Carrie lives here

© Joselito Briones

Eric and I were walking around New York and taking photos yesterday when, just when I was done taking photos of a neighborhood, an older man, probably on his way home, carrying grocery bags, told us that the actress Sarah Jessica Parker (that's) Carrie Bradshaw to you) lives on this particular house (photo, above).

Today we went to Century21 and DSW for bargain shopping, unfortunately I wasn't very much into it because I had a headache. It didn't help that it was dark and drizzling the whole day.

We then went to a computer repair shop in Elmhurst, one that Eric knows to ask if they could repair the notebook, unfortunately, they said they also need time to at least diagnose the computer, time I don't have, so we didn't leave the computer there.

In the evening we just stayed in, even as we were planning to go out with Jane.


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Green Apples

© Joselito Briones

My iMac's back. After half a year. Yep, it took that long for the Nürnberg shop to repair it. And it's not even completely repaired yet. This is one of those ocassions when I absolutely miss living in Hong Kong. Everything there goes instantly. You need something fixed? They'll do it for you the next day, if not later the same day. Anyways, it turned out that the power supply was faulty, and the extra memory card - which I now have to replace, was also causing it to malfunction. Am not sure though if it's worth getting an extra memory replacement, as this is very old (it's the first generation of the iMac with the swivel screen on a half-round CPU. I've been using a CPU-in-the-monitor iMac for more than a year now.

Photo, above, is the Apple store in 5th Av. in Manhattan, taken last month.


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At what cost?

© Joselito Briones

This month's issue of VF confused me. I immediately flipped through the pages upon receiving my mailed-in subscription copy, and what did I find? The hotel project that I was working on in New York before I moved to London. I stopped working on it when the owners started failing to pay me - unfunded checks, and after so much trouble trying to collect, a discounted final bill, the works.

And now, one of my favorite magazines has a full page spread calling this hotel "sexy", and a couple more pages of photo spreads and write ups about it. W-Wh-What? At first I thought, how could I NOT have gone through a project that VF would eventually call "sexy"? And then of course, upon reflecting back, I remembered that the idea of the project was sexy to begin with - it was interesting - and that was why I was so enthusiastic to work on it in the beginning. A hotel in an interesting neighborhood of New York, starting to get all the buzz, close to the birthplace of punk BCBG, just north of Soho, and south of East Village, to be opened by the same people who own a happening hotel/club in the meat-packing district.

The work I did (basic floor planning and room layouts), of course, by now would've been totally altered, as is common with any architectural projects. Still I wonder if any of it - hedonism being my guiding idea when working on it - remained. It's burning through my head. Do I want to kick myself? You betcha. Would I have done differently knowing what I know now? Absolutely not.

For one thing, I ask myself, "How did they get away with it?" They were extremely tight with funds (or so they claimed) that they cut at all the not-so-visible proverbial corners. The project was basically a retrofit of a newly built students' dormitory, and the carcass was done - exterior finish and all. The image above, taken with my old cell phone showing the dormitory before it was converted to its current condition, is the only image I have of the project now (I thought it tacky to show you a scan of the bounced check instead). Given, it was the ugliest building in the neighborhood when they started, and they wanted to make it fit to the neighborhood character by making it look like an old brick-faced factory. But the way they had it done! They kept the fake finish, and on top of it, stick flimsy fake bricks. New Yorkers are fond of old utilitarian brick buildings gentrified into a new functional, hip, even sophisticated, use. But if a new ugly building was covered with fake bricks, promote it as authentic, and have VF call it sexy... What's going on?

Let's assume for a while that the VF writer who wrote it completely missed the fake bricks. The interiors after all, at least from the photos in the magazine, really look great. Maybe that's what they meant when they say sexy. Maybe, since I was involved with the project, they have changed the fake plastic mullions of the huge windows into real metal ones. Surely VF wouldn't have praised it if they had stood by the window of a typical bedroom and find that the mullions supposedly holding the glazing together is just a stick-on piece of plastic and can be pulled and flicked on the glass like rubber band?

