Really Really Big And Mobile

Tim Brewer: Setup For The Brickyard

2009-07-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

travel without leaving my chair

2008-05-16T06:48:00.001-07:00

SO, usually the Kahunas post to this blog when we are traveling to far off locations, and we make mention of cultural and sensory experiences that we haven't experienced before. Which is why it seems fitting to use this space to tell you about a 4 hour trip that Swank Kahuna and I took last night through the Grand Tour MOTO - 20 courses of molecular gastronomy at MOTO here in Chicago.

First, if "molecular gastronomy" makes you think of food science to make sweeter tomatoes for Heinz ketchup let's have a bit of a lesson from Wikipedia: Chef Homaru Cantu

The pics are a sad affair due to seriously low lighting and the desire not to hold up service with a real camera...Swank did her best with an iPhone to at least capture the plates as they came...

Our "trip" started with an edible menu customized with our party's name and served on a plate with fresh ramps and a sauce that progressively got smokier in flavor as you worked down the plate.

With courses that included a liquefied Greek salad taken as a shot glass (resplendent with the finish of red onion), oil poached octopus with feta, a potato gnocchi that was "loaded" with flavors or essence of bacon and sour cream, Faux-jito as a palate cleanser mixed table side from syringes, a white truffle custard brulee served with a single bite biscuit to die for, nitro prepared mac noodles, a caramel apple with bacon served with aromatic spoons and forks, and desserts made by pastry chef Ben Roche that included a Carrot Cake soup that started as a perfect orb before deconstructing at our table side a Chili dog that was actually made of raspberry sorbet, and a Cafe' con leche that was a slice of frozen coffee served with a cup of liquid biscotti....

our group started to struggle with the quantity of food around course number 9....the portions were much larger than a tasting menu suggests and the richness and intensity of flavors began to overload my senses early on. The impeccable and extremely comfortable and accessible service made it an incredible experience. I woke this morning with a bit of jet lag...or perhaps it was the three bottles of wine the four of us worked our way through. : )

Typical Fortnight?

2008-04-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and thought about the last 2 weeks, and I had this 'Great Googly Moogly' moment. This one may be self-indulgent, but seriously....?

In the last 2 weeks, we've had video shoots in California, Mexico, China, Michigan, Florida, and Milwaukee, a photo shoot in Chicago, we're in post-production on 9 videos for four Fortune 100 companies (one of which will be globalized into 25 local languages), and we have a composer in Japan working on 2 custom tracks for us.

So, we'd like to thank the Academy...

Delicate Napa (shhh. the grapes are napa-ing)

2008-04-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

Mark here, on a quick gig in Yountville, CA, a delicate little foofy spa town type place about 5 miles north of Napa, CA. It's like a gentle little enclave, so clean and tidy and manicured and "Capital of PC-fornia" feeling. I feel like I stumbled into that movie from a few years ago....what was that movie? Where the characters (whom I cared zero about) go touring wine country and have a whole lot of useless "adventures" (that I cared zero about)? It's like that. Much ado about *yawn*. Anyway, quick shoot here tomorrow with nice people, then the red-eye back home from SFO so I can get back to the energy and springtimeyness of Chicago quick-fast! Oh, fun fact: Robin Williams has adopted the section of the 101 that leads from SFO towards city. I know because I saw his name on the "This Highway Adopted By" sign----I wish it was because I saw him mowing the grass on the shoulder, or picking up empty In And Out Burger bags in his little orange vest or something, but no. I think he only does that when Mercury is retrograde.

Poll question: is it possible the reason I sound bitter with this post because I can't drink? I AM IN WINE COUNTRY, IN A HOTEL ROOM WITH A COMPLIMENTARY BOTTLE OF WINE, AND I CAN'T DRINK?!? Yes, possibly.....but you decide.

April in New York (or: Travel=fun! Travel w/out passport=funnerer!!)

2008-04-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

Mark here, back home from NYC after a small Behind The Scenes project with Ogilvy and their client Sunsilk. They brought a bunch of girls who’d written inspiring, autobiographical “Life Can’t Wait” short stories to New York to film them talking about their stories, and we’re doing a Making Of video, and we also shot “Behind The Scenes/Making Of” still photos for their PR efforts. What a great weekend; the girls were all very nice and much fun, and in addition to shooting on set at Hudson Studios in Chelsea we also got footage of them being filmed in Times Square, Astor Place, and elsewhere, just enjoying The City Experience. Perhaps the coolest part for me though was seeing old friends and colleagues from previous lifetimes; producer extraordinaire Cindy Gengras, who I used to work with in Portland 10, 12. 14 years ago; AC-turned Camera Op Melissa Donovan, who I’ve worked with on set many times starting in the late 1980’s; and many more. And of course, no trip to New York would be complete without some CelebSightings (this would not include, however, Times Square’s ‘Naked Cowboy’ or ‘BatmanBikeman’). Pretty sure I saw Tiger Woods getting into a lift at the studios, then while driving about we saw 30 Rock’s Scott Adsit (looking every bit as stressed trucking up 7th avenue as he does on the show), and on the flight home I shared the First Class cabin with Garrison Keillor (looking every bit as curmudgeonly and Public Radio crunchy as you’d expect).

Home Sweet Home....

2008-03-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

Spring in Chicago is always a bit of a crap shoot... warm one day then blizzard the next. Right now if I look outside our living room window it feels like we are on the inside of a big snowglobe that some enormous child has shaken.

The last five weeks of travel (9 if you count the Super-Bowl and Pro-Bowl trips that took place right before the multi country trip) took us to some really amazing places, but mostly it was about the incredible people we met along the way.

I haven't finished adding up all the miles we traveled this time, both by train and by plane. I do know that the combined totals of Mark and Ryan in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, my travel in the UK, Mark and my travels in Egypt, and France and then Mark going off to Eastern Europe while I trained it down to Spain really adds up.

We recently engaged in an audit of the entire Really Really Big Industries, Inc. impact on the environment. This included a tally of everything, from the bottles of water we drink to the distance our Really Really Big Team travels to and from the studio for work and certainly takes into account all of the travel for clients, hotels, electricity for all of our computers and the server rack that is humming away on the third floor, etc.

We have in the past purchased carbon credits directly from the airlines we fly with, but that system is pretty impersonal, and left us unsure about where the money was going or if it was really making any difference. The Really Really Big Team has also grown a lot in the past year or two.

So, we thought we'd share with all of you our plan to offset the Really Really Big impact we are having while we work to make changes to the studio and our work processes to reduce the impact in the first place:

Once our audit is complete and we have a finally tally of tons of carbon that can be directly or indirectly attributed to Really Really Big, we will be identifying a community project sponsored by Native Energy as an organization NativeEnergy has been coordinating projects to help bring farmers off the grid with wind energy, Hydro projects and Solar as well. The key for us when we choose them was the fact that the projects they target funds towards are all community based. It's about sustainable economic benefits for Native Americans, Alaska Native Villages, family farmers and rural communities.

We'll keep you posted about the project we choose to fund, and the changes we are making at the studio and in our every day lives to do at least our little part to make a difference.

We'd love to hear what you and your companies are doing, post your comments here or email us and well add them to the blog.

best wishes to you all!

Bobbi and Mark and the Really Really Big Team

Euro GPS, Now With the “Trek-A-Lot” Feature!

2008-03-18T23:44:00.000-07:00

Got a GPS with my rental car, and it must know me well, because the entire drive from Zilina to Ceska Lipa, Czech Republic was on 2 lane roads through the countryside. Very cool! Just one little town after another after another, then micro villages—some of them abandoned--, then mini-cities, and so forth. Lots of mountain passes, with alternating bright sun and blowing winds. Crazy! Beautiful area though, and people are a tad nicer. One big disconnect for me though----I’ve never seen so many public Christ On The Cross statues, Mary And The Infant statues, etc. Each town had at least one at either end of it, then a bigger one in the middle of town. And they’re old, some dated as of the early 1700’s, which confuses me---I would have thought the Nazis then the Communists would have trashed them all, but no. It’s weird to see them all though, these outward evidences of a people who claim to be so very pious but who had to have helped Germany in reducing the Jewish population from 350,000 before WWII to just 20,000 by the end of it. I know there were untold numbers of heros too who hid their neighbors from certain death, but that number pales in comparison to those who, at best, turned their backs. Sorry for the downer, but when I pass through these areas, where the worst horror of mankind happened so recently, this is where my mind goes.

But my car still goes to Ceska Lipa. My hotel here is in the old town square, complete with very old church with very old and tired bell, and after a dinner of pizza and a very bad-for-me-dessert (followed by 100 pushups’ and then 100 situps’ penance) today I shoot in Ceska Lipa, then drive like crazy for Vienna and my flights home tomorrow.

Touring the Slovack Countryside

2008-03-18T00:14:00.001-07:00

It’s Tuesday, and Bobbi’s home from Spain, and I’ve got just a few more days to go before I join her—yay!! Pickin’ up where I left off… Sunday morning I diddled around the small towns near Bratislava, making my way to Devin, where there used to be a killer castle on top of a stunning, vertical pokey-outy of rock, where the Danube and the Morova rivers meet. They found evidence of if having been fortified in the Old Stone Age, about 5000 BC, and various groups came and went, further building it up, then around 400 BC the Romans grabbed hold and it was just about the furthest outpost of the Limes Romanus defensive network of forts. Over the centuries it played an important role in the defense of the area, then in 1809 Napoleon’s army destroyed it. Merde! There were attempts by the owners to build it back, but mostly it went into decline until they decided to make it a National Treasure and start with the archeology. The view across the Danube into Austria is very nice—it’s right there, a few hundred yards away. During communism this area was a popular spot for those attempting to escape to the west… most didn’t make it. There’s a monument nearby to those who were shot and killed while attempting the swim.

Monday morning I bid farewell to Bratislava and made for the Slovakian Northwest interior. The first leg was 80km, through some beautiful countryside that is dominated by the Small Carpathian Mountains. They’re mountains, but….small. Passed by more very cool but crumbly middle ages castles, and made my way to my shoot in Trencin. Didn’t get to see much of the town, but it looks nice (hey, they have a big castle on top of a hill, whaddya know!). After Trencin it was onwards to Zilina, where my shoot had been cancelled but my hotel room hadn’t, so---what the hay, it’s only another 50km drive. Zilina is a cool old city (4th largest in Slovakia), on the Vah river, pretty close to Poland and the Czech Republic. The cool old town square from the 15th and 16th centuries has an arcade that runs all around the interior, and the buildings (other than the church) used to be houses for the burghers. Now it’s all shops and restaurants and an amazingly chill, cool bar called Jerry’s Bar, where the mojitos are as good as any I ever had in South Beach (the cuban cigar helped, of course). As I explored I found plaques on the walls like you see in Paris, honoring those who died in the struggle for the city during its liberation from the Nazis. There’s also a plaque on the wall of the Church of the Holy Trinity in the town square, honoring the sisters who risked their lives by hiding Jewish children during the war. I read that the Mayor during the Nazi occupation wasn’t nearly as kind, though. A priest himself, he was more than happy to let Zilina (again, very close to Poland) become a busy railroad transit point for Jews from all over Slovakia who were on their final trip to the extermination camps in Poland.

Anyway, today it’s Tuesday, and my shoot for this morning in Namestovo is cancelled (what a shock!), so I guess it’s time to begin the leisurely, 350km drive to Ceska Lipa, in the Czech Republic!

Diet? What Diet?!

2008-03-16T03:57:00.000-07:00

like a moth to a flame.... Giving up red meat was easy...but sweets? I set out for a walk this morning feeling all pious about my exercise regime..then I walked past the window of this pastry shop -

ok, maybe if I'm only bad for this one meal...but then it was manchego cheese and olives for lunch with more bread than any one person should eat...grilled veggies seemed like a smart choice, except of course for the plate of bread and more cheese and wine that came with it.

even the soap looks tasty in this city!

To top it off, Judith has unwittingly caused a major problem for me...she asked me to seek out a favorite local candy that she loves...I may have found it, but it is TASTY and now I'm sure if I'll need to go back to the shop and get a second bag or there won't be even one piece left for her when I get off the plane. My dentist is going to have words with her for certain.

Guess I better get back out there for some more walking...of course that will take me right past the tapas place and the churros y chocolate that have been calling to me...

Perhaps I'll just focus on enjoying myself and plan to get back on track when I get back to Chicago. yeah, yeah...that's the plan...

: )

Some pics for the Jamon fans and those that think giant fish heads in the window are a good sign for the food inside:

A "did I just see a guy in magenta tights walk past me? pic

The main room inside the westin palace hotel...5 stars for swankyness to be sure

A few shots from inside the Prado and the church next door:

Sun and Smiles on the edges of the Europes

2008-03-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

Mark again, from Bratislava. Chilly again today, but the sun was happening....thank gawd! It sure seemed to brighten everyone’s spirits, especially mine. Spent the morning strolling all over Old Bratislava, which is full of much medieval fun….homes, buildings, churches, squares, a huge castle, microscopic pedestrian ways here and there with no right angles, outdoor cafes pushing Zlaty Bazant by the half-litre (the local 12% brew)—good stuff. Had the goulash for lunch—a little fatty, but tasty! Then it was back to the hotel for a quick nap before the journey to Vienna (only 60km to the west...Judith, stick a pin in that sucka!). Now Vienna is a cool place! Excellent people, very pretty and historic place (roman ruins and all that plus, you know, mozart). Dinner involved more beer (a local Vienna brew of some sort) that helped to wash down the "sausages" (in vienna, if it's just 'sausages' in the menu, does that assume it's Vienna Sausage? I ask because in Paris they have 'Onion Soup', but of course what comes is French Onion Soup, so....) and the shnitzelly main course---both of which were quite tasty! Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain, so other than a quick trip to see another cool, old castle about 20km away it’ll be a day to office worky fun, then Monday it'll be off of the swingin' Slovakian burgs of Trencin and Zilina!

Madrid-ilicious and waiting for spring?!

2008-03-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

So, there's nothing like getting up way before the crack of dawn, piling on the layers to keep warm, and then trudging your way down the center streets of Madrid, with 30 pounds of gear on your back, to find that the city has closed the parks in order to get ready for...wait for it...SPRING.

Seriously? I know my command of the Spanish language is infantile, but the attendant at the gate definitely told me they decided to close the gardens to prep better for spring. I've just gotten back to the hotel room and have confirmed, yet again, with the caretaker that I do have permission to be there today and can bring my tripod. So, a quick cafe cortado (mmmmmmm coffee...) and a re-bundle up for the trek back to the gate...

At least this extra bit of morning exercise means I won't have to feel guilty about all the yummy food I'm planning to eat today. The Swank Kahuna dug through her memories and came up with a list of Veggie friendly places for me to check out, she even included addresses and reviews (seriously, we are going to have to talk about those plans for Medical School oh swank one...I'm keeping you.):

El Estragon
Costanilla de San Andres 10
Metro La Latina
Established local favorite, big taverny feel. Feels more traditional.

Chez Pomme
Pelayo 4
Metro Chueca
Home-cooked feel but the food is also fine at the same time, menus change often according to local ingredients/season. Very fab, very hip place.

El Granero de Lavapies
Argumosa 10
Metro Lavapies
Most popular veg restaurant among Madrilenos.

As the Spanish say, provecho!

Mark in Bratislav-blah

2008-03-14T13:09:00.000-07:00

Cold, dreary...and not just the weather. It seems these folks are pretty much fed up with the Brits who like to come here for stag party weekends and basically trash the city. So, if you're looking for a place where a quiet, friendly, "do you speak english" question gets met with a cold, silent stare, come to Bratislava! From hotel staff on down, it's sure to be a bummer experience!

Maybe tomorrow I'll head to Vienna.

Seeking the Sun

2008-03-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

So, the sun in Paris wasn't playing nice...and the weather person on the news was making big arm movements across all of Western Europe for the next week (she was swirling around to show how big the 100km gust of winds were..which would be funny except for all the people who have to ummm...fly in the sky on airplanes in that wind.)

So, after Mark left for the airport to get to Bratislava and the rest of his Eastern Europe schedule, I set off to test my French language skills and see if I could arrange for a train ticket to Madrid (seeking the sunshine for photos seems like a southernly goal.)

Thankfully my time in Señora Peña's French class didn't completely fail me...although I have no idea how, since her native language was Spanish, French second and English third - which left most of her students able to conjugate verbs on paper but mostly tri-illiterate when it came to using any of the languages she was yelling at us in!

It didn't help me much with the taxi driver who was using a bluetooth headset for one mobile phone while holding two others (yes TWO) and texting and searching at the same time as driving the winding roads to the train station...but hey it's Paris.

I love trains...especially overnight trips that whisk you from one country to the other for the price of the hotel you would have stayed in overnight before getting on a plane in the super windy sky.

The Elipso Trainhotel system stops several times along the way so it isn't as fast as it could be, but you go to the Gare Austerlitz and have a cup of citron glace (which they pour vodka over without telling you - or maybe that is what it said in French and I just missed it?) Then you board a nice, clean, train car that has a tiny closet of a space with your name on it.

At first the space seems immposibly small, especially for those of us who have to carry an extra bag filed with camera bodies and lenses with them. But once you get settled in and figure out how to open and close all the kooky compartments they have hidden around the space, you realize that it is exactly the right size.

