from a far shore...

Last summer, during the month I spent in Korea, I traveled from Seoul to the opposite coast--to the port of Sokcho, on the NE coast of the country. After spending several hours sitting on the bus, I was eager to walk around and explore--and one of the first photos I took is being featured this week on the homepage of the travel website afar.com: 

This little photo (taken with my iPhone) won last week's 'rendezvous'-theme competition, which means I'm a finalist in the competition for a trip to India! The full highlight is below, followed by a link with more information about the contest..

For more information about this afar.com travel photo/highlight contest, click on the link below:

AND...

if you scroll down on this week's afar.com homepage, you'll also see,

in the 'thumbnails' section, 

the middle photo in the bottom row:

See the photo of Seoul?

Here's the full posting...

a link to Guanajuato...a sombrero-and-serape tomb

This week, on the homepage of the afar.com website, a photo I took in central Mexico a while back is featured as part of a 'highlight' slideshow:

From that link, you can go to the 'highlight:'

====================================================

planting a seed...

So I'm starting a new blog--in addition to this one--one of the estimated 175,000 created every day...why?

Because I couldn't find one out there that specialized in what the new blog is going to feature: 'snapseeded' photos.

Since getting the snapseed app a couple of months ago, I've been continuously amazed at the creative possibilities of photo-editing on my iPhone--at home, on the go, on my lunch-hour, or even while taking a stretching-break during a trail-run--I literally have a digital darkroom in the palm of my hand! And instead of being a one-trick wonder, snapseed allows the iPhoneographer/iPhotographer to do play with a whole range of powerful, creative editing.

I spent a good portion of last summer abroad, and I ended up with hundreds of snapshots on my iPhone, almost as many, in fact, as I took with my 'real' camera...As soon as I downloaded snapseed, I began to experiment with those travel photos...and then after a few weeks I began to e-mail some 'regular' photos, including old, scanned pics to my iPhone just so that I would be able to edit them with snapseed.

Whether I'm traveling elsewhere, or just in my home city, I'm always on the lookout for details and a sense of place. Proust's well-known statement, "the real voyage of discovery consists not [necessarily] in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes," is often in the back of my mind as I look around...and so I include a paraphrase of his quote in the new blog's title:
"Snapseeded

...'seeing with new eyes'--with a digital darkroom in the palm of your hand"

Random musings will continue here...'snapseeded photos' from now on, there.

a French take on K-pop

In case you don't know what "K-pop" is, here is its Wikipedia definition: "a musical genre consisting of Pop, dance, electropop, hip hop, rock, R&B and electronic music originating in South Korea.  In addition to music, K-pop has grown into a popular subculture among teenagers and young adults around the world, resulting in widespread interest in the fashion and style of Korean idol groups and singers.^"

I am not an apologist for this pop-music phenomenon. The genre is just not my thing.
And yet the phenomenon itself fascinates me.

(I really don't get the guys' hair...)

A French friend sent me this link to an article that was in this past weekend's LeMonde newspaper. Oui--the venerable LeMonde, the New York Times of France, if you will.
Who knew that K-pop was becoming such a trend in Europe?
A couple of excerpts, below, which I'll translate:


POURQUOI ÇA MARCHE ? Calibrée pour le "mainstream" (la culture dominante), la K-pop propose un univers sexy mais pas trash. Les jupes des filles sont courtes et les mèches des garçons travaillées, mais on ne se roule pas dans la boue en string comme dans certains clips de R'n'B américains. Bref, tout pour plaire aux ados sans choquer les parents.
...
L'expansion culturelle coréenne illustre le dynamisme du pays, passé en quelques décennies du sous-développement à l'ultramodernité et pointant aujourd'hui au quinzième rang mondial en termes de produit intérieur brut. Compétitivité économique, attractivité artistique... et taux de suicide record : si on aimait les formules toutes faites, on dirait que la Corée est le nouveau Japon. Un pays, en tout cas, avec lequel il faudra compter à l'heure où le centre de gravité du monde bascule vers l'Orient.


