in the beginning

sweet beach

2007-08-31T20:33:00.001-07:00

a couple of days at the beach, with the boys. chillin eatin sleepin drinkin. best low hanging moon ever. goodbye summer '07...

food with nino

2007-08-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

believe it or not, he's not my bf.

fourth of july

2007-08-31T20:18:00.001-07:00

philly and i made the trip to the beach, day before the 4th. ikeso impressively made a post night-shift trip morning of the fourth. he was smart or sky high enough to head straight to the beach where he thought he was hallucinating, but really was witnessing what he would, in a later trip, refer to as 'portopoises'. good times.

the birth of R

2007-03-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

the birth of P/glamour shots

2007-03-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

cali II

2006-12-30T11:02:00.000-08:00

cali I

2006-12-30T10:44:00.000-08:00

babies and bourbon, sunsets and surfer docs.
good times.

Christmas a come early

2006-12-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

A Trip Home

2006-12-18T11:26:00.000-08:00

In May, 2005, i scored a free trip to Korea. well, kind of free. i mean, i certainly paid my dues prior, and had to surrender my soul for five weeks to some pretty intense circumstances. which, i would do again in a heartbeat. towards the end of the five weeks, i got three, precious days to leave ulsan. i spent two days in seoul and on the third day, ventured to pyongtaek--the city in which, according to my adoption documents, i was born. looking at these photos, the memories feel very far away...on this day, i journeyed with my friend je jong (whom i could not have done this without) to what i believe(d) to be the one-time home of my biological mother. it's all super hazy now...we started on a train to the main city, then after some questioning of locals, took a bus to a more rural part of the city. more questioning, another bus, at which point we arrived. on this day, i watched as the men quickly gathered one after the other, to tell their stories. stories of the only adoption anyone in this village knew of, that told je jong within 10 minutes, that these men thought they knew my parents. stories so close to mine (or what little i know of it.) stories of a man that drank much and had mental problems (hm, i thought to myself. sounds about right.) a man who cried sometimes and called out for his daughter in the night. a name that did not match the one i was given at birth. sad stories, but in the end, i couldn't believe it was my story. how could this be? this was the address of my mother at the time of my adoption, and the home in which, a couple that had given their child up for adoption, once lived. but none of the details made any sense. the father was the prominent figure in their story; on my birth documents, the father is "unknown". the mother they spoke of did not share the same name as my birth mother, a name that no one in the village recognized. we even spoke to, by phone, the woman that had this been my story, would have been my biological grandmother. but according to her, i would have been 3 or 4 years younger. to this day, i do not know what the truth is, or how (or if) these stories and lives intertwine. to put the emotionality and confusion of this day into words is incredibly difficult...at the end of that day, i was exhausted in every way. i only wanted to go home. home to our smelly, polluted, parking lot camping grounds. (another story.) i wasn't sure if anyone could pick me up from the train station, and was so relieved to see adam there, waiting for me like an old family member.

the woman above, with the purple shoes, asked why i took her picture. she said she was an old lady, waiting to die.

did i think that my whole life later, my real mom would still be there? No. did i have hope, somewhere inside, that my real mom might still be there? Yes.

349 Kumggak-dong
Sotan-myon
Pyongtaek-kun
Kyonggi-do

Kim, Yon Pae
ID 580819
2221418

The Return

2006-12-17T23:23:00.000-08:00

What happens when lots of crazy activist hippies camp out in a toxic parking lot with sometimes extreme heat/cold/monsoon weather for days on end? good times. debauchery, hijinx, mild insanity, love, drama, bacteria, rashes...i was fortunate enough to have escaped any of the latter. Korea was not only a blast, it was one of the most unique experiences of my life. Our crew consisted of mostly Europeans, a Kiwi, an Ozzy, a Brit, a Mexican, an American, and of course, some Koreans. For six weeks, I lived in a small, one person tent, out of one large back pack. (as did everyone else.) i was thoroughly content in doing so...making essentially no money, sub-letting my sweet apartment at home, moving in with friends when i came back. it is amazing how little you can live with when you aren't immersed in middle to upper class consumer culture. We (mostly "I"!) cooked meals for 10-15 people at all times, with only two burners and a small cooler for refrigeration. (Needless to say, we drank a lot of warm Hite. And soju. sweet soju.) We beared witness to the slaughter of innocent creatures. We held vigil for days on end to send a message to the korean people. We ate, slept, worked, partied, laughed, cried...in one night we saw a dog get run over, watched it pass, and buried him. then i went to check email and found out my grandfather had gone too. that was a sad night. i knew it might happen; i knew it the last time i saw him. i hugged him and rested my head on his chest, knowing it might be the last time. for this i am thankful. still, i wish i hadn't been half way around the world when it happened. but i was there for some reason...if you believe in that kind of thing...every person there was invested in the cause where it hurts. Life is so beautiful; there are so many precious things (and people) on this planet that much of the human race seems intent on destroying for our own selfish and immediate needs. How far will we have to go?

