Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2006

Sunday afternoon I went to see this exhibit at The Photographer's Gallery. It didn't start well as the first photographer made me wonder why he is being considered for this show and I am not (I won't say which one it is as I'm curious to know if others have the same reaction). The 2nd photographer I saw re-assured me that these gallery people weren't crazy and could pick a good photographer. The 3rd photographer's exhibit wasn't exactly a photograph exhibit. It was a video of people standing in front of a picture of a forest singing (what appeared to be in a karaoke format but they were good) The Smiths songs. I don't recall the songs so it is possible the songs pertained to the image behind them. It was entertaining. I would say that the show was worth going and don't be discouraged if you see the photographer's exhibit I saw first...better is to come.

The Hot Puppies

Ok, this is a fun band! Most of my new friends (friends who have met me in the past 3-5 years) would think that I mostly like mellow, moany music. Back in the day, I was all about fun, energetic music. I don't know what it is, but I'm finding that side of myself again. Maybe it was just the scene of Austin got me into mellow music...not to say I don't still enjoy my chill stuff... Anyway, back to this new band I heard tonight... The Hot Puppies


The lead singer has a stage presence that I thought I would have if I was a lead singer of a band (You'll have to go see them to see what that is). The whole band put on a performance playing their instruments, and not an over-the-top performance, but a performance of those enjoying playing fun music. The lead singer and other girl are so unexpectantly dressed for a stage performance, but it works so well for them. The lead singer walks out on stage in a great little cocktail dress with fat pearls around her neck and wrists, carrying her stilettos and a tall can of Heiniken. She didn't once put her shoes on and between songs would take sip from her can (don't really know if it had beer or it was just a prop for water). Occassionally, the other chick would take the can from the lead singer's hand to take a sip. Great comraderyship between them! I think the person I liked next best was the drummer...he really knew how to exaggerate movements while playing the drums! Their music was fun and variant, lyrics playful and witty, and peformance made you want to talk with them because you knew a conversation with them would have to be equally as entertaining!

Starbucks: The heroine dealer

I can die now as I have seen it all...Starbucks handing out its heroine on the street for free! I was eating lunch in an Italian cafe, one where the owner made a point to remember me from my first visit just before New Year's, when he noticed this on the street. We had a good laugh about how Starbucks will stop at nothing to get more people addicted to them! The Starbucks guy had a big smile on his face the whole time. I would have been pissed that I got picked to stand outside in the cold with a heavy, metal container of coffee on my back, but not him!

London protest against Samarra mosque bombing

So, I made it back to London just in time to catch up with the protest that was going on in London that Musarrat mentioned in a comment to the earlier protest I attended in Dusseldorf. I could see the group as I walked up to my front door and by the time I dropped my bags off and gathered my camera equipment and got downstairs, they were already gone...almost missed it! But anyway. This protest was not as impressive on it march organization, but that could be because of the larger number of people in attendence. No one ever really tried to provoke the demonstrators except one American trying to be "funny" and yelling "USA" out his hotel window half naked. One old lady was quite annoyed with the protest because it was preventing her bus from picking her up and taking her to the theatre. She kept insisting the protest keep moving along (they weren't stopping). At first some young ones reacted back to her not really understanding why she was harassing them, but finally one of the organizers approached her to calm things and the cops came in to take control. It was all nothing really but rather funny. Two generations not stopping to listen to each other and thus getting upset for nothing. The demonstration ended at Trafalgar Square where there proceeded to be speeches made by a few men. They talked against the extreme Muslims and encourage non-violent reactions to the bombings. Oh, one thing I noted about this demonstration was that there was not such a separation of the genders. While in general the genders stuck with their own, it was not the case that all women were behind the men. I don't know if you can see in the last picture, but the men are flogging themselves with chain whips. I believe this was to demonstrate their grief.

As I was using my new, more professional camera, I was asked a number of time what news agency I worked for. I responded I was freelance. I must say that I think I'm getting over my shyness of putting a camera in a strangers face to take a picture. I was surprised at the lack of media attention compared to how much media was at the one in Dusseldorf. I only saw a few photographers during the march but more showed up at the speaches afterwards. It will be interesting to see if it makes much news.

