I can’t imagine why I haven’t shared this with you before now but, for whatever reason, I haven’t.  Some of you may recall that in the middle of last year I had the super duper fortune to meet one of the wonderful masterminds behind Lomo.  Another gift given to me from pmk, meine Lieblings Klub in Tirol.  Anyway, a friendship & sponsorship bloomed and I was invited to become a Lomo Amigo along with a laundry list of radical people like Elijah Wood, Dave Ortiz of Dave’s Quality Meat, Beirut, David Arquette, John Vonderslice, Bruce Lee and many others.  What an honor, right?  I know!!

Like Christmas in April the complete Diana F+ arrived with every bell & whistle you can think of along with a heap of fun, fun film and my task was to set out into the world and make photos.  Pretty much my dream job.  And so I did….  From the desert of Arizona to the beaches of Florida’s Gulf Coast to the high peaks of Austria’s Tyrolean Alps and the on to China, Russia and Mongolia I carried Diana, Holga and my beloved Seagull with me.  After some months of capturing my careful days I shipped all the film to Vienna for perfect Lomo processing.

Click here to see the original interview on Lomo’s website

Take a look at Photographer Beana Bern’s excursions in China with the lovely Diana F+ and the Diana 35mm Back+. Be struck with inspiration for all those wanderlust trips as Beana Bern takes you on an exhilarating photo tour!

REAL NAME: Kristina “Beana” Bern Schreibman
COUNTRY: USA

How long have you been a Lomographer (or are you new to this whole thing)?
Beana Bern: I got my Holga in 2006…my Seagull in 2007 and my Diana F+ in 2008. i guess, in the scheme of things, that makes me new to the game. the list of lomos i still need to try is long so i imagine that this is just the beginning of what has already become a beautiful friendship. next up is the Horizon if i have my way…

Describe the Diana F+ in five words.
BB: Liberation-onal. fun-ifying. textur-ific. nostalgi-tastic. deep-ilicious. not just 5 words but 5 specially invented words born out of a love of lomo. seriously, these cameras are very cool.

The strangest, funniest, or hands-down greatest photographic/Lomographic encounter that you have ever had.
BB: Opening my first roll of film a couple days after i bought my Holga was memorable and perhaps the story that I should tell but i’m going to tell you about something else. traveling through mongolia some months ago i was shooting a portrait of a herdsman named Baatar somewhere south of the Russian border. he was totally enamored with the seagull and wanted to try it out. i gave him the camera and watched him turn a full 365 degrees to try and get me in the frame. the reverse image, which confuses me too sometimes, had Baatar going in circles and we both ended up laughing hysterically. we couldn’t communicate with language but bonded over photography and had wonderful fun…

Trans-Mongolian Railway - Diana F+

If your photos shown here could have a soundtrack of three songs, what would they be (song title & artist please).
BB:

• Pink Eye (on my leg) by Ween
• Into the Universe by Chris Harford & the Band of Changes
• The Woods by Portugal. The Man

The one person (living or deceased) who you would most like to photograph.
BB: Hard hard hard question. there are SO many people that i would love to photograph both alive and dead but if i have to choose one i think it would have to be Benjamin Franklin . . . or maybe Hunter S. Thompson. I think it’s a tie

Your advice to future Diana F+ shooters.
BB: I guess i would say be fearless and bring your camera along for the ride.

If you could take your Diana F+ and a bag of film anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
BB: I’d like to fly into Port Moresby and trek out into the jungle of Papua New Guinea to shoot the cannibals and beautiful, vibrant indigenous life that thrives there. i spend the majority of my time in the modern world, connected to the internet and spinning my wheels in a static bubble. stepping out into the ‘real world’ where water, food, shelter and community are still the key elements keeps me connected to the world and feeling alive. indigenous cultures, dance, clothing, food, art, language and traditions inspire me in tremendous ways and i feel like southeast asia is next on my list. if im too delicious to hang with cannibals then i would say Tanzania would be a good second choice though I read that white people are too salty for them so I should be okay.

Do you have any tips for would be traveling Lomographers and their camera?
BB: I made the mistake of bringing too many parts for Diana on some legs of my trip and, as a result, ended up not shooting so much because i was always tinkering. i would recommend that, for a given outing anyway, that you commit to one or two set-ups and explore with them. the gearhead in me is always tempted to bring it all but the beauty of the lomo is complex results with simple tools….do more with less.

Three Camel Lodge - South Gobi, Mongolia - Diana F+ 35mm Back

Tell us more about your inspiring trip. Is China a place you have always wanted to explore and if so, why?
BB: I have always suffered from chronic wanderlust so yeah, China has been on my list of must-see’s for a long time. The East has a kind of mystic or mythic draw for me and it was joyful to be able to wander around Peking for days and then to see some rural countryside on my way through Inner Mongolia towards the Gobi. I was curious to experience the Nationalism first hand and hear from Chinese people about their government, their politics, their future and their stand on topics like Tibet or the Olympics. What struck me was how totally dynamic Bejing felt…like it is changing before your eyes. The brick dust in the air represented a city being torn down and built up simultaneously and it is disorienting but also exciting. The kind of massive and fast transition that the country is undergoing is bound to have a big impact on the people that live there and it was excellent to experience that. Oddly enough, shortly after I returned from China and Mongolia I got word that I would be moving to Hong Kong and in October I go. I am already scouting my map of Southeast Asia and looking forward to a lot more exploration (and lomography!) in the Far East.

