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!!

A Sip from the Ocean

The ocean of energy that was sloshing around inside my skin seemed to get concentrated while in the East.  The re-entry into daily life had some kind of ‘focusing’ effect and the results of this are still revealing themselves.  There is A LOT of stuff happening right now. Even on fronts that I didn’t realize were fronts I am experiencing activity, decisions, opportunities and other kinds of choices too.

I am not overwhelmed (yet) by any of these prospects but it is thier convergence that has occupied me completely and kept me from doing a more ‘proper’ recap of the trip.  Most of the topics on the table are things that I’m not gonna talk about here but I can give you a sip…

An interesting publication here in Innsbruck has commissioned me to photograph thier 2010 calendar.  The theme is both interesting and relevant and the task is 12 black and white images.  The press conference that will launch this annual publication will also house an exhibit of the original photographs.  This will mark my second solo show in Austria.  It is beautiful that the theme is so interesting and thought-provoking and strangely connected to much of what I was thinking about while in Mongolia.   I am excited to see what I make.

As for the other biggies, we’re all just going to have to be patient and let the games continue before I can tell you who won and what they won.

What goes up...gets to sled down!

Beana Bern on Chocodog

always brings me joy to participate in any little way with the best band in the world…how about clicking here and celebrating a sweet collaboration by buying some Ween merch!!

Back from Beyond

I arrived home this morning, early this morning, and am just now waking up to find that life has gone on without me.  My blackberry is full to overflowing and it is clear that when I return to work on Tuesday I will do so at a cantor or gallop…no walking or trotting will be permitted.

The first question everybody asks when you get home from holiday is, “so, how was it?”  A reasonable question to ask but still impossibly hard to answer in a casual way.  ‘Awesome’ and ‘epic’ top the list of one word answers that are both polite and accurate but they still seem inadequate.  I will have a lot more to say (and show) from my adventures but wanted, more than anything, to radio in as it were…

While I clean the sand out of my clothing, dust from my lenses, dung from my boots, mutton from my teeth, smoke from my hair and shake the dreams out of my mind I will leave you with one image to whet your palate.  Stay tuned for more…

Sunset from Khongoryn Els - South Gobi, Mogolia

The Sun in Your Shine

Waking up to, “What time is it?…where’s my phone?  Oh wait…where’s my bag?…holy shit, where’s my car?” can be an indicator of either something dreadful or, if you’re lucky, a really fun night.  This was my wake up call this morning and I am happy to report that it is a result of the latter.  The bag was in the car (which was where I left it) and the only things still missing are my sunglasses and, perhaps, any lingering notion that I’m a smooth operator.

Spring fever has hit the Tirol and with daffodils blooming, snow melting and the air thick with pollen and  anticipation, it seemed a perfect weekend to relax and roll with the ‘plan being no plan’ kind of attitude.  Everytime I let go of the reigns like this I tell myself afterwards that I should do it more often and maybe, just maybe, I will.  Friday night I left work with enough time to soak in a little sunshine before rolling up the hill to Büchenhausen to make pictures.  Sometimes when the plan is no plan, however, things fall through the cracks.  I made no photos but rather headed for a burger before Babylon and, finally, to pmk for some music.  The post-burger Babylon sessions were the high point of the evening and at some point in the not-so-far-future, I will tell you why.  But not today.

I managed to catch 2 of the 3 bands playing at pmk eventhough I didn’t get there until midnight.  The first, Jasmina Machina, was mellow and a little too sedated but they ended up being my favorite of the evening.  You can see the whole album here, if you’d like.

Sometime around 1, I think, Dufus took the stage.  They have a pretty regular crowd in IBK so there was anticipation that they would bring it.  They didn’t.  There is no denying thier talent but they were a little too fringe for me to get behind.  A friend likend them to Scientologists or some kind of freaky cult-like religion and I totally see it.  There are many bands that can take the spaces between songs to cosmic, cool places but these guys were not among them.  I disappeared sometime before 3 and they were still making noise…heres the whole album if you’re inclined. 

Sleeping late on Saturday was close to perfection and I whiled away the afternoon drinking coffee and fiddleing around my flat.  The sun was still bright and high in the sky when I took the inagural bike ride up the hill to, again, try to shoot the jukes and this time I had success.  I find it a bit funny that I can capture a moment with total ease but that I have a great amount of difficulty in making a moment to capture.  Bending light, controlling reflections and waiting for the right moment was challenging and reaffirms the fact that I need to work more on developing my fine art pursuits.  Mark my words, this summer I will make my Stockholm Syndrome shoot happen.  The jukebox images and everything I shot after them will find its way up here eventually so stay tuned.  A slow motion bike ride through the city produced some quality time with friends before landing me squarely (and early) back home.

