Desultory Cerebrations of Michael: 2006

The day is almost over, and as always the anticipation is greater than the actuality. Now i don't want to be to sour, but leading up to the holidays i always have so many plans and thoughts and hopes and wishes, and well unfortunately they rarely go as planned. Not that it has been a horrible day, or even a worse christmas than most, but i generally find myself unfulfilled at the end. Even leading up to the holidays several events have been eating away and greatly upsetting me, especially an argument with a friend, albeit a friend that i often get in little spats with, but still it has been bothering me for days and left me feeling very disrespected.

As far as presents go my best presents this christmas, ironically, have both been books. The first is "A Photographer's Life 1990-2005" by Annie Leibovitz, my cousin Karalyn and Mark got it for me, it is the first photography book anyone has ever gotten me, i was so touched i even teared up a bit, but i don't think anyone noticed, i was so touched because i am often branded as "tough-to-by-for", and subsequently receive things i could never like or have ever remotely liked. I often simply get offended when i receive a gift that is just a stereotypical gift for a male in my age group without any regard for me personally, and this obviously makes it a little tough to fake delight and appreciation. The second book i got was "I'm Just Here For the Food" by Alton Brown, which is also ironic because i don't cook, but it is definitely something i am interested in, i don't really care about a book full of recipes, but i really like Alton Brown(from the "Good Eats" program on the Food Network) because he tells why you are supposed to do all the little steps of cooking, the science behind it. I don't like a cookbook full of recipes because i know what foods i like and what foods i don't like and a surprising amount of recipes contain things i don't like, some may say i'm picky, but i can easily figure out what to put in a recipe if only i know the "why" behind the steps and am thus able to create unique recipes without crap like onions or mushrooms.

The worst present i got was also the most expensive, a $275 gift card for Sam's Club, why $275? and why Sam's Club? Well, because i need 2 new tires for the back of my truck, one is so bad it has a slow leak i have to fill it up every few days, but still, come on, Tires! Call me ungrateful but that is not a present, and there are several other more gift worthy things that i also need, and have more importantly wanted, much more importantly, such as a new iPod, or a new camera lens. Some may be reading this and think, well if your tire is so bad that you have to refill it every few days than i have much more need for new tires, but i have dealt with it for about 2 months and in that time i have still wanted and needed a new iPod and a new lens so much more that i would be willing to keep using and refilling the tire indefinitely. i also don't think you realize how painful it is only listening to the radio.

Well i apologize for all this bitching, obviously i haven't had any one to bitch to in a while or rather have just kept everything bottled up inside. Also i do feel bad that so many of my posts have just been photos recently, but i am still remarkably behind editing photos, since i have almost 10,000 to go through from the trip, and i still take quite a lot of photos in my day to day life that it seems like i will never catch up. Furthermore, as more people read this i second guess what i should talk about and then generally write nothing personal. Obviously tonight i haven't cared, and just wrote.

But anyway the real reason i decided to write tonight was because i had this idea a while ago, and i was hemming and hawing all night and finally decided to just post it and say fuck it. Basically the idea was that on christmas i would offer all you friends and readers who had seen a few photos on here that you liked to let me know which ones and i can print them out for you(my printer can print up to 8 x 10, or smaller if you so desire,but i think 8x10 is a great size it's big enough to show detail but not too overpowering, but it's possible to go a little larger if you want to take it somewhere else to print it on a little larger size paper), or if it's easier and you live far away send it in the mail or just send you the large file and you could take it to Walgreen's or something and have them print it for you if you desired or whatever you want to do with them. i thought of this as a christmas gift to friends since i don't really have the funds to buy you all gifts, and some friends have expressed interest before, but i never really responded properly or been proactive in doing anything about it, thus this offer on christmas, also i am always very interested in which specific photos people like and enjoy. i was and am very apprehensive about posting this because it seems very arrogant to assume any of you want any of my photos on your wall or anything, but if by chance you do let me know. And yeah, i realize i probably have some sort of weird phobia about arrogance, and seeming or feeling arrogant. But yeah I'll quite rambling, if you are interested let me know either with a comment, or send me an email.

These first few are from a building that was abandoned in the 80's, taken over by squatters, and eventually purchased by said squatters after they opened successful bars and galleries in the building along with artist studio's

a gallery in the building

a restaurant on the first floor

awesome graffiti

pebbles & stones

lots of amazing graffiti in germany

close up of skin billboard for diesel

some famous bonbon maker

who knew bonbons were made like this, the confectionery gave me a warm one right out of the oven that was delicious, and the inside was still gooey and warm, mmmmmmmmmmmm

They were all deliscous

fountain

these were for some private party i stumbled upon in a courtyard,
they wouldn't give me a piece

chair backrest

i'm not sure why i like this, but i do

mouse pad

Kleenex box

Berlin sewer

a Native American music group playing in Berlin in front of some museum

typical German statue

Berlin needle

Book Burning Memorial

tour boat

river stairs

an exhibit at the Guggenheim in Berlin

it was a large pack of fake wolves, running, flying in the air, and then crashing into a glass wall

yeah, i don't get it either,
it's stuff like this, that in my opinion, makes many people think less of art

Brandenburg gate during the day

pretzel bicycle vendor

i like red trees

ducky

museum

gangrene foot

atlas

gay nude section of a park
(in hindsight, i wish i waited for some children to walk on the path to show the surprising proximity of nude men to children)

fierce dog's playing
(oh, by the way, i knew that it was a nude section of the park for gay guys from talking to the owners of these dogs who were a gay couple, but they were thankfully clothed)

dog's still playing fiercely (kinda reminds me of some photos by Alessandra Sanguinetti, from her book "On the Sixth Day", she's amazing check her out if you haven't seen her stuff)

horny

balloons

McDonald's menu in Germany, surprisingly few options

Helmut Newton Museum

bombed out church

water fountain

german youths

more balloons

sculpture fountain

gelb

self portrait with base of rainbow pole

rainbow pole eins

rainbow pole zwei(sans trees)

rotund

looks like a fun festival

one way to make your dog look tougher

spongeworthy

peeker

Potsdamer Platz

Brandenburg Gate

another comfortable bum

Maggots

Europe does not have many free bathrooms, but i didn't mind

Russian Souvenirs

Russian Dolls

more Russian Dolls

Russian Pins

a lonely balloon

i have the right to learn

some wall

some other wall

from a surprisingly large Ping-Pong store, they even had ping-pong jerseys of famous ping-pongers, and special shoes for ping pong

photo series from 1987-2004 showing the development of Potsdamer Platz
click to enlarge (which can be done for any picture on here that you want to see larger, just so you know)