LonelyStreets.com
The Slums of Beijing
I’ve found myself talking about China and Beijing a lot lately with the Olympics going on over there, and it seemed like an appropriate time to post this photo.
The Photo was taken out of my hotel room window in central Beijing, 8 floors up or so. I think it’s of interest because it allows you to see what the Olympic broadcasts don’t - the Beijing the exists beyond the roads. Look closesly and you’ll notice that the only roadvisible is on the right edge of the photo about half way up - all of those ramshackle slummy buildings are simply piled up on each other and invisible from the street (which was lined with slightly less slummy looking store fronts). China is poor, and Beijing is dirty and ugly. My most potent memory of the city was that there were people everywhere. Masses and masses of people. And unlike New York or Tokyo, these people weren’t going anywhere or doing anything, they would simply sit around on the streets, even in the bitter cold the area was experiencing during my visit. Don’t believe what you see on TV kids.
August 26th, 2008
Posted by Paul in Photography | No Comments »
The Lonely Streets of Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale California certainly has its share of lonely streets. In the 20 minute walk to the grocery store I rarely see another soul on foot. When I do, they usually look sad. The landscape is similar to mall-dra, but subtly different: rather than big-box-marts, I am surrounded by empty corporate campuses. A corporate desert if you will. Corpsert.
June 28th, 2008
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Hoo-Ahhhhh
As the three of you who actually read my blog regularly may have noticed, I haven’t been updating things in a while. Why? Because I am so ridiculously busy I can barely find time to go grocery shopping. Currently, my projects include:
Semester long team project to design a contextually aware mobile device that focuses on learning for Microsoft and Motorola (2 presentations left including the big ol’ final one).
Learn object oriented programming and build an audio-visual game in Processing (I’m starting from nearly zero with this one).
Redesign electrical block diagrams used to show audio signal paths and create a poster showcasing my design.
Write a 15 to 20 page research paper detailing the history of sound and interaction design.
Survive. All in the next 5 weeks.
And not one of those was put on me! I chose and defined every one of those projects! (well - the first one was obviously a team effort). Anyway, I took a 5 minute break and made the following photo, that I rather like. It really needs to been seen big to be appreciated, so maybe I’ll actually print this one.
March 31st, 2008
Posted by Paul in CMU, Photography | No Comments »
The Bully Peregrine
So, a Peregrine Falcon has apparently taken to hunting in my backyard and the yards of my immediate neighbors. I first saw this ridiculously large bird in my backyard on day last month. I stepped out back, not noticing her and making lots of noise, before looking up to find myself with a very large and threatening looking bird standing over a lump of feathers and staring very directly at me. Being the lover of wildlife that I am, I very slowly marched back inside to get away from the horrible thing. I told my wife, who made the odd suggestion that perhaps it was a wild turkey, and that I should venture back into the yard to get a photo. I insisted that turkeys don’t eat pigeons, and that there was no way I was risking my life to get a photo of it. After a little Googling we discovered that the bird in our backyard (which had by then gone back to enjoying it’s meal) was in fact a Peregrine Falcon. I eventually did poke my head just far enough outside the door to snap the following shot before zipping back inside where the bird could not ‘go all Hitchcock on my ass.’ Thus I present you with the following shot:
Later that day I returned home to find nothing more than a (rather largely spread out) bed of pigeon feathers in the snow of the backyard, and assumed that was the end of it. Until yesterday, that is.
