking Opera, some Kung Fu and countles hutongs throughout the city. To go through all of this would be a comprehensive travel guide and that is not on the agenda but feel free to ask me if you have any particular questions about these places or Beijing in general.

Summer Palace - Beijing, China

Hutong - Beijing, China

Restoration - Llama Temple - Beijing, China

Zhaoheng Gate - Temple of Heaven Park - Beijing, China

What I can say is that I was both saddened and inspired by what I saw.  The city is in flux, recovering from the INSANE growth spurt that was the Olympic games.  Tearing  down and building up, the air is always thick with brick dust and something that feels like a cross between hope and capitalism.  The locals that I connected with offered great insight on how that growth has dramatically changed their lives for the better – mainly in the form of mass transit, renovated monuments and public service announcements about enjoying themselves – and it was a unique perspective.  I still can’t put words to it but I also sensed a profound contradiction there.  Walls protecting more walls protecting courtyards with nothing in them maintained a symmetrical sense of power and control and ‘beauty’ but in a totally superficial way.  Meditation and self control focus on inner strength and substance yet there appears to be some ‘muscle’ or layer missing that connects this ’supreme’ facade with this inner power.  I got the sense that things were either all or nothing and can’t really explain it better than that.  What I can say is that the Emperor was surely a very lonely guy and China is a country in the midst of a fast and all-consuming transition.

Duan Gate - Forbidden City - Beijing, China

Offerings - Dongyue Temple - Beijing, China

Majong

Private Home - Hutong

A day before departing we headed about 2 hours north of the city to Mutianyu to see the Great Wall.  A ride up in the cable car that carried Slick Willy some years ago was funny and, from what I was told, an honor.  The throngs of tourists make this a difficult experience to absorb but that was true with a lot of what I visited in China.  Regardless, its a sight to behold.

Mutianyu - Great Wall of China

Mutianyu - Great Wall of China

"Be Loyal to Chairman Mao"

This search for meaning and understanding stayed with me the entire time I traveled in China and I look forward to seeing more of the country and discovering more.  Some high points for me in the city were the 798 Art District, Tiananmen Square, Ritan Park at 8am, buying electronics, eating any variety of fascinating (and sometimes tongue curling) street food, watching karaoke in Longtan Park, $8 full body massages (i think i had 4), a glimpse inside a private courtyard and, naturally, some quality time with the Great Wall.

798 Art District - Beijing, China

Peking Opera

Watch out for the stinky tofu - street food - Beijing, China

Ritan Park - Early Morning

Rainy Day - Summer Palace

You can get a better sense of what I saw by taking a pass through the images from Cairo, Beijing and Mutianyu right here.  For those of you particularly interested in Beijing’s art scene, click here for a focused album on the 798 District.  By the end of 9 days I had a handle on the town and was ready to shift gears and depart, across the Gobi to Mongolia.  Stay tuned for a recap about how the music changed on the leg from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.  Paul Simon was right, ‘everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance.  everybody thinks its cool.’

Special Plums - yum!!

Beana = Borge (kind of)

ok friends.  i am on the cusp of what will hopefully be a mellower week than last week but in case things move too fast (again) i wanted to drop a line.  the wedding undertaking from last weekend has proved to be a very serious job.  what began as photo editing morphed into website building, slideshow crafting and a basic overhaul of BeanaBernPhotography.  the energy expended sitting before a mac is easier to dole out than the energy needed to run up a mountain and, this weekend, i expended my share of both sorts.

friday was our Betriebsausflug which is basically just a another word for company outing.  we headed to Maurach, above Achensee, and though the meteriologist said sun, it looked a lot like this…

actually, it looked exactly like that.  we had a choice of a big walk or a little one and, naturally, the competitive (not really) group mentality saw me go big.  there was no pressure at all to do so but something made me think it was the ‘right call’ anyway.  here are some photos of the hike.  it looks more like an expedition from the photos but it was only about a 2 hour outing.

Look really closely on this one and you can see everybody coming down from the peak.  A few of us decided to turn around before we reached the slippery and cloud covered summit and headed back to the hut for lunch.  It was a lovely day…so much crisp, mountain air that it was a tad overwhelming but lovely noetheless.  Here is my favorite photo from the outing.  This is my very sweet friend Julia.  Take 2 seconds and check out the whole album, if you’re inclined.

After the day outside I hunkered back down with my computer to try and finish some work so that I could free up the weekend.  Like a lotus, though, the more work I finished the more work was revealed beneath.  This workaholic-ness is not a new trend or a new directions I am trying out…Its just a foundation that Im trying to build so that when and if more photographic work arrives (i hope) ill be ready.  I worked until about 4am on Saturday morning.  I knew by 2am that whatever I had planned for Saturday was toast so I just kept going.

