pixar chinglish

IM ALIVE

BUT UNFORTUNATELY THATS MORE THAN CAN BE SAID FOR MY COMPUTER....

STAY POSTED.

DPRK holga #2

Here is a photo of the juche tower in downtown pyong yang. This is one of the dominant landmarks in the pyongyang skyline. Even though there is a power shortage this is iluminated every night and the flame at the top is has animated lights. This monument is to the korean philosophy of juche.

The Juche Idea (주체사상, Juche Sasang) is the official state ideology of North Korea and the political system based on it. The doctrine is a component part of Kimilsungism, the North Korean term for Kim Il-sung's family regime.[1] Juche literally means "main body" or "subject"; it has also been translated in North Korean sources as "independent stand" and the "spirit of self-reliance". Other sources have revealed other interpretations.

Origin

Kim Il-sung advanced Juche as a slogan in a December 28, 1955, speech titled "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work" in rejection of the policy of de-Stalinization (bureaucratic self-reform) in the Soviet Union. The Juche Idea itself gradually emerged as a systematic ideological doctrine under the political pressures of the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s. The word "Juche" also began to appear in untranslated form in English-language North Korean works from around 1965. Kim Il-sung outlined the three fundamental principles of Juche in his April 14, 1965, speech “On Socialist Construction and the South Korean Revolution in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”. The principles are "independence in politics" (chaju), "self-sustenance in the economy" (charip) and "self-defense in national defense" (chawi). Current North Korean leader Kim Jong-il officially authored the definitive statement on Juche in a 1982 document titled On the Juche Idea. He has final authority over the interpretation of the state ideology and incorporated the Songun (army-first) policy into it in 1996.

D.P.R.K holga #1

Here is the first holga from the DPRK. I have lots of stuff to post like maps and newspaper articles and propaganda posters but I have been crazy busy between work chinese classes and my many social obligations.

This is some kind of propaganda poster from the DMZ. These things were all over north korea and seemed were painted on stone slabs instead of your typical poster. They are very very permanent. I have no idea what it says so if anyone knows any one who is korean and can translate it for me that would be awesome.

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A uiygher woman from kashgar.

more visual amalgam post show info

my photos hung up in the visual amalgam show

here is an article online regarding the visaul amalgam show. Again I was not able to attend the event because of the fact that I was in dprk then back to beijing around the same time. If anyone of my 4-5 readers made it to the show please leave your imprression in the comments section.

The 2nd installation of the Visual Amalgam Art Show was an enormous success, with an estimated eight hundred people attending the event at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. The semi-annual event features the personal artwork of film industry and visual effects professionals.

Show organizers and artists, Patrick Finley and Evan Jacobs, were thrilled with the enthusiastic turnout for the show. “It really surpassed our expectations,” Jacobs said. “People starting trickling in during the day, even before all the art was hung on the walls! By the time the show was scheduled to start we had a packed house.”

The event lived up to its name, featuring an eclectic collection of artwork ranging from classical to contemporary, modern and abstract. Roughly one hundred and fifty paintings, photographs and sculptures adorned the walls of the James Gray Gallery for this year’s show, representing the work of twenty-five unique artists.

Patrons enjoyed the rare opportunity to meet most of the artists in person during the evening. Five-time Academy Award™ winning visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston, was on-hand, showing his still photography at the event, as was Academy Award™ winning visual effects supervisor Kevin Mack, who had several of his abstract dimensional math paintings on display. The feedback from the public was overwhelmingly positive and several artists sold pieces despite the turbulent economic climate. “Throughout the evening people kept telling me how much they enjoyed the collection,” recalls Finley. “It was an eclectic show and I think there really was something for everyone.”

The show proved to be an inspiration for the exhibiting artists as well, since many of them had not seen their fellow artist’s work before the show. Seven-time VFX Emmy Award™ winner, Dan Curry, whose paintings were featured at the event said, “It is always great to see what our respected colleagues create for themselves. It was inspiring work and a very enjoyable gathering.”

In fact, each of the exhibiting artists boasts impressive professional credentials within the film industry but in many cases their personal artwork has not been widely publicized or displayed. “It is always an effort to make time to wear the artist’s hat,” exhibiting photographer, Ash Beck relates. “Even though we are practicing artists every day, our personal art is what truly keeps our lives and professional work in perspective and balance.”

Painter and visual effects artist, Patrick Finley, conceived the Visual Amalgam Show back in 2006 as a way to help other artists get their work into the public eye. “There are some immensely talented people working behind the scenes and I knew many of them were fine artists as well,” Finley recalls. “The goal was to provide them with the opportunity to show their personal work to the public in a fine art gallery setting and with the 2008 show I think we really achieved that.”

