tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30817483692722707232024-02-19T04:45:53.205-08:00sora explorersora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-72046071629753353362011-01-23T14:52:00.000-08:002011-01-23T14:52:38.798-08:00in retrospect...It's the end, now, of my first New York experience.<br />
I've been on subways, buses, planes...<br />
The opera, Broadway, a musical (yay).<br />
Museums and and museums and museums galore (MoMA, Whitney, Skyscraper...)<br />
and some more. (That I've missed...)<br />
<br />
I'm safely ensconced back home (away from home) in Abu Dhabi, writing this last blog post at 2.48am in the morning because of travelling-from-New-York-jetlag. <br />
<br />
20 days, just a day under three weeks to absorb a city and its history, its present and its modernity... <br />
<br />
Modernity - because the new is in terms of the past, and the old is in the new, and sometimes the present has some past because everything is relative... <br />
<br />
Cities and their people, their buildings countries and culture, traditions and manners - ideas made tangible. <br />
<br />
I know more, and I'm more confused, but then again, if there's one thing I've learned it's that 'Modern, Modernism and Modernity' aren't clear-cut, every-evolving concepts result in a perpetually confused Sora. <br />
<br />
A new New Yorker? No, I think not, not yet... <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[goodbye for now, not forever.] </span></div>sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-34106786506706255662011-01-18T07:23:00.000-08:002011-01-18T07:23:14.920-08:00dare I say, modern?<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">An opera, a play, and a hit TV (and now movie) series: What do Minnie, Cynthia and Carrie have in common? </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">101 years across four mediums - women and their issues of empowerment never seem to age. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The New York Idea is an engaging play, the context of the early 20th century maintained through the mise en scene, while excluding certain events and adapting the original script to place emphasis on different thematic concerns. One the most stark differences was the issue of the Cynthia/Jack marriage/divorce, this updated version doesn't let this issue pass so easily, Jack's newfound knowledge doesn't act as deus ex machina and Cynthia has to assert herself far more actively, by leaving her would-be second husband at the altar after delaying the ceremony because of her spontaneous jaunt off to the races with Sir William Cates-Darby. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Vida was played with gleeful aplomb, opportunistic and liberated - divorce parties and cigars on church steps, lovers left, right, center - so Vida is Samantha, and Cynthia is Carrie. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-pu06UGndbP1CH_OjBqujFznB93MkTD7AhIzEAlJf8YjjdrlfArMyxbXfYNMB4B1n4tfeLoc3qFFzgJW5XHW2D-nXNH2jJyRc1CX8eD3FWX2vSGRAJ675LaMiBNZvV3CIj3vL-xOYBjO-/s1600/vida.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-pu06UGndbP1CH_OjBqujFznB93MkTD7AhIzEAlJf8YjjdrlfArMyxbXfYNMB4B1n4tfeLoc3qFFzgJW5XHW2D-nXNH2jJyRc1CX8eD3FWX2vSGRAJ675LaMiBNZvV3CIj3vL-xOYBjO-/s320/vida.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpEL3HiIO-lpP-M6-3AkVvj15OHrgo0HLExmWr_f3GoG4WOWADo_jtRrZHch-Re0qDXEkGtpSfeAM8fOktQfy4VNGbuUXy7FTVxLvTamFZI4Rkza4QcekZVGwDPialHP5MBZYwkB3-Mla4/s320/samantha.jpg" width="232" /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">In our current (dare I say, modern?) society/era/context, gender equality (as well as equality in general) stands as a hallmark of a developed, 'modern' country. These issues go through fads, it seems, the women's liberation movement, the flapper era, the cougars... </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">In another 100 years... yes, no, maybe so?</div>sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-37768302568476424122011-01-13T07:01:00.000-08:002011-01-13T07:01:54.346-08:00ten days gone, 7 days to join the dots.hello new york (city), <br />
<span style="font-size: large;">it's been 10 days now,</span> <br />
<br />
i've seen some of your best - (art,) the MoMA, Whitney<br />
and the middling (of what used to be the above) - the subways <br />
and the bad - the SLUDGE-Y cold. <br />
<br />
i've seen American Idiot(s - JOKES), my first opera [La Fanciulla del West], and tomorrow, a play - <br />
The New York Idea. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">...and i haven't had that "a-HA/eureka/i got it!!" moment, not yet.</span> </div><br />
through study and sludge, music, bricks, and mortar, the old and the new, i've found the dots but have yet to connect them. <br />
a recap: <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>modernity</strong></div> - as a broad movement in the arts, literature, music, architecture.<br />
- dependent on context, what's new is relative and depends on mastering what's old (see American [New York] Renaissance, New York Modern)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>new york city</strong> </div> - the layers, architecturally a palimpsest. <br />
