[hypergraphia]

haven’t blogged in over a month, but now that im more or less settled in baltimore, i can finally catch up on some posting again. to start off, summer in germany!

this was the first time i visited over summer, and the first time i went to the southern part of deutschland. it was also the longest stay ive had so far, and very very pleasant.

in Tuebingen, Moessingen, and other -ingens:

 
we stayed at a sort of commune place with friends, and here’s a picture of catnip. that thing on the ceiling is not the cat, but just a bizarre thing in the kitchen…

we went to many castles around the area. all the little towns have names that end with -ingen. this is just one of the many pictures i took of a castle in XXX-ingen.

here’s me being intense

i’ve never seen these before, but apparently little children go around during christmas time to sing for people, and afterwards they make these little chalk symbols on your door so that god’s deadly plagues will pass over the household peacefully. or something.

beautiful little displays of medieval spelling exercizes.

more beautiful displays

when i was taking this photo, some old man who was passing by could not resist but ask “what is so interesting here??”. i could have told him that i like the pile of rocks and the cute little windows and the wooden door (i have a thing for taking photos of windows and doors), but in the end i just stayed quiet and left him to ponder.

die vögel

by bodensee. can’t get any more german than this.

such gorgeous landscapes…

we saw a double rainbow in moessingen! that was amazing. i don’t think i’ve seen two giant rainbows at such a close distance before.

in the family garden, where they grew all sorts of yummy stuff: die bonen, tomaten, salat, auberginen, blumen…

tomaten of various sizes

there were haystacks (roll?). i have never played on a hayroll before. i enjoyed posing for pictures on them. i shall not share these photos as they are too ridiculous.

pretty flowers in garden

i was attracted to the arrangement of the gardening tools.

gorgeous student-town tuebingen. looks like a postcard.

homemade spaezle! it was a real cultural experience i love cross-cultural relationships.

this was hanging in the house. thought it was very pretty

view of moessingen from above. if you look carefully you can sort of make out the family house. gorgeous view, definitely worth the hike. i felt bad though, since i was the youngest and yet the most out of shape of them all…

my first time in Stuttgart! quite different from berlin. the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is worth a trip, lots of modern and contemporary german artists from around the area. huge collection of Otto Dix, though i’m not a big fan. they have an archive of Willi Baumeister though, who i quite like.

back in berlin, we rented a tandem and rode around like mad. tandems are so great, but they’re harder to maneuver than you would imagine. and i was lucky to have been able to catch this exhibition: Modell Bauhaus: Die Austellung. organised by the Bauhaus Archiv, the Bauhaus places in Dessau and Weimar, and MoMa to celebrate the Bauhaus 90th anniversaty, it is the most comprehensive Bauhaus exhibition to date. it was amazing.

what was even more amazing was another exhibition that was at the Martin-Gropius-Bau: Le Corbusier, Art and Architecture. i was impressed by the bauhaus, but this… this was phenomenal. i’ve studied corbusier before, but this exhibition really made me realise just how much of a genius he was. i even got myself an exhibition poster, i wanted to remember the experience of being immersed in this corbusier environment forever. too bad photography was forbidden at MGB, or i would have gone nuts.

so in the end, my trip to germany was an eye opener, and it was such an enjoyable opportunity to see friends and meet The Family. being in berlin felt a little like coming home; after all these trips, i’m really starting to feel a sense of belonging. can’t say i’m totally familiar with the place yet, but i’m getting there. and for the first time, i didn’t have the urge to do all the touristy things that i really wanted to do the last few times i visited - though we did make the usual rounds to the fleamarket at Mauerpark and stopped by the Temporäre Kunsthalle to see the Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla piece (only one of my favourite artist couples of all time).

can’t wait to be in berlin again… though baltimore ain’t bad at all. more about that next post

like all the previous times i visited the city, it was amazing. falling in love again and again with (and ‘in’) the city. the weather was phenomenal - i’m told that berlin weather is fickle during that time of the year (april), but the whole week i was there it was super sunny, warm (a little too warm) during the day, and a bit chilly at night. perfect weather for people watching. and since it’s so cold for the larger part of the year, berliners really appreciate whatever warm weather they have, and there were people sprawled out and suntanning nearly everywhere you look, many half-naked, everyone in a good mood. what i wouldn’t give to be back there again, spring fever and everything.

