Words Fail Me

Inception

Posted on April 30, 2017 by d4vid

I took this picture of Debbie taking a picture of the award-nominated picture she took in Tibet.

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Classy

Posted on April 21, 2017 by d4vid

Spotted this monument to excellence parked in a driveway.

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Protest

Posted on April 15, 2017 by d4vid

Went downtown to the Tax March to protest Trump.

There were lots of clever signs, but this was my favorite:

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Tenacious

Posted on April 15, 2017 by d4vid

On the bridge over the 101, walking from my new place to the Universal City Metro station, I spotted this beautiful flowers in the ivy clawing its way up the telephone pole’s guy-wire.

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Hometown

Posted on April 13, 2017 by d4vid

This is looking back at Burbank and the Verdugo Hills as seen from the top of the Universal Studios parking structure.

One of the words for “hometown,” 老家 (lǎojiā), literally means “old family.”

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Carbon

Posted on April 10, 2017 by d4vid

I still had some charcoal hand soap I had bought at the Shaanxi Dr. CitySuper. I took this (potato quality) picture before the character washed away. 炭 (tàn) means “carbon” as in “coal”.

山 (shān) means “mountain.” 灰 (huī, meaning “ash”) is composed of 火 (huǒ, meaning “fire”) with a “hand” radical, as in “what’s left after the fire which can be held in your hand.” So 炭 (tàn) literally means “ash under the mountain.”

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Vaulted

Posted on March 30, 2017 by d4vid

I settled on Studio City because it was centrally located to the things & people I love. I chose a corner unit on the fourth (top) floor, sight unseen, because it had vaulted ceilings and ceiling fans.Far bigger kitchen than either of my places in Shanghai had.Functional, if lackluster, bathroom.Tiny closet space, but in-unit washer & dryer. (Suck it, Oakwood.)Palm tree-adjacent balcony.Through the palm fronds and over the complex roof, Universal City can be seen in the distance.

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Oakwood

Posted on March 8, 2017 by d4vid

The Oakwood is the stuff of legends. It’s a complex of apartments and temporary housing nestled in the hill at Forest Lawn Dr. and Barham. Growing up in Burbank, I always knew it as the place where Midwestern stage moms would bring their brood of brats to audition during pilot season.

I was pleasantly disappointed at how quiet and (thanks to the recent rains) how lush it was. This was the view off my balcony.Honestly, the only down sides to staying here were the lack of reserved parking and the lack of in-unit washer & dryer.

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Golden

Posted on March 6, 2017 by d4vid

I drove the 101 from the Bay down to Pismo Beach. I have never seen California so lush and verdant. The winter rains had made the state burst with growth.

Watching the sunset behind the oceans through the palm trees from the balcony of my room at the SeaCrest oceanfront hotel, I wondered why anyone would leave this state.

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Unhelpful

Posted on March 6, 2017 by d4vid

I found this cryptic marking at the edge of a path in a park in Berkeley. I can’t help imagining the person painting it thinking to themselves, “The person who sees this will know exactly what it means.”

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Peregrination II

Posted on March 5, 2017 by d4vid

“It’s not the years, it’s the mileage” as Indiana Jones once said. These shoes have been all over the world.

They’ve stood overlooking the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco and overlooking Qinghai Lake at the center of Eurasia. They’ve walked the Freedom Trail in Boston and along different parts of the Silk Road. They’ve visited Mount Rushmore and the terracotta warriors of Xi’an. They’ve hiked through snow in New Zealand and forests in Japan. They’ve stood on ancient Roman and Chinese ruins alike. They’ve trekked to the very base of Everest.

And now their watch is ended.

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Photogenic

Posted on March 5, 2017 by d4vid

I’ve selected some of my favorite photographs from over the last few years:

Boutique: Sunrise in Beijing

Goose: Xi’an’s Big Goose Pagoda

Deckard: Hong Kong looking like something out of Blade Runner.

Brigadoon: Pudong’s tallest buildings disappearing into the clouds

Wall: Looking out of a watchtower at the snow on the Great Wall

Goats: Silhouetted prayer flags on the roofs of Lhasa at dusk

Imagineered: Roots interrupting a path over the hills north of Hangzhou

Chinatown: Dujiangyan‘s historic irrigation system

Shire: Inside a Hobbit hole, looking out at Hobbiton

Symmetry: Looking down the farthest edges of the Great Wall of China at the desert in Jiayuguan in the west and the sea in Shanhai in the east

Windswept: Prayer flags whipping in the wind of a high pass with the Himalayas beyond

Megatall: Looking down at the World Financial Center from the newer, taller Shanghai Tower

Ininterotto: The Pantheon in Rome

Highest: Everest at sunset

Tramonto: Sun setting behind the Vatican

Penultimate: An ornate, colorful roofline at the Lungshan Temple in Taipei

Forbidden: The Forbidden City above the snow-flecked pines, its halls receding into the mist and/or smog

Cyberpunk II: Horrifying animated skyscraper in Chongqing celebrating the Year of the Rooster

Westlake: The first blossoms of spring in Hangzhou

Wonderland: Fireworks at Harbin‘s annual Ice Festival

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Preoccupations

Posted on March 5, 2017 by d4vid

In reviewing my blog posts from over the last few years, all of my preoccupations come sharply into view.

By far the biggest two are language and film.

Other topics that recur over and over include television (especially The Simpsons), music, books, mythology, superheroes, science fiction (especially cyberpunk), Disney, animals, Narnia, failure, and being too tall for Asia.

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Best

Posted on March 5, 2017 by d4vid

I’ve looked over my blog posts from the last couple of years and have picked out some of my absolute favorites:

Peace
Lost
Sports
Safari
Wild
Peninsula
Connubial
Edge
Thinking
Opulento

Arena
Padre
Fontana II
Catacomba
Jest
Mummies
Comfy III
Livestock
Silk III
Flutist

I like these, too:

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Signs

Posted on March 2, 2017 by d4vid

For your amusement, a collection of some of the stranger brand names, store names, and English translations I’ve seen on billboards, signs, posters, etc.