Captured this cappuccino yesterday during a food photography assignment.

So I’ve once again removed coffee from my diet. Yes, I do miss the ritual of making a pot of fresh French Press coffee every morning after my gym visit, my prostate is eternally grateful for what in actuality is a negligible sacrifice.

According to Wikipedia, the definition of what most folks more or less consciously enjoy about coffee, caffeine, is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class.

My most recent urologist, my first-ever female specialist in this field, was insistent that I refrain from all beverages containing caffeine.

Here’s what ChatGPT responded when I asked about the matter:

While there is no definitive evidence that coffee is detrimental to urinary health, some urologists may caution against excessive coffee consumption for a few reasons. First, coffee is a natural diuretic, which means that it can increase urine production and cause you to urinate more frequently. For people with overactive bladder or urinary incontinence, this can exacerbate their symptoms and lead to more frequent trips to the bathroom.

Second, coffee is acidic, and some urologists believe that acidic foods and drinks can irritate the bladder and cause discomfort or urinary urgency in some people.

Third, coffee contains caffeine, which can increase muscle activity in the bladder and cause urinary urgency, as well as increase the risk of dehydration, which can contribute to bladder irritation and urinary tract infections.

However, it’s worth noting that not all urologists agree that coffee is detrimental to urinary health, and some studies have actually suggested that moderate coffee consumption may have some benefits for urinary health, such as reducing the risk of urinary tract infections. As with many aspects of health, the impact of coffee on urinary health can depend on a variety of factors, including an individual’s overall health and caffeine tolerance.

This too was captured somewhere in Sofia, Bulgaria last week. The capital is in a varying degree of disrepair and several of the surfaces I discovered were located on temporary walls that surrounded construction sites. I say temporary, but considering how many layers there were on some of the Resurfaced pieces I brought back home, I’d wager a pretty penny that it was several years since those walls were erected.

Captured this, my very first published Resurfaced artifact from the country of Bulgaria. I located it on a  wall somewhere in the old town of Sofia. Like in Kyiv, the Bulgarians use the Cyrillic alphabet, which for some reason unbeknownst to me, I find aesthetically pleasing.

Haven’t been off-piste yet, but the slopes Charlotte and I skied all day yesterday here in Bansko were really, really nice.

I’m continuously impressed with how well-prepared the pists are and even more so with how effective the lift system is. Aside from the wait to get on the gondola ride up the mountain from the village, we never once stood in line for any of the chair lifts.

With its vertiginous, snow-covered peaks, dense forest, frozen creaks and many cozy hillside eateries, Banko reminds me of Zermatt, which is no small compliment.

It’s not exactly a new year’s resolution, but I have promised myself that before I hit the 60 mark this July 22, I’ll have published no less than three new books. One is already on the finish line and if I don’t let myself get too distracted with other stuff, I feel justifiably confident that I can accomplish this goal in the next 4-5 months.

Each book will be a companion to the three art projects I’ve been working on for several years; Resurfaced, Silhouette Surfers, and Heavy Metal in Sieng Gong. As much as I have loved working on each of them, I need to move on.

But then what?

I’ve been pondering whether or not to pursue an anthology, a large format book filled with images and accompanying stories from personal projects, assignments, and travels. Then again, I could also produce a book about fish and seafood, which I have a curiously large amount of images of. Including the one above.

It was about a year ago, while we were staying in Lisbon for a few months, that I took a regional bus to the ancient fishing village of Nazaré in the historical province of Estremadura where the world’s largest waves roll in during the winter.

It’s thanks to the “Nazaré Canyon”, a submarine geomorphological phenomenon that creates Nazaré´s enormous waves. The canyon runs about 170 kilometers along the Portuguese coast, reaching a whopping depth of 5,000 meters, by far the deepest in Europe.

The competition was quite an event that was streamed globally and I shared the live experience with people that had traveled to Nazaré from all over the world.

I’ve collected a gallery of images from my two days in Nazaré here. 

I literally stumbled upon this wall in 2021 while scouring downtown Kyiv for the Resurfaced project. It’s saddening when I think of how much suffering the Ukrainian people have gone through since the Russian invasion almost a year ago.

I wonder what all the people I met during my stay in the county are doing to survive mentally, physically, and financially. What are the two brilliant guides that showed me around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant doing now that their jobs are gone? What about the kind staff at the now-closed café on Bohdana Khmelnitskogo Street where I ate my breakfast and worked on the previous day’s images?

Shattered dreams. Lost hope. Seemingly futureless. So it would seem at present.

I hope to return to Kyiv and Ukraine one day and be able to walk around freely, enjoy the city’s street life, beautiful architecture, and once again experience the famous Kyivan hospitality.

Last night I saw the comedic drama The Menu and I absolutely loved every minute of it. It reminded me of both the excellent 1997 film The Game with Sean Penn and Michael Douglas and Peter Greenaway’s bizarre 1989 movie “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover” with Helen Mirren and Tim Roth.

And with Ralph Fiennes playing the Executive Chef, The Menu also brought back memories of his scary portrayal of a serial killer in the star-studded Hannibal Lecter installment “Red Dragon” with Anthony Hopkins, Emily Watson, Harvey Keitel, and Edward Norton.

I’ve had the privilege of eating at a few fine-dining restaurants in Europa, the US, and Asia. I can certainly appreciate the inventive, creative process of unique combinations where smell, taste, and texture are at the forefront of the experience. But The Menu does an excellent job of highlighting how ridiculously theatrical dining can be in the culinary stratosphere.