A young Muslim woman approached me afterwards asking if I understood what was going on. I told her that I knew the specific purpose of the protest, but that I didn't really know a lot of the history. So she told me about the history of the Shias, Sunnis, and a group I had never heard of, the Wahabi. According to her, the Wahabis are a violent splinter group of the Sunni tribe. This is the group that Bin Laden belongs to. She says the Wahabi are doing a lot of propoganda and stirring up problems with the Muslims and that it is this group of Muslims that are behind most of the bombings and terrorism. She said their false propaganda is inciting some Sunnis to violent actions, but it is usually out of lack of information and knowledge that the Sunnis believe the false propaganda. Her uncle was the Minister of Information (or something like that) in Iraq and was imprisoned and tortured for 20 year under Saddam. He was killed last year in Iraq after being release for a little while.

Cheltenham

I feel I should do a post dedicated to the city Cheltenham I stayed in this past week while at the customer. While I didn't get to see a whole lot, what I did see was very lovely. It is a very posh town and has lots of nice little shops. You ladies could have fun strolling down the Promenade and High Street doing some shopping. And for you gentlemen, Cheltenham is known for its horse racing. The royals used to trek up to Cheltenham to enjoy the races. It is said there is much drunkenness when the horse races are going on. There do seem to be some nice restaurants, small joints. I did hit up a chain Thai place, Jim Thompsons. Maybe some of you history buffs will know this name to be a famous American explorer who visited Thailand quite a bit (I didn't know the name). The food was good, but nothing to rave about. There is some music venues to be had but I didn't go to any. I stayed in the Queens Hotel...very old school nice. The bar in there is quite lively at night as it stays open past the 11pm hour. I went to a pub with a couple of guys from the customer and we had a fun time and good chat. It was a neat neighborhood pub they brought me to and if I remember the name I'll update this post. Be prepared to share a pint with a dog or 2 here.

American driving in the UK

Well, I've done it! I have finally driven in the UK. Here are my observations on the adjusting to the other side of the road and car.

• I think getting acustom to walking around and looking the opposite way for cars when crossing the street made it easier to drive in the UK
  
• Driving on the left side isn't so bad. You just have to follow the car in front of you at turns and you will automatically turn into the correct lane (assuming you are not following some other non UK person who doesn't know what they are doing :)). This doesn't mean at time that I don't have moments of thinking I'm driving on the wrong side of the road and have to fight the urge to jerk over into the other lane
  
• Sometime when making right turns, I think I have to look to my right for a car that would be approaching from behind but the car would be coming from my left.
  
• All controls in the car are in the same location...only the driver has changed places. Because I was sitting on the left side of the car, I found that I wanted everything flipped. So the clutch should be on the right side and the gas pedal on the left. 1st gear should be where 5th gear is. Blinker switch and ignition should be on the other side as well.
  
• I don't trust mirrors as their locations seem unnatural and so I don't trust that I am seeing all I need out of them. It seems really weird to look so far to the left for a mirror.
  
• Don't forget there is a whole chunk of car to your left now so don't try to put yourself (the driver) in the same orientation of the lane as if you were sitting on the left hand side! You will hit something! (no I haven't hit anything but I do feel I have come close)
  
• When the road has 2 lanes for one direction, the right lane is the fast lane and the left lane is for normal speed.
  
• Expect to squeeze through tight spots between 2 cars at normal driving speed.
  
• Brits like to give directions based on landmarks instead of street and road names. Sort of reminds of rural Americans...hummmm? :)
  

I used 3 days of short drives to the customer site to prepare me for the 2.5 hours drive back to London with no GPS...using good ol' fashioned maps (and google maps :) ). It went off without a hitch...no wrong turns (well, at least not on the way back to London)! Though I will say I think I'll be taking the train from now for the long rides to customers. It is quite relaxing to let someone else do the driving for you :).

First time back to Austin

I had to keep quiet last week on the blog as I was in the US and planned to surprise Debbie back in Austin. The surprise went off without a hitch! She definitely had the confused look on her face when she saw me come through the door... surprises... what fun!! Thanks to all those that help make the surprise happen! It was great to catch up with those I had a chance to see. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to see everyone so I'll have to see them all when I return for a week in March. I did hit up some of my favorite eating joints...ummmmm..Tam's and Matt's!! My nephew crack me up with his eating of potato salad so I thought I'd share. While it's nice to see everyone, it sucks to have to say good-bye again. And I was bad at taking pictures this weekend...sorry :(.

I am traveling the next 3 weeks for work so I will do my best to find something interesting to write...it may just be general rants and ramblings.

