This was taken right before sunset in February of 2009. Luckily, because it was winter, the city was not at all crowded.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Picture: Italy: Grand Canal of Venice
This was taken right before sunset in February of 2009. Luckily, because it was winter, the city was not at all crowded.
Picture: Italy: Moon Over Montefalcione
Taken in Montefalcione, AV, in March 2009. The moon is very small, but it can be seen clearly in the top-center of the picture.
Picture: Italy: Vesuvius from Pompeii
That is Mt. Vesuvius, taken from Pompeii, a city which requires at least a day to see properly, although I did it in 3 hours improperly.
Picture: Italy: Rome: Pigeon on a Pedestal
Actually, this pedestal is an old column on the Palatine Hill in Rome. When I took this picture in March 2009, the weather is quite hot and there was a pigeon relaxing and checking out the view of St. Peter's Basilica in the background.
Picture: Versailles: Palace Gate and Clouds
It took at least 30 minutes before I could actually get a clear shot at the gate because every person who walked past went up to it to take a photo in front of it. Luckily the sun was out so I just camped out on the deck and waited.
Picture: Paris: Notre Dame Cathedral
The weather had been really ratty earlier in the weekend and I hadn't been able to take any good shots of Notre Dame, so instead I passed the time by getting into the feel of Paris by chain-smoking and sitting in cafes. When the weather got good, well, I don't have a good camera so the lighting made a huge difference.
Picture: Paris: Eiffel Tower from Montmartre
Up top, Montmartre has a great view of the city- down below there is a ton of shopping.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Picture: Food: Okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki is one of the unsung heroes of Japanese food and a famous dish in the Kansai region of the country. It is basically a type of savory pancake made on a grill and covered with mayo and Bull-Dog sauce. This one, which I proceeded to eat in an okonomiyaki restaurant in Tsukaguchi, Hyogo prefecture, in the fall of 2001, had pork and squid inside.
Picture: Phone: Food: Kaiserschmarrn
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Picture: Phone: Food: Deep Fried French Toast
I took this picture of a piece of deep fried french toast with butter on top at the locally-infamous Shanghai Xin Wang Cha Canting on Changle Rd. in March of 2006. The restaurant had a special on this particular item between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, at which time it was 13 RMB (at the time, around US$1.50) for a piece of french toast and a cup of tea and I used to go eat it every day to keep myself from wasting away to nothingness.
In this particular picture, my friend is poking the french toast with his fork while opining something to the effect of 'I'm surprised you haven't died of a heart attack yet."
Picture: Phone: Food: Yuanyang Hot Pot
This isn't much to look upon but it doest the job of making you warm and full. The left side is peppery spicy and the right side is boringly mild. I took this picture on an extremely cold day in December of 2006, most likely at a restaurant on Huaihai Rd. in Shanghai.
Picture: Food: Pizza
Living in Italy, I tend to eat a lot of pizza anyways, but still the pizza made by my dad compares favorably with anything I have had in a restaurant.
Key points:
- His oven has two tiled racks in it. The pizza is cooked first for five minutes on the bottom rack and then for five minutes on the top rack. This does good things for the crust, which ends up being crispy on the outside and very slightly bready on the inside.
- Secondly,the dough he uses is generally slightly thicker than the norm, which makes his pizza more filling and also easier to eat using one's hands because it doesn't get floppy.
- Third, he uses cornmeal on his pizza paddle rather than flour- the corn meal bakes into the bottom crust of the pizza and makes it crunchier.
- Finally, he puts a bit of sugar in his pizza sauce, which sets off the flavor of the cheese and ingredients quite nicely.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Picture: Humor: Crushing the Knight
I noticed this sticker during a trip to Venice in the beginning of October of 2008. It reads:
'Venice is my house, and I don't want you in my house'
The knight, of course, is a reference to the Lega Nord.
Picture: Humor: Palin Pumpkin
I am neither clever enough to think this up, nor talented enough to pull it off.
Working in late October of 2008, the creators' prediction for the election turned out to be remarkably prescient.
Picture: Humor: Always check your acronyms
February 17, 2008
Dear Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group,
Regarding your choice of acronyms...
Picture: Humor: Awry Menu Translation
I noticed this menu at a cafe in Shinjuku, Tokyo in May 2008:
Item 1: English- 'New York style caesar salad' Japanese- 'Draft beer'
Item 2: English- 'homemade soup' Japanese- 'glass of wine (red/white)'
This can be nothing if not deliberate.
Picture: Humor: Instant Noodle Package
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In various parts of the world, the way the man in the middle is making the sign for '2' could be interpreted as an obscene gesture, so I was happy to see that it had finally made it onto the side of an instant noodle package last spring.
Pictures: Phone: Shanghai Taxi License #9736
January 14, 2008, 10:18 AM --- by the looks of it this picture was taken under the Yan'an Rd. The driver had three stars.
Picture: Phone: Shanghai Taxi License #6242
Sunday November 11, 2007, 3:08 pm --- I was just out for a Sunday afternoon perhaps.
Picture: Phone: Shanghai Taxi License #4710
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Febuary 16, 2008, 3:18 PM --- This driver not only has a very low number, but also managed to get a red license, meaning that his grade was at least 3 stars, but the amount of stars was masked out by the white sticker.
Picture: Phone: Shanghai Taxi License #766
December 8, 2007, 12:18 pm --- I think this was a privately-employed driver who said that he drove a taxi because he thought the life was freer- he had worked in an office but quit because he couldn't stand his boss.
Picture: Phone: Shanghai Taxi License: #741
ITuesday, May 22nd, 2007, 4:45 PM --- I've no idea where I would have been going but most likely it was work-related.
