Leslie Hawke

Ethan Hawke's mother before giving TEDxWomen talk

6 Days of Snowboarding

This morning i woke up feeling like I've had a difference of opinions with a freight train. Obviously, due to life experience and extensive knowledge of the world, he was right. Now, six days of boarding left me with a not-so-painful knee bruise but a really really uncomfortable rib bruise. See, the thing is, while one snowboards, one also learns the intricate workings of the human skeleton and it's amazing abilities to stretch and withstand repeated knocks against large immovable objects.

The important lesson i've learned, while attempting to pull a 360 tailgrab (which as you guessed, failed miserably), was that one can somehow elbow himself in the ribs. Due to lack of air time, my 360 turned into ... well ... about 264.7 degrees. This lack of precision combined with the tailgrab (which between you, me and whoever is reading this, made me look absolutely fabulous on a 3300m empty ski slope), meant my board got stuck nose first into the deep snow. Since we, the board and i, had a pretty decent speed, i successfully managed to front flip and somehow land on my hand, whose elbow met my left lower ribs. So, due to this unfortunate event, today i might post pictures on the blog because i don't quite see how i can even tie my own boots, let alone bind and unbind my board.

So, yeah.

Ötztal 2666m

New toys to play with:

Toyo 4x5 cam
Planar 135 F3.5
Rodenstock 300 F9
Ilford HP5 4x5 slide film

Burton Operator Black Edition snowboard
Burton Custom 2009 straps

9 days of pure powder

Just seconds ago

Wien

Paris Catacombes

November

This month, in pictures






From art to elegance to decadence to bruises. We shall have it all.

Defender

This is what my truck can do. It's up for sale.

Playing in the chop shop

A favor for a friend.

The Defender

Broken Leg

Intangible Observations on Human interactions

"Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge" - Plato

I thought that by now i would understand things. Some at least. I've always been under the impression that, as time goes by, the issues i could not find a solution to, in the past, would somehow whither and disappear and that i would never come across them. But the trick is that, when you follow the same path, you tend to reach the same result. More often than not, the world appears to be disguised in a wise manner as such, behind these rows of linear events.

The more i spend trying to understand some people (the very few i am bothered to attempt and do so) the clearer it is that i will never succeed. Push comes to shove, it would seem that the people i try hardest to understand are those i least manage to, in the end. And just to make things absolutely maddeningly unhelpful, the reciprocity of this action is amazing. Amazing and annoying. People i cannot possibly care less about are easier to get along with than the few i do seem to care.

I quoted Plato because it promoted me to write about this subject in particular. Desire, Emotion and Knowledge. I have the Desire. That's most certainly checked. I should think that the emotion is still there, for the time being at least. However, by following this logic, it would seem that the thing i am quite proud to say i possess in a fair amount in all other aspects, i lack in a dreadful way with regards to the said topic. Knowledge.

Right. That's about it for my two cents on people and the unbelievably awkward, backwards and illogical way in which they seem to behave. Strange.

Addendum: wrote this while sitting at a pub, looking at the people around. Seems like quite the zoological garden this pub, if i am not mistaking.

TEDxBucharest

See, i usually sleep very well. I very rarely have any problems with this. But last night, i managed to sleep for 2 hours and spend the rest staring at the pillow, hoping for something interesting to happen. I am still trying to figure out if it's due to the excitement of being a part of TEDx, which is something fairly interesting in itself, or just some messed up underlying reason. I love TEDx, but the second option seems more plausible ...

haha

via modernism.ro

Interior Design

Here's a few pictures from an Interior Designer and her last project, an exclusive penthouse for rent.

The Reader

Spatiu pentru Studio

Am inceput sa ma uit dupa un spatiu de studio in Bucuresti. Pentru ca nu am sa il folosesc la capacitate maxima, ar fi interesant sa mai gasesc inca una sau doua persoane cu care sa inchiriez. Ideal ar fi zona centrala a orasului dar sunt deschis sugestiilor. Daca sunteti interesati, dati-mi un mail si vedem ce si cum.

R.

The Bible Experiment

Back to work

So we've had some good times and i've had the pleasure of not writing on the blog for a long while now. I never really knew how many people read the things i post here until i stopped posting - and then there would not be one day that i wouldn't get the "When are you going to update your blog?" question. Made me feel quite good, i must admit. So, quick update of these last weeks:

1) Mr. Ciprian Strugariu and i went to Suzuki Fest. Great off road meeting, great trip. On the way back we got to do some off road as well, getting to the Saschiz ruins.





2) Let's Do It Romania - Off Road style. We gathered together, the off road forum and it's members and participated in the Let's Do It campaign, picking up hundreds of kilograms of rubbish from the forests and mountains.




3) Mr. Strugariu and myself planned a day out but due to technical issues on his Mitsubishi, we ended up just doing a soft track in the Defender. Pictures courtesy of Mr. Strugariu

Last Week

Maria

a day of soft off road and baptizing a little girl that our friends adopted

:)

Two More

I've done 20 or so cyanotypes during this last week. But i haven't got the patience to scan and show them. But here's two:

We are all capable of horrible things if put in the situation

I just got my Mac stolen yesterday. I have never been so angry in my life. We were on our first day of the two week trip which went horribly wrong. I got my Macbook and 30 cyanotypes stolen and my friend Bogdan has absolutely no clothes left. Along with my Mac the fucking imbeciles also took random stuff like: an elastic wrap for joint problems, napkins, a box of fuses, an elastic cable and some other shit.

On the way back, Bogdan and i wondered: "What would we do if we caught them?". This post is about contemplating that question.

The only verdict is vengeance and if i had the chance, i would mutilate the person without the least bit of humanity. It's the circle of life and, if push comes to shove, he'll be at the losing end of it all. One of the things i appreciate about Arabs is that they cut the thief's hands off, if convicted. Simple, yet so efficient.

To my own thief: pray to whatever deity you pray to that we don't meet - the savage beating you will get will be an unforgettable experience.

4 more tests before we part

Tomorrow i'm leaving for the mountains. No civilization, no phone signal, no problem. Here's some of the last tests i've done. I've just coated 33 more papers to take along for the ride - we'll see how that goes.

Cyanotype

I have just returned from the UK, where we attended my graduation. Surprisingly enough, i did graduate with a First Class BA(Hons). Now i am beginning work on my second project, and the first after leaving school. It'll be cyanotype based, but more information will be provided later on in the process. For now, all i can say is that the first tests have been a success (to my own surprise) and that i have built my own exposure frame (there is very little that power tape and a small screw driver cannot conquer or create). So, here are my first tests:




We're leaving Sunday on a long trek in the mountains to work on a common project, Bogdan and I, and i will be taking a fairly large number of cyanotype-coated papers and will try to keep a record of our journey in this particular way. So far, so good ...

Found ...

TAT 2010