Which of the photos is your favorite? Please tell us why and what it mans to you.
BB: I’m still digesting all of the images and it’s hard to pick a favorite since each one of them takes me back to the moment when I made it…The dreamy quality of the images shot from the top of Khongoryn Els, the massive Gobi sand dunes, makes me warm and fuzzy. It was such an intense climb to get up there and then to see the steppe from the top, the windless dunes, the enormous pink sun setting over the desert, to hear the ‘song’ of the Singing Dunes and the far off cries of baby camels….life-altering would be the only way to describe that place and the hazy, blurry way the images came out seems like the only way to do such a magic place justice. Leaving the lines between what was real and what was imagined blurred so the memory can be as big as I make it and not confined by the razor sharp lines of my DSLR is liberating  Some other favorites are the double exposure of the women fan dancing in Ritan Park, the BW portrait of Baatar sitting by his yak and the totally unrelated BW landscape of my trip to Cinque Terra, Italy which I shot a couple weeks before heading east.

Please, describe yourself to us. Are you wanderlust and can’t stay in one place too long? Do you have any further travel plans for the future?
BB: I always ‘tag’ myself the same in the context of Bio’s and things like this…..Photographer. Traveler. Eternal Optimist. I am a believer that we can make our own luck and are only limited by our own imagination, desire and determination. I am loyal to my roots and desire a nest somewhere that I can call home but, at the moment, I am enjoying my freedom tremendously and letting the wind blow me as far and fast as it will. A friend of mine once told me that “luck is the residue of design” so I suppose I have to take some credit in forging such an interesting path for myself though, in my wildest dreams, I did not imagine how awesome my story would become. What lies ahead in Hong Kong remains to be seen and my eventual return to New York City, tentatively planned for sometime in 2011 give me enough of a safety net to hoist my sails and see where I find myself between now and then. I can be certain that there are still a lot of surprises on the horizon and many, many adventures to be had.

Great Wall - China Seagull TLR

If you go read the original interview you can browse through 2 big slideshows of images that Lomo liked the best.  Many of these have not yet found their way to my online archive so check ‘em out.  To see a little more of my analog work using my beloved Lomos, click here for HOLGA, DIANA, or SEAGULL.

There is some 120mm freshly loaded in the Seagull as we speak and I hope it wont be long before I can share some new work with you.  Hope you enjoyed the interview & images…I sure did

Time to share some silk screened inspiration.  No paint here.  No tool box.  None of the color or accessories that lets me make my own pictures so Ill fill myself up with others…Bear hugs are on my mind…

Free Hugs - misnopalesart

Royal Panda - Alice Gabb

Things I Like - Richard Perez

Girl With Teddybear - Dolk

Bear on a Bike - linocutboy

Bear Hug - Matt Sewell

Tall Bike - Antonia Schulz

Here at HeadQuarters, we’re super excited for the next step we’re taking with katopop co.op!

We spent a few minutes at the start of our workday today to map out how we each see katopop co.op in 5 years. We dreamt big with no goal too grand. Here’s the magic that came out of our daydreamin’:

Warehouse studio with loft space. Skylights, exposed beams, heating ducts. Eco-roof. A few crotchety cats asleep on cushions and couches in the Chill Corner, complete with Chai and Tea and locally-made ceramic mugs. A big chalkboard calendar displays our Free Knowledge Schedule of craft and art classes. Someone is spraypainting in the back, next to the Bike Corral. There’s an upholstery service and hand-painted furniture. Cubbies line the wall where members’ gear is stowed. The free box is overflowing with discarded fabric, waiting to be turned into costumes for the co.op’s theme party that weekend.

This wonderful place is being run by competent weirdos with membership badges. We have big NYE parties and teach people how to start their own businesses. We write a couple of books and draw even more coloring books. We close every year for Burning Man. The stage hosts friends’ bands while we BBQ and sell some of the coolest shit you’ve ever seen. The storefront is filled with handmade wares; a makeshift gallery. Massage and yoga is offered as part of our Time Bank system, even though our co.op savings account is overflowing. We manage our own magazine and deliver it via The Pony, a magical beast dedicated to transporting this weirdness to your door. The Pony is pulling a small sleeping trailer to support our Classes Come To You and Professional Party Guests services.

There’s yarn and spray paint and glitter and lights and music and paper and chalk and chickens and velvet and welding and boardgames and a whole lot of love <3

xo

tricky niki

No te puedo decir que eres todo en mi vida, pero puedo decirte que significas más que “todo” y mucho más que “vida”, no te puedo decir que sin ti mi existencia no tiene sentido, pero puedo decirte que eres el mismo aire que respiro, no te puedo decir que te bajaría un lucero, pero puedo decirte que eres mi firmamento entero, no te puedo decir que te amare hasta el final de mis días, pero puedo decirte que junto a mi alma inmortal eres parte de mi esencia divina, no te diré que te amo hasta el límite del universo, pero puedo decirte que ni en una infinidad de universos cabria lo que siento por vos, no puedo decirte que “te amo” todo el tiempo, pero puedo decirte que sin ti no me importa los segundos ni los días…. TE AMO.

