Photographic Recursivity?

Looking at Jonathan Morse's cool photography site (which you should all visit forthwith, and if you do I'll save you some groaner of a joke about "thirdwith", or worse, "sandwhich") I saw a picture of some poor cowering punk being photographed by press photographers (with those truly intimidating big-flash units that they used in the day) that made me wonder.

Who has taken the most recursive photograph?

I include here three different "single-recursions" that I liked.

The first one on the left is the classic photo of the photographer at work. And it has to be work just to carry around the kit that dude has.

Really, check out the lens on that camera on his back! He's either a professional or he really has something he's compensating for.

The second is the equally classic reflection photo (which unfortunately just reminded me of the dude who used to put pictures on ebay in which his nude reflection was on the item for sale).That one is from NASA, and they were kind enough to take the time to enhance the reflection in the visor. What can't you do on a Hollywood soundstage?



The third is the party-favorite, taking a picture of the person taking a picture of you.



But it is not enough! All these photos (below) make me want to do is go to a car-show in Seoul and snap a picture of the guy who is always snapping a picture of the 50 guys who are snapping pictures of the car models (In fact, at these car shows, the cars go pretty much un-attended in favor of the models. Sensible, really).

Or, get even more meta (somehow) - line 10 people up and have the first two take pictures of each other, 3 takes pictures of the first two, 4 of those three, etc...

Why?

Because someone has to do the really dumb shit!

Guiness World Record folks, where are you?

The Verb, to Bee!

Why have I been such a bad blogger? Because I’ve been on Staycation here in Seoul. Been sleeping in late, studying Korean, and wandering about the City, with a strong emphasis on Namsan.

Sleeping in is, of course, an unalloyed good, which requires no explanation. It is odd, therefore, that I have the punched-looking eye-sockets of a boxer and a permananent case of the old pee-gon hayo.

Studying Korean, on the other hand, is supposed to keep my mind young, or flexible, or creative, or something, but its main take-home lesson so far has been that I am either too old, rigid, entrenched, or too stupid to learn a new language.

Wandering about has been more successful and, as I sit here waiting for some big-ass editing job to come over the mojo-wire, I am sorting some pictures from Mt. Namsan. I’ve been up it three times this week.

Yesterday I walked from my Korean lessons in Gwangwhamun, over the top, and then down into Itaewon-dong. On the way up I snapped a quick picture of a tour company that might want to change their name? I stopped at the top for a delicious bowl of bibimbap, which gave me the strength to continue.

On the way down I snapped the picture of what I know believe to be an actual cicada (or certainly some other kind of insect). If it’s eyes look weird, that is because it has obviously been the victim of some kind of hideous vampire-bugs who ate its brain out.

Yep, you’re looking through the empty eyeholes to the foliage beyond. Cool or gross, I can’t decide?

Monsoon season is allegedly winding down, but as it continues to rain, it continues to be green and insect-y. Today I spent some time snapping pics of honey-bees. These bees are working the Mugungwha blossoms that have just begun to appear and man do they go at it. The bees get completely coated in pollen, then head off.

After a couple snaps of that, I concentrated on getting, with mixed results, some snaps of bees landing.

That Hot Chick from Bulgogi Blog Found These Pics of Daejeon

Wow


Yvonne, the rare blogger at bulgogi (and, of course, my fiancee) found a slide-show of pictures of Daejeon in 1951, after the Civil War had left town. They are farking amazing pictures if you have ever been to modern Daejeon.



Boggling..



I'm not sure war left Dresden this flat?

Snaps from the new lens..

So my old kit lens would take a shot like this (when fully backed out)


My new lens does this:



when fully backed out.. but that still doesn't quite show the difference, since the photos are the same size. So in Photoshop I did this...


The black representing what the old lens caught.

OTOH shooting vertically..

This




turns to this


With photoshop revealing:


Totally worth the money at under $250.00.

Now I need a macro and a nice 70-200mm piece and my lens collection will be solid

The Second Wave

Namsan is changing, as it does.

The bright blossom colors from this day have gone away.

Still, the greenosity is epic.

this




compares to this (click ya genius!) in that apples and oranges way.

And the once gnarled Rose of Sharon (click here, ok?) now looks like this:



meaning the field of ochre that was this link.. is now this field of green

And the blossoms be coming baby, the blossoms be coming!




One more pretty time before the heat killlessez...

The End of Hi-Seoul

Being pretty busy, I contrived to miss most of Hi-Seoul, the annual festival of culture, but last weekend ADAM and I did take a spin around town to catch what events we could. I had Friday off, and he left Daejeon in the morning, so we headed towards Cheonggyecheon to see what we could see. It was "street performance day" at the stream, and so we were treated to a pretty amusing clown doing the kinds of things amusing clowns do.

As a teacher of English in Korea, I identified!

As an added bonus, ADAM is Mr. Photography and he knew of the fabled Canon dealership in Seoul. For a measly 10K chun they took the camera apart and cleaned both the sensor and the see-through apparatus. I had known the sensor was smudged - in close up pictures you could actually see the smudges on the digital output, but I had no idea how bad the eye-piece had become.

It was like looking through an entirely different camera, and a better one at that!

As you can see however, it did not succeed in making my photographs any better. ;-)

As we wandered down from Cheonggye and I took some snapshots of about the 100th "Changing of the Guard" ceremonies that I have snapped in my life, we also went by this kind of cool installation art in the sky. Later that night Adam looked it up on the wikipedia and it was revealed that the fabric was supposed to represent rivers.

