Ni hao!

As you can see I`m starting to learn Chinese! It`s harder than anything I`ve tried to do so far in my entire life so I won`t be mastering this new language any time soon … but at least I try.

Enough with the introduction, but just in case you liked the last week`s entry (with the street pictures and all) just know that I`m gathering more material for another entry in the weeks to come. So if you`re here for “up-skirts, pantyhose, boobies, long legs, Asian, school-girls” or any other weird search-word … move along, there`s nothing of this sort here … this week!

This Sunday I`m going to quickly go through some things that drew my attention in the past few days, so all in all, this entry is based on short stories.

Let`s see how short can I keep`em!

1. Mixcloud

In case you`re not fully embracing this digital revolution, I`m here to get you on the right path. For the past year I have been trying to understand funk. Which is kinda silly but let this one slide for a bit. So I started gathering all sort of albums from James Brown to Parliament and Funkadelic to Sly and The Family Stone, but I wasn`t quite satisfied with the selection.

Then I turned to Mixcloud, and found some brilliant people making funk mixes and vinyl sessions and people explaining why they arranged the songs in a particular order, and much more information about this genre. I got hooked from the first day and I haven`t stopped listening ever since.

Every day I download the mixes using Offliberty, and upload them to my iPhone. Usually they are 60 minutes long or once in a while 120 minutes. That`s awesome because I can listen to an entire mix on my way to the office, and (of course) a new one on my way home.

And there are days when I`m no looking for something new so I just “spin” one from the favorites.

If you`re into funk you can follow my Mixcloud account. (I`ll probably never upload something of mine … but “never say never”) or you can just follow Laid-Back, JazzCat and HeavySoulBrutha, if you want the whole scoop.

2. Paper by Studio 53

I have a new favorite app for drawing and notes. It`s called Paper and it just replaced 5 apps that were not used as much.

Why I love the app:

• Looks and feels like a Moleskine notebook, and I got three of those and It`s a pain searching for stuff inside them because they look the same. So the app is worth trying just because of that reason.
  comes free with a powerful drawing tool (the fountain pen) and you can impress just about anyone with that single tool;
• there are 4 other tools (pen, marker, liner and watercolor) that are gorgeous. And the testing mechanism (just in case you want to know if they are worth the 2$ each) is really well made. I was impressed!
• the notebooks can be customized with personal artwork covers.
• the writing feature is the best I`ve seen so far. It`s missing the zoom feature, but when that will be available … I`ll probably ditch the Wacom Bamboo app.
• it`s super-easy to use.

It has some downsides but nothing that can`t be solved in a few weeks of coding.

3. The TaoBao move

Last week I made the thrilling decision to buy a lens from TaoBao.com (some sort of Chinese eBay) and with the help of a co-worker, the package got here on Friday morning.

I was happy as a kid on Christmas day. I quickly open the package (kudos for the over-packaged lens) and start to check it. The first thing I notice is that it does`n look like the one in the pictures. OK… so that means I have to test it thoroughly. Focus ring: fine. Glass: clean. Fungus: none. Aperture blades: clean and working properly. Zoom ring: not moving.

I new it was too good to be true. At a closer inspection, it was the same lens from the add but the front element was replaced (same serial number but the one in the pictures had the filter thread cracked; the one I was holding was in good condition). Then I moved to the back, there were 3 screws from the original lens and a 4th screw that was totally different. And this is when it started to smell even fishier. On the outside it looked really good but when I took a good look inside the lens it was full of rust and it even rattled like sand inside the mechanism.

The zoom ring started functioning but it was really hard to turn and it was in no way usable in the field.

Right now I`m waiting for my money back, the lens is on it`s way back.

Unfortunately it`s hard to find a used one in a store and if you happen to see one, it`s twice the price that it goes on TaoBao so maybe this Chinese eBay is not for me. I`ll just wait until I get enough money to buy one where I can test it. I did try to negotiate with the store owner but the final price was still to high for my budget.

While on the subject of camera gear, if you`re in the market for a Leica M9 or M9-P, or even the 50/0.95 I`d like to let you know Shanghai is full of them. Almost every camera shop (Leica dealer or not) has an M9 and a Noct on display … just to make us feel powerless.