Por si algún día me quieres hablar,

Por si algún día me quieres besar,

Por si algún día me quieres contar,

Que soñaste conmigo en una estrella fugaz.

Por si algún día te quieres escapar,

Por si algún día me sentiste extrañar,

Por si algún día no puedes esperar,

A estrecharme en tus brazos, como lo hicimos hoy al despertar.

Por si algún día te sientes en soledad,

Por si te cansas de que todo te salga mal,

Por si algún quieres que alguien te logre escuchar y no te reproche nada ni te quiera juzgar,

Grita mi nombre y a tu puerta me sentirás tocar.

Por si algún día te decides a aceptar,

Que me amas tanto que no habrá final,
que quieres volver a verme y no dejarme jamás,

Que no viviste un día sin dejar de pensar en todo lo bello que dejaste atrás.

No dudes un minuto en llamar,

No esperes el momento ideal,

Estaré esperándote para volverte a abrazar,

Estaré aguardándote por que nunca te deje de amar.

No me preguntes la razon, ni el  porque, pero hoy senti la  necesidad de decirte lo mucho que te amo, que me agrada tenerte cerca, que me encanta sentirte aqui, que cada hora, cada minuto, y cada instante me pierdo mas dentro de ti, por que cada día significas más para mi, quiero que realizemos nuestros sueños, y no quiero que la esperanza acabe, que solo espero algun día despertar y a mi lado lograrte encontrar, decirte que te amo, y explicarte cada mañana que lo que por ti siento no tiene termino ni  explicación, es soñarte cuando estoy despierto, es volar mientras estoy en tierra, es cantar a la noche y al día, sin darle al llanto espacio ni cabida, eres mi presente y mi futuro incierto, eres mi guia en un camino oscuro, eres mi oasis en el seco desierto, eres mi todo…

Eres mi amor…

Track – A thousand faces – Creed, Recomendado.

Podria permanecer despierto, solo para oirte respirar

verte sonreir cuando estas durmiendo

cuando estas lejos soñando

podri pasar mi vida en esta dulce rendición

podria permancer perdido en este momento para siempre

cada momento que paso contigo es un momento que aprecio.

no quiero cerrar los ojos, no quiero quedarme dormido

por que al instante te echaria de menos

y no quiero perderme nada, por que incluso cuando sueño contigo

siento que estas aqui…

conmigo.

I feel like there is wind blowing behind my eyelids and stars in my hair.  It’s possible that I may come across as some kind of manic freak, so many highs and lows…high roads and low roads…but what’s really happening is the beginning notes of what will be a great crescendo.  Have you ever watched how a Timpani player’s hands move fast , mallets blurred, even before the copper kettle utters a note?  It builds…the momentum finally rattling through the skin and into the music.  I have fast hands right now, my motion feels blurred and though theres no melody yet I  can feel the vibrations of the first notes of my new song gathering in my toes…It won’t be long now ’til I’m singing a different tune.

Traveling is something that is in my blood and I can’t express how excited and grateful I am to stand on the brink of the South China Sea…it’s a dream.  Tonight, however, what has me feeling so light and airy is not the motion, not the journey, not the adventure but the knowledge that at the end of this wind tunnel lays a chance to drop my bags and reconnect with the simple act of standing still.  I know that there is a destination from which I can reflect on the journey so far and think about what’s next.  I know that saying about life being about the journey and not the destination but, from where I’m standing, I can see a need for both.

The lightning bolts that were shooting out of my neck and keeping me from turning my head in any direction had me thinking, for a while anyways, that maybe I shouldn’t turn my head.  Maybe I should just point forward.  Straight ahead.  Now that the electricity has dissipated and I have my peripheral vision back I realize that there was no point to the pinched nerve at all.  It was just good bad luck and a little whiplash.

So flying over the Alps yesterday I was hit with a wave of sadness.  It wasn’t all sadness.  There was a lot of gratitude and excitement and anticipation mixed in but the underlying current was definitely sadness.  Every time I’m about to leave one land for another I get sad.  I don’t think I’ve ever taken my life in the Tyrolean Alps for granted but knowing that I won’t be flying in and out of them, riding up and sliding down them, seeing the sun set pink behind them or falling asleep under their big, blue shadows made me pause.

In an effort to not take anything for granted, I hopped, skipped and flew back to the USA for a whirlwind love-in with friends and family before my schlep East.  I’ve got a big job ahead of me and its a stupidly long flight so I figured I’d head back now to feel less pressure later.  I’ll let you know how that strategy works out.

I started things off in Vermont with some Burlington, some Mud City and some Isle La Mott.  Getting up there was a shit show but upon arrival I was in good hands and let the good times roll.  More rolly than rocky, it felt great to be back in the green mountains.  I caught a glimpse of my future here and there in the ponds and trees and, as is always the case, I brought some VT home with me.  Here’s a couple of my favorite pix, but click here for the whole album.

Green Garden - Mud City

Lake Champlain Sunset

Very Nice People

I headed South to New Jersey for some quality time with my Grandfather and was swept into total puppy frenzy with Annie the puggle.  As is always true, I enjoyed every moment with Popi though I dream of the day I will be able to beat him at dominos.  The time flew by too fast and it was hard to say goodbye…Here are a couple of my favorite shots from Jerz, but click here for the whole album.

