Singing Sinatra

This year's MPI-CBG Christmas party was a bigger hit than usual, and I think most people agreed it was due to a new format, which was basically much more informal, and with lots of live music, spearheaded by Tim Cross. Several months prior, Tim sent out an email calling for anybody with any sort of musical talent to sign up to play at the Christmas party. I sent an email back saying I'd always dreamed of singing Sinatra with a band, but had never sung before an audience, nor had been trained in any way. I did not expect Tim's response, which was "RIGHT FUCKING ON!!!", and a promise to assemble a band. I then attempted to back out several times over the next couple months, thinking I was in over my head, but Tim wouldn't have it. And so a band was assembled, and with a handful of rehearsals, but never with the entire ensemble present, we pulled off a number of tunes that night:









Tim is on bass, Per's on guitar, Coleman on the drums, Guillaume on paino, and Veikko on violin. These guys basically pulled this off without really practicing, and with me asking for stupid things like changing the key up a couple steps cause it was more familiar that way. It was quite impressive.

I don't have videos of any of the many many other acts from the night, but they were
quite phenomenal, sometimes to a jaw-dropping degree. It's amazing to see your colleagues really jam and wail.

Dresden Neustadt - Old and New

One day in a random web walk I came across some old black and white photos of Neustadt on somebody's flickr page. It appears that they were taken in the early 90s - not long after the wall came down. Several seem to involve some of the first BRN (BunteRepublikNeustadt) festivals. Most of them include what most likely were long neglected and then rapidly abandoned buildings - most of which (but my no means all) have been since restored. I thought it'd be fun to try to identify the same places in Neustadt as a sort of puzzle, and then try to photograph them today, from the same perspective. Some of them were easy to find, some were difficult, and some basically impossible (closeups with little clues). Below are the ones I've found (I've made mine black and white too for better comparison).

The first is of Alaunstrasse, where there are now a couple of crappy bars. What used to be a bricked up part of the facade is now the entrance.




A closer photo nearby shows how another previously bricked-up entrance is transformed into....another soulless bar....

Also on Alaunstrasse, you see how the buildings have been renovated, and right now they are reconstructing the road here.





I like this next one. Böhmischestr., just around the corner from my flat. This was unmistakably Raskolnikov, with the characteristic window shutters (one of the decent bar/restaurants in Neustadt). To be sure I actually was able to find the exact same stones in both photos. Notice the new photo is the one with cobblestones. Those are about a year old. This is still one of the best streets to visit during BunteRepublikNeustadt - it seems maintains some of the original vibe.



This is another photo from Böhmischestr., now between Rothenburgerstr. and Alaunstr.
Notice there's a patch of cement on the new photo where there was some sort of piping in the old photo. It looks like the doors have been totally replaced, but keeping part of the design. Also, you see holes in the wall from an older sign exist on both photos.



Here's the corner of Louisenstr. and Alaunstr. Now mostly vegetation in front of "Katy's Garage". Which is not actually a garage, but.....another crappy bar.

Here are a couple shots from Sebnitzerstr. First, a "Kinderplatz", where the ground seems to be about two feet higher than it was 20 years ago, based on the building.

And a row of seemingly abandoned buildings

Finally a photo I took this month, but could easily have been from 1993, with the Trabant and graffiti....

Albertplatz Time-Lapse

Here's another one of these fun time-lapse movies. This one I shot from the top of the 'Nudel Turm' at Alaunplatz - a decent vantage point.

Albertplatz, Dresden from Alex Bird on Vimeo.

Filmed from the Nudel Turm, Dec 2010, with a NIkon D300S.

Music: "fire cut" by CIRC

Miniature Dresdner Striezelmarkt

Miniature Dresdner Striezelmarkt from Alex Bird on Vimeo.

After the first experiment I made a point to try to capture the Streizelmarkt with this effect, since it's not around for long, and especially with the snow. Fortunately, the old Kreuzkirche stands overlooking the almarkt, and for 2.50 euro you can climb to the top of the tower. So I took my camera and tripod up there, and was surprised to find my self all alone up at the top. And then I realized that is was cold and extremely windy up there! You can tell in the video, as the wind was pushing around the camera on the tripod. And I couldn't protect my hands or face much because the way I had the camera perched on the ledge I was afraid a large gust might push it over, so I had to be ready to grab it without actually touching it. I had to duck inside the tower between shots just to keep warm enough to continue.

