Friday, November 26, 2010

The last piece of Milan



今年真的是很特別的一年,在歐洲,在義大利,在米蘭,在 Domus Academy 的這一年。去之前我就決定要把握在歐洲的每一分一秒,不管是學習或是看新東西,甚至吃喝玩樂一定都要很用力的去填滿所有時間。

而這年的確是沒有讓我失望。在義大利的生活,就有如在 DA 求學一般,所有可以吸收的所見所聞到處都是,但是你必須自己去敲,自己去搶那些知識。

然而,除了吸收新的東西外,這也是風風雨雨的一年。快樂與難過,爭吵和感動。認識了很多很好很有意義的朋友,也有大起大落的感情。我認為我的技能甚至於對人生,感情,朋友,等等的想法都有很大改改變。我想要用所有我能做的記住這一年。我習慣用照片和音樂來記憶人事物,但是這一年實在太特別,我打算用刺青更加深這一切。

這不是我第一個刺青,第一個是在高中時刺的,約十五十六歲時。當時玩樂團,刺青是一個對搖滾樂的認同標誌,是當初刺青的理由。但時間久了後,現在也不玩樂團了,這一個歷經約十五年的老刺青當然也在我變胖變瘦後變形及淡掉很多,但是我從不後悔,對我而言,這第一個刺青反而變成對過去玩音樂的回憶。隔了近十五年,我想用一樣的方式再記錄一次我的人生。

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Monday, July 12, 2010

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

my British luck



My British luck, hasn't been good.

1. Lost a relationship after she moved to London last summer.
2. Lost my passport and cell phone at Gatwick airport in London last Fall (I usually don't lose things but thank god found everything back).
3. Slept at the airport because I couldn't find my passport back in time and had to buy new flight tickets.
4. Booked a flight to London to meet my friend earlier this year but the accommodation fell through and had to pay €60 to reschedule the tickets to Copenhagen.
5. Someone from UK came to Milan to visit me and stole my passport this Spring.

The only positive word in this post is Copenhagen, and I currently have no plans visiting UK...

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Yesterday, while I was driving on the interstate to Jersey,



After meeting professor Giorgio, i went home and picked up my luggage. Got my phone charger, valentine one detector, clothes, gum, cash, and some food for the trip.

Just before I was leaving Buffalo, got a call from Hackensack, NJ asking if i left my house yet. I quicky got on the road and was in my black Prelude, slowly passing by Rochester, Syracuse on the interstate 90, and found my way to Pennsylvania in a few hours.

I was driving very fast and very exhausted. Took a break at the rest area, smoked a cigarette there, and got another call from Hackensack.

It got completely dark after a while. I looked at the highway, it was completely black. the road and the sky were the same except a few cars.

Things changed so fast in a day and I don't go to Jersey anymore. But every time when I drive on the highway at night, I think of Jersey.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Zurich - The Home of Freitag

Zurich wasn't on my list of traveling, at least not this early. But since that my demanding friend was insisting to go to Switzerland without knowing anything about it, I decided to make a trip there, to experience the watch world and my beloved Freitag.

Let's take a look at Freitag brothers' invention, the Freitag bags:



Freitag (Friday in German), which was founded in the early 90's by the Freitag brothers - Daniel and Markus, sells bags made out of recycle materials, thick tarp from truck, seat belt for strap, and bicycle inner tube for seams. These bags quickly became a piece of classic Zurich design. I fell in love with Freitag some years ago and got my first Freitag bag in Tokyo, and bought another one last year in Milan. What's so cool about them?

Well, since that each bag is made of the actual truck tarpaulin, you will never find two that look the same. Each bag is unique. It's durable, it's recycled, a brand new bag looks really old and yes it smells, and you can customize one online deciding what truck tarps you wanna cut. With the creativity from the Freitag brothers and the design look of everything, the bag, the box, the store, the display, one of the messenger bags is in the MoMA collection in New York. All that above gives Freitag a very strong personality.

So I made a trip to the home of Freitag, Zurich, and the first place I wanted to go was the Freitag flagship store. The Freitag brothers had the idea of making these bags while watching all those trucks with containers going from Germany to Italy, passing by Zurich. The same idea was done again to the Zurich flagship store emphasizing their concept. The store is built of 17 real truck containers, yes they are for real. And at the top, there's this "Truckspotting" area for you to enjoy the view of the highway, railroads, and the train station. Yes the view isn't spectacular, it's actually kind of ugly. But hey, Freitag is born in that ugly industrial looking place, and I do think the "Truckspotting" thing is a very clever viral marketing strategy.

