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. :-)