The 2008 Visual Amalgam Show continues online at www.visualamalgam.com featuring artists Ken Ralston (“Forrest Gump”), Kevin Mack (“Speed Racer”), Albert Brenner (“Pretty Woman”), Dan Curry (“Star Trek”), John Swallow (“Hellboy II: The Golden Army”), Angie Jones (“Pan’s Labyrinth”), Ash Beck (commercials), Ben Rittenhouse (“Hulk”), Dainel Abramovitch (“The Brave One”), Ben Radcliffe (“Shrek 2”), Danny Dimian (“Polar Express”), Shannon Blake Gans (“Live Free or Die Hard”), Darren Lurie (“Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”), Eric Hanson (“Cast Away”), Eric Robertson (“The Da Vinci Code”), Evan Jacobs (“Resident Evil: Extinction”), Joe Strasser (“Beowulf”), Loic Zimmerman (“Hancock”), Owen Demers (“The Martix Revolutions”), Pam Hogarth (Gnomon School), Patrick Finley (“I Am Legend”), Snow Mack (“X-Men 2”), Vincent Serrittela (“Hancock”), Karen Murphy-Mundell (“Titanic”) and Richard Winn Taylor (“Tron”).

D.P.R.K. trip

ok I will get this started with some pics and then update the story later.

I like always shot everything on film so i stole these digitals from other people in my tour group.This is the infamous american tour group B standing in front of the great leaders 60m tall bronze statue!

These are the tour guides who are definately not spies... right!



Enjoying a little dog meat Steak in DPRK!


This is me sitting at the center of the table where the cease fire armistice agreement was signed.

post visual amalgam wrap up

So I didn'y go cause I live in china but here are some photos from the show reception.

I got lots of north korea stories and photos coming soon i promise.

holga

here is a random holga photo of the great wall

North Korea Update

So i am back from the Democratic peoples Republic of Korea. It was beyond words.

This was definitely one of those shakabuku life altering adventures. I am so blown away I feel like I have come to the end of the road and its weird being back in china and not sure what to do next with my life.

I am thinking just packing up and moving to Uzbekistan after winter is over.

Off partying in the D.P.R.K.

So this week I am off partying in the closest axis of evil I could find. North Korea. They don't allow internet, cellphones, or awesomeness so blog posts might be scarce this week.

wish me luck i am going to need it! Will post tons of pictures as always when i get back.

As I load my ipod with movies I keep asking myself n case get stuck in an axis of evil forever what movies should I take.... the answer i came uup with is an obvious one... the goonies!

week worth of holga

in norht korea this week so here are a bunch of holgas! these were all taken in a tea plantation in bangladesh!

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This is the mosque in Turpan an ancient desert oasis on the old silk road

Holga076

This is the main square in Kashgar. I was hanging out in this square everyday reading "farewell to arms" and drinking pomegranite juice. This is one of the most amazing spots on earth.

PMOL reports on the usa financial crisis

As I sit here in red china making chinese yuan I am catching news headlines and reports and everything on the US financial meltdown. No matter how much i read I really don't understand what it all means. I have not been in america for almost 2 years. I can see the data and reports but am still distanced from the feeling and how it affects everday life.

I found this report that is absolutely phenomenal on "this american life" about how this all happened. I cannot recomend enough and the crazy thing is the episode is around 4 months old.....

355: The Giant Pool of Money

my photos are in an art show!

So i am sure i have mentioned it before buy my buddy patrick is organizing an art show of work by people working in the film industry. I have 4 photos in it.

If you happen to be in L.A. on october 5th go check it out there will be free cocktails!

http://visualamalgam.com/

PS. I will not be there because i will be in north Korea ( yes really ) the likelihood of me making it back alive is not good so you should buy my photos because they might be worth something.

holga075

You know your from quincy when...

So for those new to this blog I am originally from Quincy but now live in Red China. I went to college in savannah, georgia and since then lived in LA, San Fran, Atlanta, and Chicago. I haven't really lived in quincy since.... except for a few sketchy winters when i was unemployed and lived in my uncles basement or on my cousins couch and even then I spent most of my time at Loon mountain in N.H. snowboarding.

Its funny I have to live all the way across the world in a communist country to get back to my roots. I tend to notice my accent slips back out more e than it used to . The other things is back in the states when ever people asked me where i was form i just said boston because it was easier. Here in beijing i get called out for saying boston but really being from quincy. The thing is here in the 'Jing most of the white people can be generalized divided into two categories, GROUP A (which i belong to) are the people who just ended up up here for lack of a better idea and then once they got here realized the fact that life is really easy and beers come in giant bottles that only cost like 14cents and never left . then there is GROUP B and these are the rich preppy overachievers who are here claiming their rightful place in the world working for global financial institutions. The thing is I forget a lot of these people went to business school in the boston area. They ask where i am from I say boston and they respond they went to harvard, BU ,brown, or wellesly for girls... whatever and then they dig further and ask what part then i say quincy and this is the part where they frown and excuse themselves ( this is also usually where i am busted for being somewhere i wasn't invited like a fancy function with an open bar like a journalists thing or even college alumni event )

Even the chinamen have been calling me out on not really being from Boston. They know cause just about every chinamen has a relative in either quincy or malden or a smartass kid who goes to college in boston.