To Korea

2006-12-17T22:17:00.000-08:00

the bathhouse. sweet, sweet bathhouse. i miss you. our only means for personal hygiene, 4,000 won, hot pool, cold pool, sauna. and a serious body rub down for next to nothing. (which i never experienced because it looked a tad rough for my taste.) complete with little pink plastic stools, to sit on while you showered with one hand on the spout, one hand to do the rest. tricky. in the sauna, packed like sardines in a tin can with a bunch of korean woman. wishing i knew what they were saying; ignoring how it made me feel that i didn't!

the people in korea were kind, generous, and open. there were a handful of men who strongly disliked our presence and made it known a number of times and through various means (threats.) which was to be expected. i mean, who were we to set up camp on their turf, spreading knowledge of this whale business? one thing i learned, korean men REALLY, love their drink. like many around the world i suppose. i had always heard about how koreans looked down upon korean americans--and it is true; some do. but for the most part everyone was exceptionally kind to me and curious about my story. (which by the time i left, i had perfectly honed into a few movements of the hands and arms, since i did not have the words.) i also made the local news, so i reached minor celebrity status. hehe. people would come up to me and say in hangul (or english if they could) "i saw you on tv"...and want to shake my hand. one woman we were working with invited me into her home for a weekend; of course i could not go because there was too much that needed doing :( But, in my six weeks, i got three away from the camp--and i was lucky! our one of a kind experience in korea ties those of us lucky enough to experience it together for life. it was also the culmination of some truly bizarre and surreal events. towards the end of our stay, a large fair/bizarre set up camp next door, and proceeded to blare terrible techno day and night. This, the backdrop to our already strange set of circumstances, that i really, cannot do justice with words. you kinda had to be there. and i am so glad that i was!

exchange/baltimore show

2006-09-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

inside out

2006-07-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

la isleta

2006-02-28T09:45:00.000-08:00

little corn island, nicaragua

mas isleta

2006-02-27T14:19:00.000-08:00

granada

2006-02-27T13:19:00.000-08:00

that's my puma being polished.

en managua

2006-02-27T11:09:00.000-08:00

little bits of our stay in managua....a gorgeous house, a maid (besos para doña maría) and two dogs. the dogs and maid are quite common, the house is not. our kind host gustavo is very fortunate...some photos from breakfast, the car, the bar

LOGAN'S first birthday

2006-02-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

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sayonara?!

2005-12-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

philissa is leaving us for japan... but not before making some last minute memories

the show I

2005-12-18T13:22:00.000-08:00

the last dc thembe fashions show for some time to come - philissa, the fabulous fashion designer (every outfit you see here is a philissa creation) is departing for the fashion forward japan all too soon...but not without outfitting all of her fabulous funky friends before she leaves.

show II

2005-12-18T12:47:00.000-08:00

return to barcelona

2005-11-29T09:39:00.000-08:00

leaving barcelona was very hard...mostly because it meant returning home...but also because there is something special about it. maybe it is the old, beautiful buildings that hold things from the past. maybe because the kind of people that are drawn to barcelona are special. it was by far my favorite place on the trip. on my last day i found myself at the ocean, staring into an uncertain horizon. for the moment i am home, who knows where the next waves will take me. until then! ciao for now.

dublin

2005-11-29T07:43:00.000-08:00

in dublin...i did a whole lot of nothing. but it was important nothing, something nothing. having done much sight seeing the first time i was there, in addition to being a little tired, and a lot broke, i mostly chilled with my friend and her baby...cooked food, took walks...talked about life.
tried to figure out what i was going to do with mine.

bubbles

2005-11-24T12:35:00.000-08:00

every few turns on my travels, i've found a new tragedy fallen across the media. popped out of my bubble of suspended reality into the real world. A world predominately addicted to change. And change is necessary...it is inevitable. it is also the angry, the bitter, becoming utterly intolerant and inventing a new strain of human terror. suicide bombs, planes, biological warfare. yet only for venturing into the first world, is nothing new at all. for centuries humans have declared war on one another. all the while fine tuning the quickest way to access power. the rapid acquisition of higher technology; the art of deception. survival. how to stave off one's attacker. and the best one yet? how to defend. no attack necessary. we have honed our weapons all the way from spears to robust nuclear earth penetrators. after all, it is our primal instinct to protect our clan. Primal. fight or flight. an innate, animalistic reaction. an automatic response. rather, response of the body's autonomic nervous system. (sympathetic nervous system, to be exact.) when faced with danger: stay and fight, or flee? perhaps this is what georgeW was experiencing when he was informed that his nation was under attack, and sat, staring blankly, for what seemed like an eternity. were his little confused blood vessels pumping so much adrenaline that he became completely overwrought with fear? fight, we did. in ye olden times, fight or flight was more an occurrence between man...and lion. but nowadays lions our enemies are not. (well, maybe for some.) for the most part, they are men and women, (men, mostly, but just give it time,) who have nothing to lose. maybe they seek power, maybe they believe in a different god. or perhaps, sometimes, it is about a little something called retribution. it is enough to make me wonder: to stay in a bubble of unreality, would that be wrong? if only the US election process weren't so crooked. if only it didn't take a four tiered pop concert to turn mainstream attention to the most impoverished continent on the planet. if only my father was a doctor who funded all my travels, like the girl i met in amsterdam. if only i could always remember that struggling from paycheck to paycheck since 19 is actually golden, because it is all relative...if only humanity could develop a little faster at heart, instead of everywhere else.