Let sleeping puggles lie

annie

american dreams of a jersey girl

After Jerz I had a therapeutic and relaxing hot minute in CT with my Aunt and Uncle and then it was time to head back to the metropolis for a quick hello with Jamie, Marc & Kelly’s wedding and some Brooklyn love.  Celebrating the love of two dear friends at the juncture of the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges is a fine way to spend a Saturday.  Here are a couple of my favs but click here for the whole album…

Marc & Kelly

yummers

There is no doubt that hopping on the F Train feels like a breath of fresh air and there is also no doubt that the throbbing metropolis still feels like home.  After the wedding and more mojitos than I remember I shimmered my way to Crown Heights for a little more merry-making with another group of lovelies…birthday cakes, microbrews, fanny packs and Michael Jackson.  Click it!

Mia - Big Buck Hunter

la-la-la-ladies

red velvet

My hangover made me late but not un-ready for a spectacular Sunday…a Sunday entailing a new BMW motorcycle, the Meadowlands, wind in my hair and some good times with yet another dear friend.  You can only get a little bit more “American” than an NFL football game in New Jersey complete with tailgate and piss-beer so it was an excellent way to see myself off the continent.  I wasn’t sure I would enjoy sitting on the back of a motorcycle on the BQE but I was pleasantly surprised…really good times!

All the fun and merry-making left me hurtin’ but I was able to squeak in a last minute lunch with another all-star, D, before a date with a chiropractor and then an epicly uncomfortable ride…but it ended with a spectacular view of my amazing backyard and then 2 very, furry kittens. The stress is real now, the job is big but the truth is that everything is good – really good – and I am an incredibly lucky woman.

“It is a profound mistake to think that everything has been discovered; as well think the horizon the boundary of the world” ~Antoine Merin Lemierre

How do you know an idea is going to be a good one?

I’ve been struggling with this all summer. I’ll think of a great premise for a screenplay, write the logline (this is usually the first thing I do), then a small paragraph that sums it up, then I’ll outline/treatment.

I was taught differently, but for me, an outline is pretty much writing the major plot points I need to hit: act turning points, midpoint, climax, resolution, and a few others in between. That’s a pretty simple explanation. In a treatment, I take those 10 or so points and expand them to 30-40 in a Word document. This is a variation of a trick I picked up from the late Blake Snyder in his book Save the Cat! He used index cards, but it’s the same thing.

That was a bit of a tangent. Back to ideas. I have a 10 or 11 page document filled with ideas, ranging from a word to a logline to several beats. Ten pages! Two of those ideas were turned into what I think are pretty good screenplays. The rest are just sitting there. I obviously think they are decent enough ideas or I wouldn’t have written them down in the first place. The problem is that that’s all they are: just ideas.

Very few of them contain within them enough depth to fill out 110 pages. On more than one occasion, I’ve written 30-40 pages of a script over a couple days and then realized I’ve got nowhere to go. That’s a horrible feeling. Chalk it up to rushing the final product and not spending enough time outlining it. I highly recommend taking your time in this stage. I’d love to pound out a script a week, because surely one of those will have to be worth half a million dollars. Right?

It’s been said a million times, but it’s rung true in my case. My last two scripts have been all about writing what I know. What were they? One involved music and the other involved sports. I’ve been a musician since age 4 and played sports since age 5. It’s been several years since. I know both very well, so that’s what I wrote.

Surely, there’s got to be something else I know well. Food? Hmm…

How do you know when you’ve got an idea you’re going to run with?

cr

quem não tem o sonho de ter uma it bag Channel 2.55, pois é minha amiga Gisele e eu também temos esse sonho, estamos até contabilizamos qual idade teríamos quando chegasse nossa hora, enfim, para esperar até que esse dia chegue (será?), decidimos nos consolar com uma genérica. hauhauahuahau.

Gisele, minha parceira fanática, passeando durante a noite pelo centro de nossa humilde cidade, avistou na vitrine da Passarela uma cópia de nosso sonho, não conseguiu dormir. No dia seguinte me disse sobre esse achado e fomos na captura da tal bolsinha… bom foi amor a primeira vista, tinha preta, vermelha, branca, nude nos tamanhos médio e pequeno, foi bem difícel pra minha amiga escolher qual cor levar, também pelo precinho amigo de R$ 49,90 tem que levar umas 2 no mínimo… e aqui estão elas nossas bolsinhas charmosas.

 modelo inspirado: Channel

não é uma gracinha o forrinho. rs

The weight is lifted…for this week anyway.  Happy weekend.

There are certain movies that when you watch them you think, “How the hell did this get made?” I understand that a lot of making it in Hollywood or New York or Vancouver or Toronto or wherever is who you know, but you’d think that ‘those’ people would still only put “good” movies on the big screen.

I’ll be the first to admit that my own writing is guilty of a few scenes that are only in there because I think they’re funny, a good gag or whatever. But I think my writing has matured over the last year and I’m now trying to leave out scenes that don’t add to the story. I’ve done a pretty good job of that in my last few scripts, and I’ll continue to do that out of fear of writing (and producing?) a bad movie.

I don’t want to name films/writers/directors, because I think there’s still some merit to these “bad movies” I’m referring to, otherwise they wouldn’t have made it onscreen. On the other hand, I know all you writers out there have seen movies recently or in the past that truly give you inspiration not because of how good they are, but because you know you write as good or better.