--translation:
WHY IS IT WORKING? Calibrated for the mainstream, K-pop offers a sexy but non-trashy universe. The girls' skirts are short and the guys' hair is all done-up, but you're not rolling around in the mud in a g-string as in certain American R'n'B music videos. In short, everything to please the teenagers without shocking the parents.
...
Korean cultural expansion illustrate the dynamism of this country, which, in just a few short decades, has leaped from third-world to ultramodern, now poised to become the world's 15th largest economy in terms of GDP. Economic competitiveness, artistic attractivenes... along with a record suicide rate: if you like ready-made formulas, you might say that Korea is the new Japan. A country, at any rate, that is to be reckoned with at a time when the world's center of gravity is shifting to the East.


In one of my classes, I have a Sudanese student...on her cellphone, I saw a Korean face--her 'wallpaper' is a photo of a Korean actor. I asked her how she knew about Korean dramas. She replied: "oh, all of my Nepali friends and me, we love watching Korean dramas on the internet."


Immigration and Globalization. Korea meets Africa meets the Himalayas, all here in Tucson. Wild.

Hey there, 'Bob'...fifteen minutes of a wild feline encounter: 'lynx rufus' in our backyard

A couple of evenings ago, I was in the kitchen and my wife was in the living room--which has big sliding glass doors looking out onto our back courtyard--when she said, "Come quickly and look!"

Well hello there kitty! BIG kitty...

our first outside-of-a-zoo bobcat sighting!

He was leisurely perusing our patio, sniffing my sandals...

I grabbed my iPhone and the best we could do was to try and see

if any snapshots would turn out through the window--

we figured if we opened the door we would scare the bobcat off...

I did manage this one halfway-decent shot--taken through the sliding screen door.

The bobcat spent several minutes stretching and cleaning himself in some shrubs,

and then, before walking slowly toward the back wall, he stared right at us: 

 ...and then after an effortless hop on to the wall:

 ...checking things out...

 ...he spent a few more minutes catching the last rays before sunset...

 ...before finally walking along the neighbor's fence...

 ...and away for the evening...

It makes us wonder--how many times has this cat (or others) visited our neighborhood? We often hear coyotes at night...and I've seen hawks and javelinas all around our neighborhood--but bobcats--we didn't think we lived ''out enough" to see them from our window...

Our little backyard, with its birdbath and occasional ground-squirrels--are we part of this cat's 'territory?' Voilà the thrill of the week...

"food-truck round-up" on a sunny Sunday afternoon

The food-truck craze that's been sweeping cities across the country has arrived in Tucson:

We picked up the teenage daughters of some friends of ours and headed to an empty lot just north of downtown, transformed into a food-fair this afternoon--what better way to spend a sunny 75-degree Sunday in January?

Tucson has long had its Sonoran hot-dog stands and taco-trucks...

...but the 'roach-coach' tradition has become more cosmopolitan now.

Check out some of the offerings:

Mafooco (Korean-Mexican Tacos)
Jane’s Rolling Wok (chinese food)
Guero Loco Bubba Q (smoked meats)
Jamie’s Bitchen Kitchen (cuban sandwich)
Robdogs(variety of toppings. Soy dogs, too.)
Red Pepper Mexican Gourmet
Jones St. Bistro (Premier Appearance! modern urban cuisine)
Cyclopsicle (frozen dessert on a stick)
Luncha Libre (mexican gourmet)
Stolen Recipe BBQ (delicious smoked BBQ)
Baja Tacos (seafood oriented tacos)
Isabella’s Ice Cream (dairy and nondairy)
Street Delights (one word: pie)
Shinobu Diego’s Tacos y Burritos
Pinup Pastries (whoopie pies with a smile)
Street Kitchen (sesame chicken with zucchini tempura, edamame)
Vero Amore Neopolitan Pizza
Jake’s Donuts and Funnel Cakes
Seis Curbside (mexican nouveau cuisine)
Planet of the Crepes (sweet or savory crepes)
Animal Farm (big burgers, sandwiches)
Roasted Corn (on the cob)
Q UP! Barbeque(BBQ nachos, chicken wings)

(list from THIS website)

 It may be a 'rip-off' from the Kogi trucks in the L.A. area, but it's about time that Korean tacos arrived here...

