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

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

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

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.

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.

“What-If’s” and “Ah ha’s!”

It was smoggy today in Hong Kong.  The sun never really made it out from behind the curtain of moisture and smog and clouds and yet, today was the first day when I could see into the distance.  Well, not the literal distance but the theoretical distance, the possible future, the likely ‘whats-next.’  Each discussion I have illuminates new perspectives and challenges and opportunities and slowly but surely the scope of my work here is revealing itself.  It’s not going to be a small job and it’s not going to be dull.  I took a huge leap of faith when I abandoned my nice life in Tirol for this unknown but with each passing day I feel more confident that I knew what I was doing :)

I managed to shave my commute down to 35 minutes from over an hour because I stopped being a dumbass and because a nice colleague showed me the MTR station right next to the office.  Duh.  Part of the fun is the not knowing and then the next stage of that fun is the eventual knowing.  Its my pattern to wait until I’m all-about-the-knowing but by then I’m also usually going…the irony….In any case, my commute allows for fresh air (tram), book reading (MTR) and a (walk) past a (coffee joint).  It’s ideal.  When typhoon season hits I will only have a few spots where I’ll be exposed to the elements and I imagine that this will also come in handy when the summer comes and decides to steam this island up to unbearable degrees.

My brain is a little frazzled with all the “what-ifs,” “ah has!” and “dude….i totally need to do-thats.”  It’s a bit of a treat that I have a 3 day weekend to absorb all the info and ides swirling and try to relax a little.  Or at least try to.  The cats are finally settled but I feel like there are pieces of me that haven’t quite arrived yet.  Like I’m somehow still in transition, that static person shaped blob that isn’t quite beamed up or down yet.  I’m getting there but, often throughout my days, I am still surprised to see such a new landscape.  My hair and skin are going to need a new routine as well since sticky, humid, salty, smoggy air is a new environ.  Lots of adjusting going on here at 2bean…

In honor of the fact that I am just now beginning to see the light…

Unexpected Whiskey – The Someday Tour

It feels like Lego Land on Kirschentalgasse today.  Boxes on top of boxes stacked near boxes waiting to be filled.  The sum total of a life fully lived doesn’t necessarily equal more stuff and I am surprised to see that I don’t actually have that much to pack.  I think I’m going to be able to squeeze everything that I’m storing into 10-12 boxes and will probably only need to ship 5-6 east. The cats are starting to realize that something is about to happen to them and so is their Alpha Kitty.   If everything can be packed by next weekend then it is quite possible I will be able to enjoy my last days in the Tirol with my friends so I’m feeling motivated.

On Friday I was lucky enough to have 2 photo shoots…one for a financial services company whose preparing to plaster my work on billboards and bus stops all over the Tirol.  It’s a new kind of work for me and I underestimated the effort it would require, but it’s challenging and (hopefully) lucrative.  I’ll be in Asia when the campaign goes live but I’m hopeful some friends will snap some pix and send some newspapers so I can see how it looks.

The second shoot was the polar opposite to the first…freeform instead of careful calculation.  I got to participate in an interview and subsequent rock show with Damo Suzuki, a 60 year old Japanese man who was very important to the Krautrock movement and has been on tour forever.  He was a gracious and interesting man and I’m looking forward to reading (and sharing) Brad’s interview for MOLE when it’s published.  Here are a couple images from the night…if you’d like to see them all, click here.

Damo Suzuki & mord @ pmk

Damo Suzuki & Mord - Innsbruck, Austria

Saturday entailed a whole lot of photo editing and some big denial about the packing that I promised I would begin.  I decided to procrastinate the inevitable with some whiskey at Innkeller and decided that as soon as I assemble a band to back me and my uke I am going to call us ‘Unexpected Whiskey.’  In my experience it is often the best variety.  Unexpected whiskey often leads to late nights as was the case last night so today, Sunday, didn’t get rolling until well into the afternoon.

Magically, NPR woke me with some tunes that had me packing boxes like a championship box-packer so what might have been a wash was actually a productive day. 

  Don’t see the link?  Click here.

Back to Lego Land for me…I may have just taped Doozer into a box of art supplies and need to stop multi-tasking.

Lovely Day to Run

I feel like there is wind blowing behind my eyelids and stars in my hair.  It’s possible that I may come across as some kind of manic freak, so many highs and lows…high roads and low roads…but what’s really happening is the beginning notes of what will be a great crescendo.  Have you ever watched how a Timpani player’s hands move fast , mallets blurred, even before the copper kettle utters a note?  It builds…the momentum finally rattling through the skin and into the music.  I have fast hands right now, my motion feels blurred and though theres no melody yet I  can feel the vibrations of the first notes of my new song gathering in my toes…It won’t be long now ’til I’m singing a different tune.

Traveling is something that is in my blood and I can’t express how excited and grateful I am to stand on the brink of the South China Sea…it’s a dream.  Tonight, however, what has me feeling so light and airy is not the motion, not the journey, not the adventure but the knowledge that at the end of this wind tunnel lays a chance to drop my bags and reconnect with the simple act of standing still.  I know that there is a destination from which I can reflect on the journey so far and think about what’s next.  I know that saying about life being about the journey and not the destination but, from where I’m standing, I can see a need for both.

  Don’t see the player?  Click here and feel good.

Catch You on the Rebound

I’ll fly away, oh glory…I’ll fly away…

Another 20 minutes and I’ll head to Innsbruck so I can fly to Frankfurt and then Newark and then Burlington, Vermont.  It’s gonna be a long day but the kind of long day that lands me in one of my favorite places on Earth to see some of my favorite people.  This is good news.  It’s just now occurring to me that I’m on holiday.

My contract for Hong Kong arrived yesterday and that other reality, that very big reality, also began to sink in.  It’s on and in less than 1 month I will be living in Asia.  It’s a bit serendipitous that I have this 10 days away to relax with friends and family while some background processes in my psyche and self plan how to make this leap with a minimum of crazy and what grace I can muster.

On the agenda are Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, Armonk and New York City.  Sounds like a whirlwind and it very well could be but I’m gonna let it roll and enjoy the ride.  I’m not likely to tend to this virtual garden while I’m away so, at the very least, I will leave you with a song that might keep you singing ’til I come home.

Cat in a Box

Putting my cats in a box always breaks my heart.

The boys are about to be shuttled to Wattens to their wonderfully-named Vet, Dr. Fabio Ferrari, for some checkups and some kitty passports.  The idea is to accumulate as much official cat-stuff as possible so my lovies are exempted from quarantine when we reach Hong Kong.  I wowed the German and Austrian officials with paperwork and am hopeful I can manage the same feat next month.

Walter is all worked up and Doozer is pouting so I’m dedicating this tune to them…

can’t see the player?  click here.

Give Me a Lift

The weight is lifted…for this week anyway.  Happy weekend.