Yesterday is still kind of with me.  You know how that happens sometimes?  Be it a hangover or something you lost or something you found, sometimes what was then still is now.  We kicked off the day with a wonderful brunch of fresh baked bread, pancakes, cheese, tomatos, meat, musli, fruit, yogurt and coffee….yummmmm….before I headed to pmk for the markt.  A few walls of the club were dressed in my images and I remembered how I forgot to remember that it gives me great joy to see people looking at my work.  I know people look at my photos….like YOU….right now…but in the ‘real world’ where art hangs on walls it’s another story.  Lots of creative people combined to sell what they had made and just about everybody who came stayed for a beer or three.  If I’m honest, I’m not sure how many photos I sold but I think it was in the neighborhood of 10 or so.  Totally satisfying but what was more satisfying was spending the day with so many awesome peeps…really. 

Yesterday was, by all accounts, officially the kick off to Spring.  If our lives were an Alfred Hitchcock film some eerie forshadowing would predict a totally kick-ass spring lurking just around the corner.  Oh wait…it’s not around the corner.  It’s right here, right now.  Sweet.

1st Night Hampton in My Dreams

Yesterday I decided to clock my drive to work with a stopwatch to see how long it takes to go door to door.  Dunno why, exactly, but I guess I needed another number to crunch.  In my fog, I left my stopwatch running to infinity on the seat of my car while I headed to work.  Time passing is different then measuring time passing.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit that Phish’s return to the scene didnt make me think about time passing and a healthy chunk of my life, about a 1/3 of it, passing in parking lots and arenas, cheap motels and long drives.  The “good old days” if there ever were any and a key reason why I am the person that I am now.  I have mixed feelings about what a return of Phish means for a lot of people that I know…but a bigger part of me is happy that the kiddies who have been spinning their wheels to the Disco Biscuts and Umphree’s McGee may get a taste of what we got to swim in for all those years.  This theory only works if the guys are really tapping thier selves of the early 90’s.

Talking about this with a friend the other night and reading lyrics in a stream of facebook status updates as lots of people I love head to Hampton I’ve been thinking about what I might want for my first night back to the band that I remember…It goes a little something like this

Set1:

• Ragtime Gal (acappela)
• Glide
• First Tube
• David Bowie
• Axilla
• Guyute
• Mikes Song>
• Crossroads>
• Mikes Song
• I am Hydrogen
• Weekapauge Groove

Set 2:

• The Landlady
• You Enjoy Myself
• The Moma Dance
• Get Back on the Train
• NICU
• Reba>
• Cars Trucks Buses>
• Reba
• Tube
• Llama
• Piper
• Character Zero
• Slave to the Traffic Light

Encore:

• AC/DC Bag
• Funky Bitch
• Squirming Coil

I hope that the un-im-re-possible expectations that are gonna fall on those 4 dudes tonight propell them through the fuckin roof and the ’something’ that everybody’s been waiting for for all these years kicks them right in the RAWK.  Im rooting for you Phish…

I Am the Light

Nothing says morning like good coffee and good music.  In an effort to inspire the kung fu clean up of Cherry Valley and put Humpty Dumpty back together again I decided to find some tunes.  Of course, finding tunes usually is a wormhole of sorts sucking me into my online forest where I can linger for a while.

While there is still coffee to be consumed there is no rush so I decided to bring you a little light in the form of a song…

(Don’t see the player?  Click here and sing along)

The last weeks have been a tornado of sorts so it is only fitting that, of course, that I would end my week with ruby slippers and a confirmation that there really is no place like home.  Im not sure if I look for metaphors or if they find me but it is uncanny how often my world synchronizes into living poetry.

In Swarovski’s infinite inspired wisdom they (we, I should say) comissioned a remake of the Ruby Slipper to commemorate the original and, now, remake of The Wizard of Oz.  It can not be overstated that, as a girl who grew up in Kansas, Dorothy’s journey and her return to her humble surroundings in the middle of the breadbasket were often a topic of conversation.  “Have you ever seen a tornado?”  Yes.  “Does Kansas really look like that?”  Parts do, yes.  This collaboration is one of many that makes me proud and excited to work where I work and yesterday the entire magic collection was in our Showroom.