diamonds. oil. bloodshed. animals, children, the elderly, the innocent. the pure of heart. ya basta, hmm?

the north sea

2005-11-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

somewhere in the distance lies the UK

a bit of the dam

2005-11-05T10:08:00.000-08:00

where bikes rule the road and tolerance works.

hamburg I

2005-11-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

what can i say about a city where you can drink in the open, anytime, anyplace? hamburg is a sweet and sightly city, where i met only good people. alles klar-

hamburg II

2005-11-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

vienna

2005-11-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

prague

2005-11-01T02:12:00.000-08:00

ordinary adjectives just won't do in describing this city.....i wish i had more photos, better photos, but i knew my little camera and novice photagraphic ability were only capable of so much. prague is very touristy, (altho not like in the summer,) but staying with locals is always good for avoiding these things. however, staying with another moony cancer under a full moon was definitely interesting...drinking is a conundrum.

bratislava

2005-11-01T02:01:00.001-08:00

the train ride from zurich to bratislava was about15 hours long, and waking up riding thru the alps sun blazing was the most extroardinary landscape i have ever seen. dreamy.

bratislava will be the farthest east i get on this trip. marks of communism remain, but it is a beautiful city, which holds some very weathered looking people. for an average american, slovakia is extremely cheap, especially if you know where to go. 32 slovak krowns = $1, and it is not difficult to get a very filling (although mediocre) dinner for 95 krown and a beer for 20sk. it is extremely easy to take public transport sans buying a ticket, much like in prague, altho i tried to do this as little as possible...

zurich

2005-11-01T01:42:00.000-08:00

zurich is a really cool city...albeit expensive. its very beautiful, very chill, altho there is this feeling that something darker lies beneath the surface. its almost too clean...i stayed in a communal loft space with excellent people, and rode a pink, upright condor all over the city...

milan

2005-10-02T00:17:00.000-07:00

ligornetto

2005-10-01T00:44:00.000-07:00

after barcelona i came to the south of switzerland to a little town called ligornetto, just across the italian border; very easy to go back and forth. busy by daz but the evenings have been pretty low key, which has been good for late night blogging! (note: the z and y are swapped on this euro computer.) altho i am getting restless and am glad i'm off to zurich. unfortunately it has been overcast most days so the photos do little...the first is bergamo, italy, the rest switzerland. some things: riding thru town on michael's motorbike, as well into italy for the best hot chocolate...waking up on the train to some guy Completely Exposed and Self Gratifying...being absolutely astounded even in italy the perverts find me...films in italian, H & M Milan!!, the unbelievable landscapes, houses high up on hills...waiting, buses and trains, euro and francs, pizza, the most amazing sunset tonight.

barcelona2

2005-10-01T00:14:00.000-07:00

photos from the last two days...a visit to palau guell...the day after i arrived began the festes de le merce, and people from all over flooded the city. the Correfoc (fire run) was on night two of the festival, which is an endless parade of drummers and spinning, sporadic fireworks carried by spinning, sporadic people dressed in devil-like attire. you are warned that if you participate to dress fully in cotton clothing, and if you dont you will get burned-holes in my shirt as proof. we danced down the streets in a parade of drummers and chaos. it is very loud, and so much fun. our last night we went for tapas, ate a four course meal and drank (cold!) red wine for 7 euro. everyone but me in the photo is german... afterwards 08001 played in placa catalunya, the band that prompted the whole trip. barcelona...the best.

barcelona1

2005-09-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

memories from barcelona...the beach, dancing down the streets during the Correfoc, 08001...Jan...not knowing what was being said most of the time because i was with only germans...walking thru the city, constantlz fighting the urge to eat out, la rambla del raval, the most comfortable pants ever for 12 euro...the view from palau guell with sigur ros on, the quietness of the city lit by the morning sun, the architecture, the sound s.

comebackkorea

2005-09-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

in 10 days

2005-09-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

in ten days i will fly to barcelona, to travel some of europe for some weeks. i have been wanting to travel pretty much anywhere outside the US for so long, and for some reason let it slip away day after day. only after a somewhat life altering trip half way around the world, was i able to realize there was nothing to wait for, no reason not to go. and now, in my possibly final days as a resident of The District, in which i have spent the last 10 years...waiting...i daydream about my trip under the guise of this thing called 'working'. and i wonder. are outfits really a factor or will i end up wearing the same thing?

i'll be back, as after all this is my home, but i don't know when, nor do i think for too long... meanwhile, only anything is possible.

stay tuned.