George Packer's The Megacity: Decoding the chaos of Lagos' in the In the November 13th New Yorker is as fascinating as it is depressing (and not incidentally a searing indictment of architectural intellectuals like Rem Koolhaas who are so lost in theory that they seem unable to comprehend the palpable misery they are witnessing). The article is not online, but seek it out, it deserves to be read.

The story is illustrated with 2 powerful images from Samantha Appleton, an incredible photographer (and former assistant to James Nachtwey), who works in most difficult corners of the world.

update: if you have a library card, you can read the full article on this library site.

related: lagos on google maps, memories of post colonial africa

One small goal of mine (which will now never be reached) was to make portraits with one of the famous 20x24 polaroid cameras. A few months ago I was hanging out in a print studio with Jenn Trausch, a 20x24 camera operator (and a photographer in her own right), when she mentioned that Polaroid would stop making 20x24 film effectively retiring the camera forever. But before the camera was to be mothballed, she convinced Polaroid to let her go on one last photographic adventure. Images of Jenn (and the camera) in action out on the road can be found here and here.

related: 20x24 Studio West, 20x24 faq

The NY Art Book Fair.
November 17-19, 2006
548 West 22nd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues)

Saturday night will be the peak of this year's Leonid's meteor shower. If it's a clear night find a roof. I know I'll be up there.

related: Comet Hyakutake

One of my favorite recent photography discoveries is of the work of Seth Thompson who happens to be represented by my gallery. Seth's work includes scores lush interiors of homes in rural Mexico and Cuba shot with medium format cameras. The work recalls Eliot Porter's Mexican Churches series which came out of an extended trip to Mexico in 1956. Seth recently added many images to his website which he groups under the project name Poco Luz. Poco Luz which means 'little light' (almost all his images are long exposures shot in dim natural light). Perhaps it's something about those long thirty second to several minute exposures that saturate the silver because his images are drenched in almost unbearably beautiful color. The bedrooms, kitchens, churches in these pictures leave me with a visceral sense of lives lived simply, but well and with passion. If you like what you see on the web, you'll be floored by his big, finely made prints which you can view by appointment at the Nelson Hancock Gallery.

I'm happy to report that our search for a great Korean restaurant in this part of Brooklyn is over.

To my knowledge, excluding Williamsburg, there are exactly 3 Korean places in Brooklyn, 5 if you are being really broad in your characterization:

Kim Chee is a solid family run place, but it's in Bay Ridge on the other side of Brooklyn.
9324 3rd Ave 718.567.5741

Noona recently opened on the corner Vanderbilt Avenue and Pacific in Prospect Heights. Noona is an upscale Korean restaurant with small but tasty portions. While the menu looks fully authentic the dishes appear to be geared towards non-Koreans and many of the dishes tasted somehow muted. Jenn deemed the bibimbop good enough and at $10 it would be a perfect lunch if they were open for lunch, but other entrees were a bit too pricey for this restaurant to be on the regular rotation. The restaurant has potential, but they haven't settled into their groove yet.
565 Vanderbilt Avenue 718.398.6662

Henry's Express is a small stand-and-eat hamburger stand on Henry just past Atlantic Avenue. It's Korean run and on Thursday's and Friday's they serve greasy but edible bulgolgi. It's only worth mentioning because it's a stone's throw away.
331 Henry St. 718.222.0708

The Good Fork is an upscale "Korean inspired" diner Red Hook. This is the type of restaurant that makes eating exciting. The food is totally delicious, but it's not exactly authentic Korean comfort food.
718.643.6636 Location: 391 Van Brunt Street

But our search has now ended with the discovery of Sushi Okdol a Japanese/Korean restaurant above a deli in Fort Green run by a Korean family. Sushi Okdol is a dive decorated with pictures of fish torn from magazines, and a sushi clock, but you won't notice the decor once you dive into your meal. Everything from the panchan to the madoo, karbi, to the bibimbop was hit-the-spot delicious and cheap to boot. The menu is small, but all the standard dishes are there. We'll be back and soon.(pdf of the menu)
497 Myrtle Ave. at Hall Street, 718.789.1373