The train ticket included dinner in the dinning car - an experience that always makes me think of Eva Maria Saint and Cary Grant in North by Northwest. Of course on this train my biggest problem was that the Spanish aren't exactly known to be vegetarian - so I spent a fair amount of time switching from French to Spanish to the tiny bit of Catalan that I can speak trying to explain why it wasn't alright with me that the listed vegetarian choice included the large stack of diced Jamon and Veal hidden inside the rice. In the end, the very very nice Steward came back with a plate of grilled vegetables and Fideo noodles that was probably one of the best meals I've had in a long time.

OH! and of course the best part is that the RIOJA is actually cheaper than the bottles of Agua con Gas...so naturally I did my part to keep costs down. : )

Madrid is an amazing city, I've only been one other time - and that was mostly to catch a train to Barcelona, so I'm really looking forward to the opportunities for great photos and squeezing a bit of touristic endeavor in during the low light times. I've been lucky enough to make contact with the head of the Jardin Botanical in the city center who is going to allow me to bring my tripod into the gardens to shoot at first light tomorrow (usually places like this won't let you do that so you end up hand holding a 4.5lb camera rig while trying to keep any movement from causing photos to be blurry.)

Our Swank Kahuna, Judith has taken the time to list several key locations in Madrid that are must see if I have time...she's one of those people that live life to it's fullest, so a list like this from her is a treasure trove of options...it mostly makes me wish Mark was here to go through it with me, and of course that we had more time to do it.

Can you tell which of these two fellows is real and which is the carved foam one he carries around? Neither could these tourists...they screamed when he moved his hand.

A large display of sculptures being set up near the Prado...I don't think the artist meant for this tree to be sticking out of the face he created, but then again maybe this is exactly what he was hoping for.

more pics soon...

best wishes to you all!

bh

Paris; Tres jolie!

2008-03-13T06:05:00.001-07:00

What’s not to love? Outdoor ping pong tables; school field trips to Musee d’Orsay; the Louvre’s pyramid and gigantic viewing windows (and school field trips); Versailles and its gardens (and school field trips); fabulous table wines and baguette (and chaperones relaxing merrily after all those field trips!); entrecote and pomme frites; the Seine; the impromptu parade honoring War Vets up the Champs d’Elysee; café crème; our new friend Krikor, Armenian businessman from Dubai who LOVES the jazz at our hotel’s jazz club; sexy bars and yummy brews and discovering that Mark is back down to a 36 waist for the first time in MANY years!

Now, sadly, Bobbi and I divide and conquer once again, with me going as planned to Slovakia and Czech Republic, and Bobbi off to southern France, Spain, and everywhere else she can find sun and green and people and places for fab fotos. Au revoir!

More Pharonic Phun in Cairo

2008-03-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Our second day off here in Cairo began with a morning at the Egyptian Museum. It’s just about the coolest collection of items you could ever imagine—TONS and tons of items pulled from burial sites all over Egypt; mummy-holders and heiroglyphic tablets and statues, crockery, tools, games, jewelry, clothes and more---and all pretty much looking like they hadn’t moved since they were discovered and placed there in the 1930’s. There’s a whole wing dedicated to all the stuff they found in King Tut’s burial site—absolutely the most stunning array you can imagine, and let me just say; these hip hop guys today have NOTHING on the Pharohs when it comes to the Bling Department…they’re just a bunch of amateurs. One of the coolest aspects of The Boy King Wing, I thought, were the photos of the insides of the tomb when they found it, when all the items were just stacked up the way they had been left thousands of years ago. The entire museum is like no other place you can imagine, but kind of weird….it feels more like a warehouse than a museum. Our new and most excellent friend Sherif said they’re going to build a new one, a modern museum more in keeping with, um, modern museums. One of the things that’s a drag about the place though is that, apparently, there is a warehouse below the main museum, and stuff gets stolen out of it all the time, but no one’s really sure what because it’s never all been completely catalogued. Not good. After 3 hours or so our heads were swimming with all that we’d seen, so we took the 2km stroll across Nile and back to our hotel. After a nap it was downstairs for a very late lunch, and an interesting lesson; never ever have shisha on an empty stomach (when I told Sherif I had done this he looked at me like I'd stuck my hand into a pile of bees, expecting everything to be fine and dandy. “Of course, you never do that. Never.”). Shisha was great, then lunch was great (more mezzahs, etc), then more shisha was great…until it wasn’t great anymore, and very quickly. A few hours nap, followed by a long night sleep, seemed to mostly cure the situation. Sunday it was off to do employee interviews at the Johnson Controls offices, and---truly, what very nice people, just wonderful. Sunday night, our last night in Cairo, found Sherif, his chum from childhood Alaa, and me and Bobbi out at Khan el Khalili, the old old old souq from the 1300’s, enjoying some tea and shisha (well, shisha for Sherif; I think I’m giving shisha a rest for the time being), then enjoying watching Sherif barter with a shopkeeper for some great belly dance, oud, and other middle eastern music for me. We finished off with a fine italian mean, back on the Nile at Sherif's fave place, then it was off to the hotel for a nap before our 5am car to the airport and our journey to…Paris!

Hey, quick(-ish) postscript on the Middle East, since this entry marks the end of over 2 weeks of travel in this region for me. While I am, of course, nowhere near an expert on this place, I have to say I've learned a few things (many many thanks, again, go to Farhan, Josy, Tarek, Sherif, and others) and, like everything in life, there are subtleties in the human condition(s)--past and present--that very much need to be considered by those of us who would rush to simplistic judgement on what's happening in the region and what "needs" to happen (and by whose hands it needs to happen). Suffice it to say that we in the US would never want people in Egypt, Saudi, Qatar, UAE or elsewhere to base their perceptions of us as a society upon whatever they might read in the press about the Moral Majority or similarly fanatical, single-minded, religion-based groups. I have met the nicest, smartest, warmest, most open-minded and most considerate people on this leg of the journey, and I know for a fact that if everyone in the US could come to this region and experience society in action, we would all see that there are so many more similarities than there are differences in the ways we live and think day to day. Make no mistake; there are plenty of extremists, on both sides of the pond, to go around but, like Democratic and Republican operatives during the election season, they like nothing more than to enhance a polarized view of everything---it's what serves them best. But this is too easy; it relies on a lazy mind, and a complacent mind. We in the US did not get to where we are in 200 or so short years by being lazy and complacent, so why acquiesce to this now?

End of soap box speech; back 'atcha soon from Paris.

Giza; Gee-Whiz-a!

2008-03-07T14:14:00.000-08:00

Friday morning, everyone’s off to their prayers, so the drive from hotel A to hotel B was easy (except for the street sweeper guy we came within 1/2 inch of plowing into). Now we’re in much swankier digs, on the 22nd floor of the Sheraton Cairo, high above the River Nile, overlooking Zamalek Island and a city that goes as far as the eye can see. After a quick breakfast it was off to Giza with our driver Mohamad (who lives there, and can see the pyramids from his window). It’s so weird and unexpected; there you are, driving along a main boulevard for 20 minutes or so, chatty chatty chatty, looking at all the little shops and the music video shoot and scads of people and then….there they are. You see the big one first, and it’s the size of a mountain against the 2-story apartment buildings. A few short u-turns later and in we go to the tiny, choked streets of the bazaar that is the gateway to the pyramids. As we approach, Mohamad asks our preferred mode of transport to see the pyramids and sphinx; we choose camel, and he takes us to his friend. Who first introduces us to HIS friend, The Doctor, who extols the virtues of various flower oils to us. OK, we enjoy the smell-fest, and overspend like the tourists we are, but what the hell. Then, with our guide Abdullah’s help, it’s up and onto Fly and Sinbad for a first-ever experience. Funny thing about getting on and off a camel; you have to WICKED compensate for the way they stand up and sit down; lots of leaning waaaay back and trying to time the lean forward so you don’t wind up ass over teakettle. Gotta say, it ain’t easy! Then, there you are way up in the air, doing the hip gyration thing while fielding non-stop updates from your inner thighs—which are rubbing up against the formless, carpet/blanket “saddle” (a tip for the ladies from Bobbi: riding a camel=the world’s best Thighmaster®). We stroll out from the bazaar—myself and Bobbi Of Arabia---, go thru a gate (grease-the-cop incident #1), and away we go across the desert. Abdullah knows the best places to stop for photos, and he’s a pretty good shooter! We see all the 9 pyramids and Abdullah tries to explain who was buried where, but we lose track pretty quickly. We trek around the area for a few hours, going very close to these amazing, man-made mountains, then Abdullah greases another palm so we can climb up one of the smaller pyramids where one of the queens was buried, for a photo op (uh…against the law; the ungreased-palm law, I guess). At this point we are very hot and almost numb with excitement---we’re climbing a pyramid?!? From there it was back towards the gate area and the Sphinx. All those photos you're used to seeing of the Sphinx are very misleading, because he’s pretty small (compared to the ‘rids). Don’t get me wrong; seeing a 7000 year old setting like this is stunning beyond belief, but the scale was way different that expected. Now we’re back at the hotel, chilling before our Nile dinner cruise tonight, which should prove fun; Egyptian foods and belly dancing, and maybe even some shisha!

Evening update: dinner cruise up and down the Nile was hilarious, like being in a bad monty python “Dinner And A Show” sketch. The entertainment started with a dude in a Member’s Only jacket playing songs like “A Wonderful World” and “Help Me Make It Thru The Night” on a tricked-out casiotone. Oh, and he sang, too. He was then joined by the Cheesy Singer Sisters, who continued with renditions of Celine Dion and other fabulous artists. Then the real band came out, many men with different size drums and a few flutes---these guys were amazing---, and we were treated to a whirling dervish performance that whirled on too long. Finally, a Nefertiti-like belly dancer was carried out to the stage by two king-tut types….I swear, this is like a campier version of what I expect you get at the Luxor in Vegas….and then she went to town, kind of. At this point the meal is done so we head out and enjoy the last few minutes of the cruise, watching our police boat escort watch us. Then it was back to the hotel for tea with mint and more shisha. Shish-ahhhhhh…..

Cairo ROCKS!

2008-03-06T13:22:00.001-08:00

Dude.... It's Cairo, for cryin' out loud; what's NOT amazing about this place? 22 million people hovering around that most awesome of rivers, the Nile. Want to drive a car here? What are you, Nerves Of Steel Man?! You better be if you want to survive here on the roads. Our most awesome client host Sherif, a native of Cairo, has the skillz--and the lack of dents and dings and scrapes to prove it. We've been shooting for 2 days now, meeting some truly gracious customers, and it's been a joy. Tomorrow is Friday, and we'll be off to the Pyramids....can you believe it?!? And the big stone puddy cat, The Sphinx.

Jeddah Jeddah, Hey! In the KSA!

2008-03-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

Jeddah. Cool. It's so funny how seaside towns and cities the world over are just...so similar. That sun-baked, everyone-moves-a-little-slower thing. We hit the ground running in Jeddah, got a lot done in our two days there, and got a great tour of the city from local awesome client-man Tarek. Day One started with a look at the local paper. Uh.....WHAT?!? Very bizarre way to start this leg of the trip (we understand from Tarek that the guy who did the deed, the child's uncle will, upon conviction, be publicly beheaded...unless the mother steps in to forgive him---any bets anyone? BTW, that supermarket reopened 4 hours later. Ug.). After that initial shock we really started our day, with a drive down to the Red Sea, and a tour up and down the Corniche (all the cities in the region that have a seaside street+pedestrian way call them Corniche) as we made our way to the Al Shallal Theme Park. No seriously, this is a customer of the client for whom we're working here. During the day it was Ladies only in the park, so we couldn't go inside, but we went back in the evening and got a look around, and Ryan took a ride on the roller coaster (and a howdy-do greeting with the little blue elephant greeter and Tarek). After an excellent lunch of many mezzahs, we hit the local Johnson Controls office for some employee interviews, including a group interview with five ladies who work there in the office. This is significant, as there are not many ladies in the workforce in the Kingdom (though this is changing, which is of course a great thing). They had interesting, insightful things to say, and it helped us to, ever so slightly, begin to grasp what it's like to be a woman in this society. The next day we headed out of town towards the airport, and the Al-Salem York factory. Cool operation! (sorry---they make air conditioners and related make-cold-air-now-please! stuff...like, systems that cool the two Holy Mosques, in Makkah and Medinah---not only the insides but the OUTSIDE AREAS of the Mosques, where tens and hundreds of thousands often are praying, when it's 120 degrees out!). With some good interviews and b-roll, and a Pizza Hut lunch under our belts, it was, for me, off to the airport and the flight across the Red Sea, to Cairo. Interesting thing about the airport in Jeddah... It's only a little over an hour to the Holy city of Makkah (Mecca to you and me), so during the Hajj it gets wicked busy---so there's a HUGE terminal at the airport that is only there to serve the pilgrims who come for Hajj. The 2 to 3 million pilgrims. Who come and go in the course of a week or two, something like that. Amazing. Anyway, this is where Ryan---the supremely awesome Ryan, co-shooter and helper-outer-of-old-man-Mark dude extraordinaire---and I part ways; he off to home for a few days before heading to Dominican Republic and an amazing sailing/video trip, me off to Cairo where I meet up with the lovely and talented Bobbi!!

Re: Riyadh (or, as Ryan said, “Haudi from Saudi!”)

2008-03-02T13:18:00.001-08:00

First of all, to all you guys in UAE and Qatar who spooked us about clearing customs here into the Kingdom…that was kinda mean! Actually it was fine, no hassles or anything---except when the head of the Riyadh customs unit thought my portable hard drives were radar detectors (it’s the wedgy shape). Also when we filled out our entry forms, the tops of which are emblazoned with DEATH PENALTY FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS!! The flight on Saudi Arabian Airlines was uneventful, although here’s some cool things… You know when you’re flying, and on the video screens they have the map where they show your progress, and the airspeed, and arrival time, and those different screens? Well here, all the flights ALSO rotate in a screen showing you the direction to Mecca. The other cool thing was, last night, as we were taxiing away from the Doha airport, we were treated to a dramatic recorded reading (complete with added reverb) of a supplication that the Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) said prior to traveling. When we got to our hotel last night—-the drive in was like driving from DFW to downtown Dallas---we had a funny whiplash moment….seems that Motorola is having an event at our hotel that they were in the midst of prepping, and the MOTO4YOU signage was everywhere. Yikes! Today, Sunday, was a bustly one in Riyadh. It’s a huge city, like 11 million people we’re told (we can believe it too, based upon a view we got later in the day). First we zipped out to the Community College building project, which is part of the sprawling King Saud University area. Interviewed the Project Manager there, and when we finished I said “cut” as I made my usual signal: drawing my hand across my throat, left to right. Here’s the thing; since the authorities here behead criminals, that motion is not so much appreciated. But, he laughed when I did it and said “please, no!”. Kinda funny, and yet…. From there we drove in to the heart of the city to our next destination; the Kindom Centre. This is I think the tallest building in the city, owned by one of the Princes. It’s a very cool design from the outside---sort of resembles the Tower of Morder, actually, and the three pick-up truck-mounted machine gun emplacements add to the effect---and inside there is a shopping mall (careful guys: third floor is for ladies only!), a Four Seasons hotel, schmancy apartments, and the like. Sultan, the head of security, took us around then up up up to the top; 99th floor. This leads you out to the bridge that spans between the two high points of the tower, and the view is stunning, and goes on and on and on, until the buildings on the horizon melt into the sandy ether. The windows are angled outwards at the top, and he let us go under the railing and sit in them…and you can look straight down, which is both cool and spooooooky at the same time. Anyway, it was amazing, then we walked all around the outer perimeter of the property, getting cool shots (and, using hand signals, we promised each of the three machine gunners that we wouldn’t photograph them…they seemed to appreciate that, but of course if they didn’t, well---they have guns), and enjoying the 90-degree warmth. Now we’re back out at the King Khaled International Airport, chillin’ as we await the flight to Jeddah.

Souks & Sheeshas

2008-03-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

Friday in Doha, and it’s a welcome day off. Ryan and I take a leisurely start to the day, arriving at the Corniche area of the city---the waterfront---about 11:30a. Bright, sunny, windy day. We stroll out towards the dhow harbor, checking out all the boats, and watching as the Class 1 World Powerboat Championships boats get lowered into the water for the first round races of the Qatar Grand Prix. The juxtaposition of the old boats and the new boats bobbing alongside each other was interesting. The bay is huge and green, lots of construction happening on the opposite side. We depart towards the Souk Wafiq—the old bedouin souk (marketplace) that has been redone to resemble its former self. It’s extremely cool, with amazing shops and people-watching, and I had my first sheesha (as Ryan has his first taste of camel)….and then later I had another—both apple-flavored. Delicious! Foods were also wonderful. After souk round 1 we went back down to the Corniche to watch the boat races----fast!! Both visits to the Corniche for us had a weird element, though. There are many laborers that are here—men, building all the buildings and roads and so forth—from all over the sub-continent and elsewhere. They are the laborer class, and Friday is their one day off. So, lots of them were wandering about, heading towards the Corniche to watch the races and generally stroll about. Nope. The police lets us pass without incident, but as these guys started to come towards the area the police waved them off and would not let them pass; not welcome. It was a new experience, and not a pleasant one. That said, once the races were over (we missed Sheik Hassen flip his boat on turn 4!) we went back to the souk waqif and saw a cool concert (Al Jazeera was on location, reporting on all the goings-on), did some more shopping, then---beat tired—it was back to the hotel.

