Living at white heat has taken its toll on me.  I have about two more weeks in Berlin and I am struggling to make it.  I am having fun, of course, but I am a bit tired of living out of a suitcase, traveling in a herd, and thinking about architecture / urbanism.  I need some downtime soon.

But, Berlin is a great city.  We have rented bikes for the month and I have ridden more this month than in my entire life.  We rode the entire length of the Berlin Wall a few days ago (well, the part in the city center) and have seen so much here.  Berliners party like no one else in the world; club policy is they shut down “when the last patron has left” which usually happens around noon the next day.  I know this because our studio is on the 10th floor of an office building in East Berlin (off Alexanderplatz) and there is a club called “Weekend” on the 12th-15th floors.  We hear the bass from the club going through the night and into the next afternoon.  Then, Monday morning it returns to being a respectable office building; truly a strange transformation.

I am up to my eyeballs in numbers.  Our project consists of FARS’s, Lot Coverage, Migration trends, trash–>ethanol, Biomass, shrinking populations, growing single population, growing sectors of business, reuse of Plattenbauten, trash, trash and more trash….  all of that must control the design.  It’s very MVRDV, and it’s fun, but it’s a very dogmatic way to make decisions.  My project is, in a nutshell, based on trash generation and renewable energy, and I have titled it Eurotrash: Berlin.  I will upload the cover page soon, it’s pretty funny / good.

So, on August 1st, I fly to Texas for 10 days and then back to LA.  Alles Gut.  I just need a break and a lot more money, I don’t even want to tell you how much I have spent; financially, physically and emotionally.

Say word.

Great Wall / Not So Great Abs. That’s IW-R in the background. Between us we have 74 years of age and those are a lot of very steep steps. We made it to the highest point, albeit a few minutes behind the 20 year olds. It was hot, I slept 3 hours the night before, and I didn’t have water. I thought I might die, but it was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

Today is my last day in China. There is no way to describe to you how amazing it has been here. There have been a few food related obstacles, but all in all this has been one of those life altering experiences. There is nothing I love more than traveling. Absolutely nothing. To be here, at this point, studying architecture is one of the most important and relevant things I will ever do. But sometimes it is difficult to be anything more than an awe stricken tourist. It’s impossible to walk two miles (ish) on the Great Wall and not reflect on everything that has happened in your life, and the things that have brought you here. I have had a couple of moments where all of these thoughts/feelings came crashing to the surface and I felt happier than I remember feeling in my entire life; once on the great wall and once walking through a little forest at the Temple of Heaven. Perfect moments that make me breathe fire again.

Tomorrow at 10:20AM some friends and I are flying to London. I will be able to sit and collage / edit some photos and write more in depth about Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou and Tongli. It’s all still sinking in. The speed at which China is developing is incredible. I have some decent photos / thoughts w/r/t this and will post them soon. I have been living in fast-forward and have had no time to sit in a hotel and write. But I promise I will. For now I will just say that Shanghai and Beijing are two of the most incredible fucking cities on the planet. And China is nothing like you think.

I have nothing to say.

Still don’t.

Olympic Stadium (Bird’s Nest) designed by Herzog & de Meuron. This might be the most beautiful building I have ever seen in my life. As architecture students we have studied this building to death, but seeing it is something else, inspiration maybe. It’s much larger than I imagined. We caught a glimpse from the bus on our way back from the Great Wall. A bus full of people educated to think critically about architecture were oohing and ahhing, myself included. it’s very, very impressive. China has a lot to prove (and to make us forget) and I think the rest of the world will be very surprised by what they see on their TV’s next summer.

This is as close as I could get to the stadium. I tried to just act important and walk in. When I was stopped, I flashed my Student ID to the Chinese security guard and said Arup (the structural engineers of the building) but that didn’t work. After that, I flashed 100 Yuan bills in the face of every security guard but that also didn’t work. Some of my friends are still there and if they get in I will post some of their photos.

Detail of the Skin / Structure. I wish I could say something more scholastic than “It’s fucking amazing” but for now that will have to suffice.

The Emperor’s Stone at the Temple of Heaven. Historically, only the emperor could stand here and perform rituals. Now they allow Kings to stand here and take touristy photos. Not surprisingly, I was the only one at the TOH wearing a Smiths shirt. But surprisingly, there were hundreds of people wearing shirts with a naked Joe Dallesandro from Andy Warhol’s Flesh. This photo is apropos because in a few days I will be going to Manchester to take a self-guided Morrissey / Smiths tour. So much to answer for.