......
And since I'm on the topic of Korean food I might as well throw in some of our favorite LA Korean Restaurants, each of which I miss:

Tahoe Galbi - Real open fire, meat in the flames, BBQ. So good.
3986 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, (213) 365-9000

Korean Kitchen - I dream about this place. Everything even the vinegar they used in salad dressing was special. Best panchan in LA for my money.
135 Japanese Village Plaza Mall, Los Angeles, CA 90012
213 680-1039

Soot Bull Jeep - the quintessential smokey Korean BBQ place.
3136 W 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90005
213 387-3865

There was also super family run restaurant in Glendale way down Glendale Avenue near Eagle Rock, but I can't find it on google.

And btw if you ever find yourself in LA and need eating suggestions, it's almost required that you read Jonathan Gold's Where to Eat in the Real LA. Through the book and his LAWeekly columns Mr. Gold has single handedly been responsible for more of my memorable meals than anyone except for my wife, my mom and my grandmother.

Update: Noona is now apparently open for lunch.

Several of you have asked for an update on my journal project.

I ended up with around 150 names and addresses and three journals went out into the world at the end of May.

One was lost immediately. I got reports of the other 2 meandering through several continents before also being lost. I understand the second one changed hands about 12 times. Then it stalled in Seattle for almost a month before heading to China in someone's backpack. There it was lost in a youth hostel in Yangshou. The 3rd journal crisscrossed Europe and was eventually loaned to "a friend of a friend" of blog reader Frida in the Swedish city of Hudiksvall... you know how that goes.

I still have some small hope that two of the journals will unstall, but I've had no word of either of them in almost a month. If they are lost I'm sad I never got to see them. If you worked on any of journals, and especially if you have scans, I'd love to hear/see more.

But I am undeterred! Soon 3 new journals will go out into the world! I think one of the problems with the first incarnation of the project was methodology. I had printed all the addresses inside the journal and had covered them all with individual lightly glued brown strips of paper. The idea was that when you got the journal you would work on your pages, remove a strip at random and send the book on. But this didn't account for the vagaries of life, procrastination, etc. So this time the idea will be that each time the journal is to be sent on, the next name on the list will come from me. This will allow me to track the journals, to report on them as they travel around and so on. I'll also ask for a snapshot of the book in your location so at the very least we'll be able to see where it has been... I'm sure a few of the of the people on the original list won't be contact-able, and some of the people who worked on the original journals might not want to work on a second one, so if you're not on the list and would like to be email your address to journalproject@mexicanpictures.com.

The new rules.

1. You will receive an email asking if you are ready to accept a journal and verifying your address.

2. The journal will arrive in the mail. You will have about a week to work on it. After one week you will gently be reminded that your time is up and it is time to send the journal on to the next address which will be provided.

3. Once you get the address you should send it off as soon as you are able and email when it is actually on it's way.

backstory: description of the original project, the project grows, the journals go out

These days photographers whose work focuses on the landscape of suburban dystopia are a dime a dozen. Strip malls, gas stations, chain stores, and so on. But few of the photographers inhabiting this milieu can compare to Robert Adams who was out there in the 60's and 70's. I found a signed copy of The New West, his minimalist masterpiece at my favorite used bookstore this morning for $16. Looking through the book I was struck by how Adams' photography works on me like Antononi's early films (La Notte, Aventura) in which each frame is so subtle and formally perfect that they need to be digested and relished slowly. The bookstore owner was happy to get rid of the book, "Who wants to look at pictures in black and white anymore?" he asked as I paid.

related: found at the same bookstore

The mark of a good document/publishing format is good built in import and export. Import/Export keeps you from being tied to a single system and is a hedge against future technology changes. It also allows you do things like download your data to your computer or an ipod or some other system... it give you options. Right now only Movable Type has strong built in export (it's import functions are anemic). Other popular systems allow you to import, but neglect to include a good built-in export function. Anyway I've had to convert a few blogs in the past few days and had to dig around quite a bit to figure out how to move blog content from one system to another. Here are some simplified instructions for future googlers with the same issues.

