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!

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.

Shark Fin District

So it’s bedtime on my first ’school night’ since I moved to Asia.  Tomorrow morning I will wake up, get dressed and make my way to the other end of the island to meet my colleagues and get my feet wet.  I’m psyched and prepared for this job but I know that, as with any new gig, it takes time to feel smart and prepared.  That said, I’m going to absorb what I can and trust the process.  My cold is finally subsiding and it was good that I had some days to recoup before getting going.  My sleep is still off but I think I’m as ready as I can be.

In the last days I had a burning desire to see the skyline of my new city and a wish to get acquainted with my new neighborhood.  Of course, the satisfying of these two desires brought me to new places, eateries and vistas.   Below are some of my favorite images from the past couple days…

Central - Hong Kong

Insomnia Goes Great with Neon

Spicy Pork Noodles

I’ve learned that my ‘hood is only in the very, slight beginning stages of gentrification so it is more Chinese than anything else.  Shark fin, ginseng and edible bird nests are among the most popular specialties sold here and I am certain that one day I will bring my camera and focus only on those things that I wonder if you would put in your mouth…I even found a crocodile specialty store for all your edible, crocodile needs.  It’s amazing.  Those slight signs of gentrification on the eastern edge of Sheung Wan are also nice as, today, I found a delicious tuna sandwich and a savory muffin made with bacon, cheddar and apple.  I live between the best of both worlds…

Here’s one last photo to help put everything in perspective…

Hong Kong Sparkles

As a side note, I’ll tell you that I did a little research to see if there was hope of some music in my future.  What I found not only gave me great hope but booked me for this Friday night…assuming I’m back from my business trip to Guangzhou on time I’ll head to The Cavern to shoot something that I’ll tell you about later…

So far, so good.  Wish me luck for my first commute.

The Light Finds Its Way

Rainbows can be a sign of good things to come or a reminder of good things that have already been.  I would like to believe that the rainbow that hungover Cherry Valley on the snow-capped day that I left the Alps was a bit of both.  A sweet reminder and a charmed farewell…

Cherry Valley Rainbow - Last Hours in Innsbruck

There was no rainbow or snow-capped peaks when we landed in HK but instead a hot, humid wind and some sun sparkling on Victoria Harbor.  I took the fact that the cats came home with me rather than sitting in quarantine for 4 months as a less colorful version of a good luck charm.  I can already tell that it is going to take some time to capture this place in a way that does justice to its energy and atmosphere but I did fire off a few photos to give you a taste.  Whereas the image above was my neighborhood last week, the image below is my neighborhood this week…

West towards Sheung Wan

I wake up every morning to boats and cranes and construction and ferries on the harbor with the steep skyline of Kowloon in the hazy distance but I haven’t shot the shot that I want to share with you.  It’s nice to smell salt air again and to be able to see more than a handful of kilometers in any direction…So I’ve done some limited wandering around the main drags that connect the different neighborhoods here and I am thrilled with my locale.  I was concerned that living in the “dried seafood district” would leave me both isolated and smelling funny but dried shark fin and crocodile parts are benign enough and the location is perfect.

Street Cleaning - Sheung Wan

There is less neon in my neck of the woods than in other neighborhoods but the light finds plenty of ways to slither and shimmer here…in the reflections of the wet streets, the mirrored gates, the shop windows filled with live, female crabs or sim cards or the bajillion other things that can be bought or sold in Hong Kong.  It’s beautiful in so many ways…though a very different kind of beauty than the pristine majesty of the Alps.

How I Carry My Visions of China

If I’m honest, I can’t yet imagine what my ‘groove’ here is going to look or feel like but with my first business trip to Guangzhou on the books for next Friday I have a feeling it’s going to reveal itself rather quickly.  One very exciting aspect to my new routine is the time on the tram and subway to catch up on all those books I skipped while driving to Wattens.  Coffee to go and public transportation..two great tastes that taste great together.

My Hood

My Lunch Today

Apartment pix will follow soon though I’m certain they will not do justice to the sweetness of my nest.  More images of the metropolis, its surroundings, its people and street art are also forthcoming…

Blu Wave Kinda Like Neu Wave

If you’re curious about more city pix from today, click here.  If you want a first glimpse at Hong Kong Street Art, well, click right here.

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.

Bring Me That Horizon

The lightning bolts that were shooting out of my neck and keeping me from turning my head in any direction had me thinking, for a while anyways, that maybe I shouldn’t turn my head.  Maybe I should just point forward.  Straight ahead.  Now that the electricity has dissipated and I have my peripheral vision back I realize that there was no point to the pinched nerve at all.  It was just good bad luck and a little whiplash.