4. The Church surprise

This morning Ioana wanted to go to a orthodox Church. She found one using Google Maps and we headed straight for it. When we got there we realized that the Church was being used as a exhibition gallery.

My favorite piece was the ping-pong table.

The church looked very believable from the outside, but once inside we felt like in one of those Punk`d episodes. We started looking for the hidden cameras.

This happens kinda often here.

5. Shoes

I`m in the market for new running / walking sport shoes. So far Adidas has some ugly designs this year and the cool ones from Porsche Design and Originals are either too pricey or non-existent in Shanghai. Nike hired some color-blind designers this year too, and out of 6 different models that I tried today, only one was a snug-fit; the other were either hurting my feet or screwing with my balance.

Talking about balance, the Shanghai New Balance store on Huai-Hai Road was the most interesting shoe store to date. The whole thing was decorated as a New Balance History Museum with all sorts of warn out shoes, and the sofas for the customers were really comfortable. The store crew actually spoke English! (Adidas store was short on that kind of personnel).

Too bad the New Balance shoes weren`t as good for me as the Porsche Design models but in the future I`ll try more models hoping I`ll find something for me.

So far the ones that stood out are: 420 | 574 | 999

I think that`s enough for this week.

At the moment I`m working on some nice architecture projects that I can`t disclose but expect some sort of visual information in the following weeks. This is one of the main reasons I don`t get to shoot as much as I would like.

Until next time…

Take care, everybody!

Yes, I`ve done it! Here they are. Not so impressive now that I got a good look at them but, hey, as long as they`re done I might as well post them.

These are all resizes to fit 1200px on the long side (that means that you can click on them for a slightly bigger version).

You can leave comments using this link.

And, with almost 11 days overdue, I present to you the Netherlands entry.

We took the Thalys train from Paris with the destination: Rotterdam. “Lucky” for us, they were working on the railroads those days so we hopped of at Utrecht, then we took a train straight to Hague. `Cause that`s were Pinka and Srj are living now. You`ll see pictures of their neighborhood at the end. And yes … they live in a red MVRDV house.

In the 5 days remaining of our trip we visited Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft and Hague. (if I forgot something, just let me know)

Given the fact that I`m not in a “writing allot of stuff” mood I`ll let you enjoy the pictures.

Don`t be shy and write a few words yourself … and yes, you can send this link to other people. )

P.S. The song is Red House played by Jimi Hendrix. I wanted to put another song but I can`t really get a hold of it so this one is just as good. Mainly because we stayed at our friends in a red house in Hague and as a side reason: it`s 12 bar blues and Razvan is trying to get the hang of it right now. Bro, I could only wish I could play 10% of what is Jimi doing by the time you get it together, but you`re getting it wright faster than I can learn how to improv…

After almost “4 days overdue” according to my “To do” software, I get to show you the 2nd part of our summer trip – Normandy.

And to be precise: we stayed in the west part of it.

This blog-entry will be split into seven parts because it was the simplest way for me to manage my pictures. In some places we went more than once so I tried to keep the timeline in the order of “1st time only”.

1. Flamanville – Hameau Bonemains
2. Ile Mont-Saint-Michel
3. Cherbourg
4. Cap de la Hague
5. Clairefontaine
6. Sciotot
7. Omaha Beach, the Museum / Cemetery

(Today I found out how to use “anchors” in a blog-post but unfortunately they interfere with my “return to top button” so as much as I tried to get the titles to send you to a specific part of the entry … I couldn`t do it. Maybe some day I`ll figure this one out, but for now … I`ll leave it as it is.)

1. Flamanville – Hameau Bonemais

From Paris we took the train to Cherbourg (the main city in the area), and from there we were picked-up by Mihai and taken to Hameau Bonemais, a little town next to Flamanville.

On the map to your right I`ve marked the house were we stayed and further down the page you`ll see a picture of it. From here we went every day to a new place. This area doesn`t have a beach; it`s mostly a cliff-side part of land but fortunately it is flanked by two wonderful sandy beaches Sciotot and Clairefontaine.

In this part of the world the weather changes rapidly and we had to make the best of every ray of sunshine – thus one day we ended on the beach in our underwear and someone went home (by car) and returned with our swimsuits.

