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
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…
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.
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.
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…
i’m headed out now. another Monday morning and another start to another week…moon-half-full-types will say this is another chance to do good while moon-half-empty-types might just sigh and hope it’s not going to be too rough a week. regardless of what kind of moon-type you are, here’s a song to kick things off…
I thought I was finally escaping the grips of my addiction with Portugal. The Man and then FB had to go and remind me yesterday how totally awesome they remain. Really. I’m dragging ass this morning and thought I (perhaps we all) could use a little pick-me-up.
Portugal. The Man
I hope that you are moving faster or with more grace than I am today…and if not, well, at least you have some good tunes to stumble through your day with.
I was up with the sun this morning and, as my Facebook status mentioned, also “sunnyside up.” I can feel the sun behind my eyes today and I am grateful for the positivity because I was afraid I was going to feel the gray clouds of stress and muddled confusion. Nope. Not the case. I’m feeling up to whatever comes my way today and wanted to kick the morning off with some coffee and a song…
Last Thursday morning I hopped in my car after grabbing a latte and headed towards Wattens. A song came on FM4 that caught my attention and, for the first time in 2009, I told myself I was going to go buy that CD that night. Those of us that see tons of shows every year absorb lots of music though it is both rare and lucky when something really gets your attention. This was the case with the song ‘Mornings’ by a band called Portugal. The Man. I arrived at my office with the song in my head and not more than 10 minutes later saw a FB update from a friend regarding a concert that very night. Low and behold…Portugal The Man was playing Club Weekender the same night. Synchronicity is one way to see it…dumb luck another. An hour later I had a press pass and looked forward to the show all day.
The band surprised me with thier awesomeness. Weepy, wonderful Eddie Hazel inspired guitar licks spun around catchy melodies and cosmic noise makes for an eclectic and addictive sound. I have been listening to thier album The Satanic Satanist (silly name) all weekend and haven’t tired of it. The last time I got this excited about a new album from a new band was, I think, when I heard Black Mountain. I showed up a little late for the set due to a date with Bruno at the Metropol (meh…) but was sucked immeadiately in. Here are a couple of my favorite shots of this excellent band, but click here to see the whole set.
Portugal. The Man @ Weekender
Portugal. The Man - Innsbruck, Austria
It was a total surprise and I feel compelled to share. Here is the song that I heard while driving that made me stop and listen (click here if you dont see the player).
Friday was the 5 Year anniversary of my beloved pmk so it was a no-brainer that I would grab a camera and head to the bogen. A stage outside from 8 until 11 was a nice change of pace and the rain held off long enough to let the party get going. I shot 3 bands that night, the last of which was my favorite…a group from Vienna called Bulbul. The guitar player was impossibly sexy so please forgive the bajillion photos of him in this set. Here are a few of my favorites from the whole evening…
5 Jahre PMK
Beana & Stefan Lachinger & their perspectives on PMK
Sexjams - pmkBulbul - pmk
Just before 1am the rain got heavier and my patience for slow beer lines and damp crowds waned and I headed home to lose my mind in the endless Six Feet Under marathon that has occupied my free moments in the last 2 weeks. It was a great night all in all…made me proud to have been a part of the last 2 years at pmk, for sure.
Chris & Ulli Rock - Happy Birthday pmk!
Saturday and Sunday were a mix of snow showers, rain, sun, fog, winter, fall and summer so laying low and doing very little took almost no effort. I manged to get my apartment clean (kind of) and to have some QT over chocolate cake (thanks Uschi!), Bananarama (thanks Michi!), red coconut curry (thanks Albi & Alex!), a walk in the park (thanks Beate!) and some delicious noodles and mushrooms (thanks Becky & Luca!)…lucky Bean, eh? Yeah, I thought so too. here’s a couple more snapshots from the weekend’s fun with the Business Edition…
thefutureisstupid
snowinsummer
window in a rainsoaked castle
Just because I genuinely care for you (you didn’t doubt that did you?) I’m going to kick down one more track from my new favorite band Portugal. The Man. This one is called The Woods and had me dancing in my living room until the wee hours…(don’t see the player? click here)