We were just impressed by how it looked, and even more impressed at seeing such a grand expanse of green grass anywhere in Korea. Most fields are of spit-permeated dust, or covered in concrete or stone. What little grass is around, is usually pretty beaten and abused, but this was in good enough shape to lie directly on (after conciously excluding the whole "coated with spit" thought from your mind!).

Then it was home for dinner, Yvonne joining us, and some time spent over in Itaewon. Never my favorite place to go, but it was pretty fun.

The next day was back to Seoul and some cultural performances. I was still carrying the effed up card from Tokyo, so I really only had 256 safe MB to work with and was thus quite parsimonious about my snapping. Still, this pictured little girl was both intense and cute, and the medley of Beatles songs(!) played on traditional Korean stringed instruments (help me here BKF?) was soothing and kind of ridiculous sounding.

Finally, as we backed out of the shrine/temple park, we were amused to see the following piece of (I think) conceptual artwork. Someone has erected a scaffold around a brick building and is enclosing it in a facade of doors. Surprisingly, to me at least, it looked attractive and thoughtful.

Unecessarily Graphic?

It isn't Just Fan Death that can kill you around these parts, mister!

I have to hat-tip the BKF for giving me a clue of this. We were walking to dinner during his visit (a time I already refer to, with just a hint of woe on my otherwise noble countenance, as "the good old days") and he started laughing. I asked why and he gestured back over his shoulder, "There's a sign back there that threatens to kill litterers."

In the interim I have learned the word for garbage, and so today as I walked past the store I could read some of that white sign scratched in the concrete. It says, "If you litter around here, I'll kill you!" (that is kind of translated from the literal)

New Words are -
걸리면 = When caught
버리다 = throw away
죽는다 = dies

and I think(?) that the verbs are all in the root form to make it simple for foreigners to understand? The BKF can clue me in on that, I'm sure.

UPDATE - The only other thing I can easily read there is the advert for cigarettes, not only because it is ubiquitous here, but always looks the same - white circle, red letters, blue background. Now THAT is marketing!

The Hills Are Alive....

Walking up the hill behind BPU2 to get to Namsan Park I first come across this little shrine, tucked between two horizontal trails across the hill. Around it you can see the kind of springing that is going on.


Those once ochre and dull-green hills have asploded with color - in fact much of the cherry-blossom color has already fallen off of the trees. As you walk through, the wind brings down gusts of blossoms, like velvet flakes of snow.



Finally, a close-up of the 무궁화 bushes reveals that they are finally starting to come back from their savage pruning. Good, since I think it will mean a second efflorescence on the hill.

I'm all for it.

The Path Taken More Times Than Jenna Jameson

ME AND IMMIGRATION

Today is my weekly day off and it started well, lolling about in bed and IMing The Reprobate, the OAF, and MAF at the same time. I felt such a 21st century boy! If only some of you other "friends" and "family" were more certain IMsters. After all, I now have a personal best to beat.

Then it was off to get the last bit of my difficulties with immigration ironed out. Simple things are often good things (explaining why I dated Kim Vickery) and I had a breakfast of Kimbap and Coffee which is both simple and good.

As a bonus, I got to Immigration, got my ticket out of the machine and was called within three minutes. So now, at the cost of 700 dollars, I'm clean with Korea. Looking at the passport I'm not sure that I have the paperwork I need for multiple entry (which reminds me of an experience I once had in a men's room at the bus station in New York, but perhaps that is for another post?) status, but when BKF lands I'll have him look at it.

This has been, as my first lovely picture of Namsan over there indicates, an uphill struggle.

Still, I'm quite happy it is over and despite initially getting on the subway in the direction of outer nowhere (Somewhere between Alameda, California and anywhere in the semi-autonomous English posession of Scotland) I was home by 1:30 or so.


UP THE HILL BACKWARDS (IT'LL BE ALRIGHT)

Since I had purchased some new headphones last week on my trip to Yansang, and wanted to use the mighty Ipod, I thought a trip up towards Seoul Tower would be a darned good thing. I grabbed the camera and headed up.

Spring is very slowly beginning to sprung. I could see some color - those yellow bushes along the road have bloomed in the last week, and when I looked closely at the bushes and trees I could see buds everywhere. The buds were pretty obvious on some of the flowers - the only exception were the Mugungwha (Rose of Sharon) which have been so tightly pruned that they seem to be in a state of shock. That might not be all bad, since although some plants have been fooled by last week's Spring-like weather, it went back to about freezing the last few days and last night, as I went to dinner at a Nepali restaurant, it snowed a bit.

But spring is coming, as even the trees are starting to bud. Most of the hill is still pretty ochre, but some spots have dashes of color and, after Spring last year in Daejeon, I'm looking forward to see what's going to happen on the mountain.

I didn't include pictures here of the lilly pond on the Itaewon side of the mountain, but by change of the season, or by the hands of man, it is starting to get substantially less cloudly and it also looks ready to start blooming into something cool.


BE VEWWY VEWWY QWIET... I'M HUNTING AJUMMA!