Saturday wasn’t much different---more exploring at the souk (only this time we spent some qatari riyals), a fine lunch at an Iraqi place, then off to our shoot. We spoke with some great gents, then it was off to the airport for the flight to Riyadh. Now we’re here---clearing customs was much easier that expected, yay!---and it’s sleepytime.

When life gives you rainy weather...go find an indoor garden

2008-02-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

Well, not completely indoors, but the KEW Royal Botanical Gardens does have several large glass green houses (actually one of the largest all glass houses in the world.) The scene here in London is sad...windy/rainy/cold. One of those days straight of a movie where every one is fighting against the wind with their brolly (that's umbrella to you kids back in the states.) and then WHOOSH it turns inside-out.

With my new found sense of direction I figured it couldn't hurt to venture out a bit beyond our normal zones and pubs. Took the Tube about 10km outside of London (12 or 13 stops on the District Line from the center of London) and then walked a bit along the south bank of the Thames river to get to 300 acres of botanical gardens. Even with the blustery weather, I couldn't have picked a better place to be.

The whole gardens is strewn with massive Henry Moore sculptures! I think 30 of them. I've always liked his work, I think it may go back to when my sister attended Trinity University and I got to see several of his larger works (at least I think it was him...Susan will have to confirm.) Anyway, he does this ongoing series of pieces that are all about negative space and separate but connected forms and I really like them. Every time I see one I just want to climb it. 30 of them in one location was a true test of will power...but honestly since it was raining I think that climbing would have been more about sliding. (It would have been a ton of fun though!)

This is the aptly named "Large Reclining Figure"

And this one is "Draped Reclining Mother and Baby"

So, I stayed out in the wind and rain for as long as I could stand it. Managed to get a couple of shots off before the rain really started coming down...after that I just wandered with the camera safely inside my bag and enjoyed the wide open space filled with nature.

If you want an idea of how cold it was, this little tyke is dressed just right...don't you wish they made those bunny suits for adults?

The daffodils are in bloom, Kew's Narcissus, so we'll call this pic "hope of future spring..." I'm hoping that by the time Mark and I get back to Chicago, the winter will be a distant memory...

This is the small side of the Palm house, which, oddly enough, is indeed full of tropical rain forest environment and palm trees. Once my glasses stopped fogging up I really enjoyed it. No pics from inside, my poor camera was pleading to be left alone away from all that condensation.

The Kew is huge. 13 buildings and 300 acres of plantings and research. It's a bit of a schlep from the city, but if you are here and have the time I highly recommend it. Perhaps a bit further into the spring season though..

Anyway, the weather man swears that tomorrow the sun will come out and trusty assistant/fixer Lauren and I will be able to take the two cars, 5 models and untold number of props to the Isle of White for our photo shoot. Keep your finger's crossed for us!

Delicious Doha

2008-02-28T23:21:00.000-08:00

Excellent day Thursday! Our local JCI host Josy met us in his Honda CR-V (all these guys have production-friendly vehicles....fabulous!). Met some very nice guys who are channel partners of our client, and afterwards they took us to a scrumptious lunch of traditional Iranian food. Lots and lots of it. Our main host kept prodding Ryan to eat more (have more lamb! have more prawns! eat the bread before it gets cold!). Oh, the bread! Made in a very very hot clay pit thing, it was delicious. As was the mint tea at the end of the meal. After our shoot we chilled for a bit then strolled out in Doha in search of dinner. While Bobbi's navigational skills enhance in London, mine decline in Doha. After heading the wrong way on Suhim bin Hamad St., Ryan spun us around and got us to Al Miroab street...kind of a 53rd street of the area. Lots of shops and restaurants. We checked one place out, decided against it, and as we walked out a local guy walked out behind us and in nicely-accented English we hear, "This is the best arabic food in Doha." We chatted and joked for a sec, then decided---with an endorsement like that, how could we say no? So up we went into the 2nd floor dining room of the Al Sultan Restaurant, and he was right. Awesome hummos, awesome matoubal, incredible yogurt-with-cukes, terrific falafal...best I've ever had....with very subtle, delicious tahini sauce. Judith, you would love this place! After that we walked it off back to the hotel. Now it's Friday, for many the only day off of the week (some get saturday off as well), and I've had another nice breakfast at the Hyde Park Coffee Shop here in the hotel (yes, seriously), now Ryan and I prepare to head to the Corniche area of the city to enjoy the souks, watch the parade of dhows and perhaps the racing boats, and like that.

Weather as usual?

2008-02-28T16:04:00.000-08:00

So, I know this will surprise all of you...but the weather here in London is rainy and gray. I know! Who would have thought?! : )

Ok, so we knew this was a great possibility, but we still have good hope for the weekend shooting scheduled for the Isle of White.

Since shooting in gray rainy weather is pure rubbish and produces crap photos I put my camera back in it's safe case and took myself out into the weather (which is warm, but yucky) to go grab a bit of culture.

Those of you who know me will be astonished to hear that I've actually managed to get my bearings here in London (it only took about a dozen visits) so today was all about walking. I believe I covered about 10 miles square worth of the city and including taking the tube to meet up with our great friend Mike for a really tasty Turkish dinner I didn't get lost or turned around once. Spooky eh?

So, I have a smattering of odd photos from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the city itself:

Ever wonder how those Tupperware containers your mom used were made? You can learn all about it at the Science Museum next to the Victoria and Albert. It's pretty kooky actually this is the same company that made gas masks in world war II... got to love chemical engineering.

So, going with the plastics theme (a whole section of the Science Museum was dedicated to it) this is a fairly large chandelier made out of Bic pens. I can't for the life of me explain why... I suppose this falls to the "because they could" category

At the Victoria and Albert Museum (a dizzingly laid out building meant to confuse your sense of direction at every turn) tucked in amongst the antiquities, the 16th century sculptures, the ancient china textiles and the art of the masters are strange and wonderful three dimensional displays hanging in the little nooks and corners and over the head of people on the floors below. This is a set of real instruments that have been crushed flat and hung from thin wires so that they move around with the air flow...it's much larger than it appears in this iPhone pic. I liked that people were walking below it being very serious as they "admired" really really hard to interpret paintings from many decades ago.

Business as usual?

2008-02-28T12:51:00.000-08:00

So, you ask yourself; what's it like doing business in the Middle East? I'll tell you two interesting stories.

1. Remember that company in Abu Dhabi I blogged about that runs the District Cooling plants? They supply cold cold water to a number of buildings in an area, then each building basically converts that cold water into air conditioning. If the water ain't cold, neither is the air. In the summer it gets very very hot here. One time, the district cooling plant supplying the military hospital had some problems, and the air started to not be cool. The guy in charge of the plant gets a call from the man in charge of the hospital; fix this problem in 24 hours, or my next call is to the Emir.

2. Here in Doha, a contractor installed an A/C system incorrectly. They contractor placed the blame on the A/C equipment company; our client. Shortly after, our client got a call about it; the problem home in question happens to be the palace of the princess, and if it doesn't get fixed soon, for free, His Highness will throw them out of the country.

So...nothing like a little Royal pressure to place one on pins and needles....eh?

Abu Dhabi Do!

2008-02-27T21:07:00.000-08:00

Man—ok, so, if Dubai is amazing, Abu Dhabi is TRULY amazing. The growth here has been unreal. Check the pic of the little seaside village….that was Abu Dhabi in the mid-1960s. Now, there are well over something like 5000 towers (and our client’s stuff is in, like, 65% of them). But whereas Dubai is huge, spread out, wide streets choked with traffic and very car-oriented, Abu Dhabi is much more of a pedestrian-oriented city, and it’s generally cleaner and more laid back (and less hazy; Abu Dhabi the city is on an island and so the sea keeps the air much cleaner). And more wealthy…MUCH more wealthy. All the local guys we met with said it’s more relaxed here because Abu Dhabi has the oil, so they have the money and they are more easy-going/less concerned with puffing themselves up by being The Biggest----because they are The Baddest. But there’s not enough hustle and bustle here for Farhan; he prefers Dubai. Hey, whaddya gonna do?

Day 1 we were inside one of the District Cooling plants, repleat with our client’s gigantor chillers, then we were off to see the places to which they furnish chilled goodness, so we got a nice tour of the city, had a great seafood lunch with the help of food-picker-outer Mini (note to those who will host Farhan someday: crabs, and possibly scallops, do not agree with him). We didn’t get inside the Emirates Palace Hotel, but one of our awesome JCI dudes Anil promises to take us there next time (apparently there’s so much 24k gold in the place it’s even on the washroom fixtures).

Day 2 was busy busy busy, interviewing some customers (though, not as many as we thought. We got to one customer location and they had to cancel on us on the spot. They told us that Sheik Sultan showed up unannounced---he's the brother of the President of the UAE---and everyone had to scramble. Boy, if I had a dirham for every time I've heard THAT one....) and some employees---fascinating people, really. Lots of them are from India, however we spent some time with Taher, Palestinian by birth, carrying a Jordanian passport, who cannot go back to his native Jerusalem to do anything about their three homes there; Yasser, a Syrian by birth who grew up in Germany, and so many others….all very cool, very friendly people from far and near.

In fact, note to all my American pals who will read this: you gotta come here and visit (maybe not in the summer). The UAE is so nice, so clean, SO safe (when we went inside the Sheik Zayed Mosque---third largest in the world, THE largest in the world to allow non-Muslims to visit without some pre-arranged invitation,---we could bring still cameras, but not video. So I left my video camera on the floor of the car, and I think Taher only locked the doors so we’d feel better, because there is virtually no crime at all here..and I felt totally secure about it). I mean, not once did I feel anything but welcome here. English is very widely spoken, and…you see people who look very different than you, people who look like all the bad guys we see on our evening news at home, but they are just---people. Very proud, very successful, with wonderful, and deep traditions.

So, the Sheik Zayed Mosque. He was the founder of the UAE, very much beloved by his people (he's the guy at the top of this blog entry, and his picture is everywhere we went), and he's buried there. Anyway, it is more beautiful than it is huge. Chandeliers unlike any I've seen, and semiprecious stone inlays everywhere; on the pillars, on the floor of the massive courtyard, amazing. And of course, there was a surreal moment... We take off our shoes and walk in the door (Farhan tells us to roll up our pants a little, then they will think we are true Muslims), and as we step in two guys--light-skinned like me and Ryan--in traditional attire walk past, and one they look over as one says "hey guys, what's up?" in a clear, southern california voice. Then they stand there just a little behind us, complaining about the attention to detail inside! "Dude, did you see all the gaps between the marble and the stones? Man, they gotta kick it up a notch and deal with that soon. Not cool." At first we thought they were joking, but nope--they had issues! It took all we had not to explode in laughter at them. Anyway, we got a great look around, Farhan and also Taher explained the significance of some of the details we saw, and how the prayer service works....and it was fascinating, but it was also clear that these guys really enjoy their faith, they gain a lot from it, and it shows in how they live their lives.

Anyway, it was a great day, and the visit to the Mosque was an ultrahighlight (thanks in no small part to Farhan's wonderful explanation of what we were seeing), and I hope you enjoy the pics.

I have to give a very special shout-out to Farhan Qureshy, an absolutely delightful, professional, wonderfully insightful and knowledgeable gent who steered us through all that the UAE had to offer us. Great working with you Farhan, very much looking forward to seeing you in Chicago in August!

Our nighttime flight to Doha brings us to another country, another culture, another set of adventures, and after our shoot today I think there is a Qatar Cultural Festival that begins tonight we might have to go and check out.

an Earthquake in the UK?! Couldn't be...

2008-02-27T01:10:00.000-08:00

So, there I am...finally getting settled into my hotel room at the lovely Chesterfield Mayfair after a much delayed flight to London (nothing like snow at O'Hare to bullocks things up eh?)I sit down to take off my shoes and suddenly the building starts to rock and roll. It's a strange form of motion - not that there is a normal form of motion for a building to be making. Only lasted for 6 or 7 seconds and here in London it was just strange, not dangerous. Honestly, I imagine that if I'd already been asleep I might not have even woken up (might have caused strange dreams of being aboard a boat perhaps...)

But seriously? Earthquakes in London? very very odd. I sent off a message to Judith, who reported back that Barack rocked the debate in Ohio...I prefer to think that was what we felt here instead of the earth shifting itself around underneath our feet. :)

For the next week Mark will be posting from the ME and I'll be here in the UK, London proper and then the Isle of White to shoot lifestyle images of people with cars out in the real world. We've arranged to use the BMW 3 series convertible and a 5 series sedan. I'm certain that my sister and brother-in-law will approve of the choice. But more importantly they'll be perfect for the shots. What a shame that I'm too much of a dope to be able to drive on the opposite side of the road so I can't take either car out on my own... Oh well, being a passenger in one on the way to the shoot will be pretty good too.

Bai Bai Dubai

2008-02-25T19:03:00.000-08:00

Last day in Dubai today, and it was amazing. First part was essentially a scavanger hunt; traveling around the city to grab images of as many customer buildings as possible…which is quite a task, as the city is quite spread out. So we saw a lot (from the car, anyway), and the scale of everything is unreal…or so I thought. Because in the afternoon we traveled south towards abouut 20 minutes to another part of Dubai---passing the Burj Al Arab (the giant 7-star hotel that looks like a sail), which is so huge and stands out in a way that I’ve never seen captured on the TV shows that have shown it---and we got to an area called Dubai Marina. It’s like being in a New Building dealership. Well over a thousand brand new buildings, no two alike (many in the final stages of construction), each at least 30 stories high. The American University is out there, as is one of the two Palm Islands developments (The Palm-Jumeirah). These are the island arangements created through reclaimation, formed in the shape of a palm tree. It is just massive, containing business buildings, hotels, condos and homes for 300,000 people. The customer we visited provides the district cooling for a large part of the development (this is when very cold water is pumped thru underground pipes to converters that turn it into cold air), and from their 36th floor offices on the mainland we could just barely make out the shape of the palm tree. As the sun was setting we wrapped it up and made for Abu Dhabi, about 100 km away. Mostly we had deset on either side of us, and it took about 2 hours (Farhan said we could have driven through the desert, but that would have taken about 6 hours). Now it’s morning and the sun is just barely illuminating the beach below my hotel room window. I’m tired, but excitied, in that “New Emirate Experience” way!

Monday Morning Dubai Update

2008-02-24T20:28:00.000-08:00

Nice clear day (low winds, much less sand), delicious breakfast here in the room, flip on the TV, and....unexpected Live Academy Awards coverage moment:

A sandy day in Dubai

2008-02-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

Windy today, with more sand in the air than we've seen before. But it's still better than snow! We went to the Burj Dubai today--alas could not go up into it--but up close and personal you see what a truly massive tower it is. A great day, beat tired, so letting the pics speak for themselves. Last day of Dubai is tomorrow, then in the evening we drive to Abu Dhabi. Cheers all--

Disneyworld + Las Vegas + Rodeo Drive = Dubai

2008-02-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

Seriously---it’s no so much a city than it is a shopping theme park. Close to something like 50 malls, I think Ryan learned. And our awesome local client contact Farhan mentioned this afternoon that it’s coming to the end of the monthlong Dubai Shopping Festival. About the festival (from the world wide surfnet interwebby wire thing that Al Gore invented):

“Dubai is trying hard to rival Hong Kong and Singapore as a shop-til-you-drop destination. They've made shopping largely tax free and allowed merchants to import products from other countries with very few duties or tariffs. The result is that everything from gold chains to Ipods, Gucci purses to Persian rugs can be found in the malls and suoqs of Dubai at rock bottom prices. Whether you're looking for a new Ferrari or a new fly rod, chances are good that it's cheaper in Dubai.”

Anyway, Ryan got out and experienced some of this while I toiled on an edit in my hotel room for the day. I’m hoping he’ll do a guest-blog on his experiences today…his photos were amazing; from the older local men sitting on the sidewalk fixing their shoes to the interior and exterior pics of Ski Dubai, the world’s largest indoor ski resort (400 meter ski runs, 6000 tons of snow, housed within the Mall of the Emirates), to the Burj Al Arab hotel—the one that suggests a 300+ meter tall version of a dhow (local sailboat), and more.

Speaking of crazy buildings and the building frenzy here, a factoid from Ryan: 17% of the world's cranes are in this emirate, which is all of 1.6 million people contained in an area a bit more than half the size of Greater Chicago.

We shot some good interviews early Saturday evening, then hit Al Tannour, a nice Lebanese restaurant in our hotel, where there’s a woman seated over a sajj making lebanese bread for our meals. We had the traditional meal, which was like 20 courses of cold and hot foods; foods with which Ryan and I are both familiar, but amazingly fresh and tasty versions…like, someone’s grandma is back there keeping an eye out to make sure those cooking it keep it real. A band was onstage getting busy with somewhat traditional Lebanese music—Mahmoud Ray Vaughn on lead guitar—then the bellydancer materialized and began doing here thing, and our food got cold (go figure!). This woman was amazing. Even from our table we could see that she had unreal tummy muscle-flexing abilities. At some point an important looking, traditionally-dressed older man (in his Dishdashah and shumagg...oh, just go and google it!) cruised in and hunkered down in the back with a big hookah and got an eyeful of the dancer. Meanwhile Ryan and I, we think, unintentionally insulted the restaurant by eating maybe half of the food we had been presented. I tried to explain that, though it was all excellent, it was much more than we had anticipated, and I think (I hope) by the end the waiter wasn’t gnashing his teeth behind that Here’s Your Check smile.