Or maybe it's just true, what another article in the same issue of the magazine discussed - about media manipulation. The owners of the hotel, who were also owners of the hippest SOHO clubs since the 80's, after all, are extremely media and PR savvy.


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Borat!

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (20th Century Fox)

Roxy time!

Wow... record number of viewers in the cinema. There must've been at least 20 people in the audience. Pop culture rules. (Hm... hello? It wouldn't be called so if it doesn't, would it?)

By now of course, the novelty that is Sacha Baron Cohen is already somewhat worn out. Good thing is, throwing mud on people is still very much in, especially if the aforementioned people are just asking for it... As in his Ali G personna, the best thing about Borat is the way he brought out the true character of the people he encountered and recorded in the movie. Thinking he's someone they don't have to be politically correct with, they blurt out things they wouldn't normally say in public, much less in film. Now, one can argue that they're just trying to be agreeable with him to avoid confrontation, a human trait, don't ask me what it's called because I don't know, which has been thoroughly documented. The thing is, though, it's easy to tell that he wasn't feeding these people the words, he just makes them careless or carefree enough to actually say what they think. And what they do say, sadly, is what everybody else suspect to be their real sentiments all along. The way a man strongly agreed with him when he said something about beating up everything in Iraq including its lizards, and the shocked face the woman next to the man had when she saw his reaction... these are expressions no actor has yet to muster, so any suspicion of these scenes being staged with good actors can be safely put aside.

Another good thing about Borat? The way he doesn't discriminate against whom he supposedly unknowingly discriminates. Jews (Cohen is himself jewish), gays, blacks, minorities, politicians, religious fanatics. Everybody's fair game.

Eventually though, what he failed to do is to learn from what he discovered (or more probably, knew all along) in making this movie. That is, that there's really a lot of people who are stupid. Stupid in the fixed-in-my-own-ways-don't-bother-me-with-any-attempt-to-get-educated kind. The same people who can understand the satirical nature of the movie are those who are capable of understanding to begin with, and to these viewers, this movie is nothing more than reaffirming light entertainment. To the rest, those who are not even aware that this is meant to be mocking and ironic, yet see this as light entertainment nonetheless, would naturally see everything in this movie face-value and have this as something to fuel their own prejudices and stupidity.


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And The Devil's Assistant Wears Jimmy Choo

Promotional poster for "The Devil Wears Prada"

I know, this one's quite old. So... 2 seconds ago! But where I am it's fresh, so bear with me.

Style-wise, it wasn't there yet. It's more Hollywood's idea of stylish and fashionable. It's got all the glamour but very little of style. I'd bet that the gods of the fashion world must've thought it unworthy of even raising an eyebrow for. But let's face it, Nobody makes movies for these visionnaires. Movies are made for the masses, and this ordinary folk here liked the movie.

Meryl Streep is Meryl Streep. Is she capable of doing anything wrong? She was great as the Anna Wintour stand-in Miranda Priestley, head of Vogue stand-in "Runway Magazine". One could only wish she was given a more memorable "visual design". She was beautifully styled, of course, but it was just that. No "Waaaaahhhhh!!!!" factor in her appearance. Any actress other than Meryl Streep would have faded in the background in the movie. Emily Blunt, the actress playing Emily, Miranda's second, was also great. She was very much believable in her role as the fashion/style victim/champion, mostly because she acted really well, and partly because she wasn't beautiful enough to be anywhere close to being in Giselle Bundchen's league, who happened to have a cameo in the movie, as Emily's chum. Adrian Grenier, the token grounded character in the movie, was easy on the eyes, but I had the feeling any actor other than him wouldn't have faded in the background of the movie.

And then there's Anne Hathaway as Andrea, the transformed character. I'm sure if this was made 5 years ago, before Babs conceded to doing a maternal role due to lack of ugly-duckling-turned-big-white-swan role, her forte', Ms. Streisand would've fought to play this character. But, no worries, Ms. Hathaway did a perfect turn in the Babs role. She was most convincing in the metamorphosis that, in the end, when even she was made stunningly beautiful by the movie's make up artist and Patricia Field's choices of clothes, one would really believe in the power of fashion. Now, had they casted Babs in the role and got away with it, THAT would've been real magic.