The hiking behavior of older Koreans is unlike anything I ran into in The Empire, so I also took a few emblematic snaps of them. The first thing I noticed in Korea (on the trails that is) is that older Koreans have a very characteristic walking style. They either carry a walking stick, in which case their hands are free, or they clasp their hands behind their backs and walk slightly leaned forward. Spookily, this walking style is exactly that of the OAF (this might explain her love for kimchee - shared genetics) and it has always reminded me of old WWII pictures I saw of Hitler reviewing the troops. At any rate, it is very typical.

The second thing, that I think I've mentioned before, is that for people going out "into nature" Koreans do everything they can to cover themselves from it, and many Ajumma look only a plane ticket to Nepal and three Sherpa short of an attempt on Everest.

It was a bit chilly today.. 45 degrees in that savage measurement system that many of you use back in The Empire ... but not that chilly, and this style of dress is as strictly adhered to when it is 90 degrees and 90 percent relative humidity as it is when ice-storms are blowing through. Anyway, I include a snap of each style. That picture of the couple, particularly spooks me out, because .... because... THEY HAVE NO FACES!!!

Ahem, I'm better now.


USE YOUR. TALENT TO DIG ME UNDER

Last week I also went on search of pots for plants, potting soil, and fertilizer. Only one of these things exist in Seoul (pots - a culture so good with ceramics is likely to have a lot of pots about). Some quick confabs with my lovely students returned a uniform response, "you have to go outside Seoul." But all the classes were also uniform in suspecting I was some kind of dangerous retard for wanting to pay for dirt.

I took great pains to explain that while I was some kind of dangerous retard, it was for not this reason. Also, after my explanation of what I needed, a student in each class finally said some version of, "Professor, why pay for dirt? Our school is next to a mountain."

And so it was that today, on my trip to Namsan Mountain, I took a little tupperware container and stole some dirt from beneath a newly planted tree.

This went against everything the Sierra Club ever taught me, but when in Rome, I suppose, I must do as the Romans propose.

Then, maybe 100 meters past the site of my dirt theft, The Universe either taunted me, offered me an answer, or is trying to get me arrested. Maybe all three.

As a dangerous retard I have no way of judging.

But there, to the left of the trail, was a tarped stack of of 20 kilo bags of dirt that the park gardeners apparently use for planting things.

I'm not sure what to do about this, but If I call any of you for bail money, I damned well expect you cough up. Got it?

Ah.. a good day in the land of always tomorrow...

This weekend may be MT, which should be a raft, if not an actual cruise-ship (since who knows where we are going), of entertaining stories.

For now, it may be time to toddle down to the regular and have a delicious Gin and Tonic.

After all, days off only come around three times a week.

My Walk To Work: Being the First Part.

So.. as I walked home over Namsan yesterday I noticed that small, almost infinitesimal bits of rambunctious Spring were starting to break out.

Last week, as I walked home from BPU2, I took the photos embedded here. At that time little on Namsan was green except the tops of the evergreens. That little green patch on the ground is on account of some kind of granite culvert, but elsewhere even the small buds on the ends of branches and shoots were a scruffy brown.

With the smog and yellow dust, it was a semi-apocalyptic sepia-toned world. Except for the ajumma and ajeoshi hiking everywhere. Who, when you think about it, are relatively sepia-toned themselves. Not that you can tell, because when older Koreans hike, they nearly cover themselves from head to toe in layers of clothing, masks, gloves, and some things I'm not sure I could ever really identify.

Still, on that day, there was a rather muted palette of colors, and the first signs of the watercolor explosions to come are just now creeping out.

Some Kind of purple flower has burst out on the East side of the hill, and you can see slight green-buds everywhere (Well, you'll be able to see them when I photograph them tomorrow).

The last picture at the bottom looks rather crap right now, but I bet it becomes pretty impressive when the three-week long Spring really hits. It is a patch of Mugungwha bushes, and I plan to stop by every so often and take a picture as the look changes.

Then, the pollution, dust and sand will come, and photography will become impossible.

It will be impossible, I say!

Fame but no fortune..

A letter from semi-prestigious magazine:

Dear Charles,

Congratulations on your new position. Even though I work on Japan, I have a special interest in Korea and am happy that you are in Seoul. I am also attracted to your idea of a photo spread for the fall 2010 Asian Religions special section. The deadline for that issue is May 10, 2010. Please plan on a photo essay of about the same length as your first one.

I am also keenly interested in you doing a second photo essay that, if accepted, will be published in the spring 2010 issue with a deadline of December 10, 2009.

....A bunch of detail excised....

Charles, thank you so much for your interest in working with us again. I look forward to hearing from you about both of these potential topics.

Cordially,
name redacted

sweet! Of course planning so far ahead means that I will be hit by a bus or catch the cancer. ;-)

The Wisdom of the Apes...

AS NOTED AT SOUTH-CENTRAL "ZOOLAND"
























By the Tragic Monkey...

Updates (and pulled plug)

Amazing how much you can get done when your internet is pulled. One of the "bad" things about moving apts is that I got reamed for 100 bucks of penalties on intarwebs because the new building won't accept Inet service from my old provider...

So they came today to take my porno away! This meant no random searching around for internet meaning.

But, it did mean that I got my list of things to do.. well.. done...

I have a good "moving towards final" draft of my paper, I fixed up my CV.. and here is Seoul, brother...

Heck, tonight I might even read something!