despite having visited the city a fair number of times before, this time i actually brought a guidebook with me, to find stuff that neither of us has seen before. also, for the first time, i experienced the beginnings of ‘belonging’… a lot was still novel to me, but i felt the initial stirrings of wanting to live there, not as a tourist but as part of it, and i couldn’t help but start imagining myself feeling familiar and even growing bored of berlin, in a daily, mundane, everyday manner. one day, i would like to say “ich bin ein berliner“, donut or no donut.

first stop, our favourite vegan buffet brunch, run by anarchists. we went nearly everyday - their vegan mayo is so delicious.

how could i resist going to the flea market on a berlin sunday? so much wonderful junk to browse through!

lots of vintage shops in kreuzberg… mostly ridiculously overpriced stuff you can find for just a couple euros at the flohmarkt, but still fun to browse through. i would love to have a ‘bargain hunter’ job for a second hand store!

we went to R’s quaint little garten on the outskirts of town. not only is he turning his little ‘toolshed’ into a really cosy living space, but it will have a sauna ‘annex’ - all amongst his lettuces, tomatoes and tulip beds.

i’m sure mauerpark has all sort of crazy stories… i’m not sure if i want to know what was behind this little article of clothing…

bauhaus archiv. the building is definitely something to look at, designed by my main man, walter gropius. unfortunately their exhibition hall just closed for renovations, so i didn’t get to see any funky teapots. however, i did see some andreas feininger, and we got a compensation postcard after a bit of haggling.

the max liebermann house. we rode in the family mobile home to get there, it was fun listening to the ‘kitchen’ rattle around. i didn’t know much about liebermann until i visited, and while i’m not terribly in love with his paintings, i seriously love his house. especially the garden, which overlooks the water.

from the liebermann haus it is a short drive to potsdam, where of course we walked around the old palace, sanssouci. i got a bit of a tan from all the sun and fresh air. quite different from when i went to versailles… that was cold, cloudy and slightly eerie.

a plaque commemorating friedrich der große - those round things you see in the picture aren’t stones, but potatoes. apparently he’s the guy who taught germans that potatoes are edible.

the chinesisches haus. back in the day, this is what their impression of what a chinese teahouse would look like. very rococo, with a golden monkey figurine that apparently looks like Voltaire…

we went to see an uncle in potsdam, and looked through old family albums. this is a picture of the uncle when he was little, with a little kaiser helmet on! sooooo germaaaan…

i will post ONE picture of the sony center, and never again.

sankt matthaeus kirche, designed by friedrich-august stüler, student of schinkel. perhaps because the church is by the kulturforum, they have rotating contemporary art exhibits, usually merged into the religious aspects of the church. it was a coincidence that when i visited, john young, an artist born in hong kong, had his work up (that’s his hanging on the alter). i heard it’s inspired by the light dancing off the stained glass windows in the church…

for the first time, i went to a classical concert in berlin (about time too). it was mendelssohn, held at the konzerthaus, and it’s such a gorgeous building… the architecture is breathtaking. i wish i knew how to appreciate classical music more though (my years of playing the clarinet in the symphonic band has not been terribly educational unfortunately).

despite all the sights and scenery, the best part of the trip was finally meeting the wonderful folks and friends, and catching up with him. wow, i can’t believe i just spent over an hour on this blogpost. time to move on. i do have some other pictures to show that i haven’t developed yet. oh and here are a couple from vietnam and south korea that i took waaay back but didn’t develop the roll till recently:

on our way to the confucius temple in ho chi minh city, we randomly came across the “M & F” cafe, tucked away in a little corner. it’s cute. “music and friends”. and yes, they had decent music.

better than decorating the christmas tree and submitting to anglo-saxon christmas consumerism, let’s keep it real by decorating the communist star -

a picture of my green tea coffee at the cute (too cute) district of insadong. everything is so dainty, small and carefully arranged there that i thought he would clumsily bump and smash something at any moment.

sorry i’m a bit spoilt when it comes to traveling, and am ridiculously fortunate. so… where next?

