view of a room

I love the architecture of Buenos Aires. It is a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and you never know what you're going to see from neighborhood to neighborhood.



I'm not in love with this photo since the perspective looks all weird (tried to correct it with the vanishing point filter in Photoshop but I guess I have to screw around with it a bit more). Don't you just love these colors, though? And the idea of living in that warm orange glow, overlooking Avenida Independencia.

what am i doing?

This week I have been shooting boutique hotels in Buenos Aires, so I am basically being given tours of fancy bathrooms and beds with far too many pillows. I hated shooting the first day in Palermo. Some of the hoteliers were kind of unhelpful and/or snooty (not good PR, guys!) but then I had some much friendlier experiences in San Telmo.



I shot three hotels that second day, and came home to find out that I shot one entire site completely out of focus. I'd forgotten that I'd switched over to manual focus in the dark hotel lobby, and couldn't tell on the little display screen that everything was blurry. Also, the fact that the guy showing me around was incredibly cute didn't help my concentration much. Guess I'll have to go back to see him again. I mean, it. The hotel.

more establishing shots!

I shot this on a street corner in the neighborhood of San Cristóbal, while waiting for a friend. I have been really into shooting the cityscape of bare trees and faded buildings on overcast days. Some people find these kinds of scenes oppressive, but for some reason I think they are really beautiful.

munchies

Sunday we had a 3 p.m. asado, and on Monday I had a 3 a.m. hamburger at this 24-hour joint.



So yeah, you can get a basic burger for 5 pesos and 50 centavos (about US$1.50). But, if you're a gourmand like me, you get it "completa," with cheese, ham, and a fried egg...for 11 pesos. That's a lot of cholesterol for three bucks.

feliz cumple, argentina!

This week it was the Argentine Bicentennial. Monday and Tuesday were holidays, and there were festivities all around. I've never been big on crowds or parades and didn't attend anything. But I happened to pass through the crowd Monday evening.



.Everyone was just wandering around, confused, looking for...stuff to look at.

let it rain

This is the view from the 8th-floor terrace of Miriam and Diego's apartment. An hour later, it was pouring and this long line of colorful laundry was soaked right through.



What I love about this view is that you can see that someone has painted a mural of a tree against a blue sky on their terrace, next to their parilla. You can see it in the upper left quadrant here:

dreamers

I did not take this photo, because that's me, curled up with the niño Ethan.



My version of domestic bliss: someone else's baby, someone else's dog, and my gay roommate, napping after consuming three kilos of paella.

3 o'clock asado

My friend's Argentine husband does the BEST asado (Argentine grill). This is his brother, cutting up the goods.



Believe it or not, this was just the first course. Now do you understand why I love this country so much?

collaboration

My roommate Saeed asked me to play piano in a theatrical performance he's directing. Yesterday I joined their third rehearsal.



What a cool experience to suddenly be sucked into the theater world. It is like an alternate universe.

messing with people

So, a little while ago I discovered this feature on my flickr account that shows you how people are getting access to your photos and it turns out that whenever people search the phrase "male manicure" this photo comes up:



Obviously, it's not really a male manicure, but that's what I titled the photo. It was actually part of a shoot I did last summer for an New York City amateur boxing event called Rumble on the River for my friend Cian's magazine, Norman Einstein's.

It remains one of the most fun shoots I have ever done. If you're into boxing, you can check out the full story.

decidedly not Tokyo

Y'all know I love me some window seat on an airplane, even if it does mean I will only use the bathroom once on any flight under 12 hours. Here's a shot I took when I was flying into Narita International Airport in Japan. I thought I would see some of the giant Tokyo metropolis, but I was wrong. Still, the colors and layout of these fields are incredible.

island hopping

More Langkawi. Langkawi is actually a collection of 99 islands, but most are uninhabited. A fun thing to do if you just want to get on a boat is to take the "island hopping" tour, which takes you around to two of them, one with a freshwater lake called the Island of the Pregnant Maiden.



The boats also make a middle stop to feed the eagles--which you're really not supposed to do, as it encourages dependency on people for food.



My birder parents say this is actually a braminy kite, and not an eagle.

not an hors d'oeuvre

I haven't fired a single shot since I returned to Buenos Aires. Like I said, I been WORKING! But I'm still going to post some photos. This one is at a curbside eating joint in Langkawi, Malaysia. That dotted yellow sheet next to the bowl of hard-boiled eggs is not something delicious--it's a piece of flypaper, covered in flies. And there's another in the background, in front of the seated guy.



Better next to than in the food, amiriiiight?

back to work

It is strange and wonderful to be back in Buenos Aires after a few weeks of life and death and wandering. But I am very interested in getting back to work on my novel. Before I left, I was faced with the task of transporting all these notes with me. I ended up sticking them in a piece of sheet music that I didn't like, which worked pretty well. And now that all the notes are back on my wall, there are tiny pieces of Sibelius stuck to all the little pieces of tape.



This is sort of what the inside of my brain looks like on a good day: dark and cluttered, but with good intentions.

just one little puppy picture

I spent the better part of the week in deep conversation with this little girl.



That is what I do when I go home...I dress up my dog. As if she couldn't get any cuter.

yep, that's my pops

I spent a week in Illinois before returning to The Dirty South. My parents are just getting weirder and more awesome as we speak. This is my dad, dressed head-to-toe in camouflage gear, performing surgery on his camera.