It shocked me, and saddened me in a way, that almost 100% of my colleagues here had NO IDEA what the Wizard of Oz is beyond ’some musical.’  I tried to explain the iconic nature of this film and ended up comparing the meaning of the ruby slipper to Cinderella’s glass variety.    The very act of conveying the bigness of the Wizard of Oz brought me all the way back around to the beginning of my own arc in this world….my roots.  I was a little girl growing up in the middle of America dreaming of all the places I would go, hoping that my own life would take me to Oz and then back again.  It then occured to me that it has.

there’s no place like home…

…and now it’s time to clean it.

Confuse and Amuse

Pretend, if you will, that Marlene Dietrich is reading this post to you out loud in her smoky, deep sultury voice and that is what you might have been able to enjoy from me yesterday.  Today though?  Today I am truly mute and feeling liberated with the keyboard in a way my tired voice box cannot satisfy.  It’s my own doing so I won’t complain more about it, I’m just hopeful that my faculties return before my big presentation on Monday evening.  In an ideal world I will be back in Dietrich mode and the meeting will be fun for everybody.

Last night was the Ballroom Blitz at pmk.  The invite said something about dressing to impress, dressing to confess, dressing to confuse and to amuse.  If that’s not a great dress code tell me what is.  Clearly it was a night for pictures and I decided to get my lomo on in addition to some digi-backup.  The Diana project I tried last night was something wacky…and potentially a 3 foot long failure…but i’m optimistic that I made something worthy.  We will see in due time.  Gotta love the intrinsic anticipation that analog photography reinjects into the mix.  As soon as the fruits of that labor ripen I will be very excited to share it with you (maybe).

To satisy the part of all of us spoiled by instant gratification (certainly the part of myself) I also have an album online that you can see right now.  Seriously, click it and you can travel back in time all the way to yesterday’s exclusive and swank party in my favorite club this side of the Atlantic.  If I’m honest, and I always try to be that way here, I don’t remember the names of the bands that played but I do remember AstroFred and his magical (for lack of the right adjective) way of taking Austrian pop lyrics (I think) and laying them down as Queen covers.  You might be scratching your head trying to wonder what that sounds like and that’s natural.  Cutting to the chase, they sounded a lot like Queen covers with german lyrics and very, very shiny vinyl pants…

I think there were 2 or three other bands that played over the course of the (very) long night but one stands out as being the awesomest…yeah, I said awesomest and I’ll say it again…they played not 1, not 2 but 3 ween covers!!  Im always happy for a little ‘dont get too close to my fantasy’ and it’s all the more satisfying when you’re not expecting it.

The music was fun, to be sure, but the point of last night was the dolled up club and the spiffy peeps that put in a very respectable amount of effort to transform the divebar we love into the ballroom blitz.  There are lots of pix of all the beautiful people right here but I’m gonna drop a few of my favorite shots from the night right here…

It’s wonderful how a suit and tie, a little eye liner and a chandelier can transform the every day into such a schindig.  I hope that nights like last night come more often…In addition to the good times and great oldies I also was the lucky winner or 2 passes to Ischgl!  Looking forward to some BIG snow in my very near future.

26 cups of tea over the course of the day will hopefully see me restored to the Dietrich though my vocal chords are still on strike and shaky at best so I am staying in tonight and recouping.  Tomorrow is all about cleaning house and then rocking a productive afternoon in Wattens with my old friend the flip chart.  It’s gonna kick ass.

…and just ’cause it rules even more when you’re not expecting it…a Geschank from the awesomest band ever

(don’t see the player??  click here and rock on)

When the student is ready the teacher will appear

When I was 15 I set off for a mountain range in the Northeast for my first camp adventure. Through climbing vertical rock faces I learned via the physical act of challenging my body that my spirit was strong with limits nowhere in sight. Carrying a canoe for miles through the woods before paddling it across some lakes challenged my stamina and patience but with that I learned that team work and cooperation are the difference between grace and whatever the opposite of grace is? (Still wondering). I found Tom Brown Jr, Taoism, Cat Stevens, Strength, Love and a Voice in the period of three weeks. I arrived there in dim light and left with the clarity of 11 sunny days. It was a revelation disguised as a tent in the woods.

It’s been many years since Ive thought about all that but something…um, someone…jogged my memory tonight. In the midst of a fresh revelation and 11 more sunny days worth of clarity one of my most cherished teachers and friend from then found me now. Facebook is hardly magic but I am sometimes amazed how it can feel that way…like 21st century alchemy, the internet has a way of combining earthly elements into something magic and stirring life up in an exciting, electric way.

