BLUE COUP D’ETAT

street scenes
people looking
and people looking away

making dumplings
people in the street
hotels looming above
empty passage ways
a man hanging from ropes on the side of building
some others fixing air conditioners
the one man with a patch on his eye

statue of a man with a camcorder
people walking, selling, shopping, crossing streets, looking around
occasionally an empty space with a bicycle in it
cleaning slick black hondas and toyotas next to falling down buildings, cranes and blue fences and housing projects in the distance
my favorite “the upthrow brand, the year offers greatly”
barbers and tailors on the street

nanjing lu night lights in the rain
government endorsed adult shop
the bund and mao’s statue in front of the growing skyscrapers of pudong
the next day and bits of real china next to new shanghai

shop keepers and blurry pictures before a rain swept night fall
little girl staring at huge tv in the side of skyscraper
bikes and cars and more skyscrapers along nanjing road on my way to the bund through the light drenched streets
but didn’t get to the bund here, next roll

cold sunset
hot pork dumplings full of soup, unbelievably good
drizzle street scenes
people selling things and traveling
trying to keep warm and dry
looking off into space or sleeping

sleeping bike taxi
hutong
grandmother and baby
crowd watching matial arts guy
pure girl bar
beggar boy
foot massage, FOOT MASSAGE
me waiting for my foot massage TO DARE
taxi to beijing airport, airport sleeper
getting on the plane, getting off the plane with robb and steve
waiting for a taxi scenes at shanghai airport, the domestic one, not pudong
driving the streets
huge chinese new year red lanterns on nanjing lu
skyscrapers for derek

drum tower
bell tower
views
beijing scenes
hutongs near houhai lake(a hutong is an ancient city alley or lane typical in beijing)

morning out of focus beijing buildings
sunrising from the back of the cab to the great wall
weird little guy smoking a pipe and dancing a jig outside entrance to the great wall
various images of the great wall
we were at the mutianyu section of the wall, the newest but at the same time oldest part of the wall as explained to us by victor the tour guide who has his eyes closed in his picture with me

people heading out of the forbidden city
mao’s face is plastered right there on top of the first gate into the forbidden city, the gate of heavenly peace, tiananmen gate
the underpass, beggar, soldiers or at least guards
tianannman square, flying kites, waiting for the chinese flag to come down
more kites
sunset
one of the two out of nine gates that are left in beijing, i think it is the victory gate
and of course robb
hooking it up
thanks robb
and the hotel at night

pretty straight forward
robb took me to the forbidden city
it was a forbidden city
now it is crawling with people
and i was one of them

beijing
random stuff–
a painting of a woman’s naked back (come to think of that is in a bar somewhere in shanghai, whoops)
a jewelry store ripping off mcdonalds
a chinese kentucky fried chicken rip off
drinking beer from a bowl
a girl behind the plastic door
banks and a rather interesting ummm….sink
details and random things that caught my eye in the forbidden city
like two pictures in tieneman square
a bunch of pictures on the great wall….actually most of the pictures are of bricks and what people wrote on them
the food smoke wine tea store sign
a couple more dog shots for kumi
peking duck with robb
another strange bathroom, not sure what is going on with the towel, maybe there is a leak or something, not sure
cold beijing skyskrapers, can’t really tell but that is an awful yellow moon up there

robb’s apartment building in shanghai
the chinese aunties that take care of his place
cold empty streets and doorways
skyskraper and mall
abstract bathroom lights coming from a behind a urinal in a disco that was playing chinese heavy metal music that night
a girl at the top of the stairs and mirrors
robb in the mirrors, “let’s get the fuck out of here”
plane to beijing
been getting some out of focus shots lately that i sort of like
arrive beijing airport
freezing outside beijing night
“undrinkable water” in the hotel bathroom
hotel morning, blurry views, two dudes sharing a room
robb’s self portrait
yu yang lobby, boy with a pink balloon
guy dressed up like an ancient soldier in front of a ktv hotel
banks pouring bowls of beer, they didn’t have glasses here but they had great food at this joint right near the forbidden city, didn’t know kung pao chicken could taste so good
another cold doorway, this time in beijing

last night in bangkok
su ooy after giving me a two and half hour massage at buathip soi 5 sukhumivit road
my favorite noodles and the guy who makes them on the corner of sukhumvit and asoke, you can’t go wrong
driving to the airport at midnight
fly into the shanghai dawn
8am taxi

most people that know me know that i don’t like to shop and then there were those bombs that went off on new years eve in bangkok around shopping centers which kinda made it easy for me to avoid shopping all together but as it hit me that my stay was coming to a close i decided to pick up a few things before i left thailand, a few knicknacks for friends
(turns out i feel most comfortable buying t-shirts)
of course i saw a few things in the process but not really shopping related things or maybe a little bit shopping related what i mean is i didn’t take pictures of things i bought but the things i did take pictures of might have some sort of shopping related theme–
people pray a lot in thailand, they have shrines all over the place including shopping centers (erewan shrine and isetan which has two shrines right by this really big and really loud panasonic tv that looks like it is attached to a street pole)
my continued fasicnation with people sleeping on the street
an armless man begging with a cup in his mouth
a mysterious driveway
a family watching a street singer
pratunam shopping
crazy kid picture
black cat
shirts and fabric and people selling
a dog looking to his human mama
a pink diamond for cheez
tea, coffee, and juice in chang beer pitchers
the tallest building in thailand–baiyoke tower

a few days before i finally left bangkok i went out with the majestic ladies once more
great time danced until 2am, fun fun people
this time they were a little more reserved and aware of the camera
except for the one who went ahead and got drunk
i’ll let you figure that one out
big shout out to the ladies!
thanks for another great time
i’m in shanghai now, one more roll of bangkok stuff coming and then it will be china for a bit
big shock in the weather shift, missing the hot weather of thailand big time
i know, cry me a river….