Saturday, in a nutshell…I was the Borge.  Those of you not acquainted with the Borge will know what Im talking about one day.  The entire day and night I banged my head against some code that is smarter than me and ended up finding a solution that isn’t what I hoped for but will be fine.  It isn’t quite 100% yet but it will become that way this week.  It was time for a real wesbite for my ever-expanding body of work and a little more stuff to make it easy for people to hire me.  Go ahead and take a peek…and please let me know how you like my new address.

It feels great to build something though I have to admit that I am looking forward to finsinhing this job so I can enjoy a break, my friends here and autumn in Tirol before im off to New York City at the end of the month.  Before I fly though there is still lots to do on the workfront and still lots of fun to be had on the music front.  Tuesday or Wednesday Built to Spill will do their thing at the weekender and next weekend a musical friend from the US will be a few villages over with something certainly bad ass.   There were 3 or four other things that sounded exciting so stay tuned for some rock shots to come….and, of course, after the bride and groom see them, you will also get a peek at that amazing event.

Here’s a little Built to Spill for you now…Distopian Dream Girl.  Sounds all too familiar tonight.

oh oh oh…i almost forgot.  a few weeks ago my friend Chris pointed out some bad ass Innsbruck street art.  It took me a while but I finally documented it.  amazing!

2 Steps, Too Far

So I am still kind of reeling from my holiday but trying hard to shake it off and prepare for a very big 2 weeks at work coming up. I tried to relax this weekend, as best I know how, and managed to do a little, I think. I still haven’t quite closed the chapter on EuroWeen as I have yet to compose a new edition of See the Music for my friends at Runaway Dinosaur. All in good time. At least I managed to get the photos edited, the recaps blogged and the myriad emails responded to that I received due to said photographs. I received a really nice response to my Ween shots and want to thank everybody for taking the time to touch base.

Aside from my photographic exploits I also managed my first visit to Wattens swimming pool and was floored at how nice it is. A few laps, a few rays and the bike ride to and fro was my fill of exercise for the weekend. I also took in an odd rendition of The King and I at the Landestheater, compliments of my generous employer, and had to work hard to muffle my laughter at the english-dubbed-german-people-acting-asian. It was 2 steps too far removed for me to take seriously though the production itself was lovely and sparkling and the company was sweet. Toss in some uke chord progressions, some brunch with friends and a drive into the mountains above my house and you have an eventful, mildly relaxing, weekend.

I convinced myself that Hundskopf (dogs head) is going to see me triumphantly standing on top before this summer is over…you are all my witness to this. It might require that I dust off my old climbing gear to pull it off, but that puppy (forgive the pun) is going down! Or better yet, I am going up!

In other news, I was featured again on My-Expressions.com “Member Spotlight” thanks to Sir Elton (and thanks to Jon!) . I also got some linkey love over at Schnitzel.co.uk (thanks Oliver!) due to my EuroWeen 5.0 graphic and my perspective on the shows. Two very rad features and I say, humbly, thank you both.

It’s now time to shut my eyes, my mind (I’ll try) and my laptop so I can rest up and get ready to swing (again with the puns, I apologize) into a new week…Here’s a little tune to help sing me (and maybe you) to sleep. This is the second time this tune has appeared on 2beanornot2bean, now…though still not the original. Guten Abend und Gut Nacht!

X Marks the Spot

The energy I have spent over the years trying out photo websites and communities online that gather together creative people with the hopes of promoting new ideas, selling art, offering assistance and everything else under the sun hasn’t made me any money but it, on some occasions, has been worth the effort. Flickr would probably take the cake for most awesome online community but there have been other worthwhile ventures as well.

Tonight I stumbled across a new find called the Creative Index and it looks like an interesting (and new) take on the topic. Perhaps I can capitalize on my unique location to find some new opportunities for my free time…

Innsbruck – Sound City

There are nights that I carry my cameras out into the world and I feel like they are huge butterfly nets, light and airy and filled with limitless potential. Then there are other nights when my gear feels more like armor and, instead of catching music in the air, they serve more as a wall between me and the noise.

Last night was Innsbruck’s version of CMJ and a handful of bands played a handful of clubs in an event called SoundCity. I hadn’t heard about the music marathon until late yesterday afternoon and hadn’t planned on working it but, as I am prone to do, I ended up shooting two of the acts. The first band I saw played the Treibhaus and was called Mauracher. They were recommended to me by a friend with very good taste in tunes and I wanted to check out a new venue in town. Fortunately I got there before the drunken swarms of kiddies and had a good spot up front with my new friend, fellow rock photog Claus.