L.A. and San Francisco

I spent a day in LA and got to see my uncles. It was a brief, but good visit. They have been remodeling/adding onto a house and it is almost complete. It's looking real good!! I lucked out and got a convertible for my rental and drove with the top down, basking in the vaguely familiar sunlight. I had to post all the sunny pictures to brighten up my blog! I had Philipino cuisine for lunch/brunch. I realized that I had never eaten Philipino food before. It was tasty and quite different. I had a typical Philipino breakfast dish, meat, rice and egg at Manila Good-Ha. The restaurant was on a strip that had tons of Asian restaurants so if you want a variety and what I would guess authentic Asian food, just drive down South Vermont Avenue. Afterwards, I meandered down Sunset Blvd to Santa Monica Beach...what a fun drive in a convertible! I walked on the beach some and finally put my feet in the Pacific. Definitely too cold for swimming. I then walked down Main Street in Santa Monica. There are some interesting clothing shops there. I also went over to the Promenade and bought a couple of cd's. One of them is the new release by Belle & Sebastian. It is much edgier than their other stuff. Let me stress that it is edgier for them so don't expect hard core edge. And to those who think I only listen to whiny/mopey music, I also bought a Louis XIV cd. They are a fun band! Sort of White Stripe-ish. (They will be in London on February 28th) I did the drive to the beach to this cd. I then spent the rest of the work week in San Francisco taking a class for work. It was informative and I got to meet some fun people. And I got to see my teammate Sri!

Dusseldorf Islamic Demonstration against cartoon

While I intended to spend all of Saturday touring around Dusseldorf, I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across a Muslim demonstration against the infamous cartoon. I had hoped to make it to the planned demonstration in London on that same day but was not able to change my flight. I wanted to do my first real photojournalism/documentary photography. While I didn't have my new, proper camera, my digital snapshot camera sufficed. About the demonstration...I was quite impressed with the quality of its organization. I found out from one reporter that I talked with that the guy who organized it organizes demonstrations quite frequently and obviously knows what he's doing. Many efforts were taken to ensure that the demonstration remained peacefully and the demonstrators did not build themselves into a frenzy, not that it seemed they desired to get to that state. Often I saw smiling and laughing among them. Certain people involved in the demonstration were designated as "crowd control". They joined hands together to form a chain enclosing the demonstrators to ensure the crowd moved in a controlled manner. They also helped to quiet the crowd when leaders needed to speak. At one point, some protesters to the demonstration with a sign that read, "We demonstrate for free speach and the right to blasephemy" provoke the Muslim demonstrators and this was the one time where the crowd got excited and had to be controlled and brought back together after going after the sign holders. The police overtook the sign holders to reduce the provocation and left the demonstration organizers to tame the Muslim demonstrators. It was all quite impressive and I happened to be right there when it all happened. I stepped back out of the way to let what was to ensue ensue and not get caught in the middle of it. I must say, it was an exciting moment. The rest of the demonstration went off without a hitch. It ended close to the Danish Consulate where someone gave a speech. I got the gist of it from the reporter I talked with earlier...Muslim discrimination and peaceful response. It was intersting to note that while I expected the women to be grouped behind the men, I didn't expect that they would maintain about a 6-foot gap between the group of men in front and the group of women in back. Oh, I was walking along the group outside of the human chain and at one point the chain disbanded and I somehow ended up walking among the men. By the time I realized this, there was a nice empty space around me. Just as I'm realizing this, a female reporter finds herself in the same situation right with me. As we are on a baracade the police have put up, we had to walk all the way through the crowd of men to get out of it. As I hoped to be a documenter and not interject myself into the situation, I was disappointed in myself for letting it happen. I will end this by saying that it is sad to see that the only Muslim demonstrations that make international news are the violent ones and not the ones that were so intentionally meant and accomplished peacefully!

Dusseldorf

While I didn't have time to see much of Dusseldorf, I liked the vibe I got about the town. For a city it's size, it seemed to have a decent level of diversity in it. Mostly I say this from the variety of Asian restaurants :). I also felt there was a good mix of the old with the new. While I didn't see the main church in town, I did stumble across this unexpectedly, brightly painted yellow church. A bit of ways down the river was some modern architecture. The metal building pictured was done by the architect Gehry. I have never heard of him but the building was quite interesting. There were also some more trees that reminded me of the tree I saw in Avignon.