Tilt-Shift Time Lapse

You may have seen some of these videos recently, where somebody takes a time lapse movie of a scene from a high vantage point, then processes the individual photos for a "tilt-shift" effect (essentially just applying a blur to the image such that it appears as if there is a very shallow depth of field, which gives the impression that one is looking at a a very small scene filmed with a macro lens or something). Usually the saturation is also cranked up in these movies so that everything looks painted or plastic, adding to a miniature/toy effect. Here's a couple photos I snapped of the model train set at Bahnhof Neustadt. This is basically the effect you want.



I decided to give it a go making the real life movies now that I have a digitial SLR as well as Photoshop at my disposal. Here's my first attempt, filmed from outside my bedroom window looking down Rothenburgerstrasse in Dresden:



Not bad for a first attempt, I think. I took images at one second intervals, the playback is at 6 frames/second. Going up to 10 frames per second is less jerky, but then everything is just too fast. Next time I'll probably take 1/2 second intervals. Also, I live on the second floor (first floor for Germans). So this isn't really high enough to get a good effect. But it's enough to give me confidence to go seek out interesting places around town, where I can get higher up, and look out a bit further (e.g. from Nudel Turm looking over Albertplatz). I hope to have some much cooler movies of familiar places soon.

Holga in the Heide

For my birthday I got one of these Holga cameras, the old cheap Chinese plastic job that has become more popular in recent years for the old school aesthetic you get using a kinda messed up lens and 120 film. I'm sure there's an iPhone app now to emulate every kinda feature it produces, but really, it's pretty fun to go back to some high quality big ass good ol' film. I took it for an initial spin on a bike ride out through the Dresden Heide ("hills", a large park area), and was quite pleased with the results. Especially considering there's basically one shutter speed (1/100) and two aperture options (f8 and f11). Below are a couple of the images I got, for the rest checkout this Flickr slideshow.

Cocktails

I've sort of picked up a hobby over the last few years of making cocktails at home. In the last couple months I've been taking pictures of them occasionally, and now I enough photos of most of my favorites to share them.

At some point Colby gave me a nice cocktail/bar recipe book, which I've used as the starting point for many of the cocktails I have here. Really, this is one of those cases when relying on the internet can be a big mess. There are probably a hundred different recipes for any given cocktail, some worse than others. And visiting a cocktail recipe website will give you tens of thousands of recipes where anybody can upload something. Nobody has time to try all those out.

Manhattan

The Manhattan is probably my favorite cocktail, and my go-to cocktail because it's quite easy. Bourbon, sweet vermouth, and Angostura Bitters (plus a Maraschino cherry for decoration.) As you see in the photo above I found these pretty cool cocktail sticks, that actually look like little silver sticks.

Sidecar

Another classic cocktail that I make often is the Sidecar. Also simple, it's just Brandy, Cointreau, and lemon juice. One way to make cocktails like this to taste GREAT is to simply use fresh squeezed lemons - world of difference.

Martini

Maybe the most popular, and easiest, cocktail to make of course is the Martini. Gin and dry vermouth. Only recently have a I really started making Martinis on a semi-regular basis, as I've found a way to give them just a subtle interesting kick - a few dashes of orange bitters.

Martinez

Similar to the Martini, and sometimes considered the predecessor, is the Martinez. I make it with gin, sweet vermouth, Maraschino Liquor, and orange bitters. That makes it of course significantly sweeter than the Martini, and for my taste the trick is therefore to be very conservative with the non-gin ingredients, especially the Maraschino liquor, which can quickly overpower any cocktail.

Whiskey Sour

Another easy classic, just bourbon, lemon juice and simple syrup. I make this less and less because between the sugar and lemon juice I just can't seem to add a small enough amount not to drown out the bourbon.

Mint Julep

I only started making this this summer, mostly because before I never had fresh mint around. But I planted some, and was very impressed with what I could come up with. Just a bit of simple syrup added to some bourbon with mint leaves. After my experience with whiskey sours, I figured it would be a waste of time to use a higher-quality bourbon for this, but I did a taste test and was TOTALLY WRONG. Just a tad of simple syrup and a few muddled mint leaves, and the complexity of the bourbon still comes through.

Margarita

The classic. Again, using fresh limes here means ALL the difference. Also, as with most other cocktails, keeping the glasses in the freezer gives a nice frosty appearance and keeps them cooler that much longer.

Other favorites, that I haven't remembered to take photos of, include the Brandy Alexander (with Heavy Cream, Creme de Cacao, and Nutmeg; like a dessert), the Brandy Crusta (similar to a sidecar), the Gimlet (just gin and lime juice), and the Sazerac (think Whiskey Sour with a kick, by adding a little Absinthe and some Angostura bitters.)

And then occasionally I try something new. For example, an avocado margarita:

This looks pretty, but was a lot of work, and didn't taste like anything I'd ever want to make again.

