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Dinner in Bagnkok: Swamp Cabbage aka Pak Boong aka Morning Glory
In Southeast Asia, this green delight is known as water spinach, river spinach, water morning glory, water convolvulus, or by the more ambiguous names “Chinese spinach”, “Swamp cabbage” and “Kangkong”. I kinda like the swamp cabbage moniker.
In Thailand, it’s called “Pak Boong” (ผัดผักบุ้งไฟแดง่) and I order a plate of it just about every time we eat Thai cuisine. The above image is from last night’s roadside dinner feast with Pad Thai and a thirst-quenching bottle of cold Chang. Photo of me @Charlotte
Elle’s Twenty Second Birthday!
Today is our daughter Elle’s twenty-second birthday. We had a wonderful, pre-birthday Italian-themed dinner about a week ago in Malmö, so today, Charlotte and I will celebrate Elle via a video call this afternoon, Bangkok time (Sweden is six hours behind us).
Nothing I’ve done in my life comes even close to the significance and emotional engagement as being an integral part of Elle’s life. Obviously not as much today as our daughter is an independent young woman with a mature perspective on how to solve whatever challenge comes her way. Sidenote: I was nowhere near as sensible or level-headed as Elle is when I was 22 back in 1984, which I’m sure most of my friends from that decade can agree with and attest to.
Today, Charlotte and I have more of an advisory role in Elle’s life. But above all, we have a great time whenever we’re together with scores of wonderful memories from all our adventures in Asia, America, Africa, and around Europe.
Wired for Chaos
I discovered the above open telecom utility box earlier today in Bangkok’s Saladeng district, not far from Lumpini Park. I felt a sort of kinship with it. Structured, organized, and functional – yet still so chaotic that it’s hard to comprehend how it’s not in a constant flux of being dysfunctional and short-circuiting.
From CPH-BKK on an Airbus 380: The Darkest Hour
I’d barely recovered from the flight to Copenhagen from L.A. and I’m now once again jet lagged beyond belief. As topsy-turvy as the next few days of existence here in Bangkok will inevitably be, it’s totally worth it. Existing in this wonderfully balmy weather, in a sea of spontaneous smiles and with an abundance of affordable dining opportunities on literally every street corner, is something I’ve been looking forward to since we left Asia (pre-pandemic) in early 2020.
We flew here in an Airbus 380, an insanely humongous flying vessel, and among the movies I saw was the excellent and eerily relevant film “The Darkest Hour”. While watching the cast’s outstanding performance in scenery easily on par with what is portrayed in Peter Morgan’s The Crown, I sipped through two tall gin & tonics, munched through a small bag of Emirate’s popcorn and though I’d seen it once before, badly wished for the epic movie never to end. I’ve been a fan of Gary Oldman’s work for a long time, at least since his 1994 roll in Léon: The Professional, along with Jean Reno and Natalie Portman. I highly recommend watching Oldman in the Apple+ espionage show Slow Horses.
Above screen grab courtesy of Chinese (!) film finacers Perfect World Pictures.
Lunch with Fred, 102
A couple of weeks ago, I had lunch with centenarian Fred Nicholas. Fred and my father Ernest Raboff were college friends at USC before WWII and while my father was sent to France to cover the war as a reporter for Stars & Stripes, Fred was first stationed in southern Europe, then northern Africa and finally in the Philippines before being honorably discharged in 1946. In the late 1950s, the two friends met up again and stayed close until my father died in the fall of 1986.
I’ve never met anyone 102 years old, let alone had an inspiring conversation with a centenarian. While not as mobile as he once was, Fred was as clear-minded and humorous as I’ve always known him to be. I chalk that up to him still working a couple of days a week and visiting his gym regularly.
Little Yellow and Blue Fishies
I’ve never been much of a small fish enthusiast. But these little fishies caught my attention during an ungodly early visit to the New Fulton Fish Market in the Bronx, New York City.
I remember what it was like walking through the old Fulton Fish Market on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Chaotic. That whole area reminds me of a much less sanitized version of New York that I had the privilege of experiencing during a visit in 1986.
Happy Halloween!
Halloween is slowly but surely being adopted by Swedes. Particularly families seem to embrace this holiday wholeheartedly. I have vivid memories of being dressed up as Batman and Spiderman as a child and as a twenty-something during a year living in Los Angeles, I went to a party in the Hollywood Hills dressed as a really old man with a hunchback.
In this day and age when being cognizant of cultural hypersensitivity is a real thing, costume choices are probably limited to superheroes and comic book villains.
