The Constorium of Greater Minds

As a follow up to the retrospective of the last few posts, I thought I’d take some time to marinate, postulate, and speculate on the year ahead. Soundune’s post brought a tear to my eye and longing in my heart for a foregone era, but whose to say that the ‘08 won’t be filled with new memories and more of greatest time of my life. So, what follows are a few hopes, dreams, predictions, and observations on the coming 365 and the state of affairs we find ourselves thrust into.

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a few things happened in two-thousand-and-seven. some new albums came out, some new films were released, there were also a few new books written. some old music was discovered, a few old movies were introduced and some classic stories were read. a new continent opened up and along with it a great new adventure. friends came and went, new friends came and some of them went too. a handful of things took place in two-thousand-and-seven, here’s a sampling of those things that connected with me.

new places

san francisco – first time in s.f. by the bay, possibly a contendor with nyc for favorite american city? only time will tell
tokyo – well, i basically live there and it’s pretty much a given that this city competes for best in the world in my rankings
hong kong – right up there with tokyo, maybe above it..?
sydney – okay, can i have multiple favorite cities; going to have to break them down by continent

top five books (that i read in 07)

the remains of the day – kazuo ishiguro
never let me go – kazuo ishiguro
the nick adams stories – hemingway
why i am not a christian – bertrand russell
the alchemist – paulo coelho

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since it’s that time of the year when, in days past, the consortium would find themselves carving up the slopes of the majestic german and austrian alps it seems appropriate that a post is dedicated to winter break trips of the past. it brings a tear to a grown man’s eye as he leafs through the photos from a time back in the day and reflects upon a life less hectic. the yearly garmisch trip with the consortium and friends/family will always represent some of the best moments of my life, i’m sure of that. the days were filled with fresh powder and majestic scenery while the nights were consumed with raucous laughter, hours of domino playing, drinking and partying. who among us will forget the rooms we slept in at haus lilly and the wizened proprietor, frau lechner – with her delicious breakfasts and crazy german ranting and that time she got drunk off the wine we gave her as a gift. for nine years the consortium whether fully intact or only in skeleton crew, called haus lilly their home and this winter marks the first in nearly a decade that we have not reunited for days of boarding and nights of camaraderie. i can see i wax on, my friends, so i will bring this to a close and proceed with the photo retrospective of those happy days in deutschland from ‘02 to ‘06. auf wiedersehen

‘02

waaaay back in ‘02. first year of uni for soundune and suav – the young fellas in the center were still seniors in high school…how the time passes

there were many crazy poses over the years

there were years where dj was there and we drank in bars with awesome contemporary art

sister was always there hitting the slopes, too

‘05

on the road

looking cool in the cold

of course…

sweetness took some awesome shots over the years

more posing

another shot by sweetness – just about sums the whole post up

‘06

always the best authentic italian – la baita

whistler what?? tahoe who??

cold as ice

there was always clowning

and more clowning

believe there was beer

and what trip would be complete without hours of bones at the lodge? i think nick and i were up

did i say there was clowning?

meeting new friends. linda from munich

the steps: a series

‘02

with the frau herself

‘05

‘06

my how we have grown…

Realizing that this is usually one of the keystone (no reference intended) events for the consortium I felt it necessary to link all up by any node necessary to share the plans for the upcoming MMVIII. I know we have separated to achieve independent endeavors but much like the cosmos all returns to the largest mass that being the mighty Vilseck. That is neither here nor there what is on my eventual horizons is a settling down in my future with a little mistress named destiny. As I stumble my way through the Georgia school for adolescent males and finish my training I will hopefully return to Germany and begin somewhat of a basal lifestyle and furnish my queendom in animal hides and fine wines. I know my postings are sparse but enjoy them because of the uncertainty that another may not follow (and that said with the confidence of a Jay-Z retirement declaration). Oh and of course the obligatory .. have a MEDIOCRE NEW YEAR!!!

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damn, son. anewyorkthing has fallen WAY off since the departure of aaron under dubious circumstances. i mean, honestly, look at the pure crap coming out of the winter line…ish is right out of high school photoshop class. what happened anything?

…oh, and a tupac t?! WTF

some awesome shots of the floating mound of steel i call home for half the year. blue ridge lcc 19 with 20k worth of christmas lights…and we don’t have enough paint brushes…

in tokyo on saturday to knock out the christmas shopping. stopped through ginza in the evening and had ’silver bells’ stuck in my head all night. there really isn’t anything like christmas time in the city, wherever that city may be.

a little random, but i found this in some back street of aoyama – advertising one of the 100,000 salons in aoyama/harajuku – where are all the girls that look like this?

chillin on the street

z kicking it with the mamasans

apple!

when the bus moves…

go!

lights as far as the eye can see…

on the way home we stopped for ice cream…only in japan does ice cream come in an edible heart shaped wafer that’s packaged in a plastic bag

z seems to love it

coca cola with that over the top christmas marketing

Yo, think about coping Lupe’s new album “The Cool”. Its out Dec 18th. Ive downloaded to check it out and it is sounding pretty hott. Imma cop it legit off itunes pretty soon….