Most hectic week thus far

Well, unfortunately, just when I think I'll have time to do interesting things and put them on my blog, my work schedule goes crazy. To summarize....
Monday - train from London to Hursley
Wednesday - train from Hursley to Gloucester
Thursday - train from Gloucester to London, flight from London to Dusseldorf, Germany

Oh and did I mention I was working in the meantime?

Here is a overview of the towns I was in:

Hursley: I guess I didn't really see the town but the countryside is real nice. This is where the IBM site is. I actually stayed in a town about 10 minutes away named Winchester. It is a cute quaint town. Monday night we went to a Chinese restaurant named Mr. So's. Our waiter was such a character! When I told him I was from Texas, the Asian waiter (I think he was Maylasian) busted out in his best John Wayne, "Howdy Partner". He proceeded to brag about his knowledge of various cultures and went into a fun interaction with my Indian collegue regarding Bollywood movies. While the waiter was amusing, the food was so-so. Apparently, most IBMers who visit the Hursley site go to this restuarant.

Gloucester: There is a town right next to Gloucester (sounds like foster) named Cheltenham. These towns are rivals. Apparently, Gloucester is suppose to be the ruffian place and Cheltenham is the posh city. One of the customers and I went to dinner that night and it turns out he's a pretty interesting guy. He's hooking me up with a list of greasy diners in London to get a good greasy breakfast on the weekends...yum :). He's actually a Canadian whose been living in the UK for 2 years. My cab ride home started to get a bit scary as I thought I had a hotel in town and we started to drive on these small, winding streets in the countryside. The taxi driver even mentioned that he is not trying to take the long way without my asking him...which of course immediately put me on edge. I thought for sure I'm dying tonight...obviously that is not true. The hotel ended up being a ski resort and the bed the worst I've slept on in Europe...there goes staying at a hotel on the non-approved IBM list!

I'll save my comments on Germany for when I've seen it all.

Sorry for my absence

So, with the vacation and having to return to work, there wasn't time to catch up on the blog until now. I hope you haven't all completely abandoned me and enjoyed my updates on the time in France. I haven't really done much this week. But here is a quick recap.

I had bought a desk from Argos before I left for France and scheduled to have it delivered on this past Monday when I got back. Also scheduled to come was the bed for my 2nd room. It arrived so now I'm ready for visitors! Come one, come all! Back to the desk...it was schedule to come by 6pm and at 7pm, it still had not arrived so I called them to see what the deal was. It turned out that the desk was damaged when being put on the truck! When were they plan on calling me to tell me?! The customer support lady said the only thing to do now is cancel the order and re-order it...they don't just automatically reship another! But as it turned out they were out of stock already and I would have to wait until they were in stock. Their website shows items they don't have in stock but is still in their catalog. As it turns out, this desk doesn't even show up on their website anymore...they have issued a new catalog in my absence! I sort of wonder if they really ever had a desk for me and were mistaken on their number in stock. I have since ordered another desk and recieved it successfully. Though the delivery guy wouldn't help me carry the 2 boxes (I had to assemble it) it came in up the 3 flights of stairs. He somewhat snickered when I asked and he said no. Bastard! Anyway, I now have a desk to work on instead of my dining table.

Tuesday, my manager was in town for the day. We went for dinner at my neighborhood pub which also has a dartboard (which is so common in pubs). After eating (actually we had to go to another pub for the food, The Bricklayer's Arms) we returned to the Carpenter's Arms where the dartboard was and asked the guys who were playing if we could join them. The graciously let us and we played a few games with them. One of them was REALLY good. I didn't notice this, but it was pointed out to me that I won 2 of the 3 games we played. Pure luck...I'm such a random dart player! They taught us some new games that are fun, games that actually help you to refine your skills. With the way Americans play Cricket, it's not quite condusive to improving your game.

Friday night, I met Bernard at Bonnington Cafe to eat and listen to his friend Alex play the accordian for the cafe patrons. It's a small place that started as a place squatters could prepare meals and now has evolved to a restaurant ran by the locals. There is a rotation as to which local is cooking for the day. It's touted as being one of the best vegetarian restuarants in the city. It's BYOB so if you want some wine or beer with your meal, bring your own...it also won't hurt to bring your own glasses as well I think, but they will give you some.