Again, I rather obliviously marched into my backyard and plopped down in a chair only to look up and find myself staring into the face of the Peregrine Falcon again (I should point out that it was at least 5 feet closer to me than the first time, bringing the distance between me and it to no more than 25 yards - distinctly within my ‘personal-bird-of-prey-space-boundary’). I got up, moving carefully, and began to move back towards the door, when suddenly the BANG BANG BANG of nearby construction erupted, sending me into a haze of paranoid pheromones which the falcon immediately picked up on, and responded by launching itself into the air, small mammal gripped in its murderous talons (probably going for my throat or eyes). By the grace of God, however, I made it back into my kitchen unscathed and proceeded to peek out the blinds of my back window, only to see that the Falcon had now perched in a relatively low tree limb over my backyard. The bird was alternating between ripping the flesh of its dinner and looking up directly at my kitchen window - death (my death) clearly in its all-too-intelligent-and-malevolent eyes. As seen here:
I stayed inside and wore a hat when I stepped out (the front door), and figured that I should be free of the bird’s ill-will for at least another 3 weeks. Until this afternoon. Stepping into the backyard once again, I was surprised to hear the sound of terrified sparrows flying like bats-outta-hell only to see my nemesis the falcon again swooping around over the backyards of my neighbors and I. Needless to say I went back inside with no little haste. I’ve looked it up, and these things have a hunting radius of more than 10 miles - so I think I can say that I need no further proof that this falcon is out to kill me. As far as I can tell it must live on the Cathedral of Learning as detailed here, and yet it is now paying daily visits to my home. Perhaps if I wear Kevlar body-armor I may yet survive…
January 22nd, 2008
Posted by Paul in Pittsburgh, Photography, Humor | 1 Comment »
The End is Near…
Semester one is almost over. We had our last class yesterday, and now it’s all about finishing up projects. I’m currently in three groups working on three separate projects, and it’s nonstop work for the next week to see them all through to fruition, but I feel good about it. After that I’ll be able to go back and post a number of things I simply haven’t had the time to put up here.
Looking back on this semester, I feel good. I didn’t learn many of the things that I thought I would when I came here (mad software skills, for instance), but I’ve had my mind opened up like I never imagined possible, and I feel that I can stand up and say “I am a designer.” It feels good. I’m already looking forward to next semester, when I’ll be taking some really cool sounding classes of my own choosing, including one on generative sound and visualization taught by Golan Levin (an artist who is currently making some of the coolest stuff I’ve ever seen), and a course in ‘Mapping and Diagramming’ taught by Karen Moyer, in which I hope to continue improving my visual skills.
And, since I’m not offering up any of my own work today, check out the following link - this is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time, I just wish I knew how he did it: http://tinyurl.com/2j3nrv
Also, I just have to say, for anyone interested in electronic music, go download Daft Punk’s new Alive 2007 album, which was recorded live on their North American tour this past year. It is absolutely incredible - I’ve been listening to it nonstop for a week, which is a really long time for me. Get it on iTunes for the extra track (it’s a really good one). They basically remix all of their songs from the past decade into eachother on the flay, and it sounds incredible.
December 7th, 2007
Posted by Paul in CMU, Photography, Music and Movies | 2 Comments »
Random Photo
I was digging through files from the summer and came across this photo I took while hiking with my friend Matt. I personally think this is the most beautiful and stimulating piece of wood I’ve ever seen.
November 12th, 2007
Posted by Paul in Photography | 1 Comment »
Lonely Streets
Got some neat shots of Pittsburgh’s Lonely Streets last night on the way home, and thought I’d share:
October 2nd, 2007
Posted by Paul in Pittsburgh, Photography | No Comments »
Yard Sculpture
Can you tell it’s my day off from the number of posts I’m putting up? Gotta play catch-up sometime. Anyway the photo below is over one of my neighbors’ front yard. I really like these (this?) sculpture, and think that there is something about this aesthetic that will be coming into vogue in the future (though these pieces probably date to the early 90’s). I would be interested to hear other people’s thought’s about them. I appreciate the beautiful geometry in the context of ragged grass and the old house behind. I also like how the two pieces appear symmetrical at a glance, but are not at all on closer inspection. I think that people are coming to appreciate metal as a natural material again - it gives a sense of strength, permanence, and strict intention that other materials, like plastic, do not. By ’strict intention’ I mean that it feels as if thought went into its design. Plastics are so cheap to produce that it is hard to make them feel this same way. The downside to all this is that metals are mined, and mining is a huge polluter, so I don’t think they can stay popular for long among the growing green trends. Still, I think metal will have a resurgence as a stylish material for things otherwise constructed in plastic.
