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NOTE: This is my final post about my month of traveling - if you want to skip the chatter & JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE PIX, CLICK HERE - there is a SMALL set of PIX & a COMPLETE set of pix.
Also, if you want to see all my travel posts to this point click HERE.

As many of you know I just got back from almost a month in the Olde Country - India. It was a big and fascinating trip - and there was a lot I liked about it & honestly some big things I *really* didn’t like about it. There was both much fun and much not fun. Some of that had to do with India & some of that had to do with the fact that I was LARGELY BY MYSELF FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH. If you ever want to drive a hyper-gregarious, hyper-talkative person suicidal, send them to a large, fascinating & difficult country by themselves in the non-tourist season FOR A MONTH. Sit back & watch the fun! Anyway, it has been a week since I got back & now that my super-powers are returning, it is time to write up my impressions…

Before I get into what I liked & disliked about India it is important to understand that the key part of any trip is having resilience, curiosity and a good attitude. Normally these qualities are a strong suit of mine. But this trip, “curiosity” was the only one I could consistently muster. A variety of things combined to cause the others to come & go. As I said, the biggest factor by far was that I only had people to really talk to for maybe 4-5 days combined out of my 3.5 weeks in India: NOT GOOD FOR OUR HERO.* So I guess that means maybe if the circumstances of my trip were different my impressions would skew differently…

But that all being said, what follows are my impressions of India such as they are, for better & for worse. Here is the quick list for those of you skimming - feel free to click on just the items that seem interesting. (damn this is a long post! Did I mention I had no one to talk to for a month?)

Things I liked:

• Food
• Music
• Assimilation Skill
• History By the Ton
• Wildlife
• Cultural Mannerisms
• Mumbai

Things I did NOT like:

• Transaction as Argument
• Constant Honking
• Indians Trashing India
• Cheating Strangers Is To Be Expected

I should also state up front that I’m more curious and more demanding of India than I would be of many other places for a variety reasons. Obviously, being my genetic homeland, I’m going to be pretty curious, but also there are many people in my life (my immediate family for starters, but others as well) who expect that I SHOULD have a strong connection to India: “India is your home!” or “You just don’t understand that you ARE Indian” etc etc. This all leads to a closer scrutiny on my part.

Anyway, without further ado, lets get to the superficial impressions that I will attempt to pass off as facts. (hey look! “hubris” - I AM returning to normal!)

Click HERE for more…

So I’m in Mumbai a.k.a Bombay & thus it is a perfect time to mention Bollywood dance numbers - one of the best things about India. Here is an awesome recent one with an great song that has been the Official Theme Song for My Trip. I saw it on MTVIndia one night & the next day heard it again on a car stereo & was hooked.

Title track from Salaam e Ishq

I bought the movie too (Movie Night Soon!) & it isn’t bad (a little cheesy of course) & is full of amazing eye candy - Hellloooooo Priyanka!) and even more importantly great song/dance numbers. This video covers pretty much everything great about Bollywood dance numbers:

• great outfits
• spectacle
• ridiculous yet inspired choreography
• and finally, pure joy

That last one is it actually, there is something about a musical (& India seems to be state of the art) that just does JOY perfectly….

‘deep

.ps be home soon & very much looking forward to it

.pps “Salaam e Ishq” translates to “Love’s Salute” I think.

So I’m an American & I’m traveling in the third world (maybe India is somewhere in-between by now) & I feel it is important that I represent!  So I’m trying to use a hugely disproportionate allocation of resources while I’m here.  But it really isn’t easy. 

To wit:

• Showers: It is very very hard to take 1 hour scalding showers when it is 4 milion degrees outside.  Though that is in Celsius, so it is only like 2 Million degrees Fahrenheit.  (& with the wind chill factor it’s like 1.9999 Million degrees F.)

Click HERE for more…

In my past few trips abroad, I’ve discovered my favorite way to travel. I love it & India is a country that supports it fully. See the world, experience it as fully and immersively as you can (or as much as any tourist can) but share it with your friends as you do it & without compromising the experience itself. (I need a good name for it - electronic umbilical? e-travel?) Well one good way to think of it is travel with my Lil’ Electronic Friends. (DeepLEF?)

