Photos of quarries

Edward Burtynsky

naoya hatakeyama

Female artists in China

Great great great article from NYTimes about contemporary female artists in China. Here are a few of them:

Xing Danwen…http://danwen.com/works/uf/index.html

Wu Zetian, China’s first and only female empress.

Cui Xiuwen

NYC half marathon

Can’t you tell how much fun I was having? This  was the most difficult of the half dozen or so half-marathons I’ve done. I can blame it on the weather, the hilly course for the first 6 miles through Central Park, but the truth is that I wasn’t mentally ready for the race.

Music in my mind: Jello and Silk mixes, Steinski “what does it all mean”, Steve Reich “Drumming”, Brian Eno “Apollo”, D. Bowie “Janine”

Photo censorship in Iraq

Am I surprised that photojournalists were kicked out of Iraq after American military commanders deemed their photos too real or graphic? No. But it is abominable and beyond silly that this day in age, when nearly anyone can buy a digital camera, there are “only half a dozen Western photographers were covering a war in which 150,000 American troops are engaged.” Read this article.

Street portraits–NYC and Tokyo

Steve Hoffman in Coney Island

Hiroh Kikai, Tokyo

Hiromi’s Sonic Bloom

Hiromi in bloom

Last night at Blue Note we saw Hiromi’s Sonic Bloom staring, a jazz quartet starring Hiromi Uehara. On piano, she’s freakishly fast, scary schizophrenic, and all around super humanly. On the mic, and afterwards  when I talked to her, she’s soft spoken, cute, and aloof.

China’s new nationalism

Evan Osnos does a good job of getting up close with China’s young intellectual conservatives in this week’s New Yorker. His main interviewee, Tang Jie, a 28-year-old graduate student and the architect behind a ultra-nationalist video that quickly became rapidly popular on the web, takes up most of the article. Osnos conveniently clears up many misconceptions we have of modern China. The information censorship we often talk about is easily breached by China’s extremely web savvy youth. So, contrary to popular belief, they do know about Tiananmen square. Also, young intellectuals are self-admittedly Westernized, but they turn to ancient Chinese philosophy and neo-conservative philosopher Leo Strauss as a guiding light in forming their doctrine.

Chinese are in no hurry to fight for democracy when they have material prosperity like never before seen. Call it a Faustian bargain, but they have forgone freedom of speech for extra disposable income.

The only problem I have with the article is that we have no way of knowing how typical or atypical Tang and his friends are. My assumption is that this intellectual conservatism is supported by an elite, as in any other country.

Having attended the Olympic torch relay that never was really a relay, I saw the vitriol spewed forth by Chinese of all ages when confronting those critical of China. This is why this paragraph needs to be emphasized:

“The initial rhetoric of that nationalist outcry contained a spirit of violence that anyone old enough to remember the Red Guards–or the rise of skinheads in Europe–could not casually dismiss.”

Piracy off the coast of Somalia

pic by SYOIN KAJII

From the Economist:

“African governments have yet to realise that they will have to do more themselves. East Africa does not have a single warship in good shape. Tanzania’s navy chief, Brigadier Said Omar, says that his fleet never reaches the high seas; its operational range is 20 nautical miles. When asked to describe his ships he laughs sadly. “Ships? We don’t have ships. We have very old, very small boats.” Peter Kivuyo, Tanzania’s police marine chief, says his force might reach five nautical miles offshore “if the waves are small”. His men do not even have binoculars.”

Saw Gonzo last night. Now I have some ideas for some Thompson-esque journalistic antics, and I picked up some rare personality affectations.

This is the talk of the town. I lost all dwindling respect I had for the NYer. When is the last time there was a must read? Is this a summer slump thing, or just an overall lame time for the magazine industry?

Music of the moment:

Solo Andata, Marsen Jules (Yara), Duran Duran (Rio), OUTKAST (speakerboxx), Monolake

YEPA YEPA YEPA, by Silverio

This is amazing smut glam blood rock from Mexico. Mexico, did I tell you how much I love you? Here, I’ll say it again….