Now when asked I just say quincy and wear it like a badge of honor. Screw those preppy fucks. i even met one girl here in beijing who had a sister in quincy and told me that her sister even had her bachelorette party there and went to flannigans????? (uhmm yeah )

Another funny story is when i was working at disney I was sharing and office with this guy with a funny accent then after a couple of weeks he kept referencing suprisingly familiar thing and saying them in familiar ways like going down the cape and talking about dunkin dounuts and stuff like that. It dawned on me he was from new england. I asked where he was from and he said Boston I said me too. Then there was the "what part of boston" showdown. He said worcester I said Quincy. I win. Maybe quincy isn't officially boston but in quincy we still have the T and can see the john hancock building! He doubted me due to lack of an accent and proceeded to quiz me on random things like kings castle land, candle pin bowling, carvel ice cream, the new england aquarium, d'angelos steak and cheese pockets, old sturbridge village for weeks until he was satisfied.

anyways I found this online test to be sure...

1. You get wicked mad when people pronounce it quin-cee
check.

2. your entire family lives in quincy and you have no desire to ever leave
check. i can actually narrow this down to everyone lives in houghs neck

3. you can't walk down the street without seeing a couple legends
check. um actually cant go to thanksgiving or xmas dinner without seeing one

4. you know there are only two places to be on the 3rd of july
check. actually other than edgewater drive not sure what the other place is???

5. you think all the rich kids live in squantum and you know all the projects are in g-town
check. oh I have intimate first hand knowledge of the projects in G-town

6. you love how everyone claims to originally be from dorchester
uhm times are changing i guess when i was a kid everyone was from southie and wore white hoodies with shamrocks to prove it.

7. you know the same people have been hanging out at alumni for 20 years
check.

8. you go to the thanksgiving game every year and actually care who wins
I live in china now and don't go but I have gone and chanted north eat shit before

9. you know Quincy is number two for underage drinking and couldn’t be prouder
didn't know but not at all surprised.

10. you love how people from Scituate Cohasset and Hingham think its so ghetto and it only makes you prouder
check.

11. you know if youre a tobin phelan or bellotti you can get out of any kind of trouble
check.

12. you took swimming lessons at either the y or lincoln hancock and learned how to sail at blacks creek
check. lincoln hancock but i from G-town and sailing was never really an option.

13. you know the people swimming in wollaston beach are from dorchester because anyone from here would know never to go in it
check.

14. you know deedees and ups and downs are the sketchiest bars around but will probably go
check. I was in ups and downs last time i ws home for xmas

15. you are familiar with Squantum, Wollaston, Merrymount, Houghs Neck, Montclair, North Quincy, West Quincy, Beechwood, The Point
check. why is g-town not listed?

16. you know the first dunkin donuts was in quincy and youre pretty sure it’s the one on southern artery
check. sea street now has one so need to go that far.

17. you think the part of quincy across the highway is like another world
Actually i always thought that was randolph or canton or something and never put 2 and 2 together until reading this. anything beyond the southern artery was another world when your from g-town.

18. you have never been to a historical sight unless it was for a fieldtrip in elementary school
check. and never will again after going to those creepy tombs in the basement of that big granite chuch in quincy center bu the T station.

19. you know to never to go to quincy hospital if you're seriously injured
check. i would rather go to a chinese hospital.

20. you grew up on bud light and cheap vodka and spent all of your weekends at the mount, rock, marina, white rock, the quarries, piney, or the golf course
check. i felt nostalgic when i saw the quarries in gone baby gone.

21. you lived for half day tuesdays when you were in elementary school
check.

22. you hear that wollaston beach is just as clean or maybe cleaner than nantasket but you drive 40 minutes to go there anyways
check. i always wondered why no one actually went to wollaston beach other than to get fried clams at the clam box.

holga074

The Shaheed Minar (Bengali: Shohid Minar) is a national monument in Dhaka, Bangladesh, established to commemorate the martyrs of the Language Movement of 1952.

On February 21, 1952, dozens of students and political activists were killed when the Pakistani police force opened fire on Bengali protesters who were demanding equal status to their native tongue, Bangla. The massacre occurred near Dhaka Medical College and Ramna Park in Dhaka. A makeshift monument was erected on February 23[1] by students of University of Dhaka and other educational institutions, but soon demolished on February 26[2] by the Pakistani police force.