I put a lot of words and phrases in quotations. Sorry if I overdid it. Is “overdid” a word? It sounds silly on its own. My spellcheck isn’t picking it up so it must be a word. Good to know!

cr

Al conducir  con una música repetitiva e hipnóticamente baja, por las variadas avenidas de nuestra metropoli de 6 millones de habitantes, es cuando experimento una explosión de ideas, llegan a la velocidad de la luz y se posan en mi mente, flasheando, palpitando, una después de la otra, ahí es cuando se me ocurre el siguiente post, en esos momentos de relajación.

Mi manera de relajarme es conduciendo, entre más largo sea el viaje muchísimo mejor, y la relajación, calma mi cerebro, y a toda acción corresponde una reacción en sentido contrario, entre más relajado esta mi cerebro a mayor velocidad funciona.

Debería de tener una libreta con su respectivo bolígrafo para anotar esas ideas que llegan y se esfuman, porque así como las trajo el viento, el mismo viendo las disuelve si nos les prestas atención.

Tengo la teoría de que el magnetismo geográfico de cada lugar afecta nuestra manera de pensar, me ha pasado, viajó a otro sitio, y pienso de manera muy diferente, como si me transformara en otra persona, como si dejara de ser el yo habitual para convertirme en algo diferente.

Espero que también las ideas geniales los aborden cuando menos se lo esperan, se siente una sensación indescriptible, como satisfacción revuelta con otras emociones como la ansiedad y la felicidad.

Me gustaria poder sentir todo el espectro de emociones existentes, me aterra morir sin conocer todo lo que puede haber sentido y desperdicié.

Ok.  I’ve put this off long enough.  It’s time to share some thoughts about my days in Mongolia before the memories fade and those days dissolve into the tapestry of stories and experience that lies half in the world we are all living in and half in my imagination (a world I rarely leave).

Gift for Buddah

I had no expectations for this leg of the journey except for distance.  I wanted to feel far, far away.  I wanted to be so far away, in fact, that from that distance I could see my own trajectory into the future…I wanted to see where my path is leading, my personal horizon and glean a clue about what’s next for Beana.  Mongolia can definitely deliver on ‘the middle of nowhere’ vibe that I am describing.  Tucked between Russia, China and Kazakhstan I was as remote as I have ever been.  It was perfect.  In a land with endless horizon I got a glimpse of my own.

Arriving by train gave me some time to prepare but, if I’m honest, it would be hard for anybody to be prepared for Ulaanbaatar.  A huge pothole trimmed with ger camp suburbs and a less-than-graceful attempt at civil engineering, you can almost feel the city growing as you stand in it.  The traffic is perpetually at ‘Midtown Manhattan rush hour’ levels with less grid and more chaos.  I had 3 nights in UB all together and, though I saw many parts of the city, I didn’t have time to do the solo wandering that always connects me to my destination.  The Soviet influence is clear and that stark, boxy aesthetic creates an odd texture when paired with the organic looking gers scattered throughout the city.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

None of the ’sights’ in UB feel even remotely touristy.  Everything is so chill and relaxed that you can stumble into an amazing Temple Museum and not even realize it.  In China every facade was restored to a Disney-like-perfection where it was sometimes hard to imagine the monument or place being lived in.  In Mongolia it was far different.  Lived in is how the whole country felt…you can feel the life happening there, the pulse.  An absolute favorite day for me in UB was visiting the Ghandan Khiid Monastery.  This place is a living, breathing Buddhist temple where tourists are allowed entry to every single building there.  Monks out number visitors significantly so this is not a bad arrangement.  It was absolutely transcendental…one of the most beautiful and amazing things I have ever seen.  Drums and chanting and bells and prayer wheels with the smell of milktea hanging in the air, it was like time traveling.  Photos weren’t welcome here but I was allowed to make a couple…

Young Monks - Ghaandin Khiid Monastery

Aside from some sightseeing in UB, my only agenda was to score some boots that would let me ride like the wind when it came time for some horse trekking.  I got an A+ on this assignment and wait for Fall now so I can wear them every day.  A domestic flight carried me from Ulaanbaatar south to a ‘city’ called Dalanzgdad, or DZ.  I remember thinking that the runway at Ghengis Khaan Airport is the only stretch of pavement anywhere in UB without potholes.  Flying over the Gobi was as surreal as training through it but stepping outside the airport and seeing a battalion of 4 wheel drive vehicles brought me back to reality right quick.  Tuya and Nassa were my guides there, a young married couple, and it was clear I was in the right hands when the first words out of Tuya’s mouth after ‘welcome’ were, “welcome to south gobi, one of the most beautiful places in the world.  i love my country.’  After a short stop for gas we drove out into the steppe.  The sensation of leaving pavement and driving through wide open spaces is hard to describe.  Total freedom.  Unplugged.

Road Less Traveled - South Gobi

Thinking about 21st century nomads is something different than spending time with them.  Where there is water, there is life so the movement and routine of the herds people is far from random.  There is logic to the movement and safety in the routine and after water, shelter, community and food are the only other necessities.  And vodka, I suppose.  I can tell you that all the static electricity that is our Western social construct fades away when you see how life on Earth – one of the harshest places on Earth – is lived day to day.  Its humbling to see their strength and generosity and humor and it reinforces a notion that I think often – less is more.  Ankle bone horse racing, singing to one another, watching baby animals clumsily get acquainted with the world and taking joy in tending the herd and making the dairy is a rich and beautiful existence.  Many younger generations are tempted to leave these old ways and make a modern life in the city which is very sad to see…an entire culture going extinct.  What gives me hope is that even those trying for a new life in UB bring their children to their parents and aunts and uncles in the ‘countryside’ so most children there learn the ways of their families and honor their roots, if only for summers.