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More of Erlangen

© Joselito Briones

If only the weather can be like this always...

I went to the post office right after German class, to pick up a package that was supposed to have been delivered last Saturday by DHL. We were having breakfast when the delivery guy came. We heard the buzzer, and, in less than a minute, the time it took to get to the intercom system in the reception area from the kitchen where we were having breakfast, he was gone. He must be in quota system, or just very very eager to go home. When we picked up the intercom from the reception and heard nothing from the other end, we even went out to the balcony and yelled a loud "hello?!?". No answer. The time it took for him to ring the bell, write the note that he left on the mailbox notifying us to pick up the package from the post office, and be beyond the distance where he could hear our "hello" could not have been any longer than the time it took for us to get from the kitchen, pick up the intercom, and yell out from the balcony.

© Joselito Briones

From the post office I passed by the city center and got myself a Leberkase sandwich. That's meatloaf sandwich in plain kitchen speak.

I then went to Frankenlabor, after dropping my bag in the apartment, to pick up some films, and on my way there took the pictures shown here. The first is a Siemens building, next block to the apartment (city blocks here tend to be big). On clear days like these, the stark contrast between the silvery metal of its enclosure, with its yellow awnings, against the clear cloudless sky is very striking.

The bottom picture is of a residential development. I always pass by here in between Frankenlabor and Handelshof. Next to it are huge areas of land that are currently under developement. In the next few years the whole area will become one huge suburban heaven.



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Too bad he didn't get there first

© Joselito Briones

Heard of the latest James Blunt clone? He's not as extreme, and will not make you cringe when he does the high notes. He's actually good, Paolo Nutini. Depending on what he sings, his voice sometimes veers towards a sound-alike of Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and often Ray Charles-ey. It's also obvious he can pretty much imitate Blunt's voice if he try. It's a good thing that he doesn't. His music can be sampled by downloading this week's free iTunes song "New Shoes" or from his own website "Loving You (Live)".


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P.S.
I've always thought of Blunt as the aural answer to hyperrealism (a visual style)... it's like now that there's so much out there, and the average attention span of an adult is shorter than a blink of an eye, it makes sense that one needed to be exaggeratedly emotional (or exaggerated anything) to be noticed.

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The house by the lake

© Joselito Briones

Ahahahaha!!! What a laugh! Keanu Reeves as an architect. Sandra Bullock as a doctor. A dog as cupid. A mailbox as a time machine. A sorry exercise as a movie! I had so much fun I'm still laughing. Ahahahahaha!!!!

Yep. Been to Roxy again..


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P.S.
Photo is another one from the looong ago trip to Amsterdam.


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He just had to be in the picture (A major disappointment)

© Joselito Briones

So I was taking this small gate of one of my neighbors, and this kid just sped through, which is just as well, the version without him had absolutely nothing going for it.

You'll just have to get used to these pics. I haven't been doing anything else lately but take pictures and scanning them, so if I don't write to you about them, I've got nothing else to write about.


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Oh yeah, major disappointment yesterday. I did this competition piece for a furniture design. I finished it yesterday, after about two weeks on picking on the details. Surprise, surprise, when I went to the DHL center they told me they don't have overnight delivery. HA! I shoved my entry in the bottom drawer.


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Old school and proud of it

© Joselito Briones

I think I'll make it a point from now on to see movies shunned by US viewers. I finally got to see "Superman Returns", it received a lukewarm reception in the U.S. box office, but I really liked it. It's the old school (old sKool is not old school enough) way of doing a superhero movie, the way a superman movie should be. Explorations of internal motivations and angst were kept to a minimum, and the focus was kept on larger-than-superlife conflicts. Good wins over evil, good guy gets really really pretty girl (by the heart, if not as a partner, the other good guy gets that part), and evil's still bald and gets himself a not-so-evil consort (the always entertaining Parker Posey). And it's also a good thing that I didn't pay attention to write-ups about the movie, otherwise I'd have read the spoiler plot already about the superkid.