The Language Movement gained momentum and after a long struggle, Bangla was given equal status as Urdu. To commemorate the martyrs, the Shaheed Minar was designed and built by Hamidur Rahman, a Bangladeshi sculptor. The monument stood until the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, when it was demolished completely during Operation Searchlight, a genocide carried out by the Pakistani Army resulting in an estimated 50,000 civilian deaths. After Bangladesh gained independence, it was rebuilt.

Today, the Shaheed Minar is the centre of cultural activities in Dhaka. Every year, the Language Movement is remembered at the monument.

ganges river in varanassi

I wish I could remember this guys name. When you get to caranassi in india you get mobbed by people. They all say varanassi is a city for learning and burning. And it is also a city where the shadiest of the shadiest come looking to prey on dumb western tourists. Everyone in the city is mobbing you for all kinds of things. anywas the cool thing to do is take a boat tour on the ganges and see the burning ghats where they cremate bodies from a boat. Myself and tomas found this old guy who was nice and didn't bullshit us. I figured he already had one foot in the flames so he didn't try and scam us just wanted to give us a cool boat ride. The pictures are not that great but they still give you a small idea of just how amazing varanassi really is.

holga073

This is another shot of a Rickshaw wallah on the streets of dhaka the capital of bangladesh. I took a variety of photos. at this point tin the trip i was just about out of film and shot a lot of this using slide old expired slide film. Looking back I really wanted to do these in color because the rickshaws themselves were so colorful but I think the B&W photos came out a lot stronger. I like this one because it captures the street life of dhaka but I wish that guy in the brown shirt wasnt there because the darknesss would have framed the rickshaw wallah. next time i go to dhaka i will shoot more B&W film

Holga071

Lonely photo of a rickshaw shot on the 7 kuai a roll ($1) shanghai brand B&W film. Looks like it was taken 50 years ago....

holga071

I took this randomly a few months back. this is a common sight all over china. The woman is complaining about being wronged by the government. I find it interesting how people with no real hope of winning the find still express it through these signs. Chinese signs and posters have been used for purposes like this for thousands of years. The character is so much more powerfull than the ish language.

holga070

Here is a rickshaw wallaw washing himself in the morning....

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For those who don't know Roxies's was founded in bangladesh and this is the original location.

holga068

I am pretty sure this will be me within the next 10 years.... except instead of india I will be loitering outside the imperial terrace chanting in hopes of scoring a pu-pu platter.

Murderball Gold 2008

Last night I went to watch the Paralympic rugby gold medal finals ( aka Murdernball ) and saw America reclaim that which was stolen away from us by those sneaky canadians 4 years ago. Anyways America came back with a vengeance. They kicked Australias ass 53-44. No matter what australia did the americans were all over the court smashing australians around. Australia didn't seem to stand a chance even though they had the kobe of murderball. australias #3 Ryley "Magic Boy" Batt scored 23 points and was all over the court he played offense and defense, he scared the shit out of me. There is nothing like seeing a disabled person violently smash another disabled person so hard it not only knock them out of their wheelchair they also need the coach to come out with replacement parts to get the chair back up and running. Think rugby meets nascar meets jimmy and timmy from south park. And the beers were only 5 kuai.... which is also a down point seeing as though the beer was so cheap it sold out by half time. There is nothing on earth like a bunch of drunken paraplegic rugby fans. And I am referring to both the drunken fans OF paraplegic rugby and the drunken paraplegics who were also very drunk and fans of paraplegic rugby. The other crazy thing was randomly just about everyone in beijing i know seemed to be there. The murderball finals was the social event of the season.

holga067

this is rajastan it is very cool thats why its full of hippies!

Holga066

Here's a holga of an indian cow.

holga065

Heres a couple more gratuitous taj mahal shots for the blog....

holga064

paralympics

Last night my cousin bob was in town on business. He works for microsoft and got hooked up with some tickets to the water cube for the paralympics. I had been sold on the olympics but was skeptical about the paralympics. but after last night i say screw the olympics. You do not know excitment until you see a guy with no arms compete with a guy missing 1 foot and then kick his ass!

I really dont understand how they organize the competitions but everyone appears to have different disabilities and compete against one another.

Last night was the team swim where 4 teammates each did 50 m lengths of the pool. I saw china who was a bit behind then the next swimmer had NO ARMS. He dove right into the pool and swam like a freaking dolphin on steroids gaining a huge lead putting china in first and then they won the gold and broke the world record. It was AMAZING.

all i could think about was the fact i could even swim 50 yards with everything intact.

Other than that it was also my first time in the water cube which is amazing.