September 28th, 2007
Posted by Paul in CoolHunting, Design Thinking, Photography | No Comments »
Slugs!
So, two mornings ago I woke up earlier than usual. I went outside for my morning smoke and was surprised (and a little disgusted), to find a whole family of giant slugs crawling around my backyard! My memory of slugs when I was a child is that they were small fleshy colored things no longer than the end of my pinky figure, but these guys were longer than my middle finger. One of the slugs was even curled up on the table next to my ashtray. So, I took photos of course.
The following night I found that the slug near my ashtray had returned (he left during the daylight), so I decided to give him a name - Sluggy! (the exclamation point is integral). Anyway, it turns out that slugs are really not very reactive - I blew smoke at Sluggy! and he did nothing. So then I poked him a little - he still did nothing. I could have gone further, but he’s my friend now, and I didn’t want to ruin his day, so I left him alone after that and instead goggled slugs and learned all about them. Apparently these are Leopard slugs, and are quite common (and considered a pest because they often eat garden veggies). They also copulate by twining around each other and intertwining their corkscrew-shaped slug penises (all slugs are hermaphroditic), and hanging from a thread of thick mucus during the act. This is why I think that Sluggy! got laid last night - this morning he/she was gone, but there was a ridiculously thick dollop of slime hanging off the edge of my table (it looked really nasty). I just hope s/he didn’t get his penis chewed off (slugs apparently have to do this failrly regularly in order to disentangle themselves - after which the unlucky one stays female for life - up to three years for this type of slug). Anyway, I hope Sluggy! comes back again tonight - maybe I’ll try petting him. Meanwhile, here are some pics:
September 28th, 2007
Posted by Paul in Photography, Humor | 1 Comment »
A Weekend Off
After having projects due in every class (except seminar, for which we had the normal difficult readings), we got the weekend off (hooray!). So, I promptly headed for DC to visit my good friend and occasional musical collaborator Matt Treskon. I snapped some photos in DC - I’ve decided I want to become a coolhunter - predicting the next trend before it happens. I’ve done this with some success in the past, but now I’m going to write my thoughts so I can prove it later on down the road. Right now, I’m thinking that the steam-punk aesthetic is going to make it’s way into the home appliance world. It’ll take a while, but how cool would it be to have dinged brass appliances instead of stainless steel? The only pervasive example I’ve seen of this is the awnings on Cheesecake Factory locations, which don’t actually look all that cool. But it’ll happen, just give it time. As far as it goes, I did not (unsurprisingly), see the next big thing in DC, but I got some funny shots.
This was taken at the Kennedy Center. Maybe they haven’t repaired this on purpose? It would seem to agree with the current climate in Washington. Especially if the final ‘S’ were to be removed as well…
I have no idea what this sign meant, but it seems like it wouldn’t be out of place in a Ludakris tune…
This one was just strange and humorous. I would totally hire these contractors.
And for anyone who hasn’t seen this bizarre structure before. This is a giant Mormon temple in DC. It looks like some sort of crazy sci-fi scenery, which is really cool, if only it weren’t what it is I might have gone closer to it. For what it’s worth, I think it’s interesting to examine what about this makes it look sci-fi. Sci-fi architectural aesthetics are in many ways determined by Japanese anime these days, and this building would fit right into one of those films - but why? I think it’s a combination of the metallic and round spires with the extremely square geometric shapes of the building proper. The spires are also huge (and pointless), adding an extremely whimsical quality generally not found in buildings that people actually pay to construct. I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on why this looks sci-fi (or why not).
September 24th, 2007
Posted by Paul in CoolHunting, Photography | No Comments »