The movie was shown in English in Roxy, in Nuremberg, and I'm really liking this small theather, because it's so small, not crowded (both times I was there, there were less than 10 people in the audience), and it's got a small-town appeal to it.

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Songs on a Rainy night in the Autobahn

© Joselito Briones

Nothing better than a long drive (Erlangen to Mannheim) to get reacquainted with classics.

After half an hour of listening to Ray Brown Trio's jazz versions of standards, I've decided to put on something that'd wake us up somehow. The first song in the complilation CD that I put on more than woke me up though, it made me hyper. The Knack's "My Sharona". I haven't heard the song for a while, but everytime I hear it again it never fails to lift up my mood. I don't even know what the song is about, all I know is it makes me want to bounce off my seat.

At the last hour of the drive, it started raining quite heavily, and having exhausted all the upbeat songs in the CD's that I brought, we agreed to play George Michael. Yes, every card-carrying friend of Dorothy has to have his CD on rotation, or the all-time favorite OST from "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", or of course, any of the tragic divas, else our membership is in danger of being revoked.

"The first time ever I kissed your mouth
I felt the earth move in my hand
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command...my love "

-Ewan McColl

For this drive, we had "Songs from the Last Century". I've forgotten how much I loved his version of "Roxanne" and "Miss Sarajevo", and how pointless is his cover of "The First Time Ever I saw Your Face". I still think this song has one of the best words ever put to music, and nothing will ever surpass Roberta Flack's crisp voice in delivering it (Johnny Cash' version is too devastating).


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Doll Hospital

CD cover of "Doll Hospital"

Warning! This is a blatant promotion. For one of your better neighbors, of course. Heather Eatman. Remember her? She's the bestest! She's got her band's CD out already, also called "Doll Hospital".

Jane and I heard the band perform the numbers in the CD in the East Village, in New York, late last year. They're all excellent!. The best tracks are "My Ex-Wife" and "Bluebird Ballroom" (these tracks can be downloaded for free from their website). They're like twisted swing tunes with an edge, and fun! Great lyrics. Cabaret-ish and Burlesque-ish and all that. And yeah, check out her other releases too!

There. I think I've done my duty as a big fan.


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P.S.

Send my regards when you see her.

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Pet peeves

© Joselito Briones

It's whine time!

I guess by now you already know, no matter how satisfied I am with something, I'd always find a part of it to complain about. Take this apartment for example. As much as I've learned to really like it here, there are still things that annoy me whenever I come into contact with it..

First is the front door lock. Simple - check. Clean - check. Very nice to look at - check. Secure - check. What pisses me off, though, is that the darned thing can't be opened by one hand. Normally, one can use a hand to fish out the key from a pocket, unlock the door, put back the key to the pocket, and then turn the knob with the same hand. This one's different. You'll have to turn the knob with one hand while turning the key with the other. Whenever I come home carrying bags upon bags of grocery, I always end up putting everything down to open the door, pick the things back up, carry them to the kitchen and then go back to the front door to close it. (To put them down again in the entrance hall while closing the door is just too stupid already). So much for German efficiency.

© Joselito Briones

Another one is the shower control. It's nice and simple, fine. Looks clean, perfect. Easy to turn on, check. Problem is, it's just as easy to shut off. Imagine yourself taking a shower in a not-so-spacious cubicle. You spend some time adjusting the water temperature, until you get it perfect, exactly the way you want it (it's very important for me, I'm very sensitive to temperature). Then you shower, soap yourself, wiggle, wiggle. Then invariably, a part of your body bumps into the control and shuts it off, or worse, turns it so that the water becomes freezing cold. Then you end up fumbling for the controls to adjust it again, while soap gets in your eyes. Really annoying.

Okay, that's it for now, I'm sure there'd be more in the future.


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Scary Movie V (A Postscript to the Trilogy)

© Joselito Briones

Fear is fair game. Ask insurance companies, they know you're afraid of what might happen. They've made an art form of extracting money from you in exchange for their best selling product: peace of mind. Just hope and pray nothing wrong does happen. They've made an even higher art form of not giving money - or giving as little, in as much delay, and with as much difficulty as possible - to insurance claimers.