Dad is a wildlife photographer, so he'll dress up like this, and sometimes he'll hide in the backyard in this camouflaged blind for hours, shooting birds.

Strange to think we're related.

transiting

I have done a lot of transiting through Dulles lately. It is one of my least favorite airports. But on this particular day, it was silent and peaceful when I settled into my 6-hour layover, and I napped in three different areas of the terminal.



Dulles is the only airport in which I've ever missed a connecting flight, so now I give myself loooong layovers.

comings and goings

Landing back at Changi International Airport in Singapore after the few days in Langkawi.



I wonder when we will meet again.

creepy deliciousness

This guy was pretty entertaining. He was educated in either Oxford or Cambridge and now he runs this seafood restaurant in Langkawi. He took us in the back and was introducing us to all of our potential dinner partners.

Zackry's

This is the hostel we stayed at in Langkawi, Zackry's Guest House. I was surprised to meet so many older people staying there, and so many long-term residents. One Czech family we met had been staying there for nine months. This is some of their contingency, making dinner.



We also met people from Estonia, Italy, Qatar, Goa, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and Australia. If you count me as being "from" Buenos Aires, we had all six inhabited continents represented.

chunky monkey

The monkeys on one of the islands nearby are a bit...aggressive. We saw one attack a woman with a backpack, and when she screamed and dropped her pack, it removed a bottle of juice in one of the side pockets before scampering up a tree.



This kind of tourist-wildlife relationship isn't good for anyone. The monkeys learn to attack the tourists, and then they end up living off of sugary soda and potato chips. Next thing you know, they'll be insulting us and trying to rent us kayaks.

lost in langkawi

There is no transportation on Langkawi, so the thing to do is to rent some wheels. Nicole and I rented this sassy little number to cruise around the island one day in search of the highly disappointing "black sand beach." Driving was so much fun, though--the traffic wasn't too scary, and people were okay with how slow we were going. I haven't been on two wheels in almost three years (and I've never driven on the left side of the road before--at least not on purpose) but it was so mellow and warm and wonderful. I can tell that is what I'll be doing in my dreams.



Even though there are only about three roads on the island, we got lost. We stopped to ask directions at this far superior beach where you could see Koh Lipe, an island that is part of Thailand. This guy was hawking beverages and tours and gave us great directions, as well as his surprisingly fancy business card.

up up and awaaay

This might be my favorite photo from the Langkawi trip. I like the lighting and the colors and the feeling of stillness, although we all know this is not the case. Parasailing is so weird. I tried it once. It didn't really work out. I ended up being dragged through the sea, tangled in the parachute lines, terrified of jellyfish.



And, as part of this Sunday two-fer, I'll tell you who this is a photo of. His name is Jalil, and he is a member of the Iranian cycling team. They'd come to Malaysia for a race and they had the most amazing tan lines from all the hours of cycling in the sun.

an island away

Seeing people enjoying the water in their street clothes is so enchanting, like they are fluid aqua-terra creatures. Me, when I got to Peru without my bathing suit, I had to go purchase one.



Of course, if we all just dipped nekkid it would be even better.

Malaysia, oh my...! I know I said that the beach in Punta del Diablo (Uruguay) was amazing, but this...sheesh! The water was so warm and the sand was so fine...oh yes, we've heard this all before. But it bears repeating. Many forms of paradise are similar, I suppose--the way that happy families are all alike.

my kind of traffic jam

My friend Nicole and I took a break from the Singapore life and hopped a budget flight to Langkawi, a Malaysian island. I forget that traveling to other countries is so easy...from other countries. Anyhow, Singapore closed its airspace for a few hours for some military exercise, and all the flights were delayed for a few hours. Here, you can see all the planes lined up behind us to take off, most of them fellow budget airlines doing short flights of a few hours or less.

this little island

This is the view of Singapore from the New Asia bar on the 70th floor of the Stamford Hotel. You can see the river below.



The population of Singapore in 2005 was around 4.5 million, and it is currently the third most densely populated country in the world, far behind Macau and Monaco, but slightly ahead of Hong Kong.

home of the $3 lunch

This is how we eat in Singapore: casually, cheaply, and often. This is downtown in the financial district, where I had duck noodle soup for $3 and a cup of coffee for 80 cents.

the gambling life

I know this is not a great photo. But I just had to show you how weird this building is. It's the new Sands Casino that just opened last week. That boat-like structure perched atop the towers houses a gigantic swimming pool. It just looks so funny.



The casino is a really big deal here. It is only the second casino in Singapore. Singaporeans have to pay $100 to get in, while everyone else gets in for free. The government, I suppose, doesn't want its people to develop gambling problems.

the singapore river

The Singapore River, like many cosmopolitan rivers, is lined with fancy cafes, bars, and restaurants. Mid-day is not a popular time for boat tours, since it is so hot. The boat in this photo is only carrying half-a-dozen passengers.



This is Robertson Quay, sandwiched between the Vegas-like Clarke Quay (where I had my first Singapore Sling when I was 19 years old) and Boat Quay.

sunday temple post

This is a little temple on Ann Siang Hill, this darling neighborhood full of design shops. I like how all these ornate temples are just tucked here and there, next to a colorless building, on top of the road.

singapore sweat

This is a pretty common sight in Singapore: older buildings covered in air-conditioning units. It is hot here. Did you know that? More humid than hot, really. A typical day here is 30C (86F) with 90-99% humidity. That's right, I said it: 99 PERCENT HUMIDITY.



I am in a constant state of sweat.