First, two quick pictures from the night before. Here is the OAF posing by the river. And, as we walked along the river we saw, under each bridge, some kind of entertainment and crowds of Korean couples and families. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but one of the truly grand things about Korea is the amazing amount of public entertainment and the Korean pleasure in going out and doing social things in public. Even in the shittiest weather you can find Koreans under bridges, playing cards, drinking, sleeping, fishing, whatever. That was certainly true this Saturday night. Under one bridge there was some flute music, and under the bridge in the picture, someone was showing cartoons on the opposite wall.

Sunday was a quick trip to the Starbucks and then up to Insadong. The OAF had been to Insadong twice before, but on a previous trip she wasn’t really happy with. This time, with sun beating down, she happily bounced up and down the cobblestones saying, “I’ve never been here before,” and “They didn’t have all these cool things before.” I didn’t point out to her that if she had never been here before she could scarcely remember whatever cool things might or might not have been around. After a couple hours wandering about, we had tea in the same tea shop, several years ago, that Ed first introduced me to Mrs. 신 – who promises to be most helpful in my efforts to get that next job.

On our way out the night before we had noticed that the “Restaurant That Serves The Ickiest Soup Ever” was now swaddled in the framing and cloth that Koreans put up prior to demolition. The Maitre’ D however, was sitting outside the cloth sheath and when he saw my look of befuddlement he quickly walked us through an alley and to the new version of the old restaurant (which, mysteriously, was mentioned in the translation that BKF and I just worked on). So, if you want some delicious hemmorhage soup you’re gonna have to come to me for directions. ;-)

Then it was a walk back to Cheonggye Plaza and the food festival. This was a major disappointment. There were only about 20 booths and they were all standard festival faire, by which I mean non-food festival fair. The OAF had some corn that was so soggy we tossed it out. When the New York Hot Dog is the tastiest food at the Korean Food Festival? Something went a bit wrong. I hung around for a bit and watched people get a shot at the ttok-dough (entirely different from Dokdo!). You had to really pound the crap out of it in order for the smallest bit of dough to fly, and it was interesting to watch people try. Then it was off to the Texas bar for a beer and to Seoul Station to get the OAF back to South Central in time for her work the next day. I also bought my ticket for the next day – but this time I got a 새말 ticket, which is much cheaper and the trip, as it turns out, more scenic if a slight bit longer. I went back to the Hotel and was so tired that I didn’t go back out again. So when I lay my head down at about 10:30 it came as a considerable shock that I couldn’t go to sleep. Just could not.

Finally dozed off sometime near 1, woke up at 3:30, and then woke up again for ‘good’ at 6:30 the next morning. I spent the whole day in a semi-coma. The day was highlighted by a sweaty trip to KLTI to drop off the BKF’s translation and then a trip back to Seoul Station to discover that I had purchased a ticked from Daejeon to Seoul and not one for the direction I wanted. The nice ticket lady exchanged these tickets with minimum fuss although I did have to wait an extra 40 minutes to catch my train. The ride down was nice, except for about 20 minutes of atrocious behavior by a child sitting behind me. Then it was home, off to the CafÈ Idee for two glasses of wine (French! And for only 5 bucks a pop) and back home for some sleep which came quite easily.

I woke up the next morning to discover I had lost my electronic dictionary, which was a bit of a bummer, but I was soon to get over it.

Catching Up: Part Three - Good Kwangju-ju

A pano of lovely Kwangju from the road up Mt. Mudeungsan

Then it was time to head down to Kwangju to see the "family." 종규 swooped down on Saturday morning and picked us up. Other than nearly being crushed by a bus, it was an uneventful trip down.

We got down there and, Korean style, headed straight out for lunch. It was up to Mt. Mudeungsan and a brilliant outside restaurant that served boiled chicken and the Korean equivalent of Buffalo Wings. It had been raining, but the rain broke just long enough so that we could eat. While at lunch I busted out the magazine with my photo-essay of the BKF's marriage. Bringing that was probably the smartest thing I could do. Both parents loved the pics and immediately asked if they could keep the magazine. This, and the soju, started the visit off quite well.

After, we trekked up to a temple on the side of the mountain, and then further up the road to a little watering spot. This was all extremely beautiful. That picture up there on the left is from the parking lot of the temple. The building is what the OAF would call a "temple" but most people in Korea know it as a 화장실 (toilet). Over to the right is a picture of what I think are prayer requests? I dunno, perhaps the BKF can drop in and help me on that. Finally, from that temple, below left is a bit of art that struck me as odd. This type of art was on the outside of the main building - it was on all the exterior panels. I'm not sure why it struck me. I don't think I've ever seen temple art done solely in this kind of blue-mood and the style strikes me as a bit different. I'll have to look back at my other photos to make sure I'm not imagining this.

It could also be the result of my narrow experience with Korean culture, but these panels stuck out to me.

Then off to find a love hotel for the OAF and I. 종규 knew of a good one called Shilla and so, for 50K won we settled in there. It had a big old flat screen TV, good AC and also a computer which could be run to the big old flat screen if desired. Being that it was a love motel it also had, directly outside our door, the requisite vending machine full of improbable looking devices to improve the sex-act. As the OAF and I are not married, we cannot indulge in such shennanigans and instead I took a photo of the thing.

Then it was off to a tuegi-galbi dinner which was extraordinary. I got to practice my shitty Korean on the Lee's who were excellent hosts and even better company. We managed to make due with the language gap. 종규 did what he could to translate, which was often pretty good. His English has improved since I met him in the States.

Then it was off to the Shilla and sleep.