Now it’s midnight and I’m back in my room backing up the interview footage while Ryan’s out capturing shots of buildings flooded with colored lights in honor of the Shopping Festival.

Tomorrow, Sunday, is the official start of the work week here, so we’ll be off to the Burj Dubai to do a customer interview and hopefully to go up to the top of the building and get some footage. If the Burj Dubai sounds familiar it’s because it’s the tallest building in the world (currently at just over 1900 feet, with 159 floors completed—that’s already over 1/3 of a mile, and they ain’t done yet!; the express lifts to the top will go 40 mph. I call it "vroom with a view").

Welcome To Dubai!

2008-02-22T13:46:00.001-08:00

The view above is from my window... That's the Gulf at the top of the picture, and if I had Superman's eyes I could see Iran across the water.

Flight from London was uneventful. I read, studied my Arabic language instruction, while Ryan kept track of our progress, looking out his window and gazing down on Fallujah and Baghdad as we passed over them. Ryan says there were fires in Baghdad--bummer. I was on the other side of the plane, so I think I saw Baghdad suburbs (Schaumburgdad?). I looked out my window a few times after it got dark, and amongst the miles of blackness that must be desert there were bright bright flames---quite a lot of them, from the oil fields I imagine. The airport in Dubai is humming at 1am. After a few interactions with large uniformed security guys wanting to inspect our bags (please don't confiscate; please don't confiscate!) we got to the meeting point for our hotel car. For all the hotel cars, actually. Then we went out and Hameed got us bundled up and so now here we are! We slid up to the hotel just as some stereotypical, middle-aged western businessmen were loudly, laughingly negotiating with a couple of asian ladies of the evening. They decided one was enough. Nice, eh? Makes you proud! Now it's just about 2am, and i'm a tad tired--go figure! It's not like I left my house 24 hours ago....oh wait, I did.

"Weed! Ah con see nuffin"

2008-02-22T02:59:00.000-08:00

Mark here. Ryan and I are chilling in British Airways 1st Class Lounge (i love being exec platinum/emerald!), listening to LOUD MEN ON CELL PHONES!! Crikey---it's a bit much guys. Flight over was quiet, and the night was clear. As dinner arrived we got nice blinky-light views of Toronto and Montreal. When the cognac course was done the flight attendant man came and closed all of the window shades and then it was nap time. We awoke to a bright London morning--above the clouds that is--then descended into the usual gray. It's very hot everywhere--in the plane, in the general areas of the airport, in the lounge now... We're a pair of sweaty bettys here. Since we are transiting through Heathrow we had to clear security again with our carry-ons, and the header of this blog entry is what Ryan heard the screener say when my bag went through (translation: Weird! I can't see nothing!). So, that's a camera, 5 batteries, 6 hard drives, 4 camera cards, wireless and shotgun mics, monitor, two computer power supplies, and a few other misc cables.

It hasn't hit us yet that when we deplane after the next 7 hour flight we will be deposited into a part of the world that is so compelling and interesting and...we just can't wrap our minds around it. But stay tuned, because if there ever was a blogworthy journey, this one is it; Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Riyadh, Jeddah (from which Ryan heads back, rests and reintroduces himself to his wife Patty for 4 days, before he heads to HIS next shoot in the Dominican Republic), Cairo (where Bobbi will be joining me for the rest of the trip--yay!!), Nersac (France), Bratislava and Trencin (Slovakia), and a few smaller places in the Czech Republic....then back in Chicago about a month from today. Zowie! Stay tuned yo--

It's only February, how can we already be beind on the blog?!

2008-02-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

Yerz trewly with Junior Seau and Kurt Warner. Shaking Junior's hand was like grabbing a ham--that's one big paw!
Really, does it get mo' better than this? Uh-uh.
On the phone with a client during our last few hours in Hawaii. She says I look like Toby Keith.

How cool is this? 5 hours before kick-off our very cool clients called and asked if we'd like tickets to the game. Um, YEA-UHH! And this is the view from our seats; 25 rows up from the field in the corner of the Giants' end zone. Wowie! Since we'd met and chatted with Peyton Manning earlier that day we were rooting for his little bro', and we were one row of Giants fans in an enclave of Pats fans. Pretty fun. Pretty loud, too. In the mens room after the game some of the Pats fans starting whooping it up and shouting "Go Celtics!" Love those New England fans....always looking towards The Next Big Thing.

Mark and I are prepping gear and finalizing details for our next big trip. I logged into the blog to see when we posted last to find, to my amazement, that even though it is only February 19th we are already behind by FIVE trips. It's been a whirlwind start to 2008, to say the least...

We got back from London on New Years Eve Day, since then Mark has been in Detroit, Michigan covering the Auto Show, I've been to Austin, Texas to do a really amazing field of flowers shoot which involved carting in over 6000 stems of daisies - and came with the added bonus of being able to attend Kendra and Mitch's really lovely wedding. That same week we flew to New York to cover the ASHRAE show and then had just a couple of days before getting to Phoenix, Arizona to cover the Super Bowl and events - . From there it was a quick three day break in Honolulu before covering the Pro Bowl and events as well. Phew! That brings us to the middle of February.

So, on Thursday Mark and Ryan set off for the Middle East leg of our current productions: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Riyadh, and Jeddah. I'll be starting in the UK for an extended lifestyle photo shoot and then meeting up with Mark in Cairo. We'll be shooting in Cairo for close to a week then off to Nersac, France and then Bratislava. It's looking like once we are in Slovakia we'll be running about to shoot in Trencin, Zilina, Namestovo, the Czech Republic and Ceska Lipa before we have to catch our train back to Vienna to get flights through London to get home to Chicago at the end of March.

We'll do our best to post photos and at least short updates to the Blog while we travel. So check back when you have some time, or need a break from watching You-Tube videos!

best,

bh

Ending the Year in the UK

2008-01-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

Last trip of the year for Mark and I...we jetted over the pond to London for a four day break from computers and phones (well, sort of), a chance to see some good friends--and to visit the REAL Hyde Park, where there happened to be a winter festival happening!--, and to work our way through the pubs and wine lists of a town we love. Also to pay homage to Harrods (note to self; NEVER ever visit Harrods during their post-Christmas sale. Mayhem abounds.)

We hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year celebration! We're back in Chicago now, enjoying the warmth of the fireplace and all the puppy love coming our way from Rosie and Napoleon (the best reason to come home that we can think of.)

It's been an amazing year for us, and we are grateful to have been fortunate enough to have met so so many wonderful people who we now consider friends and family all around the world.

Our best wishes to you all for the coming year!

The Kahunas - Mark and Bobbi

toddling in twizel

2007-11-24T00:13:00.001-08:00

The last days have been getting up before dawn and driving up towards the face of Mount Cook to shoot the early light on the snow topped peaks and then spending the day driving from one amazing view to another then staying out late to shoot the setting sun on the glaciated waters. This equals days that start at 4 am. and finish around 10:30pm Those of you who know me are chuckling right now at the idea of me being coherent in any way at 4 am. (not exactly known as a morning person) The whole routine makes for a sleepy Bobbi way to early at night, and with the days lasting longer here it is really strange to be ready for PJ's when the sun is still out.

I have to say, that there are some pretty funny things in this country. Like, I bet you never saw this on the local Sub Way menu:

And even though every one warned me that there are quite possibly more sheep than humans in this country, I NEVER expected to meet one named Shrek...who grows such thick wool that they can't keep up with keeping him trimmed.. There are pictures of him looking like a giant stuffed animal, but I'm here to tell you that a big woolly animal that gets wet smells way way worse than an old wool sweater!

And then there are things like this, a super old Ford that we saw stuffed inside a wooden shack at the back of a little garden/shop we stopped at to have yummy hot black currant juice...

and the really really big dog that helped serve us dinner last week...who wears a sign that says not to feed him.

Of course there is a whole lot of amazing too....The lakes near Mount Cook are fed by glacier water and snow melt so they are the perfect color of cyan..not blue, not sort of green.. cyan.. The blogger version of this image won't show it well, but this is a KRAZY color for water.

Oh, and just in case you can't tell how big the glacier blobs in this picture are, that tiny yellow thing is a raft big enough to hold twenty people in it.

We got to take a helicopter to the second highest peak next to Mount Cook so that we could shoot from the snow patch we landed on... seriously one of the greatest things I've done in a long time.. the space and views are just glorious... that really is the only word I can think of to describe it.

The Lupine are all blooming, so the landscape smells and looks amazing. We are fighting with the wind to try and get some good wide shots for clients to use, but even just trying is great work. To be honest, I may never want to see another Lupine again after this trip!

The next two days are wrap up days and travel back up the coast to Christchurch. I'm sorry to be leaving, but really glad to be getting back home to Mark and the puppies! As soon as I can, I'll post the real set of pictures for you all to see if you'd like .
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Holiday! I watched Women's Net ball (which is a really strange form of basketball with no backboard and girls that don't dribble the ball.) but even without pumpkin pie it was easy to spend time thinking of our friends and families and missing them a BUNCH!

best,

bh

a life time of experiences - a dirth of sleep

2007-11-20T00:35:00.001-08:00

long long day.... I hope it will be alright if I just post some quick selects of images taken recently. The bird shots aren't exactly my area of expertise, but just getting a chance to see them in the wild is enough to be worth it to me. so, please, forgive the snapshot nature of some of these...

Middle Earthy equals No Internet

2007-11-19T00:57:00.000-08:00

In the last 7 days I have traveled and shot in Christchurch, Oamaru, around the entire Otago Peninsula, the cities of Dunedin and Portobello (yes they grow the mushrooms there) and around Te Anau - Milford Sound.

I have gotten up at way too early and to sleep way to late on a regular basis to get to some locations prior to sunrise and then lay in wait for fog to lift off of mountain peaks and hiked about in amazing mazes of hides to see elusive creatures like the yellow eyed penguin (there are estimated to be less than 24 breading pairs in all of New Zealand, less than 1500 in the world) spent hours waiting for fog to lift from the top of Mitre Peak, shot dozens of images in vain trying to capture an albatross in flight (they may be big, but man are they fast!) and most recently driven 3 hours before dawn to catch morning light on waterfalls that feed Milford Sound.

Those of you who have enjoyed the visuals from the Lord of the Rings Film series may be able to appreciate this: The scenery is amazing.. the old growth rain forests are lush and the animals (Kea birds, Seals, Oyster Catchers, Sheep, Deer, Albatross, Penguins) are abundant... but the trade off is that the world that made up Middle Earth for those films...is not so internet friendly. All this is to say, sorry for taking so long for my next blog post. I'm sitting in a nice little motel room in Mildford Sound after a 17 hour day of early driving, shooting, waiting, shooting, swatting at the scary little black biting flies and more shooting. Tomorrow we get a "late start" and drive out at 8a.m. to See if Lake Manpouri has any pastoral scenes worthy of our clients.

I'm exhausted but happy.. too tired to really pull any images to show, so I'll just include two low resolution versions of the yellow eyes penguins that we waited in a blind at a special reserve to see if we could capture a glimpse of. I'm told there are less than 24 breading pairs in this country. In addition to some shots of a parent keeping an egg warm near a man made safe space, we managed to capture two more wild adults returning from the sea with food in their tummies to bring to recently hatched young. The pictures I'm posting here are of a single adult that waddled his lovely little fat body up from the beach and then after we watched him preen for quite a while he finally moved his way up from the sand and right past where we where hiding on his way to his little family. I was hoping to just be able to see one from far far away... this little man walked past us and then stood with his back to us contemplating his long waddle home and then trudged his way across the grasses to his spouse and new born to trade places and watch the nest.

I hope to be able to post more soon. We should have access to the internet for the next couple of days.. then we are on our way to Queenstown. so there should be some shots of kingston flyer railway line (this is all in the remote area where a lot of the Lord of the Rings was actually filmed...

Mark and I love it when you guys add comments to the blog ( you don't have to register or anything...just click on the comments link below this posting and let us know how you are and or say Hi etc. it makes us feel like there are people we know out there when we travel!

best regards from Middle earth!

bh

The Bee Gees and The Rain

2007-11-13T13:33:00.001-08:00

Breakfast this morning was at a little place next door to the motor lodge...how very Route 66 of them. Except of course for the menu itself, I don't think Marmite and 14 grain toast with passion fruit filled yogurt was ever served to people with white wall tires on their rides. For those of you who haven't tried Marmite, it's a salty sort of brown paste made from yeast that turns out to be pretty tasty on toast...they swear it is good for you, but it does make me wonder if I'm turning the wheat from the bread I just ate into some form of beer in my tummy with all that yeast.

It took me a moment to decide if I wanted any after being offered a pot of "plunger coffee" maybe it is the jet lag, but my first thought was of scary use of plumbing equipment and not what basically turns out to be a French Press. I'm sure the waitress thought I was daft when I had to ask "so, the plunger coffee, it's made here?" The best thing about this place is also the most strange: The Bee Gees are blaring through the place...not just a single song from a play list, but whole albums now I have the song "tragedy!" stuck in my head and indeed it is one...

Yesterday was "cup day" (this is part of the week long horse racing and shows going on here in Christchurch.) So, besides the obvious racing and horse shows, there is apparently a contest for things like best hat and best dressed people.. with outfits that would have made Eliza Doolitle proud (as well as the Queen Mum!) But the best part is this: one of the prizes goes to a category titled "Edge Dress" which would appear to be whatever outlandish costume a person is willing to show up in.. the winner? A woman wearing only a hat and skirt with the rest of her outfit painted on. I'm no prude, a full salute to anyone daring enough to go for it...my issue is that it was less than 60 degrees yesterday and this poor woman was using pink paint to keep warm!

It's raining in a way that only New Zealand can conjure...now I know how this place stays so middle earthy green! But we can see the sun trying to burn through on the horizon line so this afternoon's shooting should still be a go. We are 18 hours ahead of central time here so the whole today/tomorrow thing won't make any sense, but Wednesday morning we are leaving Christchurch to Grab shots near the Selwyn River and then over to the Pacific Ocean to a town called Oamaru. Looking forward to lots of beach and Moeraki boulders to shoot there.

The curious healing powers of a good soy latte!

2007-11-12T18:16:00.000-08:00

Travel is a funny thing...for me, it isn't so much the actual time in the air, it's the total time it takes from leaving our home with freshly packed bags to dragging myself through customs and arriving at the first hotel. I've added it up...door to door from Chicago to Christchurch (with a stop in San Francisco and one in Auckland) comes to 34 hours of travel. When you add the whole international date line craziness of loosing an entire day just for dipping a bit too far to the west, it makes me tired to think of it.

I'm trying to keep myself awake until something that resembles evening time so that I can get onto the schedule (It looks like we will be getting out at dawn every morning for the next two weeks to catch the best light) which meant dropping my bags off at THE CAMELOT MOTOR LODGE (yes, there is indeed a suit of armour in the lobby - with a new Zealand scarf on it.)

I walked through the center of Christchurch (that's Canterbury Christchurch by the way) and then around a large park and over to a wonderful little coffee shop called VIC's. A shop full of tasty treats all made from organic veggies and eggs, with a staff that brought me a second latte for free when they found out how far I had traveled to be there. An interesting mix of two people studying physics books and others who are debating who is going to win the "races day" tomorrow. (horse drawn carriages no less!)

Parts of Christchurch very closely resembles those small countryside towns right outside of London. Little cottages line the streets and every garden is so crammed full of roses and other flowers that the scent is intoxicating.

The photo tour starts tomorrow, we'll be at the harbour and light house location first and then moving on from there to to the Banks peninsula.

I'll be posting the photos from this trip (the ones that don't belong to our clients, or the book I'm working on) once I get back to the states.. the photos in the blog will be from my iPhone = which was exclaimed to be a "magic tool" by the clip board carrying flight attendant who's name was actually MURRY! (if that means nothing to you than I must insist that you join our social discourse by going to itunes and downloading at least one episode of "flight of the conchords")

Even after only a half day here I feel safe in dubbing this the land of the painfully polite... When handing you your coffee the shop staff say thank you, and when you leave even the smallest of tips (man the money here is COOL!)
you get such an effusive "LOVELY!" that it's almost embarrassing. hmmmmm, maybe I better check the exchange rate again and make certain that I'm not doing the conversion backwards and leaving 120% tips eh?

More tomorrow after a day of exploring the Christchurch area with a proper guide...

Ships that pass in the night?

2007-11-10T16:58:00.000-08:00

Mark got back home from Bulgaria this afternoon, Tbilisi is still under a state of emergency so the decision to postpone that leg of the trip was clearly a good one... The puppies are so glad that he's back that the two of them are piled on top of him while all three take a much deserved nap.

I'm busy packing my camera gear and getting ready for my flight that leaves tomorrow morning. I'm on my way to New Zealand.

Spring has just begun in the southern Hemisphere, so this should be an amazing time of macro/nature/landscape shooting. 14 days of traveling around the South Island and then a day in San Francisco to shoot at two wind farms should just about fill every bit of drive space I have with photos.

I'll try to post some of the New Zealand sites as I travel - not sure I can do as good a job as Mark has done with the Blog so far, pictures are my thing...not words, but I'll do my best!

Sweet & Savory Sofia; It’s Bulgarilicious!