- money, money, money: driving cultural tolerance, automats...<br />
- an exemplification or apart from the u.s of a? [Thomas Bender - NY as un-american because of its emphasis on difference... Mariana van Rensselaer - NY's unique-ness lies in its "union of heterogenousness & individuality]<br />
- celebrated as a multiculturally diverse, cosmopolitan place... what do the cultural enclaves signify?<br />
the people. <br />
<br />
7 days to make the constellation to see, <br />
my eureka moment... <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">too short?</div><div style="text-align: right;">so i could just come back again. </div><div style="text-align: right;">hello, new york (city).</div>sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-27606494465097076052011-01-12T07:03:00.000-08:002011-01-12T07:03:15.905-08:00australia, home of the BARANGAROOI grew up in the quiet suburb of Epping, that had a small supermarket, a newsagency, an RSL club, a church, an out-of-the-way train station... not much else. <br />
I lived on 1/25 Ray Road, at Emmaus Bible College where my dad was a student - there was a little playground that all the units faced onto.<br />
After school, I'd leave my uniform in a puddle on the floor, change into whatever was at hand and run out - spilling into the playground with all the other children there - other Korean kids, some Aussies, Armenians...<br />
The sandbox was fun, but the creek was where I found the tadpoles and the frogs - trapped them in a jar, to watch them grow legs and sing. <br />
<br />
They never did. <br />
<br />
Fast-forward 10 years, the place has been razed, the creek's now a trickle, the frogs warble no more. <br />
<br />
There's an apartment complex, smack bang over where we used to live.<br />
5 stories high and sleek-shiny-new - not a small brick affair. <br />
<div style="text-align: right;"> - But the office-house was deemed historical, and left in peace. </div><br />
There are dozens of shops now, another shopping-residential complex over what used to be an empty lot, the supermarket's expanded, the station upgraded - it's now a major(-ish) connection to the city. <br />
<br />
Walk the streets, see the signage - the people, the people, the people. <br />
<br />
Australia is growing, and so are its buildings - sometimes too fast (the Stepford-esque neighbourhoods, eerily quiet), often too slow - rent and congestion soar. It's these everyday problems I hear on the news, the constructions signs that mushroom on the streets that signal that the slow-moving haze I remember has gone. The sleek buildings keep rising, rising, rising. <br />
<br />
And so the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge have competition, now - Sydney Harbour's first high rise building will join their ranks as an "iconic building" come 2014: <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFDQoauvdBAzqq12wbhUwoSezzUxqJJXIF7pbLyvJWt0uBtC4Q65qXuNLRRDPbq0AFEDMhCLF25cNPdxahDGwhHsusI9mjwSWvwYjRiyTXDW2-oX_khsGq2TUE6-CSmji9taBsHsGGLpzS/s1600/Barangaroo-420x0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFDQoauvdBAzqq12wbhUwoSezzUxqJJXIF7pbLyvJWt0uBtC4Q65qXuNLRRDPbq0AFEDMhCLF25cNPdxahDGwhHsusI9mjwSWvwYjRiyTXDW2-oX_khsGq2TUE6-CSmji9taBsHsGGLpzS/s320/Barangaroo-420x0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/lend-lease-given-approval-to-build-highrise-over-water-20101216-18zqm.html?from=smh_sb"><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/lend-lease-given-approval-to-build-highrise-over-water-20101216-18zqm.html?from=smh_sb</span></a><br />
<br />
Sydney's busy, keeping up with "New York, Singapore and London." <br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.businessreviewaustralia.com/tags/sydney-harbour/lend-lease-build-first-high-rise-sydney-harbour-area">http://www.businessreviewaustralia.com/tags/sydney-harbour/lend-lease-build-first-high-rise-sydney-harbour-area</a></span><br />
<br />
Frogs find new ponds, and a city is more than just people, just place - <br />
memory animates, connects.sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-46592646211427662392011-01-11T07:19:00.000-08:002011-01-11T07:46:32.347-08:00painting past present<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgToqk6Vq5P3JkyG-CIlqjYa5HHUiTuBCcItbUOYGLFFXoqgPkAKYJanM2mV3eIx2agWAyntGk1FYarGhZIpopmQjKFvDLZhF_S5fAR9xI01cJOuRZrcjbujhxHhMaFMrJW0mpunS579EFM/s1600/blast+I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgToqk6Vq5P3JkyG-CIlqjYa5HHUiTuBCcItbUOYGLFFXoqgPkAKYJanM2mV3eIx2agWAyntGk1FYarGhZIpopmQjKFvDLZhF_S5fAR9xI01cJOuRZrcjbujhxHhMaFMrJW0mpunS579EFM/s320/blast+I.jpg" width="157" /></span></a></div></div><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>This is a painting, red and black.</em> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">For a person newly informed of art and artistic history, a visit to the MoMA's Abstract Impressionist New York exhibition is almost as surreal as some of the artworks themselves. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">My approach to going 'round the gallery was similarly subjective and (logically) illogical - beeline to the painting that I deem that I 'like,' then butterfly my way around the rest of the paintings. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">I'd look at the painting, then read the tag - "Oooh, I read about him/her/this/it!!" - As excited as my little siblings when they first learnt to read. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">So I had to pick a painting to blog about - the red and black one at the top of this post. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Let me tell you a few facts - </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><ul><li><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Japanese flag is a red circle on a white background, like so: </span></span></li>
</ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEUT_2lsmuhew8RntylJL5sQJ2KDthzQDrz7OqEEO_40RzyWTg-dY6y1UE-u4EmNpqPXzFZ6DJdQxDcOGUD7waTVv2w2BXHxGqIvXULgdL81P-532ubFnlyWFU3uKw-ySKVTbmMUbSf8-v/s1600/japanese-640.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" height="223" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEUT_2lsmuhew8RntylJL5sQJ2KDthzQDrz7OqEEO_40RzyWTg-dY6y1UE-u4EmNpqPXzFZ6DJdQxDcOGUD7waTVv2w2BXHxGqIvXULgdL81P-532ubFnlyWFU3uKw-ySKVTbmMUbSf8-v/s320/japanese-640.gif" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<ul><li><span id="goog_1223575423"></span><span id="goog_1223575425"></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In 1945, the first atomic bomb (used in warfare) was dropped on a place called Hiroshima. </span></li>
</ul><div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The title of the red and black painting is: Blast, I</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">It's not so easy to dismiss now, is it? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Painted 12 years after the actual Hiroshima bombing by Adolph Gottlieb, Blast, I, to me, raises the question - what is destruction to modernity? [and even vice versa]</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">It's the paradox of the old and the new, the past and the present that keeps jumping out at me. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The subways of Manhattan, Robert Moses restructuring, New York's pride in surpassing Europe by 'doing' Classical architecture bigger and better... </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">painting the past in the present that becomes the past. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div>sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-7521362163752570492011-01-10T07:49:00.000-08:002011-01-10T08:21:47.532-08:00makjang operaThe OPERA. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdanEZdEePxwXqKHJIu0-LM0_JdZbYA1qkYjnDm90rzVt4wdv7KishUA8KT8a3rgrXkyhRoksszsr-txfzEHDTQDxDxKKowgrUbayx-6-cYo46wOED978AcsMqmt-Rh8PP6McDpP-NgHI/s1600/opera-singer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEdanEZdEePxwXqKHJIu0-LM0_JdZbYA1qkYjnDm90rzVt4wdv7KishUA8KT8a3rgrXkyhRoksszsr-txfzEHDTQDxDxKKowgrUbayx-6-cYo46wOED978AcsMqmt-Rh8PP6McDpP-NgHI/s320/opera-singer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Of strong voices that warble and Soras that nod - <br />
So I'd expected. <br />
<br />
No, this Sora sat through all 3 hours, 10 minutes, if not enthralled, absorbed - it was better than I thought it would be. <br />
<br />
You didn't need 30(0) years of patience (years*COUGH* - I haven't felt so age-conscious in a while) to appreciate<em> La Fanciulla del West</em> - I'd already seen versions and versions of it since I was 8 - <br />
<br />
On the TV screen, Korean melodramas of hidden birth secrets&/ identities, poor heroines (with more or less than a $30 education), lost loves, eternal loves, villains and picturesque scenery - tick tick, check check.<br />
<div align="center"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOqYJvhIrwlnQCCkvSOSe4VIHfm2fWcSMORt8Q7H4lqYeb55eIrhPKJ6BJK56k4CCBpHp2_myUP8ekpzhszVaxaHb1vpYRejCpHUBQT8q9_d11RQ5jNE4dEaifzrLqKDzLgTUkjXs7UsuL/s1600/flames-of-desire-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOqYJvhIrwlnQCCkvSOSe4VIHfm2fWcSMORt8Q7H4lqYeb55eIrhPKJ6BJK56k4CCBpHp2_myUP8ekpzhszVaxaHb1vpYRejCpHUBQT8q9_d11RQ5jNE4dEaifzrLqKDzLgTUkjXs7UsuL/s320/flames-of-desire-11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><strong>melodrama is makjang.</strong> </div><br />
Conventions - here, there, and everywhere.sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-87992268647574798092011-01-07T07:02:00.000-08:002011-01-07T07:02:29.145-08:00Hopper is Strauss.<em><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">kiss - the</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">lips, RED.</span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">like</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">cheeks, ROUGED. </span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">like</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">crazy clowns </span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">with</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">white skin</span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">like (the girl)?