Next morning we went over for lunch at the families' house, this time including an Uncle I remembered from the wedding. Same deal with lots of friendly chatter and Korean practice for me. Eventually though, we had to head back to Seoul, with the promise that we would return for Chusok next month. Should be (other than the legendary Chusok trafic) fun.

The lovely pic to the right is of one of the traditional Korean bells. Its picture will certainly show up in the "Heavy Metal" advert in my series of imaginary magazine advertisements for Korea.

Until then, however, with my photoblogging at least a little caught up, it's time for a lovely soju-based cocktail and some rest.

All in my new place, photos caught up, and another rev of "Camel Pouch" back to the BKF. That's enough of a day for anyone!

Catching Up: Part Two - You Can't Spell "Madman" without "Adam"

Which was why, last Wednesday, I ended up taking a three hour walk in the 90 degree temperature and 90% relative humidity.

Adam took me in search of birdies and, indeed, we found some.. but first we found a variety of Koreans enjoying the water (and beating the heat) in various ways:

Looking for something edible, I think?


Also looking for something edible. This guy scared off the birds we were shooting, so we wandered down the river.

Boys Playing. This enraged a passing ajeoshi who stood on the riverbank and railed at the boys for about 10 minutes. The ajeoshi was fully dressed with a bicycle and backpack so the boys, rightly assessing that he would never come in after them, stared at him curiously but otherwise ignored him. He finally cycled off and the boys resumed splashing.

Dog and Man Playing. ;-)

As to birdies:

Jesus Birdie Walks on Water


An Innocent Dragonfly....

Circle of Life, Biotch!

Then, dehydrated, we staggered home...

Mystery Bird

So I know the the thing on the left is a seagull, but what is that bird below.

It ate plants from the bottom of the scuzzy stream and seemed totally unafraid of me.

Pics from an Immoderately Long Ramble

Today's walk was so long that I had to stop halfway through to purchase new shoes. Well, since I'd left my sneakers at the Uni and it was closed, I was walking in some old workshoes and they were beginning to chafe. When I suggested it was time to walk balk home, the OAF demurred and went into the 7-11 and in a pantomime that involved her shoes, that mime act of walking against the wind, and substantial arm-flailing she received:

• three phone numbers
• a warning from a cop
• advice that the shoe store was down the street to the "right" (although the woman pointed to the left). A brief bit of my limited Korean separated the gesture from the meaning, and we were off again. We found the shoe-store with little difficulty, and after I dropped 70,000 won on a pair of shoes that can double as athletic and work ones (a thing I'd been looking for for some time) we passed shoe-store after shoe-store advertising 10,000 won shoes.

Stopped at the park/museum/roller rink and had water and a beer. Many many families out, renting little electric-powered cars for their kids. We saw the next generation of Korean taxi-drivers receiving their formulative experiences. Also walked past the croquet golf course and saw some olders playing. Korean social life is nice and outdoors, at least in comparison to San Jose.

Anyway, much of the walk was on the river.

Which means that, as usual, I took pictures of some bird I couldn't possibly identify. I trust the krewe in Texas will round up some of their bird experts and give me the news.

That's it over there on the left and below it is making it's great escape from the evil waeguk.

Crafty bugger.

With incredibly satanic eyes...

Creepin...

Adam, who is a relentless photographer (he had already gone out into the hills behind BPU in the morning) gave me a call and politely bullied me into going out to the haunted city I had discovered. Here we crawled in and among the wreckage and took a bunch of photos.

I’m glad Adam called, or I would have sat at home drinking beer, which would have been a waste of a perfectly good Saturday afternoon. Well, except for the part about sitting at home and drinking beer. So we walked over by the river to the fenced off bits. We clambered over this and that, occasionally becoming the object of interest of wandering Koreans who couldn’t figure out what the silly Waeguk were doing, and the one who wanted to invite us to church.

What struck us both, and I’m not sure if you can see it in the photos, since the trashing and junk is so predominant, is that many of the houses were once quite nice. This wasn’t a slum of squatters such as might have been condemned in Seoul in the 60’s and 70’s – these houses were multistory brick ones with substantial rooms, western toilets (in most cases – there was the odd outdoor WC), and yards. This looked like a neighborhood that should have had enough political/economic power to put up a fight, but the place was trashed. I’d love to find someone from the area who could explain what had gone down here. The electricity was still hooked up, but no juice was running through the lines though we spotted evidence that a few people might still be surreptitiously living in some of the flats. Oddly, we didn’t see any rats or cats.

It felt a bit ghoulish to be walking through the tatters of someone’s busted lives. Adam found some kids collection of balls and that hutch I picture here still has its table-settings inside it. Whoever lived there got out so fast that they couldn’t or didn’t take all of their belongings.

We’ll be going back to document whatever it is that goes up here. I need to find a nice high perspective around the place to get a picture. I wonder if I could see this from the tower at BPU?

The whole shooting match is up in a webfile at www.spunangel.com/scraphix/haunted/index.htm

Alla this was so interesting to me that when a guy from the Gwangju Times solicited articles for next month I was all hepped up to go off on some kind of uniformed tangent about Korea destroying its cultural history.

Which, sadly, I know nothing about. ;-)

I was all rushing online to find something to say, to cobble together with these pics and some article I saved from the flight magazine and then realized.. hey, I'm and idiot!

I have an article..