21st Centruy Nomads

Help for the Summer

I could write a book about how South Gobi impacted me but I am going to try to focus here.  There were 3 major sites that I visited:  Khongoryn Els or ‘the singing dunes,’ Yolyn Alm or ‘Eagle Gorge,’ and Banyzang or ‘the Flaming Cliffs.’  The dunes spoke to me on a personal level and therefore that is the story I will share now but I believe that it was seeing all three of them, the diversity of the Gobi, that made the experience so fantastic.  A little like in Las Vegas, the scale of everything in Gobi is a bit disorienting.  Things appear to be nearby that are actually 50km away so it is no surprise that I underestimated my ability to quickly summit the highest point for sunset.  The sand is so soft so for every 2 steps you take forward you slide back 3.  Imagine climbing a tidal wave and you can begin to fathom this experience.  With each handful of sand you push down in your effort to go up, you can feel – literally tons! – of sand moving beneath you.  As the sand slides over itself it makes a low, groaning and sweeping sound that is the song referred to when talking about the ’singing dunes.’  It’s impossible not to look down as you claw your way up so in addition to being physically grueling, it is also vertigo-inducing.  Not everybody could make it even halfway up and, with about 18 kilos of camera on my back, I was determined not to be among that group.  After 1 1/2 hour of OCD, Rainman-like counting….25 steps up, breath for 50…25 steps up, breath for 50…I made it to the top of the Gobi. 

Top of the Gobi

It was just Tuya, Nassa and I and they left me after an hour or so to have the sunset to myself.  I had the sublime pleasure of standing alone on a windless night, the faint sound of the dunes and some baby camels calling for mama in my ears, watching a pink and orange fireball light the desert up before sinking below the horizon and washing everything in lilac.  I can think of a handful of moments in my life when I have been in *exactly* the right place at the right time and this was one of them.  The same way the sun lit up the steppes and mountains and dunes, it lit me up to.  Life-altering and life-affirming travel, indeed.  The light that shone on me that night remains glowing and the clarity and vision that it revealed are making wheels turn as we speak.  The middle of nowhere was the center of me.

Singing Dunes

Khongryn Els

It is poetic and perfectly perfect that after this sublime moment alone with God that I hopped on a sled and let my adrenalin pump as I sped down the way I climbed up.  Its like enlightenment and rock and roll all at the same time…the kind of life I like living.   4 more days of traversing the desert allowed me to experience life in a ger, sample the vast and interesting assortment of dairy products made by the herds people, gallop across dunes on a camel named Huchbar, slide across a Gobi glacier and score a fossilized dinosaur egg at the Flaming Cliffs.  I was sad to say goodbye to Tuya and Nassa and their epic and awesome land but I feel like a piece of it came home with me.

Camel Herder & Baby Duck

Click here for a slideshow of my days in South Gobi.

In bed, listening to tunes and curled around my laptop like its a lover, I couldn’t fall asleep.  I wore myself out yesterday and should have been swimming in stars and the mist that was my dreams of yesterday, today and tomorrow but I was awake.  Wide awake. I feel like if I were sitting upright that  I would be on the edge of my seat…perched as though something certain is about to happen.  I’m pretty certain that the only thing I should expect is uncertainty, though, so I’m curious about what gives.  The endorphins from China and Mongolia did not dissipate upon my arrival home but, instead, channeled themselves right into the next adventure and I think it is this excitement that I am anticipating.  That said, I think it’s time to reflect on my past trip before I depart on the next one…

The whole holiday was a movement of music.  The rhythm and cadence of my movements was well choreographed and the itinerary was well-designed to carry me through.  A brief stop in Cairo could be equivalent to that moment before the concert when the lights go out and the audience wonders whats about to happen.  It was a clear departure from my current reality and an indicator that, like in the theater, it was time to suspend my disbelief and just let go.  A comedy of errors, between 2 broken buses, a ridiculous pig flu quarantine and over-friendly Air Egypt flight attendants, I was just happy to find my gate and some tea.  Prayers and chanting from a mosque echoed out into the terminal where I was sitting and they must have been heard because Allah carried us safely to Peking.

im out

5 days and nights alone in Beijing to feel myself away, shake off work and have some real quality time with the city was a perfect beginning.  I slipped slowly and sublimely into a groove that felt oddly like Orchard Street.  Same smells as the funny markets near my house, I felt closer to ‘home’ than I have in a while.  The melody began to take shape as I wandered all of Beijing – baseline of foot steps, the creaky rattle of the rickshaw, the echos and bells of the subway, the deafening squeak of the buses breaks, the spinning prayer wheels at the Llama Temple and the bi-lingual and ineffective conversation with the taxi drivers.