Subconscious Compensation
I increasingly find what’s pleasing to my eye/ear/taste/touch to be deceiving. Unchallenging, for sure. I have an ongoing struggle to figure out how and when to bypass the instinctive, reptilian urge to look beyond what immediately seems nice (safe) and focus on what might provide long-lasting satisfaction. If I had a shrink, I wonder what he/she would say…possibly that I’m subconsciously compensating for early lived memories of ugliness with what is unquestionably, aesthetically pleasing.
Ephemeral Clouds
I captured just how ephemeral clouds are through our living room window. I thought of posting this late last night after watching an incredibly interesting and mind-bending Netflix documentary called “A Trip to Eternity“. I don’t know what the efx artist/art director was taking when they came up with the concepts for the film’s visual effects, but it might just have been something similar to what was used to fuel the psychedelic animations in the 1940 Disney classic, “Fantasia“.
Resurfaced: Fairfax 1976
While Charlotte and Elle enjoy great weather as they hike the hills of Soller on the Balearic island of Majorca, much of my day here in Malmö is spent hunkered down in the image archives.
I’m on a mission to locate those rare photographs, the truly unique moments, that I’ve captured in and around our neighborhood, Västra Hamnen.
I have over 3000 photographs from the area to plow through, categorize and make selections from. From start to finish, this intense curation process, a session for each of the 12 image categories, or, themes, takes approximately 3 hours. If I stick to my guns and don’t allow myself to get too distracted, I should be done by the end of the week.
When I’m finished updating the Galleri Västra Hamnen website, which is long overdue, I can begin working on restructuring my presentation of the Resurfaced project, of which the above artifact,”Fairfax Nr 1976″ will be included.
Cinematic Mode: Swans in the Canal
As somebody that knows a thing or two about making short films using affordable but nonetheless effective cameras and lenses, I’ve been yearning to try out “Cinematic Mode” on Apple’s latest smartphone, iPhone 14 Pro Max. Cinematic Mode has been around since it was launched on the iPhone 13 about a year ago.
The feature is very similar to “Portrait Mode” when using the camera to take a photograph of a person or object with so-called bokeh, or, shallow depth of field.
Using Cinematic Mode on the iPhone 14 Pro Max (with both HDR and ProRez enabled) allows me to create sequences and scenes with emphasized focus on the subject matter by putting the background out of focus.
Aside from looking nice and, eh, cinematic, this feature allows for an incredibly important storytelling technique, one that previously demanded a really expensive lens and a considerably larger sensor than what a smartphone typically offers.
Resurfaced Artwork: Nr 1439
Sundays can be either extremely unproductive or unbelievably effective. Today was a bit of both. Woke up late and decided to stay in bed and watch a documentary about Marilyn Monroe (before watching the biopic “Blonde”. In a typical, Lutheran fashion, I did feel a little guilty about my choice, but since Charlotte had flown off to Majorca for a few days with Elle, I felt somehow entitled to a lazy Sunday morning.
Just before lunch, I showered, shaved, and got to work. That’s when I rediscovered the above-resurfaced piece titled, “Nr 1439”.
Resurfaced: Hollywood Lip Service
Captured this surface on a wall along Hollywood Boulevard just a little over a week ago. The world-famous street is the same derelict cesspool as it’s always been. Which served my purpose for visiting again quite nicely as I discovered several new pieces for the resurfaced series before heading south and then west on Sunset Blvd.
As a kid, my friends and I would ride our bikes up to Hollywood (we used to call the street and area Hollyweird) to catch a double or a triple feature in one of the dozen or so movie theaters still around back then. I’m obviously dating myself now, but I want to remember paying $5 for a triple feature which included a bucket of popcorn. Refills were ¢50.
Road Trip: California’s Desert, Mountains & Ocean
From last week’s road trip through the Mojave Desert, and Sierra Mountains with my brother Nick and then along the Pacific Coast Highway when we were joined by his wife Heather and their dog Tikka. I’d not been to California or seen either of them since 2019, so it felt good all around to be back. With so much going on in the world right now, I experienced great solace while traveling in the mountains, through the desert, and along the ocean. So peaceful, uncrowded, and just breathtakingly beautiful.
California is so much more than the state’s big cities and I’ve been fortunate to have seen some of all that it has to offer.
I’ve not tried this yet, but with L.A. traffic permitting, it is logistically feasible to go surfing at sunrise, be on skis by midday (in the Big Bear resort area) and ride a dirt bike offroad in the Mojave desert before sundown all in the same day.
Several years ago while on a swanky travel junket to the Middle East, within 24 hours, I went skiing in Dubai’s new indoor alpine facility, scuba diving with turtles in the Gulf of Oma, and quad racing across the sand dunes in the Arabian Desert.
The above scenes were shot entirely with my trusty – albeit nearly vintage – GoPro Hero 7 Black.