Those of you who don’t like their cell-phones or don’t check email when they can help it, you and I don’t see eye to eye anyway, so the joys of this will be lost on you, and shouldn’t you be putting more coal in your calculating-engine to keep it running while you read this anyway? And check the inter-tubes for blockages while you’re at it

This is the deal: Place meets ‘Deep with his lil’ electronic friends: Mr. Cellphone, Mr. Computer, Mr. Thumb drive, Mama Net & of course a digital camera (neuter).

–

My first few days in New Delhi, I got a cell phone Click HERE for more…

While I was in France I suddenly noted how much happier I was when I was in Paris rather than the South & thought “Yep! I’m an Urban Monkey”* but then I got to Delhi & can’t say I enjoyed it much (though I never really gave it a chance - I was in the “suburbs” with the fam fam.**)
In any case, I’m not sure Delhi is big enough for 2 types of urban monkey:

spotted these guys in Delhi downtown, just as I walked out of Spider-Man 3 (cousin had free tix & took the family)

It is tough for an avowed urbanist to swallow, but so far India seems much more beautiful and interesting outside the cities. Maybe this is what the U.S. was like in the heydey of the Industrial Revolution…

Anyway, I’m just south of Chennai (city #2) and in a beach town called Mammalapuram… more soon…

*to be fair, the weather in the SoF was rainy & so we spent most of our time in the car driving around, not nearly the fun possibilities of sun/bike/Paris.

* more fairness: suburbs is a bit strong, Gurgaon is more like adjacent sprawl. I would imagine Delhi has more nightlife and restaurants, hustle & bustle etc.

(or “Favorite thing about Paris #284″)

[Ed Note: click on any of the pix for all my Space Invader shots, or read to the bottom to get the full scoop AFAIK.]
[Ed Note: Added a few new Space Invaders I found 5/5/07]

Way back in 2003, on my maybe 3rd visit to Paris*, I saw some graffiti off in the distance (here’s the shot) & thought - “Hey! That’s a Space Invader!”

Then I thought “Hey that isn’t paint - that’s tile work!”

 
Then I thought “That isn’t just surface tile work…they’ve taken the time to mount it INTO the wall!!”

Needless to say I was in love. Ah Paris

So now every-time I come back to Paris, I see more….

Click HERE for more…

It’s April 28th, 2007 & I’m high above some state in the western United States, where the land is flat and cut into huge yet precise blocks by roads - nothing exists here to break up human-imposed geometries. A grid state. Possibly Nebraska.

I’m currently sad, excited, scared, hopeful, wounded, content, anxious, fascinated, and oddly happy. I guess at 38, I can hold more than one at once. . I’m thinking about my friend Greg’s book “Window Seat: Reading the Landscape From The Air”, global warming, a girl, human population (the *real* hockey stick!), wondering how attractive Cameron Diaz really is (inflight movie), and mostly, the beauty of it all. (Don’t think that you know which of the emotions tie to which of the subjects at hand, the combinations are remarkable and fluid )

A while back (Nevada? Utah?) I passed a small wind farm. Maybe 10 giant white windmills, standing silently on a hill, motionless (slackers!). The future is here. It is going to be quite a ride these next few decades. Buckle up I can’t wait. (wow! bravado? sarcasm? hope? anticipation!? bring-it-on-let’s-do-this-coz-i’m-tired-of-worrying-and-what-is-the-name-of-this-feeling-anyway?*)

Natural features have risen to contest the brute-force human ones of the grid state now past. The results, the combination of human geometry and natural diversity, are beautiful! (contour and strip farming - Thanks Greg!).

I never thought the Midwest was beautiful. Landing soon. The beauty has given away to standard farmland & now suburbia, but Chicago! Chicago is majestic in the afternoon light….I’m off on my latest adventure: a week in the south of France followed by three in the south of India, I guess there is a Southern boy in here after all. Hmmm… BBQ yes!, NASCAR not so much… ok so much for that thesis. My agenda:

• Eat every mango I come across.
• Avoid getting married off.
• Face time with mega-fauna.
• Observe humans in their natural habitats (both current & historical).
• Marvel at people’s ability to lead apparently functional lives without direct contact with ME
• Finally see India after all these trips, rather than just see relatives (god bless them and their kindness & hospitality nonetheless).
• Try to keep you people entertained!