about a month ago, we visited ho chi minh city, vietnam. overall we had a good time during those two weeks, but i think it was mostly because of the company, and not so much the place. i’d been to ho chi minh city before, and so had already seen much of the city; i wish we could have gone to hanoi, but apparently it was severely flooded.

i brought my canon AE-1 with me and took a bunch of photos. i used fuji 200 colour film that expired around four years ago, and the result was super-saturated and super-contrasty photos. the contrast works only for some of the shots; but anyway, it was meant to be unpredictable, so i enjoy them still.

unfortunately, 200 iso wasn’t ideal for most of the settings in which i took pictures, so many of them came out blurry. here are some that i really like:

inside ben thanh market. i remember taking a picture similar to this one when i went five years ago…

side note: the food is really good in vietnam, with very affordable prices, but be careful of what you eat… food poisoning is extremely common (i am speaking from experience :S)

typical scene in vietnam; people chilling on plastic chairs, chilled coconut in hand, by the side of a scooter-infested road.

another typical scene in vietnam; i have no idea where people tap their electricity from, but it does look rather improvised…

in a chinese temple dedicated to the ‘goddess of mercy’ in vung tau.

giant jesus on a hill (not so giant in this picture). you almost feel like you’re in rio de janeiro. there are unsightly birds’ nests in his armpits.

hon ba pagoda - you can only get there during low tide.

chilling on a not very gorgeous beach

going for a dip

grilled squid stall

at a floating house along the mekong delta

those two… er, bags, are filled with rice. probably something to do with fortune, luck or prosperity

watching the sun rise on a boat floating downriver

small muslim minority village along the mekong. they make many gorgeous silks and textiles (the contrast works super well in this photo)

i suppose there is a baby in the household

that’s my bike. we were riding around another mekong village. it was around mid-afternoon, and many people were napping in their softly swinging hammocks.

various grains at the market

colourful plastic dishware sold on the ground

the bananas look really wrong here… strangely grotesque and disturbing

my favourite thing; old colonial maps

temple in a bohemian backpackers’ district

just some random plants. the saturated colours work well here too

outside one of the many chinese temples

inside one of the many chinese temples

a swinging bench outside the house where ‘l’amant’, based on marguerite dumas’ book by the same name, was filmed.

rice paper drying under the sun

another typical hcmc scene - rickshaw men waiting for customers

…whew. now that i’ve blogged my vietnam trip, i feel like i’ve fulfilled some sort of weird obligation. check out flickr, more photos to come.

have been going around hong kong a lot lately, sometimes to run errands, sometimes for research, sometimes just to hang around.

one thing i missed profoundly when in america was riding the tram. now, whenever i have some time and am on hk island, i ride the tram, even if it takes a significantly longer amount of time. i just like the sounds it makes - the scraping on the rails, the dingding sounds… and i like sitting at the very front, watching the city from above.

just like how i like riding trams, i also like riding the star ferry, from one end of the harbour to the other. it wasn’t a clear day this day, but the mistiness adds to the quality of the sunset… not gorgeous, but still beautiful.

this looks like something from an alien space station. actually, there’s a big neon blue ‘philips’ sign, and another big red sign right above the bus station… another characteristic of hk.

going around to various coffee shops. press corner is definitely one of my favourites to sit around in, to work or to chill, packed with democrats and journalists - but i wouldn’t recommend eating there.

to eat, i’d go to Life cafe, but then again, it’s organic, and vegetarian, and when served in hk that’s more or less synonymous with ridiculously expensive. me and my pal monkey really enjoyed the food (the atmosphere, or should i say, the ‘vibes’ of the place made my very skeptical self extremely uncomfortable though. i am not okay with constant preachings of “be the change you wants to see in the world”).

i don’t really know what my favourite flowers are, but these ones i really love. they aren’t extravagantly gorgeous, but they’re charming and simple, and their smell is breathtaking. minibus and taxi drivers every now and then like to have a few of them in their vehicles. i have no idea what they’re called in english, a chinese translation would be “ginger flower”?

in the buddhist monastery where my mom’s ashes are to be kept. there are a few elders who learn and practice buddhism there, i think that’s their living quarters.