In this part of the world we felt like we traveled back in time. After 10PM all the lights in the town are turned off and it`s pitch black. The houses are all made of stone and the hedges are 2-3m high. This is the greenest grass I`ve ever seen. It`s like God grabbed the saturation slider and pushed it out of the frame.

A truly wonderful place for relaxation after 5 days of Paris…

2. Ile Mont-Saint-Michel

Ile Mont-Saint-Michel is a rocky tidal island and a commune in Normandy, France. It is located approximately one kilometre off the country’s north coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches.

Mont-Saint-Michel was previously connected to the mainland via a thin natural land bridge, which before modernization was covered at high tide and revealed at low tide. This has been compromised by several developments. Over the centuries, the coastal flats have been polderised to create pasture. Thus the distance between the shore and the south coast of Mont-Saint-Michel has decreased. The Couesnon River has been canalised, reducing the flow of water and thereby encouraging a silting-up of the bay. In 1879, the land bridge was fortified into a true causeway. This prevented the tide from scouring the silt round the mount.
At low tide surrounded by mud flats – seen from the air

On 16 June 2006, the French prime minister and regional authorities announced a €164 million project (Projet Mont-Saint-Michel) to build a hydraulic dam using the waters of the river Couesnon and of tides that will help remove the accumulated silt deposited by the uprising tides, and to make Mont-Saint-Michel an island again. It is expected to be completed by 2012.
The construction of the dam is now complete (it was inaugurated in 2009), but the project also includes the destruction of the causeway that was built on top of the small land bridge and enlarged, to join the island to the continent, but also used as a parking for visitors. It will be replaced by an elevated light bridge, under which the waters will flow more freely, and that will improve the efficiency of the now operational dam, and the construction of another parking on the continent. Visitors will have to use small shuttles to cross the future bridge which will be still open to walking people and unmotorized cycles.

3. Cherbourg

The Cotentin was in fact the first territory conquered by the men from the North, the Vikings. For these sea people, it was logical that Cherbourg should become a port.

During the Seven Years’ War the town was briefly occupied by a British force in the Raid on Cherbourg in 1758. The British destroyed military buildings and warehouses before departing.

In the Napoleonic era the harbour was fortified to prevent British naval incursions. Underwater obstructions were sunk at intervals across the harbour entrance, and then progressively replaced with piles of masonried rubble. Works began in 1784 and were not concluded until 1850, long after Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

On July 31, 1909, tsar Nicholas II and French president Armand Fallières met officially in Cherbourg to reinforce the Franco-Russian Alliance. Cherbourg was the first stop of RMS Titanic after it left Southampton, England. On 19 June 1864, the naval engagement between USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama took place off Cherbourg. The Battle of Cherbourg, fought in June 1944 following the Normandy Invasion, ended with the capture of the city on 30 June.

We visited the SeaWorld Aquarium just because it`s the only place in the world where you can see the insides of a nuclear submarine, in this case “Le Formidable” (or in american slang “The Awesome”).

4. Cap de la Hague

La Hague is a region on the tip of the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy, France.
This is the west most part of Normandy.

5. Clairefontaine

6. Sciotot

7. Omaha Beach, the Museum / Cemetery

On June 8, 1944, the U.S. First Army established the temporary cemetery, the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II.

Like all other overseas American cemeteries in France for World War I and II, France has granted the United States a special, perpetual concession to the land occupied by the cemetery, free of any charge or any tax. This cemetery is managed by the American government, under Congressional acts that provide yearly financial support for maintaining them, with most military and civil personnel employed abroad. The U.S. flag flies over these granted soils.

The cemetery is located on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel. It covers 70 ha, and contains the remains of 9,387 American military dead, most of whom were killed during the invasion of Normandy and ensuing military operations in World War II. Included are graves of Army Air Force crews shot down over France as early as 1942.

(source: Wikipedia)

Thank you for the patience of scrolling the entire entry. It took me almost all day to put together. I had some coding problems but everything is ok now.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the song (Mo’horizons – So Ma Guisee). Hopefully I`ll have the Netherlands entry done by the end of the week. From there on the entries are already done so it shouldn`t take to much time to post them.