To my peoples back home, I’ll miss you (I always do!). Please remember what I said about not having any fun while I’m gone. No. Really.
‘deep

*I bet the Germans have a name for that feeling, they always seem to…. with their easy to-make-new-words-without-needing-hyphens language. I bet they have a name for that too! Damn!

or

How To Survive Clam Wielding Sea Gulls…

After sucky Friday & a lame Saturday, I decided to go visit my friend Delphine, a vet at the Marine Mammal Center (yep. “Delphine” works with “marine mammals”… perhaps my atheism is ill-considered). Anyway, I hopped on my bike (on a sunny warm! December day) & headed to the bridge for what turned into a truly fantastic Sunday…

click any of the images to see more

• found a heron being all picturesque
  
• took the shot of the heron, & the second I did, a sea gull hit me. with a clam. hard. does my head look like a rock?… ok. fine. but it still didn’t have to hit me with a clam.
• crossed the bridge, hung with some deer
• made it to the MMC, CUTENESS abounded!
• Fur seals are a BADLY NAMED type of sea lion! Because it’s not confusing enough! (ears & leg-like flippers = sea lion)
  

Hey folks - I just got back from Burning Man & as usual it was a BIG time. I had a lots of fun & some not-so-fun as is my usual at BM. I am left with some pretty interesting thoughts/questions (some even disturbing) & some fantastic images.

As usual, the thing that makes Burning Man the most worthwhile for me, is the creativity:

• Dance Dance Immolation by Interpretive Arson - when Dance Dance Revolution meets Burning Man. Ridiculously fun. (big thanks to my friend Nina at the DDI camp!) - for those of you who don’t know what Dance Dance Revolution is, click here
  You MUST HAVE QUICKTIME 7 to Play the Movie
  
  CLICK PIC TO PLAY MOVIE (large 8.1MB)
  Click here for small version (3MB)
• The most beautiful dragon I’ve ever seen (& very different from all others I’ve seen at Burning Man over the years) from Sean Sobczak. We spent a lot of time trying to come up with the right word & eventually settled on “exquisite” - a quality you rarely find on the playa. (see the video below)
• Why ride solo when you can ride tandem… with a partner ON FIRE. (see the video below)
• The Big Round Cubatron by Network Wizards: My wee video doesn’t do this justice, but the cylindrical array of LED ping pong balls was beautiful, elegant, fascinating and inspired. The more you watched, the more you wanted to. (Thanks for tracking down the name & link Bob!) (see the video below)

You MUST HAVE QUICKTIME 7 to Play the Movie

CLICK PIC TO PLAY MOVIE (large 10.9MB)
Click here for small version (4.1MB)

• Dancing my ass off at The Deep End. At least it was good techno
• Neverwas Haul - a giant roving Victorian - Steampunk!

A big shout-out to Camp Run-Amok for letting me be a part of their troop.

Here are the quick & dirty highlights from my trip to Paris - but if you really want to see many more cool pix of Paris & Budapest - you should go here….

Paris seems to have discovered my love for all things glam & sparkly (& no, it doesn’t quite do it justice - but it is still awesome) & is my Favorite New Thing from this trip to Paris:

Click here to watch the movie (2.5MB)

I also enjoyed viewing the end of the Tour De France from my mobile viewing platform rented from the city no less)….

Click here to watch the movie (8.3MB)

The “mobile moving platform” was VERY cool - basically the city of Paris rents bikes for reasonable rates from various locations around town & also from a bus that sets up at special events! I did a good bit of biking in both cities…. Here is a shot from Budapest…

The other thing I loved about Paris & even Budapest was that since the cities were bigger - things were up and available til all hours. My cousin & I did a LOT of dancing - which rocked…. < PEEVE MODE >And before any of you SFer’s go - “yeah I wish…”- how often do you go out late? < PEEVE MODE OFF >

Again, for all my favorite pix from Paris (& Budapest) click on over to my pix page…. Click HERE for more…