W memories

the New York Times had a fun editorial about the photographic legacy of W.  i picked out a few favorites:

remember those days?  sigh.  goddammit.

goddammit.  at least he knows how to make fun of himself?

there's your whole story, right there.

W, right before his last press conference.  i thought this was surprising, and revealing, a window past the cowboy bullshit to the heart of a man who's upset to be leaving his post, and perhaps,just maybe, genuinely sad about all the things that went wrong under his watch.

sai kung paradise

last tuesday i went on an absolutely beautiful hike in hong kong's sai kung area, right on the coast of the south china sea. after a short 90 minute journey from my apartment, by subway, then bus, then taxi, i found myself in a remote, solitary paradise. most of the time, i couldn't hear a single human-produced sound: no boats, no planes, no motors, no alarms. it was stunning.

the hike started near a reservoir filled with crystal-clear blue water.

we hiked through bamboo forests. the air was clear enough, the light was bright enough, that this photo practically looks like HDR.

the highlight: an amazing beach, nestled between two mountain ridges. massive waves rolling ashore. clean air and sand, and not another soul, save ryan, my comrade.

we had another very, very steep hike on the trail, up 1200ft... a never ending staircase.

the view, however, was more than worth it.

far, far more than worth it.

spectacular.

going down the other side of the mountain, we could see sharp peak in the distance. apt name.

unfortunately, the sun started to go down and we had to cut our hike a little short.

we tried to scuttle back via another trail, but the sun started to get dangerously, if not beautifully, low. then, we took a wrong turn and ended dropping down the mountain on a steep, overgrown trail. soon, the trail led to small, suspicious dam, and we turned around, afraid that snakes or vc might be lurking the trees.

really great hike. after returning from my two major excursions --- mainland china, beginning tomorrow, and then japan --- i plan to finish it before returning to america.

i will miss it here.

polytechnic

it's high time i posted some pictures of my school.

hong kong polytechnic is a school about the size of the university of michigan, around 25,000 students.  the space it occupies is, of course, far, far smaller.  furthermore, if i had only one word to describe hkpu, it would be brick.  unrelenting, oversaturated brick.

brick, everywhere.  architect zaha hadid has designed a new building for hkpu --- for the design department, no less --- slated to be finished 2011.  it is not brick, mercifully.  it is, however, unfortunately, zaha hadid. 

here's the front.

the polytechnic logo.  how darling.

and finally, the most recently built building on campus, the tower.

hong kong colors

i might miss the colors at night, most of all. 

trip to stanley

visited the southern side of hong kong island this weekend --- stanley village.  within 45 minutes, i went from the middle of downtown hong kong to a quiet little (tourist) village by way of one public bus.  pretty incredible.  it was nice to get out of the city, get some fresh air, see some beautiful views!  and then, after a couple hours, back on the bus and to hong kong, once again.

one huge city, right behind them thar hills.  unbelievable.

march of progress

the old hong kong and the new hong kong, coexisting.  i've never seen such explosive and dense development as i've seen here in hk, and it's incredible to see it pushing against the older neighborhoods of the city.

in the new territories, 5 40+ story apartment buildings built in the middle of nowhere, next to a complex of ten more apartment buildings, all clearly larger, and soon to be taller, than their neighbors.  just crazy.

chi lin nunnery

went out to visit a few temples on the outskirts of hong kong --- really cool stuff.  this is the chi lin nunnery, which was built quite recently, but used ancient construction methods.  there's not a nail in the whole building, for instance.  i'll have more detail photos soon.

downtown hong kong

hong kong makes new land in the city by filling in victoria harbor.  leads to some nice contrast between one of the biggest financial centers of the world, and dirt.

macau

this is macau, from a hill in the center of the island (you can see it larger if you open the picture in another window). macau has the whole range, from new construction and cn tower knockoffs, to stunning(ly-ugly) casino towers and old construction. there's a reason the picture looks smudgy as well --- that's the air pollution blowing in from mainland. today in hong kong, you can hardly see across the bay to hong kong island. it's kind of amazing, in the worst possible way.

wagons west: tetons

truly haunting.

before leaving wyoming, we took one last walk near the tetons, at dusk. the trail wound through the aftermath of a recent forest fire, near a stream. the sun set behind the mountains and created some excellent lighting. i wish, as i always have, that michigan had more, any, elevation.

wagons west: mountainside

not pictured: these flowers smell like honey.

an entire mountainside, laced with flowers that smell like honey. it made wheezing as i hiked the mountain just a little more tolerable. this is not to say that all of the flowers we walked by smelled pleasant; a few made me fear that we were close to a masturbating bear.

wagons west: devil's tower

not pictured: the alien, low roar of the wind

i was able to take a few good pictures of Devil's Tower as my brother hustled me along. photographs, unfortunately, cannot capture the scale of the thing. however, that fact does make an actual, physical visit worthwhile. more than worthwhile. no sign of richard dreyfuss, sadly.

wagons west: prairie

the prairie is white space.

i was not prepared for this. i expected vast fields of grass, sure, but tall grass, and trees, and mountains in the background. but the prairie really. is. nothingness. high clouds, short grass, and damn near nothing in between --- anything that is, a house, a car, seems that much more special, more beautiful.

wagons west: jeep cherokee

i really love these trucks.

my car, an older vw jetta, broke down, and i've been tooling around in my stepdad's cherokee. it's been a treat. it's a small truck, as trucks go, but it's more than enough vehicle --- so long as you're not grossly overweight. it fits, like a tailored shirt, comfortable but no excess. nothing looks more awkward than a 5ft-nothing mom piloting an escalade down the highway.

what's more, the styling is simple, but powerful. it's as square as an old volvo, but design is completely resolved, no mistakes, no afterthoughts, no compromises. the chamfer on the main shoulder line, for instance, transitions right into the a-pillar, controlled, purposeful.

with rising gas and raw material prices, i expect -- and hope -- to see more rightsized, classic styling in cars soon.

wagons west: diner

forgotten marvel.

this diner was near our first campsite --- not abandoned, merely closed for the holiday weekend. it was in rough shape, though, certainly less gloss than in its heyday. it must have been a real treat to live back in the 50s, when people would spend a little extra money to make their restaurants look special, imaginative, alive. now, the march of carbon-copy mcdonalds, cheap, identical, dead.