Istanbul

This year mom and I continued our tradition of meeting someplace in Europe for a week or so in the summer. Last year it was Reykjavik, the year before Venice. This year Mom and her friend Nora rented a flat in Istanbul. I've put all the pics contained in this post, and more, up at my flickr site for better viewing.

I was only joining for about 5 days, but didn't want to try to pack the days with sights so tight that it was more stressful than relaxing. I did of course check out the must-sees, such as Hagia Sophia, the 1500-year old Cathedral-turned-Mosque-turned-museum:


Also the Topkapi Palace, including the buildings of the Sultan's harem:



My favorite sight, though, by far, were the ancient city walls, which are very much still intact.
I've had a keen fascination with old city walls ever since moving to Europe, and these are of the most impressive in history.


To add to the fascination, right before the trip I read a book entitled 1453 :The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West, about the famous siege of the city by the Sultan Mehmed. The book was very vivid and featured the city walls very prominently. Thus, it was quite amazing to walk over and inside these very same walls, visualizing what it was like 500 years ago as a soldier. These were some of the most impenetrable city walls every built, due to their architecture, sheer size, and extent. The most amazing thing about the walls today is that they cut right through the middle of the city.


Small sections of the wall have clearly been rebuilt, so as to illustrate what they may have looked like so long ago, and some nice green areas have been landscaped before some sections, but for the most part they appear largely ignored, not only in terms of upkeep, but by the residents that live in and around them as a whole. The outside of the walls follows a highway, while the inside butts up against middle- and lower-class neighborhoods. Walking on the inside at one point I noticed a man had made the inside of one of the towers into his personal little workshop, doing some sort of machine work in the darkness.



I took a subway ride out to the walls one day to walk along a bit - and ended up walking back the entire length of the wall and then on home - they extend about 4 miles long on the Western side.

The flat we were staying in had an amazing view over the Bosphorus. Here you can see the flat:

The arrow points to the flat

From this vantage point I was able to get some nice photos looking out towards the Atatürk bridge.





In the last one you see Mom with an iPhone!! She's checking and sending emails and photos, on vacation. Never thought I'd see that. I don't even have an iPhone.

One interesting thing about Istanbul is that there are cats EVERYWHERE. Especially in our neighborhood. They were just everywhere.


On our last day, we took a boat trip up the Bosphorus. We passed this fortress (Rumelihisari) I had read about that Mehmed built in the run up to his conquest of Constantinople. Amazing it is in such condition 500 years later.


At the halfway point of our boat trip we were dropped at a little tourist-trap village where we ate lunch and I was able to get some great photos of kids jumping off our boat into the sea.


Finally, a common theme in my recounts of my travels has been the food. Istanbul was of course no exception to interesting and tasty food. The best dish I had was lamb on top of this sort of eggplant mush. It was incredibly tasty. Next best I'd say was the baklava. I ate it until I got sick.


Mom and Nora fell in love with this mint-lemonade concoction a guy whipped up where we were eating lunch.
Afterward they guy suggested we take a peek from the view of the tables on the roof. Look at this. Nobody was even up there. What an incredible view, they were hardly advertising it.


A few nights, I just went out roaming for random take-out that looked tasty and brought it back so we could eat out on the balcony. The last night I went out and got a dürüm for myself, just to compare it to the dürüms I get in Dresden. I have to say, it was much more different than I expected, almost a different dish altogether, and the meat was clearly of a higher quality.



One morning I went out to get milk from the local convenience store. But when I got in there I realized I had no idea what the Turkish word for 'milk' was. I found a white refrigerated carton with a cow on it, that I was pretty sure was milk, but still had my doubts. Just at this time, I heard a couple speaking German behind me, which was odd because we were not in a particularly touristy area, and at a random little shop. So I took the opportunity to use my German and ask them what milk was - and it turns out that what I almost bought was actually a yogurt drink.

It is rare that speaking some German comes in handy outside of Germany, so it was really surprising to use it again in Istanbul. A couple days later Mom had a little swelling in one of her ankles, and although not painful, a little concerned of the deep vein thrombosis things having just gotten off an international flight. So we went over to the nearby hospital to check it out. Turns out, one of the receptionists did not speak English, but did speak German (it was a "German" hospital) - so I was able to translate instructions to Mom for waiting to see the doctor, etc. Turns out there was nothing wrong with the ankle, but Mom got to see the self-proclaimed best doctor in Turkey!

I was just getting comfortable getting to know my way around the neighborhood when it was time to go. The streets were most confusing mess and craziness. Like Venice, but with hills. Clearly, five days is just not enough to get a good feeling for Istanbul.