So I am pimping my marketing piece as a 4-5 segment thing to run for the next couple of months.

This wasp picture looks computer generated to me, but it is actually one of the few living things left in the Condemned Zone...

Spooky place..

Ghost Town that's the Most Town

Took a 1.5 hour ramble along the fetid creek and came across some Urban Redevelopment sort of near my neighborhood. Whenever you see this kind of fencing you know that something old is being torn down and something new put up. This area is gigantic, probably 6-8 of the gigantic Korean 'blocks' run through with alleyways. I have no idea if the folks who lived here were adequately repaid for their land and homes, but given recent Korean history, I kind of doubt it.

Anyway, the area is still accessible by a few roads, and I was alone inside it except for an ajeoshi who seemed to be glaring at me. Perfectly reasonable as there was no reason for a fat white guy in a purple football jersey and black nylon shorts to be wandering through.
I'd like to get back in there when the sun is coming in at angles.. probably some great shots as well as my inevitable arrest.

On the way back, I spotted this little spring-like thing in a concrete box on the culvert. An odd flash of life in a grey little area.

The other shots down there below are of various ghostscapes in the place.. it might even be cool to go there at night, with a full moon, and do some long exposures.

Might have to get me a tripod.
And a lawyer!

Got up and luck was with me. Even though Changdeokgung Palace is supposed to be closed on Mondays the fact that it is Children's Day means that it will be open. I noticed folks queuing up as turned the corner towards the subway station and quickly altered my quick escape from Seoul plan. Grabbed a cup of coffee from the cafeteria (which mysteriously serves no food - just a small selection of appalling looking candies). I have toured this before, but it was on a Korean tour and in the middle of a freezing winter. In addition, many buildings were closed and I'm hoping that is not the case today. The only bummer so far is that they are out of brochures in English, but my scheme is to get enough pictures to create my own brochure and so this should not be a problem. There are several specific pictures I want (based on memories of the last trip) so I should keep the tour nice and slow ;-)

Today is glorious - dead blue skies and a slight wind cutting the heat. The tour is a half-an-hour away and so far I don't see many waeguk, though I suppose it is foolish to assume that they all plan as incompetently as I do. They might even have known the place was open, and the time the tour begins.

The dinner with Ms. Shin was excellent, in a grill in the Marriot and we chatted for about three and a half hours, even though I never was served my wine. Turns out she feels responsible in some way for the collapse of the "Yi-Saeng" translation and no amount of explanation seemed to convince her that I had fun through the entire process and that just having done it gave me cred at the conferences I was going to. Shin is nicely honest (at least with foreigners) and we talked about the "status" of BPU (which is more or less negative) and she said, "well, you know, I’ve never even heard of that school." I laughed and did my best to explain what BPU was up to (as far as I can tell). Her thought is that after this first year, with the kind of other things I am involved in, that I should try to work as a "visiting lecturer" which is in some way better than the position I have now. I'm not sure how, but Ms. Shin was certainly convinced.

We parted about 9:30 with the promise that when the OAF lands we will come back up to Seoul and eat dinner at Mrs. S's house. She asked me, "do you like Korean food?" and I answered in the strong affirmative (while snickering inside about the OAF's stance on that cuisine – it could be a long night for the OAF!)

Perhaps it's time to totter down to the sidewalk and see if anyone is serving any ick-on-a-stick, since I am pretty hungry. Then try to get that rare shot of the place with no one in front of it.

That latter never happened although I did procure a lovely breakfast of whole-fried potatoes (boiled first for extra-delicious softnosity!), but the tour was outstanding. The guide-woman checked to make sure that no one was Japanese in our tour and then talked trash about them for 80 solid minutes. Highly entertaining.

Got out of the Palace and took a hard right to go to the Buddhist Art Museum. This was rather sparse, maybe 40 items in all. They kind of made up for this by comping me three postcards, but that only kind of made up for the lameness. I suppose I should be happy there was anything in a Buddhist museum – it could have been eternal nothingness and I wouldn’t have had grounds to complain. Then there was the fact that I was the only person in the whole place and so until I noticed, when almost done, that there were no-camera signs in the place, I did take pictures. The most interesting of which were the Golden Buddha and the rowboat mysteriously constructed out of pencils. What in the world this has to do with Buddhism was entirely opaque to me, but then I am far too much of this world.

Then it was into the subway, off to Seoul Station, and onto the train, which according to my computer should have departed a minute ago, but according to my rough physics, is not moving (relative to the earth). I didn't realize that seats were assigned - duh!- but thankfully the confused person whose seat I had taken spoke excellent English and it all got sorted before I had to come to blows with all of Seoul. I'd have taken them. No doubt!

And then home with no incident, and to IMs that I had tragically missed

Woot!

Seems to be a possibility I will get either..

a photo-essay in Education in Asia, or

The cover shot!

Either would be lovely and so now I'm reduced to crossing my fingers. ;-)

Semi-Oldies

Some pics from a trip up to the Mountains almost 2 months ago. Sorting through my laptop for things to toss out (you will erase my pornography when you pry my laptop from my cold, dead, and grossly gunky hands!) I came across these pics and liked a few.

The click to bigger versions....