I have to say that I really loved this band. They had this kind of heavy distortion underlining the overall sound that would crescendo and dissipate in a way that reminded me of Mogwai…only with a chick singing. I checked out some of their studio work when I was uploading my pix last night and was a little sad that the energy and depth of their live show didn’t translate, but they’re still really good and worth experiencing. Here are some of my favorite shots from the set, but click here to see them all.

After what was mostly the full set of Mauracher the club started to feel a little saturated with pretty wasted people and I decided I would catch one more act before rolling back home. Trying to get up the stairs and out of Treibhaus is what made me think of armor. I seriously needed to hip-check, elbow and basically mow people down with my camera bag to exit the joint. It was anticlimactic when I finally made it outside since it was essentially a full-on downpour.

I decided to drive over to PMK to avoid the raindrops and check out Mäuse. When the band took the stage it was clear that this was not going to be the butterfly-catching sweetness that Mauracher was and, as I was realizing that thought, I was simultaneously hit with a mic stand and 2 pints of beer. The kiddes went crazy for these lunatics and after a few dicey minutes shooting from the quasi-mosh pit it was time to get the hell out of dodge. Mäuse is one of those bands I’m glad I saw live but won’t go see again…I’m gonna revisit some of their studio music to see if I like the sound better without the mayhem. Check out the photos by clicking here.

All in all it was worth the energy to leave the house for some new tunes. There’s more in the pipeline so stay tuned.

Internet Freeze Tag

It would appear as though I am “IT”. Whoever says sitting in front of a computer is solitary and unsocial clearly never sat in front of mine. My friend in cyberspace, Emily at WellPutRunOnSentence, has tagged me and I will dutifully (and happily) oblige. The rules seem simple enough:

* link to the person that tagged you
* post the rules on your blog (done and done)
* share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
* tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
* let each random person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

As for the six unimportant habits, quirks or things about me….well, I feel like I share this kind of stuff all the time so it’s no so easy to dig up new things but I will try.

1. I wont “pet your fuzz,” “accept your venus fly trap,” or “poke you back” on facebook but i will, apparently, respond to an internet chain letter if you send me one. I only found this out today.
2. I swear like a fucking truck driver
3. I sing to my cats when I feed them breakfast (and other times)
4. I can spend unusually large amounts of time in front of a computer
5. I wake up happy
6. I found it way harder to rattle off 6 random things about myself than I could have possibly imagined

As for the lucky (or not) 6 that can now can now consider themselves “IT,” my fellow friends in blogging, I am going to tag this talented and interesting posse and see what gives:

SarahG. at BrownPaperandString
Joe at TheFullCatastrophe
Sean at spLYNDEd
Robin at InHerOwnWrite
Arianna at UtopianSlumps
Liz at AbstractTheDay

Wishin that I was…Knowin that I’m not

“Bad Apple” By: Jeff Canham

 

i couldn’t resist…how awesome is this?

Sticky Gray Matter

I am not thinking creatively tonight. I am not thinking in colors or music or the eclectic tangents that usually come after a day of left brained number crunching. In fact, I am still number crunching as we speak. I can’t seem to shake the rationale, explanations and projections that I have been analyzing and trying to support, configure, explain and unexplain all day. I guess I have some tunnel vision or some sticky gray matter, or something…In any case, tomorrow promises to be a very challenging day and I have been preparing for it.

In the course of all that preparation I lost track of the time and completely missed my German class. That’s the bad thing about tunnel vision. Rather than beat myself up over it, I decided to pick up some ‘brain food’ (veggies and tofu) and cook myself a healthy dinner and decompress. All the prep is supposed to mean that I don’t feel the need to ‘cram’ and can just roll into the day like the professional I am. We’ll see how that goes…

In any case, it felt responsible and good to make myself a nice dinner and I think I will try that again sometime. Though, I must say, the world is not designed for 1 person meals…1 zucchini, 1 pepper, 5 springs of asparagus, 1 hot pepper and 1 block of tofu makes food for 4. Some smart, hydroponic farmer somewhere should think about breeding some tiny organic vegetables so people like me can enjoy earth’s bounty without wasting a garden’s worth of goodness.