I will get a phone when I get to London and give those of you that I have been ignoring a call. I haven’t recharged my SIM in Beijing and to be honest it’s really fucking nice not having a cell phone sometimes. Life is beautiful.

[[UPDATE]] BL sneaked into the stadium and the water cube after I left.  He took 300 photos and should have some on his blog soon.  You should go look at them.

Being that this is my personal site, I am going to take off both the pointy and architecture hats and post some photos of myself in China simply being a tourist. After all, I am my own favorite subject matter. I am off to Beijing on Saturday and will be there for a week. After that I fly to London. I will keep you updated to my whereabouts and my whatabouts. Enjoy all of these lovely pictures of me (that I am too lazy to put in any meaningful order).

At a Shanghai Nightclub called G2. I was a lot more drunk about 3 hours after this photo.

About to kneel in front of a giant Buddha at a monastery / temple on Purple Mountain in Nanjing.

Us looking toward the man-made mountain under which somewhere the first Ming emperor is buried.

At the top of a long staircase on the very long path to the Ming Tomb. Nanjing.

Adjusting settings and listening to Prince, which oddly didn’t seem out of place at the Ming tombs.

One of like 40 thresholds on the way to the Ming Tomb. If you think I am arrogant or extravagant, you should get a load of this guy / emperor.

Guten Morgen from China. SN and I at a German restaurant in Shanghai. We could have maybe just had the smaller .5 liter Paulaners for breakfast, but when in Rome, Germany, China.

Train station from Nanjing to Shanghai. I didn’t get to ride the electromagnetic train that goes like 450 mph, but this one was nice. Wait, no it wasn’t. The only beer they had was warm Budweiser in faceted cans. And they only had 18 of those for a train of several hundred. My friends and I drank the train dry in about 4 minutes.

Standing on the steps in front of an antique market at some old palace or other. Bought an old Mao poster.

Dancing at G2 Nightclub in Shanghai. The pinky finger in China is equivalent to the middle finger in the US. I think I am directing it toward the guy behind me who kept trying to freak me.

JB and I drunk and sweaty at G2.

SN and I in a bikecab in Suzhou. We made this guy pedal a long way and then gave him a big tip and I have never seen a man happier in my life. I shot some great video from this trip.

Touristing like a motherfucker at the Confucius Temple in Nanjing. Bought bootleg DVD’s of live shows by Guns & Roses, Sex Pistols, Public Enemy and Radiohead for $6 total. Glasses by Chanel.

Dueling D80’s with BL.

Me and Chinese buildings. For the record, those fucking roofs are really hard to draw.

Sitting on the steps in front of an antique market at some old palace or other.

Shanghai nights. An incredible fucking city.

Alright. I will resume the architecture / urbanism posts that bore some of you and excite others of you. I can’t please all of you all the time, though perhaps I just did with all of these fantastic photos of terrific old me. I will write about and post some photos of Shanghai soon, I have a lot to say, it’s an awesome place and I had a great time. Word. Life.

I am counting down the days until Spain. Don’t get me wrong, I love China and I am having a great time. There just happens to be something that I am really looking forward to. More than you know…

We found a really good sushi place at 1912, the place where all of the young people go, full of clubs and restaurants. The sushi is incredible, and compared to pipe-tobacco stuffed turtle marinated in duck blood it is the best fucking thing that has ever been in my mouth. Four of us ate an incredible amount of sushi, the waitresses were laughing at us, and had 6 big bottles of Asahi, and the bill was no more than $15 apiece. It’s really amazing.

We present our project on Saturday. With the cancer scare, communication problems within our group and general orienting (pun totally intended) ourselves to China, we are a little behind. The next few night will be busy, long ones. But I’m having fun, and the work is interesting, so I refuse to stress too much about it.

I will talk to you soon. I am going to try to update as often as possible. I forgot to mention in my last post about the Suzhou Gardens that Natalie Portman was there. I didn’t see her, but some of my friends did. A little celebrity sighting made me feel at home.