The Bee and the Butterfly

Bird in Air

Down in the TrainStation at Midnight

SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE THE SIGNS

As I was walking to work the other day it suddenly occurred to me how many damned signs there are on the way, and the wide range of styles they represent. There are signs which date from the 50's to just yesterday and as I wandered along I took pictures of them and wondered if there was any conscious effort to their design. Obviously someone designed them, but how much of that design was just drawing shit and knowing material specifications and how much was what I would call "bullshit?" That is, how much was a designers way of actually making something work - attempting to signify things? Did the odd and mismatched shapes of some signs represent "futurism" or "consumerism" or something else that I can't see as I try to peer back in time?

The signs are very different and use space very differently. The earlier ones, for instance, seem very cavalier about "wasting" space. That is to say that they don't utilize all the space they take up. This particular sign is one of that kind. I'd date it to the 1950s, but that is the rankest speculation. The first thing I noticed is that it really tosses space away - each 'signlet' is surrounded by space, no two are shaped the same, and even the signlets themselves don't use all the space they might have - Look at that second one from the top - it bows in on itself on the top and the bottom. This looks like a very 50's sign to me and you can attribute the lack of concern about space to optimism (there will always be more signs and more space), to waste (after all, there was no reason not to waste things, space included. In the 50's we had it all, from the A-bomb on down). Anyway, as the blanked out contents indicate, this sign is probably not long for the world and there's not much I can say about the use of fonts on it. ;-)

You can compare that use of space to what I think is a more modern, but odd and transitional, sign. This is a sign at a small strip mall by my house. At the top it has the same disregard for conservation of space that the previous sign does, but at the bottom it begins to become more "traditional" in that it is tightly gridded and filled (perhaps the epitome of this "efficient" approach is the realtors sign tacked on the bottom of the blanked out sign. Colliers isn't about wasting space!).

The same shift occurs in font as the top has two fonts for a mere two words, one script and one print, and the leding on the word "center" is ludicrous. In the bottom section the fonts are unified, easy to read, and fill the space without stretching.

The other weird thing about this sign is its remarkably religious appearance. The sign is in the shape of a cross and the top resembles a sacristy arch. Even the dark adobe-like color of the thing lends to its religious/missionary look. Too bad the shopping mall has dive food, liquor stores, pool, and bars. ;-)

The end of this transition is to the purely "functional" sign. It maximizes its space and probably cost per square inch as well. It is the most formal gridded approach - rectangular. Here is an example of a relatively maximized/functional "monument" style sign:

Somewhere between the Woodhams sign and the purely "functional" sign, is the Safeway sign. The Safeway sign is also a very formal call to the grid, but also wastes a great deal of "see-through" space. At least, in traditional ways, it bounds the space it wastes. That is to say that even the "see-through" sections of the sign are clearly of it and function something like "white space" in a print advertisement. This also looks like it was probably one of the more expensive signs to design and build, so I'm sure there was a lot of "bullshit" behind it's design - I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall when the architect proposed and sold this design.

This isign s also interesting because one element of that grid is the logo itself, pulled out of the rest of the sign, signifying on its own. Safeway, in this way, is on the way to another sign tactic, the logo as the sign (or the sign as the logo, whichever works better), which I'm sure I'll get to someday soon after I go out and find more of those 50's flying V type signs.

Cause they rock!

The Cost Plus sign puzzles me. The sign is modernish in use of space in that the text fills it and is dead easy to read (other than that mysterious "+" in the "C" which is, I think, supposed to indicate that pharmaceuticals are sold inside), but the shape of the sign is 'wasteful' in a purely functional sense, and the fact that the pediment is as impressive and featured as the sign bothers me. It's like building the base of the Statue of Liberty and then tacking a Garden Gnome on it. Proportion is somehow lost.


Finally, at the end of my walk, is the mighty Winchester sign, which calls to an entirely different time. It completely 'wastes' space - the higher you go on it the more it fades into the sky and has design elements which make no formal sense (what is with that descending "V"?) The font is also a bit weird, particularly the "Winchester" script, which is difficult to read. The picture doesn't show it, but this sign is not only old by design, but by material as well - the text is outlined in neon, and approach that is almost never used now that LCD and other lighting is cheaper and easier to use.

So, this one wins the coveted "coolest sign of them alls for today" award. ;-)

Run to the Hills

Aaaah.. a trip up to the Lovely Sister's pad to see the parents, in town from some island right off the shore of the country. The ride up was completely uneventful, although it took far longer than it should have. I was looking for a certain kind of Swiss Army Knife (SWAK) to replace one the the Replacement Dad had lost during airline travel. That alone is a funny enough story, as once at the airport RD realized he had the knife on his person and ran over to the airport folks to figure out what to do about it. They wrapped it up, bundled it in a box, and checked it into luggage. Upon landing, RD and Moms picked up their luggage, with the wrapped box intact.

Except now, mysteriously, it was empty. Which means that one of the fine TSA folks who protect us from terrorists (well, them and permanent incarceration without charges at Guantanamo, CIA torture, and the death of habeas corpus) now has a lovely SWAK.

But the RD didn't and so I had a task I had to perform.

As usual, I failed completely.
My attempt to find the "Explorer" model led me on a merry chase. Which means I stopped at ever sporting goods store, gun store, and camping store on the way from Big City to the hills. And they had lots of SWAKS.

Apparently Swiss Army makes something like 5-Brazilian (ask George Bush, the lesser) different models of knives. Heck, I learned that some of them even had two toothpics built in. This is in case you and a close friend ever both need toothpicks, but your friend is some kind of clean freak who won't use yours.