2007-11-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

INDIA ADVISORY: When you travel out of the country, beware: though they seal your checked luggage after it goes through security, it’s meaningless; some bastard broke the ziptie I watched them place on my bag, opened it up, dug thru and stole my trusty leatherman. Grrr…

Anyway, on to Sofia… What a cool place! We had a nice sunny day under the watchful gaze of the snow-capped mountains, which the local ski buffs are no doubt eyeing with anticipation. Magical MotoMaggie, and our very cool drivers Latchezar and Spas, took us all over this compelling city. It’s quite interesting; there’s a deep history—Roman ruins and all that--and very fabulous old buildings (especially the old Communist buildings, like Party HQ)….but they’re not all that old, as the city was bombed heavily during World War II (Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Axis…oops!). But the parks and the fountains and all the very nice people were just a treat. Passed a fun flea market, in the shadows of the cathedral, that seemed to be dominated by old wristwatches and very authentic old Nazi stuff. I must say, I was very tempted by a Nazi-issued Leica M2 camera, but…nyet for me. Bulgaria in general, and Sofia in particular, is yet another place I very much want to explore again—especially knowing that Sofia überambassador, the lovely and very well-connected Maggie, is here to help. But for now, it’s 5pm on Friday, and in about 12 hours our client Paula and I leave for the airport and flights home. Suffice it to say, it’s been ANOTHER truly amazing global adventure, and it’ll be wonderful to see Bobbi—even if only for half a day—before she goes on HER solo adventure, to New Zealand. Be sure to stay tuned to the blog, as Bobbi hits the keyboard with her adventures starting next week!

Crazy travel continues; Bombay to Bulgaria

2007-11-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

Apologies if this rambles a bit---it's been a wacky 48 hours. Bombay day #2 was great, headed over to New Bombay actually for our shoot--excellent interview. Crazy driving in Bombay. In fact, I'm convinced that all automobile travel in India would cease if the technology of the car horn didn't exist. Somehow we got to and from where we needed to be, then back to my hotel for another fabulous dinner, then a nap in the lobby before my overnight flight. Left for the airport at midnight, and even then the streets of Bombay were teeming. So much activity. Our 10 hour flight to London commenced at 3am, so already my body clock is all upside down. I slept well on the plane--woke up briefly as we flew over Tehran...a clear night, so I could see the well-lighted city very well, and also the stars--millions of them! Landed London Heathrow about 6:30am, then transfered to my flight to Sofia, Bulgaria. Got to a sunny but rather chilly Sofia about 3pm...me and almost all of my bags. Turns out my gear bags, with tripod and lights and chargers and such, didn't make the flight. And our interview with the customer was set for 10am the next morning. Fortunately, the magical Maggie, of the local Motorola office, was able to secure the necessary rental gear....with only 2 hours left in the business day! That was----Wednesday, right. So, she and our client Paula brought the gear to the hotel, and I was able to check it out and of course it was all great and I was relieved---until about 11pm, when the extreme need for pepto bismol kicked in with a vengence. And so I was up all night--stomach cramps and worse...a very unhappy system indeed. Fortunately, Thursday was an easy day--four interviews, all in the Motorola offices. Got done with them, got back to the hotel midday, and alternatively slept and kept an eye on the BBC. Why? Because the next stop on my production tour is supposed to be Tbilisi, Georgia--which has just declared a news blackout and a State of Emergency. So now it's Friday morning and the rising sun is just kissing the snow-capped peak of Vitosha Mountain, and it feels like the bad, bad stomach bug has passed, literally. And with reports in this morning's news about the current goings-on in Tbilisi....water canons and rubber bullets and tear gas and journalists being beaten and their gear confiscated or destroyed....we've decided that the Georgia leg of the journey is off. So it looks like Saturday is now a big travel day home.

Mumbai

2007-11-04T21:42:00.000-08:00

This is the most incredible place I've ever been. Somehow I had the presence of mind to consult with the concierge, who mapped out an all-day itinerary for me then sent me off with the most excellent hotel car driver Milind. Highlights included being chased away from a temple with my camera by a man with a big gun, and the best meal I've ever had. I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

Special Report: Delhi

2007-11-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

OK, so, it’s the 3rd of November still, and I’ve stepped off an airplane and into the early 20th century. As we descended into the brown haze that I believe envelopes this city all the time, we passed over vast numbers of squatter “communities”, also insanely bad traffic, and people washing their clothes and bathing in water that looked filthy, even at 1000 feet. But I also saw some cool stuff, like kids happily playing cricket in a dirt park. Then we touched down, and we rolled past the Indira Gandhi International Airport’s main Fire Station---and the firefighters were playing volleyball. Anyway, we got to the gate, got thru immigration, then out into The World. The Third World. First, there are two different sets of terminals here—International and Domestic—and they are about 8km apart. This involves a bus. I got past the armed guards at the entrance to the Domestic Terminal transfer lounge, and then out towards the free bus to the Domestic terminal—but, no driver, and no information posted. While looking about and trying to make sense of whatever, I was accosted by a smiley, lying thru his teeth cab driver who tried very hard to lure me into his car for the drive to the terminal. Thankfully my “I call bullshit” mode kicked in and I blew him off (he finally heard me after the 10th “go away”), walked around the outside of the terminal and past the teeming masses hovering around the area for—I don’t know what, got back into the terminal past more armed guards, then back in to the lounge, and THIS time I chose the approach of the lemming and stuck with the crowd. Which involved sitting in the lounge and waiting. At 6pm the driver called to us, and on we went to the bus. An armed guard accompanied us as we drove across the airport grounds to the other side. At which point we crossed out of the secure area and in to “regular civilization”. Great googly-moogly, insane-oh! Zillions of cars and people, and more than a few cows and dogs wandering about freely (we’re talking, on the grounds of the airport, here). It’s like Bartertown* with a smoke and curry odor coating (*Mad Max fans, help out the non Mad Max fans). Perhaps the funniest thing was passing two cows, and then an Avis facility…as if anyone with any sense of self-preservation would drive here. As we navigated zig-zag-style across a roundabout, I took note of signage welcoming one and all to the World Toilet Congress and Exhibition (I’m not making this up). Anyway…. I’m through security and awaiting the departure of my flight to Mumbai. Oh, security! Besides the fact they’re all armed with various forms of machine guns, these guys look just as tough as nails and the guns all look like they’ve seen ‘business’. Anyway, kind of hungry—opted to not attempt the airport Indian food near the ticket counters (I guess it would just be know as “food” here)—I’ll see what the in-room dining at the Grand Hyatt has to offer.

UPDATE: Great meal on the flight! In fact, best Indian food I’ve ever had—and on an airplane! So, got to my hotel in Mumbai (somehow, I don’t know---very scary cab ride in a very scary cab), turned on the TV at 1:30am to find that Pres. Musharref has declared Martial Law in Pakistan, 400 miles away. Pakistani supporters are the ones who seem to delight in doing bombings in Mumbai once in a while, so…yay, that’s exciting.

Hey-yo from Tokyo

2007-11-03T13:16:00.001-07:00

Got very bizy sleeping hard in biz class from Jakarta to Tokyo—a solid 6 hours or so, then awoke to see a beautiful sunrise over the pacific (I think), then on in to Tokyo. Flight not nearly as bumpy as that to Jakarta, thankfully. The cab to the hotel was the reality-check reminder that this place ain’t cheap; 22,000 yen from Narita Airport to the Westin Tokyo….that’s over $200 to you and me! Checked in right at 10a then, since I’m not on the clock again until 3:30, dumped my gear and headed right back out to Harajuku and the spectacle that is Takeshita Dori. Bobbi and I were here in May when the place was in full swing—a warm Spring day, and the punked-out-schoolgirl thing is pretty fun to see (check the pics from that trip), but on the slightly chilly and overcast Thursday in Autumn, not so much with that scene. But there were still lots of schoolkids on class breaks (I guess) hitting the shops and the McDonald’s. I popped in to this cool eyeglass store that we found back in May, and proceeded to do the exact same thing I did last time; spent an hour trying on all the bizarro frames they had, then walked out with nothing. Oh, I could have gone überfashionista big time, but it just didn’t feel right (especially since Bobbi and I both just got new glasses in Paris 6 weeks ago, and that’s when it struck me, again; this is the second round-the-world trip in as many months, which is just crazy. KRAZY!!). Walked all around the Harajuku area, hitting a few shops to see all the fun items, and enjoying the ability to use my iPhone as a wifi device (I popped out the SIM card from my iPhone and placed it in the combo 3G/GSM unlocked Motorola phone I got off eBay, which one needs if one wishes to use a mobile phone here that thinks it’s your regular mobile #). There I was, strolling about, sending and receiving emails from Bobbi, compliments of all the free wifi hotspots that are, like, EVERYwhere in the area, and all over Tokyo in fact. Then it was back to the hotel to grab my gear and off to shoot some b-roll….right back at Harajuku. But by the time we got there a slight sprinkle was happening, so not so much with the exterior shots (until later, when the rain stopped and the pavement, acting like a black mirror, made the neon-drenched streets look veeeery cool). Got back to the Westin and my grand plans to go right back out, to Ginza this time, were thwarted by an urgent need to consume a lot of the pepto bismol I cleverly brought with me. I think it was the spicy lunch I had at the little Chinese place (I know, I know) across from Harajuku Station. OK then, plan B—put all batteries on charge and hit the sack early.

TKO Day 2 was actually, amazingly, a normal-type business day. We alighted from the hotel for the Motorola offices at 8:30am, shot our interviews and a some b-roll (with a fish and chips lunchbreak at an English Pub place on the ground floor of the ThinkPark building where we were), then it was back in a cab for the hotel about 5:30pm. As my client Bethany raced through some emails to India in her room, I hit the hotel’s humidor for a delicious, authentically-Cuban Monte Christo, then on into The Bar to enjoy it and a few fantastic glasses of my favorite bourbon, Blanton’s. It’s a small-batch, single barrel Kentucky bourbon that is just soooooo smoothe. More like a cognac than a bourbon. Anyway, after Bethany came down we were off to Ginza for a walkabout, a visit to the Apple Store for supplies, into a few shops, then down to the matter at hand; sushi. Back in May, Bobbi found this delightful sushi place for us, and so that’s where I took Bethany for a Thanks For The Gig dinner….and it didn’t disappoint. I know some who are reading this view sushi as expensive bait (hi Mom), but this stuff was sooo tasty and fresh. And, as before, when Bobbi and I were there, Bethany and I were the only foreigners in the place, so you know it gotta be good.

And now it’s Saturday the 3rd of November, Bethany heads back to the US and I go onwards to work with her colleagues. Most of my day has been spent in an airplane—from Tokyo to Delhi (and then on into Mumbai later this evening). We took off and, once above the clouds, there was Mount Fuji, like a postcard. Across Southern Japan, then across the East China Sea, then directly over Shanghai, which looked amazing (bright sunny day and a crystal clear view of the city). Very bumpy across most of China, then it chilled out as we approached and crossed Bangledesh. Now we’re descending into Indira Ghandi International, and I’m being very politely encouraged to wrap it up. Back ‘atcha soon with the report from Mumbai!

Trick or treat, Jakarta-style

2007-11-01T04:06:00.001-07:00

A busy day in Jakarta (where the official language is Bahasa….not Indonesian, and I had doofily assumed)…a busy day that began with sun!! We love the sun…until we step outside and realize we’re only about 6 degrees below the equator as the instant-on sweat bath commences. Man, I mean, like, POW—a million tiny faucets turn on all at once. Thank goodness the A/C in Pak Dikdik’s minivan blows ice cubes. Got to the Motorola office in good time and got some interviews in, then we zipped across town to the Indosat building (the customer we’re here to interview) for some b-roll shots. Cool place sort of near the US Embassy, and within sight of the largest mosque in all of Indonesia (I think that’s what our local motohost Feri told us…it’s the place with the big Eternal Flame-type monument). From there it was off to the actual location for the interview we were there to shoot….at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. Does that sound familiar to you? It did to me….and you can see why from the picture in Aug. 2003. It was bombed, badly, by the same idiot extremists who did the Bali bombing. Most of the lobby and a lot of a restaurant we’re blasted away (along with a lot of people). I read they found the suicide bomber's head on the 5th floor. Anyway---that’s where we spent our afternoon. Lobby looks better now, eh? Feri said we’d be ok---the interview was scheduled to happen on like the 30th floor, high above where any bomb could have an effect. That made us feel safe! Wrapped up our interviews as a big gray thunderhead came across the sky---lightning, but no rain. Then it was off into the evening traffic jam as we rolled out to the airport for the JAL red-eye to Tokyo.

If it’s Tuesday it Must be Jakarta

2007-10-30T17:46:00.001-07:00

It’s the gray season here in SE Asia. Alighted very early from the hotel in Hong Kong and headed out to the airport—the sky was lightening, but there’s just this eternal haze. Same thing Monday in Zhongshan. Bethany and I wondered if people ever see blue sky here. After passing thru immigration and passing a mini version of The Bean in Chicago (this one’s called the Dew Drop, I think. Fun, but not as well-polished), we made our way to the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge where we had cappucinos and watched a report on CNN International on recent plane crashes in Indonesia. The debate seemed to be: Pilot error? Endemic problem with Indonesian Air Traffic Control? Either way, it sure brightened our spirits as we waited to board the plane for our flight to…that’s right, Jakarta! I couldn’t help but have this in the back of my mind as our VERY turbulent flight took us down over Vietnam, across the equator, and in to Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta Airport. The approach to the airport took us over very tropical areas….lots of red-tile roofs, and lots strewn with gargabe. The sky was, of course, gray. The airport itself is kind of like an overgrown airfield---one-story buildings, very tropical greenery and architecture---it’s not a big hub or anything. Bought my Visa upon entry (very painless), considered the “Death Penalty for Drug Smugglers” signs in the airport (very painful), then gathered our stuff and out we went to meet our driver, Pak Dikdik. The drive in from the airpot took us past swollen waterways (the Jakarta Post reports that high ocean tides have resulted in flooding that’s wreaking a bit of havoc in North Jakarta, sort of where the airport is), and Pak Dikdik did a great job of dodging the incessant lane-changing of his fellow drivers. As we got in to the city we got off the highway and onto some of the tiny tiny local streets on our way to the hotel. Motorbikes everywhere, and wee little 3-wheeled cargo vehicles called Bajaj weaving to and fro. Bobbi’s cousin Marc was right; the poverty here, and the highly visible disparity between haves and have-nots, is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. SUVs and Mercedes driving amongst street after street of begging children, garbage, and meandering (somewhat insane-acting) goats. Intersections are scary---everyone racing through them, jockeying for position as the street children who beg at the stoplights try to stay out of the way. Our arrival at the hotel was like we were entering a mini Green Zone; guards check under and inside each car before its allowed on the property, and they also enter the car with some sort of electronic sniffer and check us out, the driver, and the glovebox. Then we get to the front door, but can’t enter the lobby until we pass through the metal detectors. Once inside the Shangri-La Hotel, it’s all immaculate service and highly-attentive uniformed personnel…and a fair number of armed guards. We checked in and I got to my room just as the 3pm call to prayer was being broadcast from the local mosques (there are many here; one right across the pool area from my room). Then we headed to the Motorola offices for a pre-pro meeting, and entering that facility was the same thing; vehicle inspection, metal detectors, and many armed guards everywhere. The gray, very humid skies persist (we are told it will be like this for about 4 months), but we’re very much looking forward to Wednesday….6 interviews, lots of b-roll, then a dash to the airport for the red-eye to Tokyo.

A Visit to the Jewel of the Pearl River Delta

2007-10-29T07:26:00.000-07:00

What a great and busy day! After accomplishing a hat trick of Getting Dressed, Eating Breakfast and Reinstating My Mysteriously-Cancelled Flight Reservation (for, um TOMORROW!)—simultaneously, I would add—we got off to a bit of a dicey start as we got to the ferry terminal here in Hong Kong and discovered there were more people in our party than passports, but a mad dash back to the hotel was executed and all was well. Our excellent motoclient Bethany, the fabulous, local motowizardress (is this a word?) Daisy, and I departed for the 90 minute ferry out of Hong Kong, across the bay (Zhujiang Kou), past Macau, and up the Pearl River into mainland China----destination Zhongshan, in Guangdong Province. We passed all manner of vessel—from big container ships to crafts that looked as though they were homemade back in the 1920’s and had been renovated dozens of times with only found objects. The scenery shifted from mountainous big and little islands on the Hong Kong side to flat delta marsh like areas on the mainland side. Up the Pearl River we went, through immigration and customs, and into the waiting arms of Leo, the Motorola customer relations specialist for the local China Mobile Group Guangdong Co., Zhongshan branch. The main reason for our visit was to speak with Mr. Zhang Zhi Ping, a most wonderful and helpful interviewee/host, but—as we were to learn later—an even better lunch host and Zhongshan ambassador! As expected, everyone at Mr. Zhang’s office was extremely nice and helpful as we brought the natural turbulence that is on-location video production to their environs, but with their help we got through it all quickly and with ease. Then we were spirited off to a fabulous lunch, hosted by Mr. Zhang, which began with warm corn juice and Roast Pigeon, then went on to include fish balls (at this point I ask my mother to hold her tongue), octopus, delicious baked/glazed tofu, prawns, and various other meats, fishes, and vegetables—and pineapple buns, which have no pineapple in them but which are amazing in their deliciosity! Our drive back to the offices took us by way of the beautiful park and memorial in Zhongshan dedicated to its most famous son, the great Dr. Sunyat-Sen. And to commemorate our visit, Mr. Zhang gave us each the most wonderful gift—a beautiful book about Dr. Sen, and the City of Zhongshan. Talk about a lesson in hospitality! After a few remaining b-roll pick-up shots back at the China Mobile offices it was a mad dash back to the harbour and our 3pm ferry back to Hong Kong…which we made with, literally, a minute to spare.

