Summer in the city

© Joselito Briones

Not quite, but almost. These people are obviously eager though. The photo is of the man-made beach along the river surrounding the Museum Island in Berlin, one beautiful, sunny day. The building in the background is the newly re-opened Bode Museum.


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The Brandenburg Kiss

© Joselito Briones

And today's theme: cheese! Can you get any more cheesy than this photo? I doubt it.

I've been to the Berlin three times the past year, and every time I make it a point to go to Brandenburg Tor to take pictures, but it was always raining the past couple of times that I was there. This time around finally there was sun! And what did I get? Not a photo of the gate, but of these lovebirds. Oh well.

Btw, do you know the couple? If you do, you can ask them for me if they object to having their photo here. I'll take it off if they do. Or if they want a high resolution copy, I can also send them one (the faces are actually recognizable in the high-res version).


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Knut Impressed

© Joselito Briones

Berlin's current biggest attraction, no doubt, is Knut the Eisbär. The baby polar bear born December, 2006 in the Berlin zoo is a superstar. He even has a website. His official showtime is limited only to 2 scheduled hour-long playtime with his caretakers. Nevertheless, people (and kids) from everywhere stood in long lines just to see him. People visit Berlin just to see him.

It was the perfect place and time to observe kids. I was particularly struck by the display of determination of the boy, who couldn't have been more than 10 years old, who was in line just before me. Discouraged by the long line for Knut (this was the second line, the first long line was outside, just to enter the zoo), the father tried all the tricks in the book to persuade him to leave the line and to just go with him, the younger brother, and the mom, to see something else (penguins!). When the father failed (to his credit, he was very patient with the boy, even as it was obvious he was also concerned about the younger son missing the other attractions), the mom tried too. Didn't work. She ended up handing the boy a cell phone, so they can walk around the zoo without him. What's most striking was, the boy stood his ground without being a brat about it. No tantrums. Whenever the parents tried to offer something new, he just nodded his head no. In his eyes you could see that he was being saddened everytime he had to say no, but he was firm about seeing Knut. Half an hour later, when it was already obvious that we were gonna make it after all to the last few minutes of Knut's appearance that day, the mom, impressed, rejoined the boy in the line. Then the younger brother did. The boy was obviously proud and excited, and just before we entered the gate to Knut's viewing gallery, he tried hard to persuade his father to join them to see the baby bear. Unfortunately it was the dad's turn to be proud, who stayed behind and watched from just outside the gallery.


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P.S. No, pictured, top, is not the same kid described above.

Keb

© Joselito Briones

Today's Keb's birthday, one of my nephews in the Yay! Area in California. He's the one on the right (on the left is Omar), and this photo was taken a long time ago. It's particularly noticeable in this photo the compression artefacts that I mentioned to you before (especially around the eyes and on the skin area in general), the thing that is introduced whenever I upload a file to Picasa. I guess they've gotten cheapo and want to save some space, hence the compression.


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Sony Center, Berlin

© Joselito Briones

This is as touristy and disneyfied as any place can get, the Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, and this particular roof structure has been photographed gazillion times before, but since I was just another tourist that day, here it is. The rest of the photos I took in this recent Berlin trip are about the same, tourist traps and all, so don't expect anything profound the next few days.


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Spring in Erlangen

© Joselito Briones

I just got back from Berlin tonight, so for the next few days I'll probably be showing you photos I took there. For now, here's another one of old Erlangen, by the Kirchenplatz.


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Heart shut tight

© Joselito Briones

This is from the series of photos I took around Erlangen. It's a window shutter detail.


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Bling

© Joselito Briones

A photo from the recent visit to Munich. It's some sort of a window display, I can't even remember which shop.


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The city that never sleeps

© Joselito Briones

Another photo from the New York trip. This one was taken in Broadway. I just like that it reminds me of those lunar landing photos.


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Doppelgangers Anonymous

© Joselito Briones

I chanced upon Germany's version of America's Next Top Model on TV tonight, called what else but "Germany's Next Top Model (by Heidi Klum)". And what do you know? Heidi Klum is a lot more fierce in German! When she's dismissing someone in "Project Runway", in English, it seems so orchestrated, like her expression was designed specifically to project a certain meanness, like a good-looking version of Simon Cowell. In German though, it works really well. It's obvious she's in her element. And she really looks scary!

