Posts Tagged: landscape


5
Jan 10

I’m from here and over there.

kim35-2

kim35-1

“35mm… along with the wonderful rainbow flowered default borders that come when developing film in Long Xuyen, Vietnam (you have to tell them you DON’T want the borders when first ordering, lesson learned). After a lot of pouting I still thought the pictures were worth posting.”

One of my goals this year as a blogger is to seek out and spotlight the artistry lurking under my very nose.

We’ll start out with the above-quoted individual, who happens to be a friend of mine and one of my blog favorites.  She’s a radio DJ by the name of Ms. Button (aka Kim) and is currently posted in Vietnam, the place once called home by her family.

As a volunteer at ADAPT (An Giang/Dong Thap Alliance for the Prevention of Trafficking)– which is an organization that works to prevent human trafficking, specifically along the mekong delta– she teaches English to staff, works on grants, and visits scholarship recipients.

By far my favorite thing about Kim’s blog is the focus on and appreciation of everyday details.  Like accidental wall art.  Fashion digs.  Drip coffee.  Headfone music.  Maybe this is a mindset that emerges when one is in a new place.  Or maybe its just less snobby writing.  Or maybe I pay attention cos I know her.  Whatever the case, I think it’s rare to see artsy-fartsy bloggers (myself included) talk about this ish without assuming a detached, anthropological view.  Plus its a blog about life in Vietnam from someone who is actually Vietnamese.  ‘Nuff said.

These photos are a sampling of Kim’s exploits in Southeast Asia.  I’ve blatantly stolen her captions.  Check out her blog for more.

kim2
Off-white, brown strings criss-crossing to make a wicker basket pattern. Comfortable sole. Perfect way to fight the dust or dance floor.

kim3
Motorbike fashion: cover yo’ face.

kim1
RATATAT in Saigon.

rooftopxmas
Rooftop Christmas party in Saigon.

kim5
Disneyland, Hong Kong

kim4
No caption, but that’s a great umbrella.


11
Nov 09

I made u open your eyes, so why are u talking?

Photo by Jessie Heaven Lotz
fuck haters

From the blog of a rather crotchety District 5-er:

Should it be legal to teach children how to vandalize our city? Isn’t that carrying progressivism too far? Thanks to the NY Times’s Bay Area Blog, we learn that the folks at 1000 Howard Street offer such classes… They also sell the spray paint and markers to future and present vandals. They only offer the course to kids who are at least 14-years-old, but it’s not clear why. Why not 13 or 12? Why not as soon as a child can hold a spray can? The city should shut this operation down and force them to defend their behavior in court.

Now, I could use this moment to bitch about the privatization of public space via legal corporate vandalism that blights our buildings, benches, and even turnstiles, encouraging us to buy ever more useless shit in order to fulfill our empty lives…..but I will spare you, dear reader, cos its a little cliche and there’s already plenty of material out there if you are so inclined.  In a hopelessly practical world, that argument doesn’t fly for those spending hard-earned dollars scrubbing tags from homes or businesses.

So the question at hand is this: does a class teaching graffiti lettering produce “future vandals?”  Or has this grouchy man confused an appreciation for the aesthetic with the criminalized act itself?  I’ve never known anyone who, upon taking a class, has been inspired to tag up the neighborhood.  Well…er, except art students.   In which case we should forget the gallery and go for the bigwigs: demand that art schools be shut down and brought to court for producing a lawless army of skinny-jean-wearing, fixed-gear-bike-riding, PBR-drinking vandals.

Its true that a graffiti-lettering class could inspire some kids who, armed with their conveniently-purchased spray paint and markers, will proceed to terrorize the walls and telephone polls of SF.   Just like its true that a business class could inspire relatively nice people to become taxpayer-swindling, profit-blinded, bloated creeps.  You never know.  But if  the latter group deserves the benefit of a doubt, doesn’t the first?  Or is that carrying progressivism too far?


30
Sep 09

In and around the mission

On Mission around 22nd.  I accidentally cut off the top… but its better seen in real life anyway.

stop

By Lady Xoc
lady xoc

@ Galeria de la Raza.
indian land

Recently I found out that my dad and I agree on nothing one thing.  During some conversation, he described California as “stolen land.”  At which point I would have fallen over if I wasn’t already sitting down.  Where have you been all my life?!


14
Sep 09

It’s one of the few languages I understand

Sunset district, SF.  08.09.
signs


4
Sep 09

Waitin for the caffeine to kick in

This is just kinda cool.  Lifted from Buamai.

While I’m at it, I came across this post on BLDGBLOG.

Image is from Wikipedia.  There are a number of massive artificial peninsulas extending offshore from the Azerbaijani city of Baku. The most famous of these is known as Oil Rocks, and it is an offshore metropolis of semi-abandoned oil extraction platforms in the Caspian Sea.

More from Wikipedia:

The most distinctive feature of the Oil Rocks is that it is actually a functional city with a population of about 5,000 and over 200 km of streets built on piles of dirt and landfill.  Most of the inhabitants work on shifts; a week on Oil Rocks followed by a week on the shore. The small city includes shops, school and a library. After almost 60 years the Oil Rocks is still quite unusual as Azerbaijan’s first and largest oil platform.

The facility is poorly maintained, with miles of roads now submerged beneath the sea. Around some worker’s dormitories, the waterline now stands at the second-floor windows. Although a full one-third of the Oil Rocks complex’s 600 wells are inoperative or inaccessible, operations have continued without a significant increase in investment. The site, despite its imperfections, still produces over half of the total crude oil output of Azerbaijan.

Wow.  Hmm.. but back to work.

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