Do you have anybody that wove themselves into and then out of your life that has stayed present in your mind? Somebody whose impact on you was indelible eventhough their presence was fleeting? I don’t know if it means that Im just overly sensitive or what, but I have had many of these people. Some of them I only knew for hours others for longer but they taught me something…gave me something…or, in some cases, allowed me to give something to them. Some days I have thought about these people and wondered where they were now…wondered if they knew how important they were to me…wondered if they were still the amazing spirits that I remembered them to be.

Then came Facebook.

And I actually got to ask them, tell them and see.

Amazing.

Everyday has some kind of revelation hidden within, usually little and sometimes big, but it’s occurring to me that I’m on the cusp of something akin to that sojourn in the woods and rocks and caves of the Adirondacks all those years ago. This is a mysterious way to wake up in the morning and a funny way to walk out into the world…wide-eyed and ready for whatever comes…but it is my state. I feel like a little kid. As excited to hold the string of a balloon in my hand as to set it free and watch, wondering where it flys off to. Cosmic debris, pipelines of fiber, electricity and sticky memories of what was and what could be swirl together and next thing you know I am waxing poetic about revelations, balloons, love and Tom Brown Jr…if that isn’t magic, I don’t know what is.  I am curious, though, if any of you have had similar thoughts about this wacky new technology and it’s wily ways of making everything old new again. Have some of your own far out thoughts about what facebook has done for you?  Share them with me please.

ok.  Im stepping out of my head now and back to terra firma to share some concrete news instead of all this existential rambling…Getty Images has invited 36 of my images to live within their world class library and 1895 is going to feature me in thier “what do you do when you’re not working for swarovski?” feature….can you guess what im going to talk about?  Here’s the pic I shot today for the interview.

Today’s lesson was more of a reminder…everything old IS new again and those people that you think of, well, they think of you too.

Don’t see the player?  Click here for a song.

Precious For Me

Snowboarding, risotto making and apartment-rearranging have left my muscles tired though happy for the exertion and adventure.  Toss in some 2009 adventure planning and quality time with new and old friends and you have the makings of a well-rounded and sweet weekend.  Highpoints were definitely the Supper Club and Axamer Lizum…

Zero visibility was more fun that it sounds but after only a few runs (and a few glorious wipeouts) I called it a day.  Im glad to have broken the first-run-of-the-season cherry but Im not hard core enough to pretend like riding in a blizzard is my bag…sunshine and fresh powder are ample enough simultaneous events here so it should be no problem to repeat…only with view and sunglasses.

The Supper Club (my unofficial name for it) was 6 of us at Beate and Ushi’s flat each throwing down the gauntlet with a homecooked masterpiece.  My Nikon got drunk in a puddle right off the bat so the whole night was documented in low-fi format on my phone…The food was fantastic and, better than that, the peeps rule.  By far, one of my favorite nights in Austria so far.  Take a click here to see the album…

As for the house-rearranging…stay tuned for more on that.  It would appear as though my apartment will be officially moved into my the New Year which means there’s no more excuses not to finally warm my house and have some peeps over.

The snow in the Alps today was totally amazing…I wish you could smell it…

This Will Annoy You

An extra hour for the Post Rock kiddies to drink themselves into oblivion was the extra hour that This Will Destroy You needed for the crowd to be fully marinated and ready for their set.  I think they took the stage around 1 something and to say the the volume was deafening is an understatement.  It was loud as hell and there was a wall of drunken kids in front of the stage absorbing much of the noise.  After EF’s postrock awesomeness a few weeks ago, I was looking forward to the show but, in my opinion, it wasnt even close.  Every song started exactly the same way and ended in exactly the same place…where one ended and the next began seemd arbitrary to me.  It’s like a new genre of jamband only instead of hippie noodling and twirling this one comes with head thrashing and holding onto the front of the stage to brace yourself .  The crowd was totally into it and I felt a little like an alien just watching and observing a totally strange ritual or something.  The highpoint of the night was not the music and certainly nt the photos of the music, but instead some QT with people I like.

Here’s a glimpse at the pix but, its true for me that my work is better when Im inspired and that was clearly not the case last night.

I heard there is more of this genre on tap for tonight with a band called Caspain and, though im intrigued now, I am on the fence.  Just gonna have to see how I feel in some hours.