Autumn in Malmö
I think I would appreciate the winters in Malmö if they actually were real winters with snow that stayed, less fluctuating temperatures, and more stable air pressures. Arthritis is a nasty, unpredictable disease and despite taking serious medication to offset most symptoms, the winter weather in southern Sweden is detrimental to my physical and mental health.
With morning temperatures staying in the realm of single digits, there is no doubt that winter is upon us. Malmö in the late autumn is nothing short of spectacularly gorgeous. The vibrant, earthy, colors in the city’s two main parks are reason enough to visit Malmö this time of year.
In the north of Sweden, it’s already winter and it won’t be long before there’s a layer of snow on the ground.
A couple of years ago I produced a short autumn-themed film focused on change. View it here.
Agave in Sweden’s Warmer Future
As much as I appreciate the beautiful flora in Scandinavia, the brilliant yellow canola flowers and golden wheat fields in May and August respectively, birch trees with their chlorophyll-saturated light green spring leaves and the bright red rowan berries hanging so tempestuous this time of year.
But for the better part of the year, about 6 months, there is hardly any flora whatsoever. That said, down here in the south of Sweden, grass on lawns, in parks, and in public gardens is typically green most of the winter. I wonder if we’ll eventually see agave plants, like the one above shot in L.A. last week, in the warmer future…
Pumping Iron & Oil
Just back from an hour-long, energizing workout pumping iron. When I got back to the studio, I continued editing a short film from the trip to California and came across the above image.
As I was feeling pumped up from lifting weights for an hour, the oil pump made me think of both the film “Pumping Iron” and that I typically don’t go to a gym while traveling. Now that I am back in Malmö, it feels great to visit our neighborhood sports center Kockum Fritid for early morning workouts 3 to 4 times a week.
Back to the oil well.
While passing through the Mojave Desert, about an hour outside of California City with my brother Nick a couple of weeks ago on our way westward towards the Pacific Ocean, we stopped at this sprawling oil field. I didn’t count, but there were probably a hundred or so oil pumps in the area.
When I was young, there used to be an amusement park called Kiddyland (Beverly Park) on the southwest corner of La Cienega and Beverly Boulevard. According to legend, it was that tiny park, with just a few rides and a Ferris Wheel, that inspired non-other than Mr. Walt Disney to create the iconic Disneyland, located several miles south at Anaheim in Orange County.
On the west side of La Cienega, at the edge of the park was an old oil well with a noisy pump. Apparently, the pump is still active but hidden within the ginormous mall called “The Beverly Center“.
It’s kinda fascinating to trace my path of associations.
Revisited: Skanör & Falsterbo
Yesterday afternoon, a friend and I spent a few hours strolling along the beach in Skanör/Falsterbo, southeast of Malmö. The weather was gorgeous yet we were mostly the only two there. I brought the drone with me and despite gusty winds, managed to capture a few images from about 75 meters above the sea.
Resurfaced: Yellowstoner and Mista Love’s Love of the Leaf
“Yellowstoner” is a new artifact captured along Sunset Boulevard a few days ago. I discovered it on a wall not far from one of the city’s many marijuana dispensaries.
After returning to Los Angeles for the first time since recreational cannabis use was legalized (not federally, but statewide), I was taken aback by how often I smelled “the weed” on the streets of Los Angeles. It must be weird to be a law enforcement officer today and no longer be allowed to investigate suspected marijuana users serendipitously.
When I was at Bancroft Junior High School in Hollywood back in the late 1970s, among the 9th graders, there was no shortage of prolific stoners and you’d smell the herb practically everywhere on the school’s campus. I remember how my math teacher, the always soft-spoken Mr. Love, would often reek of ganja as he entered the classroom ever so mellow before attempting to teach us geometry and algebra. Mr. Love had large, gold-shaded glasses, hiding what was likely a pair of bloodshot, slightly foggy eyes. If he’s still alive today, I’m convinced Mr. Love is enjoying this new ganja-friendly era.
Resurfaced: Beverly Boulevard
This visit to L.A. has exceeded my expectations. I’ve spent time with family and friends as well as had time to work creatively and emotionally. So much has changed now that I no longer feel as emotionally connected to Los Angeles as before. The city has moved on and so must I.
My chronically aching joints have certainly enjoyed the unseasonably sunny, toasty weather. Especially during my long walks. In the last two days alone, I’ve traversed just shy of 40km of concrete and asphalt. Like so many other megacities I’ve had the privilege of walking in, L.A. turned out to be a lot more walkable than what all the traffic here will have you believe.
The urban treks have taken me to most of my old stomping grounds, places where I spent significant time as a child and young teenager. And while my initial mindset was arguably a bit too nostalgic, the journey also provided about a dozen new artifacts for the Resurfaced project. Some of which will definitely make it into the permanent collection. I’m still open to discovering new pieces, but if I don’t, these new additions from my old hometown will bookend the project nicely.