How to import to Wordpress from Blogger

This is with Wordpress 2.05 and the non-beta version of blogger available as of 11/2006. The instructions don't work with the blogger beta.

1. If you are publishing to your own domain/ftp change, change the publishing settings in blogger and to publish to a temporary blogspot blog... make sure to copy down your old settings for later (also copy the archive publishing settings). You can republish to the temporary blogspot address if you wish to see if it works, but this is not required. If you are using blogspot already then just skip to #2.

2. In Wordpress go to import and select Blogger and follow the instructions.

3. If you were publishing in blogger to your own domain, remember to change the publishing and archive settings back to their original settings.

How to export Wordpress to Moveable Type

Eric Pierce has written an export Wordpress plugin called WPexport. It was posted a few years ago and has gotten a bit crufty over time, but people on the web have continued to post code fixes in his comments. Here is a patched version that worked for me with Wordpress 2.05 and MT 3.3. You can find the original broken plugin with all the specific fixes in the comments on Eric's seeming defunct website. Perhaps he's graduated. I couldn't find a working email address.

1. So install the plugin.

2. Activate it and go to options.

3. If you have a large blog you will see a blank text box. After some time (minutes in my case) a long text file containing your blog posts the MT import format will show up.

4. Copy all the text and paste it into a word processor that can save things as simple text files.

5. Save your file calling it "import".

6. Upload that file to the import folder in the base folder of your MT installation (if there isn't an import folder, create one).

7. Within MT follow the import instructions.

I've always had a morbid fascination with China's Cultural Revolution but I've only seen pictures of that period from within China proper. This Chinese language blog by Zhao Wang has a few Cultural Revolution images taken within Tibet showing the destruction of the Jokhang monastary. Can anyone do a translation summary of the text? And it should be noted the Jokhang monastery is located in Lhasa and has been restored.

The only named Chinese photographer I know from that period is Li Zhensheng... I'm always looking for new links to others.

Related: cultural revolution propaganda posters, more photographs, clip art,

Thank you for your letter.

Getting a real letter from anywhere is a good thing, but one from Derry, Ireland is an especially good thing.

As requested these are the answers to your questions:

1. Under a tree somewhere in Texas.

2. Paul Klee once wrote, "I comfort myself with the thought that my words do not address themselves to you in isolation but will complement and bring into focus the impressions, perhaps still a little hazy, which you have already received from my pictures."

3. Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta

4. Is there anything finer than a naked woman in your bed in the morning?

5. Once again I must produce a quote, this time from Fitzgerald (Tender is the Night):

I want to give a really bad party. I mean it.
I want to give a party where there's a brawl and
seductions and people going home with their
feelings hurt and women passed out in the
cabinet de toilette.

6. They don't serve fish in aquarium restaurants. When you ask why, you always get the same answer: "It makes the kids cry."

7. The Sleestacks.

8. No preference as I would be quite dead.

9. The best secrets are the ones never told.

10. Someday. For sure.

all best,

rg

A few weeks ago at PhotoNY I stopped by the booth of AM Richards Fine Art where the gallery was exhibiting the street photography of Andrew Garn taken in Times Square during the 80's. Looking at the prints today you can't help wonder what happened to all the people in that darker, grittier New York which has been all but erased. Garn's website doesn't do justice to the images the gallery has selected, so if you happen to be in Brooklyn, check them out in person.

328 Berry Street (Williamsburg)
Brooklyn NY 11211
USA
tel: 917 570 1476

Today, like so many days with a spent with a young child, sort of drifted away. We played cars. We ran in the park. We went to a birthday party. We read books. He saw the moon for the first time though (not seeing the moon until you are almost 2 is a hazard for the early to bed). That was something. He was impressed. I was too.

related: mira la luna

Check out Michael Hughes' super fun souvenirs project.(found via davidfg's linklog.)