</span></em><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmj_oswqOQaQyoFkF1AJgt0Ewx1VyLuXcoGgAces_XPJvt1X71vgjZ27EoisacKFGkRJayJW47J0RTVst_k4zgndsEWD569MAPiq1YxTbpQRsqt6G5PWxDMuyXinmqz3jzI8LY6Ca2N2kl/s1600/soir+bleu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmj_oswqOQaQyoFkF1AJgt0Ewx1VyLuXcoGgAces_XPJvt1X71vgjZ27EoisacKFGkRJayJW47J0RTVst_k4zgndsEWD569MAPiq1YxTbpQRsqt6G5PWxDMuyXinmqz3jzI8LY6Ca2N2kl/s320/soir+bleu.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: xx-small;">Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967). <strong>Soir Bleu </strong>(1914). Oil on canvas. 91.44 x 182.88 cm (36 x 72 in.). Whitney Museum of American Art. © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper. Photograph by Geoffrey Clements. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: xx-small;">[http://artmuseumjournal.com/edward_hopper_soir_bleu.aspx]</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">yellow, blue&blue-er... green and red and black and white and RED and round again...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">i see a nightmare in a day-dream where the north is now north-west but it's north because nobody knows - </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> up </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> up</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">we're caught up - <span style="background-color: white; color: white;">up, up and</span> away and "the crowd roared its approval </span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> - that was the most shocking thing."</span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">do you see?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">red is red because there's a blue that's blue</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">so new is new</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">because of - </span><br />
<br />
We stood in line to get our tickets to the Edward Hopper exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art. <br />
I was one of many milling around the spaces and twisty corners of the exhibit. <br />
I don't like clowns, coulrophobia, it's called - those bloody(-red) eyes and grinning lips. <br />
I was tired, sleepy, swaying on my feet and then a woman turned around and grinned at me -<br />
"It's so creative, isn't it? Absolute genius."<br />
Black hair and pale wrinkled skin, red lips - the young lady in the green paint is an old woman in black fur - <br />
<br />
and then i'm just one of a mass audience of another <em>Salome, </em>where Edward Hopper is Richard Strauss. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">then</span> and now: <br />
modern mingling - genius and popularity.sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-89298424842804908842011-01-06T07:00:00.000-08:002011-01-06T07:51:11.782-08:00An Ode, to the Subway.<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size: 72pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">S</span></i></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">ongs were sung, </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> Tales were told. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"> Oh, ye subway of the (now) & old.</span></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Long, (not so) long ago, when I was little girl, I saw the dinosaurs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Dead ones, flesh stripped off - skeletons, spooky. Archaic and Old. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Frozen. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Like my face was when we visited - </span><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 굴림; mso-fareast-language: KO; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The M(etropolitan)T(ransit)A(uthority) Transit Museum.</span> </span><br />
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">I have heard – [then, and now]: </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Thy clattering tracks</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">And people in packs</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The seven of us, our class, took the subway and walked there, to Brooklyn. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">2 tracks left, 2 tracks right. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Fast and slow, </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Off we go…</span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The entrance was dodgy-looking, instead of the grand columns and imposing doors it was just like any other random subway entrance on the street.</span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">was, and is – </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">underground (WOOOOOOOW…), a little dingy, </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">mosaic gleams then paint’s all fade-y.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">I'd seen most of the images and knew a lot of the basic facts that were displayed, because our class had seen the DVD "New York Underground" written by Elena Manns. It was surreal, really - seeing the brand-spanking-new-and-shiny footage of the beaver then seeing it in reality, faded and old. Like time had passed exponentially while I slept a jet-lagged, restless sleep. And then visiting a museum of the history of something current. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">It's mesmerizing, in it's own way. Other people, subway-regulars, I assumed, drowsed and nodded away, on the subway home. Me -</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">i have, been seduced, into thy warm embrace - </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">got lost, turned around</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">spun to the subway sound.</span> </span></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Come see the living dinosaurs of NYC in Brooklyn.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">[You don't have to be little and in grade school.]</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"></div>sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-47885339289046055962011-01-05T07:08:00.000-08:002011-01-05T07:10:53.981-08:00new york city: couture or off-the-rack?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">was NYC made in the america? [the U.S of A kind]</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">no, don’t look at me like that, i can feel your ‘errrrr-what’s-wrong-with-you’ eyeballing over the internet: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 5pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">“It is puzzling but true that the outlook associated with New York’s cosmopolitan experience has been unable to establish itself as an American standard.”</span></span></i></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">Thomas Bender</span></span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">Literature of New York</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">you see what i mean?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">don’t get me wrong, i love the idea of new york, i like what I’ve seen so far – but what’s behind the hype and hoopla that is ‘new york city’? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">after reading a little about the american *COUGH-new york-COUGH* renaissance for class, i’m all caught up with the paradox of new york – is it a follower or a trendsetter? </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">the classical statues, the nymphs, the doric-ionic-corinthian columns. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">the art, the artists, the architecture… hello paris and ecole-des-beaux-arts. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">new york city became a trendsetter, by doing what’s been done, better. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">maybe for you, it doesn’t matter, you don’t care. for me, well, i thought new york was something really unique, something new the world has never seen before. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">is it? </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">“Only the newest comers or the dullest dwellers in New York are chiefly impressed by its size </span></i><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">[or it’s been-and-done architecture]. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If you know it all, and really see it and feel it, you must marvel more at its union of individuality and heterogeneousness. It is this that makes its character, and it is this that makes that character unique.” </i></span></span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">Mariana Van Renssalaer, architectural critic for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Century.</i> </span></span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">[New York Modern, William B. Scott and Peter M. Rutkoff]</span></span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 5pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 5pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">if you read all of that and you’re still with me, congratulations. </span></span></div><div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 5pt 0pt 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">you’re almost there. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">i’m still a ‘newest comer,’ but i almost get it – see, it’s not just about the architecture, or who did what first, or who copied whom. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">it’s the combination of the people, and the buildings, and the way of life that makes up an ‘aura,’ quote walter benjamin, that makes new york city an original, not a copy. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">you've got to be here and feel it to get it. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">THE END – of an</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">original blog post, made in new york city. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: 맑은 고딕;">[not a copy made in china]</span></span></div>sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-6175642046033513062011-01-04T07:36:00.000-08:002011-01-04T07:36:34.899-08:00reporting on the bagel, from new york city.