Here are some photos:

This is, admittedly, a bad photograph but it has a good story behind it. I needed a panoramic overview of our site so I found a tall apartment building. I asked (well, pointed up and then at my camera) if I could go to the top and shoot some photos. The guy was young and cool and escorted me to the top. He took me to a balcony that had about a 5 foot wall that was hard to shoot over, but was working fine. He motioned for me to follow him and I obliged. He led me to the roof that was surrounded by an 8 foot parapet. He motioned for me to climb an air conditioning unit, and he climbed behind me. I didn’t want to seem like a pussy, so I did it for America. The next thing I know I am kneeling on an 18 inch parapet trying to shoot photos. The security guard had the back of my shirt in his hands to keep me from falling. This Banana Republic shirt is nice, but I don’t think these buttons are going to hold my 175 lbs. from falling 33 stories. My hands were shaking, so the panoramas are a little blurry. I didn’t want to look down, so I just pointed my camera downwards and this is what I got. Keep in mind this is someone who was supposed to be guarding my security. But he was nice enough to allow me on the rooftop.

The obligatory group photo sitting on a giant Buddha. I rubbed his belly for good luck and then immediately Purel-ed my hands for good health. I’m top right in the white T.

This kid kept jumping up and down trying to get in my shot. He would have been annoying if he himself didn’t make such an awesome shot. Old and young Chinese people make for good photographs, but everything in the middle bores me.

The (literal) fabric of the city.

I took this the first day when i was still getting used to my camera. The quality is shit, but the mailbox is great.

Some locks on top of the Purple Mountain. There were hundreds of them and I have no idea why.

I’m this confused everyday.

24, 23, 22, 21……..

Exhaustion. I slept about 3 hours last night. Today we woke up at 6:00AM to catch a train to the town of Suzhou, two hours away from Nanjing. Once we arrived, we walked to the “The Humble Administrator’s Garden” (that’s a translation which I’m not sure translates well. I also heard it called “The Unsuccessful Politician’s Garden”. Either way, I am pretty sure the name is a Taoist reference.) which was originally built in 1509 during the Ming Dynasty. It was nice, and it was a good place for me to continue getting used to my Nikon D80 that I recently purchased.

Afterward we had some more crazy Chinese food. Some of it was OK, but once again everything resembled what it was when it was living. The tofu, mushrooms and rice were great. China is making me a vegetarian.

Next we went to the new I.M. Pei designed museum (this is his hometown). I wasn’t crazy about the architecture. It’s a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Chinese courtyard, and while there were a few nice moments, overall it bored me. And I got lost coming out of the bathroom, the circulation is a bit unclear. The art was a little repetitive, but in the cafe I saw a really cool coffee maker (should have taken a picture) that I had never seen and I want to try to find one to buy. It looked like something from a laboratory, and the coffee was fantastic.

Left the museum and just wandered the streets taking photographs. Old Chinese people have the greatest faces. I wanted to photograph every one of them that I saw, but a lot of their great faces were giving me weird looks. Walked down side streets and wondered why there were so many hot, slutty looking girls working in barber shops and foot massage clinics. Also wondered why they wanted to cut my hair and massage my feet so badly. Found out they were whorehouses and everything made a lot more sense.

Then we hired a bike taxi and had him pedal us to the Buddhist Pagoda/monastery/temple. SN and I rode and I shot a lot of video, it’s amazing what you can get in China just by pushing the record button. He told us 20 yuan ($2.61) but we knew how hard he worked pedaling two Americans in the heat and decided to give him 70 yuan ($9.15). Seven bucks between the two of us totally made this guys day and that felt good. I’m pretty sure this is what people with too much time and boring conversation refer to as “Paying it forward”. Anyway, I totally paid it forward for my first time.

Once at the Pagoda, we ascended the steep spiraling staircase up the 15 (or so) levels. The views were beautiful, but climbing up and then down took whatever energy I had left out of me. As you ascend the concrete openings you walk through get smaller. I had just snapped a photo of the sign that read: Lookout, Knock Head, when I walked through the opening without looking out, and totally knocked head. When I got to the bottom of the pagoda, I walked through the monastery and saw some monks meditating and some large awesome looking Buddhas. I thought that if I was anything I would probably be a Buddhist, but then I thought that they get up early and I am not much of a morning person and decided that i won’t be Buddhist after all.

Got back on the train and had two warm Budweiser’s and shot some video out the window. I realized that Donovan lyrics had been in my head all day, so I listened to some on the iPod. Remembered that Donovan was Buddhist and figured out why the lyrics were in my head. After Donovan, I had Bikini Kill lyrics stuck in my head. So I listened to that and figure that those lyrics were probably there because the men are dicks to the women in this country and the women are mostly super submissive. They need some Riot Girls here.

Images of Suzhou:

Photos from Nanjing to come soon…