I’m all for enjoying visually appealing food, like Japanese cuisine. A beautiful presentation of even the most basic dish is always preferable and finding new interesting combinations of contrasting or compatible flavors is something I often try. But at the end of the day, I’d be a happy customer with just a bowl of Heinz baked beans in tomato sauce in front of me. Or, a bowl of noodles which is what I’ve been eating while writing this post.

Sunday evening. Just finished dinner. Tonight I made a spicy soba noodle soup with seared tuna from two frozen steaks I had deep in the freezer. I marinated them for about 30 minutes in a plastic bag with some soy sauce, chili flakes, sesame oil, Szechuan pepper, and a few drops of lime juice. No need to salt as the soy sauce takes care of most of the needed salinity.

I made the soup’s broth with a tablespoon of miso paste, water, Midori Sriracha, chopped red cabbage, bell pepper, spring onion, and a diced clove of garlic. Finally, I topped the seared tuna with a generous dab of Hellman’s mayo spiced up a bit with a few sprinkles of cayenne and a pinch of wasabi. All the chili made both Charlotte (and me) a little sweaty, but she said it was by far the best meal she’d had so far this year.

It struck me just a little while ago how much I love communication and that I’ve now (as of 2023) worked within the field in a variety of roles for more than 25 years.

It’s been a long, wonderful love affair and one that has provided a wealth of creative and monetary rewards that I feel confident few other vocations could have provided me with. I’ve tried a handful of other professions and none came even close. This is probably why I love this newspaper wall so much – even if I can’t understand a single symbol. I don’t even know if the wall is actual news or merely fresh propaganda from the PRC’s long arm.

Regardless, I think it’s a beautiful representation of public communication, which, thanks to its location, makes it accessible and inclusive – as long as you can read Mandarin (I’m obviously guessing here that the wall’s newspapers aren’t printed in Cantonese).

I love Chinese characters as they remind me that the oldest form of communication was hand-painted on cave walls and not written letters, words, or sentences. The shapes and forms of the earliest Chinese characters (Shang Dynasty, 1600 – 1046 B.C.) were more reflective of what they represented and the oldest cave paintings (Indonesia, 43,000 B.C.) were rough but basic and concise. Inarguable as long as you knew what they represented. If you hadn’t seen a wild pig, you wouldn’t know what that thing on the cave wall was until someone showed you what a wild pig looked like. If you’d seen a lamb, you might be able to guess it was an animal, or, at least that it represented food. Kinda like the difference between two related languages…

It would be kinda cool if we once again had newspaper walls like the one above here in Europe. A public space where all kinds of papers could post an article or two. Maybe adding a QR code for those that wanted to read beyond the wall’s limited space. Yeah, that could be an interesting installation themed on communication.

Daughter Elle captured this portrait of me, her father, late last summer. In retrospect, I was significantly more interested in our creative collaboration than whether or not the results turned out to be as good as they ended up being. Which is by no means a reflection of Elle’s capability to take a portrait of me, this is the second portrait she’s taken that I’ve published, as it is my inability to accept what I actually look like these days.

I think this particular version of me turned out really well. It’s compositionally excellent and my look feels emotionally, if not physically relatable. It mirrors one side of who I am: a serious, composed, and focused dude in his sixth decade. 

Captured this intriguing Resurfaced piece earlier today on my way to a friend’s book release event in a part of Malmö I rarely visit, Södervärn. On the way back, I located a long plywood wall full of riveting surfaces of which I hastily captured a few. I definitely need to return sometime next week to take a closer look.

Three years ago today, we arrived in southern Spain, two months before the Covid-19 pandemic began. I remember the sun was shining brightly from a crisp blue sky and how we spent a good chunk of that very first afternoon enjoying a typical Spanish tapas lunch somewhere near Mercado Central de Atarazanas, Málaga’s formidable old market.

Málaga was a great destination for the Resurfaced project and though I still had to cover a lot of pavement before locating qualifying surfaces, our two months there provided a wealth of artifacts, several of which will likely be included in a future exhibit and book about the project.

I’m currently on the lookout for a popup gallery/studio/event place here in Malmö. As in all of the other cities and towns I’ve had the privilege of spending time working on the Resurfaced project in, my “oficina” in Málaga was in the city’s many cafés and from time to time, in a variety of Málaga’s infamous dive bars, as well as on the historical streets and along the winding, narrow alleys. One of my favorite spots to sit and write in was at Café Libo in Unicaja Concert Hall María Cristina which seems to be temporarily closed right now.

For the past several mornings, after what can only be fairly and squarely described as a breakfast for champions, I’ve unapologetically dipped deep down into the hotel’s jar of colorful jellybeans.There were Oreo’s, cupcakes and tiny marshmallows, but I abstained. Aside from the occasional chocolate treat, these days, I’m not much for sweets. My daily fistful of jellybeans is perfectly symbolic of the last few days over-indulgence. Back on the wagon tomorrow.

From Bangkok to Göteborg is quite the distance. Charlotte and I are here in our old hometown to promote her dog friendly hotel site www.hundvanligahotell.se My assignment is to capture footage of some of the 9000 visiting dogs from the show floor for a reel. This is a frame grab from earlier today of an irresistibly cute American Sheepdog.