If there isn't enough fear to make good business out of, one can always elevate something mildly irritating into a fullblown menace. Ask pharmaceutical companies. If they can help it, they'd classify being tired after exerting some physical effort as some sort of disease that everyone should be afraid of. They of course, would have the cure, and you'll have to buy it if you want to be well. Why take a rest (Not a reliable cure!) when you can pop a pill in your mouth (It's formulated by a scientist wearing a white coat! It's dispensed by a pharmacist with a name tag! Also in a white coat!) to relieve yourself of fatigue? I wonder how much longer it will be before they successfully lobby the right people in Washington to classify menopause as a medical condition for which they can sell you the treatment.

Did you hear about the Bin Laden tapes that has recently surfaced basically telling everyone in the western world to be afraid? Who do you think is more scary, Bin Laden because he says he'll kill you for not symphathising with him, or the media manipulators who keep on feeding America with enough fear to repeatedly condone the US engagement in war?

On TV they're starting to remind us of what happened 20 years ago in Chernobyl. Yes it's something to be afraid of. It's not too long ago that it won't have anymore effect on you. Britain is considering a new nuclear power plant as a supplementary source of power for one of its cities. Iran says it's doing the same. Calling insurance companies! I wonder how much they'd be willing to pay to insure against an accident. I wonder if the residents would also consider taking one, or if they're just resigned to the idea that should a fallout occur, their whole families will just get wiped out, no use for an insurance. Pharmaceutical companies should start putting up more factories producing cure for enlarged thyroids. Imagine if more young kids get ill with it... they'll need the medicine for the rest of their lives! Big bucks!!!

The US government is telling us that we should be afraid of Iran's nuclear aspirations. Iranian leadership declared a couple of months back that they'd wipe out Israel off the map if they can help it. Then they declared they'll help themselves to a nuclear development program. Huh? In nuke speak Iguess that translates to "We've beeen doing this for a while now, but now it's gotten big that we can't deny it or keep it a secret anymore, so we decided to say to the world that we're considering it." Do you think it possible that they're also secretly afraid that they maybe the next oil-producing country that the US might be interested in giving its own brand of democracy to, and in effect decided to make a preemptive action?

And finally, as if all this isn't enough to keep one thinking that the best place to be now is inside "Lost's" subterranean shelter, I changed the channel to CNN and what do I see? The thing that scared the bejeesus out of me. Larry King shamelessly flirting with Jane Fonda! Okay ,fine, that wasn't scary, that was just creepy. When I heard that they were discussing about Jane Fonda's book, I realized it was a rerun from last year. They timed it for the release of the paperback version of the book. You'll have to admit though that her book being on the New York Times bestseller list WAS scary? Surely??? Fine, have it your way.


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I'm really sorry, but It just didn't take...

© Joselito Briones

I don't know, I kept an open mind, ignored the weather and all, even ignored the guerilla behavior of Oxford street pedestrians, but somehow this city just hasn't endeared itself to me as New York did, or San Francisco, or even Hong Kong.

Maybe it's just time. Maybe I just haven't spent enough time here. Maybe loving it is something that slowsly grows in someone. I didn't have enough time to find a favorite cafe to spend sometime in on a lazy afternoon, not enough time to be in familiar terms with the fishmonger I've been to a few times, not enough time to see if my dry cleaner is consistent with its service. I also didn't have time to find where the best buys are, save the Paul Smith discount shop off New Bond street where the suit, pictured left, was purchased (excuse the Stephan Schneider messenger bag, nice as it is, I haven't got myself a man-purse yet).

© Joselito Briones

Above is mostly the thought response to what Wil said to me about how he loves the city even tho it hasn't exactly been kind to the renovation of his apartment. I had lunch with him in a Chinese restaurant in Queensway after we met up with this apartment building's appointed structural surveyor for his recommendations. As there's been so much delay, he decided to move in temporarily while waiting for the start of the project so as not to waste money paying for temporary accomodation. He had his bed delivered from his storage space, and some boxes containing basic stuff. I brought him some kitchen items. Eating off paper plates with plastic cutleries and drinking off plastic cups is just so wrong. How anyone can enjoy wine with the taste of plastic is something I'll never understand. I brought his curtains back with me for washing, he hasn't got a washing machine yet.