    A while back, my wife and I had half-jokingly come up with the idea that if we were ever to both lose our jobs at the same time, that we could open up a Korean taco stand in Tucson...(Korexican? Mexirean? "Seoul-food" of the desert?) Alas, someone ELSE took 'our' idea...and talking with the owner this evening, I found out that there isn't even a single Korean working for his 'Mafooco' (Mexican-Asian-Food-Company) business! Ay ay ay...BUT the kimchi was auténtico, I must say...

...and you have to love the retro graphic of the sombrero-clad chopstick-toting hombre...

And la comida--muy deliciosa! Quesadillas filled with kimchi and cheese, topped with a sesame glaze, and tacos filled with bulgogi--Korean carne asada--and a kimchi 'slaw' as well:

 ¡Viva la fusión!

¿Los chinos hablan español...o hablan los latinos chino?

 I had echte Berliner currywurst! Sehr guht!

Ahh, planet of the crêpes...

This battery-powered ice-cream retro-truck sells rose ice-cream...

...and on the way back to our car, a picture of dilapidation, but pleasantly decrepit, no? Some creative graffiti on a crumbling desert façade: endless summer, a luchador BBQing next to "God who?" in a boarded-up window...

Tucson eats.

Come check it out.

(more information about this evening's food truck round-up HERE)

post-race...along with the t-shirt and medal, got a cold...

A couple of mornings ago, at the 1/2-marathon starting line near AZ State University:

(photo from here)

This year instead of being four-thousand-somethingth, (out of 19-thousand)

I came in at two-thousand-somethingth...

Progress!

Five minutes faster than last year!

That was Sunday.

Monday I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. A nasty cold.

Evidently, this is normal. An article in "Runner's World" a few years ago said this:

When you push your body without interruption for more than 90 minutes, the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine, which suppress immune function, gush out of your adrenal glands. Inflammatory cytokines, neutrophils, and monocytes (red-flag markers of physiological stress) take over your bloodstream, while your virus-fighting T cells and "natural killer cells" go into hiding. None of this is good. It doesn't make you sick on the spot, but for at least a few hours after the run, it makes your body as inviting to "bugs" as a porch light.

With tens of thousands of people milling about after I crossed the finish line, I guess it's no surprise I got some germs...But after sleep and soup, I feel much better today, just in time to be back in front of the classroom again...

The night before, while walking around downtown Phoenix,

we saw this brand new alleyway mural:

For being the nation's fifth largest city, the skyline isn't exactly distinctive:

 ...but still, it was nice to have a view of something from our hotel: the giant retractable roof open on the nearby stadium on a mild January night:

This is the 'Rock-n-Roll' marathon series...so after the race, there was a free concert:

the B-52's!

This year, free 'pace-tats' were handed out to runners:

These temporary tattoos only came in ten-minute intervals; rather than having my one-mile splits slower than I wanted, I thought it would be good to have them faster than I'd planned...

It ended up helping me: my goal had been 1h55 (3 min faster than last year), but I ended up running the half-marathon in 1h53 min...

(Along the route, there were some funny 'inspirational' signs, including:

  "Chuck Norris never ran a half-marathon.")

And of course--the medal and the t-shirt:

Picky, picky--I don't like the graphic design this year as much as last year's:

So...next year...t-shirt #3?

I hope so.

After I ran my first half-marathon last year, I wrote about why it was such a 'big-deal' for me...the reasons are the same, even now after running three half-marathons.

 

First of all, I now weigh 20 pounds less than when I moved to AZ three years ago, mostly due to running.

I was a sedentary teenager--bookish and into music.

I never ran. "5k" and "PR" were not in my vocabulary.

I always thought runners were super-lean OTHER people.

I loved hiking--or at least the idea of it, while living in non-hike-friendly eastern Georgia, but the idea of running was utterly off my radar.

I'm 36 now--over halfway to the proverbial, poetical and Biblical 'three-score-years-and-ten;' recent deaths of relatives and friends have underscored my own mortality...

My father had emphysema and later lung cancer--after my early childhood, I never saw him run...

"Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?'. The answer is usually: 'Yes'."
-Paul Tergat, Kenyan professional marathoner