<div style="line-height: 200%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"></span></div><div style="line-height: 200%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">the city that never sleeps.</span></div><div style="line-height: 200%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">or was that tokyo...?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEU90mKJway3zNZ2xCYtuoRm1hqp5oPqCV360ta2DZrhwqRJbPKnw9J3kBFm-aNUGU7Em5V1LTPTuFCcQ3PkFHZ3QTuTnX2EwCP9nEsIBsw93eXGa_GRgAQC_YIglcTGmI_0JlCxEej24/s1600/tokyo+at+night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEU90mKJway3zNZ2xCYtuoRm1hqp5oPqCV360ta2DZrhwqRJbPKnw9J3kBFm-aNUGU7Em5V1LTPTuFCcQ3PkFHZ3QTuTnX2EwCP9nEsIBsw93eXGa_GRgAQC_YIglcTGmI_0JlCxEej24/s320/tokyo+at+night.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 200%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">fashionable people, so i've been told. </span></div><div style="line-height: 200%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">like paris...?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju0rHsUUJ1Foj1gy4jHlw8l4fBJZ_mJ3U7ibJWO3568J3UYNVRNQq2DJDnSTzWP9VjulqiFzcxv1JNDWSZp_DAYp4d7CbkgWLd9mTy-ijVPrnBeSA6aAMGygaG7yXaBVHyhGtJDCrmBOWR/s1600/fashion+street+paris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju0rHsUUJ1Foj1gy4jHlw8l4fBJZ_mJ3U7ibJWO3568J3UYNVRNQq2DJDnSTzWP9VjulqiFzcxv1JNDWSZp_DAYp4d7CbkgWLd9mTy-ijVPrnBeSA6aAMGygaG7yXaBVHyhGtJDCrmBOWR/s320/fashion+street+paris.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 200%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">lots, and lots, and lots of people. </span></div><div style="line-height: 200%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">(not as many as china)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3N79PSiiXfBviRm6WQOEWTXfZvaZBc5L9MvwFN79kUS_P2IeJaUmHIt2zdfEOSqtUmytcT1VGTjy4jSHDsYn6Hvt2ncffWbFGOLPQ4rsB7SptL7Nz_KfCBdDZutNJGCatBhusDAUVfMhg/s1600/china+people+lots.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3N79PSiiXfBviRm6WQOEWTXfZvaZBc5L9MvwFN79kUS_P2IeJaUmHIt2zdfEOSqtUmytcT1VGTjy4jSHDsYn6Hvt2ncffWbFGOLPQ4rsB7SptL7Nz_KfCBdDZutNJGCatBhusDAUVfMhg/s320/china+people+lots.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">and bagels. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">i had my first-ever bagel today, my first ever meal, from dunkin’ donuts. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">i’ve seen a dunkin’ donuts in australia, and had them in abu dhabi as well. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">“the UAE runs on dunkins’”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">seriously. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">i never checked to see if australia runs on dunkins’, but it probably does too. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">it’s probably because it’s been less than a day since i’ve been in NYC, and walked down about two streets – so as of yet, it doesn’t feel that much different from sydney. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">lots of people from different ethnic backgrounds, check. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">lots of stores, (more variety, but still essentially the same idea,) check. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">busy streets, check. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">the cold weather and the accents threw me off, but there’s must be more to NYC than cold januarys and funny accents – ‘cause it has something extra, one thing that australia doesn’t have - </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">THE BAGEL.</span></b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW0fplcIWHcio754F837s8HMbvpWdGc4XvN4OHSVRcYlrpVrsujKC2mxP8id_Ws0SYQ118h1DMmsrugR8FNxwMNgAT3uy3tCJEgqHqR0XFBK3_1CjWPhdC6_Fg20E7UifqBggai_Gu1kez/s1600/bagel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW0fplcIWHcio754F837s8HMbvpWdGc4XvN4OHSVRcYlrpVrsujKC2mxP8id_Ws0SYQ118h1DMmsrugR8FNxwMNgAT3uy3tCJEgqHqR0XFBK3_1CjWPhdC6_Fg20E7UifqBggai_Gu1kez/s320/bagel.jpg" width="285" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">i wikipedia-d ‘bagel’ because everyone kept talking about them back at sama, it was one of the most-missed foods, I think. Everyone (note: exaggeration) in NYC eats bagels, it’s an NY ‘thing,’ quote a korean documentary on NYC. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">i found out that the bagel is actually of jewish origins. who’d have thought. it’s the brief dunking in boiling water that makes them chewy. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">NYC. I haven’t seen much of it yet, but I plan to. I expected to see things more inherent to NY, I think, instead of bigger versions of things I’m used to - </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">so i’m off to look for more ‘bagels.’</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">hello, new york city. </span></div>sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3081748369272270723.post-19550865866147668752011-01-04T06:37:00.001-08:002011-01-04T06:37:50.750-08:00hi, hello.. testing?is this working?sora explorerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095153906308559657noreply@blogger.com0