Saturday night, my downstairs neighbor invited me to dinner as she was inviting some young people she thought I would get on with. It turns out the others were the guys who used to live in my flat before it was redone. One of their girlfriends was around when they lived in my place. Apparently, my flat used to be in such a state that people couldn't believe someone lived in it. They were floored by how it was improved! They are a fun bunch of people. Oh, one of them is dating a girl from Florence! Yes, I must go soon!

So, that's about it on my catch up. Now that I don't have the daunting task of trying to write all this, I'll be back to my old regular self! I hope you will keep coming back! Though I will put the disclaimer that now that work is going strong and I will be visiting customers, there may be some spots where I don't post as much or do very interesting things...but I'll try my best at those times.

Wedding day

My sister and I started the day out right at the hairdressers with a bottle of champagne :). Notice how she protects her glass from the tons of hairspray the hair stylist used on her hair! Champagne and getting pretty so go hand in hand! I recommend it to everyone...It's the way to go!





After the wedding, we took pictures and had a few drinks. From there we all walked in mass to the reception, being lead by the new couple. The reception was loads of fun music and dancing with loads of excellent food and wine! I wish I could more pictures of the festivities. The Russians (my sisters's new husband is Latvian) have a wonderfully fun custom to getting the couple to kiss on demand by yelling the word "Gorka!" (Bitter) and then counting until they stop kissing. Back in the day, the couple would do a shot of Vodka (which is bitter) and had to kiss to make it sweet so the longer they kissed, the sweeter it became. Eventually, some of the guys did the classic russian male dance of going up and down kicking that one leg out. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of the leg out. There was an old French guy that is your classic flirty french guy! I tell you, this is a man enjoying life! He flirted with everyone and kept giving my dad stiff competition for mom! We couldn't understand a word he was saying but he kept coming up to us and rambling. Such a cute, little old man! What a good time it all was!

A day of rest

My dad took any opportunity he could find to catch up on his beauty rest. For those that don't know, my dad is a pro at doing this... anytime... anywhere... even in the midst of others having a good ol' time :).

My youngest brother arrived on Thursday and with him came the snow which we all loved (except for the complications of wedding day pictures). He and I got to get out and have a snowball fight...what fun!! We were there with the other 10 year olds :). My parents and David had been in a proper amount of snow in ages so this was a special treat for them.

Provence, France

One day that week in Avignon, we travelled around to some of the smaller villages in the area. We started the day by seeing the old Roman aquaduct that still stands but is no longer in use. Will just an decline of 3 inches every 100 feet, it provided 9 million gallons of water to citizens of Nimes (the largest city in Europe by population at time of the Roman Empire). You can't tell from this picture that well but there are 3 levels of arches.

Next we went to the town where VanGogh too up residences for a while and painted some of his most famous paintings, basing them off places in this town. There is an old colloseum here that is currently being restored. When I say restored, it looks like they are literally replacing the stones. We had a lovely lunch a Spanish restaurant, the only place we could find open.

And then it was onto one last village that sits on the top of a hill. It almost looks like an ice cream scoop on top of a cone with the way it hangs over. Probably the quaintest of all the villages we visited, you can't help but love its charm. We found a doll maker who makes those classic french dolls. Oh, there is something about the candyshops here in France. They certainly know how to do them! What a wonderful view from the overlooks in the town into the valley! I noted that some of houses at the bottom of the valley were actually built into the hillside!! Those houses aren't going anywhere!

Avignon

I should explain that I went to Avignon for my sister's wedding. My dad, mom and youngest bro came as well. We had a lovely time. My first full day was spent just wandering around the town. This is a tree that I really like and is in a park that overlooks the river and valley. There are trees in Avignon that none of us were certain of their type and my mom became quite obsessed with finding out. So we eventually looked them up and found out they are a member of the Sycamore tree family. They are called Oriental Plane trees (Plantanus Orientalis). I think this could be a baby one, but it may not. I liked it so I'm sharing the picture.

Avignon is a small city but full of history. Back in the day (sorry don't remember which century but it was something like the 12th or 14th century), France actually decided that the Pope should be in France so they moved the Popes "residence" to Avignon. There is a huge papal palace there. Those towering buildings are the palace and it's cathedral. It is in the old city that is inside the old city walls. There are other castles on hills outside of town and you can just imagine the lords back in the day plotting and planning how to attach the neighboring castle, though certainly the papal palace was immune to such. The old city is full of plenty of tiny winding streets with shopping and restaurants. We had wonderful meals there. Unfortunately, I didn't write down any names. Maybe my sister can add a comment with the names if she remembers some them.