A nice nap was had by all on the trip back—nothing like hard work then a comfy seat that gently rolls with the sea to knock you right out. But there’s no rest for the weary, and we were in a cab and off to the local Motorola office to talk to some more people and shoot some more b-roll…because we can, and we like it! The very nice and patient Tom Tse gave us quite a good interview, then we wrapped for the day….13 hours after we started. Now I’m back in my room, ingesting footage and ingesting a club sandwich and some diet cokes as I get the gear (and myself) ready for tomorrow’s odyssey—the flight to Jakarta.

Fun fact: Zhongshan is the birthplace of Dr. Sunyat-Sen, but it’s ALSO the birthplace of our friend Stacey’s new daughter Macey, (an absolute cutey as you can see) whom she picks up in a few short weeks!! Yay Stacey and Macey!

Small World Moment: On the flight to Hong Kong from LA yesterday I sat next to a woman who 1) is interviewing for a job at Moto Corporate—interviewing for a good friend of ours’ job (who’s retiring), 2) works at a place where Bobbi used to work (Bobbi recognized her name), and 3) is very good friends with a very good, former Motorola friend/mentor of Bobbi’s, in Austin (where the woman and her family now live…for the moment).

Rolling with the Punches of the Punjab

2007-10-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

God love India. It probably benefits more from outsourcing than any other country. Chances are we’ve all experienced that call with someone in Mumbai trying to help sort out a questionable charge on the credit card bill, or help with a minor technical problem with the laptop. The calls can be a bit of a challenge language-wise, but they’re always very polite and trying to get things solved quickly. So guess what India did? Starting at the beginning of October they outsourced all their US-based Visa application and fulfillment operations…to the biggest bunch of typical, impolite, inept, hourly American I Could Give A Shit workers you can possibly imagine. 40 of us were there for well over 2 hours, watching as the line never moved, watching as no one walked past with smiles on their faces and passports in their hands, watching as 6pm came and half the staff walked out “hey, it’s quitting time, I’m out of here!”. Unreal. Check the pix—those are disorganized piles of passports strewn all over the office, and with every request a search through EACH pile ensued. “Sorry, your passport’s not here”. “But you didn’t check those piles over there.” “What? Oh, wait, yeah--here it is. Sign here. NEXT!!” I actually got the daughter of the Vice Consul on the phone and suggested she call her Dad on his mobile so he could get someone down to prevent the anarchy that was brewing. Eventually I got my passport back with my Indian visa…I don’t know what happened with the other 15 people who were in line behind me--someone send them some sandwiches.

Bobbi says this is a preview of coming attractions. I can’t wait.

And so the latest trip begins---an early morning flight out of Chicago to Hong Kong (via fire-haze filled Los Angeles), then a series of quick 2- and 3-day jaunts to Jakarta, then Tokyo, then Mumbai, the Dubai, then home. Stay tuned as the fun ensues, won’t you? It’ll be something indeed.

Buenos Aires: Exploring a wonderful city

2007-09-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

The tango show Friday night was just amazing. Sadly Bobbi was in the hotel trying to persuade all the goo out of her head so it won’t pop when we fly home—can’t wait to bring her back and see it again. The place was a dinner-and-a-show affair, so the tango performance was sort of like dinner theater. Clearly there was a thread going throughout the various solo singing, tango numbers and band-only interludes, and I didn’t understand it (note to self: study Spanish before coming back!), but it was awesome. Very physical dancing, and girls with meat on their bones—nice to see! Wonderful music too (from a fabulous band)—very dramatic. Saturday morning greeted us with sorta sunny skies, and Bobbi was feeling better, so off we went. Got some nice gift-shopping in on Calle (BA-pronounciation: “Kai-sjay”) Florida, then further up a nice early and gianter-than-expected lunch at a great old, wood-and-brass encrusted place called The Richmond. We opted not to go around the corner to the ABC, an old German place where, in the mid 1950s (my Dad reports), serious-looking men with scars on their faces would come in to eat and the waiters would greet them with a resounding click of the heels. Eichman used to frequent the place then as well, he says. From there it was a long stroll to San Telmo, which is a very cool part of town with neat old buildings—some virtually abondoned, some very nicely restored—and it’s clearly the arty and boutiquey part of town. We stumbled up Estados Unidos and found the old San Telmo Mercardo, from 1897, which is still a market but now has antiques dealers all over, as well as the food vendors—butchers, vegetable sellers, and the like. Definitely worth a visit! A few blocks up and we found what we were looking for—Nonna Bianca, “Helado Artesanal”, or as we say it, DAMN yummy ice cream! Bobbi had the dulce de leche with walnuts and rum, and I kept it real with straight dulce de leche. Oh man, it was...just exactly what we needed after walking halfway across the city. After that I discovered a beautiful leather coat—they ain’t lying when they say this is the place for excellent leather!-- then it was into a cab and back to the hotel is pack up and check out. Got all that squared away, then back out into the city, and back up to San Telmo (it’s a night flight, so we got time! Yay!) for some more looking around the ‘hood. Wandered into an outdoor flea market and found some more fun items we needed to have, such as the scarf Bobbi bought from the little old lady who knitted it--then strolled the streets some more and down past Eva Peron Park to the waterfront area. It’s actually the old locks-and-docks section, where block after block of beautiful old warehouse buildings have been restored to house many restaurants, the Universidad Catholica, and so forth. Our excellent driver from yesterday, Julio, had recommended a Cuban Restaurant to us along these blocks—a place called Tocororo—and it was great. Got a table on the waterfront side, had some of the best Mojitos ever, some ceviche, some coconut shrimps, and a smattering of many different kinds of Cuban cuisine. Pablo our waiter was great, and very very interested in our iPhones. The sun was setting however so it was farewell Pablo, farewell Tocororo, then back to the hotel for the switch to the airport car and say farewell Buenos Aires. Got ourselves checked in and all set, then settled in for the overnight flight to Miami. I unglued my eyes as we passed Cuba, then braced myself for the guaranteed-not-fun of clearing customs and immigration, and connecting, in Miami. The experience was all true to form, but now we’re on the flight for Chicago and preparing for the lovefest with the puppies and the kitties, and for my sister’s arrival this afternoon from London, and for seeing my Dad, and all is good.

It’s been not only a productive trip, but just such a wonderful experience. To all the very nice people we met all over the world who each really went out of their way to help us feel comfortable and to help us experience their cultures and cuisines, we cannot thank you enough, we can’t wait to see you again soon, and we hope you’ll let us return the favor in Chicago some time!

Fun facts
Days away: 21
Number of different lodgings: 11
Miles travelled: about 40,000, each
Best hotel: St. Regis, Beijjing (so so comfy, plus they didn’t kick us out when I tried to burn the place down with my electrical shenanigans)
Wurst hotel: Four Points By Sheraton, Koln
Best airline: It’s a tie (JAL and British Airways)
Number of times travelled through Heathrow: 3
We ate: Indian food in Hong Kong, Cuban food in Buenos Aires, Italian food in Tokyo, and French food in Germany
Best overall cuisine: Barcelona
Best meat (and we ate a LOT of it, everywhere): Entrecote, in Paris
Best ice cream: Buenos Aires
Best driver: Mr. Yin (Beijing)—but Julio in Buenos Aires is a VERY close 2nd
Most pleasant surprise: Buenos Aires—this is an amazing city which we VERY much look forward to exploring many, many more times; we must be Porteños at heart!
Least pleasant surprise: the fly in my flan on the Iberia flight from London to Barcelona
Weirdest television experience: Ladies World Cup Soccer coverage on Al Jazeera; also, tourism commericals for Mauritius, Maldives, Qatar, Dubai, and Croatia in Paris
Best technology ambassador: the iPhone—security screeners especially were all excitied about it, and then very nice to us; also the HD monitor on my rig in Tiananmen Square—even the army guys and police were looking over my shoulder at the images.

That’s it, until next time!

Buenos Dias Buenos Aires

2007-09-21T10:01:00.001-07:00

Spring is in the air! It’s Friday the 21st, and actually it’s the official first day of Spring. Schools are closed and lots of people are out walking about. The grass is green, and the trees are budding (my hope is to leave before my usual spring allergies wake up and smell the pollen). Yesterday when we got here we were more than a little burnt out. Why? Well, we left our hotel in Paris on Wednesday at 2pm, took a cab to a train to London into another cab to Heathrow onto a plane for Buenos Aires then into a cab for our client’s offices where we shot three interviews (and had a very nice little lunch of empanadas) then into a cab destined for our hotel (passing, along the way, a motorcycle shop where a huge, tricked out chopper was being polished under the watchful gaze of three color-wearing members of Hell’s Angels Argentina). By the time we got to the hotel we figured we’d been on the go for about 33 hours. Then we watched Latin American Idol and fell asleep.

Buenos Aires is an interesting city—a most definite european influence, but it has that somewhat-worn latin american thing going on, and not much separates the more-forgotten parts of town and the fancier parts of town. The famous obilisk is wrapped in the colors of Argentina and Germany, as they celebrate and commerate 150 years of diplomatic relations. The obilisk is in the center of the Av 9 de Julio, which is like fourteen lanes wide. I think it was somewhere near here where my Dad was in the mid-1950’s, hunkering down on the floor of the AP Bureau during the Revolution, as the percussion from the tank fire was lifting him off the floor. It still feels like politics is quite a sport here (people accusing each other of being Peronistas in the newspaper, that sort of thing). And there’s graffiti all over the place, mostly just the name of one of the presidential candidates, a guy named Lavagna, over and over and over again. We got out early and tried for some morning sun shots—starting with The Pink House (the White House of Argentina, home of the Executive Branch)—but el sol is hiding from us. Why is The Pink House pink? When it was constructed it was meant to show peace between the two dominant parties of the time: Los Federales, whose emblem was red, and Los Unitarios, known as “the white ones”. Anyway, our very nice driver Julio (formerly of the Cuban Navy, who believes that any problem you have can be sorted out if you go and just spend some time on the sea) is being patient with us as we wait for the sun. Got a quick cloudy stroll in along the San Martin park/square (where our hotel is located) then along Florida street, a store-packed pedestrian street, had a small snack of french food (quiche) and italian coffees—yes, we are dorks—now we’re back in the room once again awaiting bright sun and blue skies. Julio thinks it will happen soon, perhaps around 2pm. Forgot to mention breakfast this morning! So, we get the little continental breakfast and there is a tiny jar of dulce de leche, which brings happiness to the taste buds and brings back big memories of being 13 and watching my step-grandmother Alice, my step-aunt Nancy (my stepfather was born here I think, and their entire family spent MANY many years in Buenos Aires) and my mom all making dulce de leche in the kitchen. Ahhhh…., sweeet. Anyway, we continue to wait (it’s looking promising!), and we’re told that tonight we’re to go see a Tango, and perhaps we can find some yummy milanesas, or some sort of asado restaurant.

Au Revoir Paris; Now it’s under and over the seas

2007-09-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

Another non-stop Wednesday greets us. Bobbi and I awaken still happy and full from our excellent (though late) entrecote. Got to the Le Relais de Venise last evening about 9:30 (after getting some nice sunset shots, then lightshow shots, of the Tour Eiffel, the Invalide, the Ecole Militaire, etc.) and of course the queue was fairly long. Finally got in the door about 10:45, then it was up the micro-stairway to the more intimate, completely lacquer-red upstairs dining room. Once seated we got the two questions: how do you want it cooked, which wine would you like to drink. It was…just perfect, the best way to end this leg of the journey. Major props to Stephanie in Austin for the fast intel! Anway, back to Wed AM… Bobbi organized our many items and got a box of books sent back home while I did a quick edit for our client’s upcoming Board meeting. Then the fun began: the too-long cab ride to Paris Nord station and the Eurostar platform; the Eurostar systems not finding---then finally finding, 10 minutes before departure--our pre-paid reservations; the very fast and fun and nap-inducing train ride through the northern France countryside in uncomfy, 2nd class seats. One thing we like about the Eurostar experience is….when you start in France, all announcements are first in French, and then in English; once you pop out on the other side of the Channel, the announcements are first in English and then in French. And vice versa. Anyway, our arrival at Waterloo was normal until Bobbi discovered that there are no loos in Waterloo once you exit the secured Eurostar platforms area. Who knew no loos? Perhaps a sign or an announcement might have been in order. After another long queue we stuffed all three of us and our bags into a black cab destined for Heathrow. Had a very nice driver who somehow managed to drive us past some of our fave places; the little pub across from Parliament (one of the ones with a Division Bell inside it which alerts Members that it’s time to drink up and head back to vote); the very clean and white Westminster Abbey (seems they’re cleaning all the important buildings up in the city; nice!); the Cabinet War Rooms, down along the gardens and past Buckingham Palace, then past another fun pub (the Bag o’ Nails), through Kensington and Chelsea and, 71 pounds later, to Heathrow Terminal 4. Discovered the 30 kg bag limit that BA has in Heathrow, and after some quick re-packing (hope our dirty laundry bag makes it to Buenos Aires) we were squared away. Next bit of new knowledge came when we learned about the VAT refund scam. In Paris we bought some small items. As you leave the EU, when you attempt to get your VAT refund on small items, they ask to see them. (“What, are you kidding? They’re packed! What kind of a scam is this?”). So after some huffing and puffing by me, followed by an apology by me, we got our VAT refunds sorted out, banged back some tall drinks in the British Airways lounge, and boarded our flight; 12 hours to Sao Paulo, a quick layover, then a few more hours on to Buenos Aires where we hit the ground running!

Factoids: BA Business Class seats on the 747; the most comfy yet! This is the first time either Kahunas have been below the equator (and the toilets do flush counterclockwise)!
Fun update: We’re still on the ground in Sao Paulo, and the new batch of passengers is boarding….and they are quite enthusiastic and loud! Viva Brasil!

Paris sweet Paris

2007-09-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

A beautiful weekend in Paris, and even though we were both sick during most of it and stuck in our hotel room, we did manage to get some good shopping in. Of course, it helped that we were 2 short blocks off the Champs-Elysées, in a beautiful Art Deco hotel called the Prince De Galle. We managed to ding the Mont Blanc store, as well as a cool eyeglass store (new specs for us both—tres chic!). A few delicious Leffe beers and snacks at some of the lovely sidewalk cafes on the Champs helped keep us fortified. Mostly it was a room service weekend, although a few unexpected benefits of this approach included: Wild Wild West (the original series, not the lame-oh movie) and Casino, both dubbed into French. We also watched some French League soccer on a local arabic-language station, and of course the Rugby World Cup is happening here so that was on everywhere. We’ve been enjoying the OJ story from afar, and it’s cool to be here in France while Sarkozy and his crew bang on Iran. Monday we visited our client’s local facility in Colombes (much to the taxi driver’s chagrin), and met some very nice people, then it was back to the room to continue to rest and do some office work. Our attempt to get to Montmarte for dinner was thwarted by a cold drizzle (we’re both trying to get back to being healthy before our big flight to Argentina Wednesday evening, otherwise we’re worried our heads may pop). Today (Tuesday) we went to visit our client’s customer, a huge European defense and security company—they make drones and fighter aircraft and oh, by the way, the entire defense shield for Qatar—and it was something. Some places we could go, most places were off limits. The clouds are coming back in this afternoon, so it’s another chill-relax-ingest footage session before our last supper…which we’re hoping will be at an EXCELLENT Entrecote place we’ve been to before that’s just around the corner from the hotel…Realise de Venise. Tres tres bon!