In any case, that sounded a little like a rant which I think means I should park the macbook and unwind with some Jorge Luis Borges until I can sleep. Because I like to share pretty things, though, I will post for you the last bunch of flickr favorites that I have been collecting all winter. An endless source of inspiration…

1. smooth 2. Untitled 3. it’s obviously stockholm 4. 奧地利-百水 Hundertwasser House 5. Sakura ^_^ 6. Poster for a side show at the Vermont state fair, Rutland (LOC) 7. Spikes 8. No tears shed 9. Rollt mit K.! 10. postcardlist 11. pacman cupcakes 12. Eternity 13. inari 14. Mike Doughty 03 15. Danger 16. ac 17. Keep your coins, I want change. 18. Medicine of my smile 19. Natural Sculpture 20. Bold Move Pays Off 21. DEEP SPACE: THE FLOWER NEBULA 22. sculpture on Princeton campus 1 23. EAT PRAY LOVE 24. P1010037 25. Inside 26. the ten 27. rainbow refractions 28. Sail away with me… 29. S 30. Tuesday morning 31. Untitled 32. Treasures from Jenny in Buenos Aires 33. * 34. oblivion 35. blue 36. -

2Blog or not 2Blog

In the latter part of 2003 my life felt insane. I decided that the best thing I could do with all of my nervous energy and spinning thoughts was to record them. I began my first blog around then and it ended as quickly as it began, with a posted apologie to a friend and a hasty all-out deletion.

The enjoyment I gleaned from publishing my thoughts for everyone, or no one, to see was clear and, though I failed with my first attempt, I immediately tried again. My friend Jamie once told me that I am nothing if not persistent and I would tend to agree with him. From late 2003 until sometime around the end of 2006 I tried between 7-10 different attempts at blogging. If you think it’s hard to read all the crap I write about, try writing it :) Seriously, it’s no easy feat to figure out a way to make something interesting and personal and relevant without being totally self-indulgent, insensitive of people’s privacy or a liar.

Some of those attempts focused on the technological aspect and had little or nothing to do with content. I learned html, php and some other misclellaneous coding but it didn’t really stick and nobody, including me, gave a shit about what I was saying. Other attempts were ‘themed’ where I thought I would provide some kind of service…like pooling craft info or cool design sites. As it turns out, my interests were either too self-absorbed or too varied to stick with that model and though the ancient 2craft site still lives and breathes on blogspot, it is dusty and old.

Finally, in late 2006 I realized that this forum, this medium, is not about providing a service or divulging my deepest, darkest secrets but it is a spot to record my careful days in a way that makes it fun for me to reflect. Whether or not anybody would be interested was not taken into consideration. It was a natural progression to find a way to include my photography and artistic endeavors and to design a “skin” that could stretch and grow with my changing perspective and aesthetic. I am the kind of person who could rearrange her apartment every Quarter and have fun doing it so easy-change was a requirement.

The end result of this experience is BeanaBernPhotography.com. A quilt, if you will, of a My-Expression photoblog that I use as my portfolio, a pro Flickr account that serves as both my digital backup and photo community, my storefront on Imagekind and, this page you are reading now, my WordPress blog. It has been 5 years in the making with countless detours, reruns and do-overs in between but it is built and, today marks the one year anniversary. Happy Birthday, 2beanornot2bean!

Just as a little trivia, I’ll tell you some fun stats about this here blog:

• On the busiest day, I saw over 150 hits. This happened because I posted a photo of Elijah Wood that I shot at a Heloise & the Savoire Faire show and some freaky fan site found it. In fact, they will probably find this post too and I’ll get lots of traffic from weird Frodo fans(no offense, Frodo fans)
• On average, I have 25 readers a day, 250 a week and about 800 per month. A small percentage of those (about 25%) actually click the links to my photo albums or my links. About half of those visitors are “regulars” though none of them have signed my guestbook.
• In general, people who visit my blog stay here anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. Not bad in the scheme of internet ADD, I think.
• There are no advertisements or sponsored links anywhere in any of my websites. All the links you see to the right were put there by me…go ahead, click on one or two of them and perhaps you find something interesting. I visit all of the sites linked there regularly.
• Photography, space invader and travel have been the 3 biggest criteria that have channeled people from google to me. Occasionally there are really weird ’search terms’ that land people here….here are just a few from today
  • “i love butter”
  • “poster junkie”
  • “japanese touriste”
  • “fritzens sex fashingsumzug”
  • “futzed”
  • “bansky tramp l’oiel”
  • “dr seuss secret art”

This may be about as interesting to you as, well, something that isn’t interesting but I figured that I would commemorate a year of consistent blogging since, for me, it is a small, but significant achievement. While I’m on the subject, I want to give kudos to all those people, whom I know and whom I don’t, who put themselves out there and share their perspective. It isn’t easy and sometimes it isn’t all that rewarding but it is good and I appreciate it, so thank you. Keep on bloggin’ on….

p.s. speaking of anniversaries, this week i also began my 8th year with Swarovski… wow.