Picture: Humor: French Tintin Cover
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I purchased this postcard, which was eventually mailed to my brother, in a Tintin specialty shop in Daikanyama in Tokyo during June of 2007.
The combination of the title with the almost baffled look on their faces caught my attention: I don't know why the heck Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock and Piotr Skut are doing on an oil drum raft in the middle of the ocean, and they don't seem to either.
The English title of this particular episode of the adventures of Tintin was 'The Red Sea Sharks', put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Picture: Humor: Finger Curry
During a work lunch in 2007, I happened to see this menu- someone has written 'Yubi Karee' - 'Finger Curry', instead of 'Ebi Karee' - 'Shrimp Curry'. Only 38 RMB!
Picture: Humor: No Entry Allowed...
'Cleaning work in progress' would have been a more appropriate phrasing for this sign, which was posted at an office building on Huaihai Rd. in Shanghai in 2006.
Picture: Humor: Please Stay Back From the Door
Of course, the sign reads 'please stay back from the door' --- on this day in the second half of 2006, somebody didn't feel like paying attention.
Picture: Humor: Tomato Frenzy
Early one morning in June of 2006 as some friends and I were having breakfast at on Nanchang Rd. in Shanghai, a crate of tomatoes fell off a passing produce truck and shattered on the road. The driver of the truck stopped, jumped out, and decided it wouldn't be worth the trouble of getting the tomatoes back. After he pulled away, what ensued could be described as a 'human feeding frenzy', as several people, including a grandmother with her produce cart, cleared off the fallen crate of tomatoes within a minute.
Picture: Parma Cathedral: Lit-up picture
This is more of a modern take on these portraits, as it is lit both around the head and from below the feet.
Picture: Parma Cathedral: Chapel with Circular Picture of Christ
This chapel features a large picture centrally.
Picture: Parma Cathedral: Chapel with Statues
This chapel is heavy on the statues and also has a red-black color scheme.
Picture: Parma Cathedral: Black - Gold Chapel
This chapel had a fairly detail-rich picture in it. I also liked the black columns on either side of the painting.
Graffiti: Bologna: Lo Gnomo
The gnome is just hanging out on top of another tag. On closer inspection it seems that he has no hands, or they may be stuck in his pockets. I came across this picture in September of 2008 while walking out to San Luca under the porticos.
Graffiti: Bologna: Pompadour Kid
This guy is everywhere in my section of town. I have taken to calling him 'the pompadour kid' for lack of a better name. 'angry Calvin' is another one that I use to describe the picture. This is a smaller version than some of the other ones aroundbut I liked the background when I took this picture in October of 2008.
Graffiti: Tokyo
This tag adorned a wall near Hachiyamacho in west Tokyo. This picture was taken in May of 2007, but it may no longer be there. The name of the artist eludes me at this moment in time.
Graffiti: Venezia: Fuse Box
This tagged fusebox was partially covered over by flyers by the time I took this picture in October of 2008. It is in a small square in Santa Croce in Venice.
Graffiti: Bologna: Red Door
This adorns the grating outside of a shop near Porta Saragozza in Bologna. I think it looks nice, but I am really not understanding the artistic significance of the scary flying baby at all.
Photo: Party: CD Club and the World Cup
This picture was taken during the World Cup in 2006. Clubs in Shanghai often tend to show the World Cup and Euro Cup matches --- with the time difference most of the games are on at 2-3 in the morning. They are running the game scores (in Chinese) in blue writing above the green laser.
Picture: Party: AvB
Taken around 5 am in the morning on November 21st or so, 2005. He's looking well chuffed.
Picture: Party: DKD Nu party
This picture is from February 2005. It's quite hard to get the effect from glow sticks right, but I thought this picture came out well.
Picture: Party : Union Music at Fabric
This picture was taken at a party in Fabric on Jianguo Rd. in Shanghai in 2006. This venue was notoriously hard to keep going- it went from being a high-concept French-Japanese supper club (similar to La Fabrique in Shibuya), to a dance club, to a live house before finally being basically shut down.
Picture: Phone: Party: Nic Fanciulli
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This picture was taken at the now defunct Club G-Spot in Shanghai on Dec. 10, 2006.
The soundsystem in this venue was notably good, as it was the only place in China which had a system installed by Craig 'Shorty' Benabeu.
I'm not saying that there weren't other reasons for the club going out of business, but something tells me the management's great choice of a name probably didn't help matters any.
Picture: Car: Skyline family edition
This car was parked somewhere in Wanchai in Hong Kong in springtime in 2007. It's not everybody that has a Nissan Skyline as their family car...
Picture: Car: Gutted Subaru
I came across this car while I was walking in the foothills above Minoo, in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, in October 2005, while looking for monkeys. It is a derelict, a 'haisha' in the local parlance--- as it is costly to junk a car in Japan, one often sees cars that have been left in parking lots, fields, and less-travelled roads
Picture: Car: Toyota Supra
This car has a Jilin provincial license plate on it, but was parked in the alley near my flat in Shanghai in the second half of 2005. It's probably a 20 hour drive from Jilin to Shanghai, although I was thinking that there may also be ferries going from Liaoning across the East China Sea to Shandong, from where it is much closer to reach Shanghai.
It's an automatic though- what a waste.
Picture: Car: Mazda 626
This car handled really well, even in the snow, and was fun to drive, although at times it was a bit lacking when climbing hills at highway speeds. This picture is from the summer of 2003.
Picture: Car: VW Beetle
I saw this VW Beetle on a side street near the Parma River.
It was a cold day in January of 2009. I had tortelli di zucca for lunch with some roasted potatoes and lambrusco at a restaurant in downtown Parma. It was a bit of a dull day but relaxing.
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