The stores I visited had the:

Discoverer
Mangler (every blade is the double-toothed saw. So is the handgrip)
Hunter-Gatherer
Murderer (Came with duct tape and plastic bags)

and every other knife known to man.

But no "Explorer."

Besides that, the only thing of note on the trip was two gas stations who had gasoline for under $3/gallon. This does not happen much in the Golden State and so I took a picture of the prices just to prove this to any sceptics out there.

Once on the hill, it was food and wine and party til nearly midnight. Past my bedtime really. But fun. The food was outstanding and I drank wine until about 10:30 and then guzzled as much water as I could until we went to bed about an hour later.

Slept in til 8:15 or so and spent the morning working with MLS on some political mailing pieces she is working with. The local folks have good intentions, but at the local office level there is no one with any marketing or design experience and the pieces they want to send out, unfortunately, show that lack.

Today it was all about wandering around the meadow-lake and bothering small insects, many of which I photographed, so that's the pictures.

Then, a return to the home of MLS and a bit of hanging out with the parental units. It is a pretty chill day if your big issue is whether or not you should stay home and eat yesterday's leftovers, or go down to the local greasy-spoon and soak up some of that good old-time charm that typically manifests itself in bland food that is too hot, bland women who are too cold, and beers at over $4 a pop.

It's an outrage, but it's a local one, so I suppose I am ok with it.

Tomorrow, the long ride back down the hill, and I shall leave as Aurora's golden fingers lightly open the doors of my eyes...

....and reveal my hangover. ;-)

Out in the Hills

Used the lovely day yesterday as an excuse to head out to the "Refuge" (some of the trail signs just have arrows and the word, 'refuge' on them. As wannabe urban refugees, the BAG and I find this amusing). We had hiked one side of the thing on the 4th. Unfortunately part of the thing was being dredged and the resultant muck was being dumped on top of the levee trail. This happens every 40 years or so to repair damage done by wind and water. Unfortunately it pulls up all of the putrid shite from the bottom of the flat and the wind blows this hideous smell (and no doubt some concoction of heavy chemicals, pesticides, and remains of Jimmy Hoffa) over the entire area.

So this time we did the other side. This side is also a bit more hilly and features a lot more wildlife - like that Indian up there at the top. We wandered for about 3.5 hours - probably somewhere between 5 and 6 miles of tromping, and I got rather sunburnt.

In the middle of all this we swung down off the ridgeline to the visitor's center which had a lovely "nectar garden" for butterflies. It was open, since it was not caterpillar or chrysallis season. A note on each entry warned us that because of "recent occurrences"the garden would be closed at these times. Using nothing more than my big brain and white male privilege I intuited that some (hmmm.. how to be culturally competent here?) stinking FOB savages had been culling either caterpillars of chrysalli for some hideous potion that they had learned to enjoy in the old country.

The only way this is ok with me is if it contains some kind of alcohol.

Anyway, above you can see a picture of a lovely hummingbird who, each time I snapped a picture, presented his/her posterior.

The butterfly over there on the left didn't get the "present buttocks" memo to the animal kingdom. In general the butterflies seemed much more interested in frolicking in mid-air than settling down anywhere, and this made picture taking difficult.

We also saw a load of Turkey-Vultures as the hills were swarming with updrafts. While the BAG collapsed on a picnic table I went running all over the top of the "Red Hill" trail and ended up with only one snapshot worth anything. I did, however, figure out where I would go hang out to take more pictures if I came back alone.

As usual, the day ended with a long trek out - being cheapskates of substantial proportions we had chosen to park across the freeway in the free lot. This saves a few bucks, but we always end up sweating and swearing as we trudge the rather boring last mile to the freeway and across.

On the other hand I was able to use the saved money on some perfectly lovely Mexican food and two Bud Lights (that was a mistake - they tasted like light beer for some reason).

The only other thing of note was how garbage-strewn (partly because of the wind) the hillsides were. I picked up trash where I could and tossed it into my backpack. One piece of trash of which I am particularly fond is this "to-do" list. I'm fond of it because I know who the dickweed was who left it to swirl around the hills. Apparently Mr. Mitch Brenner (or someone using his name to discredit him) loves him some the faux-birdies, but doesn't get quite as het-up about actual nature. This note was in a scattering of trash, and I'm sure that Mr. Brenner was implicated in that as well, though he had long since hopped into his Hummer and headed home to his McMansion.

I hope he got a flat tire on the way home. ;-)

I think my anger rating just went up to 27%?

Dilettaunting....

One of the nice things about claiming to be able to use computers and cameras is that you never have to worry about what to do with your money. There is always a new thing that you MUST have.

So now Kodak, who invented the original RGB gridded CCD have come up with one that claims to be revolutionary. Articles focus on the ability this will give photographers to leave their flashes behind (but really, even Kodak is only claiming an increase of one aperature stop or so - which is certainly less than revolutionary), but I'm wondering if it will help with Digital Cameras traditional problems dealing with contrast (the limited dynamic range CCDs have)?

Online cynics claim this will only open the door for worse lenses, but it has never worked that way in the traditional SLR market as professionals have pushed the envelope there. What this really means is that all the old CCDs will immediately become obsolete and I will need to run out and buy a new camera.

Not soon though, the only camera I could find online that will be coming out with the new CCD is listed at $14,995, which is a bit beyond the dilletaunt range. :-)