Anyway, the models. It's no surprise that übermodels from Germany are top-notch. Claudia Schiffer, anyone? This batch alone (now with only 5 left) looks like a Doppelgangers Anonymous gathering. Only, instead of the usual "uglier version of (state name of famous person here)", they actually look great. Face-wise, there are two that stand out. One is a cross-over between Scarlett Johansson (lips, breast, buck teeth with a slight gap and all, but without the fat!!! well ok, the other contestants have negative amount of fat, so this one still looks the most voluptuous among them) and Jacqueline Bisset (her name's Hana, and the downside is that she slumps a little), the other is a much younger, much more refined face version of Catherine Zeta Jones (her name's Fiona, she's got the most classy face among the contestants, she looks great in different styles, she needs to work on stabilizing her head while working the catwalk, and she gets all the drama in the series ). The one who got booted out tonight, Anja, is a younger, taller, thinner Linda Evangelista. Her big mistake was actually getting a hairstyle very much like Linda's. The comparison became much more obvious, and let's face it, there's no other Linda like Linda. Mandy is the typical blond-blue and a crossover between Bridget Fonda and Hilary Duff (no, I don't like her face), her nose is too big her mouth too low, and she is actually from Luxembourg. The two other contestants are Barbara, who's Julianne Moore-ish (okay, not really, but she's the only redhead that I can think of), and is obviously the one who carries herself best, and Anni (I don't know whom she looks like, I just know she's got bad skin).


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An Old Portrait

© Joselito Briones

This one was taken in Hong Kong, about 10 years ago, and worth showing you only because of the fact that this was my first ever portrait commission work.

Blogger.com, the medium with which I've been communicating with you, has decided a couple of months back to move all the photos I've been showing you to Picasa. It's an online photo storage system not very much different from Flickr. It's rather convenient that it's integrated with Blogger, you can clean up your files by visiting your Picasa account. The BIG problem is, I noticed, starting today (or maybe I just noticed today), that they decided to compress uploaded jpeg-format photos. The image quality has noticeably deteriorated, and any photo I upload looks very much different from the original. So if you're looking for a place to upload and share your photos, look somewhere else. (The photo above was uploaded before I noticed the compression artefacts on uploaded files)


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Holding Up

© Joselito Briones

I thought I should just put up an "under construction sign", because frankly it's not easy to write about what's going on in this head of mine right now. But then I thought, hey, I can at least put something up everyday, no matter how boring, if only to let you know that I'm still here.


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Church-going people

© Joselito Briones

This is one of my favorite recent photos, taken in New York, in 5th Av., last March. The subject, of course, is about as hokey as one can get, but I do like that I managed to get the exact picture I wanted with what was already there, what with all the tourists and the fact that I can only step back so much or I'd be roadkill.


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The only way is up

© Joselito Briones

It's one of those days... I guess it's natural, no matter how much you try to avoid it - you always end up revisiting the darkest places in your self. Sometimes you get surprised to find that there are actually places there that you never knew existed or assumed not to exist anymore.

I remember once, when I still lived close to you, and I found myself in the same-ish state, Jerry, the eternal optimist had the perfect way to help me deal with it. On the phone, which I finally answered after having (intentionally) left it inside the closet so I wouldn't hear it ring, he told me, like it wasn't really something one had to decide on - it's the thing to do, to take a long shower, put on something nice, and he'll take me out. Didn't really matter where. He showed up in my apartment, grabbed a pen, wrote something on post-its, and stuck them everywhere: in my wallet, on my desk, on the cover of my check book. Something positive to balance the energy. We went out, not really far, just in the neighborhood. Just to be out. Just enough to avoid being stuck at the bottom.


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More fillers

© Joselito Briones

I was hoping I could show you something new, or say something exciting, this being the weekend and all, unfortunately, it didn't go that way. I stayed in the whole day and watched TV. Cooked something, too. So yeah, instead of something new I'm showing you something old... part of the images of Erlangen series that I started last week. This one's also a church, but I never see it open, so I don't know if it still functions as one. This one's by the train station.


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