thanks for taking this incredibly happy photo…

Liebes-Lied

Wie soll ich meine Seele halten, daß
sie nicht an deine rührt? Wie soll ich sie
hinheben über dich zu andern Dingen?
Ach gerne möchte ich sie bei irgendetwas
Verlorenem im Dunkel unterbringen
an einer fremden stillen Stelle, die
nicht weiterschwingt, wenn diene Tiefen schwingen.
Doch alles, was uns anrührt, dich und mich,
nimmt uns zusammen wie ein Bogenstrich,
die aus zwei Saiten eine Stimme zieht.
Auf welches Instrument sind wir gespannt?
Und welcher Geiger hat uns in der Hand?
O süßes Lied.

- Rainer Maria Rilke 

Love Song

How shall I hold on to my soul, so that
it does not touch yours? How shall I lift
it gently up over you on to other things?
I would so very much like to tuck it away
among long lost objects in the dark,
in some quiet, unknown place, somewhere
which remains motionless when your depths resound.
And yet everything which touches us, you and me,
takes us together like a single bow,
drawing out from two strings but one voice.
On which instrument are we strung?
And which violinist holds us in his hand?
O sweetest of songs.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

i have to say. having used the same old phone for the past six years or so, i am really liking my new SE G900. it’s spiffy, with an interactive touchpad, but still with buttons that i can push and that light up to my delight (i can’t deal with phones that have no buttons and only one big screen - i am mentally incapable of not having buttons to push; besides, they are so counter-intuitive).

one great thing about this phone is that it is so user-friendly; it’s a great blend of touchpad and buttons, all based on human intuition. of course, i was uberexcited when i realised that the camera phone has the same 5.0 megapixel capacity as my canon ixus dcam.

i have finally tried it out. here are the results:

typhooning on our porch

day view from hung hom

night view from hung hom

typhoon no.9 view

i had a great opportunity to test out the yellows and the reds with this bowl  of noodles my dad made me

one day i had to catch the first train on the subway to get to work. this was at 6:04am. at any other time of the day, tsim sha tsui station is packed full of people

the view from sassoon rd, pokfulam. this is outside the department of chinese medicine research center in hku

so i am really quite satisfied with my new toy. another thing i really like about it is that it’s black and slick, with a torch! i’ve always wanted a torch for my phone…

there is definitely a certain aesthetic to pictures taken with phone cameras though. perhaps the slightly blurry quality, the slightly drained out colours, or the shallow depth of field. the only way i can think of to describe it is that it has a ‘haruki murakami tendency’.

thought i’d upload the indoor shots separately from the northern liberties ones, since they’re a bit more intimate. i have to say though, when i got the prints back, my initial reaction was a sort of boredom; but having singled out a few and uploaded them onto the computer, they look so much better. which further proves that images in general look better when it is light-lit (ie: on the computer screen, or any other light-emitting screen), and that flickr just makes everything look better than what it really is.

not that i’m complaining

i finally have time to test out my canon ae. i used fuji 200 film that expired in 2005, but i dont see much difference in quality; i suppose the shadows don’t have as much detail, it really isn’t noticeable. both indoor and outdoor shots have more or less retained their colour.

i decided to explore more of philly before i leave. first stop: northern liberties.

the grittiness really came through in this one; i was afraid the shutter speed would be too slow, but it turns out that it’s okay.


found this abandoned factory when i got lost…

i think i really do like taking pictures of run-down areas. so much more interesting than orderly places.

love this one.

again, this was pushing how far the camera could go in capturing stuff in shadow. turned out quite well.

the falling ‘tv’ sign really makes the composition.

antique shops and galleries line 2nd street.

ran into an acquaintance on the subway.

norlibs is really getting developed… the galleries have brought in the crowd. soon enough, the real estate will get all expensive and people will have to move somewhere else again…

the day ended with chocolate custard ice and a bowl of veggie soup.

all in all, i am very happy with my canon ae. it works and feels like a sturdy tank, and i absolutely love the sound the shutter makes. it also has exceptional clarity. now that i know it’s working like it’s supposed to, i’ll start loading it with my preferred black and white film.