Rickshaw Driver - Beijing, China

Around the time that I was in sync with myself it was time to meet my guide and travel companion and begin a more structured exploration of the city.  At this point we got more ’serious’ about making sure that the history – the vast and long history – of the city was explored.  Between my days alone and with Tom, I saw : Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, Forbidden City,  Temple of Heaven, Drum & Bell Towers, Panjiayuan Market, Silk Street, Longtan Park, Beihai Lake, the 798 Art District, the Birds Nest & Watercube, Monument to the Peoples Heros, Llama Temple, Dongyue Temple, Qianhai Lake, Donganmen Dajie and the night market, Ritan Park, a Peking Opera, some Kung Fu and countles hutongs throughout the city. To go through all of this would be a comprehensive travel guide and that is not on the agenda but feel free to ask me if you have any particular questions about these places or Beijing in general.

Summer Palace - Beijing, China

Hutong - Beijing, China

Restoration - Llama Temple - Beijing, China

Zhaoheng Gate - Temple of Heaven Park - Beijing, China

What I can say is that I was both saddened and inspired by what I saw.  The city is in flux, recovering from the INSANE growth spurt that was the Olympic games.  Tearing  down and building up, the air is always thick with brick dust and something that feels like a cross between hope and capitalism.  The locals that I connected with offered great insight on how that growth has dramatically changed their lives for the better – mainly in the form of mass transit, renovated monuments and public service announcements about enjoying themselves – and it was a unique perspective.  I still can’t put words to it but I also sensed a profound contradiction there.  Walls protecting more walls protecting courtyards with nothing in them maintained a symmetrical sense of power and control and ‘beauty’ but in a totally superficial way.  Meditation and self control focus on inner strength and substance yet there appears to be some ‘muscle’ or layer missing that connects this ’supreme’ facade with this inner power.  I got the sense that things were either all or nothing and can’t really explain it better than that.  What I can say is that the Emperor was surely a very lonely guy and China is a country in the midst of a fast and all-consuming transition.

Duan Gate - Forbidden City - Beijing, China

Offerings - Dongyue Temple - Beijing, China

Majong

Private Home - Hutong

A day before departing we headed about 2 hours north of the city to Mutianyu to see the Great Wall.  A ride up in the cable car that carried Slick Willy some years ago was funny and, from what I was told, an honor.  The throngs of tourists make this a difficult experience to absorb but that was true with a lot of what I visited in China.  Regardless, its a sight to behold.

Mutianyu - Great Wall of China

Mutianyu - Great Wall of China

"Be Loyal to Chairman Mao"

This search for meaning and understanding stayed with me the entire time I traveled in China and I look forward to seeing more of the country and discovering more.  Some high points for me in the city were the 798 Art District, Tiananmen Square, Ritan Park at 8am, buying electronics, eating any variety of fascinating (and sometimes tongue curling) street food, watching karaoke in Longtan Park, $8 full body massages (i think i had 4), a glimpse inside a private courtyard and, naturally, some quality time with the Great Wall.

798 Art District - Beijing, China

Peking Opera

Watch out for the stinky tofu - street food - Beijing, China

Ritan Park - Early Morning

Rainy Day - Summer Palace

You can get a better sense of what I saw by taking a pass through the images from Cairo, Beijing and Mutianyu right here.  For those of you particularly interested in Beijing’s art scene, click here for a focused album on the 798 District.  By the end of 9 days I had a handle on the town and was ready to shift gears and depart, across the Gobi to Mongolia.  Stay tuned for a recap about how the music changed on the leg from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.  Paul Simon was right, ‘everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance.  everybody thinks its cool.’

Special Plums - yum!!

I’ve been back from holiday for a week now and more than 8 people have said to me, “welcome back to the real world!”  I know that the intention is good and this is a an acknowledgement that I was in another kind of reality for the last month but these words have been echoing in my head since thier first utterance.  The real world?  Is that where my life is located?  What does that say for the billions – yes, billions – of people located all over the Earth that have a reality different than mine?  A world where water is still the primary concern followed shortly by shelter, food and community?  Is that not the real world?  I would make the argument that this holiday I had, this vacation, was into the real world and not the opposite.

Getting Water

Only 5 days into my normal routine and I can’t shake the fact that everything I’m doing is somehow floating above the surface, mired in an ocean of static and electricity, the tasks are like turning the gears of a clock in a world with no time.  I am making and writing and shifting and doing all with the purpose of being able to do the same thing tomorrow.  Like the Doozer’s living in Fraggle Rock, I am building things simply for the sake of building them.  Need is irrelevant.  Good design is optional.  Cooperation is a luxury.  The Western way, the capitalist way, isn’t as concerned with the output as the money made from the output and I can’t understand why I have always been okay with this relationship.  I haven’t just been okay with it but have educated myself to maximize it and, with it, my own personal benefits.   

Skin - All They Have To Sell

I refer to myself as Sisyphus all the time, the 21st century variety, and that is true but if I recall the story correctly Sisyphus was in hell.  I am not.  Or at least, I would like to choose an alternative.  It took a journey to the East to gain some perspective on the West and now I am grappling with that new view.  Don’t get me wrong, I like comfort and am deeply grateful for the gifts and luck I have had that allows me to live the life I am living but I am seeing something else now…life with purpose, concern for the output rather than the money made from it and comfort are not mutually exclusive.  It is possible to take the same skills and same passions I use for perpetuating the daily grind to turn the gears of a different machine…one that impacts the ‘real world’ in a ‘real way.’

