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

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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

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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....

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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Here's a holga of an indian cow.

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

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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.

holga064...1/2

I pity the fool who don't buy my oranges!

Don't ever listen to me....

here is a letter from my latest love advice column ( yes i'm still writing it ). I submitted this to the editor last night. I keep expecting to be fired yet it never happens....

Dear Ben,
I have fallen deeply love with a girl I have recently met. She seems to also like me but I am not sure as it is hard to tell. She is an introverted and quiet girl and when I talk to her sometimes she only responds with silence. I am looking for a way to some how make a connection with this girl so that she will open up to me. I have asked lots of my female friends what to do but they have only given me bad advice. What are some ways that i can break this silence and win her heart. Please let me know the secrets to melting a girls heart and making her fall in love with you.
Blue

Dear Blue,
I think first off if your hanging out with your female friends looking for advice then your doing your research in the wrong library. I think if your reaching out to this girl she is still giving you the cold shoulder you might be trying too hard. Don't go chasing this girl trying to impress her instead I think you need to be strong and your own man which in turn will impress her even more. Try and be like a cowboy. You know that guy on a horse alone riding through the desert. The cowboy has his own code of honor, ethics, and his own rules of living. He never, ever tries to impress the women but in the end he always gets the girl and they ride off into the sunset together. I think you need to reach down deep and find some of these qualities inside yourself and let her discover you. In the end if she doesn't care about you for who you really are than no trick in the book is going to melt her icy heart.

I would love to hear your thoughts....

holga 063

holga 60 something

here is a shot of on of the boat guys in the river that divides dhaka the capital of bangladesh. I first he wanted $500 USD to take me out in a boat but i finally negotiated him down to about 10 cents or something.

holga a day

Ok. I got really slack on my goal of a holga photo per day. But I was broke and kind of busy. Now I am bored again and have money and just got 60 rolls of film developed. So I am starting up again.

i figured I would start off light. I was toying around with infrared film in my holga and shot these. it doesn't have much IR effect because i used the wrong filter. I tried using a standard $5 red 25A filter instead of the $100 red R72 filter. Anyways I still thought the dark sky gave it an interesting look. The rest of the week i am going to post portraits and such from bangladeshy villages.

D.P.R.K.

So I have decided that I am gonna try and take a little pleasure trip to The D.P.R.K. ( aka north korea )

I figure I want see an actual axis of evil before McCain claims his destiny and bombs them back into the stone age.

I am an american ( obviously ) so I just submitted the application to the tour agency to see if I can actually get a visa to visit north korea.

The highlight of north korea would be getting the chance to see the mass games. The mass games is a 100,000 people in a synchronised gymnastics show that makes the beijing opening ceremonies seem like a community theater performance.

Anyways I will keep you posted on the details if i get greenlit or rejected.

here is a clip of the DPRK mass games :



What are Mass Games?....in a nutshell:

The Mass Games organisers state that 'Juche orientated mass gymnastics of Korea originated from Flower Gymnastics, a work by President Kim Il Sung created in 1930, the early days of his anti Japanese revolutionary struggles'. 1961 marked the fist truly Korean style Mass Gymnastics piece with the catchy title of 'The Era of the Workers' Party'. Today, Mass Gymnastics represents 'the ideological theme of the history of the country and nation splendidly through combination of gymnastic formations, backdrops involving tens of thousands of people and music'. The original aims were to train the people's physique but this led into a form of gymnastic art, 'the ideological theme promotes social development and it trains not only the people's physiques but also their spiritual power'.

Unlike a sports competition, where the athletes compete for a prize, the mass gymnastics of Korea brings 'pleasure and satisfaction to the performers as well as to the audience and instils in their hearts hope for the future'.

As Kim Jong Il pointed out in a meeting with the mass gymnastics organisers in 1987 'the Korean style of mass gymnastics is a mixed form of comprehensive physical exercises with a combination of high ideological content, artistic quality and gymnastics skill'.

'Developing mass gymnastics is important in training children to be fully developed communist people, to be fully developed communist man, one must acquire a revolutionary ideology, the knowledge of many fields, rich cultural attainments and a healthy and strong physique. These are the basic qualities required of a man of the communist type. Mass gymnastics play an important role in training schoolchildren to acquire these communist qualities. Mass gymnastics foster particularly healthy and strong physiques, a high degree of organization, discipline and collectivism in schoolchildren, The schoolchildren, conscious that a single slip in their action may spoil their mass gymnastic performance, make every effort to subordinate all their thoughts and actions to the collective.'

holgaroid

I just scanned this. before i moved to beijing i bought a ridculously expensive polaroid back 2 weeks before polaroid discontinued making film for it. Anyways i shot a ton of polaroids back then lost them and just refound them so here is one. I am too lazy to post anything else. tomorrow i pick up about 20 rolls of film from the lab so expect tons of fress holga shots from india and bangladesh this week.