Return

I’ve been looking back at some of my older entries, and I have to admit I’m rather shocked at how much I wrote back in the day. And when I say “back in the day,” I mean before around 2008. After that, I mostly spent my time tooling around on Facebook, etc. and feeling sorry for myself.

But Facebook isn’t terribly good at looking back, and it feels a little cheap and mean. I kind of miss babbling on about my day on here, just me and maybe a couple of readers. They say blogging’s dead, but my keyboard still works. So here goes:

So my job is moving again. I’ve spent the last couple of years at a particular office that reminds me of an old, slightly seedy hotel that was once grand. Chipped wooden doors, musty old carpets, formerly high ceilings now covered with tiles, tarnished brass fittings, faded lacquer…that kind of thing. I’ve enjoyed it, as my friend Guo-xi is in the next cubicle, and it’s fun to chat about stuff sometimes. Also, we’re on the first floor, and there are nice things like trees and birds just outside the tall, barred windows. There are also not-so-nice things, like when the cleaners brush up all the dust in the carpets, or another co-worker’s daily fight with the printer.

But now we’re moving back to our former digs, more or less. In fact, everyone who’s going has already gone. I’m the only one left, because my computer, an ancient PC dating from the Bush years if carbon tests can be believed, isn’t going with me. Who knows what awaits me there? I’ve been in this position for over ten years now, so perhaps a little variety wouldn’t hurt. Fortunately there is lots of wood around here to knock on as I say this.

In addition to becoming tired of Facebook, I’m also getting a little tired of Flickr. I’ve administered HCSP for years now, and I have to admit I’m somewhat frustrated with the whole thing. It’s repetitive, dealing with wave after wave of people coming in to knock down some Aged Pillar of the Street Photography they’ve imagined is Blocking Progress by Not Recognizing Their Genius or something. It’s just a flickr group, after all, and to be honest I was never actually solid in my commitment to street photography, which I personally think is not even a real thing, or shouldn’t be, as all of the definitions of it that mean anything describe what it’s not. It’s mostly become an excuse for bad photography for the great majority of its practitioners.

In any case, I’ve made most of my photos private, and I’ve parred down the groups I belong to as well. Too often I feel, in the context of “real” photographers I encounter there and on FB, that I am just faking it. I’m not really a photographer, because I can’t bring myself to be interested in most of what they’re talking about. I enjoy good photography. I enjoy the emotions I have when I see good photography, and I enjoy taking photos. That’s about it. Everything else just seems…extraneous lately.

Or perhaps I’m just tired; it’s just been a long, hot, muggy summer full of record temperatures and seemingly frequent disasters, including plane crashes and exploding cities. I need a break. Fortunately, I will be doing just that at the end of this month, embarking on a trip to Tokyo for a week. Why, you ask? To be in Tokyo for a week. To do what? To be in Tokyo. That’s it. Oh, I’ll walk around, and perhaps take a photo or two if I see anything, but mostly just to see what it’s like in warm weather. Oh, and I also plan to meet some people I know there, such as my old film school classmate Yas, my friend Louis, and some other friends I met who are in the publishing business there, and possibly Daido Moriyama, if he’s around and up for it. I wish my attempts to pick up some Japanese had stuck, alas.

I’m also going to Paris in November, but that will be more business stuff, because we’ve been invited to exhibit at Paris Photo. We’ve also been invited to the MAP festival in Toulouse as well as the Brighton Biennial, but I only have so much time off, so Paris it is. Also, Chenbl and Ewan are tagging along, so it’s probably going to be a crazy ride full of touristy travails a la our last trip to Osaka. Also, it will be cold.

The Ramblers are once again on the scene after David came back from his six-month-long journey around the world, so we’ve been busy with shows lately. It’s good to get back into that scene; I was getting a little tired of just playing along to Spotify playlists at home, worrying that my neighbors would complain. In fact, Chenbl’s been inspired to take up not only the flute but also violin, and I’ll be accompanying him and a fellow student this weekend for one of their student concerts. The venue is a horribly echo-ey school atrium area, and it’s bound to be both swelteringly hot and cacophonous, but, well, it’s just another one of those things I never talked about. Until now.