Sisters - UB Girls in the Country

Since my return I have been combing through my images, watching zillions of TED presentations, looking in the mirror and asking myself some very clear questions.  I am full to the brim, overflowing in fact, with inspiration and I am considering carefully where to direct this new passion and energy so as to help reconnect me with the ‘real world’ and also maintain the flexible freedom that I have worked hard to achieve.  A garden would be a simple beginning – reconnecting literally with where my food comes from – while the opposite end of the specturm would be dropping everything and heading to Africa to dig wells.  As you can see, it is a big arc that I am mentally traversing and I am curious to see where on it I will land.

The honest truth is that I don’t know yet how, and how much, I want to change or how radical that change should be but I can say that the thought is pumping through me like my blood.   

3rd Day Horse Trek - Beana in Central Mongolia

It is totally overwhelming to pass through these images with the aim of choosing my favorites as each of them made it through many rounds of editing and are among those images I deemed necessary to both remember and convey my experience.  The 800 photos that reside in the albums are, however, more than most people have the time to comb through so I wanted to elevate the tip of the iceberg and make the whole (almost the whole) journey accessible.

Below you can get a taste of where I was, what I saw and who shared these experiences with me.  It is, by no means, the whole picture – 21% of it to be exact – but it is a good place to jump off from.  If you find yourself curious or inspired to see more, click here for complete albums on each leg of the journey.  My hot minute in Moscow seemed like a footnote compared to the bigness of Asia so it will appear when I have time to add it.

Perhaps what may be more satisfying would be to view this slideshow full screen, I recommend that, and you can click this link to make it so.

I’m not so much a ‘horse person’ as much as a ‘remote nature person.’  More transportation and less childlike obsession, I thought just under 5 days on horseback in Central Mongolia would be a perfect way to get off the beaten track and I was accurate.  It was spectacular and I am going to show you what it looked like and where I went.  Eventually.  Probably this weekend.

In addition to the memories, images and callouses I brought home, I have also acquired some crazy back pain.  I keep saying that I’m going to give it ‘one more day’ to sort itself out but I’m thinking today is the day to see what’s shaking (or, more accurately, what was shook).  Galloping across the open plains on a horse that has an invisible rocket up its ass looks like freedom buut I can tell you it feels like something else…

While I nurse my spine and continue to try and get back on the proverbial horse that is work, I will leave you with a favorite image of Ulaanbaatar’s Black Market.

Back Room, Black Market

As far as the ‘getting closer to getting closer,’ I will reveal to you my plan.  I am going to finish editing and uploading the images from Mongolia’s epic ‘countryside’ this weekend.  Once everything I wish to share is up I am going to accumulate a ‘best of’ album of the whole trip, basically my favorites…This going through, and going through and going through is the process by which I will distill the recap that will give you some insight into where I went and what it meant.

Inspirado – Arnaldo Antunes

(*trexo do poema*)

Inspirado como um boi no pasto
Inspirado bem alimentado e casto
Inspirado como um boi sem saco
Pacato capado sem pecado

Boi no pasto – passivo. Começa sendo inspirado por algo passivo

Bem alimentado – o que gostam de fazer? Se empanturrar de comer, assistindo televisão, existe coisa melhor que essa?

Casto – socialmente, sem educação ou saúde de qualidade, entre outros problemas.

Marcado - quando nasce, é necessário registrar a criança, para ela se tornar mais um número, cresce um pouco, o RG… Sempre, marcado por um número…

Sim… como um amigo diz: Vivemos Bovinamente.

restante do poema no site: http://letras.terra.com.br/arnaldo-antunes/91638/

“The hard part about mind-blowing experiences is that your mind cannot (and should not) revert back to its previous shape”

These wise words just arrived in a note from a friend and I was happy for something tangible to help explain why, though almost everything is the same, I feel different inside my skin.  ((Thank you, Matt))  Departure from routine and all things familiar has a way of expanding perspectives so it’s really no wonder that I am having trouble fitting myself inside myself.  Like the extra suitcase I bought at Ulaanbaatar’s State Department Store to help carry all the goodies I accumulated in my travels, I am now considering how to go about carrying this extra understanding gracefully.  Combing through only 10 days of images from Beijing and the train ride to Mongolia, I feel like I have been swept back to the beginning of a movement, the first notes of what will become a crescendo.  My trip was like a spiral with each leg of the journey taking me in a seemingly larger circle, encompassing more, and revealing more so that now I feel like I am crawling through a wormhole, squeezing through tight spaces, to bring myself back to the beginning.

Distance brings perspective so I figured that the further away I went, perhaps, the further I could see.  Coated with smog in Beijing and also standing alone in vast expanses of the Gobi Desert I found that, regardless of the actual visibility, that clarity inside me was crystal clear.  I’m far-sighted in actuality and it would seem as though the same is true metaphorically speaking.  Standing up close and personal now with everything I could see so clearly only a week ago, the edges are blurry as my eyes and mind refocus.  I feel like one of my camera lenses zooming in and out trying to find the focal point around which I can compose the picture.

Half of the journies photographs are already visible but I need a little more time to consider how I want to share the stories that accompany them in addition to the rest of the images…

I’m getting to the part where I get there.  In the meantime, I will hide behind my fan, get back to work and let the dust settle.