Enough with the BS talk, let's see how Swiss architects Annette Spillmann and Harald Echsle realize Freitag brothers' concept into a store.



Me relaxing in the F container:




Another angle:


The F bike at the store front:


The interior is very attractive too: (This girl would not get out of my sight)


From the top, yes this is the truckspotting:


====================================

Since that I'm writing about cool architecture in Zurich, I may as well write about another world famous architecture here, Centre Le Corbusier.

It is designed by the great architect Le Corbusier, commissioned to him by his interior designer friend Heidi Weber in the 60's. Le Corbusier died just a year after the construction began and it became the last piece of architecture work done by him.

This guy wouldn't leave me alone either:




The other side:

Monday, February 15, 2010

Nordic style



Copenhagen -

population:
1.2 million

area:
455 sq km

currency:
danish krone

foreign language:
perfect English

first impression:
the home of fairy tale, copenhagen is truly an utopia. city is combined of both old houses with cultural evidences and new build...ings with modern, sleek architecture. and bikes are everywhere, in motion or just left on street. and all kinds of people ride them, young, old, practical, fashionable, etc.

color:
yellow, sky blue, and, pink.

people:
everyone is friendly, willing to help strangers, not afraid of foreigners. people are tall and fit, girls are Nicole Kidman like but guys are no where near Tom Cruise.

cost:
definitely higher than Paris, London, or Tokyo. all public transportation is 23 kr (€3) in 2 zones, 24 hr free pass is 125 kr (€17). a Big Mac meal is more than €8.

city life:
no beggar on street, metro is extremely clean, city is clean for the most part. it's almost impossible not to ride a bike in the city, anywhere, at any hour, and they have tracks for bikes climbing up and down the stairs. street artists are amazing, my guess is that they perform music on the street because they love it, not for begging money, because they are good and they don't try to block the metro entrance. crowded in city center, but no where close to champs-elysees in Paris or montenapolione in Milan. cars are normal and boring like milan.

night life:
a lot of bars sighted, very loud too. did not see any clubs but then i wasn't in the right neighborhood. cool thing is that, you can find people riding bikes to bars, i didn't see any drunk bikers though.

winter:
during the day it feels like night temperature of milan, very cold but bearable, when it's dark it's really cold. it gets dark at around 5 pm. biking is okay in winter, it's not easy to find icy bike tracks there.

McDonald's:
for a bit more than €8, you get a Big Mac meal, and it contains 2 Big Mac's. yes, they eat two huge burgers at once, but they are not fat, maybe it's because everyone rides a bike.

romance:
the danish buildings, scandinavian style design, fairy tale, quiet and smooth city life.



Stockholm -

population:
1.2 million

area:
188 sq km, made up of 14 islands

currency:
swedish krone

foreign language:
very good English

first impression:
stockholm is very modern and busy. an exciting city with lots of things going on. the moment you get to the city, you know you won't be bored.

color:
snow white

people:
everyone is friendly, when we were having trouble on the street, people would come up to us and try to help. people are tall but much wider than danish, and look like Vikings. (pirates)

cost:
definitely higher than Milan, probably a bit more than London and Paris if not much higher. all public transportation is 20 kr (€2) within the same zone, 24 hr free pass is 100 kr (€10). a Big Mac meal is about €6.

city life:
a few beggars on street, but not many, definitely not like London, Paris, or Milan. metro is extremely clean, city seems clean but all covered by snow and ice so i wouldn't know. biking is impossible in the winter. the very few street artists i ran into were pretty bad, loud and bad music. city center is crowded the way like Copenhagen, you see a lot of people but it doesn't annoy you. a lot of cars on the streets, you see a lot of modified cars, not as crazy as Los Angeles but they do stuff to their cars.

night life:
a lot of bars, clubs, movie theaters, and a lot of people on the streets at night. if you have the money, you definitely won't get bored in Stockholm. you can hear loud music of all kinds on the street, both electronic music and mainstream american hip hop, and you see a lot of drunk people at night. i heard that night life is a big thing in Stockholm, apparently it's true.

winter:
cold cold cold! i was pretty much numb the whole time, day and night it's freezing cold. streets are frozen, most places are covered by snow, a lot of them are icy too, it's even difficult to just walk on. it feels a bit humid inside because the snow is everywhere.

McDonald's:
1 Big Mac in a meal, whewww… Fanta is not orange soda but strawberry.

romance:
i was numb, could not feel anything at all.