So flying over the Alps yesterday I was hit with a wave of sadness.  It wasn’t all sadness.  There was a lot of gratitude and excitement and anticipation mixed in but the underlying current was definitely sadness.  Every time I’m about to leave one land for another I get sad.  I don’t think I’ve ever taken my life in the Tyrolean Alps for granted but knowing that I won’t be flying in and out of them, riding up and sliding down them, seeing the sun set pink behind them or falling asleep under their big, blue shadows made me pause.

In an effort to not take anything for granted, I hopped, skipped and flew back to the USA for a whirlwind love-in with friends and family before my schlep East.  I’ve got a big job ahead of me and its a stupidly long flight so I figured I’d head back now to feel less pressure later.  I’ll let you know how that strategy works out.

I started things off in Vermont with some Burlington, some Mud City and some Isle La Mott.  Getting up there was a shit show but upon arrival I was in good hands and let the good times roll.  More rolly than rocky, it felt great to be back in the green mountains.  I caught a glimpse of my future here and there in the ponds and trees and, as is always the case, I brought some VT home with me.  Here’s a couple of my favorite pix, but click here for the whole album.

Green Garden - Mud City

Lake Champlain Sunset

Very Nice People

I headed South to New Jersey for some quality time with my Grandfather and was swept into total puppy frenzy with Annie the puggle.  As is always true, I enjoyed every moment with Popi though I dream of the day I will be able to beat him at dominos.  The time flew by too fast and it was hard to say goodbye…Here are a couple of my favorite shots from Jerz, but click here for the whole album.

Let sleeping puggles lie

annie

american dreams of a jersey girl

After Jerz I had a therapeutic and relaxing hot minute in CT with my Aunt and Uncle and then it was time to head back to the metropolis for a quick hello with Jamie, Marc & Kelly’s wedding and some Brooklyn love.  Celebrating the love of two dear friends at the juncture of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges is a fine way to spend a Saturday.  Here are a couple of my favs but click here for the whole album…

Marc & Kelly

yummers

There is no doubt that hopping on the F Train feels like a breath of fresh air and there is also no doubt that the throbbing metropolis still feels like home.  After the wedding and more mojitos than I remember I shimmered my way to Crown Heights for a little more merry-making with another group of lovelies…birthday cakes, microbrews, fanny packs and Michael Jackson.  Click it!

Mia - Big Buck Hunter

la-la-la-ladies

red velvet

My hangover made me late but not un-ready for a spectacular Sunday…a Sunday entailing a new BMW motorcycle, the Meadowlands, wind in my hair and some good times with yet another dear friend.  You can only get a little bit more “American” than an NFL football game in New Jersey complete with tailgate and piss-beer so it was an excellent way to see myself off the continent.  I wasn’t sure I would enjoy sitting on the back of a motorcycle on the BQE but I was pleasantly surprised…really good times!

All the fun and merry-making left me hurtin’ but I was able to squeak in a last minute lunch with another all-star, D, before a date with a chiropractor and then an epicly uncomfortable ride…but it ended with a spectacular view of my amazing backyard and then 2 very, furry kittens. The stress is real now, the job is big but the truth is that everything is good – really good – and I am an incredibly lucky woman.

“It is a profound mistake to think that everything has been discovered; as well think the horizon the boundary of the world” ~Antoine Merin Lemierre

Relief Sans Release

Think about what it would be like to feel the effects of pressure without the actual pressure.   Invisible hands kneading dough, gravity pulling and spreading; yeast rising up to the sky all without pressure or friction or forcing.

I had some shiatsu tonight and felt this impossible feeling…the effects of pressure without the pressure.  It is a tremendous relief without a tremendous release so the energy stays concentrated and pulls you towards your own center rather than spreading you out, fraying you into a deep, tattered sleep.  It’s brilliant and I am certain that I am addicted.  Between my still broke-back from Mongolia, my recent bout with moving across oceans and a little cold I have been operating beyond full capacity and I am not afraid to admit that it can be too much sometimes.  Fortunately I know when I am stretching the limits and fortunately I know of some things that help.  If you have not yet tried shiatsu I think that you are missing one of the secrets of life…

Tomorrow is Friday, thank god.  A dear old friend is due to blow into town on Saturday and I’m leaving for ‘merica later in the week so the coming days should be relaxed and filled with laundry and talk of the good old days.  Assuming Autumn doesn’t creep up while I’m sleeping tonight I am thinking about bringing my buddy into my backyard for some fresh air and some wheat beer…we’ll see how it goes.

In other news the Lomo collaboration should be up for your viewing pleasure soon enough along with a riveting interview with yours truly…in the meantime I will share with you another one of my shots with Diana F+

armin cubed - triple exposure Diana F+ 35mm

I have to master (or at least quasi figure) the learning curve for the Diana AND the learning curve for my new film scanner to realize beauties like this one…I’m pretty sure this radical portrait of Armin was more luck than skill.  It does inspire me to keep trying though…

It’s already tomorrow so I’m going to close my eyes and think about the gravity that can melt my stress away without ever pulling me down…