Doing the Deutschland

2007-09-16T03:47:00.000-07:00

Bird poo on the seats inside Barcelona airport—weird, and yet somehow poetic (you think you’re expert in the field of traveling through the air? Take that, and that!). Flight to Frankfurt took us through London Heathrow again, and another visit to the BA Business Lounge where a very vapid don’t-wanna-be-a-mommy was ignoring her VERY LOUD daughter’s vocalization of every single synaptic pulse she had. The businessmen were sending eyeball daggers towards the mommy, who would see them and kind of smile back, as though responding to perceived wordless advances. Got to Frankfurt and got into a cab—turns out the hotel was in another terminal of the same airport, and we could have gotten there via airport terminal train, but we were tired and loaded with gear, so instead we ruined a cabdriver’s night. Thems the breaks pal. Airport hotel was almost eerily silent—we heard not a single airplane. By the time we crashed it was clear we’re both coming down with little chest colds…all that travel and being in a world of smokers had caught up to us. Next morning it was up early and off to the IAA show in downtown-ish Frankfurt. Our client’s booth was WAY cool, and the concept car they were showing was sweeeet. Got to see a few other booths (Honda was showing motorcycles in their booth—and we saw one with a deployed airbag. Wouldn’t getting hit in the chest with an airbag while on a bike just pop you right over the back of the bike?) Then it was off to the Frankfurt hauptbanhof to get the rental minivan, collect our colleague Lee back at the hotel, and hit the autobahn for Krautscheid. Driving on the autobahn was fun; not so fun in a minivan, but I got her up to 170 km/h, and that was cool, but there were dudes overtaking me in their tricked out audi’s and bmw’s and benz’ like I was standing still. It was a beautiful afternoon as we zipped past Koblenz and got to our ausfarht. Our man in Krautscheid is Dr. Frank Toubartz, who runs our client’s facility there—the most advanced lead-acid battery recycling operation in the world--and his directions were great, although the last part (“just head down into the valley” made us a little wary (it was very “turn left where the old Müller place used to be”), but lo and behold, there they were, in the little valley a few km from beautiful downtown Bücholz. Being a sunny afternoon we got the idyllic exteriors first—cows and horses and rolling hills in the foreground, and the plant in the background—and then we got the presentation on the facility, which was pretty fascinating and full of history (there have been lead mining and smelting operations on the site since 50 B.C.,). Feeling well-prepped for the next day’s production we went to our nice little no-internet-access DorintResorts hotel in nearby Windhagen-Siebengbirge. Frank joined us there for a dinner of German-style French cuisine as we heard American pop music from the 50’s to the 80’s wafting in from the bar. Something about drinking a really tasty weisbrau and eating a very tasty bistec while hearing the details of how “Black Betty had a child, bama-lam, the damn thing went wild, bama-lam” was hurting my brain. Nothing a good night’s sleep couldn’t fix, and that’s what we got. Next day it was getting to know all the dirty yet very cool details about this amazing lead-acid battery recycling operation. Like, that they recycle something like 4 million car batteries a year, producing 50,000 metric tonnes of lead for reuse. The smelting was as you’d imagine it—very hot, lots of red, molten liquid metal everywhere—but also there was the unexpected, such as the popping sounds of big lead pylon-shaped forms cooling in the yard and the sight of the heat-shimmer they produced. We all looked a bit silly in our safety shoes and hart hards and coats, but hey, this is lead smelting and refining we’re talking about here, and we got right up-close and personal with it, so if they’d wanted us to wear clown noses and fright wigs for added safety we quite happily would have. By late afternoon we were done and on our way to Koln. Traffic into the city was yucky for a while, but we found our way to the hotel, right there across from the Koln hauptbanhof (behind the killer-huge Cathedral in the city—the Dome). Bobbi was feeling particularly pooky and wasn’t able to join the ultrafast but fun Koln tour conducted by our excellent JCI friend and colleague Thomas, who bopped in from nearby Burscheid. He took Lee and me around to see some of the nearby Roman sites—amazingly cool—then to Peters & Bambeck for some of the local kolsch beer, brats and dumplings for me, and goulash soup for Lee. We finished up just as some rain was passing, then off we went for a short stroll up the Reihn River for some fab nighttime city views. Thanks for the microtour and visit Thomas—can’t wait to see you in Milwaukee in a few weeks, where we can return the favor and tour such historical sites as the Blatz Brewery building, made famous in Laverne & Shirley!

And so now it’s Saturday, coming up on day 14 of the odyssy. From our train window we saw the heavy mist settled over westernmost Germany, but the sun is out now in Belgium, and it looks like it’ll be a beautiful weekend in Paris.

It don’t suck people, no indeed it don’t.

That's A Wrap, Barcelona-style

2007-09-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

Another great day of production, on Catalunya Independence Day. The city is sunny and quiet, as all have gone out to enjoy the holiday with their grandmothers. After shooting home interiors and up at the big castle--Mont Jouic (sp?)--we made our way to La Bodegueta del Poble Sec, a bustley little old place on carrer de blai, a few blocks up from the Paral-el, and we enjoyed a proper, 3-hour long Catalonian wrap lunch. Wonderful foods—grilled vegetables, marinated olives and eggplant, lots of different sausages, tomato-infused breads, bistecs and pork and LOTS of wine. Wine which we consumed from a porro, making for competative, therefore plentiful, consumption. It just felt like the tastiest way to celebrate the holiday and a job well done. Got back to our room and crashed, we are told, in true Catalonian fashion, sleeping all through the night. This morning, Wednesday, our last morning here, we are again greeted with bright sun, giving us what we needed to make one last pass around town to capture images of Barcelona’s most iconic structures. Oh and also giving Mark his first chance to see the Mediterranean!

Huge thanks to Marc, Nuria, Esther, Dustin, Piao and The Bad News Bears for showing us this wonderful city—we can’t wait to come back! But now it’s time to watch Bobbi do her McGyver impersonation, attempting to set-up her iPhone for hands-free viewing on the plane’s tray table as we wing on to Germany and the excitement of the IAA Frankfurt Auto Show.

Barcelona observations: many here ride scooters, and the drone of them makes the city sound like it is under constant attack by the world’s biggest mosquitos; trying to eat your way through the huge variety of the region’s cured meats is the tastiest impossibility one can encounter; until you understand the local spelling of “tapas”, you’ll think there are record stores in almost every restaurant; La Rambla has the largest concentration per capita of statue people in the world (of all materials—copper, bronze, AND marble….and they seem to peacefully coexist quite nicely!)

Barcelona--Paris By The Sea

2007-09-11T00:33:00.000-07:00

For the shoot here we rented a car—to be used as a picture car, so we got a convertible—and what a great way to explore and experience the city…top down and creeping up and down La Rambla (no, we did not purchase any of the iguanas), around Placa Espanya, up and down the Gran Via and the Diagonal—fabulous. By midday we had secured the rest of our gear and the sun was coming out, and it occurred to me that this part of the city very much resembles a mini Paris except for…for what? The beach people! Lots of beautiful tanned beachgoers walking among the old buildings and trees and tiny tiny lanes. Marc describes it as Paris-meets-San Diego. True, true.

The sun out, we head to our first location, and Bobbi got some very nice shots with our local talent at the Parc de La Ciuadella, a huge greenspace that was in the midst of preparing for Tuesday’s Catalunya Independence Day celebrations, then we all enjoyed a nice little lunch with very tasty…and interesting…foods. The rest of the day’s shooting continued with much success, then it was off to recce tomorrow’s locations and to reward ourselves with more tasty, bad-for-you cured meats and cheeses and San Miguel cervezas.

Factoid del Dia: so far we’ve each travelled about 15,000 air miles

A Lovely Day...in Bartha Town

2007-09-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning, 8am. We’re half a block from the mostly-empty Plaza Espanya (Eh-Shpan-Ya). Mostly-empty save for those still out from the night before, like the posse of black-clad soccer hooligan types who pass on their way to the bodega across the street that was still open. Marc met us with Piya (sp?) in tow, the four-month old quadruped who is the new addition to the Marc-and-Nuira familia, and who was very happy to taste all that the street had to offer. We strolled in vain in search of coffee for some time, then settled on a place where the café con leche and the jambon sandwiches were muy muy bien, and the freshly-squeezed orange juice was phenomanal. After our fortifications we ambled towards La Rambla by way of a cool old bookseller’s market, then into the many intricate little streets that make the original Roman part of town so amazing. In some places you can still see original Roman foundations. Marc told us that, centuries ago, many of the streets in the area were controlled by guilds, and the historical impact still remains—we walked along the road where all the chocolatiers did—and still do—a brisk, sweet business. And each little street/guild has its patron saint, embedded in the walls for all to worship.

After rubbing elbows with centuries-old walls and hearing the near and far church bells, lunch started to sound like a good plan, and the Catalan tapas place Marc steered us towards offered the perfect munchies. I guess this region is not known for its tapas, but Marc has sussed out all the great places, so---it was good. Happy again we transitioned from Marc’s flat to Le Meridien Hotel, which is right on La Rambla, and got familiar with the concept of siesta. Ahhh, siesta. Bobbi thinks this needs to be a new RRBI company policy. I said we should sleep on it.

Up and out for a proper Barcelona dinner at 9pm, we met Marc and his better half Nuria, and their friends Dustin and Esther, and walked to a wonderful dinner at Origin 99.9. It was sort of tapas I guess---little-ish plates of food---and amazing. Wonderful little meats and cheeses, spinach pies and canalones and romesco peix and carrot soup and a few bottles of delicious wines from the little village Esther is from. An altercation between Nuria and Esther ensued about what gets rubbed onto the bread---garlic only (as in Nuria’s village) or both garlic and tomato (as in Esther’s village), but in the end Esther’s approach prevailed and all was tasty and good. Happy and full at 12:30a we ambled back along La Ramblas towards our hotel and off into dreamland.

What a difference a day makes

2007-09-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

Mind warp. Awoke in Hong Kong at 6am Saturday; now it's beddy-bye time, 24 hours later, in Barcelona, and yet--it's still Saturday. The long leg of the flight was 6000 miles and took us over Central China (quite bumpy) Western Siberia (bumpy), the Urals (bumpy), and on into London (cloudy). Tip #1 of the day; don't load up on pork dumplings for breakfast, like I did in the Cathay Pacific lounge in HK, lest you part ways with them unhappily, like I did in the British Airways lounge in Heathrow. Tip #2; try to avoid Cathay Pacific Airlines. Nice staff, terrible seats (but good dumplings...however, don't be seduced by them!). Tip #3; don't waste your money going Business Class on Iberia on a within-EU flight. Same seats as Coach, with the added pleasure of icky food (a fly in my flan). It's nice and cool here in Barcelona, and Bobbi's excellent fixer-cousin Marc was at the airport to greet us and steer us into the city and his swell little casa. Now it's time to try and sleep before tomorrow's recce fun commences.

Bye Bye Beijing, Hello Hong Kong

2007-09-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

Our evening sup in Beijing of Roast Duck with Chicago pals Shelagh and Mike and new Beijing pal Nancy was amazing, then it was up early Friday morning for one last mini-road trip with Mr. Yin—the 5am sprint to the airport, and hardly another soul on the road. Boarded our Cathay Pacific flight at 7:15, and after 3.5 hours of waiting for the local engineering crew to “fix something in the cockpit”, we were off to Hong Kong. Our intended arrival time of 11am having been extended to 2pm, I was still looking forward to the thrill of that real scary approach and landing, basically in between the big buildings like you see in all the movies…alas, there’s a new airport on a peninsula about 45 minutes from the center of civilization, so it was more like landing at LaGuardia. We were a bit amused by the large banners in the airport tram area advertising the upcoming Chinese Toy Builders and Suppliers Convention in Shanghai later this fall…will anyone attend?

We alighted from the terminal to find a quintessential Southeast-Asian late summer afternoon—the thick, showery, muggy haze sticking to us like a fine glue….and we did not rejoice. The drive in to the city past all the mountains was nice though, and after we crossed Tsing Ma, the world’s longest road and rail suspension bridge, we drove past a never-ending sea of cargo docks and the most gigantic collection of shipping containers I’ve ever seen. Who owns all those containers, how in the world do they keep track of them, and by the way…what in the world is in them?

We’re in the Sheraton, on the Kowloon side of the harbour--about a half-block from the waterfront and up on the 14th floor with, we are told, an amazing view of the Hong Kong side. The weather prevents us from enjoying it much, except at night, but we can see enough to know it’s way worth coming back. Our stroll up the Nathan Road past jillions of people trying to sell us Rolex watches and cameras and foot massages was uncomfortable on a number of levels—wicked muggy and damp and very jostley—so we opted for the relative calm of Kowloon Park. Later in the evening we caught some of the 8pm light show, where many of the buildings up against the harbour do a sort of coordinated light and split laser thing that’s pretty cool.

Now it’s time to prep for the fun that starts tomorrow at 6am…the main course of 13-hour flight to London, with a side dish of 3-hour layover at Heathrow, then for dessert a 3-hour flight onwards to Barcelona. Yum!

Sayonara Tokyo, Nihao Beijing

2007-09-06T03:29:00.000-07:00

Up early in the land of eternal humidity to enjoy an instant persperation-fest right out of the shower as we engage in the obligatory last-minute packing. The cab to Narita Airport was quick and unencumbered by traffic—yay. The most excellent Admiral’s Club awaited us as we danced past overpriced Duty Free and fake foods. What’s so great about the Narita Airport Terminal 2 Admirals Club? Self-serve open bar with lotsa booze and Asahi beer on tap at all times (not that we’re drinking---this is a working day as soon as we get to Beijing---but gosh it’s nice to see it), nice selection of nibbly snacks and self-serve espresso drinks, little tiny yogurts, and on and on. The only downside is it’s All CNN All The Time, and really, there’s little that can bum you out more quickly than Wolf Blitzer going in-depth on Jerry Lewis’ open mouth/insert foot boo-boo. Really makes you proud to be an American, and makes me wonder; what other poo can we export to the World? We’ll find something—we’re dependable that way.

Our exit from Tokyo is very timely; a typhoon with 100 mph winds is set to hit the city in a few days, so…glad to miss that, and hope all our new friends in Japan make it through ok—and hope our colleague Lee makes it out of the city ok for her Friday flight to London. Flight to Beijing on JAL was very cool mostly because the 747 we were on had a live camera shot from just above the front landing gear, going into all the cabin and in-seat monitors, with the pilot’s POV during the entire flight, and seeing that perspective as we took off and landed was stunning…and during the flight you could also select to see the straight-down view from the underbelly of the plane.

Familiar faces of our Across China friends were in Beijing to greet us and take us to our first location, the Johnson Controls auto seat and interiors plant, then it was off to our hotel. I demonstrated my ability to revert into doofy boyness by--not once, but twice--blowing all the power to our room when I tried—not once, but twice—to plug in my 110 volt power strip into the 220 volt line using only a plug adaptor and not also a transformer. Nothing like the smell of electical smoke on the 17th floor of a hotel in China to make you feel safe and secure. Thanks to the hotel engineer all was put right and the offending and burnt-out power strip was removed from my possession.

Thursday morning it was off to Tianenman Square for a quick visit with The Chairman, as Nancy from Across China convinced the local Beijing Police and the Army guys that we weren’t journalists, and to give us 10 minutes. Then Mr. Yin and Nancy took us to the grounds of the Olympics to get some more shots of the key buildings. Our perspective from the 3rd floor balcony of one of the worker’s buildings inside the fence was great, however the accomodations for these guys is as bare-bones and user-unfriendly as it gets (What? No wifi? No indoor plumbing?), and the smell of human waste in the hot summer sun was…like the worst subway station in the US magnified by a factor of 10. When we got back in the car Mr. Yin sprayed the air inside the car with some strong stink-away as we crusised back to the hotel and a nap.

Now it’s time to primp for a farewell dinner of Roast Duck as we prepare for a 5am checkout and flight to Hong Kong.

Really Really Pooped Kahunas

2007-09-04T05:56:00.001-07:00

Kinda feeling like a band on tour here—breakfast in the room, then off on multiple, long cab rides, seeing a lot and meeting a lot of very nice and helpful people, now back in the room with room service and just as pooped as we can be. Our first jaunt was to Ayase, outside of Tokyo, and a visit with some cool automotive interior design people. They design, prototype, and build car seats here. Sounds not so sexy, but the whole process and the care they put into it throughout is pretty amazing. Plus—who likes an uncomfortable car seat? Not me. And…could EVERYone be nicer and more accomodating? Even the cab driver who got lost more than once as he brought us back into Tokyo for the 2nd part of our shoot? Nope…even after I asked him, in Japanese, if we were far from our location (I dig the phrase book). We noticed that school was in full swing…lots of kids in uniforms with the internationally-recognized expressions of resignation on their faces. Part 2 of our day was a visit with the folks from Johnson Controls who are the carriers of the original torch of JCI---building systems and controls. These are the people who make sure buildings are comfortable and safe and efficient, through hardware and software they develop, as well as through remote facility management. Push a button and watch the AC click off in an empty building across town—and see the happy building owner’s face. Again, not so sexy, but when you’ve been in hot or dim or elevator-challenged buildings, you sort of appreciate what they do. But again, now we’re back in the room, ingesting the day’s images and footage, as well as some miso soup and donburi dishes (Japanese rice bowl type meals) and it’s all looking and tasting fine. Tomorrow it’s up early and back to the airport for the four-hour flight to Beijing, where we hit the ground running and settle back as the amazing Mr. Yin, Beijing driver extraordinaire, makes it possible for us to do our jobs.

All Times Are Local

2007-09-03T02:38:00.000-07:00

It’s our mantra for this amazing journey. Has to be, don’t you think? Eight cities, four continents, an estimated 34,000 miles in the air (plus a few train journeys and car rentals), all within 22 days…talk about “If It’s Tuesday This Must Be Belgium”! The egress from Chicago on Sunday morning seemed too easy—so much gear, yet so little luggage!—and resulted in Bobbi and me spending the car ride to O’Hare trying to figure out what we forgot. The airport was quite empty, the heinous holiday travel occurring on either side of the weekend. The men’s room was also mostly empty—no Senators that I could see (Bobbi said I didn’t try hard enough)—so it was off to the gate with a detour to the land of Bloody Marys. Met up with our colleague Lee, who heads up one of the reasons for our adventure, then it was off to First Class (let’s hear it for Bobbi cashing in those air miles!) and 13 hours of pampering and ample carry-on stowage space. Somewhere over Alaska we blinded ourselves with a glance at the glaciers below, then we drank more wine and napped in our flat seat-beds. It’ll be the afternoon when we get to Tokyo (as I write this we’re over the Bearing Sea, having just crossed and the International Date Line, so it’s already tomorrow and I’m already baffled), and I envision a mellow evening that might include a trip to Ginza for sushi.

This is an ambitious trip, and we must give mad props to our clients at Johnson Controls (you should buy their stock---they rock the house. Also the car. Also the workplace), as well as Marianne at Fletcher, Becky at Zacuto, Ross at Ikan, and Crystal at Wolf Camera, all of whom came through in the clutch with essential gear; our guy Ryan who will be driving the Really Really Big bus while we’re on the road; our new guy Alex who’ll be hopping on the Really Really Big bus while we’re away; and Ruthie, Jerry and Judith, who are pulling amazingly awesome house/dog/cat detail.