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Chicas! Chicas?

© Joselito Briones

What drives a person to become a pimp?

Last time I was in this neighborhood, while walking along Roosevelt Avenue in the shadows of the overhead MTA rails, someone, invariably Latino, who seemed to just stand around doing nothing, suddenly shifts in his stand and says, partly to himself, partly to the air, and partly enough to a passer-by to know that he's being addressed, "Social! Social?"

It has since been explained to me by Eric that they're offering fake social security cards, presumably to illegal immigrants. Last time I was here, a big fake social security card gang was busted, their headquarter turned out to be a chinese restaurant along Roosevelt Avenue, 80's Street crossing.

This time around, for a split second, when the usual street stander-by flinched when I passed by, I thought, the bust was completely useless. They're back. Then a surprise. instead of offering social security cards, they now offer, "Chicas!, Chicas?"

In Manhattan, it's big business I guess. If you're desirable, there's plenty of people who has plenty enough money to give you want you want. I highly doubt if for the big city prostitue, it's a matter of survival. But here... I suspect it's a completely different dynamic. This is on the same street where, just a few blocks away, on a bridge, immigrants stand by offering themselves to day-to-day manual labor. A vehicle parks, the driver, say, needs someone to shovel the snow from his front yard, and engages one of the immigrants on the bridge. The chicas-offering pimps don't even cater to this drive-by customers, but to pedestrian passers-by. How much could the chicas possibly earn from this? How much could these pimps get from this?

Or maybe it is the same... It's all a matter of survival. Maybe it's just a different kind. For a moment I tried to picture a woman in a small dark room waiting for her pimp bringing in a customer. The image I had in my mind was just too ugly that I just walked along as fast as I could.


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Service fit for Queens

© Joselito Briones

Turns out this hotel that we booked is really nice. It's called "The Balmoral Hotel", a 5-star hotel, pictured here. It's right on Princes Street, which is the main city center street of Edinburgh. It is very conveniently located in between the old city (castle and all) and the new (Georgian) part of the city where all the nice shops are (Harvey Nichols, etc.). Too bad sale season ended yesterday.

© Joselito Briones


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Where do TV sets go when they die?

© Joselito Briones

I'm curious because I've had a glimpse of how they get there. They get loaded in a £40/hour van and get driven around the city to bid their final farewell, and get offered by the van driver to whomever would grant them a lease of new life as a useful and loved household appliance, for a nominal price. Photos on the right shows the units in limbo (the tv's, covered in the background, not the illegal-immigrant-hiding-inside-a-van looking people having souvenir photos with them).

Today Wil had to move to his new temporary accomodation in Chelsea (Sloane Ave.). He hired a van and asked me, Mati, Ronnie and Jerome to help him haul his things from the Notting Hill serviced apartments. In return we were treated (in advance) to a dim sum lunch in "Ping Pong". Decent food as westernized asian restaurants go, we weren't expecting authentic dumplings, so we weren't disappointed. We did the move after lunch. After the move we walked along King's Road... bought some stuff from Waitrose, then passed by Habitat, then continued along King's Road, with the aim of having dinner at "Mona Lisa Cafe". Unfortunately by the time we got there it was already closed, so we ended up doing "The Big Easy" instead. American inspired restaurant. Huge chunks of meat and big servings in general, southern comfort theme, big screen on the wall, americana music in the background. Ordered "catch of the day" which was a chargrilled whole seabass, but they ran out, so changed it to king prawns instead (bad, overcooked). The others had baby back ribs (better than other restaurants, Ronnie said), and steak (good).

I like the neighborhood (better than the last time I was there, when I had the feeling that majority of people there are women pushing baby trollies) , too bad I'll be moving on soon and won't have much time exploring it more.


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