LATER, THAT SAME DAY (or is it the next day?)... After a 22,000 yen cab from the airport we're now firmly planted in the Hilton Tokyo in the Shinjuku area (our travel book headline: "Shinjuku; shopping and sex on one side, skyscrapers and views on the other"), and it's a very nice room with a very hard bed. I guess this isn't one of the sex hotels. Seems to be a thing throughout Asia--very hard beds. We head off to our locations tomorrow via car (we were going to go by train, but being that Shinjuku station is the busiest in the world--where all those scenes of people being stuffed into trains are shot--all concerned thought a cab would be better and safer for us), but tonight it will be a few sakes and some nearby sushi if we can find it, then off to lala land.

Home Again Home Again

2007-08-15T05:55:00.001-07:00

But just barely!! I just spoke with Scott, who reports that on Monday, 40 miles from home, going at speed with traffic (80 mph) at 3:30pm on I-25 near Fort Collins, CO, his back tire blew out. Talk about soiling your chaps! Good thing he's got the experience to know to not touch the brakes. Sounds like his getting the bike off the road was also an ordeal....those wacky Colorado drivers. But he reports that it's all good, he's fine, was just bummed that he couldn't majestically roll into his driveway, conqueror of all things motorcycly. No word from Alberto yet--hoping all's well with him, sure that it is. Other than that, I guess this is the postscript, cuz I'm happy and slightly sunburned and vibratey and home. Quite an adventure; about 2950 miles (the last 1000 of them over Monday and Tuesday) through some of the prettiest country I've seen. Thanks to all who've been following along and rooting for us, hope you enjoy these few more pics from Sturgis. Stay tuned in the next few weeks....we'll be blogging during our next trip as well--a production trip around the world!

Off Into The Sunrise

2007-08-14T03:55:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful morning, but it’s hot already as we load up and prepare our steeds for the dashes to home. After a fine array of breakfast tacos and a final cleaning of the condo off we went; Alberto heading west then south for Utah then on to Vegas, Scotty back down through the Black Hills on 85 towards Interstate 25 then blasting for Boulder, and me….one last pass through Deadwood and through the beautiful Black Hills towards Rapid City, and on to the endless ribbon of Interstate 90. Even though it was in the upper 90s for all of my 550 miles, with an evil crosswind coming from the south, it was still quite pretty---through Buffalo Gap, then the Badlands, then the—I guess the Nothing Lands alllllll the way across South Dakota, then across much of Minnesota to Albert Lea, MN, and a well-deserved jacuzzi suite at the HI Express. No new pics for this post, so just some more of Sturgis for you to enjoy. By Tuesday evening I’ll be in my comfy cozy home, and even though this has been such a great trip and fun adventure…I just can’t wait to be home again.

Everyone Loves a Happy Ending

2007-08-13T05:35:00.001-07:00

What a day what a day. We were wheels-up at 9a, and the guys were nice enough to back me up as I limped on one grumpy cylinder from Lead back into Sturgis. Our search for a BMW-friendly mechanic proved fruitless, so---we took advantage of last-day sales, and some awful food (I did, anyway). Finally we got back to the bikes, and Scott had an idea. So he popped the cover of the offending carb, fiddled around inside for a few minutes (“what is this lone ball-bearing doing rattling around in here?”), and after a few attempts and a few pints of spilled gas in the Harley Davidson store parking lot, he got the cover and gasket back on just so and…vroom!! Two cylinders---the Beemer is back and purring like a little german kitten! Danke Scotty, the hero of the day! The trip is complete--Or so I thought, because….check it out; on our way back to the condo we stopped in Deadwood, and wandered in to the Number 10 Saloon, where Wild Bill Hickock was shot, for a few cold beers (the day started cloudy and chilly---66 degrees in Sturgis---but by the time we got to Deadwood it was back up in the 90s, causing undue thirst). During our 2nd round, three women walk in and meander up to us, and start to be very nice and friendly and chatty/jokey with us, so we buy them drinks. Turns out they’re South Dakota-licensed Exotic Performers, here working as body-shot girls at One-Eyed Jack’s in Sturgis, and it was the end of their last day in town before heading back home. We got the lowdown on the job (lousy tippers, cruddy wages, poopy conditions overall, lame that the state made them each spend $100 to get licensed as exotic performers), then we took them to an early dinner at the Deadwood Social Club. Food was ok, waitron Amy was very nice (a budding music teacher who, upon request from one of the girls with us--also named Amy--sang us a song), and…it was great being just three nice guys who were being hit on—sort of—by these women. A happy ending indeed…which could likely have been happier if we’d taken them up on their oft-repeated invite to come as their guests to the One Eyed Jack’s staff going-away party this evening. But, you know, we each got the chicks we want. And Monday morning, Alberto’s birthday, we make our separate ways back to them, full to the brim with great memories of an excellent adventure none of us ever thought we’d do or even want to do.

Beauty And The Beasts

2007-08-12T07:30:00.001-07:00

What an amazing day! Up early for a morning run to Crazy Horse Mountain and to Mount Rushmore, via the winding byways of the Black Hills National Forest. Scott beat his beast into submission with a new battery for his security fob, then we were off. Just a beautiful morning run that took us through the way-cool Deadwood, SD. The Crazy Horse Mountain sculpture is a work in progress, and it’s in answer to Mount Rushmore (“Tell the white man that the red man has his heros too”—that’s how it started, from the mouth of one of the Chief’s who fought Custer at Little Big Horn to the Gov. of South Dakota back in the 30’s). Then off we went to Rushmore for a look-see. Four stoned presidents above, lots of little chipmunks below zipping about and keeping the place clean. As we parked there Alberto was showing us the stock linkage that he was planning on switching out for something cooler when we got back to Sturgis; on our way out of the Rushmore parking lot guess what? The linkage on his beast crapped out. Who knew linkages had ears? One zip tie and two bits of wire to the rescue then we proceeded to Rapid City (we tried to find the Nemo road, but it was too well hidden). It was getting past lunchtime, so we beamed up the interstate towards Sturgis. My beast almost ran out of gas—thank you reserve tanks!—but a quick stop and I hooked back up with my guys. We toodled around Mainn Street Sturgis again, Alberto got his replacement linkage and had it installed, so his beast was happy as could be. With the sun getting low we aim for home, and 12 miles from home PFFFT, my beast gets very grumpy, losing power. Seems I’m running now on one cylinder, which is not good. So Sunday morning’s goal—limp back into Sturgis and find a mechanic who can bring the BMW beast back to life. Stay tuned! OH HEY, ALSO--check yesterdays post below for new pics!

Sturgis

2007-08-11T06:45:00.001-07:00

The concept of 200,000+ bikes in one general area is an interesting one, and when you actually experience all the bikes on the road it’s very cool, but then when you get to Main Street in Sturgis---wowza, unreal. So many cool bikes, so many really nice people (even the guys running the Hell’s Angels store were nice), just a blast. After Alberto got his bike bikini-washed we toured some of downtown Sturgis and sampled a few of the cold beverages that were being purveyed. Saw people and bikes from all over the country, and quite a few riders from overseas. But it was about 100 and so we needed some wind to cool us down, so we took our first run. One of the things you do is to go on rides (runs) in the Black Hills, because the roads are stunning, so we started small with Spearfish Canyon. Jutty cliffs, some nice waterfalls, a little stream alongside keeping the temps cool. Scott continues to have to spank the security technology of his bike—I wouldn’t want to be the rental guy in Boulder that Scott will be meeting with on Tuesday. Anyway, I’m hoping to somehow get the software to get to the pics, because a picture is worth a thousand words, and a picture of tens of thousands of bikes is worth, like…a lot. Saturday it’s off to Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and who knows where else.

Onward Ho!

2007-08-10T08:19:00.001-07:00

Bright beautiful Boulder, home of Dot’s Diner “Where Folks Get Their Yolks” (eventually), and meeting point of the AC/MC. Don’t we look bad? A guy in a Prius said he loved our colors, thought the name of the club was hilarious, then he described the old days in Boulder when there were guys who did actually ride around town in chaps, and no pants underneath. Whee, then Ouch! Anyway, Scotty led us up into the mountains for a beautiful ride up to Estes Park and back down to the flatlands, then we hit hiway 85 North for the 380 mile run to Lead, SD and our condo (we are so so bad, don’t you think?). We endured a heinous smells just south of Ault, CO—Scott said it was bean processing….smelled like bean processing by a thousand old men with digestive issues—then we continued through the little towns and into Cheyenne, WY, where there is a HUGE Union Pacific yard, complete with airport-like control tower. We stopped to wet our whistles in Torrington, WY, and while Scott learned that the Harley Davidson security system is apparently made by Microsoft (it was the lack of intuitive interface and refusal to work that gave it away to us), Alberto was entertained by Ricky Hill from Deadwood, who just got thrown out of a bar across the screet for fighting. Alberto gave him gum. Ricky smiled (no teeth) and said thanks. After success with tech support, Scotty fired up and we were off. Wyoming was beee-utiful, and enormous. The elbow room motif continues big time. We crossed into South Dakota as the sun was going behind the trees and the canyons leading us to Lead were amazing, a portent of things to come. We hit the market for dinner supplies and liquid supplies as Scott demonstrated the feeling after a 427 mile day. On Friday, we are Sturgis bound! But, what will it be first? The ladies cole slaw wrestling? The pickle eating contest? Who can say…?

Elbow Room

2007-08-09T05:01:00.001-07:00

Remember the Schoolhouse Rock short "Elbow Room"? Well, Western Nebraska and Eastern Colorado still got plenty of it. Lots and lots of expansive beauty full of nothing. No wonder the native americans fought tooth and nail to keep it. Hiway 30 and the Pony Express route led me out of Ogallala, NE towards the Colorado state line. Just as I crossed into CO (now on hiway 138, following the South Platt River) I observed an old yellow biplane zipping around over nearby fields--no more than 100 feet off the ground--and at one point thought I was in North by Northwest when he started flying towards me (the only thing on the road). I think he was just doodling around, practicing his cropdusting. Anyway, I then stumbled into Julesburg and D & J's Cafe. The breakfast special was quite special indeed (I took Dave's advice and went for a biscuits and gravy-laden item...and glad I did!) and just the fortification I needed to head onwards to Sterling. Cruised through towns like Crook, Ovid and Illif, then got to Sterling where I picked up State Hiway 14. And boy oh boy, what a ribbon of road. It takes you through the Pawnee National Grasslands, which are stunning, and as I rounded the curve near Briggsdale there they were--the Rocky Mountains, appearing as shadows off in the distance. By the time I went through Ault I could see the snow in the higher elevations. During a quick rest-my-bum stop in Fort Collins I got a text message from our guy Ryan (who's from Boulder) with a killer through-the-mountains route to Boulder. Kudos to Ryan! It was amazing! Hiway 34 is the Big Thompson Canyon Road that goes up to Estes Park (elev. 7500 or so), then hiway 36 takes you back down a different canyon road and on into Boulder. Met up with Albert at the hotel here and after a few cold ones then an evening of sushi at Haba in the Pearl Street Mall area it was off to lala and dreams of Thursday's Big Run to Sturgis.

Great Googly Moogly-it's Ogallala, by golly!

2007-08-07T17:29:00.000-07:00

Ogallala, Nebraska. The end of a rainless day's ride. I'm happy but pretty burnt. The Lincoln Hiway across Nebraska is very pretty. And mostly desolate. Most of the cool old roadside places are closed, but there's enough evidence of them to make you feel ok. You pretty much mark progress by how many town grain elevators you pass--which is all of them. I will say that Union Pacific does a very brisk business in freight along this route...non-stop backing and forthing with the trains on three sets of rails that parallel US 30, carrying coal, cars, grain, fertilizer, and lots of inner city graffiti out into the heartland. Everyone's quite nice, from the waitress at Central City's "Waffles N' More"--which advertises the best cheeseburger in town, and rightly so!--to the guy in the leather store who, when asked if he could make me some assless chaps, hesitated a moment and replied that all chaps are assless; that's what makes them chaps. They got them a pretty little movie house there too. Also met a nice drunk named Bert at "The Den", a small watering hole in North Platt right at the Mountain Time crossing. Tonight I'm going to try and find myself something that won't add layers to the insides of my arteries, but I don't hold out much hope. Then tomorrow its a lazy 240 miles in to Boulder and final prep for the next leg of the adventure; the first official meeting and ride of The Assless Chaps MC "In Memory of Dirty Sanchez" at Dot's Diner ('where folks get their yolks').

Southern Iowa: Enter the Wayback Machine

2007-08-07T06:19:00.000-07:00

It's somewhere between the land that time forgot and the land forgotton by time: Southern Iowa. I lit out from Burlington and headed south for Fort Madison, where I picked up the Mormon Pioneer Auto Tour trail going west. The auto tour sort of follows the general path of the trail (hiways 2, 65, 34, 25, and 92), but every 10 miles or so there's a little "Mormon Trail Crossing" sign, and you look, and in most cases you can still see the remnants of the trail--it's just a little worn down and open. Except when there's cornfields on one side or the other, which is often. The little towns along the way are in varying states of being. Donnellson's "Business District" looks a little worse for wear, but Bloomfield, home of French's Hamburger Inn, has a very nice town square centered around the court house. Oh, and French's--mais oui! The house specialty is the Loose Meat Burger, which entails a big cooker full of tender ground beef, and a seated woman--not unlike a surgeon or a diamond-splitter--meticulousy putting them together, wrapping them in paper, then handing them to you (lest you spill). The lemonade was homemade, and the corn poppers were poppy! Corn popper: 8 or so fresh sweet corn kernals held together by a little batter then deep fried. Wowza, some kind of tasty--AND, yet another thing to do with corn! The auto tour road continued, past a never-ending array of beautiful old barns, and after a few wrong turns onto some amazingly empty county roads, I turned west again to avoid the "end of pavement" issue and stared straight down the barrel of an Iowa thunderstorm. On with the raingear, and a pucker of the bum (lots of lightning, and me riding the only hunk of metal for miles), and it was a race to shelter. 5 minutes before the sky fell I took over a town picnic shelter in Weldon. The lightning was everywhere for about 30 minutes, then---bright sun. Onwards then through Osceloa and Greenfield, through Council Bluffs, then across the Missouri River in to Omaha. Tuesday it's off to follow the Platt River west on Hiway 30, the Lincon Hiway ("America's First Coast to Coast Hiway").

Holy cornbelt Batman!

2007-08-06T05:40:00.000-07:00

After a morning thunderstorm and a few false starts (was it the battery, or was it operator-error? Hmm, and what's this little red switch next to the ignition?!), I departed the 'hood at the crack of noon. My goal is to stick to the old river roads, which often just evolved from the old Indian trails. Shortly after Joliet I pick up US 6 heading west, which follows the Illinois River--beautiful lazy road, nice little towns along the way, and being that it was a bright summer Sunday, there were many old dudes out cruising in their old cars and trucks. My meticulously-planned hot dog feed in La Salle was thwarted when I discovered the stand I like there so much was closed. But one town over, at the western edge of Peru, IL, stood the Igloo. 10 stools at an L-shaped counter "that hadn't changed in 50 years" an old-timer inside informed me. He said the best thing there was the pork tenderloin sandwich, and it was! So porky, so tendery. Washed down with a strawberry shake and I am primed for more saddle-time. There were spots of rain all around me, but somehow I managed to dodge them as I meandered among the jillions of acres of corn and motored towards Moline--Gateway to Iowa. Crossing the Mississippi was...a little scary on the very old US 6 bridge, but I made it, dawdled through Davenport, IA as I tried to find the Great River Road (so many amazing old buildings there---but none that looked like sofas! "This is the town that gave that piece of furniture its name, ain't it?" No one could tell me.). I finally found it--Hiway 22, running south just along the western bank of the Mississippi River. A few cars and bikes on the road, a few speedboats on the river, but mostly just me and the setting sun. A quick stop in Muscatine for a keg of lemonade and some give-my-butt-a-rest time then onwards, into the "evening hatch" (Bobbi informed me of its name). The "evening hatch" is evident when your bisecting miles and miles of cornfields, dodging hundreds of psycho, flitty birds that are trying to eat the millions of cornfieldy bugs that have just hatched...in the evening. Those that don't get eaten by birds wind up on my windscreen---so now I know what my first duty will be in the morning. Incidentally---getting a late start again in the morning to avoid the "morning hatch". First port of call on the journey is Burlington, IA, and the jacuzzi in my HI Express room is yummy for my bummy. Then dinner alongside the river in an old Burlington-Northern freight building that is now Big Muddy's, where cold beer + big racks of ribs = happy Mark. Monday it's off to follow the Mormon Trail across southern Iowa towards Council Bluffs.

Heading out with a protected noggin

2007-07-21T08:08:00.001-07:00

This is a combo test/preview post. Its Mark, and in early August I
head out on my midlife motorcycle odd-issy...Chicago to Boulder, where
I meet up with fellow midlife two-wheelers Albert (coming from Las
Vegas) and Scotty VBD (the boy in Boulder), and together we will
travel as 'The Assless Chaps M.C.--In Memory of Dirty Sanchez' to the
67th Annual Sturgis Rally, Sturgis, SD. If you want to come with us,
or if you just want to make sure we're still alive and well, visit
this blog starting August 5th 2007. Vrooom!!!

2007-07-21T07:42:00.001-07:00

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